Saturday 2 July 2011

No-fault accident - a tele-phishing incident

So there I am at my desk, trying to sort out a user's data mountain only partly stored on a failing PC, when the phone rings. A voice says "I'm from XYZ Co.", of whom I've never heard. It then asks "Do you remember that no-fault road traffic accident you had in the last three years?". I immediately smelled a rat, and if you smell one, there usually is one. As the vagueness of the wording suggested cold calling and phishing, I soon brought the "conversation" to a close.

The caller was seemingly trying to drum up business for a "no win, no fee" law company, using tenuous and obviously erratic leads from goodness knows where. He had my name and phone number, but that is all. Now I wonder how many people have signed up to the inflating litigation market as a result of these dubious tele-phishing techniques.

There are enough genuine injustices to be resolved without creating unnecessary cases.