Cold-calling firm Keurboom fined record £400,000 by watchdog

Dunstable-based Keurboom Communications made 99.5 million automated calls between October 2014 and March 2016, relating to traffic accident claims and compensation for payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling.

The Information Commissioner's Office, the data watchdog, acted after receiving over 1,000 complaints. Some people reported that they were subjected to the marketing calls several times on the same day and during unsocial hours, the ICO found.

Companies can only make automated marketing calls to people if they have their specific consent - Keurboom did not have this and so breached privacy laws.

Keurboom Communications has since gone into liquidation. However, the ICO has said it will recover the fine by working with the company’s administrators.

Our Stop spam calls guide can help you minimise intrusive spam calls. These include:

• Signing up your home phone and mobile to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

• Opting into the free 'Call Protect' service which filters spam calls if you're a BT customer

• Registering with Silentcall-Gard to stop so-called 'silent calls' that leave you hanging on when you pick up and hear nothing