Premium Rate Numbers are still lucrative for Scammers.
Premium Number Scams are designed to trick you into making calls to premium rate numbers.
Watch out for the common premium number scam techniques:
- Your phone shows a missed call from a number you don’t recognise. When you call it back you may find yourself connected to a premium rate service costing up to £15 per call.
- You may get a pre-recorded message asking you to ring a number to claim a prize. This second number may be a premium rate one and worse still, your prize may be nothing more than a ringtone subscription.
- If you’ve bought a mobile phone recently, you may receive a call from a scammer to sell you phone insurance, pretending that they are calling from your mobile phone network or the retailer you bought the phone from. You may pay for worthless insurance and pass on your personal details.
- Ring tone scams offer free or low cost ring tones. However, you may then find that you have subscribed to a service that will keep sending you ring tones and charging a premium rate for them.
If you’ve been victim to a premium rate number scam:
- Tell your mobile phone provider.
- Notify PhonepayPlus (www.phonepayplus.org.uk), who regulate premium numbers and can stop mobile phone frauds.
- Text the word STOP to the subscription number, the sender is legally obliged to stop sending text messages immediately. If they don’t, contact PhonepayPlus (www.phonepayplus.org.uk), who will investigate.
You can find out more about scams by going to: