>:(

I had a message on my home answering machine today (I'm XD and subscribe to the telephone preference service) from a company who called themselves either BPS, BPF, DPS or DPF (the line was muffled).

"Hi, I'm Steve from DPS. Could someone give me call on 0871 2045616"

When you call that number a recorded message asks you to call 0709 4697360 to speak to a 'real' operator for your 'live' message. Realising it was almost certainly a scam I thought I might do a small investigation.

So you call that number, are kept waiting for a while - not so long as to make you think it's to rack up a big charge, and then a female says you have been selected from their database to receive free flights to Turkey. So I mention that I am on the TPS and that they really should not be calling me. I haven't given them any number and have with-held the number of the mobile I'm calling from. She then says it's not covered by TPS because they aren't selling anything. So I ask what the angle is and she says that I get free flights to Turkey if I just answer some questions for a survey. At this point I cleared the call.

As far as I know this 0709 number is 47p per minute from a landline so the likelihood is that this is a money-making scam intending to keep you talking at 47p/min for as long as possible.  What can be done to stop it - it is irritating (calls everyday for a week) and dishonest.

Question 1 :- Would you like a free holiday? You would? Then here you go.
Question 2 :- Would you like tickets to  take all your household? You would? Here you go.


This is the clinching question that probably doesn't get asked too often.
Question 3 :- Do you have anything valuable in the house? You do? Oh GOOD!

Think about it.

I think that's a bit too overt!  :o

Why ring the 0871 number back in first place,if you didnt recognise it?

Oh yea, a good scam because they receive money back on both numbers.

Unless you report this to Ofcom, then pretty much they continue to get away with it and end up scamming more and more people.

Err.....


Quote:

Realising it was almost certainly a scam I thought I might do a small investigation.

The point of this thread is to try to establish who, why, and whether it can be reported as a scam.

bbb_uk wrote on Oct 4^th, 2006 at 5:45pm:

Oh yea, a good scam because they receive money back on both numbers. Unless you report this to Ofcom, then pretty much they continue to get away with it and end up scamming more and more people.

Precisely!  8-)

I think people aren't reading Motco properly - He knows it is a scam and and has always known it is a scam. He is looking for guidance as what to do to nail the ******s

motco wrote on Oct 4^th, 2006 at 4:33pm:

As far as I know this 0709 number is 47p per minute from a landline so the likelihood is that this is a money-making scam intending to keep you talking at 47p/min for as long as possible.  What can be done to stop it - it is irritating (calls everyday for a week) and dishonest.

This is a further example of the use of scam 070 "Personal Numbers" as a way to run fake prize line scams as an alternative to 09 prize scams because 09 numbers are properly regulated by ICSTIS and revenue payments are now delayed for 30 days from the time of the call so that scammers don't get their money if there are lots of complaints to www.icstis.org.uk and the line gets closed down.  Unfortunately 070 scams don't appear to be under ICSTIS control.

First port of call should be the ICSTIS Contact Centre as follows to see if they think this could be a matter for them:-

ICSTIS Ltd
www.icstis.org.uk
Tel: 0800 500212
Fax: 020 7940 7456
Clove Building
4 Maguire Street
London
SE1 2NQ

Assuming ICSTIS claims this is not their problem then you should contact Ofcom and ask them to register a formal complaint (don't just let them listen to you ensure it is lodged as a formal complaint) and ask what they are doing about 070 numbers since they are being used for premium rate calls illegally but are not controlled by ICSTIS.  You might also want to email Ofcom Director of Investigations - david.stewart@ofcom.org.uk with your concerns.

Ofcom's contact details are:- Tel: 020 7981 3000

If Ofcom refuse to investigate this matter properly I suggest you arrange an a appointment with your Member of Parliament or write to him using www.writetothem.com saying you want him to lodge a formal complaint with the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Adminsitration that Ofcom have failed to protect you as a UK Citizen Consumer under the terms of their duties under Section 3(i) of the Communications Act 2003 and have not properly investigated the matter complained about.

Tell your MP that as scams on 070 are not regulated by ICSTIS and they are controlled by no one and suggest this is Ofcom's fault.

This is another case of useless Ofcom having knowingly allowed a major route for scamming to grow and prosper and having done almost nothing about it.  You have to go to your MP to get the Ombudsman involved and although there is a contact number for the Ombudsman he will insist that you go to your MP first.  More importantly the contact number for the Ombudsman is according to Ofcom an 0845 number! ::) >:(

Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Tel: 0845 015 4033 (enquiry line)

:) Well, that IS a comprehensive reply!  8-)

The calls are still coming sporadically and I'm getting more irritated as the days go by. I shall look at the route you suggest and see what can be done. Thanks  ;)

I have had 2 cold calls from this company.  Once was a few weeks ago whilst on holiday, and a message was left on my 1571.  I received a call just now, and thought I'd start a topic on here, but discovered that someone else beat me to it!!

I didn't call them back but found that their telecoms provider is Telstra.  I googled them, and found their UK website, and under contact us, I called 0800 856 6000.

I asked who the operating company is, and was told it was confidential.  I also pointed out that not telling me how much the call costs is illegal, and threatened to involve the regulators.  The guy didn't seem worried (so obviously knows how ineffective they are!!)  I asked if the company had the authority to terminate the contract, and I was told they don't.  I then said, "OK then, can I obtain an 0871 number, and phone every household in the country, and receive revenue from my calls from you, in the knowledge that I cannot be shut down?"

He then said he doesn't know the process of ordering, and that the abuse team doesn't work at weekends, and I would have to direct my complaint at them.  Therefore I'll give them another chance to resolve my complaint.

Perhaps if Telstra get a few more calls from disgruntled customers over the weekend on lines reserved for emergency weekend fault reporting, they might take a bit of notice.

Also, remember to bear in mind, if you are calling, it's the supplier of the number, not the company actually making the calls that you're calling, however they surely must have the authority to close the line down if enough complaints are made.

I just looked up the provider for the 070 number, and it's pipemedia.

Their page leads to a company called thus.  They don't mention 070 numbers in their advertising, but they do seem like the next port of call for complaints.

Last year, I had an unauthorised reverse charge text from ZIM.  Although ZIM only provide the number, they did have the authority to tell me the company concerned, and I billed ZIM for the text, and calling their 0870 number to report it, plus my time.

I intend to do the same for Telstra.

Someone on another forum told me that it was Pipemedia who were the source of the 070 number - how do you look up these things? Telstra is a Australian telephone company is not? Does that make them immune from action?

motco wrote on Oct 7^th, 2006 at 12:21pm:

Someone on another forum told me that it was Pipemedia who were the source of the 070 number - how do you look up these things? ...

A useful site for looking this up is Magenta Systems CodeLook. The information comes from Ofcom's site, so it may be out of date.

Ofcom's page where you can download spreadsheets of these numbers is here. Note that the spreadsheets omit the leading zero. 07 Personal numbers are here.

One thing to note is that a number can be ported to another provider, just like a mobile phone number can be. For example, you will see that 07790 is allocated to Orange. That means that 07790 000000 through to 07790 999999 are for use by Orange. If someone decides that they want to port their 07790 number to another network, then they can do so.