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The different types of scams - an overview
As we all really know,
there is very rarely something for nothing in this world, and just
keeping that in mind will help you avoid most premium rate scams.
If 1) you
haven't asked to receive it and/or don't recognise where it comes
from, and 2) it's offering you
something nice, then you should almost
certainly not respond to it.
A quick, simple
definition of a premium rate scam is that:
- it comes to you
unsolicited, i.e. out of the blue, whether via text or over the phone, or even TV or email, it will promise you something
which in an ideal world most people would like - i.e. free money, or
a new relationship
- whether you know it at the time or not,
it'll try to get you to part with some money, for in fact little or
nothing in return. Typically it will do this by trying to get you to call a premium rate landline or to text a premium rate texting service
This definition is too simple. There are many
variations, some may be merely unsolicited (which is now
illegal, but who's going to sue?) and possibly offer you something
in return, although in our experience they are few and far between.
The easiest way to work
out if a promotion you received is a premium rate scam is to type part of
it into the 'Search' box on any Grumbletext page and see if other
people have reported it; even if they haven't, does yours look
similar to many others?
However, increasingly with most promotions, the
senders are using subtle and even more
misleading first stage promotions to lead you into the
real deal - calling a premium rate phone line at typically �1.50
per minute for nothing in return.
If you are still unsure, then look below at 5 real life examples and see where they will lead you -
you'll get the picture pretty quickly. The following are all scams
which have been reported, sometimes in great volume, on Grumbletext - but remember, they are just examples, these things change all the time - just because one says 'you have a secret admirer' and not what is precisely written in Examples 4 or 5 below, doesn't mean it's not the same scam, becuase it is.
Example 1:
"Urgent! Please call
09063446323 from Landline. Your Atours complimentary 4* Tenerife
Holiday or �5000 cash await collection SAE T&Cs BOX 47 PO17 2EZ
150ppm 18+"
This type is an old classic - OK, it's not
urgent, 090 numbers are premium rate, no you don't recognize Atours
(no it's not Airtours), we've never heard of anyone getting real
cash, and the holidays, if they ever materialise, are in the form of
discount vouchers with stringent terms or timeshares - in other
words you'll have to spend plenty of money to get them, so they
ain't 'complimentary'.
If you were to call the
number, they would keep you on the phone for 10 minutes
or more answering questions about your personal tastes and in the
end ask you to send a stamped address envelope, probably to a PO box
outside the UK, so they can send you your 'prize', the vouchers -
and they'd probably never show up anyway.. not quite what it
appeared at first glance.
By the way, along much the same lines is anything
which claims you HAVE won a prize,
say �2000 - in 4 words, you haven't I'm afraid...
Example 2:
We'll move quickly onto the sort of stuff going
round at the moment which is harder to recognize:
"You have 1 new ARP
voicemail. Please call 08717124657 to listen to it."
HUGELY misleading - and
there are variations; sometimes it's ARP, sometimes BPQ or ANG; none
of these names mean anything. The 'voicemail' is no such thing; if
you call the number, which is NOT premium rate, it's only 10p per
minute, you will either get a person or a machine who will tell you
that you have won a prize, much like in Example 1, and you will be
told to call an 090 premium rate number to claim it and your
experiences will be the same as in Example 1.
This is an important development in text scams - the
use of a "1st stage" promotion which is NOT a premium rate
response number; it lulls you into a false sense of
security. You need to watch out for many other variations we are
seeing right now - really bad stuff -
for example, asking you to call "customer
services" on a freephone
0800 number(!!!).
Example 3:
This is the big one at the moment. It is typically a voicemail left on your answerphone (left by a machine I might add even though the caller speakers in a conversational 'real person' way). An example has been kindly left by a poster on Grumbletext - this was what they wrote
"Had 2 messages left on my home ansaphone about this now - the first from "Jeanette Newington" asking me to call their Prizeline on 09061222244 because I'd been allocated either £2500 cash, an Audi TT or a digital camcorder. 2nd call came tonight from a bloke claiming to be the manager of Prizeline Telecom who said they were "urgently trying to contact me as I'd won either £2000 cash, an Audi TT or an all-inclusive holiday in the Bahamas" He suggested I ring their emergency claim line on 09066611266 or write to him at Prizeline Telecoms, PO Box 26065, Kilmarnock, KA3 5YG. Both messages claimed the calls were £1.50 per min and would last no longer than 5 mins.
SO glad I checked the name out on the net and found this site! Thanks to all who've put warnings up before!"
A straight con - and there will be many variations on it; the bottom line is they want you to call the premium rate number. What you will get, if anything, are some holiday discount vouchers so restrictive in their terms that you won't be ble to use them - plus you'll probably have to pay an 'admin fee'.
These voicemail messages are on the rise and particularly insidious - a lot of people fall for them - to hear what a couple of them sound like, listen here and here. To help stop them, what you need to do is write down the whole message and post it up on Grumbletext.
Example 4:
'You are being contacted by
our dating service by someone you know! To find out who it is, call
from a land line 09050001147 PoBox45W2TG150P
Examples 1 and 2 and 3 offer you money or similar.
Example 3 is about love and relationships. Well - the pure, simple,
fact is you aren't being contacted by anyone you know - these guys
are simply trying to draw you into their dating 'service'. Either
way, if they marketed to you out of the blue, that's straight
illegal today - on reflection you probably wouldn't want these
people finding you a date.. if you do call, you will end up spending
plenty on the 090 premium rate number...
Some of these promotions ask you to text back
rather than call a number. In those instances, you will get
information about supposed potential dates by means of them sending
you text messages - and it will cost you �1.50 for every text
message you receive! We've never heard of anyone who got hooked up
as a result of contacting services like this..
Example 5:
Typically received via text message:
'Someone you know has asked our introduction agency to contact you. To find out who text MATCH to 87141'
Again about love and relationships. What this will lead to is you getting loads of £1.50 texts of dubious origin supposedly flirting with you - don't expect anything more..
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What you achieve by reporting a premium rate scams here on Grumbletext and to ICSTIS, the regulator |
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