Sole trader fined £200k for sending spam texts

THE Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has fined a Welsh sole trader £200,000 for sending almost one million spam texts about debt solutions and energy-saving grants.

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Bharat Singh Chand, until recently living in Burry Port in Carmarthen-shire, has also been issued with an enforcement notice ordering him to stop sending marketing messages without the appropriate consent.

He came to the ICO's attention through several previous investigations, most recently one into Daniel George Bentley, who was sending texts on behalf of Chand and provid ing advice about using a SIM farm - a technical device capable of holding multiple SIM cards to send hundreds of text messages in quick succession.

A statement from ICO read: "The ICO's investigation also found Chand used evasion tactics, such as giving false company names in followup calls.

"Complainants said the messages did not contain a website address, or any information as to the identity of the sender, but invited recipients to 'reply YES' to find out more.