A Solicitor at our Firm decided to follow up the third text message she had received saying she was entitled to compensation. Please read her account of what happened and pass the message on to any friends and/or family that are considering replying to a spam message of this nature.
“I have just received my 3rd spam text of “you could claim up to £3750”. I decided to reply ‘yes’ and within 2 minutes was contacted by a man from ‘Affiliate Data Systems’
I asked his name and he replied ‘Affiliate Data Systems’. He asked what accident I had had, I replied that I had an Road Traffic Accident.
He then said quickly “as you have not been cold called I will take some information from you”
I stopped him and advised that I had received a text and therefore it amounted to cold calling. He responded that as I had replied to the text it was not deemed a cold call.
I asked for the name of the Solicitors he would use he said its just ‘Affiliate Data Systems’. I then asked for the Law Society or SRA number – the phone was hung up quickly and the line went dead.
The number was withheld and I have checked the internet and there is no information online in relation to any such company.”
**THE COMPANIES THAT SEND OUT THESE TYPES OF TEXT MESSAGES ARE JUST TRYING TO GATHER DETAILS FROM ANY POTENTIAL CLIENTS AND THEY THEN SELL THE CLIENT’S DETAILS ON TO FIRMS WHO ‘BUY’ THE CLAIMS OFF THEM**
Please remember that we are a top quality Firm of Solicitors and we pride ourselves on giving an excellent service to all of our clients and we would never send out such text messages.
To complain about an inappropriate text, call the Advertising Standards Authority 020 7492 2222 or go to www.asa.org.uk/asa/contact
To resolve continual mobile spam despite texting “stop“, contact the ICO on 01625 54 57 45 or go to www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx
For help with premium rate text spam, call PhonepayPlus on 0800 500 212 or log on to www.phonepayplus.org.uk/output/Make-a-complaint.aspx