UK post scam (possibly elsewhere too)

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The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam. It has been confirmed by Royal Mail.

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number). DO NOT call this number as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 02072396655 or ICSTIS (the premium rate service regulator) at www.icstis.org.uk

If the note is for a genuine parcel delivery, it will more likely have an 0845 or 0870 (or 0800 if they are particularly generous) number.


PCH
___________________________
Lynda, moderator

That is an urban myth. ICSTIS limits call costs to £1.50 /min
 
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OK toasty ... thanks. I'll pass the message back to my brother who gave me the warning. He's quite high in Royal Mail so he'd be interested to hear.


PCH
 
My mate is quite high up in the Royal Mail too, he cleans their windows. :)
 
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laughingrollingonthefloor.gif
 
For what it's worth, this IS a true scam and very common.

What's NOT true is the £15 per minute (or £15 connection) thing.

As has already been said, the maximum charge per minute in this country for a premium rate line is £1.50.

It's simple - most of us know whether or not we're expecting anything important to be delivered. If we are, we're likely to know the carriage company - and be able to phone a local number if we need to contact them.
 
This does relate to an old scam, however Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester Police are all warning people about the scam because Christmas is a favourite time to hit people with parcel scams. Merseyside Police are running articles/ads in ALL local papers which goes to show that they are taking it seriously.

The warning has never mentioned that the call is £15/minute, it says that the call can cost you £15. The original scam cost £9.
All succesful scams imitate genuine situations to keep you on the phone, anybody who has ever dealt with DHL/Parcel Force will know how long you can be on the phone for, this script will sound very familiar.

The call will probably be answered by an automated system. BANG, clock starts and you're getting charged. Minute or so whilst you get a nice welcome and listen to options, then press 1 if you wanna trace a parcel you have been sent, 2 if you would like to send one, 3 if you have been left a card. You then type in a 16 digit or so parcel number, sorry not been recognised, please type again... Another minute whilst you decide if you want to press 1 to collect it yourself, 2 get it delivered to a different address, 3 to have it re-delivered.

Then you get to wait for an operator who will arange a suitable time, BANG sat in a queue "your call is important to us (but not important enough for us to employ enough people to answer more than one call at a time) please hold an you will speak to the next available advisor"

Then you have to hold on while they check the availability of delivery runs, will Thursday morning be ok?

Sound about normal?

Wallop, 10 minute phone call @£1.50 minute, there's £15 gone...

There's an easy answer, if you aren't expecting a parcel and haven't ordered anything then don't ring up. Most people who send presents to family will use good old Royal Mail, although I'm always surprised/suspicious when those parcels actually turn up...

Most reputable companies will only use local/national rate numbers 0845/0870, normal companies are not allowed to have premium rate numbers for customer contact, only for PREMIUM services or competions...
 
Another scam with mobile phones is around for a few weeks now and it 'hits' people who are very curious.
What it is: your mobile phone rings only once. Leaving a mist call, but be aware: don't call back. It's a number that alwasy start with 070 etc and costs more than your average call! Just ignore it and delete the number from your missed-call list.
 
Moist be 'a shout in the fog' ... 'mist' call...
:D
 
WoodYouLike said:
Another scam with mobile phones is around for a few weeks now and it 'hits' people who are very curious.
What it is: your mobile phone rings only once. Leaving a mist call, but be aware: don't call back. It's a number that alwasy start with 070 etc and costs more than your average call! Just ignore it and delete the number from your missed-call list.

Thanks for the info, had 1 call yesterday, 2 rings then stopped, and just had another one now. Both same number and start with 070, luckily i didnt answer or return the call to either.
 
but all mobile numbers start 070? (ok most do) but they all start 07
 
according to ofcom, 07 indicates a mobile number, which are charged at different rates depending on the network.
 
yes but none of them are £1.50 / min or similar. its all a load of old bull
 
sorry this is a duplicate post because the site's slow again, but please read my post on the next page
 
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