Phone Scam

[Annabel]

Apologies in advance if you have all heard of these two scams...

Phone rings, you answer. You hear a recorded message telling you you have won an all expenses holiday to an exotic location. You are asked to press 9 to hear more details. Upon doing so, you are connected to a premium rate rate line that costs £20 per minute. Even if you disconnect immediately, the call reamins connected for 5 minutes, costing £100, on your phone bill. Should you follow the call through to the end, you will be asked to key in your house number and post code (which has other serious implications)...after two more minutes, you will be informed that, in fact, you are not a winner.

Total cost to you; at least £260.

These calls originate outside the UK and therefore BT and other telephone companies are powerless to act.

This is a variation on other scams, but they all have a similar theme of asking you to press 9, or 0 and/or #.

This can also happen on mobile phones.

Hang up immediately if you ever get a call like this.

Also on mobile phones, there is a scam whereby an 0709 number calls you, it registers as a missed call...If you call back to see who it is, you will be connected at the extortionate rate of £50 per minute!!! DO NOT calll 0709 numbers back!

My office has been called several times by the 'exotic holiday' scammers and my boss has had the mobile calls...

BT have also confirmed these scams are doing the rounds and for peopple to be vigilant.

Dont let people help themselves to your dosh!!!

Annabel

[Mr Ribbit]

Hi Annabel,

Thanks for letting us know. We've had several of these calls lately and we're ex-directory! :bigeyes: :blink:

We just hang up immediately but it's seriously worrying that potentially loads of people could fall for this scam. :rant: I can't believe that the authorities are powerless to do anything - what a ridiculous situation to be in.

mr ribbit B)

[Eskander]

Annabel is of course right to pass on these warnings but I think members should have a look at this:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/mobile.asp

[freakyfun]

I got a "Free Ringtone - Click to connect" txt on my phone the other day - needless to say I deleted it without clicking. I imagine if I had I would have found out that the ringtone was far from "free".

FF

[Rosie Q]

Subject: FW: Telephone fraud - Worth Reading

British Telecommunications plc Registered office: 81 Newgate Street London EC1A Registered in England no. 1800000

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.

[lola]

Thanks for the warning. I have been getting at least one of these 'congratulations......' calls per day. Luckly though, :) I have hung up straight away.(you never get something for nothing)!

[rb2002]

I've won 15 supposed holidays so far :unsure:

What really annoys me is that I can't seem to disconnect. I hang up then if I lift the phone immediately after, the message is still playing. Its darn annoying, and I know some poor desparate soul will fall for it :(

It makes me :mad:

rb2002