Cold calling is something that many Brits have to deal with on a regular basis but only a small number of calls are legitimately allowed to be made.
Insurance firm Aviva analysed data from communications watchdog Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office and found only 3% of nuisance calls have legally-required customer consent.
The research found that in just one year consumers were targeted with 996 million nuisance calls and texts relating specifically to an injury-related claim, pension, PPI or other financial service-related claims.
This translates to 2,728,767 calls and texts per day, or 1,895 made every minute.
These account for nearly one-in-four (23.2%) of all cold calls in the UK.
Anger
Most Brits are fed up with nuisance calls.
Aviva also carried out a survey of 2,000 UK adults in September 2019 and found 80% support a government ban on cold calling.
Only 8% think the companies making the call are trying to help them, while 78% would not consider using any service offered via a nuisance call or text.
Most (90%) of consumers would block all nuisance calls or texts if they could and 85% think those behind the nuisance calls should receive tougher penalties.
The government has banned cold calling in the pension market which came into effect in January 2019.
