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New Website Launched To Beat Political Nuisance Calls

Dragons’ Den Inventor Helps Voters Say “No” To General Election Phone Pests

February 10, 2010

A new website has been launched for voters who do not want to be plagued by political parties calling them in the run-up to the General Election.

Dragons’ Den Inventor Steve Smith, a leading campaigner against nuisance phone calls, has set up www.thepoliticalcallregister.co.uk in protest at the telemarketing campaign techniques used by the major parties.

The problem was recently highlighted by the Information Commissioner’s Office which told the Labour Party they had breached privacy rules by making unsolicited automated “robocalls” - voiced by Coronation Street star Liz Dawn – to 495,000 people.

Smith said: “Voters can register with www.thepoliticalcallregister.co.uk <http://www.thepoliticalcallregister.co.uk> if they do not want to be hassled by the political parties over the phone.

“This is a growing problem and the parties that do it are worse than cowboy telemarketers. These calls can be made for a penny each, so the politicians can very cheaply flood the country with calls – this is extremely intrusive.

“It’s time to make a stand and tell Gordon, David, Nick and Co to hang up their phones.”

Commenting on Dawn’s involvement, he added: “If this sort of thing was happening in Coronation Street, Weatherfield would be in uproar – and rightly so.”

Smith, who recently championed a campaign to increase the fine on nuisance-calling companies to £2 million, had been planning to launch the website closer to the election but brought it forward when he became aware of what the Labour Party had been doing.

He said: “This was a huge own goal by Gordon Brown and it was a big mistake for the Labour Party to adopt a practice of robocalls which is plaguing the American electoral system.

“Political parties are desperate to get through to voters and are now trying any means possible, including hounding them with unsolicited automated calls.

“Unless you have first hand experience, it is hard to understand the anguish that some people feel when they receive unwanted telephone calls. The political parties must respect our privacy and the law.

Smith’s company trueCall carried out its own research with Mori in October 2008 which found that 75 per cent of voters would not be happy if a political party rang them and played a recorded message asking for their opinion on a political issue.

People registering with www.thepoliticalcallregister.co.uk <http://www.thepoliticalcallregister.co.uk> who do not want to be contacted can leave their names, email addresses and phone number and Smith will forward the details to the main parties asking them to honour their wishes. If the requests are ignored, he is vowing to publicly shame the culprits.

Smith said: “The Information Commission previously warned the Labour Party not to do this, but they went ahead and did it anyway. The public expects a certain standard of behaviour from their political parties and they are falling way short of it if they carry on with practices like this.

“The Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, SNP and Labour have all been guilty of making robocalls and it needs to be stamped out now. You are not allowed to use automated messages for marketing purposes, full stop.

“Robocalls are a huge problem in the US and where the States lead we tend to follow.”

Smith made Dragons” Den history when he received offers from all five Dragons on the show last summer for his trueCall nuisance call blocking device.

He said: “ I worked in the telemarketing industry for more than 20 years and this problem will only get worse unless the authorities clamp down with serious legislation and heavy penalties.”

About the company

About trueCall:

The device has been a huge hit after entrepreneur Steve Smith unveiled it on BBC2’s Dragons’ Den last summer. Steve made history after all five Dragons wanted to invest in it.

trueCall intercepts all calls to home landlines. If it recognises them as a friend or a member of the user's family - numbers on a “star list” created by the user - it lets them through as normal.

If the caller's number is on a “zap list” - numbers of telemarketers or other nuisance callers - the device answers it, and all future calls from that number, with an automated message which means the phone does not ring at all.

If the system doesn't recognise the caller's number, or the caller withholds their number, it asks them who they are, puts them on hold, rings the user's phone and allows them to decide how they want to handle the call..

The gadget costs £99.99 from John Lewis, Amazon, the QVC Home Shopping channel and the trueCall website www.truecall.co.uk <http://www.truecall.co.uk> .

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Contact details

For further information about this release contact David Brown or Fiona Bates of LEWIS PR on 0207 802 2626 or 07973 615945

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