The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Komtel ordered to stop ‘nuisance’ calls

'Blatant misuse of automatic calling equipment'

Free whitepaper – Comparison of Static and Rotary UPS

A Welsh company believed to have made 100,000 nuisance calls a day has been ordered to pack it in - or else.

Lat week telecoms regulator Oftel ordered Komtel Ltd to stop making nuisance calls to mobile phones using automatic calling equipment.

Since February this year Oftel has received more than 40 complaints from punters angry at being stitched up by Komtel.

The company made very short calls to mobile phones that people did not have time to answer. When they rang the number back to see who had called, punters were either placed in a call queuing system and kept on hold for lengthy periods of time or had services marketed to them.

Either way, those who called got stung for unnecessary charges.

Last month the regulator flagged-up its intention to slam Komtel describing the company's actions as a "blatant misuse of automatic calling equipment to trick consumers into calling the number back and incurring unnecessary charges".

If Komtel fails to heed Oftel order it could face legal action.

In a statement Peter Waller, second in command at Oftel, said: "This final order will stop Komtel using automatic calling equipment to trick consumers into calling a number back and incurring unnecessary charges on phone bills."

He also warned mobile phone users to be on their guard against such scams warning punters to always think twice before returning calls to numbers they did not recognise. ®

Free whitepaper – Deploying high-density zones in a low-density data center

Don’t Miss

HP LogoHP readies plan for EVA revolution

Comment SAS and SATA support with ProLiant controller

Gartner logoServer sales stabilizing, says study

Falling less fast

Large Hadron ColliderCollisions at LHC! Tevatron record to be broken soon?

Boffins tear up schedule in race for dimensional portal

SonyUS Air Force orders 2200 Sony PS3s

Extending supercomputing Linux cluster