The Royal Mail Deals with Scam Mail

Royal Mail say they take the issue of scam mail very seriously and are  coordinating an industry-wide response to tackle fraudulent mail at its source.

They have developed an industry-wide code of practice and invited all mail operators in the UK to sign-up. This code sets out how the industry can actively work together, and with law enforcement agencies, to tackle the scourge of scam mail.

The Code of Practice

Companies signing up to the code of practice will voluntarily commit to meeting the following obligations:

  1. Actively work together and with law enforcement agencies, to tackle the scourge of scam mail
  2. Proactively share intelligence of confirmed scam mailings and suspected scam mailings
  3. Terminate any mailing identified by law enforcement agencies as being used to attempt to scam the recipients
  4. Include anti-scam terms and conditions in contracts
  5. Forge closer ties with law enforcement agencies and the broader communications community to prevent scams through letters, electronic communications, telephone calls and other means
  6. Provide help and support for victims of scams by sharing information received in our enquiries with appropriate partners including the National Trading Standards Scams Team, law enforcement and other agencies.

What Can You Do?

If you think you or a family member are receiving scam mail, you can report it to Royal Mail by completing a form online and posting it to Royal Mail. https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/303 and click on ‘completing an online form’).

The Freepost address is below where you can send the form along with the original envelope and any items of mail you have received that are relevant.

Alternatively, let them know your full name, address and a contact telephone number via the email or telephone options below and they will send you a form to complete together with a prepaid addressed envelope in which to return the form with examples of the scam mail received.

By post:              FREEPOST SCAM MAIL

By Email:            [email protected]

By Telephone:    03456 113 413 (message service only)

As the largest deliverer of spam and scam letters, it was high time the Royal Mail did something to stop the flood of such items, especially to vulnerable people.

Let’s hope this permanently blocks a large chunk of the spam and scam items.

Do Share this post on social media – click on the post title then scroll down to the social media share buttons.

Stupidest Scam or Spam of the Week

An email from info @wlcreation.biz claims to be from a Marketing Manager named Roma who works for a leading online Marketing company.

She wants to do SEO for us. That is search engine optimisation on our website to improve out ranking on Google and Bing and other search engines.

And she says she has ideas for our website.

That could be believable except in the next paragraph she asks what our website URL is so how can she have ideas for our website when she doesn’t even know what it is let alone have actually looked at it.

If she had looked at the radio station website she might have seen that we don’t use to sell anything hence her offer to increase the sales from our website is rather dumb.

The email has no company name so I assume she is just a lone worker trying to get business – but she needs to think a lot more and write worthwhile email not off the shelf junk that only shows her laziness.

Do leave a comment on this post – click on the post title then scroll down to leave your comment.

The Hearing Clinic Fined £220,000

Claims Management Companies are the ones that make most of the cold calls – on behalf of their clients.

The Claims Management Regulator (part of the Ministry of Justice)  licenses firms and individuals to provide claims management services. It also has the power to take action when a regulated claims management business breaks the Conduct of Authorised Persons Rules.

The CMR received hundreds of complaints from recipients of calls from “The Hearing Clinic” about claims for noise induced hearing loss. Many complainants had previously subscribed to the “do not call” Telephone Preference Service, so the calls breached the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

Having investigated, the Regulator imposed a £220,000 fine on Aurangzeb Iqbal, the owner of “The Hearing Clinic” and various other businesses including “Industrial Disease Services,” “Hedging Redress,” and “We Claim 4 U.”

Various conditions were also imposed which applied to all claims management services operated under Mr Iqbal’s Regulator licence.

These included having to inform the Regulator on the 5th of every month of each TPS complaint received over the previous month. Mr Iqbal also has to provide the Regulator with full details of all subcontractors he proposes to appoint, plus an explanation and evidence of how he proposes to monitor these suppliers to ensure their compliance.

In its press release, the Regulator reported that from a peak of 3367 in 2011 the number of claims management companies has now fallen to 1752, with 105 having their licences removed in 2014. Further investigations by the Regulator are apparently ongoing and could lead to more sanctions.

Richard Lloyd, from consumer watchdog Which? said: “Hopefully this is the start of a concerted crackdown by Regulators, using their new powers to send a clear message that nuisance calling won’t be tolerated. This company made millions of unwanted calls so we welcome the Claims Management Regulator baring its teeth.

“The size of this fine should make other firms think twice before bombarding people with cold calls. We also need to see senior executives held personally accountable if their company makes unlawful sales calls.”

To complain to the Regulator, go to  https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/claims-management-regulator

Do Share this post on social media – click on the post title then scroll down to the social media share buttons.

Disney Lawsuit Over Children’s Information

Amanda Rushing is suing The Walt Disney Company, Disney Electronic Content in a class action filed in California federal court.

She claims Disney is collecting personal information of children and tracking online behaviour and this is contrary to the law.

App developers can track children’s behaviour while they play online games with their mobile devices by obtaining critical pieces of data from the mobile devices, including ‘persistent identifiers,’ typically a unique number linked to a specific mobile device. . These persistent identifiers allow APP creators  to detect a child’s activity across multiple APPS and platforms on the internet and across different devices. This information is then sold to various third-parties who sell targeted online advertising.

The lawyer says that this is exactly the kind of practice the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act was enacted to prevent. Under COPPA, app developers and any third-parties working with them can’t legally collect personal information about children who are under the age of 13 without verifiable consent from their parents.

“Disney has failed to safeguard children’s personal information and ensure that third-parties’ collection of data from children is lawful”.

Rushing says her daughter was tracked while using the princess pets app, but the suit claims dozens of other games also track their users, including Club Penguin Island, Star Wars: Puzzle Droids, Frozen Free Fall and Disney Emoji Blitz.

Disney says that they have a robust COPPA compliance program, and maintain strict data collection and use policies for Disney apps created for children and families.

As it turns out, Disney had consulted with three partners to insert advertising-specific software into Disney Princess Palace Pets and some of its other applications. This gathers pieces of data and help advertisers detect a user’s activity via persistent identifiers. These persistent identifiers to track someone across multiple devices and apps with the intention of serving targeted ads.

Given this track record, parents and children might want to think carefully about downloading any of Disney’s apps. – stick to watching the movies instead.

Do enter your email address and click on the subscribe button on top right to keep up to date with new posts.