Postal Scam

Francophile

I'm not sure if this is just affecting people in Northern Ireland. The information has been circulated round my DH's place of work so thought it might be helpful to make others aware.

It has been confirmed by Royal Mail and 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 0906 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 [URL="file://www.icstis.org.uk/"]www.icstis.org.uk[/URL] <http://www.icstis.org.uk/>

happyshopper

It's as well to be careful about things like this, but looks like this particular scam is an oldie.

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/pds.asp

hs

jarrod1

did you get that from the psni website ?

ballyblack

Its a hoax email with a little bit of truth doing the rounds

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/pds-phone-scam.html

Francophile

ballyblack wrote: »

Its a hoax email with a little bit of truth doing the rounds

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/pds-phone-scam.html

It was circulated round my DH's work. He works for Down Council. Thought it was genuine.

darwin-rover

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

This is an urban myth for a start . Maximum premium rate cost in the UK is £1.50 a minute .

A STATEMENT FROM PHONEPAYPLUS ABOUT THE CURRENT
‘POSTAL SCAM’ CHAIN EMAIL

PhonepayPlus, the phone-paid services regulator, is aware that a chain e-mail about an alleged
postal scam is being circulated on the internet. The email refers to the Royal Mail, Trading
Standards and ICSTIS (PhonepayPlus’ former name).
PhonepayPlus appreciates that recipients of the email may want to find out more information
about the alleged scam and has therefore issued the following statement:

• The chain email refers to a service that was shut down by us in December 2005.

• We subsequently fined the company that was operating the service, Studio Telecom
(based in Belize), £10,000.

• The service is NO LONGER running and has NOT been running since December 2005.

• The email refers to a £15 charge for simply being connected to a recorded message.
This is NOT TRUE – a £15 connection charge does NOT exist. The service in question
actually cost £1.50 per minute and lasted six minutes, making a total cost of £9 if callers
stayed on the line for the full six minutes.

• You do NOT need to contact us, or the Royal Mail, about this service as it was stopped
almost two years ago.

• If you receive a copy of the email warning you about the alleged scam, please do NOT

forward it to others. Instead, please forward this statement from PhonepayPlus.

• Please go to www.phonepayplus.org.uk/pdfs_news/ConsumerGuide.pdf for useful
information about how to recognise phone-paid services and understand what they cost,
and some simple tips to help you enjoy using services with confidence.

• For more detailed information about our work, please visit www.phonepayplus.org.uk.

19 October 2007

This is from the regulators website (they havent been called ICSTIS for a while)

ballyblack

And a year ago on this site;

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=297586

Bigcammy

Just what sort of stupid name is Phonepayplus? I realise that ICSTIS didn't exactly trip off the tongue, but Phonepayplus?