The Information Commissioner’s Office investigated First Financial after it received more than 4,000 complaints about the text messages. The Advertising Standards Authority also took action against the firm.
ICO director of operations Simon Entwisle said: “People are fed up with this menace and they are not willing to be bombarded with nuisance calls and text messages at all times of the day trying to get them to sign up to high interest loans.”
First Financial sent the texts using unregistered SIM cards, a common method of avoiding detection. However, the messages promoted the website firstpaydayloan.co.uk, a trading name of First Financial.
Some texts claimed to be from friends, addressing the recipient as “mate” and asking: “Hows u?”
One of the texts seen by the ICO
In October, the ICO fined the company’s former director Hamed Shabani more than £1,000 for failing to report he was processing personal information, a legal requirement under the Data Protection Act.
In response to the continued payday loan-related spam, the ICO is pressing the government to lower the legal bar for when it can take action. At present, the ICO must show the text messages have caused substantial damage and distress, which typically restricts them to acting when thousands of complaints have been made.
