Ofcom warns industry as new silent calls rules come into force
Ofcom has warned industry to comply with new regulations to clamp down on silent calls or face enforcement action, which could include fines of up to £2million.
From today, 1 February, new rules come into force which are designed to prevent consumers being harassed by repeated silent calls from the same company.
Ofcom has written to the call centre industry spelling out the regulations which place restrictions on the use of automated dialling equipment.
Complaints about silent calls
Ofcom received over 9000 complaints in 2010 about silent calls.
Where consumers have complained to Ofcom about silent calls – and told us how often they are receiving them – over 70 per cent say that they have received two or more calls in a day from the same company. These silent calls were often over a period of days or even weeks.
Ofcom action
Ofcom has previously fined nine companies for making silent and abandoned calls:
Abbey National – £30,000;
Barclaycard – £50,000 (the then maximum);
Bracken Bay Kitchens – £40,000;
Carphone Warehouse – £35,000;
Complete Credit Management – £5000;
Equidebt – £36,000;
Space Kitchens – £45,000;
Toucan – £32,500
Ultimate Credit Services – £45,000.
What can you do?
If you’ve received a silent call we’d like to hear from you.
Whilst Ofcom cannot respond to all consumers personally, the information you give us is used to identify trends and can lead to us investigating a particular company’s behaviour.
Although in most instances we will not require further information, we may approach you directly should more detail be required.
Ofcom also speaks to phone companies regularly. The data we collect from them about silent calls also helps us decide whether an investigation is required.
If you would like to share your experience with Ofcom please click here.
Consumer Guide
If you want to learn more about silent calls and what causes them, take a look at our video above.
It looks at the rules Ofcom introduced to address this issue, and includes help and advice on what to do if you receive a silent call.
We also have a printed guide containing help and advice about silent calls.
Ofcom believes that this is mainly due to technology used by call centre operators to detect answer machines.
This can mistake a ‘live’ consumer for an answering machine and cut off the call without the person hearing anything, resulting in a silent call.
Repeated calls
Silent calls can cause significant distress to consumers which can be made worse by receiving these calls repeatedly, leading to some people believing they are being specifically targeted.
The new rules will prevent a company using answer machine detection equipment more than once a day if an answer machine is ‘detected’ on the first attempt.
This would mean that consumers currently worst affected should no longer receive repeated silent calls from the same company over the course of a day.
Enforcement action
Ofcom will continue to monitor complaints about silent and abandoned calls and expects to see an overall reduction in the number of complaints it receives.
Ofcom will also continue with its programme of enforcement and may take action against companies found to be in breach of the rules.
Last September, Parliament approved an increase in the maximum financial penalty available to Ofcom to use to combat silent and abandoned calls, from £50,000 to £2 million.
Ofcom intends to use the full extent of the new financial penalty if appropriate.
Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive, said: ‘Silent and abandoned calls can cause significant consumer harm. Ofcom has given sufficient warnings to companies about silent calls and is ready to take appropriate action against those companies who continue to break the rules.’
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