The company and its managing director must pay £8,200 in fines
and costs.
Infofind Ltd pleaded guilty to charges brought by the
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) of illegally 'blagging'
personal details and selling them to a finance firm.
The company and its managing director Nick Munroe were convicted
at Kingston Magistrates' Court of 44 counts of unlawfully obtaining
and selling personal data. They have been fined £3,200 and ordered
to pay costs of £5,000.
Infofind was found guilty of breaching the Data Protection Act
in order to trace outstanding debtors on behalf of finance company
On:Line Finance. The company acted unlawfully despite signing an
agreement with On:Line Finance that it would comply with the
Act.
The company was fined £100 per offence, and Munro £700 per
offence, totalling £3,200.
Infofind had obtained information by phoning the Department for
Work and Pensions (DWP) and pretending to be staff members of that
department, a practice known as pretexting. The callers then
convinced officials to disclose personal information about
individuals from DWP files.
"Obtaining and selling personal information is a serious offence
which can be highly damaging to the individuals concerned," said
Philip Taylor, a solicitor at the ICO. "This prosecution is the
result of a thorough investigation by the Information
Commissioner’s Office and is part of our ongoing work to stop the
illegal trade in personal information."
The ICO said that it was working with the DWP to try to ensure
that such a security breach does not happen again.
“Individuals must be confident that their personal information
is stored securely by those organisations which hold and process
it," said Taylor. "The ICO is working with the Department for Work
and Pensions to provide training for employees on how to deal with
these bogus callers.”
