The privacy watchdog has warned that the marketing companies have been purchasing data for elderly people who are homeowners and have landline phones.
Five companies that deliberately targeted the elderly with “predatory” and “coercive” marketing calls in order to sell them unnecessary insurance have been fined more than £400,000 by the UK’s privacy watchdog. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the businesses had been purchasing marketing data lists of people who were aged 60 and over, were homeowners, and had landline phones. Some of the victims of the calls had dementia according to the ICO, which added that the evidence suggested the companies may have been using the same marketing list to target their victims. Some victims were found to have direct debits going out to more than a dozen companies, losing thousands of pounds for services and insurance which the callers knew they didn’t need. Hundreds of thousands of coercive calls are being made by similar companies and the ICO said it is continuing to investigate the practice. Victims, including some who were too elderly to arrange their own affairs, were made to feel ill by the pushy callers who sometimes were given bank card details by distressed victims just to be left alone.
