Sarah speaks out on Silent Calls

1.39.05pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 6th Jul 2009

Local Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Sarah Carr has joined forces with consumer groups to highlight the problem of silent telephone calls, which cause misery for thousands of consumers. Sarah has welcomed the campaign from communications regulator Ofcom, consumer champions Consumer Focus and Age Concern to raise awareness of silent calls and how to avoid them.

In the vast majority of cases, silent calls are not made by pranksters or burglars. In fact they're simply the work of a machine, an automated calling system called a predictive dialler, used by call centres to phone large numbers of people in one go. If there are not enough call centre agents to handle the numbers of calls the dialler makes, it may result in a silent call.

Commenting today, Sarah said:

"When the phone rings and you pick up the receiver to hear silence at the other end, most people understandably fear the worst. Silent calls can be very frightening particularly for people who live alone. However, although silent calls can seem intimidating, they are usually just marketing calls and are often not malicious. Knowing how to avoid them is one way we can take control.

"The government need to take action. They must enforce Ofcom's regulations more strictly, to require call centres using automated systems to play an information message if a call is abandoned, to prevent the call from being silent.

"Where companies continue causing distress by making silent calls, I would strongly urge local people to report them to Ofcom so they can investigate and take enforcement action if necessary. Ofcom can be contacted on 0300 123 3333. For people who are deaf or speech-impaired, their textphone number is 0300 123 2024."