Ofcom has just sent out the below email saying they have published their first "under assessment" list of individuals and companies that Ofcom is assessing "to determine whether they have used telephone numbers in a way that has caused serious or repeated harm to consumers".  Ofcom says in its announcement that it will not allocate telephone numbers in the 0871 (or any 087 range other than 0870), 070 and 09 ranges to any company or body on its "under assessment" list.  It does not seem to explain what happens about bodies or individuals who get on this list who have already been allocated numbers in these ranges in the past.

Also Ofcom refers to the bodies to whom it is allocating the numbers, whereas many of the abuses on 0871 and 070 are actually perpetrated by the end users of the numbers rather than by the telecoms companies that Ofcom allocates them to.  So I am not sure how Ofcom proposes to crack down in this case?

Whilst it is good to hear that Ofcom is finally proposing to take some form of positive action against some forms of phone number misuse I am concerned that the failure to include any 084 range and the 0870 range in this new system effectively means that Ofcom has given the green light to any form of customer abuse that companies or individuals may feel like carrying out on those number ranges.  This is hard to understand when several non BT suppliers actually charge the same rate per minute to call 0870 numbers as 0871 numbers.

More information on this below:-

Quote:

Jack Barnard Telecom is the only one I recognise on the list and is a long standing and well established abuser who have been taken to task by Ofcom before (previously fined £200,000 for 070 scam related activities).

See www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t27622.html

I am amazed anyone is bold enough to call their operation Telconline.  But then they are based in the British Virgin Islands.

The rest of the companies in the list all seem to be UK based.

pw4 wrote on Jan 28^th, 2009 at 2:05pm:


Disgraceful.  Yet the PhoneScamsPlus 0871 proposals and Ofcom 070 proposals still maintain there is no need to set a specific limit on long call queues or to penalise companies who exceed a certain call queue length.

No wonder they call themselves Stealthnet.

bbb_uk wrote on Jan 28^th, 2009 at 8:55pm:


Its good to know you are still with us bbb_uk as I was beginning to think that all forum moderation was only in the hands of the one man Dave show in the last few months.

So far as proof is concerned I presume something pretty compelling must already have come the way of Ofcom because you can be pretty sure any of these operators might try to go to court to get themselves removed from this list if the case against them was not overwhelming.  And we all know how Ofcom likes to avoid any court or Tribunal case that it thinks it is possibly in danger of losing.

If this is true, it's a complete disgrace. Phone queueing is annoying, and I'd often rather have an engaged tone, but even so I'd thought there was at least a valid reason for having queueing - if the line is busy, it means the caller can wait until the operator is available. However, I can see absolutely no reason for a pre-set delay between when the caller dials and connection if there is a line free.

I also note StealthNET describe 0871 as "charged at the BT National Rate". Utter rubbish.

Now we know where the "Stealth" comes into it: earning money through dishonest practices.

I don't know why they didn't just call themselves Scamnet.