070 Telephone Number Scam Warning
Published / Last Updated on 16/10/2014
Video offers a warning that some people are using 070 personal, premium numbers as a scam to make money. There are legitimate users but there may also be scammers.
Transcript:
“Hello again. This video is not really a financial services related video, it's more of a warning video for our clients and users and readers and indeed watchers given that you're watching this video.
The warning is to do with own 70 numbers. What’s raised this issue is our websites over the last two or three days have had probably 10 contact requests where ‘clients’ have filled out our contact form, allegedly they are ‘potential clients’, but giving a telephone number as on 070 number.
Now, an 070 number is a personal ‘premium’ rate number.
For legitimate users of an 070 number, what it usually does is that number will be forwarded or the call will be forwarded to your normal telephone line or your mobile telephone, your cell phone, your mobile phone, whatever it might be. [And] for legitimate reasons some people may have an 070 number because, for security they don't want people to have their personal numbers, their personal mobile or their home number or something like that.
Now, because these are ‘premium rate’ personal numbers there is a cost and so here’s me thinking: ‘oh, I'm a nice chap’, we’ve received a contact via our websites for somebody using just basically an Outlook email address and looking reasonably genuine requesting a call back because they want to talk to, they’re reaching out to us, they want to speak to us and I was given, on our website, an 070 number.
I call that number, I hang on, for a while and then I just get a voicebox, amailbox and answer machine service, for want of a better word, so that probably took me 2.5 to 3 minutes to get through and then I get a series of those sort of contacts come through our website so that sets my suspicions up.
[So] I’ve just completed some research and these premium rate, personal numbers could cost anything up to let's say 50p per minute and ‘Offcom’, the UK communications regulator, they've already issued a warning about 070 number scams. So this is a very, very simple tip for you where you’re calling let's say mobile number that, you know, we all call mobile numbers every day.
- If it's somebody you not sure who it is or something like that and they give an 070 number beware. Beware that it's a premium rate personal number.
- Normal mobile numbers: they will start with the third number being a true number 074, 075, 076, 077, 078, 079. My personal mobile number is an 078 number my wife and co-directors personal mobile number is on 077 number, my sons is an 074 number.
So just be aware that if you are contacted and somebody gives you an 070 number make sure it either somebody that you know or there may be a scam, you may be targeted by one of these telephone scams, where you called on 070 number you get pinged the let's say 50p a minute and all of a sudden a phone call is cost you £1, £2, £3 or whatever it might be.
So that's my little warning, a little bit of a money saving tip I suppose, if I can call it financial planning advice: Money-saving tip: be careful of 070 that look like legitimate mobile numbers. Thank you very much for watching.”
