Missed Call Scam Showing Up In The UK

from the people-call-back? dept

Wed, Feb 18th 2004 9:17am — Mike Masnick

Apparently, over in the UK there's a new scam that involves tricking people into calling expensive per-minute "premium" numbers. It works by randomly dialing mobile phone numbers and having the system hang up after one ring. This way, the caller ID on the phone records the number. When people call back, they're told they've won a prize, but have to call another number to receive it. That second number is a premium rate number with high per-minute fees (though, the caller is never told that). While concerned people in the article make this out to be a big deal, I wonder how many people are actually fooled. Do people actually call back unknown caller ID numbers on their phone? I always assume if they didn't leave a message it's not important or a wrong number. Second, if you do call that number back and you get a message saying you'd won and that you need to call another phone number - how many people would actually believe it? It screams out "scam!" I guess there are a lot of gullible mobile phone users out there.

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Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2004 @ 9:38am

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If I don't recognize the number or even the area code - I won't call call back (if caller id is blocked I won't even anser) - However, I do call back some numbers if it may be from a customer.
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AMetamorphosis, 18 Feb 2004 @ 9:42am

Why answer unknown #'s ?

I have a rule that if I do not recognize the # I do not answer the phone as I don't want to pay for wrong #'s.
If the call truly IS important, the caller WILL leave a message.

With close to 150 #'s already programmed into my phone I recognize 99% of the calls based on the caller ID name & the associated ring tone I've attached to that specific #.

Ironically, I use Boy George's " Do You Really Want to Hurt Me " as the ring tone for my office :-)
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NFGman, 18 Feb 2004 @ 10:16am

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This is very old news in Japan, where the scam has been going on for years. What stinks is, in a moving shockingly par for the course in Japan, it took the phone companies ages to admit there was a problem, and ages more to stop charging the people who fell for it. I don't get these so often anymore, but I do get a couple of spam a week. They started 24 hours after vodaphone announced low profits for the quarter. Hmmm...

Now the problem is cloned phones - one man was charged thousands of dollars for using his phone for 24 hours a day, sending at one point over two thousand messages in an hour. Humanly impossible, sure, but the phone company still refused to reconsider the charges.
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