Is this a GDPR breach?

[MitchT]

In April 2016 I parted company with British Gas, paid my final bill and moved on with my life.

On Tuesday 13 August 2019 I received a text from British Gas saying...

"Hello Mrs M Taylor, just a reminder that you need to pay your recent energy bill. Pay now with a debit or credit card at www.britishgas.co.uk/makeapayment"

I am not Mrs M Taylor and, despite these enlightened times, I am yet to decide to identify as a Mrs M Taylor.

I raised this with them via Twitter and they told me my number was only attached to my old account and that they're requested it to be removed from any other systems if found.

Anyway, fast forward to Monday 15 December 2019 and I receive the following...

"Hello, this is British Gas. This is a polite reminder that your final bill payment for your energy account ending 8121 is due by 18/12/2019. To pay online visit http://www.britishgas.co.uk/identity/ or call 0333 202 9559 Mon-Fri 8am-8pm and Sat 8am-6pm. Thank you"

Then, on Friday 20 December 2019 receive the following...

"Hello , this is British Gas. You need to contact us urgently about the money you owe. If we don't speak with you, you risk extra charges and we'll pass your details to a debt collection agency. Please get in touch - we're here to help on 0333 202 9559 Mon to Fri 8am to 8pm, Saturday 8am to 6pm. More help and information is available at www.britishgas.co.uk"

I'll reiterate, I closed and settled my account with British Gas in April 2016 and the number (8121) quoted in Monday's text is not a part of the customer reference number that I had when I was with them.

The debt is clearly not mine, so that's not a concern. What is slightly annoying is that they still have my number on file and are now using it to communicate someone else's matters.

I work for a large retailer and our internal GDPR rules say that we can hold the details of an inactive customer for up to seven years, but I'm not so much an "inactive customer" of British Gas as not a customer at all, so are they breaching GDPR be still having my details on file and using them?

[AJB88]

move on.

[Your Dad]

Mrs Taylor has given the wrong mobile number as a contact on her account.

You've confirmed you are neither Mrs Taylor or had the account ending with that reference, therefore it's not a GDPR issue.

BG are not holding your details, they're holding incorrect data for someone else.

[MitchT]

BenjiS said:

If you really want to try and help, just write to / email them, stating who you are and suggesting that the information on Mrs Taylor’s account (which can be identified by the reference number) is incorrect, and they should contact her by post to get it corrected.

I furnished them with my name, address and old customer account reference number in August when the first text arrived and I had exchanges with them to try to resolve it. Clearly they haven't fixed it.

[Roo]

Reply to the text with STOP.

[Teddy Lop]

Good luck getting British gas to sort anything out, I had an account with them and somehow (dodgy landlord) the opening reading was quite wrong like minus thousands of units, after they'd spent a year repeatedly billing me for this mis read, I'd complained to the regulator by now, I told the girl it was my final call to them, I was moving out now and if they didn't find a way to bill me for the actual energy I'd used I'd be gone and they'd end up with nothing...!

[blank]

How odd. I received this a couple of days ago...

It's easier than ever to manage your British Gas account on our app or website. Tap the link to register today: www.britishgas.co.uk/account


I'm not with British Gas and not sure I ever have been!

[eltawater]

Have you contacted their data protection officer through the means detailed here?

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/privacy-policy.html

I had a similar issue with Barclays a few months back. My mobile number had been associated with someone else's current account so I was receiving text messages notifying me of when standing orders had been changed etc. I used the Barclays GDPR online forms to contact them and as I've never been a Barclays customer I could only give them the mobile number receiving their text messages and some snippets from the texts. I received a letter back in the post confirming the action taken, all sorted very efficiently.

[MitchT]

BenjiS said:

They don’t need your old customer account number. That’ll only let them identify your account and there’s nothing wrong with your account. They’ve probably even put a marker in your account to stop messages being sent.

They need Mrs Taylor’s account number or reference. That’s the account that needs fixing and they’re not going to do that on your instruction because you’re not Mrs Taylor. All you can do is advise them the data on that account is wrong.

I gave them my account number so they could tell that my account - the one associated with the number to which they're sending the texts - isn't the one which owes the money. Also, "Mrs M Taylor" was only referenced by the text I received in August. The two texts I received this week might concern a different customer for all I know.

[Jakg]

I agree with everyone else it's much more likely that the other person has put their number on.

If that wasn't the case though, don't expect a "GDPR breach" to mean much.

I had a car accident and I immediately get ambulance chasing calls with lots of personal info (i.e. car reg, where the hire car was dropped off etc).

The only people who have all those details are the third party insurance company, so I contact them to ask if they've sold my details on - "oh no, not us".

I raise a complaint with the ICO and the insurance company back with "ooo actually there was a mixup and they were leaked. Ooops. We've reported ourselves to the ICO, don't worry".
The ICO record the dispute as settled and do nothing at all.