Companies should stop cold calling potential customers after a survey showed the majority of consumers mistrust those who use the strategy.
Citizens Advice (CAB) said its poll found 92% of people do not trust sales representatives who cold call, describing the findings as “indicative of marketing that is nothing more than a nuisance”.
The advisory service is calling for financial services firms like claims management companies and debt resolution services to be banned from cold-calling to protect people from unscrupulous operators.
Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: “It is time companies hang up marketing plans that bombard people with unwanted phone calls, text messages and automated voicemails.”
She continued: “I’d like to see financial service companies banned from cold-calling.
“Citizens Advice is helping people who have been left seriously out of pocket after signing up to a service over the phone, only to find it doesn’t deliver what was promised.
“A ban on these firms would help people know a call out of the blue is one not to be trusted.”
