118820 scam - beware!

Seamus1963 wrote: »

Well thankfully I had seen the 118 820 Scam warning on here and as the number I was given was 118820 it registered so I did make the call to it. (

I assume that should read "...so I did not make the call..."

Seamus1963 wrote: »

I today tried dialing a company Pay Weekly Electricals

Regardless of telephone calling scam, you do realise that firms like this one charge an enormous amount of interest on their wares? Your weekly payments may seem manageable, but you'll pay far more than the items worth over a very long period.

If you are struggling financially, try Freecycle etc before committing to such expensive purchases.

Dav18 wrote: »

I received my sky talk bill which included 3 ngn numbers with no charge and one premium number with a 6.13 charge for a 6 second call nobody made? I contacted sky who tracked the number to a company in cyprus? They say as it was an outbound call we have to pay the charge! We did not call an 09 number! I believe this to be a fraudulent incoming call were you are charged for answering bare in mind nobody was in the house at the time other than the answering machine! Sky are insisting its an outbound call but nobody was home! Can they make me pay this its crazy the numbers are ngns 03456021021 and 03007906802 and 03003653100 these are zero charge the one charged is 09011722103 sky have refused any further investigation and said pay it or else basically how many others are facing these fraudulent charges and who is getting very rich by stealing from sky customers how can sky allow this to happen?

You cannot be charged for incoming calls. That is not how the phone system works.

You can be "reverse billed" for an incoming call, but only if you agree in advance to the charges, and only for calls originating from landline or mobile numbers.

The PSA Number Checker says that 0901 172 2103 is a "call connection service" but it does not say who it connects to. It confirms the charge is "£6 per call plus your phone provider's Access Charge". The Access Charge is around 11p or 12p per minute on Sky landlines.

The "call connection service" scam sees the victim calling a premium rate number which earns money for the scammer who originally set up the fake phone number. The premium rate number will have been promoted on a scam website or via social media and offered in place of the inclusive or free number that is available on the official website of whoever it was that you were attempting to contact.

My inclination is that the number was dialled when trying to contact some organisation such as a government department or a well-known business. These are the most popular services to be targetted by scammers.

It is a PSA requirement that a recorded announcement is played at the start of such calls, explaining both the charges and the nature of the "call connection service" being offered. It is likely that anyone hearing these details would quickly realise they had made a mistake in calling the number and immediately end the call. In this particular case it would already be too late as the £6 charge would already have been incurred.

It may be useful to make a complaint to PSA about this disputed charge.

The three calls to 03 numbers appear to be to The Post Office, DVLA and Habinteg Direct. Retrace your steps on Google to see if you can find a search results page that brings up the 0901 number. Is it a company or organisation that you deal with?