25/02/2013: 070
Telephone Number Warning
Consumers
are warned about phoning numbers beginning 070 after a complaint received by
Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service.
Phone
numbers starting 070 can easily be mistaken for mobile phone numbers, which
also start 07. However, in reality phone numbers that start 070 are charged at
a premium rate.
One
Warwickshire job seeker reported receiving an unexpected email inviting him to
a job interview following his ‘application’. The individual who received the
email had sent out many job applications so phoned the number back but was
transferred to an answering machine that kept him on hold. The number he phoned
was a 070 premium rate number. The consumer now believes that he was tricked in
to phoning the number so that number provider could generate profits.
070
numbers are sometimes called virtual or ‘follow me’ numbers set up to divert
calls from one number to another so that the person
being called can keep their own number private, and remain contactable wherever
they go.
The
complaints about the 070 premium rate numbers relate largely to consumers
receiving missed calls to both landlines and mobiles from 070 prefixed numbers.
These calls are terminated after one ring which prompts the consumers to call
back the premium rate 070 number, believing it to be a genuine missed call.
Other
inducements to phone the number back include work opportunities and
advertisements.
Calls
to 070 numbers may cost up to 50p per minute from a BT landline and more from a
mobile. The price will not necessarily be explained during the call itself.
If
consumers believe they have been misled or tricked in to phoning an 070 number
so that the provider of the 070 number service can generate money, they can
report the number to the premium rate line watchdog PhonepayPlus on 0800 500 212.
The
070 number complained about by the consumer in this case has been reported to
PhonepayPlus.
Please feel free to cascade this information to whomever you feel
appropriate (including using the information in your
newsletters/websites etc.).
If you have any information you wish to provide to
Warwickshire Trading Standards Service, either for our information, or
to appear in future email alerts, please email me.
For more information on scams, visit: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/scams
Follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/warkstss
Simon Cripwell
Trading Standards Officer
Warwickshire Trading Standards Service
Communities
Warwickshire County Council
Old Budbrooke Road Warwick CV35 7DP
Tel: 01926 414039
Mob: 07771 975570
Follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/warkstss
My normal working days are Monday to Thursday
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