Royal Mail Hoax Scam (involving PDS)

sham63

Received this email at work - sounds genuine so thought I'd post it here;


Can you circulate this around especially as Christmas is fast approaching. It has been confirmed by Royal Mail.

The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:-

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0306 6611911 (a premium rate number).

DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize .

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 02072396655 or ICSTIS (the premium rate service regulator) at:-

https://www.icstis.org.uk

or your local trading standards office. This is a genuine scam and is under investigation by ICSTIS.

Fifer

Not as detailed it isn't. It's impossible to be charged £15 immediately for a call made in the UK. Maximum charge is £1.50 per minute.

WestonDave

If you go to the icstis website they have a notice on this saying there was a problem some time ago but its been stopped - this email is just perpetuating an old story and clogging up the email systems.

everythingblogcast

People who scam us should be jailed or death senectance that would teach other ones not to try anything.

Heinz

http://www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs_news/email.pdf

bingo_bango

WestonDave wrote:

If you go to the icstis website they have a notice on this saying there was a problem some time ago but its been stopped - this email is just perpetuating an old story and clogging up the email systems.

I'm a consumer advisor for Trading Standards one part of the UK. We have received a number of calls from local consumers in the past couple of weeks, all getting the same card. We have issued several press releases about this (and the Vitamail scam).
The £15 charge is correct, and seems to be a re-direct to an international call.
£1.50 is the maximum for a call to a number starting 090 in the UK.

Astaroth

While calls are often diverted to an international destination you are still billed the UK rate as it is the number that you have called. I certainly havent heard of this having changed since I left working for BT.

Oddly the number given above 1) doesnt have a valid dialing code - BT do not recognise the 030 prefix 2) is unobtainable when I rung it (obviously very confident that the £15 for simply ringing it is rubbish)

Is it possibly supposed to be 00 at the begining? in which case it is a simple international call and nothing silly about calls being diverted etc.

bingo_bango

Quite possibly that's the case. I haven't actually got one myself...just relying on what punters tell us when they ring. But, as we have had to issue press releases, the £15 has been confirmed.
Can't have government departments issuing incorrect info all the time

Heinz

The 03066611911 number quoted by the OP does not exist (check it yourself HERE) but, changing the second digit to a '9' and checking it on the ICTIS site brings up:

This is what we know about the number you entered (09066611911).

We have the following information about this number.

• This is a card posted through your letter box from PDS Parcel Delivery suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and to call the premium rate number in question. This service costs £1.50 per minute from BT landlines (Higher rates may apply if the call is made through a different phone network).
• This service is under investigation by ICSTIS.

We also have contact details for the company that provides this service. If you have any queries about it, please get in touch with them to find out more.

Studio Telecom
[EMAIL="studiotelecom@gmail.com"]studiotelecom@gmail.com[/EMAIL]
1 Mapp Street
Belize
Belize City
Central America

However, as ICTIS confirmed when a similar scam was operating last year, it is not possible to get charged £15 as soon as the call is connected if dialling any UK number from a UK landline.

http://www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs_news/email.pdf

Even if calling a £1.50/minute premium rate number, a caller would have to be fool enough to hang on the line for 10 minutes to get charged that much.

Last year, nobody ever produced evidence of such a connection charge (no surprise there) but there was always someone who knew someone whose uncle's friend's daughter's boyfriend's mother did have a BT bill to prove it!

bingo bango, please supply a link to your Press Releases.

Astaroth

The below has the list of all prices:

http://www.downloads.bt.com/b4b/pdf/SpecialisedNos.pdf

0906 66 is a P0 pricing tarrif which is a flat rate 149.99p per minute at all times.

Heinz

bingo_bango wrote:

But, as we have had to issue press releases, the £15 has been confirmed.

Pleased add a link to those Press releases.