There has been a rise in the number of spam calls and texts people have received, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), with many complaints made, some of which concerned payday loans.
In the last twelve months, 180,000 complaints were made about cold calls, representing a rise of 12 per cent, the watchdog said.
The ICO announced that it had issued out five fines relating to the cold calling, which cost the recipients a combined £386,000. There were also eight enforcement notices, and 31 other firms were also being closely monitored.
“Most concerns related to accident claims, green energy deals, payday loans and lifestyle surveys. Live calls generate significantly more concerns than automated calls and spam texts,” the ICO said.
Payday loans have caused a lot of financial problems for people who have become trapped in spiralling debt, after failing to meet the repayment dates and rolling their loans over. However, new rules were introduced at the start of this year to help protect customers and prevent anyone taking out a payday loan from being able to owe more than double their loan to the lender.
