UK Mobile telephone scam

[Chris D]

I'm sure none of you are stupid enough to be tempted by this anyway but I thought I'd give you a heads up.

There's a scam going over the short messaging service alerting you that you've won a special £2000 prize. Knowing too well that it would amount to nothing, I decided to call the number anyway as it was just an 0871 number that's charged at 10p per minute.

You go through that and it eventually, after about six minutes, gives you a special code and a new telephone number to ring. I knew this was a premium rate number, but still I decided that as I'd just bought some credit, that I'd have a listen anyway to see what was going on.

I hung up after about 10 seconds...

I had lost £2 credit.

Calling that telephone number costs £12 per minute.

Just avoid it!!

 

[Gorgon]

Huh!!!

Thanks for the warning. Anyway I don't believe in Lotto or any prizes, I believe in cambling

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Ive had about twelve of these things in the last few months. They seem to be getting worse.

I also had one major major spam attack which is a bit suspicious, as i suspect someone who knew me caused it.

Basically, i started getting messages giving me "free passes" to pron sites. Naturally (or unnaturally as some might say) i deleted them and thought nothing of it. Anyway, about a week later, i noticed i was chewing through credit like i wasnt going to be around in the next hour let alone the next day. I realised that i was in fact being charged £1.50 to recieve one text. I was getting them at least twice a day. Anyway, i figured out how to stop them,,,well, i say figured, it actually had a number to ring up (which i didnt orignally phone because its an international rate) where you could cancel the messages.

 

[D33]

Er yeah.. There was something about this weeks ago and BT replied saying it's impossible because no rate can charge 12 quid a minute. I think the maximum is 1 quid a minute.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Er yeah.. There was something about this weeks ago and BT replied saying it's impossible because no rate can charge 12 quid a minute. I think the maximum is 1 quid a minute.

International rates are different i think. Not sure though...

 

[ComradeBadger]

Yeah, I've had the same kind of thing as Chris, cept I didn't phone

Anyway:
Farrow, that sounds EXACTLY like what me and a mate did to this really homophobicc mate of ours, we signed him up to gay text chat and it cost him £1.50 every message he recieved. He cuaght on after one message and cancelled it.. but it was bloody funny to see the look on his face when he saw the first message

 

[The Dark Elf]

So how do these spam things that you get charged to recieve work on pay as you go phones with no money on?

 

[ComradeBadger]

They just don't come...

And someone has to sign you up to them, which costs in itself

Ahhhh that was soooo funny

 

[The Dark Elf]

They just don't come...

And someone has to sign you up to them, which costs in itself

Ahhhh that was soooo funny

Explains why I don't remember getting any, too lazy to put money on phones, let people call me instead, if they can ever get hold of me cause I never charge them up either :E
-
and what was so funny?

 

[Chris D]

D33, I can honestly say before I dialled that number my credit was £7.71. After I dialled the number it was £5.71. The only other thing I can think of if what you're saying is true then it'd be some sort of connection fee and then £1 per minute but not charged by the second so even 10 seconds would still be a minute and charge you the full rate.

I think mobile enhancement people charge £1.50 per minute though don't they? You know the companies you call to order ringtones and logos.

 

[The Dark Elf]

D33, I can honestly say before I dialled that number my credit was £7.71. After I dialled the number it was £5.71. The only other thing I can think of if what you're saying is true then it'd be some sort of connection fee and then £1 per minute but not charged by the second so even 10 seconds would still be a minute and charge you the full rate.

I think mobile enhancement people charge £1.50 per minute though don't they? You know the companies you call to order ringtones and logos.

You said they gave a code to use aswell? clever wording of the "number" and the "code" gives you an international number. Simple way to get around the dialing another county code, with the new short mobile numbers that cropped up a while ago its even easier to pass it off

as an example, using a made up UK number 44 071 583971. Pretty obvious to most American's dialing that, that they'd be dialing outside the country

with a bit of fancy wording to distract the person on the phone, 440715 then enter your code 83971 could fool a lot of people

 

[SLH]

IMO anyone dumb enough to fall for anything like that deserves any losses they incure.

P.S. I guess they hope many people will behave like Chris D; be cynicle (sp?) but try it for a bit anyway.

 

[Dedalus]

Anyway:
Farrow, that sounds EXACTLY like what me and a mate did to this really homophobicc mate of ours, we signed him up to gay text chat and it cost him £1.50 every message he recieved. He cuaght on after one message and cancelled it.. but it was bloody funny to see the look on his face when he saw the first message

so mature, really. some mobile networks have spam filters. i know O2 do one where it censors out any 'naughty' material being sent to your phone, quite nifty.

i had about 20 texts in one day from this company, won't mention their name. i managed to get their address and stuff. i wrote them a letter, waited a couple of days then made a trip to their offices. the air was blue but i got my number removed from their list. and i'll tell you this, banks are the worst for giving out your personal details. seriously. if it's anything to do with money, then chances are your bank has sold your number.

 

[RandomPING]

In the states most phone plans get free incomming text messages to avoid this, cause i think a lot of people were doing what Mr Badger did... I know I did.

 

[CrazyHarij]

It's not very fun when a h4xx0r changes your dialup number to a service in Indonesia that charges like 100 bucks / minute. It hasn't happened to me but it happened to a guy I used to know.

 

[The Dark Elf]

IMO anyone dumb enough to fall for anything like that deserves any losses they incure.

P.S. I guess they hope many people will behave like Chris D; be cynicle (sp?) but try it for a bit anyway.

Thing is, more people would fall for this than we can imagine, which is why its seen so often, same with that Nigerian scam email/letters too, and pyramid schemes, a lot of people will still fall for them, very sad but true.