Mobile Phone Scam.

[trevtheturner]

For those UK members who may be unaware, there is yet another scam operationg on mobile phones. A missed call message comes up.

The number is: 0709 020 3840

the last numbers may vary, but certainly the first four will remain the same. If you call this number back you will be charged £50 per minute.

People have obviously complained about their phone bills, once they have realised the cost of the call, but apparently this is completely legal.

So, beware, do not call back numbers beginning with '0709'

Cheers,

Trev.

 

[tibbs]

I think this is an 'Urban Legend' - I don't believe there are any mobile or landline rates that are anything like £50 per minute. Snopes would seem to indicate that the rate is just a hoax that has been around for the last year or more.

Maybe its a good hoax, though, rather than a bad one - the underlying message is still valid - don't call back numbers you don't recognize - there are plenty of mobile & fax-based scams trying to get the unsuspecting to call premium numbers at £1.50 per minute - a few thousand of those a day and the scammers are making real money :shock:

Richard

 

[Losos]

Trev - Where I am at the moment I'm lucky to get a signal at all. My view when these phone "extras" (as I call them) became available was to ignore them. I never ever returned a call to a missed number and take the view that if people are not willing to leave a message then they are definately not worth talking to. Likewise with the "Call waiting" message, I think it's the height of rudeness to break off a conversation to talk to someone else, I think it's for the other party you're currently talking with to agree to hang up (& not to be keept on hold while you switch to someone else who you are admitting is more important). If anyone did that to me I always always cleared down immediately & switched off my phone

 

[trevtheturner]

Thanks, tibbs, for your info.

The scam info. came to me from what I thought was a reliable source, so I passed it on for what it's worth.

That said, I am exactly with you, Losos, in that I would never return a missed call. Also, I have chosen not to have a 'call waiting' option on my home phone. Having been on the end of a telephone for much of my working life, when I retired, and not needing a phone for business reasons, just personal calls, I decided I would not be a slave to it. I do have a 'pay-as-you-go' mobile phone which leaves the house probably only a couple of times a year, on the odd occasion when I have a real need to take it! Otherwise, it has to happily sit indoors awaiting its next sojourn, whenever that might be. Of course, I have to try to remember in advance to find it and stick a charge in it, failing which it stays indoors anyway. And the only reason I have it is because it was given to me by an offspring - one of her cast-offs. You know what these youngsters are like - getting wrapped up into and having to have all the latest gizmos, including the latest all-singing, all-dancing mobile! :twisted:

When I am in town, I'm surrounded by them! A fair proportion of people at any one time shouting into their 'mobiles' - "I'm in the supermarket", "I'm on my way to the post office/hairdresser/bus stop", etc., etc.... :twisted: :twisted: All of 'em convinced by the manufacturers that they cannot exist without having a mobile! :lol: :lol: The power of advertising, eh! I managed perfectly well before the advent of the damned things, and continue to do so.

Sorry - rant over. And, of course, I do realise the value of them to those who need them, perhaps for business purposes or the woman travelling alone.

Cheers,

Trev.

 

[RogerS]

Trev/Losos..I'm with you on this. My pet mobile phone hate are those rude and inconsiderate idiots who insist on carrying on a conversation while wrestling for change/ordering their coffee/paying for their coffee. It's rude and incosiderate both towards the person trying to serve them and the others waiting in the queue.

Oh yes....another one...you're having a face to face conversation with someone and when their mobile rings they stop in mid-sentence, cut you off dead and then answer the phone.

The odd times that I have been waiting for a key call to come in, I've alerted the person I'm with to the fact that the reason why I've left the phone on is because....like waiting for Transco to call me

 

[Gill]

Perhaps people who carry mobile phones (without need) are more insecure as individuals than they'd like to acknowledge. For them, the phone is a link to other people who can constantly reassure them that they're still loved and needed. Those mobile phone companies spend a fortune on advertising aimed at the members of our society whose identities are in the greatest turmoil due to adolescence.

I'm not sure I'd even want a landline if it wasn't essential for the internet. Telephoning is a quick and efficient method of communication, sure, but written letters show that someone has taken more time and trouble over their communication with you. Writing also shows that someone thinks you're worth waiting for.

I don't have a mobile and I wouldn't know how to use one if I had to.

Gill

 

[Jaco]

The worst are the idiots in the plane! Where thay are supposed to be switched off while the engines are running.
On a number of occasions the wheels have not even touched the ground when you start to hear the "Beep - Beeps"!!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: