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My mum recieved this advice today on a leaflet distributed by Help The Aged.

On answering your phone you will hear a message as follows.



"Congratulations, you have won an all expenses paid trip to an exotic destination, please press 9 now to hear further details."



If you do press 9 you will be connected to a premium rate phone line that costs in the region of £20 per minute.

If you do connect & hang up immediately the others stay connected for 5 minutes, costing you £100.

The full reply lasts 11 minutes (£220)

The final part of the call asks you to key in your post code & house number, which could lead to other serious consequences.

Finally after a further 2 minutes the call responds with a message saying "Sorry you are not one of the lucky winners" and disconnects with £260 added to your bill.

The safe solution is to hang up before you are asked to press 9.



THIS IS ANOTHER SCAM TO WATCH OUT FOR



If you recieve a phone call from someone claiming to be a technician testing the line, or anyone asking you todo the following DON'T

They will ask you to dial 90 then press the hash key # and hang up.

That gives them full access to your phone line, which allows them to

place long distance calls or chat lines.

These are then billed to your account.



BE ON YOUR GUARD



PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION ON TO ALL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

I joined the Telephone Preference Service to stop this sort of unwanted call, and although the phone has been quieter, those recorded 'you've won a holiday' messages still get through. They are really annoying! I'd noticed one of them gave you a number to ring but didn't mention how much it costs.

Heidikins wrote: Thanks for that, Abbey. I've vaguely heard of these type of things before. It's horrible, isn't it.You're not wrong luv!

My Mum's a bit dippy & she'd be pressing 9 like a good-un..:yh_ooooo

And the Reader's Digest had the Irish thinking they had won £25,000

Since moving here I've been getting loads of these calls, sometimes more than once a day, thing is you answer and hang up, pick the phone up again and the message is still playing.

If I don't answer it goes onto voice mail and the message is still played.

So far we haven't had any charges for these calls, but I'm watching the bill.

letha wrote: Since moving here I've been getting loads of these calls, sometimes more than once a day, thing is you answer and hang up, pick the phone up again and the message is still playing.

If I don't answer it goes onto voice mail and the message is still played.



So far we haven't had any charges for these calls, but I'm watching the bill.Well love, change your number

capt_buzzard wrote: Well love, change your number:-2 Or alternatively register with the telephone preference service

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/ I did & have no more calls x.

abbey wrote: :-2 Or alternatively register with the telephone preference service

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/ I did & have no more calls x.Yep.

capt_buzzard wrote: Well love, change your number
I have learnt in London, it makes no difference. All phone numbers are recycled, but in other areas there is a time period between reusing numbers... Doesn't seem to exist here.

May try that link though Abbey. We would have hidden numbers banned, but two people in this house have families outside the UK and those numbers get blocked as well.

Flouncey wrote: Had this phone call tonight



We are already with the TPS so we are a bit peed off about it. :mad:Go back on and re-register, some do slip through the net.

thanks for the warning, i will let as many people know as possible