A call claiming a car’s warranty, or a washing machine’s or boiler’s insurance cover, is about to expire, followed by pressure to renew or pay immediately, is one of the UK’s most enforcement-heavy nuisance call categories. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has repeatedly fined companies specifically for this tactic, giving a clear, documented picture of how the scam is run and why it keeps happening despite being against the law.
A real enforcement case shows how the tactic works
In February 2023 the ICO fined It’s OK Limited, a Brighton-based appliance service and repair company, £200,000 after it made 1,752,149 unsolicited marketing calls between July 2019 and June 2020, an average of more than three calls every minute across that period. The ICO’s investigation found evidence the company would “attempt to mislead individuals that their white good warranties had expired and encourage them to pay for services they may not have needed,” and also found evidence suggesting the company was potentially targeting elderly individuals specifically. Andy Curry, the ICO’s Head of Investigations, said at the time: “The actions of this company represented a sustained and exploitative campaign potentially targeting the most vulnerable. Pressure tactics, misleading statements and contacting individuals who are registered on the TPS is shameful behaviour.”
The calls breached regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which makes it unlawful to make marketing calls to a number that has been registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) for 28 days or more, where the subscriber has not separately told the caller they do not object. This is the same legal case the ICO cited in reaching its penalty, and it is one of several similar actions: the regulator states it has issued more than £1.45 million in fines since October 2021 to companies making illegal marketing calls, much of it targeting people with warranty and insurance products specifically.
Why these calls target warranty and insurance renewals specifically
A fabricated “your cover is about to expire” claim works because it does not require the caller to know anything specific and true about the recipient; almost every household has some appliance, vehicle or policy that could plausibly be near renewal, so the claim sounds individually relevant without actually being based on real information. The pressure that follows, an urgent call to action, often combined with a discounted “today only” rate, is designed to get a payment agreed before the recipient has time to check the claim against their real paperwork.
Registering with the Telephone Preference Service
The TPS is the UK’s free opt-out register for live sales and marketing calls. Citizens Advice confirms that “it’s against the law for sales people from the UK or overseas to call numbers registered with TPS,” and registration can be completed online, by phone on 0345 070 0707, or by texting “TPS” to 85095. Registration takes up to 28 days to become fully effective, which is also the same 28-day threshold the ICO relies on when assessing whether a company had a lawful basis to call a TPS-registered number.
TPS registration has real limits. Citizens Advice notes it does not cover automated or “computer-generated” recorded calls, since the underlying law applies to calls made by people rather than machines, and it does not stop calls from scammers who were never going to comply with the law regardless of TPS status. If nuisance calls continue more than 28 days after registering, Citizens Advice suggests the caller most likely obtained the number directly, for example from a form filled in elsewhere, rather than through a public directory.
What to do when a warranty or insurance renewal call comes in
The single most reliable check is to end the call and contact the actual provider, the manufacturer, dealer or insurer named on your real paperwork, using a phone number found independently, such as on a genuine bill or the provider’s official website, rather than any number the caller offers or a callback number they provide. No legitimate renewal requires an on-the-spot decision during the same call in which it was raised; a genuine provider will not object to a policyholder calling back through official channels to confirm cover before paying anything.
Reporting a nuisance or scam call
Citizens Advice’s guidance separates two reporting routes: nuisance marketing calls that may breach PECR can be reported to the ICO or via the TPS website, while suspected scam calls, where the caller has no genuine underlying business relationship at all, should be reported to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. Suspicious texts can also be forwarded free of charge to 7726. Reporting matters even where no money was lost, since the ICO’s enforcement pattern, including the It’s OK Limited case, has relied on volumes of individual complaints to build the evidence behind its fines.
Frequently asked questions
Does registering with TPS stop these calls completely? No. TPS registration makes calling a registered number without consent unlawful and gives the ICO a basis for enforcement, but it does not technically block calls from companies willing to break the law, or from automated systems the law does not cover in the same way.
Is it ever safe to renew a warranty during the call itself? It is safer to decline and call back independently using a number from genuine paperwork, since a fabricated urgency is one of the clearest signs used in cases like the ICO’s action against It’s OK Limited.
What penalty did the ICO actually impose in the It’s OK Limited case? A £200,000 monetary penalty under PECR regulation 21, following an investigation into calls made between July 2019 and June 2020.
The bottom line
Warranty and insurance renewal scam calls follow a documented pattern the ICO has fined companies for repeatedly, a fabricated expiry claim, pressure to decide immediately, and calls made to numbers that should have been protected by TPS registration. Ending the call and verifying independently through a provider’s genuine contact details, rather than anything supplied during the call, defeats the tactic regardless of how convincing the caller sounds.