Data protection business scam

We (our new company) have just received a letter from the following company:

D.C.S (ENFORCEMENT SECTION)
CITY BUILDINGS
21-23 OLD HALL STREET
MERSEYSIDE
L3 9BS

The letter begins:

DATA COLLECTION SERVICES
(ENFORCEMENT SECTION)
NOTICE: NEW BUSINESS
NOTIFICATION UNDER THE DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

Our records show you have not yet submitted Notification to the Information Commissioner in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. This act replaces the Data Protection Act 1984.

Failure to register is a criminal offence: on conviction an offender is liable to a maximum fine ot exceeding level five on the criminal justice scale. At present this level is no greater than £5,000.

The Data Protection Act 1998 requires every business processing personal data to register. The Commissioner maintains a register and general description of businesses storing data. If you are processing personal data, (data which relates to a living individual who can be identified) for the following purposes you must register immediately.

The letter goes on to detail these purposes and then says:

Complete and return the form overleaf with your of £95 payable to D.C.S to commence registration immediately.

This company, D.C.S (or DATA COLLECTION SERVICES) are, in my opinion, SCAM ARTISTS. They have nothing to do with any official agency and are just trying to scare businesses into handing over cash for no reason.

Apparently, and we know this because we phoned the official government agency responsible for data protection registration, they have already been subjected to two successful prosecutions but no one has managed to close them down yet.

Scum is a suitable word for these people. If you are a blogger and run a small business (or even a large one) I would appreciate the spreading of the word before any other (and you can bet there have been some) unfortunate individuals fall for their disgraceful tactics.

Posted by John at March 17, 2005 05:08 PM | TrackBack