Telephone Scams?

Hello everyone,

I was wondering what kind of scams there are in the UK. I'm paranoid about answering the phone and being charged a million pounds. In the states when you pick up the phone and someone wants to reverse the charges through a collect call, you get the operator asking if you want to pay... you say yes or no, right? Is it the same here or do you press buttons or whatever? And if you pick up the phone, without being asked can you be charged? I'm learning that things are really different here. Scams that were so easy to spot at home, I'm totally lost as to what is legitimate and what's dodgy here! YIKES!!

Thanks in advance!
Jen

There are probably lots that no-one knows about until they happen.  It is a long time since I made or received a reverse charges call but yes it is announced by the operator and you can refuse it. A reverse charges call is charged at a higher rate than a standard call.

Beware of little colour leaflets that fall out of your newspaper telling you to scratch off the silver  to see if you have won anything - well of course you have won something but the £10 phone call to find out what the prize is will invariably cost more than your thrilling prize of a gold plated chestnut or suchlike.

If you haven't seen it, there is a consumer rights show on TV called Watchdog, this is their website, with details of all sorts of scams.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/

We tend to get a ton of phone calls from people saying we've won something. I always know they're coming because they're calling from foreign countries, mostly India, and there is a delay from when you say hello to when they're connected to you.

It's now my rule that if I have to say hello more than twice when picking up, then I simply hang up.

I've never been scammed, but I rarely ever pick up the phone, either!
Anyone with anything important to say will leave a message, and we call them back.

It's now my rule that if I have to say hello more than twice when picking up, then I simply hang up.

Yes, exactly. If I say hello and I don't hear anything, then I hang up. If it really was the office or a friend, then I'd get called back. Also, my very common name in the US is continually mispronounced here, so if someone calls for me and says it's wrong, then I switch to caution mode.

Also...if someone says press another number to find out what your prize is...don't do it as you'll be tranfered to a 0900 number and get charged up the wazzoo!

Yes, news flash, you really haven't won any prizes.

Couple of points,firstly you can block all (or most) junk phone calls,I think the number to call to set it up is in the front of the phone book.Second you can put a block on all premium rate calls (unless you need them for something),by dialling 150? and setting it up,very useful in case you get a dialler installed on your pc,this of course applies to BT lines,but other companies will probably have similar schemes.
Another thing to remember about diallers, if you are on broadband,go to control panel and disable your modem.

Dave

Couple of points,firstly you can block all (or most) junk phone calls,I think the number to call to set it up is in the front of the phone book.

Unfortunately you can't block the international ones-which is how they get around it.  Best just to hang up.

Unfortunately you can't block the international ones-which is how they get around it.  Best just to hang up

True,I had one last week from Las Vegas,but you can stop these noodles trying to sell you double glazing,that always happen as you're having a meal LOL.

Dave

the only way you can be charged when you pick up the phone is if the operator asks you to accept a reverse charge call.

you cannot be charged for answering a call  from a fixed line phone or a mobile.

I've never been scammed, but I rarely ever pick up the phone, either!
Anyone with anything important to say will leave a message, and we call them back.

Ditto!  I rarely pick up my home phone.  I LOVE my mobile, since I can see who's calling before I answer the call.  If it's a number I don't recognize, I don't answer.  If it's important, they'll leave a message...

Get a caller ID for your home phone ... and then be on alert when it either says: "International", "Unavailable", "Withheld". Most of those calls come from telesales companies. Though, sadly, even official institutions (f.i. NHS, banks etc) seem to block their numbers to callers. I hate it when I tap into the trap answering an international call 'cause you can be sure most of the time it's some scammer. Unfortunately, my mom is in bad health, so my worries are stronger than common sense and I'd pick up the phone anyway.

Thanks everyone! Sorry about putting it in the wrong area, it never occurred to me to put it in here!

I usually leave the phone to ring, but once in a while I'll pick it up. The last two times I've had a "You've got a new message, Press One, to hear it." ARGH, I pressed one thinking it was our voicemail but then hung up directly when it went to music! New fangled phone, had no idea, hope it was nothing. And then another was about how I'd won something, BLAH BLAH, hung up on that one as well. So I was getting a little paranoid that EVERY call not from the husband would be some phone scam.

Thanks for clearing up most of the worries. The DH put together a list of number prefixes that helps a lot when I need to dial somewhere like free phone, national rate, etc... now we just need caller ID. I don't know how I lived without that for so long, but having had it in the US for a couple of years, I feel really blind without it!

Cheers,
Jen

you can get Anonymous Call Reject as an option from the phone company. Admittedly this might cause a problem if spouse calls you from work and it goes through a PABX which withholds the CLI, as many do if the company  have another number they want incoming calls routed to.
You can also get Premium Rate numbers barred on outgoing calls.