Watch Out - theres a (Mobile) Scam About!

[Chris_Stannard]

Today I got a text on my mobile telling me that I had been awarded a £1500 bonus and this was the second attempt to contact me. The number I was requested to call was a full rate (£1 a minute) 0980 number.

How do I know it was a scam. I have not entered anything to be awarded a £1500 bonus, The caller did not identify his organisation, just asked me to call, and incidentally I did not miss the previous message, there never was one.

The real give away is that the transmission time is one hour ahead of UK indicating that the text orginates on the continent.

Take my advice and if you get a similar call delete it.

<hr width=100% size=1>Chris Stannard

 

[JOHNOO]

If you check the number it was sent from, you will find it was yours!!!

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[charles_reed]

I've had 2 of them - in my case it was £900.

Just ignored them, as I'd not entered anything justifying a "prize".

I wonder what they hope to get?

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[Trevor_swfyc]

Re: Watch Out !

Thanks Chris, I have had a very lucky week having won two prizes and a holiday. This generosity was relayed to me on the home phone.
I wonder what % of calls catch a mug?
Thanks again.
Trevor


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[mike_k]

There's another one where someone calls but then hangs up after 2 rings. It goes on your missed calls - then if you call back you get put on a holding system at about 10p minute.
Happened to me, although I never called them back. I only realised it was a scam when it was mentioned in our local neighbourhood watch leaflet. Something like 087171xxxxx.
But then any unsolicited 08xxx or 09xxx number is suspicious in my book.

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[PGD]

Seen this a lot, what you can do is register your mobile and home number on TPS - Telephone Preference Service List, this should help cut down the number of crank calls you get, similar applies to email, fax and mail now.

They make the money by getting you to call the premium rate call BT make a bit and they get the rest and at a typical call time of 5 mins, that's quite a few quid per person

One other scam we get hit with at work is the support for the Emergency services, diaries, callenders etc, all calls come from Liverpool and thank you for your support last year - I've been in contact with most parts of each of the Emegancy services and they confirm they are not doing this type of promotion. They all operate locally in regaions and the compnay concerned says they represent the whole country - don't let your compnay get caught out.
If you PM me I'll give you the company name.

Peter

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mssa.org.uk>http://www.mssa.org.uk</A> Marine Service Standards Assistance

 

[Guest]

there was an item on "Working Lunch" BBC 2 TV today about this. Some firm has been hauled over the coals by offtel. looks like another one!

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[bernard_foster]

Common sense tells you that... you get nothing for nothing in this world, treat anything like that as a scam

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[milltech]

Mine was a £900 offer too. I pondered my good fortune for about 30 seconds and deleted it.

<hr width=100% size=1>John
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.allgadgets.co.uk>http://www.allgadgets.co.uk</A>

 

[robp]

Bad news - but IMHO not that far removed from the Scratch Cards that IPC put in their mags including our hosts' here. I want to see them banned!

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[qsiv]

We suffered interminably - they are also prone to telling you that your proofs are OK, and they invoice is in the post. We dont even enter a conversation now we just put the phone down whilst they are in their warm up mode.

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[Guest]

Re: Pah!

That's not lucky. I'm lucky - some guy in Nigeria wants me to help him get some money out of the country, and I stand to make over $3,000,000!

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[cynthia]

Re: Pah!

Mr. Nigeria has e-mailed me too! Perhaps he is a friend (not).

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[Sybarite]

Re: Pah!

I got my first Nigerian letter about 20 years ago.

John

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[Sybarite]

One should sue BT for the prize money. After all they are benefitting from the scam - aiding and abetting.

John

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[charles_reed]

As BT don't own a cellular network you'll almost certainly be barking up the wrong tree.

Hope your PII is up to date, or are you advising on something about which you know nothing? ;-)

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