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Are Genuine Personal Injury Claimants Victimised by Spam?

Spam texts offering personal injury services could have infected at least 20 million phones so far in the UK – an assumption that eclipses the already-harrowing reported figure of 30,000 complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO) about unsolicited messages.  As a result, if you’re seeking compensation for a genuine accident, you could be more than a victim of your injuries.

This is the view of John Spencer, a British lawyer who has been banging the drum about the dangers of spam texts since 2011.  As a well-respected, experienced and vocal personal injury solicitor, Spencer’s opinions on matters such as this are taken seriously across the board – in a recent press release he highlighted how genuine claimants are the ‘forgotten victims’ of the spam text messaging scandal.

He elaborated by saying these people are unfairly categorised as fraudsters, along with those who chase illegitimate accident claims – often ignited by the notorious spam text.  Anybody who feels they are entitled to car accident compensation can personally qualify the validity of their case with solicitors like John Spencer; they do not need an SMS to remind them of their crash.

Spam Today

The press have picked up on spam marketing recently because of an advance by the ICO on Britain’s digital pet peeve:

The ICO penalised two spammers because of the illogical texts they sent out en masse, as part of a single company’s marketing strategy.  They were fined £250,000 for their actions – a figure that invited Spencer and his Derbyshire law firm, Spencers Solicitors, to blow the lid on the practice and reveal even more shocking statistics about spam in this country.

Beneath the Surface

All the information can be found in the Spencers Solicitors infographic, released in conjunction with John’s quote.  In a nutshell, the data suggests that the 30,000 complaints made to the ICO about spam in the last six months, is just the tip of the iceberg…

In a survey of 1200 people, just 36 knew to send a complaint to the ICO if they received an unwanted text.  That’s 3%, and means that in theory the 30,000 complaints to the ICO represent a tiny proportion of the amount of actual spam recipients – using these figures, the total amount of people who actually complained, to the ICO or elsewhere, could be estimated around the 3 million mark.

The overall approximation of spam victims (including those who are yet to complain to anybody) was quoted at 20 million – almost a third of the UK population.

The Next Step

Spencers attached an advice section to their infographic, explaining what to do after receiving an unwelcome text about personal injury.  The bottom line for those who feel they have a genuine claim is to ignore the texts and speak to a professional accident claims solicitor.  It is evident that certain organisations, like the ICO, are taking steps to clamp down on spam – hopefully the dirty tactic will be completely outlawed in the near future and sincere claimants will no longer be pigeonholed as fakes.