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News: Government to increase fines for nuisance calls

Companies that plague consumers with nuisance silent calls will face fines of up to £50,000, Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson has announced.

Silent calls are caused by call centres using equipment programmed to generate phone calls, usually for sales purposes. The call is automatically ended if there are not enough operators on hand to speak to the recipient, which means the person answering hears only silence.

BT currently handles about 160,000 complaints a month regarding nuisance calls, while the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) already has over 10.5 million numbers registered with them.

In June the Government announced that firms ripping off consumers through premium rate phone services would face fines of up to £250,000 if they break the rules.

A copy of the consultation document on silent calls is available from http://www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/ and http://www.dti.gov.uk/industries/telecoms/public_consultations.html

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