Horrified just now to find various 09xxx numbers used by the Passport office for customer enquiries ... £1.50 a minute (must be over 18 and have phone owner's permission to use!!!).

Please can SayNoto08xxx premium lines diversify to 09xxx ones? I assume Passport Office is not alone.

Meanwhile has anyone a geographical number for Passport enquiries, please?!

The main Passport Office enquiries line (same as 0870 5210410) can be reached via the menu on the Home Office's main number: 020 70354848

Brilliant - many thanks indeed, Dave!

Is Passport Office alone in this - well, not to put too fine a point on it - wicked treatment?!

Cheers, all - Eric

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) do not use an 09xxx numbers. You have probably found a scam site (that publishes the 09xxx numbers to scam people!) The official site is http://www.ips.gov.uk/passport/index.asp.

Wow - that is interesting! That scamers bother to publish premium numbers to catch innocents like me.

Earlier this evening, of teh four passport-related click-advertising sites below this thread, two were asking peo9ple to ring 09xxx numbers at £1.50 per minute. Now, only one of teh four is.

How do such sites inveigle themselves onto such honourable web pages as ours, I wonder!

Cheers - Eric

As has been asked (and answered many times) the adverts on this site are provided by Google and we cannot control the key words it picks up (and the ads it returns). Unfortunately that means that for topics such as these, those scam sites can appear on the relevant advert bits.

Thanks, jg (if I may)!

I guess this topic can close now? Is there, however, any valid uses of 09xxx numbers that this site should consider providing a geographical service for? (We offer the service explicitly only for various 08xxx numbers.)

I assume moderators maintain lists of possibly worthwhiel suggestions?

Thanks again, everyone - Eric

JG is fine if you prefer :). Most 09 numbers are set up specifically to derive a profit, and this is well known so we would not provide an alternative (or even search for one) in that case.

However, many of the embassies in the UK use 090 numbers, which I do not believe is a legitimate use of such numbers. I don't know if we've had any luck trying to find those alternatives, but if they were requested, we could try and find them.

Hi, JG (tyanks for alowing that!) and others...

It does not seem to me legitimate to ake a profit from genuine enquirers / desperate people, even in teh case of computer help lines (which some may say is fair as geeks are fair game?).

But adding 09xxx numbers to Saynoto's list is a policy change and probably a lot of extra work, and it is not for me to ask for that. How about a box on the home page with a couple of sentences about 09xxx numbers that summarise this topic?

Best - Eric

When I said legitimate 09 services, I meant things like competition lines or cheap calls abroad. We do provide alternatives in the database for some 09 services (for example, dial up "technical support" lines) although it would appear that the use of these numbers is in decline.

Thanks!

Further to this discussion, here's a relevant quote from the passport website's news section:

Unofficial passport websites fined by regulator

Wednesday 30th January 2008

Various private websites have appeared offering ‘passport advice’ to the public. The problem for the public is that these websites have been asking customers to call an 0871 number – which then transfers to an 0906 number – at a premium rate of £1.50 per minute....

All the best - Eric