Could the tide of nuisance texts turn?

Today the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced it had fined Tetrus Telecoms £440,000 for sending millions of illegal texts urging consumers to claim compensation for payment protection insurance.

The owners of Tetrus made an astonishing £7,000 to £8,000 a day from selling the details of those who replied on to claims management companies, and sent up to 840,000 spam texts a day for three years.

The ICO had a stern warning for similar firms that harass consumers with unwanted texts, and ICO head Christopher Graham said that the body would “continue to work with the relevant authorities as well as the network providers to ensure companies like this are punished”.

Implications for spam text companies

The fine is a step in the right direction for the millions of consumers that have to put up with these unwanted text messages, but it is unlikely to make a big dent in the number of overall nuisance texts for a number of reasons.

First, the ICO needed 18 months to investigate Tetrus and fine it. And if this is how long it takes to carry out every investigation, that hardly sends a deterrent message to spam text firms.

Second, the ICO could take action against Tetrus because it was based in the UK. Many nuisance text senders are based overseas, however, so the ICO is almost powerless to stop them.

The ICO has a big task to tackle nuisance text messages, and it deserves praise for the work it has done so far. The ICO understandably wants to shout about making this fine, but the reality is that making a large dent on the volume of spam texts will be much more difficult.