merckx Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 My Brother works for the Local City Council and he regularly receives warnings of fraudulent scams. I thought I would pass this on. Telephone Fraud > >We have been advised of a telephone fraud currently in operation (this applies to home and/or work telephones - land lines and mobiles): > >If you do receive one of these calls, upon answering the telephone, you will hear a recorded message congratulating you on winning an all expenses trip to an exotic location. You will then be asked to press 9 to hear further details. If you press 9 you will be connected to a premium rate line that costs approximately £20 per minute. Even if you disconnect immediately, it will remain connected for a minimum of 5 minutes, costing around £100. The final part of the call involves you being asked to key your postcode and house number (which has other serious consequences). > >After a further 2 minutes you will receive a message informing you that you are not one of the lucky winners. The total bill will be £260. Since the calls are originating from outside the UK, BT and other telephone companies are left relatively powerless to act. The only safe solution is to HANG UP before the message prompts you to press 9; even safer is to HANG UP on any unsolicited 'free offer' call. This appears to be a variation on a theme, warnings have been sent previously regarding calls made by individuals claiming to be engineers conducting a test on the line and asking for 9, 0# and text messages similar to the routine described above. DO NOT DIAL 9 (OR 9,0# OR 0,9#) FOR ANYONE! BT has been contacted and confirmed the details as being true. > >There is another scam operating on Mobile Phones. > >A Missed Call comes up. The number is 0709 020 3840. The last four numbers may vary but certainly the first four numbers will remain the same. If you call this number back, you will be charged £50 per minute. People have complained about their phone bills, once they have realised the cost of the call but apparently this is completely legal. So beware, do not call back numbers beginning with 0709. 4774446 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian C Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Jake will be along in a minute to you with the Urban Myth stick -Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terminator Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Any calls I get telling me I have won something always get the same response FO and hang up. With tele sales I just quietly put the phone down and let them go on and on and on until they realise there is no one there, it their bill not mine. I have hear of the 9 thing before and know a girl who was conned, she got a £70 charge for the call only a few minutes too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Originally posted by Ian C Jake will be along in a minute to you with the Urban Myth stick :D:D It is another urban myth: From http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/mobile.asp A £20.00 per minute premium rate tariff does not exist - the highest premium rate tariff available is £1.50 per minute. Despite the hundreds of enquiries received by ICSTIS about this 'scam' (and most have heard about it second or third-hand), not one person who claims that it has actually happened to them has been able to produce a phone bill to support their story. ICSTIS urges any individual or organisation that receives an e-mail about this scam to delete it immediately. Please do not forward it on to others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merckx Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 It is another urban myth Would this not be possible with the calls originating from outside the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Originally posted by merckx Would this not be possible with the calls originating from outside the UK. I guess not, seeing as ICSTIS have zero recorded cases of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnK Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 *slight hijack* Does anyone know the number to call (or place to write to) to get put on the list that the marketing companys arent allowed to call? Its a bit like the fax preference service, if I remember the name correctly. Over the last month we seem to have gotten more and more of these calls, and the always seem to know when your very busy and call then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Harwood Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 John, just ask BT to block any calls that don't transmit a number. This blocks at least 90% of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Originally posted by JohnK Does anyone know the number to call (or place to write to) to get put on the list that the marketing companys arent allowed to call? http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonB Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Originally posted by Jake http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps Also the fastest known way to get rid of people who do phone up: "Hello, I'm calling from blah blah blah" "I'm registered with the telephone pref.." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bens747 Posted December 6, 2004 Share Posted December 6, 2004 Personally I have just had enough of all those sales people phoning all hours of the day. Just hang up on them, they soon get the idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merckx Posted December 6, 2004 Author Share Posted December 6, 2004 Like Jake said register with http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps . We did it ages ago and don't get many of these calls anymore:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase Posted December 6, 2004 Share Posted December 6, 2004 http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/041206/35/f7z4j.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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