Income Access, Unsolicited Text Messages and the Information Commissioner's Office

[WhatxD]

A few weeks ago, completely out of the blue, I had a letter from the Information Commissioner's Office, the first paragraph of which said this:

It has come to the attention of the Information Commissioner's office (ICO) that a large number of potentially unsolicited text messages (SMS) promoting online gaming sites have been sent by affiliate organisations including yours. These SMS messages were, it is believed, sent in breach of regulations 22 and 23 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

A few pages on they say:

As stated at the beginning of this letter it has come to the attention of the Commissioner that your organisation has an affiliate association with Income Access with regards to the promotion of gaming websites.

In short, the letter is warning of a £500,000 fine for the sending of unsolicited text messages promoting Income Access related brands between April 2015 and November 2016. It doesn't state if it's Incomeaccess.com directly or third party brands such as Sky Bet who use Income Access software.

The thing is, I haven't promoted any Income Access brands to any meaningful degree in years and more importantly, I've never sent a text message promoting gambling. I didn't even know that was a thing. While we're at it, I've never bothered with any email marketing either.

I called them and they told me to email them to the email address provided in the letter which I have done, basically saying there is no case to answer here because I have no idea what they're talking about but they haven't responded.

How the hell did these people get my contact details and why have they sent me this letter? Did any one else in the UK receive one?

[JackTenSuited]

been discussed here https://www.gpwa.org/forum/absolutel...er-229601.html

[universal4]

There is a thread discussing this here
https://www.gpwa.org/forum/absolutel...er-229601.html

Rick
Universal4