Help please....have I been the victim of a scam?

Heinz

troll35 wrote: »

Now for the last two days I have received 2 reverse charge calls at about the same time each day. The automated part asks if I will accept a call from....unintelligible name with pub type background noise.....and to press various buttons to accept.

The pub noise in the background suggests it might be some drunken idiot using 0800Reverse.

You can permanently opt out of that - see HERE.

Nix

We too have had this delightful phone call, twice!

Have now emailed to bar our number but I'd love to know who initiated it so as to have the chance of expressing myself... :mad:

olive84

Hi, this happened to us last week, except that I wasn't in so had a bizarre answering machine message that had the pub background noise, and then a lot of requests for me to accept the call, and then it eventually gave up when no buttons were pressed. I think this must be a scam as I had the same pub background noise, which is a bit of a coincidence, and I don't know anyone that would call me on reverse charges, especially not for a joke at the pub. Glad I wasn't in because I would definately have accepted on the off chance someone in the family needed to get in touch. Probably some automatic dialler using the reverse charges system to make money.

olive84

ok i just called 0800REVERSE and they found out who called me, saw that it was a mobile who'd called loads of other numbers at random, just changing the last few digits every time. The guy on the phone said that they do get people just making a pest of themselves. He's barred them from using the service, and barred people calling my number. He was a really nice guy, so I would recommend calling if this happens to you. The number is 0845 077 9000 (084 I know but its a quick call).

londondulwich

A genuine reverse call will always have the identity of the caller named. The operator will ask if you will accept a reverse call from so and so. The operator then connects you. You are not asked to press any buttons.

If you recieve the call from a machine and/or the person trying to contact you is anonymous, do not follow any instructions

BritBrat

He's barred them from using the service, and barred people calling my number. He was a really nice guy, so I would recommend calling if this happens to you. The number is 0845 077 9000 (084 I know but its a quick call).

What we need is his mobile number and pester him every hour of the day with 5 rings and hang up.

Bet if enough did it from here he would be so annoyed.

Just had a though, wonder if I could make a macro to do it every 2 mins!

pcdgroup

hi chaps,
has a phone call the other day and the wife answered it. She had no idea who it could of been and thought it might of been one of the family. Anyway, she said yes to accept the call and no one was there, just odd sounding noises. Dont mind the heavy breathers coz you can have a laugh with them! :rotfl:

Anyway, i googled for the phone number that called (0800 reverse) and figured it must of cost a bob or two after reading this very thread. So, what did i do, well, i sent an email to 0800 reverse customer support:

Email as follows:

---

Original Message

---

From: tim [mailto:tim@deleted]
Sent: 09 January 2008 16:10
To: customerservice@0800reverse.co.uk
Subject: possible phone call scam


hello,
i was rang at my home number today at 15:55 and was asked if i wanted to
accept a reverse
charge call. Can you please confirm how much this unknown caller has cost
and can you
confirm if you are intending to charge me for receiving this call.

would appreciate your co-operation and a copy of this email will be going to
ofcom for action
if i do not receive a reply.

regards,
Tim

---

The reply i got was :

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your enquiry.

There is a call connection charge of £3.48 inclusive of the first 30 seconds
for calls from a fixed line and payphone, with each subsequent 30 second
increment is charged at 50p. For calls from a mobile there is a call
connection charge of £3.99 inclusive of the first 30 seconds, with each
subsequent 30 second increment is charged at 60p.

When you receive and incoming 0800 Reverse charge call you are played an
audio file in which we have asked the caller to say their name. If this
audio file does not contain the name of someone you recognise or is
inaudible we recommend that you refuse the call when prompted to say 'yes'.
This action will stop you incurring unwanted call charges and also help our
security systems weed out nuisance callers.

I accept, from the information that you have provided, that the reverse
charge call in question was an unwanted call. I have arranged for a credit
for the total cost of the reverse charge call received on your telephone
number, to be credited to your telephone account.

I hope this action is of reassurance to you and apologise for any
inconvenience caused.

If you have any further queries regarding the 0800 Reverse service please
contact our Customer Service Team either via email or on 0845 077 9000.

Regards,

Customer Service


(some legal text removed for brevity)

so,
my number is now not accessible from this service and i got the original call charge credited back to my BT account !

That wasn't so hard now was it !

Thought i would share my positive experience with you on here.

regards,
tim

ormus

ive just had a scam phone call from the 0845 6853000 service from a tart called samantha.

bout time bt/regulator stopped all this !!!!!! stuff.

angelbreeze

my mother had the same thing happen to her,thought it was some family member in trouble,(possibly my kids),so took the call.it was just some idiot that was messing,she got in touch with bt and got the credit etc which was good of them.
but my niggle is,isn't this a great service,if used properly,this is ideal if kids or even adults are stuck somewhere,with no credit on mobiles,and are desperately in need of help.
why o why do bt need to charge extortionate prices.don't they make enough money out of us !!!

mccar1l

I work for a telecoms company (not BT) and we've had customers complain about this. It is possible to call 0800Reverse and opt out. Just dial 0845 077 9000. Option 3 let's you opt out for 1 month and Option 4 lets you opt out for 4 years.