Telephone Scam - BEWARE

TaBunny

whether the pricing figures are correct or not, i would like to thank the op for sharing this with us as at least it reminds us to be aware of phone scams, whether as expensive as this or not.

;D  ;D  ;D

Well said m00nie

rushnowt

I fully understand your point and i agree that the statement does appear to quash these rumours, but these calls are still going on i have recived them and so have many of my friends it would appear then that the calls are taking place but the cost of the charges have been somewhat inflated, and really the cost of these if we were to dial 9 would be more around the £1.50 mark, would you agree, or are you saying that the whole thing is completely wrong

derrick

It is ICSTIS who are saying that the whole thing is wrong!
You also state in your OP, that your friends email is unconfirmed.
If you have a phone bill to substantiate your call charges then forward it to ICSTIS, who I am certain will be very interested,as they say on their site


£20.00 per minute and £50.00 per minute premium rate tariffs do not exist - the highest premium rate tariff available is £1.50 per minute. Despite the dozens of enquiries received by ICSTIS about these 'scams' (and most people appear to have heard about them second or third-hand), not one person who claims that it has actually happened to them has been able to produce a phone bill to support their story.

loopyloo_4

I have just been informed by my mother that there are letters being posted from "Gala Bingo" to customers saying they can ring a telephone number to win £1M.
Calls cost £50.

These letters are NOT from Gala clubs. BEWARE

rushnowt

i have read the ICSTIS statement it is not neccessary to repeat it for me, yes my original post did say it was unconfirmed (by me), i was pointing out that it was not my intention to mislead and to say that i had had this information confirmed,

however it does state that: BT
> has been contacted and confirmed the details as being true.

I have also contacted BT myself and had it confirmed as being true, i cant say whether it is or not, if you cant beleive what BT say then how can ICSTIS be any difference.

The whole and only point of my OP was to warm people of the possibilities, what people do about it is up to them, its not for me to say dont do this, and dont do that, but i really dont see the point of you and me going backwards and forwards over whos right whos wrong. surely people can just read the post and make of it what they want, im doing no harm by posting something that may just save someone being ripped off, if its not true then no harm done, its not costing anything.

derrick

I am not going to go any further with this,save to say if you have the phone bill to prove your point,post it or send it to ICSTIS

bunking_off

I work for a telecom company (or at least I should be if I wasn't on a coffee break).

I've seen this type of scam hoax do the rounds every few months for at least the last 5 years. Don't send your bill to me if I somehow get proved wrong, but there's no way that I'm aware of that an inbound call can lead to you being connected to another number and billed at any rate, let alone £50....so the warning is a hoax.

As ever with these things, there is an element of truth...that's how the people who make these things up make them believable.

Fixed lines:
If you've got Callminder or voicemail on your land line, some of the enhanced versions of this do allow you to return a call to whoever's left you a message. If the CLI (calling line identity) from the caller was an 070 or 090 number, this could cost you a bit, but:

- it is not legal to use 090 as a CLI, and I haven't yet come across any telecom provider that allows this to happen.
- as has already been commented, 090 is a maximum of £1.50ppm, but NB this is from the BT network, and other network operators may charge differenly.
- 070 peaks out at approx 40ppm from BT (as far as I know, I haven't got an up to date price list)

Mobile lines:
Similar comments to fixed, other than there is the scam (as mentioned in the OP) that you dial back a number that's displayed on your handset as a missed call. Scamsters do this by calling you then immediately hanging up. Mobile rates to 070 do tend to be higher than fixed, but I don't believe they would ever go to £10+...it would cost the Mobile providers more in dealing with bad debt than they'd ever collect.

NB 070 as a whole is "bandit country" - not just 0709 as reported by someone earlier - there's everything from free calls to 40ppm in that range.

I accept the OP acted in good faith, but unfortunately scam hoaxes like this do detract from the real ones that can occur.

Hope this helps

allthatmularky

The OP may have the best of intentions - but this is a variation of the old chain letter. From the ICTIS website

ICSTIS urges any individual or organisation that receives an e-mail about these 'scams' to delete it immediately. Please do NOT forward it to others.

The most that can be charged for a premium rate line is £1.50 pm - that's fact.

Please be aware of SCAMS but this is NOT one of them - its an urban myth.

bunking_off

allthatmularky, you're right, but can I please clarify what you say...the most you can be charged is £1.50/minute FROM A BT LANDLINE.

If you've chosen to use another provider, or calling from your mobile, then the provider can - and often does - charge what they want to : that's why the standard ICSTIS disclaimer has provision along the lines of "prices from other networks may vary".

However, there's a world of difference between charging 10% more than BT in this area, and charging £50/minute...I'm not aware of any operator that does that.

Steve_xx

BT charge a maximum of 151p per minute for calls to numbers starting 09. Some numbers starting 09 are not charged by the minute; instead they are charged as a one-off amount per connection.

Orange charge upto 170p per minute for calls to numbers starting 09.

Other networks may charge differently.