Sunday 4 November 2007

Postal Scam Warning

Can you circulate this around especially as Xmas is fast approaching - it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number). DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call. If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 02072396655 or ICSTIS (the premium rate service regulator) at www.icstis.org.uk

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A STATEMENT FROM PHONEPAYPLUS ABOUT THE CURRENT ‘POSTAL SCAM’ CHAIN EMAIL



PhonepayPlus, the phone-paid services regulator, is aware that a chain e-mail about an alleged postal scam is being circulated on the internet. The email refers to the Royal Mail, Trading Standards and ICSTIS (PhonepayPlus’ former name).



PhonepayPlus appreciates that recipients of the email may want to find out more information about the alleged scam and has therefore issued the following statement:



· The chain email refers to a service that was shut down by us in December 2005.



· We subsequently fined the company that was operating the service, Studio Telecom

(based in Belize), £10,000.



· The service is NO LONGER running and has NOT been running since December 2005.



· The email refers to a £15 charge for simply being connected to a recorded message.

This is NOT TRUE – a £15 connection charge does NOT exist. The service in question actually cost £1.50 per minute and lasted six minutes, making a total cost of £9 if callers stayed on the line for the full six minutes.



· You do NOT need to contact PhonepayPlus, or the Royal Mail, about this service as it was stopped almost two years ago.



· If you receive a copy of the email warning you about the alleged scam, please do NOT forward it to others. Instead, please forward this statement from PhonepayPlus.



· Please go to www.phonepayplus.org.uk/pdfs_news/ConsumerGuide.pdf for useful information about how to recognise phone-paid services and understand what they cost,

and some simple tips to help you enjoy using services with confidence.



· For more detailed information about our work, please visit www.phonepayplus.org.uk.