247 Car spares SCAM

[SMG]

I recently contacted, by e mail, 247 car spares to see if the had a mirror for my car. I received a reply which told me one was in stock, & phone this number. I was immediately put on hold. I decide to e mail them again when no one answered. I never received a reply.

To my surprise, when I checked my phone bill logged as a non included call list is this number, 07034713853. Billed at £6 a min. What a scam.

I Google`d the number & the first reply I got was this.......

"Be very very carefull if you use 247 spares there phone number which they ask you to ring is a premium line thats dressed up as a mobile number which is 0703 471 3853 this is £6 a minute and they are in no hurry to answer and then ask if you can phone back in half an hour, and guess what this happens again and again".

Beware.

 

[joe-90]

Sounds like a scam but perpetuated by others using their name. They charge 10p a minute.

 

[snico]

You should have called their 10p per minute number....which is splashed across their webpage!

 

[SMG]

When you get a reply from one of their suppliers, you call that number,

 

[SMG]

0703 471 3853 is a mobile number, no reason to suspect its a scam number, when you get a reply from one of their approved suppliers, you expect it to be genuine.

 

[JohnD]

I was trying to puzzle out how that happened, especially as their website http://www.247spares.co.uk/ says their number is 0872 33 11 247 (and says calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras).

What number did you dial?

The BT pricing documents are deliberately difficult to use, sorry, I mean unavoidably difficult.

According to http://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Call_Charges_boo/2-1631_d0e5.htm the numbers beginning 0703 47 are charge rate "j"

and according to http://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Call_Charges_boo/1631_d0e39701.htm#1631-d0e39703 (Part 12:National and International Number Group Codes Used for Specialised Services - 07xx Numbers)
subpart 1, call charges, just takes you back and tells you it is rate "j" (calls to personal numbering services)

When I found my way to http://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Call_Charges_boo/0016_d0e5.htm#0016-d0e5 it appears to say that rate "j" costs 32.675 pence per minute , Monday to Friday, daytime, including VAT.

Could you possibly scan the phone bill you mentioned so we can see how it came to be charged at £6 per minute? (blot out personal data)

Thanks in advance

 

[SMG]

It appeared on the wife's mobile bill as

Tue 12:50 07034713194 "Personal Number Services" 0.01.33 6.989

On for just over a min.

Orange service, plenty of mins left.

I contacted Orange earlier who said they would look into it.

As I said, there are a few people mention this on various sites I googled.

 

[SMG]

Just received this from a fellow member on the Renault forum.



hi,
There was a news item this week on the BBC about a UK telecoms regulator raiding a rogue mobile phone SMS spam operator/ number harvester in manchester area.

i did a quick look up on the number you listed and got this back.

07034 713 569
Section: Personal Numbering, Radiopaging & Mobile numbers

Use: Personal Numbers

Number 07034 713 569 is potentially valid.

Oftel records show that numbers starting 07034 71 are allocated to Telappliant Ltd. Note that due to number portability if an individual number has moved to a different operator this information is not publicly available.

Oftel's last recorded change for this number range was June 2010.

see here for futher info on who is operating with that sub block <Telappliant Ltd>
http://www.ukphoneinfo.com/s7_code_a...s.php?GNG=7034

contact the UK regulator Icstis (now known as phonepayplus) or ofcom
http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk

though martin lewis dosent think its all upto scratch (it is a quango you know)


heres the complaint web page
http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/For-t...complaint.aspx

was there any warning that the number was a premium rate number and the rate they charge per minute on the web site ????

heres a tip, use a pay as you go sim with topup packages and keep the current ballance on the SIM at about £1-£5 so you wont get stung if you do accidently get hammered by a cloaked/covert premium rate number (also have premium rate number block activated if its an option on the account)

 

[naeemsyed]

Hi

I too have been fooled and have paid the cost. Called their 0703 471 3853 which is given in their email and they make no mention of how much the call will cost.

Can this not be reported to anyone as being misleading and offering false pretence? So a stop can be made to these cowboys.

Regards

 

[JBR]

Numbers beginning with 071- to 079- are mobile numbers.

Numbers beginning with 070 are 'personal numbering' numbers.

In the case of my provider, the former cost 10p per minute and the latter cost 71p per minute, some of which presumably goes to the owner of the number.

I agree that to have two very different types of 07- numbers is at best confusing and at worst virtually illegal.

OFCOM should have stopped this long ago.

Incidentally, 09- numbers cost £2 a minute with my provider, and I'm sure it will be similar with others.

BEWARE!

Edit: As far as I am aware, there are no numbers that begin with 04- or 06-

If OFCOM are determined to allow 'rip-off' telephone numbers, perhaps they could use these prefixes instead of 070.

 

[plugwash]

Numbers beginning with 070 are 'personal numbering' numbers.

Indeed, the original idea was the numbers would be used for services that let people have one number that would reach them whereever they were. The problem has been that the receiving telco was allowed to set the rates and they set them bloody high.

You have to remember when the numbering plan was being laid out it was in an era when calls to mobiles were expensive too. So putting expensive personal numbering numbers in with expensive mobile numbers probablly seemed to make sense at the time.

The current system is certainly better than the old system where expensive ranges were scattered arround between geographic area codes.

 

[masona]

Here's another one

There’s yet another phone scam doing the rounds to watch out for. We’ve been sent in this one where someone rings pretending to be a ‘representative’ of BT saying that they’re disconnecting you because of an unpaid bill.

The con artist calls up, says you’re about to be cut off because you’re behind on your payments and demands payment immediately, saying it’ll cost more to be reconnected later. Someone this has happened to – with a completely different phone line provider – says the guy wasn’t fazed in the slightest by this fact, claiming that ‘everyone pays a percentage to BT for line rental’.

When you say you don’t believe that ‘John Peacock’ is actually from BT, he offers to demonstrate that he’s the genuine article by giving you his phone number -0800 0800 152 – and ’disconnecting’ your phone so you can’t call out. You hang up, try and dial out and as if by magic, you can’t. The scammer rings you again, having ‘proven’ they really are at BT, and tells you you can pay your bill immediately over the phone by credit card. The person who told us about this said she hung up at this point and rung back the 0800 number and surprise surprise, it wasn’t recognised. Her phone line was fine.

The police say that this scam is new but is catching on quickly. The fact that the phone does go dead would probably convince some people it’s real. It’s actually very simple: the con artist stays on the line with the mute button on and you can’t dial out – but he can hear you trying (because the person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it). When you stop trying he cuts off and immediately calls back.

This is good but not that clever. The scammer gave the wrong number – it should have been 0800 800152 which takes you through to BT Business. You could almost be convinced! The sad thing is that it is so simple that it will certainly fool a lot of people. Obviously once they have your credit/debit card details, there is nothing to stop them cleaning out your account.

Even if you didn’t know that other phone line providers don’t pay fees to BT, the alarm bells should start ringing whenever you’re asked to give your credit card details over the phone. Legitimate companies don’t do this. These people are getting cleverer, so we all need to be on our guard for strangers visiting or phoning to ask for personal or bank details.

 

[diyer56]

It is also worth noting that numbers starting 08 also vary based on the third digit.

This is a very good, clear guide to telephone numbering and approximate costs:

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/files/2010/01/numbering.pdf

 

[DIYHomefit]

@masona - more and more companies are stopping payments from happening over the phone - probably due to scams like these. Even the smartest person can be convinced by these conmen.

I would suggest only using numbers from a trusted company (and it should be a number you have used in the past!). Other than that it's difficult to prevent these sorts of scams. If anyone does have BT services, they should notify you well in advance about renewals and outstanding bills. A solutions to the 'BT' scam? Paper-free billing, you can pay online; check your balance; as well as how many minutes have been spent where.

 

[JBR]

I just had a 'Microsoft' call today. They're quite common, apparently.

I told him I'd call back and asked for his number, which he gave(!):
18007606972