Thousands of letters like this are being sent to businesses nationwide

The Information Commissioner (ICO) has issued a warning about a new flood of official-looking letters telling businesses they need to pay a �95 fee to enter their names on the Data Protection Register.

The ICO has taken 20,000 calls in the last week from businesses who've received notices from these so-called agencies.

Many Working Lunch viewers have also been in touch.

And this is not the first time this has happened.

The law

The Data Protection Act of 1998 requires every business that controls data and who processes personal data to register with the Commissioner, unless they are exempt.

It costs �35 to register and can be done easily without the need for a third party.

You just download the form via the internet, or order the form over the phone.

But a slew of companies have seized on the opportunity for making a bit of cash.

'Official' letters

They send out notices to businesses, often on official- looking headed notepaper and request sums of between �85 and �120 to register; making themselves a tidy profit in the process.

Peter Mills is a Working Lunch viewer who was targeted in a recent mail shot.

He was asked to send money to a business unit in West London.

Fortunately for Peter, he was not fooled and did not part with any cash.

Others have not been so lucky.

When we paid a visit, the postman was delivering a sack of envelopes to the address on the business park.

The postman reckoned that about five full mail-bags arrive there daily.

According to Stephen Alambritis from the Federation of Small Businesses the problem is rife.

"Whole tranches of letters have gone out to businesses across the country. We've been deluged by calls."

Clamping down

It's worth noting that providing the registration service is not in itself a crime. But if you mis-represent yourself or mis-lead a customer, then you're breaking the law.

The Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards officers have been clamping down.

The OFT has prevented two companies from issuing misleading advertisements about data protection notification services under the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations.

And the London Borough of Brent and Harrow has recently prosecuted a company and an individual under the Trade Descriptions Act.

But being prosecuted is often not enough of a disincentive.

A fine of �3,500 is peanuts compared to the thousands some companies are making.

And tracking down these agencies is also proving difficult.

Each time one operation is stopped, another one seems to crop up in somewhere else.

The Information Commissioner advises all business to ignore these letters and not pay the fee demanded.

For more information on data protection and to find out if you need to register, click on the link above.