It was designed to help people plagued with constant nuisance phone calls. But households signed up to the Telephone Preference Service still receive twice as many telemarketing calls as those who haven’t registered, research has found. More than eight in ten people received an unsolicited call last month, with 8 per cent receiving 50 or more. This means hundreds of thousands of homes receive more than 50 nuisance calls every month. Six out of ten householders say the unsolicited calls are so bad they no longer want to answer their own telephone. Many of the calls turn out to be silent, which can be a worry for the elderly left in fear that a burglar is checking if they are at home. Which? has now called for a change in the law to clamp down on the trade in personal data and stop the nuisance calls.

• Households registered with Telephone Preference Service receive double number of calls
• Which? research found 8 per cent of households receive 50 calls a month
• Have called for change in the law t8o clamp down on trade in personal data

A survey of 2,000 people by the consumer group found that those registered with the TPS did report a decrease in calls. But they still received an average of ten in the past month, compared with five for those who had not signed up. The poll found six out of ten TPS users were not satisfied with the free opt-out service.....Read more here