MSE News: Copycat website charging for free EHIC cards is blasted by ASA

Ian011 wrote: »

In other news, there are still hundreds of "call connection service" scam websites offering a variety of premium rate 084, 087 or 09 numbers that simply "connect" you to the advertised government department, retailer, trader, bank, insurance company or phone company, etc.

Although they simply charge a premium rate to forward calls onwards that would otherwise have been free-to-caller on 080 numbers or included in allowances on 01, 02 or 03 numbers, it seems the ASA receives close to zero complaints about these bogus and unnecessary services.

Probably because the "victims" of these services never realise that they paid too much for their phone call.

Far more concerning are adverts which state something like "calls cost 1p per minute plus your phone company's access charge".

Sounds cheap? 1p per min plus what sounds like a nominal "access charge", maybe similar to a "connection charge" which a lot of phone companies used to use? Generally about 5p per call or so?

WRONG! The access charge could be as much as 55p per minute!!

So a 20 min call which the punter thinks will cost about 25p could in fact cost £11.20 :eek:

About time the ASA stopped this misleading advertising. How about something like "calls cost xxp per minute from a BT landline, other providers may vary and calls from mobiles may cost considerably more". Much less misleading!

zagfles wrote: »

Probably because the "victims" of these services never realise that they paid too much for their phone call.

Either that, or they have realised they have spent a lot of money, but are unaware that it is a third-party scam that has pocketed the cash.

zagfles wrote: »

About time the ASA stopped this misleading advertising. How about something like "calls cost xxp per minute from a BT landline, other providers may vary and calls from mobiles may cost considerably more". Much less misleading!

Absolutely not, because that conveys nothing about the call cost unless you have a BT landline. Less than 45% of calls made are made from a landline. Of those calls made from a landline, less than 40% are made from a BT landline.

The whole point of the Access Charge plus Service Charge system is that the called party declares the part of the call charge they are responsible for and which is paid jointly to them and their telecoms provider. Separately the caller's phone provider declares the part of the call charge that they have set and which they retain.

Phone companies have an obligation to show the Access Charge in their tariff lists with the same prominence (position and size) as the details for calls to landline and mobile numbers. The same Access Charge applies for calls to all 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers so you only need to look it up once.

The split charge system has severely reigned in the cost of calling 09 and 118 numbers. Back in the days of "calls cost X from BT" there was a Directory Enquiries service that cost 40p per call from a BT landline. To look up the cost on your mobile meant looking through a three hundred page document to eventually find out they charged £5 per minute. That call is now 55p per minute Access Charge plus 40p per call Service Charge.