Firms duped over data registering

Daily Times Monitor

An inquiry is under way in Lancashire into how companies have sent a £95 fee to the agencies after being threatened with £5,000 fines, reports BBC.

Trading standards officers have intercepted nearly £400,000 worth of cheques, many of which have been in reply to a firm based at a false address in the county.

Lancashire Police, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the official Data Protection Agency are involved in the inquiry in to at least 14 fake firms. Jim Potts, of Lancashire Trading Standards, said the letters look professional and use panic tactics, such as being labelled “final notice”.

No sense: One Leeds woman who is setting up a business said she panicked initially when she got a letter, from the fake Lancashire address, in Fleetwood.

The 36-year-old, who did not want to be named, said: “The letter said that under the Data Protection Act of 1989 it is an offence for any business not to register.

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