Re: Phone call scam- calls you at £20 per min!!

JohalaReewi

Yes it is an urban myth.

The call is not an urban myth I and many others have had this call. What is not known is how much you get charged if you press 9.

System

Fine, all these are not telling the truth then:


http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/home/text/ts-index/ts-faq-scamwatch/ts-news-phonescam.htm
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/press9.html
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/jailcall.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/01/icstis_scam_hoax/
http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hoaxes/hoax5.asp?HName=%2390%2F09+Cell+Phone+Warning+Hoax
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/btscam.html
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/nine-zero-hash-hoax.html
http://www.north-ayrshire.gov.uk/na/Trading.nsf/0/3C34AF2C6FC662E680256EE70039D15C?OpenDocument&MenuType=Business-Trading%20standards&DocDisplay=NoDoc&DFBC=Fair%20trading&CatLevel=2%7C%7C

Shall I carry on?

JohalaReewi

I cannot vouch for other websites but I can vouch for myself and I have had the phone call. This one was for a holiday in Disneyland Florida. I did not press 9 and so I can't say how much it would have cost if I had. Maybe it was a joke call and pressing 9 would have had no effect? I don't know and I wasn't going to find out.

If you look at the websites you quote, they refer back to ICSTIS who say that the '£20 a minute' quoted in the email is false because the maximum is £1.50 a minute. This is true. However, they do not deny that the actual phone calls exist.

It is also true that 0800 REVERSE operate a reverse charge service in which the person being called can accept the reverse charge (ie pay for the call) by pressing 9. So the mechanism exists and it is possible to be billed for a call by pressing 9.

Obviously, the safest thing to do if you get a phone call asking you to press 9 (or anything else for that matter) is to hang up without pressing anything.

angela-la

I can also confirm that these calls exists, I've received several of these exactly the same type of call including the Disneyland one. I've no idea how much the calls would cost as I'm not daft enough to press the numbers requested, but I am concerned that my children might and have had to warn them about these calls. They always have an american accent.

System

The calls exist, the charges don't.

These are sales calls dialled by machine. The point of them asking you to press a button (i.e. 9) is so that they know that someone is listening to the call rather than their recorded message just being played to an answering machine. If you press 9, then you are just being connected to one of their sales people.

The myth about pressing 9 incurring huge call charges came from the US and involved badly programmed corporate switchboards.

It is perpetuated by chain emails, often put out by large organisations (such as Wiltshire police) who don't check their facts and are then embarrassed when they have to send out a retraction.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/12/08/dial_9_scam_snares_wilts/

Freebie_Hunter_2

I said that the original post was an urban
myth!!!!!!!!!

I know that there are phone scams going on but not £20 per minute phone call cons.

I wasn't addressing the other incidents, simply the mail that the poster had pasted. >:( >:( >:( >:(

Freebie_Hunter_2

..... and Obeywans post if you all bothered to read the WHOLE thread!

frossti

I have received a call the two previous Sundays saying I have won a prize in a Christmas draw etc. etc.

So, yes these calls do exist. As to how much it would cost you to 'claim' your prize still remains a mystery as nobody has pressed 9.

I would like to know if anybody has inavertently pressed 9, and what their subsequent phone bill was!!!

shlitz

you guys do not seem to be listining to reason and are being blinded by fear.

yes the calls exist, no you will not be charged if you presds 9 you will be connected to a sales person

these are done by auto dialing systems and when you press nine it then connects to a live person who gets paid to try to sell you something. but autodiallers are used because they do not demand a minimum wage and a half hour lunch.

ReductionQueen

I get calls like this all the time, at least once a week. Nothing p***es me off more than answering the phone to a recorded message, so I always hang up. Maybe I'm just really synical, but I don't think that anybody will just ring you up and GIVE you an all expences paid holiday.
For this reason alone, I would put the phone down. It wouldn't suprise me that pressing '9' would incur a huge call rate, even if it wasn't £20 a min, in the stlye of those junk texts you get - whose replies cost £2-10. But that's a whole new thread.....