Watch out Scammers about

[mrgas]

WATCHOUT
Another scam doing the rounds (again).



Can you circulate this around especially as Xmas is fast approaching - it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

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 £315 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 020 7239 6655.

 

[joinerjohn]

Hmmmm, Did the rounds ages ago this one, but some people still believe it.

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/pds-phone-scam.html

 

[mrgas]

Well I hope it IS a hoax and that nobody gets scammed out of their hard earned money.
It got sent to me from a reliable person and am just sharing possibly harmful info

 

[^woody^]

It's not a scam.

I phoned the 0906 6611911 number with 50p credit on the mobile just in case, and it was not some Belize(ian), but a normal English granny from Sheffield

So I phone the 020 7239 6655 London number, and oddly that was a foreign sounding person, and he said it was not a scam - but he took my credit card number anyway for a pack of festive cards ... which I thought was nice of him

 

[JohnD]

Two trademarks of a hoax are (1) instructions to send it to lots of people (2) claims that it has been verified by some authoritative body, but no link to that body so you can check.

It must be nice to be so trusting that you propagate these things without checking to see if they are true.

Can you circulate this around especially as Xmas is fast approaching - it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam ....

 

[Djnikon]

Same thing went round last year up here but it was cards from EDS (Express Delivery Service) again a premium rate number (but just the normal £1 per minute not £315 for a recorded message).
I suppose it makes sense to the scammers (if they are - mixed opinions on here) that lots of people will be expecting delivered goods at this time of year. I know I am - too lazy to actually go to shops at Christmas now.

 

[Paul_C]

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £315 for the phone call.

It doesn't matter whether the call is actually answered in Belize or not, if you are calling a U.K. premium-rate number, you'll be charged whatever rate your service provider has set for that number. For the number given, for example, BT charges around £1.53 per minute - Still expensive, but nowhere near the "instant" £315 billing!

There's a similar message been doing the rounds for several years about calling a number in the 809 area code (Dominican Republic) within the North American numbering plan, and how you'll supposedly be charged some ridiculous amount like $2000 or more as soon as the call is answered. While there might well be a scam involved, and calling the Dominican Republic can easily be quite expensive, the $2000 or more "instant" billing is as false as the £315 charge in the U.K. example.

 

[Mw Roofline]

Older than Moses. If it was really that easy to have a phone number that would pay you £315 in the first few seconds then i'd be running the scam myself