Dial 9 scam

"You've Hit the Jackpot, Now Dial 9!"

Have you received a call recently where a recorded message tells you you've hit the jackpot? Well someone has hit the jackpot but it won't be you! All you may receive is a £598 withdrawal from your credit card account.

A South Ayrshire pensioner recently complained to Trading Standards about a phone call she received one evening which starts with a recorded message that said "You've hit the jackpot now dial 9". By pressing 9 a telephone operator told her that she won $500 holiday voucher to America, in this instance Florida.

The caller, through conversation about a $500 holiday voucher began to turn the conversation towards a £598 holiday for six nights to Florida and asked the elderly lady a series of questions. The purpose of the questions was to obtain credit card details and sell her the holiday. While describing the holiday the caller asked whether she used a credit or debit card while on holiday to which she replied yes. As the lady couldn't remember what type of card it was she was asked to get it to confirm her answers. They even asked whether her credit card had expired - to which she replied no and confirmed that by giving them the expiry date.

This consumer alleges she was the victim of a deceptive phone call as the call was in the evening and out of the blue. When she questioned the caller what the call was about, the operator carried on talking about the holiday and even put her on to another colleague.

As the pensioner became more concerned she made sure that she contacted her card provider first thing the next morning, only to discover that her account had already been debited by £598. The woman was adamant that she didn't agree to purchase a holiday or agree to money being taken out of her account. The caller only gave the consumer an 0800 number to call and so far received nothing to show for her £598 not even the address details of the company.

As a result officers from South Ayrshire Trading Standards called the 0800 number to establish whether the caller worked for a legitimate company and why the pensioner's account was debited without her consent. Florida based telephone operators answered the call but had no explanation for Trading Standards. So far the company has not returned any of the calls from Trading Standards nor answered any of their enquiries. The matter is now being pursued with the credit card issuer.

The company operating this scheme is based abroad and therefore cannot be pursued by UK enforcement agencies and UK criminal legislation does not apply to it. As a result South Ayrshire Trading Standards are working together with the Office of Fair Trading to assess the scale of this problem and to alert overseas enforcement agencies to this practice in order that some action may be taken to stop UK consumers being targeted by this company.
The news of an unexpected prize draw, lottery win, or a chance to invest in an exciting new moneymaking or investment programme is usually a warning of a possible scam. Promotions of this kind no matter how you receive them are an attempt to entice you into parting with your personal details or money.

It is estimated that UK consumers lose an estimated £1 billion every year to different types of scams which use low cost mass marketing techniques aimed at targeting as many people as possible in the hope that some of them will respond.

The Office of Fair Trading has recently been running a number of initiatives aimed at warning members of the public not fall victim to scams. The OFT along with other enforcement agencies around the world are working together to stamp out different types of criminal activities. As a result, there have been over 100 scam related arrests in the US and other countries.

Councillor Douglas Campbell, Convener of the Community Safety Committee warned: "It's an unfortunate fact of life now that scams targeting consumers are commonplace and new ones keep surfacing regularly. We are now at the stage where none of us can escape this type of activity. We are all under attack through our daily mail, our home and mobile phones and when we use the Internet."
And he had this advice to offer, "Members of the public are advised to follow some basic rules that would help stop them getting caught out. First never call an unfamiliar phone number for claiming any sort of 'prize', especially if you can't remember ever entering any competition in the first place. Companies don't phone people out of the blue to give them fantastic gifts. If you've won a prize, then you should get it free, you don't need to pay a registration fee, pay towards part of the prize or make an expensive phone call to claim it."

This advice comes after a major initiative by the Office Of Fair Trading who declared February as 'Scams Awareness Month'. The OFT have seen fit to take this action due the increase in this type of crime which targets each and every one of us. The focus is on educating the public on how to spot scams and what precautions to take.