We have fined two Manchester based financial and debt management companies a total of £150,000 for sending in excess of 7.5million spam text messages to people.
Both Quick Tax Claims Limited, a company focusing on PPI tax refunds, and National Debt Advice Limited, a debt counselling advice service, first came to our attention in May 2023 when a number of complaints were sent to the 7726 spam message reporting service.
A wider investigation revealed that Quick Tax Claims Limited had sent 7,863,547 unlawful text messages over the course of a month, resulting in 66,793 complaints – 93% of these stating there was no ‘opt out’ option.
During the investigation, we found that the company had purchased personal information from third-party suppliers that did not obtain valid consent. This led to us issuing Quick Tax Claims Limited with a £120,000 fine.
Similarly, our investigation found that over a four-month period, National Debt Advice Limited had sent 129,902 spam text messages resulting in 4,033 complaints.
It transpired during our investigation, which lasted several months due to poor cooperation from National Debt Advice Limited, that they’d also purchased personal information from third-party suppliers, including loan decline data – which meant that the text messages were sent to people who had previously been turned down for loans. They also failed to conduct appropriate consent checks, eventually resulting in us fining them £30,000.
“Both of these companies bombarded people with spam messages, often preying on those who might be experiencing difficult financial circumstances. To then be hounded by numerous unwarranted text messages, just adds further stress to people in those situations.
“It is so important, in these types of circumstances, that companies gain consent to send direct messages. Relying on third-party claims of consent, without undertaking the most basic of checks, is far from responsible conduct by these companies, and that’s why we took action.”
– Andy Curry, ICO Head of Investigations
