New Telephone Scam - Pls watch out

[Bunjiweb]

There is a new telephone scam that is going around. Bassically an automated voice rings you up and tells you that you've won a holiday absolutely free bla bla bla and to claim your prize press '9' on your phone.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU PRESS 9!

If you do so you can have up to £500 charged to your phone bill (depending on your supplier and contract).

Please be careful!

Ben

[Zaphan58]

Thanks for the headsup personally if I here a marketng or answerphone type thing on the phone I just hang up

-Chris

[Nimrod]

And I can vouch for this scam as I received a call from it a few nights ago.

I hung up and about 2 mins later lifted the handset to make a call....the automated scam message was still playing

It seems to go on for about 5mins, during which time you basically cannot use your phone

[Agent]

Not this again....

Its a fake rumor - you simply can not be charged that on your phone bill for a call.

[Elmo]

my mum got that call too.

Basically they say "press blah" then they connect you to somewhere in the world meanwhile you get charged for an international call, the person on the end of the fone goes on and on for about 10 mins then at the end tells you you havent won a holiday at all. So you've been charged for a 10 min premium rate international call.

[fraggie]

there was a notice at my work about sommat like this, has been confirmed by the police that its true, if u press hash (#) 9 then it gives the person at the opposite end total control over ure phone line and can charge any calls they want to ure bill. It has been known to be done by inmates in prisons to get phonecalls they arent normally allowed.

NEVER PRESS #9 FOR ANYONE

Think this is a seperate scam as the person at the other end is actually real, but still, just a warnin

[Agent]

http://www.icstis.com/icstis2002/default.asp?node=-1

Their you go, direct from ICSTIS.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34389.html

And one from the Register

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/btscam.html

Another random link off google.

Its all the same myth, just different variations of it.

[Agent]

there was a notice at my work about sommat like this, has been confirmed by the police that its true, if u press hash (#) 9 then it gives the person at the opposite end total control over ure phone line

Unless you have telephone routing services installed and set-up to allow rerouting on the dialing of a code, it will not work.
First off, how many houses in the UK will have phone routing equipment installed ?
Secondly, the businesses that do, have a heck of a lot more security than that, without going into the technical side, the chances that #9 are going to work on those systems are a million to one.

So unless the mysterons can take over your brain by you pressing #9, there is no way they can take "total control over ure phone line ".

[fraggie]

i stand corrected

[Howard]

I got this... Something about Disney holidays. As soon as I heard the automatic voice I hung up. Lol.

[TiG]

http://www.icstis.com/icstis2002/default.asp?node=-1

Their you go, direct from ICSTIS.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34389.html

And one from the Register

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/btscam.html

Another random link off google.

Its all the same myth, just different variations of it.

Agent, I'm glad that people like you exist in the world, we had the same the head of HR sent an e-mail round warning everyone, followed by me sending reply to all.

I'm lucky enough to run our companies ICSTIS policy as we run 60p a minute traffic telephone services. I know its impossible but its amazing the amount of people who forward this on as they DON'T know better.

Unless you are sure that something is the truth don't send it on. The world would be a much safer place that way

TiG

[Anders]

My sister brought a warning about this back from her work a couple of weeks ago. This warning outlined the fact that the calls come from abroad and such, in a similar way as mentioned in one of Agent’s links.

I thought I would never hear anymore about it, but about a week ago the phone rang. Some pre-recorded female voice speaking quickly in an American accent says I might have won a holiday and press nine to continue. Obviously I did not press nine and hung up as soon as I heard the mention of pressing nine. At the time I was surprised to receive this call as these things always happen to someone else. I am now even more surprised to have received this call when these sources say it is an urban myth. I guess no one will ever press nine to find out though will they.

--Addition--

After I hung up, I lifted the hand set to check, but just found a dial tone. Tried 1471 out of curiosity, but of course, they did not have the callers number.

[5lab]

its actually illegal to get a machine to ring someone up and try to talk to them in this country.. but its physically impossible for someone to call you'r line and then with one keypad press make you chargable for the call

[Anders]

its actually illegal to get a machine to ring someone up and try to talk to them in this country.. but its physically impossible for someone to call you'r line and then with one keypad press make you chargable for the call

I did not know about the automated calls being illegal. What about when my o2 voice mail rings me when I have a new message? That is automated.

It would be a bit daft if it were possible to reverse the charges just by pressing nine. Given that the “pressing nine” scam is well documented as impossible, I am left wondering why I got that pre-recorded phone call asking me to press nine. It could just be a coincidence and it is probably just a scam of another sort, i.e. is not phone bill based. Either way, I doubt there was a holiday in it for me.