Monday, November 20, 2006

Scam warning?

Maybe too late for some, but had an interesting message on the machine at work from "James at the Information Team" apparently it was the second time they'd tried to contact us, though if they were trying at 6pm on a Saturday they couldn't really have wanted to get us. A message had been left "simple to collect" just dial 0871 2089407. Uh-huh up to 10p/minute to sit in a queue listening to bad music, a quick google later shows other people with exactly the same message with numbers starting at 9000. 0871 comes under the jurisdiction of Ofcom and not the premium rate regulator ICSTIS so complaints go through them, try their site and see how it works.

  1. I'd like to make a complaint - Click "Complain to Ofcom"
  2. Select an option - Hmm "Problems with your landline phone" is perhaps the closest
  3. Another option - "Privacy issues-nuisance and sales calls" perhaps?
  4. Another option - "Unwanted sales and marketing calls"?
  5. Solution - Register with the TPS oh joy.
Let's go back a couple of stages
  1. "Unexplained premium rate numbers on bill"
  2. "I don't have internet access at home "
  3. Solution - Contact ICSTIS - who don't handle 0871 numbers.
Let's try calling them shall we?

Options - 1? No not really, I'll hold; ringing; 'disclaimer about phone company complaints'; ringing; 'still in a queue, you might be able to dial 150 to call your phone company directly', ringing, 'website, sorry you're still in a queue'; ringing, 'we don't investigate individual complaints about general issues although we do track volume of complaints, we may consider investigation if the number for a particular company is high'; ringing; first repeat of messages; second repeat of messages; third repeat of messages - interrupts after website message.

"I've had a call from James at the information team", I hear a sigh "You've had this before?"
Ah yes, we've had a few of these.
They've logged it and given me the number for the Information Commissioner's Office, which does cover this sort of thing, though more along the lines of advising you to sign up to TPS again. Ah well at least it's logged.

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