https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/25/claims_assistance_firm_hit_with/
Britain’s data privacy watchdog has slapped a fine of £90k ($120k) on a business that targeted people with intrusive marketing phone calls, despite them being registered with the official “Do Not Call” opt-out service. AFK Letters Co Ltd (AFK) made more than 95,000 unsolicited marketing calls to Brits who had signed up with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), in a clear breach of the UK’s electronic marketing laws, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The company’s line of work is crafting official letters to help consumers claim refunds and/or compensation from firms they may have had unsatisfactory dealings with, says the regulator. However, AFK used data collected via its own website and a third-party telephone survey company to make those thousands of marketing calls, without being able to demonstrate it had valid and specific consent from the people it contacted. Furthermore, AFK’s third-party data supplier was found to be using consent statements which did not specifically name the company when asking for consent to be called. The ICO also says that AFK’s own privacy policy only mentioned contact by email, and not that people could expect to be called by them too. …
…can AFK Letters craft up a letter to describe what tosspots – or whatever UK-ism is appropos here – they are? Asking for a friend…
/sarcasm
Regards