I got another email scam forwared to me today. It was about a phone call that could cost you £260 if you press 9 like it tells you to if you get an phone call telling you that you've won a prize. Lets analyse this email...
Please be aware of the following telephone scam relating to home and/or work phones (including mobiles).The scenario is:-
Your phone rings and you receive a recorded message; "Congratulations. We are calling to advise you that you have won an all expenses paid trip to <an exotic destination>. Please press 9 now to hear further details."
Fair enough, you could press 9 to hear the further details. I have no problem with this, menus work on the tones all the time (as you'll well know...)
If you press 9, you'll be connected to a premium line that bills in the region of £20 per minute.
Ummm... right. So I press 9 and my phone will magically disconnect and phone someone else on a preimum rate number? Yeah. or what about pressing 9 will automatically reverse charges... 'cause we hear about that alllll the time.
If you press 9 and connect, even if you disconnect immediately, the other end will stay connected for a minimum of 5 minutes - at a cost to you of £100 - the message lasts for 11 minutes.
This would be possible if they were phoning you I suppose - if you phone someone and don't hang up they can't use there phone until you do - but then they are paying the fee not you. Not sure what would happen in a reverse the charges situation to be honest, I've never tried it. However the reverse charge situation looks a bit, erm, impossible to me anyway...
The final part of the call asks you to key in your postcode and house number (which has other serious considerations) and then, after a wait of a further two minutes, responds with the message; "Sorry, you are not one of the lucky winners." and disconnects, adding a further £260 to your bill!
Unfortunately the calls are originating from outside the U.K. and as such BT and other providers are relatively powerless to act.
This is the ultimate, "it's pure bullshit clincher". BT can't do anything to stop it, yeah, right. Who will be trying to get the £260 phone bill off you? The randoms in the foreign country? No. Oh, it'll be the telephone providers who are trying to stop it. That doesn't make any sense now does it?
The only safe solution is to hang up before the message prompts you to press 9.
So now here's my plan. It's a pact right. You sign here in the comments and you say that you'll never forward an informational this might save you (or someone else) money, or save a childs life, or stop someones harddrive being wiped by the lastest most evil virus email again. Ever. No matter how plausable it looks. Fair enough if the email wasn't a scam (I've never seen one that wasn't yet...) then it's just a pity and the child dies because Bill Gates didn't register the million emails. It really doesn't matter if you don't forward it. If something really is a bad thing then don't you think it'll be all over the newspapers and the TV?
So yeah, sign away... :)
I'm also humoured by sites on the Internet warning about this supposed phone scam, there are some really guillable people out there!