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The Guardian: Don't call this number - 17th June
2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1240478,00.html
Don't call this number
As we grow warier of consumer rip-offs, the low-lifes who devise them
become cannier. Most sensible people bin those announcements that they
have won several hundred grand on a lottery they've never heard of, but
it's harder to ignore an official-looking postcard advising that a
parcel is awaiting them. Lorna Brown of Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire
arrived home one day to find such a card on her doormat informing her
that Parcel Plus had tried to deliver a DVD pack and that to arrange a
second attempt she should call a given number. A large magnifying glass
was needed to decipher the print at the bottom, which said that calls
would cost �1.50 a minute. There was no option to fill out the card and
post it back. She therefore called the number and had to sit through a
10-minute explanation of how to obtain a dispatch number. That call set
her back �15. Surprisingly, she did eventually receive a parcel - a
single DVD, which, not having a DVD player, she had never ordered.
Icstis, the premium rate regulator, has had 30 complaints about
Parcel Plus and last week took action under its emergency procedures to
stop it trading. The culprit is a Bray-based service provider called
Prime Media Services that Ictsis is currently investigating. If it is
found to be in breach of rules it will be fined, but the trouble is
these penalties do little to stop such companies re-forming and
reoffending. The big culprits are a handful of unscrupulous network
operators, governed by Ofcom, which lease out lines to premium-rate
firms and pocket a good chunk of the proceeds. The fines don't touch
them, but now Adrian Harris, who runs a consumer complaints website,
Grumbletext, is hoping that victims of these scams will club together
and sue one or all of them to put a stop to their profiteering. To find
out more, visit www.grumbletext.co.uk.
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