New rules to tackle repeat silent calls

Ofcom has this month confirmed new rules to prevent consumers being harassed by repeat silent calls.

Where consumers have complained to Ofcom about silent calls – and told us how often they are receiving these calls – over 70% say that they have received two or more calls in a day from the same company. These silent calls were often over a period of days or even weeks.

Ofcom believes that this is mainly due to technology used by call centre operators to detect answer machines. This can mistake a ‘live’ consumer for an answering machine and cut off the call without the person hearing anything, resulting in a silent call.

Silent calls can cause significant distress to consumers which can be made worse by receiving these calls repeatedly, leading to some people believing they are being specifically targeted.
New rules

The new rules will prevent a company using answer machine detection equipment more than once a day, unless a call centre agent is on hand to answer the call. This would mean that consumers currently worst affected should no longer receive repeat silent calls over the course of a day.

The new rules will come into force on 1 February 2011.

Attached is Ofcom's consumer guidance on dealing with nuisance call.