scam alert on mobiles

[Brian Gaff]

I think this is a carefully crafted one to make people not complain but still make money. You obtain a bank of innocent looking number that are pricey, but not actually extortionate, say beginning with 085, and then you program your bot to call loads of mobiles, let it ring twice then move on. The sucker me then sees some missed calls and rings them. They get a long enough message saying basically thank you for confirming to us you are the subscriber, we will be in touch when we are in the office. it does not say who they are or give any chance to key a number. When you bill turns up you see each brief call was charged at 1.18 each time. Now that presumably means that whoever the numbers were purchased from and the company running the scam are getting a fair amount of dosh without employing anyone and You just using botted devices and add to that they get a ready made mug list so they can either sell it on or start ringing them with a different number next time so if they blocked it they will get another call. I did ask Vodafone if they knew who had these numbers but they either would not, or could not tell me and their advice was just to block them and not ring back, but unfortunately there are a couple of organisations who use 085 numbers legitimately. So they got almost 6 quid out of me between Christmas and April while I was still learning my new phone. However not any more. Also I believe that it is also sharp practice to not price all text messages the same. I did a straw poll and 7 out of 10 people had no idea, for example that the bbc text number of 81333 is charged by Vodafone at 12p a time even if you get free texts. They say they can upgrade to make them free along with a lot of others, but it will cost an extra 2 quid a month.

Reading the convoluted terms of business on their contract it seems ambiguous to me and basically allows them to do as they like from what I can tell.

I'm just wondering what happened to plain English and being fair to consumers. Most companies seem to see the public as a a cash cow. Just look at the way tv and audio is going subscription wise. Brian

[Max Demian]

Why would you ring back an unknown missed call?

[Steve Walker]

Many people do, as they want to find out who called.

SteveW

[Bill]

In message [e-mail]>, Max Demian <max [e-mail] writes

You might if you expected a call from, say, a hospital or a family member you knew was not at home.

[Tim+]

I work on the principal that if someone wants to call me, they?ll try again if it?s important. If they don?t try again it can?t have been that important.

Tim

[Steve Walker]

Unfortunately they usually try again when you are in the bathroom, driving or doing something else - today it was as I was placing the superglued grommet strip into a hole that I'd just cut in a metal plate

- literally as I touched the first end of the strip to the metal.

SteveW

[Max Demian]

So they leave a message on your voicemail (though I've had spam voicemails).

[Steve Walker]

You may want to play voicemail ping pong, but I deal with a lot of calls for business purposes and it can sometimes take days getting hold of people. The last thing I want is more messages that when I return them are engaged, or they are out of the office and then they try and phone me when I can't take the call.

SteveW

[alan_m]

And you think that if you ring back the hospital they will know who called and whats its about?

[The Natural Philosopher]

To see who it was.

[Brian Gaff]

because my people like me do not have an encyclopaedic knowledge of what phone number is which and when you are still setting up your contacts, you probably do not have them in your list yet. People change phones and there are always new people, ie like me, blind and trying to get to grips with their first smart phone etc. Plenty of rich pickings. You would be surprised how many sightees do not know how to blacklist a number and often worry it was something important, this is human nature. Just because you have a brain the size of a planet does not mean everyone will have. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

You are making you into everyone though, a common mistake scammers do not make. What is interesting about this thread is people are not discussing the moral aspects they are instead just covering the person being scammed and in some cases making fun of the victim or explaining how the social engineering of the scam works, which we all know. If more people in the world had better morals and had a moral code to allow them fto make these scammers into the social parasites they really are it might stop them faster. Brian

[Bill]

Yes, if it's not the main hospital (or local GP practice) number which I, by now, recognise.

[Jethro_uk]

Someone should invent a way to encapsulate a communication such that it can be sent at the senders convenience and digested at the receivers convenience.

I bet there's a fortune for whoever cracks it.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite. But in these social meja days, 'friends' are important.

[Max Demian]

Something involving a goose feather, stick of wax and a ring....

[Jethro_uk]

I was thinking something like an old fashioned letter, but done electronically. It must be possible somehow.

[whisky-dave]

could be a friend who's phone had packined in and they needed to get in touch with you. I've had calls where a friend has borrowed someone elses phone.

[whisky-dave]

I've had quite a few calls from this number 0800 183 6403 8 between 23rd & 30th april.

[dennis]

So, do they think you are a virgin?