Telephone Scam

Serious Scam Warning

Below are the details of a scam currently doing the rounds.
The Police have requested that as many people are alerted as possible. Unfortunately it's a genuine scam. The reason this is working so well is that it plays on your good will!

Picture the scene: - You are sitting at home and there is a knock at the door. On answering It you are confronted by a respectable looking woman in a suit, who is slightly distressed. She explains that her car has broken down further down the road and she needs to contact her husband to come to her aid. Is it at all possible to use your phone to call him?

You allow her to use the phone, but being the suspicious type you stand with her as she makes the call. She dials the number and asks to be put through to Mr Smith/Brown/Stevens (whatever). She holds the line for about 30 seconds and then continues, "In that case can you ask him to leave the meeting for a minute I need to speak to him quite urgently." She apologises to you again and explains they are getting him out of a meeting.

A couple of minutes go by and she starts to speak to her husband, she explains the situation to him, tells him that she is annoyed because she now can't get to her meeting, and asks what should she do now. She listens for a few seconds and then says "Well as soon as the meeting finishes can you come to (whatever your street name), where the car has broken down. Another few seconds go by, "OK, I'll see you in about 20 minutes then."

She puts the phone down and thanks you ever so much for your assistance, even offering you a pound for your trouble, but of course you decline, saying it's no trouble. She leaves and everything is fine, or is it?

The day or week before knocking on your door she has set up her own PREMIUM RATE Line with a telephone company at a cost of about £150.00, and she has dictated that calls to that number should be charged at £50.00 per MINUTE . She has dialled that number. The conversation she has had with her husband is entirely fictitious, there is a pre-recorded message on the other end of the phone to give you the impression she is speaking to someone. She has been on the phone for about 5 minutes. That Call just cost YOU about £250.00, the majority of which goes into her pocket., and the first you know about it, is when you get your phone bill a month later!

To rub a bit of salt into the wound, she hasn't even committed a criminal offence! You gave her permission to use your phone.

There have been 5 occasions in Luton where this has been reported in the last couple of weeks.

Would anyone reading this please pass it on to friends and colleagues etc. (note*), otherwise it could cost someone a lot of money

note* = Please do not start an E-Mail chain as this constitutes a virus in itself!

Author:
PC Paul Toseland
Corby Anti-Crime Network Administrator

Issue 268 - October 2002