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Premium Rate Phone Scam

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Posted by: forwardone

I received this email from a friend earlier today which had been forwarded on to her. Premium rate call scams are becoming big business over here in the UK, and here`s another example of one.

Quote:
"Police Report.
The reason this is working so well is it plays on your good will!
Picture the scene:-
You are sitting at home and there is a knock at the door. On answering
it you are confronted by a respectable looking woman in a suit, who is
slightly distressed. She explains that her car has broken down further
down the road and she needs to contact her husband to come to her aid.
Is it at all possible to use your phone to call him?

You allow her to use the phone, but being the suspicious type you stand
with her as she makes the call. She dials the number, and asks to be
put through to Mr Smith / Brown / Stevens (Whatever). She holds the line for
about thirty seconds. She continues, "In that case can you ask him to leave
the meeting for a minute I need to speak to him quite urgently."

She apologies again and explains they are getting him out of a meeting.

A couple of minutes goes by and she starts to speak to her husband. She
explains the situation to him, tells him what has happened to the car, is annoyed
because she now can't get to her meeting, and asks what she should do now.
She listens for a few seconds and then says, "Well as soon as the meeting
finishes can you come to Cardiff Road/ Leicester Road / Surrey Street(Whatever),
where the car has broken down. Another few seconds go by, "OK, I'll see you
in about twenty minutes then."

She put the phone down, and thanks you ever so much for your kind
assistance, even offering you a pound for your trouble, but of course
you decline, it's no trouble.

She leaves and everything is fine.

Or is it?

The day or week before knocking on your door she set up her own premium rate
line with a telephone company at the cost of about £150, and she has
dictated that calls to that number should be charged at £50 per minute. She has
dialled that number. The conversation she has had with her "husband" is entirely
fictitious, there is a pre-recorded voice
message on the other end to give you the impression she is talking to
someone. She has been on the phone for about five minutes, that call
just cost you £250, the majority of which goes into her pocket, and the
first you know about it is when you get your bill a month later.

To rub a bit of salt into the wound,she hasn't even committed a
criminal offence. You've given her permission to use your phone. 5 occasions
in Luton where this has been reported in the last couple of weeks .

Would anyone reading this please pass it on to friends and colleagues
etc. otherwise it could cost someone a lot of money.

PC Paul Toseland

CorbyBusiness Anti-Crime Network Administrator"


Geoff


Posted by: betrdanevr

It's a crime if her actions or that of the scam phone company aren't a crime!!



I suppose the charge ends up on your "regular" phone bill. I hope people dispute that, but would your phone company support it?

My family always taught me to dial the phone number myself if a stranger needs assistance -- not that I've followed that advise every time. But this is quite a new tack in the scam arena, huh!


Posted by: forwardone

By coincidence a fictional TV police series over here, called The Bill, actually had a story similar to this in it`s storyline last night.

In this case a young woman came running out from tube stations (it`s set in London) and approached a young man asking to use his phone claiming she`d been robbed. She dialled her `boyfriend` but was really phoning a premium line she`d already set up. This was netting her hundreds of pounds each time.

Anyway, as the story went, the police eventually trapped her, and she was charged by them. So, it seems to be the latest scam out there.

Geoff


Posted by: forwardone

Incredible! I`ve received notification of another scam designed to get money out of phone users.

Quote:
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.
Geoff



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