Foxtons personally addressed letter

[Sue]

This morning I received a letter from Foxtons - the usual stuff about serious buyers and free "valuation" of my house.

However it was personally addressed, but the title was wrong and the name was not what I commonly call myself except in applications etc where I am asked for my full name.

I have just emailed them to ask where they got this information. To the best of my knowledge I have never had any contact with Foxtons, and if I had had they would have different details from those they have used.

Do they buy lists from somewhere, and if so where? I'm quite annoyed about this.

I am opted out of the "open" electoral register, so they can't have got the information from that.

[NewWave]

Foxtons are desparado's....I had a phone call from them about listing my property with them a couple of months ago.

This was a property I sold 10years ago!!

stupid and lazy.

[hazelnunhead]

That's interesting, just realised we got a letter from Foxtns this week, and see that they have our correct name and mail address. we have also not dealt with them. Did Foxtons say how they got your address?

[Sue]

hazelnunhead Wrote:

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> That's interesting, just realised we got a letter

> from Foxtns this week, and see that they have our

> correct name and mail address. we have also not

> dealt with them. Did Foxtons say how they got your

> address?

I emailed them just before 1pm this afternoon, and they haven't replied yet.

ETA: I'll give them a couple of days, and if I still have no reply I shall be calling into their office to ask them in person.

[P.O.U.S.theWonderCat]

Threaten to report them to the Information Commissioner if they don't give you the details.

By the way, in a couple of months they won't be able to pull the "you must have checked a box somewhere line" - they have to obtain informed consent. Well, unless the UK government decides to take back control and doesn't implement GDPR.

[KidKruger]

They won't have a clue where they got the details from I expect.

I've had this before with other kinds of agencies, whoever you speak to never can tell where the data came from !

[Pugwash]

Firms can purchase electoral registers

[Sue]

Pugwash Wrote:

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> Firms can purchase electoral registers

They can only purchase the open register.

I'm not on it, so Foxtons can't have got my details from there.

Anybody can opt out of being on it. I have.

[DulwichFox]

I got a personal letter from Foxtons.

I get them all the time and from other Estate Agents.

They get shredded as they have my name and address on them.

[Sue]

DulwichFox Wrote:

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> I got a personal letter from Foxtons.

> I get them all the time and from other Estate

> Agents.

>

> They get shredded as they have my name and

> address on them.

My point in starting the thread was to ask how Foxtons got my name, which is in a format on the letter which I do not commonly use, and the title was wrong. Obviously they have the address of everybody in the road.

I have just received an email from them which says "Apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you, I have passed your inquiry to xxxxxxx who will be able to answer your question".

This is a bit bizarre as I wasn't caused any inconvenience, however I await the response from xxxxxxx (don't want to post a name up here).

Not putting personal details in the recycling is a separate issue.

[Sue]

I have just received a helpful email from Foxtons:

Your name came from a data company called TwentyCi. We bought names from them to add to addresses that we chose for our marketing letters. TwentyCi source their names from several data providers. All the names have permissions for third-party marketing and are screened against the Mailing Preference Service before we use them.

You can contact TwentyCi and ask them which data source your name came from, mention that you are enquiring following receipt of a letter from Foxtons. They will tell you and they will arrange to have your name taken off whichever source it came from.

Either email TwentyCi using this email address [email protected] or telephone and ask for the Data Protection Department on 01908 829300.

In the meantime, I have taken your name and address off our mailing list so that we don?t send any more letters to you. Please don?t hesitate to let me know if I can help any further.

What does that mean, that " All the names have permissions for third-party marketing and are screened against the Mailing Preference Service before we use them"??

I never agree for my name to be passed onto third parties. I will certainly be making further enquiries.

[P.O.U.S.theWonderCat]

I think it means that somewhere in the dim distant past, you ticked a box (or failed to tick a box) saying that selected third parties could contact you. Most businesses have treated that as carte blanche to sell your data on to "lead generating" agencies, who then sell it on and again and again. Foxtons have bought a packet of leads which included this data.

To trace it back, you would need to go to Twenty Ci and ask them where they bought your data from, and so on and so on until you get to the source. It's a tedious process but, so long as they are all operating in the EU, they should have recorded the detals of where they bought the data.

From May (I think) this year, as I understand it EU firms will no longer be able to use the check-box approach but will need to have obtained your informed consent on how they use your data. It's not my area, but worth looking at the ICO website for more info: https://ico.org.uk/

[Sue]

Thanks P.O.U.S. !