Beware of the data miners

Have you started to get bombarded with emails, telephone calls and letters all addressed to you personally?

Are companies ringing you and asking for you by name instead of the usual “person in charge of…”?

You have more than likely been added to someones marketing list which is now being sold to hundreds of third party companies who are buying your company information for as little as £100 per 1000 records.

How did they get this information?

Companies House

If your a limited company then your basic company information is now available for free from the Companies House website.

The free data gives the data miners company information such as name, address and even some limited name data if you put your name in the “careof” box when registering your limited company.

Click here to see all the fields

More extensive data is also available from Companies House which is a lot more detailed including registered directors and company secretaries.

Phishing Call

The most accurate way to get data is by calling you and asking you to “confirm” your details that were entered on a fictitious directory. They will ask you to confirm your name, address, email, telephone number and website so that they can “maintain” your directory entry.

As well as the fictitious directory they may claim to be a potential client, working for a government body and recently we even had a call claiming to be from an agency in charge of collecting royalties for pop stars and they wanted to register us on their site.

Registering on Websites

Try our FREE product – just enter your details here and we will send you a free ebook, sample or give you access to a limited version of our product!

We have all entered information on a website in order to receive something for free – well not only has the website in questions got your name, email and telephone number but so has the marketing companies they sell their lists to.

How to stop spam calls, emails and letters

Mailing Preference Service

Register your details on the Mailing Preference Service who were set up by direct mail companies to allow consumers to get their names taken off lists. Registration is quick and simple.

Telephone Preference Service

If your suffering from nuisance sales and marketing calls then registering on the Telephone Preference Service website will help. All organisations including charities, political parties and voluntary organisation are obliged not to call numbers on the register.

Don’t give information away

Being aware of the tricks data mining companies use will help you reduce the amount of spam calls, emails and letters you receive.

If a company calls asking you to confirm your details ask them first what details they have before you confirm them. If they claim that you have already registered with them ask to see their website to see if it seems likely.

Set up a new email address for use on websites requiring registration or where a link has to be clicked and confirmed.

If you follow these simple rules and register on the sites detailed above you will keep your data safe  not only from marketing and sales calls but also from potential fraudsters, scam emails and identity theft.