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Cold call telemarketers are pretending not to be in when regulators ring them, according to reports this morning.
The Information Commissioner is responsible for regulating the activities of telemarketing companies, but is finding it impossible to speak to them as they always just hang up when called.
“It’s really frustrating,” said Brian Peters, head of the Commission.
“I always ring telemarketing companies when I know they’ll be in, like during morning tea break, and I just get fobbed off.
“They say I’ve got the wrong number, or the person I want is dead, or they put on a foreign accent and pretend not to understand me.
“I’m just trying to do my job and explain the benefits of adhering to their statutory obligations and not going to prison, but it’s like they just aren’t interested.
“Really, I could save them £££££’s,” he added.
However, telemarketers remain resolutely uninterested in anything the regulator might have to offer.
“We had this bloke ring us the other day and start going on about how some government scheme could save us money and keep us out of prison,” said Mike Shayler, team leader at Insure4urinjurylawyersPPI.
“But he wouldn’t even tell me how he got my number.
“Plus I didn’t have time for that crap.
“I was too busy helping a 94-year-old with dementia make a PPI claim and telling her not to let her family know.”
