Spam texters fined £30K

Manchester firm Carfinance247 has been fined £30K over a spam text campaign.

The car finance brokerage firm’s noxious text messaging tactics generated 912 complaints to the ICO, the UK’s data privacy watchdog. The firm’s four-month marketing campaign involved the distribution of 65,000 messages to people who hadn’t first agreed to receive them.

Carfinance247 broke the law by failing to obtain consent.

When challenged by the ICO, the company initially claimed another business had sent the messages without their knowledge, an “excuse” rejected by ICO investigators in deciding to levy a stiff fine. ®