0870 money spinner?

[Bahco]

Has anybody else noticed the increasing number of companys using the 0870 prefix as opposed to the less profitable 0845 number.

Dialing 0870 can cost up to 20p a minute whereas the 0845 is around 5p a min.
Should there not be a warning next to these numbers advising of the likely cost per minute of call?

 

[pipme]

Say NO to 870 !!!
Link to Alternate numbers

 

[felix]

0870 numbers are not the worst of it. That title must go to that other horror, the premium rate number. It's bad enough when your ISP help desk charges 50p a minute and that TV companies rake in millions from pathetic instant quizzes - and if you really want to listen to somebody faking an orgasm that's your business. These are more or less above board but what about the scams?

How many people have been cheated by those fake competitions. You all know the ones. "You have won one of these prizes. Ring this number now." It gets worse. A rogue program invades your PC and your modem runs up a big fat phone bill. I heard of one scam which faked one of those infernal automated menus. You answer the phone and listen to a recorded message. At some point the voice says "To learn more about it press zero now." I don't know how they did it but pressing zero connected you to their scam line.

It occurs to me that there is a central player in all these scams. They are the ones who take your money and hand most of it over to criminals without batting an eyelid. Who are they? BT of course. They have the power to put this scum out of business. Strange that they can't be bothered!

One of the reasons premium rate numbers work is that people find ingenious ways of not paying. They phone from work (at some other mugs desk) or go to a friend's house. (Some friend!) Whichever way you look at this it's fraud. Richard and Judy (and Chris Tarrant too) please take note. You may think it's OK to have people ring your shows at premium rates because you're honest about it. Have you considered that you are encouraging this fraud?

I nearly forgot. Thanks pipme for that really useful link. It's gone on my favourites list!

 

[Igorian]

If you have a PC with a broadband connection, you can get yourself an 0870 or 0845 number free and use it with VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). I find it useful because I can have an extra phone line at home to use for business without going to the expense of having anything installed. The other advantage (of VOIP not the numbers) is that I can call other VOIP users free (and it's becoming more and more popular) and make normal calls, especially International, at very favourable rates. Have a look at this as an example. With this particular site (and there are loads of others), you can also have free voicemail. You can buy Internet phones, but to get started, you only need a broadband PC with speakers & a mike.

 

[ninebob]

Igorian, your link requires you to log in or register to continue, and I'm not going to register to a site I know nothing about.

However, voice calls over broadband is something which does interest me. I will research it further - the one thing putting me off was having to use a mic and speakers, but if I can buy a "phone" (presumably connected to the 'puter by USB) that might be a good idea.

If you have any links to these products, please post them.

 

[Igorian]

Igorian, your link requires you to log in or register to continue, and I'm not going to register to a site I know nothing about.

You have to register because you need to be logged in to a SIP server for it to work (They have to know where to route your calls). I have used this site and can assure you there is nothing sinister and it's entirely free to receive calls and pay as you go if you want to make call through the PSTN system or free to other VOIP users. Basically, when you log on to the net, a small client logs on to the remote server (Sipgate in this case) and registers your PC as ready to make calls. When you register, you can opt for a geographic telephone number 020, 01604 etc or a non geographic 0845 or 0870. Everthing else then works like a normal phone, obviously using your PC.

There are various options if you want to use a phone. One is to buy a dedicated Internet phone, which connects via an adaptor to your phone line and uses the broadband connection rather than the analogue one. I've not used one of these, but searching on Internet Phone in Google will bring up lots of results.

I replaced my broadband router with one that offers VOIP and a normal phone plugs directly into this. You then sign up to Sipgate, draytel or one of the many others and use the phone as normal. The router I use is a Draytek Vigor2600VGi, which has a lot of features and is a little pricey, but there are cheaper models. In addition to the telephone number, you get a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) address, which allows other VOIP users to call you for free. It also means I don't have to have the PC on to receive calls, just the router.

 

[AdamW]

My family use MSN with videoconferencing a few times a year. Free videocalling, albeit only to other people using MSN.

VOIP is a great idea, it is still a long way off becoming de rigeur though: they can't yet guarantee a level of service required for emergency calls. I can imagine that in 10 or 20 years we will make all phonecalls as VOIP. Not sure if videocalls will be as popular as some technologists think though, how many times have you come stumbling out of the bog with your trousers round your ankles because you are expecting an important call?

As to 0870, I use the SAYNO website where possible, and if the operator tries to get me to ring another number I demand they transfer me instead. MUCH better