118118 Call completion scam

Craig_Lee

I've just been reading about the call completion scam on 118118 whereby they will connect you to any mobile number regardless of the fact that you have placed a call bar on such services with your provider. I too have a large telephone bill as a result of this, which i am absolutely refusing to pay. My provider is Virgin who refuse to budge on the matter.
In my view Virgin offered a service which they charged me for and then failed to provide. I will see them in court if necessary.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone else that has suffered the same fate.
This is just another rip off that i for one am not standing for!!

Any advice anyone??

Heinz

Welcome to the MSE forums Craig Lee.

It sounds to me that someone in your household (it's normally a teenager) found a way round the bar on calls to mobiles by going through 118118 and saying "Yes" when asked whether they'd like to be connected.

Effectively though, accepting the offer is accepting a connection via another provider - so the fact that you had a calls bar with VM is irrelevant.

I'd suggest you purchase a Phone Guard for every active socket in your house and program it/them to allow only calls for which you're prepared to pay.

Craig_Lee

Thanks Heinz for the reply.

An analogy .... Virgin Media sell alcohol. They give me a bottle of whisky (as i like a tipple to unwind when i finish work) and at the end of every month, i pay for the amount i have drunk in that preceding month. This arrangement is fine until my daughter develops a taste for the whisky and in fact becomes an outright alcoholic. Bear in mind that i refuse to give up my evening tipple but need to keep the whisky away from my alcoholic daughter.

Virgin Media kindly offer to sell me a safe, the combination of which is known, only to me. I will keep my bottle of whisky inside. This ensures that no-one but me will drink the whisky unless i expressly allow it.
Right thats it sorted, my whisky is safe and sound and i know exactly how much i'm going to spend on it each month.

This works fine for a long while but then, a very annoying bloke with a moustache bearing the number 118118 on his shirt, breaks into my house and cuts a sneaky panel out of the back of my safe which, unbeknown to me, allows my daughter free access to my whisky, thus feeding her habit.

So Heinz, to tie it all up .... the annoying David Bedford lookalike is the guilty party but Virgin Media are also culpable due to the fact that the safe was flimsy enough to cut a hole in the back of.

Me, i've had enough of them all and will have my home line disconnected permanently and will NOT replace it with another service.

I want to make and receive telephone calls on MY terms and i do not ask for any of the increasing number of attempted assaults on my finances via my telephone line. This also includes 0800REVERSE and various other scumbags calling me and telling me i have won £50 million, free double glazing or a set of 1970's antique varnished hedgehogs.

If i can find a service provider that will protect me from ALL of these leeches, i will give them my custom. Bear in mind that i have already tried to protect myself but have been failed. (Virgin Media have said they can ban calls to 118 numbers, so why didn't they do it before the big bill was racked up?)

GreyPilgrim

Thats a very convoluted analogy. Do you know who actually made the calls?

Heinz

Craig_Lee wrote: »

(Virgin Media have said they can ban calls to 118 numbers, so why didn't they do it before the big bill was racked up?)

Did you ask them to?

In any case, how was VM to know you hadn't made those calls yourself or authorised someone else to do so? They won't have known to what numbers you were being connected. As far as they were aware, they were calls to 118118.

Craig_Lee

Ok. A very quick precursor to all of this.
Three years ago i had the exact same problem. My teenage daughter, who is a phone junkie as are many others, called various different mobile numbers. In the process she racked up a monster phone bill which obviously i wasn't pleased about, but having no protection against this in place, was obliged to pay. (My responsibility!)

It was at this point i called NTL (now VM) and asked them to provide me with the appropriate protection. This was provided in the form of the usual 4 digit code typed in before calling mobile or premium rate numbers. For this they charged me £1.35 per month. Cheap at half the price!

This worked fine until the 118118 backdoor appeared. VM are my service provider and VM send me the bill. Don't spout on about 3rd parties because they are just pirates that are after my money at any cost.
VM failed to provide me with the service that i was paying them for (Their responsibility!)

normanmark

118 118 isnt a premium number so thats why it isnt barred. VM arent at fault here as that number isnt classed as premium, what they charge for connecting to mobiles is down to 118 118. So as far as they know you're just ringing for directory enquires!

Craig_Lee

Yes agreed. 118118 are responsible for connecting the call, but in doing so they are voiding the requested protection from VM. I have done everything possible to safeguard my phone line. I spoke to a guy in VM customer services today and he told me that when i first ordered the number block, that 118118 was in its infancy and didn't yet provide the call completion service. My response to that was 'How can i be responsible, every time that someone moves the goalposts and allows circumvention of your security measures?'
The answer is i cannot and will not be responsible for that. It is the job of my primary provider.

I can tell you the outcome now. I will pull the plug on my landline and will not replace it with another provider. This is due to the fact that whatever number restrictions i try to impose either inbound or outbound, they are circumvented at some stage.

It's a blessing in disguise actually as most of the calls i wish to take are made to my mobile phone anyway. The vast majority of calls on the landline are from imbecilic morons trying to sell me something i don't want or con me into agreeing to some harebrained scheme. All this while i'm trying to eat my dinner!!!

Stay tuned for the next chapter: The moral issue.

normanmark

Its not VM responsibility to liaise with other companies. They've put the bar on premium rate calls as requested.

The fact 118 118 do mobile connections is not the fault of Virgin as technically 118 118 is not a premium number. Virgin's call barring service hasnt failed.

Responsibility lies with your daughter & your daughter only. You should be questioning why she's using that to call mobiles & she should foot the bill for the calls that she's made.

Craig_Lee

http://www.118tracker.com/library-article-247.shtml

Note the 'Goodwill gesture'

Heinz

Craig_Lee wrote: »

I will pull the plug on my landline and will not replace it with another provider. This is due to the fact that whatever number restrictions i try to impose either inbound or outbound, they are circumvented at some stage.

Phone Guards are very difficult to overcome if you don't leave the keys lying around or divulge your PIN.