Beware - Telephone Scam

Hello this is Dave Bromley and I am
not trying to sell you anything. I am
sending you this e-mail purely to warn
you about a new telephone scam.

A friend of mine, Malcolm Horsey told me about it
yesterday and I have decided it is
potentially so serious that I should warn
all my customers and subscribers .
This may mean that if you are on more than
one of my information lists that you will
receive further copies of this e-mail and
I am sorry about that but just delete them.

I have been advised of a telephone fraud
currently in operation (this applies to home
and/or work telephones - land lines and mobiles)

If you do receive one of these calls, upon
answering the telephone, you will hear a
recorded message congratulating you on winning
an all expenses trip to an exotic location. You
will then be asked to press 9 to hear further
details. If you press 9 you will be connected
to a premium rate line that costs approximately
£20 per minute. Even if you disconnect
immediately, it will remain connected for a minimum
of 5 minutes, costing around £100. The final part
of the call involves you being asked to key your
postcode and house number (which has other serious
consequences).

After a further 2 minutes you will receive a
message informing you that you are not one of
the lucky winners. The total bill will
be £260.

Since the calls are originating from outside the UK,
BT and othertelephone companies are left relatively
powerless to act. The only safe solution is to HANG UP
before the message prompts you to press 9; even
safer is to HANG UP on any unsolicited 'free offer’ call.
This appears to be a variation on a theme, warnings
have been sent previously regarding calls made by
individuals claiming to be engineers conducting a
test on the line and asking for 9, 0# and text
messages similar to the routine described above.
DO NOT DIAL 9 (OR 9,0# OR 0,9#) FOR ANYONE!
BT has been contacted and confirmed the details as being true.

There is another scam operating on Mobile Phones.
A Missed Call comes up. The number is 0709 020 3840.
The last four numbers may vary but certainly the
first numbers will remain the same. If you
call this number back, you will be charged £50 per
minute. People have complained about their phone bills,
once they have realised the cost of
the call but apparently this is completely
legal. So beware, do not call back numbers beginning with 0709.

Please feel free to pass this information on to
your family and friends.
The only way to beat scams like this is to be pre
warned and hopefullynone of us will get caught.
Regards
Dave Bromley