By Dan Ilett, 5 January 2006 12:50
NEWS
Scammers have duped two million Brits into calling premium-rate phone lines at rates of £1.50 per minute.
And more than 15 million adults have received automated phone calls from scammers in recent years inviting them to claim a prize by calling a dodgy number, according to consumer watchdog magazine Which?.
The survey found more than half (28 million people) of the British adult population have at some point been singled out by con-artists trying to steal money though a variety of scams. Five million of those people are said to have responded to the scams but 23 million ignored the prompts.
Although the phone scams were found to be the most widespread, eight per cent of the 1,050 people surveyed said they had been targeted by 'Nigerian 419' email scams.
Malcolm Coles, editor of Which?, said in a statement: "The con-artists who run these scams are experts in fooling people into parting with their money.
"Unfortunately, it's rare to get something for nothing - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Joe Buckley
Of course we in the UK are hit by these
UK Legislation seems to exist purely to help the scammers.
These scams only work becuase the phone companies collect the money.
A year or so I was hit by the 'premium rate incoming text' scam. It is apparent that here is absolutely nothing you can do to minimise risk. The phone companies will not block these or assist in any way. Its as if the bank left your money in the street and the police arrestyou when you try and stop people taking it.
The watchdog ICSTIS has minimal power or resources. Its up to you to persuade the crooks to give the money back.
Obviously this doesn't work too well.
In my case I got an agreement to return the money, but never actually saw it.
2. anonymous
Why do we allow it?
I was recently informed that I'd 'won' a Med cruise.
I'd won the cruise alright, but not the food, drink, insurance or flights to get there.
Net result? My 'prize' was going to cost me £500 per person - plus £1.50/min to receive it!
This obvious lying has got to be stopped. And soon.
And the other comments were right. BT makes a decent percentage out of these calls, passing on the rest to the scammers.
'Handling stolen goods' the Police call it if it's your jeweller someone 'fences'.
'Business process' BT calls it when it's your hard-earned sheckles being passed around.
Talk about double-standards... ;-(
3. John small
Exactly - same thing happened to us. A foolish employee responded to be taken of a fax list - which cost £500 as the line constantly redialled. Despite knowing it was a fraud BT claimed tht the money goes straight to the recipient and thratened to cut US off if we didn't pay - ISCIS made the usual noises saying they knew all about them - so why didn't BT know. But they kept raking the momey in!
4. Mike
I agree, the phone companies should refuse to hand over the money to the crooks. If the phone companies won't cooperate, then we need legislation to make them. Charging BT's CEO with being an "accessory after the fact" and putting him in jail should make him sit up and take notice! - Any MPs out there with a high placing for private member's bills?
5. David
I think that these scammers should be stopped and prosecuted, and all it takes is for BT and other phone companies to take responsiblity for protecting their customers. If they don't protect customers from these scams, too many of them are easily duped into responding and cannot help themselves, so BT should help.
I think that premium rate numbers should be severely restricted and licensed and regulated in some way. But, BT make so much money from them, I doubt if BT even care what is going on and they just want to rake in more money. Also there is the con of local rate and national rate numbers, using codes 084- and 087-, which are charged at costs considerably higher than normal costs to 01- and 02- numbers. My calls to 01- and 02- numbers cost 0p per minute (with a 3p connection fee on weekdays) whereas 084- costs 4p per minute and 087- costs 8p per minute. We should go back to all numbers being geographical numbers beginning 01- and 02- as well as freephone numbers like 0800 and 0808, for landlines, and get rid of higher rate codes for good.
6. anonymous
i want my money back !!
someone banked my money, it can be traced, i want it back.
also, i blame my service provider, they should have protected me from this and they should not have paid for the service.
I want my monay back - class action, let's sue!
7. Frank Ferguson
There is a legitimate and valuable use for 0845 and 087 numbers as well as 080 freephone. Of course, they have remained at prices which were BT's standard local and national rates of some years ago, and have not come down in line with lower prices generally. 087's particularly are now being abused as there is a rebate to the holder. As far as premium rate 090 numbers is concerned, these are closely regulated by ICSTIS and John Small should demand an investigation, as is sounds very much that the terms of use have been breached. In such cases the number can be closed down.