Nightmare phonecall

[andy8]

some dca rung me at home yeaterday and this is how it went.

 

me: Hello

dca: Hello, can i speak to mr xxxxxx

Me: yes speaking

dca: Can you please confirm your DOB

me: sorry, can you tell me who this is please

dca: I can only tell you that you are a client of ours, can you confirm your dob.

me: sorry, im not giving my dob over the phone to someone i dont know who i s calling

dca: But sir i can assure you that you are one of our clients and you need to confirm your dob so we can continue.

me: But i am not giving personal information to someone who just says that im a client of yours

dca: then can i have the address of your solicitors.

Me: listen now pal, Im not telling you anything until you tell me what company you work for.

dca: but i cant tell you what company i work for until you confirm your dob for data protection purposes

me: then im not telling you my dob for data purposes

dca: but the data protection act dont apply to you, its for companys only

me: sorry , still aint giving you my dob

dca: then we shall see you in court.

me: who shall see me in court

dca: us the company.

 

Then i put the phone down, He then continued to ring ne every 20mins and then hung up when i answered,

 

I think he was hopeing that my partner would pick up the call so he could grill her about information about me.

 

Later found out with a little checking that that the number was wescot credit services,

 

 

Are they allowed to do this ? Or should i be complaining to someone

[lookinforinfo]

Interesting that they should be so loth to divulge more details. The way some

companies operate, they would just have barged on without a thought for the

Data Protection Act. Maybe Westcot are under the cosh with the authorities

at the moment?

 

Could be they were on a fishing trip Andy, and as they were not sure if you are the

person they are looking for, they decided to play it safe.

 

I see they couldn't resist threatening you with Court, despite the fact that as you haven't a clue who they are or what they want, the have no grounds for Court

action.

And if you are sure it was them who kept ringing, and not answering, you also

have grounds for an harassment claim against them.

 

And you handled them well on the phone.If they call again, you could try using Zoomans' ploy of asking them to wait until you have switched on your tape so

this time you can record their threats and harassment.

[andy8]

Do anyone have the letter about the harrasment phonecalls so i can try and put a stop to these idiots ringing me every 5mins??

 

Thanks

[bidstermeister]

Here's the template:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=37006

[andy8]

Here's the template:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=37006

 

 

Cheers , Thanks for that

[fhm1978]

Hi

 

By not telling you who they are the company was breaking the law....so to speak!

 

In the code of practise for debt collection and consumer credit agency's they must say who they are, who they work for and what their role is.

If any company doesn't comply with this, i would contact them asking for an explanation about the phone calls you have recieved, and register a complaint.

If you do not recieve any satisfactory information back then register a complaint with the office of fair trading.

 

Wescot are also a member of the 'Credit Service Association' (if you want more details on this they have a website!). By not disclosing who they were on the call they broke the code of practise, to which they could be reported for.

 

I also find it really bad practise for the agent to quote the Data Protection act, this has nothing to do with them saying what company they are calling from, it is a blatent misuse of the act.

 

I think is is horrible that Debt Collectoin agencys can intimidate people in such a way, i hope you get on ok with this!!

 

Thanks

[lookinforinfo]

Not sure that I can agree with you FHM. Until they were certain that Andy was the person who owes them money, under the DatA Protection Act they

would have been wrong to reveal that they were debt collectors.

 

Westcot should have written to Andy rather than phoning although if they were just on a fishing trip, I suppose even a letter to the wrong person

could fall foul of the DPA.

[POCA]

I'm not so sure. The DPA only applies to "personal data". How can the name of the company they work for be personal data?

[tbern123]

By stating the company name, it could be assumed by a third party that you are a customer or client of this company. Why else would that company be calling. Everyone has a right to privacy

 

I think this in theory it could be classed as a breach of the data protection act.

[fhm1978]

Yeah i suppose! I didn't think of it like that!

 

but at the start of the call they asked to speak to Mr xxxx

and he confirmed he was speaking!

 

They then asked for personal information without confirming who they were!! (It could have been any fraudster on the phone who had got his number in a phone book and looking to steal his identity!!)

The agent would not need to say what the call was in relation to, they would need to say....Its Andy from the Westcot group. In doing that they would not be breaking any data protection act and also not be breaking their code of practise which states they can't reveal information that may embarrass the debtor!

By saying they are from the Westcot group they are not implying it is a debt!!

 

But i agree they should have sent a letter rather than phone again every 20 minutes!!

[tbern123]

If they only asked to speak to Mr xxx and didn't ask any i.d questions, they would be asking for trouble.

 

What if Mr XXX has a adult son living at home, he would also be Mr XXX or another male relative for that matter...

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not sticking up for them, on the contrary.

[POCA]

Hmm...you might get it home on that one.

 

s. 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998 says

 

"personal data" means data which relate to a living individual who can be identified-

(a) from those data, or

(b) from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller,

and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual;

I'm just not convinced that simply saying who is calling is in breach of the DPA.

[lookinforinfo]

In schedule 3 [4]]d] of the Act it says the processing-

"does not involve disclosure of the personal data to a third party without the consent of the data subject."

So if Westcot were not sure that Andy was the data subject, they were right

to be careful

[POCA]

I agree. My query is (and I'm not sure of the answer myself) is the fact that he is being contacted my a DCA "personal data" within the meaning of s. 1 of the Act?

[lookinforinfo]

I don't think it is just confined to DCA's, I notice that when I have been

ringing other companies, they are much more careful these days about

establishing my identity before giving me the information I wanted.