Estate agents Giving Away Money !

[Noakes4646]

?

[22fdunstone]

You felt so strongly about this that you registered with the ED Forum to share this today?

Looking at your profile you have never posted on the forum in the past yet were so outraged by this that you felt compelled to register and bad mouth a local business that largely has had good feedback on this forum?

There are plenty of unscrupulous agents on Lordship Lane (just have a good look through previous posts) and I would suggest that you probably work for one of them!

[Noakes4646]

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[edhistory]

Which section of the act?

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/contents

John K

[Sue]

If the OP is correct then I'm not sure that Haart's methods are the greatest, but surely this isn't against data protection laws?

They apply to organisations, not individuals, don't they?

[22fdunstone]

I think the word bribery is a bit strong! I moved house recently and Sky offered me ?50 if I referred a friend. Would you describe that as bribery too? I think you'd be hard pushed to find a business that didn't offer referrals or incentives to win more business.

[dennis]

It might be a bit slimey, if it's true.

But agents have access to databases able to give them the info, such as the Land Registry.

Data Protection Act is about data, not knowledge.

It applies to information stored on computer or filing systems.

[Sue]

The OP seems to have deleted his/her posts .....

[Bellerophon]

Busted......well done forumites, and Sue in particular

[Sue]

Bellerophon Wrote:

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> Busted......well done forumites, and Sue in

> particular

xxxxx

Not sure why I've been singled out for praise, but it makes a change from being singled out for criticism :))

ETA: I see the OP has removed the name of the estate agent from his/her posts and headings - but that was a bit pointless since it remains in all the other headings on the thread .....

[Jeremy]

As dennis says, info is available from land registry. Seems a rather unlikely story.

[Sue]

I see the OP had originally posted (in his/her second post) that they "didn't" work for a rival estate agent - but has now removed that statement.

Can we therefore take it that - in fact - he/she DOES work for another local estate agent?

If so, perhaps he/she would like to share with us which one it is, as I for one would like to make sure I never use it?

[Andybol]

OP is foxtons

I claim my five pounds ah thank you !

[Burbage]

dennis Wrote:

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> It might be a bit slimey, if it's true.

> But agents have access to databases able to give

> them the info, such as the Land Registry.

That's true. But they're an expensive way to trawl for victims and, besides, they're not allowed to do very much with information so harvested.

Referral scams, on balance, are a cheaper and less effortful method of hunting marks, and there's a chance the referee will have been buttered up by the referrer, which never hurts.

To right-thinking people, it is a bit unethical, and it does seem to go against both the spirit and the letter of the Data Protection Act. But that is only one side of the story. For what the Act says is one thing, and how it is policed is another. Thankfully, and on account of the ICO's open-minded willingness to productively engage with some of the wealthiest captains of the multinational creative industries we claim to call our own, or at least their legal minions, we now take a cheerfully relaxed approach to what, in more intolerant Germany, would be taken as an outrageous assault on individual rights.

That might seem a bad thing, but in an economy that survives mostly on the skimmings from bubbles, such wheezes are the only hope we have of securing a graceful decline.