Payday loans company, First Financial, has been charged with a £175,000 penalty by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for sending millions of unlawful spam texts. The investigation by the ICO was launched after 4,031 complaints were made against messages sent from numbers found belonging to First Financial. In accordance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation (PECR), which governs electronic marketing, organisations are required to obtain an individual’s permission before sending marketing messages by text.

Some of the messages in question claimed to be from the recipient’s friends, reading: “Hi Mate hows u? I’m still out in town, just got £850 in my account from these guys www.firstpaydayloanuk.co.uk.” Messages such as this resulted in separate regulatory actions from the Advertising Standards Authority......Read more here