- Yvonne Mccuaig put on a competition for her 86,000 followers where they could win a Gucci dress.
- Mccuaig is accused of not disclosing terms, conditions and violating UK advertising regulations.
- Mccuaig’s telemarketing company was also reportedly fined £150,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Yvonne Mccuaig was an Instagram influencer who hosted a competition for her followers to win a Gucci dress. But she received a warning letter from the Advertising Standards Authority, the UK’s regulator of advertising.
Mccuaig is 43 years old and is based in Scotland. She has more than 86,000 Instagram followers, where she posts beauty and fashion content.
“We received a complaint that Yvonne McCuaig was running an Instagram competition without stating the terms and conditions of entry,” Insider was told by a spokesperson for ASA. “We sent her an advice notice, reminding her to clearly provide terms and conditions to competitions, and to award prizes as described within 30 days of the closing date.”
Mccuaig did in fact not respond immediately to Insider’s request. Insider couldn’t verify that the competition post had been removed from Mccuaig’s Instagram.
Mccuaig has also been accused of being behind an illegal telemarketing operation.
A sales firm called Dial A Deal Scotland Ltd, has been fined £150,000 ($205,000) for making nuisance calls by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a UK government body, according to Scottish newspaper The Daily Record. UK government records show the company is registered to someone by the name of Yvonne Mccuaig, as well as a co-owner called Calum Mckay Kirkpatrick.
According to the outlet, the company was found responsible for half a million unwanted phone calls, claiming to be behind a government-led “Green Deal” initiative, which does not appear to exist. The ICO determined that the calls were illegal since nobody consented to being contacted by them.
The ICO stated that the pair created fake identities to set up the business. According to The Daily Record the ICO received more than 500 complaints regarding their calls.
“Dial A Deal were breaking the law on a number of fronts, not only were they making calls to people without their permission, they were also hiding their identity using false names and spoof numbers,” said Ken Macdonald, the head of ICO Regions, in a press release. “Calls about Green Deal schemes can be a real problem as people often believe they are legitimate but, thanks to the complaints made by the public, we’ve been able to take action.”
He added that “companies making similar nuisance calls should take note, we use our powers where we see serious breaches of the law.”
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider’s Digital Culture team here.