Beware of "Customer Service" premium rate ripoffs

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Scam Awareness website [website name removed to avoid breaching forum rules] is warning Internet users to be wary of websites designed to trick them into calling a premium rate telephone number to contact the customer service helplines of major high street banks, utitility providers and organisations such as HMRC.

Most Internet users turn to search engine giant Google as a free alternative to directory enquiries when they're looking for a contact number for their bank, 'phone provider or a Government helpline such as Tax Credits.

The editor of scam awareness website [website name removed to avoid breaching forum rules] is concerned that a spate of new websites appearing in Google's "sponsored listings" could lead to unwary or vulnerable surfers calling expensive premium rate numbers by mistake, believing that they will be connected to a helpline, when in fact they're paying £1.53 to get a telephone number they could have obtained for free.

"When you enter 'Tax Credits Helpline' into Google, the first results you see read something like this: 'Telephone Contact Number Tax Credit Support Team Helpline.' so you'd think that when you click on the link, you'd get the Tax Credits helpline number, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong. What you actually get is a premium rate telephone number costing £1.53 which doesn't connect you to the helpline, it just plays a recording giving you the actual helpline number." warns [the editor].

The operators of these websites are actually paying Google to ensure that they appear at the top of the listings for any search term which includes "customer service number" or "helpline".

Whilst they technically operate within the law by advising surfers that they will be charged for the call, these warnings are in much smaller print than the telephone number.

"At [website name removed to avoid breaching forum rules] we're particularly concerned that elderly people may be tricked into calling these premium rate lines because they simply can't see the small print.

You should never call a premium rate number (starting with 09) to contact a customer service department or Government helpline" advises [the editor]. "Most organisations have telephone numbers that start (0800), (0845) or even (0300) which will either be free to call or charged at a maximum of 10p per minute from a landline."