Scam number racked up £200 on phone bill

Karenjen

So I turned on tv to find all my services have been suspended as I’ve gone over credit cap.  On checking I see a 09040121682 number x3 calls amounting to £200.  When I dial the number it does not exist ie a dead tone. Worked out my son googled for a DVLA number and this must have been it. I know it’s a scam is there anyway of being refunded by virgin (my suppliers)?

cymruchris

I'm not an expert on this - but for clarification - you have 3 calls on your itemised bill as outgoing calls that total £200? How could someone dial out on your line other than any of you living at home?

matelodave

The 0900 prefix is used for premium rate numbers that charge per minute and the 0901 prefix is used for premium rate numbers that charge by call. For adult content the prefix is 0930 for per minute tariffs and 0931 for event based tariff.

You should NEVER ever dial an 09*** number and even be very wary about some 08*** numbers

As cymruchris says, phones dont generally dial themselves, so someone has dialled the number - why would Vigin refund you when it was you or someone in your household who dialled it not once, not even three but a fourth time just to see what it was.

Neil_Jones

Karenjen said:

So I turned on tv to find all my services have been suspended as I’ve gone over credit cap.  On checking I see a 09040121682 number x3 calls amounting to £200.  When I dial the number it does not exist ie a dead tone. Worked out my son googled for a DVLA number and this must have been it. I know it’s a scam is there anyway of being refunded by virgin (my suppliers)?

Why do people insist on dialling the first number they see in Google for anything without even going to, in this case gov.uk/dvla?  The problem wouldn't have arisen then.

Not a new thing, gov.uk only been there since 2013.

But anyway, somebody's phoned the number.  From your line.  They don't phone themselves.  This came up previously a few years ago:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4493403/beware-dvla-0904-phone-number

Neil49

I can't believe you went and dialled the number yourself after seeing that you were charged £200 for the three previous calls! 

EssexExile

that's a lot of minutes at £2.50 a minute!

Browntoa

Probably one of the "we connect you to the DVLA " scams , you are still using their premium number during the whole call

frankfish

You could potentially complain to the PSA Phone -paid Services Authority, they also have a number checker that should provide details of the company using the 0904 number

Calls to 090 numbers are made of an Access Charge - around 15ppm and a Service Charge - the £2.50 per min, there is a new Payment Services Directive that should cap the cost of the Service Charge at a maximum of £40 per call

matelodave

This thread has probably run it's course and the OP seems to have scuttled off with their tail between their legs as they didn't get a lot of sympathy.  The number quoted racks up a service charge of £3.60 a minute plus connection charges which equates to around 55 minutes - a long time on three or four calls to nowhere.

If you are in any doubt about call costs, have a shufti here https://psauthority.org.uk/ and use the service checker