Poxy Phone Scams

So, over the last week or two, Jo's mobile phone has been getting it's arse well and truly kicked. Every hour or so, it will ring - just once - leaving behind a number, invariably 070-something (usually 07099). Day and night, she gets this 0709 something random number call and it drives us nuts.

Now, in-and-by-itself, a single number isn't too bad, until you take in the rest of it. You see a number ring, and you call it back. Usually to call someone back you're charged normal call rates, but these numbers are a new breed of "Not-Quite-Premium" rate, called Personal Numbers. They vary from 50p to £1.50 per minute, and THEY make money by you phoning them.

Lucky for us, we're not stupid.

Over the last few days, I've been checking around trying to figure what we can do against it. O2 (mobile provider) has given us no help what so ever. 070 aren't under the umbrella of "Premium Rate" so the ICSTIS are no use. We're already on various "Do Not Call" and "No Silent Call" lists, and they're not helping. So it's over to OFCOM. I spent a quarter of an hour chatting to the woman there who is clearly up to her neck in these complaints (bless!), rattling off all the numbers that have been calling.

And now we wait. They're not sure what they can do, but are apparently looking at cutting them off at the source, which would suggest they know who is responsible - they just have to go through the proper channels.

It just hacks me off that people pull this kind of crap. I don't like Telemarketers at the best of times, especially the Cold Calling variety, but this... They place one call, the reciever calls back and gets a stupid phone bill. This, however, shouldn't be associated with the widely-popular "£50 a minute!!" urban legend that went around a while back - for one, there IS no £50 a minute premium rate number, and calling abroad isn't quite that pricey. Snopes go through the mail and tear it apart as only Snopes can, but it does mention the 070 crap floating at the moment.

Bah, I'm poorly and cranky - I think I should crack open the happy stuff ;)