Whiteley company fined £100,000 for sending spam text messages

A COMPANY in Whiteley has been fined for sending more than 3m text messages about phone upgrades.
Company was fined for sending spam text messages.Company was fined for sending spam text messages.
Company was fined for sending spam text messages.

Onecom, based at Solent Business Park, was fined £100,000 from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for sending the texts which included spam messages.

The ICO’s investigation found the company broke the law which sets out strict rules about the consent people must give to receive marketing text messages.

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Between October 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016 Onecom confirmed it had sent 3.3m messages.

During an eight-month period 1,050 complaints were made by the public to ICO about the messages and, when asked, Onecom could not provide evidence explaining the source of the data used to send the texts.

They could also not provide evidence that it had consent to send the text messages.

Steve Eckersley, ICO head of enforcement, said: ‘Spam texts are a real nuisance to millions of people across the country and this firm’s failure to follow the rules drove over 1,000 people to complain.

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‘I would urge anyone bothered by a spam text to report it, either via the ICO’s website or by forwarding the text to 7726.

‘Your reports will help us crack down on those who fail to treat people’s information with the respect it deserves.’

Darren Ridge, chief executive of Onecom, said an internal review is being carried out.

‘Onecom operates in a highly regulated sector and is utterly committed to upholding the highest standards in all our communications with our clients and the public,’ he said.

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‘Consequently we consider this incident to have been most serious and have undertaken an internal review which has resulted in our further tightening our systems and controls to ensure that there is no repetition.

‘We are pleased to note that no subsequent complaints have been received and that the Information Commissioner has acknowledged our remedial measures.’