Premium phone rate scam warning

[applepie]

I had an email (as below) that just made me want to check out the name before calling (don't know what is was that made me do that but must have a got my 'dodgy' radar instinct alerted for some reason!).

Hi

I have tried calling to book an appointment but got no answer can you please call me.

Thanks

Darren Partington
07031952615

Well, googled the name and got this: 0703 telephone number scams « mrs blog

Turns out to be a scam where they email businesses to get you to call them back on high rate premium phones numbers!

Hope the warning helps someone else.

 

[femmefan]

Thanks for the 'heads up'. The article makes for interesting reading.

 

[totalbeauty]

I am so glad that this has been brought up and helps all of us geeks out there, not to let our guards down.

 

[hippy-chick]

thanks for the warning, its always good to have this knowledge.

what happens if you email the people? Or are they relying on the fact that you ring them?

 

[smooth]

If we've been in the office and we get e-mails saying they've tried to ring all day we know they haven't (after we check our lines) so we e-mail them back saying we are in the office now until such and such a time if they want to call?

The business we get this on is not a salon so instead of us calling them to be tied up for about 20 minutes asking for information that they can get on the website. If it's their phone bill they don't want to stay on the line if they can find it on the website. We do this after years of replying to e-mails with information that is readily available. So now we put a link to the page that the information can be found and e-mail it back to them (people are so lazy now). We then follow up and ask them if there is any further information they require.

 

[tigi]

very interesting reading. thank you for the heads up !!

tigi