Phone scam - anyone else get this automated call/message?

whiskeyman

I missed a landline call at 12 this afternoon.
Just after checking messages and it was an automated voice (woman) with "to receive your prize, press 9 now... that's the nine key.... beep beep".
I dont think the 9 key is a callback funcion on eircom messaging - is it on some mobile services?
Obviously, I didnt press 9, but am wondering if anyone else has come across an automated message call like this?

Yeah I got it yesterday. I obviously just hung up.

whiskeyman

anyone able to get the number?
It came up as "withheld" on mine.
I can see a lot of naive people getting stung by this...especially many elderly.

Sponge Bob

But if you received the call and did not make the call it costs nothing EVEN if you press 9

Pressing 9 after it hangs up is equally harmless . Maybe it speaks porn to you if you press 9

Mr E

Doesn't pressing 9 dial out to a foreign number (which will be charged to you)?
I think I heard about this before.

whippet

my mother just got stung by this !!!

she did press nine ... and a forgien sounding person was on the other end .. she then hung up. I told her to call eircom, she did and she was told as long as she didn't give any information she shouldn't worry.

We'll see when the bill arrives!

TmB

TmB wrote:

Doesn't pressing 9 dial out to a foreign number (which will be charged to you)?
I think I heard about this before.

No. They dialled you. They can't charge you for a call they dialed..

If you heard about it before it was probably that hoax email that was doing the rounds.

Out of interest: The people who were called... What area are you in? I'm in SCR

whiskeyman

In D18 (Sandyford / Dundrum).
I expect an auto dialer at work...

madds

My Dad got this same call earlier today (around noon). Being a little naive when it comes to these scams he pressed 9 and got through to a nice-sounding woman with an American accent. from what I can remember she said something along th elines of "you have just won a holiday in blah blah blah....press 2 to hear more details"

He presses 2 and gets through to another (and in his mind more attractive sounding) american woman...."congratulations sir you have just won an all-expenses paid trip to the carribean".

At this point he started to wise up and asked her "where are you ringing from?" and she replied "orlando"....and he goes "is that orlando, florida"....and she says "well sir yes it is" nice as pie like.

He thens ays to her "how many people in the US have fallen for this b*ll**** story?" at which point her mask fell, she lost her attractive sounding american accent and became the trailer trash that she probably is, shouted a load of abuse at him and hung up.

[Note to self - must tell father not to waste his time with one of these scams again.]

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

this is a scam to get you to dial-back a premium rate number. an irish company was fined a few weeks ago for running the same scam. It was a company run by the person who also runs Irish Psychics Live (check out this story: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single5323)

Do not ring them back, and you can also report the phonecalls to Regtel, the Irish regulator of premium rate numbers at http://www.regtel.ie/

Rb

yeah got this the other day, just hung up.
I'm in the D14 area by the way.

neacy69

dunno if this is true with all answering services but when listening to a message on your voicemail and you press 9, you place an automatic Callback to the number that left the voicemail for you....so you could end up calling a premium rate line...

jellie

i got that on friday, got me out of bed!! :mad:

in north wicklow, but in 01 phone area.

seamus

It's things like this that make me glad I don't have a landline.

Downtime

Happened to me in D16 - hung up.

whiskeyman

Roundtower2 wrote:

this is a scam to get you to dial-back a premium rate number. an irish company was fined a few weeks ago for running the same scam. It was a company run by the person who also runs Irish Psychics Live (check out this story: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single5323)

Do not ring them back, and you can also report the phonecalls to Regtel, the Irish regulator of premium rate numbers at http://www.regtel.ie/

Does anyone have the number / company or proof that it is that guy again?
I'm willing to complain and I think everyone else here should (they get fined for each complaint recorded).
All I have it the voice message on my landline at the moment.

newgrange

Just got one in the North Strand area.

DamoKen

got it on Saturday in Swords, same deal, Caribbean trip blah blah blah, got me out of bed so hung up, that's the 3rd one this year, always hang up.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

whiskeyman wrote:

Does anyone have the number / company or proof that it is that guy again?
I'm willing to complain and I think everyone else here should (they get fined for each complaint recorded).
All I have it the voice message on my landline at the moment.

wouldn't say it is the guy from Irish Psychics Live who is behind this one. He just got publicly very embarassed by the last one in the last few weeks, so it is unlikely he would do the same thing again so quickly.

BUT, definitely ring Regtel and Eircom. The more complaints they have the more willing they will be to block this particular spammer.

Even if you don't care, then call for all the grannies out there who are innocents and who are going to get scammed by this crowd.

btw what they give you is not a free holiday but vouchers off a paid holiday that you could cut out of a magazine for free in any case, and it is against the law for them to call you like this without telling you that you are calling back a premium number - it's out and out fraud...

scuba steve

I got a call from a "withheld" number about 2weeks ago saying i won either, 1,000euro, a holiday in Carribean or some other prize so i just said "ok thanks" and hung up

newgrange

I just rang RegTel to report mine.

The woman I spoke to confirmed that pressing 9 would result in a charge, and that Eircom are aware of the problem and trying to track the source of the calls. She suggested anyone else who gets them should report them, as they seem to be happening by area, and the more records they have of it the better.

Apparently the computer-voiced lady is originating from outside the state, so they are having trouble dealing with it.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single5323

A company was sentenced for spamming in Ireland this afternoon, the first successful prosecution in this country for sending unsolicited phone or email messages.

Following a year-long investigation by the DPC, 4’s a Fortune entered a guilty plea in July of this year and the sentence was handed down yesterday at Richmond District Court in Dublin. The DPC said Higgins, who was a director of 4’s a Fortune had been co-operative and there had been no complaints against him since. His company was fined €300 for each of four complaints from mobile phone users who had received the missed call, plus costs of €1,000.

Sean Sweeney, spokesman for the DPC, said he was satisfied with the outcome of the case, although the award will not cover the costs of taking the case. “The important thing is, a conviction was registered against 4’s a Fortune,” Sweeney told siliconrepublic.com. “Hopefully it sends a message to others.”

The DPC is currently investigating two other cases, both involving voice or text messages sent to mobile phones, which may result in prosecutions being taken. At present the office is investigating close to 100 cases in total, Sweeney confirmed.

IIRC they spammed over 160,000 customers.

“Hopefully it sends a message to others.”
- the file will be less than 1c per customer contacted - it's an overhead
- your company will be fined, not you - it's an overhead
- you have a year before you pay the nominal fine - it's an overdraft
- only one out of 100 cases closed - why worry

Another scam is that if you do register with a 5xxxx number the messages come from an 086/087 number that you can't trace if you delete the original message... and sending stop to that number didn't work either.

have a look at the maximum allowable charges on the www.regtel.ie site and you'll see there is plenty of leeway for sharp operators. Also as scams are made illegal in the UK before they are here you can some chancers to setup here (not physically setup here, just rent a PO box and some lines)

What really annoys me is that if you were to copy a ringtone you could get hit with at €100,000 fine or if you go through the wrong door in Dublin Airport it's €127,000...

netwhizkid

They were on about these scams on that show on RTE today with Anna Nolan and Blonaid Ni Chofaig, they are actually quite fraudulent and I'd advise most people to hang up on these scamsters.

Baz_

netwhizkid wrote:

...these scams...they are actually quite fraudulent...

scams that are fraudulent! :eek: Whodve thunk it?

DamoKen

Baz_ wrote:

scams that are fraudulent! :eek: Whodve thunk it?

well spotted baz, get in there while the iron is cold, while your at it, why not look for other threads that have run their course that you also haven't contributed to and give a incisive remark :rolleyes:

I got the phone call aswell, telling me to press nine. I figured it was a scam so I pressed every button except the 9 and they hung up on me

gonker

My dad got one the other day he is over 70 but I have been drumming it into him not to answer any of these calls or letters (after he got a letter saying he won 50,000 and got all excited) so when the NICE LADY said congratulations you have won a holiday he said Oh thanks very much and hung up but I could imagine a lot of people being stung by it.