The Perfume Shop-illegal Scam

idontknowmyname

A few months ago I applied for a position of sales assistant that was advertised on www.jobs.ie for The Perfume Shop. I didn’t hear anything from them so presumed they weren’t interested, then about month later I started receiving text messages advertising their products. I was so angry as my CV information must be used for the sole purpose of employment only! The Data Protection Act says that information cannot be used for anything else other than its purpose unless the relevant people have permission. I never allowed this man to misuse my information like he has. :mad:

I emailed www.jobs.ie just before Xmas and got no answer so I then emailed The Perfume Shop headquarters in the UK. They said that it was not their company who was doing this and that they had received other complaints about this matter. When the Perfume Shop UK wanted to enter Ireland it found that an Irish company had already taken the name so the real company had to use another name.

After Xmas I happened to be browsing through Jobs.ie when I came across 4 adverts the same as I had replied to. They all had different positions like nail technician, beautician, sales people etc. The ad always says it wants a one page CV and not to call the mobile number given. I was infuriated so I emailed jobs.ie an angry letter telling them about how they were letting this guy scam the public. :mad:

The Director of Jobs.ie Vinnie Quinn called me and said that they’d received complaints about this guy before and that they had warned him to stop. If so, then why did they still let him advertise? Vinnie also told me that one woman was receiving messages every 20 minutes; I got away lightly with once a week. He said that he’d talk to the guy again and tell him that he was breaching the Data Protection Act; he’d also tell the guy to remove my mobile number from the database.

But low and behold, yesterday I received this:

“Free Valentines chocolates with womens and mens perfumes over €30 over 500 perfume prices reduced for Valentines’s Day. The perfume shop unsub txt NO to 0879917881

First of all I never subscribed and if I was to txt NO would he start sending me junk mail? How am I to know, it may also confirm my number and send me even more txt messages. The advertisement said it was The Perfume Shop on the 1st floor of Stephens Green Shopping Centre :mad:

If I can get in touch with anyone else who has been the victim of this we can have a stronger case in helping to prosecute this person. :mad:
I will be contacting the relevant authorities on Monday and the more people we have the better. So if you have been unfortunate to experience this or you know someone who has get them to contact me.

Silverfish

Hmm, funny that. I never applied for any jobs at all on that website but I've been getting those messages for months...... and when you reply with 'No' it tells you the number is not valid.

Ms Beanbag

is it costing U to recieve the messages? If no, its not that big deal, although I wouldnt want anyone knowing my personal details..

Talliesin

If you believe that a commercial SMS you've been sent is not from a company that you have had a previous customer relationship with then report it.

Keep the SMS on your phone.

Copy it onto paper or email and send it to

Seán Sweeney,
Compliance Section,
Office of the Data Protection Commissioner
3rd Floor, Block 6
Irish Life Centre
Lower Abbey Street
Dublin 1
Ireland
Sean_Sweeney@dataprotection.ie

You need to give your postal address, the phone number the Spam came to, details
of any relationship you have had with the company in question, and how
Statutory Instrument 535 of 2003 has been breached.

In the case of Spam SMS it is a breach of section 13, subsection 1, subsection a
(note that as defined in S.I. 535 SMS counts as "email").

You should also state that the phone is that of a natural person, not of a
company (since companies are not protected).

idontknowmyname

hey if anyone is experiencing the same thing even from a different company. It is illegal for any company to send you text messages if you have not given them permission.

Click on this link and follow the instructions. €3000 fine per message sent if they're prosecuted.


http://www.dataprotection.ie/images/SPAMguide.pdf