78% get compensation cold calls

More than three quarters of people asked in a poll said they had received unsolicited texts or phone calls encouraging them to claim compensation.

That's despite the fact that 92% said they had no grounds for demanding a payout.

The finding underlines how claims companies are cashing in on two lucrative waves of compensation: the epidemic of whiplash claims against car insurers and the £9bn payout from banks which mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance or PPI.

Claims companies have been advertising widely, on TV and in the newspapers, but they have also been saturating mobile phone networks with messages and calls.

The Association of British Insurers commissioned the survey, asking 2,600 adults. Most of them backed a ban on the unsolicited messages.

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