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Thread: Telephone Scam (UK & possibly EU)

  1. #1
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Telephone Scam (UK & possibly EU)

    You get a call from a well spoken guy from "the information team" who asks you to call a number to "collect an important message"

    Numbers in the range of 0871-20894xx

    This will cost you £0.10 per minute and you will doubtless be kept waiting until you hang up.

    From my research it seems that the people you talk to are just recordings

  2. #2
    Senior Member alakhiyar's Avatar
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    They used to be more common, but there are still some, that trick you into calling a number from a weird country, then you get charged in the triple digits per minute, I don't know if they found a way to stop or something because i don't really see them any more.

  3. #3
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    The question is, why would they go to the trouble of contacting you, to tell you they have a message for you, so you need to call them? LOL
    Hi.

  4. #4
    T3h 1337 N00b kryptonic's Avatar
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    they can get away with it because some people are just morons and beleive stuff like that

  5. #5
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    It's similar to "Forward this e-mail to 20 of your friends within the next 30 minutes and you will have good luck eternally." Some folks are so gullible.

  6. #6
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Well, in the UK, there are the premium numbers that cost maybe £1.50 per minute and there are "business numbers" that cost £0.10 as opposed to maybe £0.03 for a prime time call. This can be much more expensive if you use a mobile (cell) phone

    The premium numbers are regulated but the business ones are not (until 2008).

    The premium numbers are the ones typically used by "diallers", but they are not very common now, as the regulation stops the scammers getting any money.

    I know that the "business number" scam has been used in Germany as well as the UK.

    Another method is to use an "official looking" postcard or letter saying that there is a parcel waiting to be collected, and asking you to ring a premium number to arrange collection............

  7. #7
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
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    I'd have thought diallers were generally not so successful now that more people have broadband or cable.
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  8. #8
    Senior Member JPnyc's Avatar
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    True, but I think many people do what I do, which is have a phone modem as well, for when the cable does down. I need my connection for work so there absolutely can't be any time that I can't access the web.

  9. #9
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    You are right there Joe, most machines still have a 56.6 dial up modem, particularly laptops.

    However, a dialler would generally not work because you don't have it connected whilst your broadband is working. At least, that is the typical UK setup.

    The reason I mentioned these two scams is that we are approaching Christmas and the New Year, so it is the time when people might expect unsolicited messages and parcels.

  10. #10
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
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    Yes, in the UK at any rate, more and more people are using broadband or cable connections so these diallers aren't the problem they used to be. I once worked in a BT call centre and we used to get lots of calls from people querying their phone bills as they had huge amounts of very short, premium rate calls recorded, which were shown as "failed modem calls", ie they had diallers on their system. They were never very happy to learn they were actually going to have to pay the bill!

    You don't hear about it happening so much nowadays though.
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