Phone companies must act over premium rate scam 'epidemic'

Every phone company in the UK has been urged to provide free barring services to help curb a premium rate call fraud "epidemic".

The number of complaints from people unwittingly dialling expensive and fraudulent premium rate numbers in response to letters, small ads, through bogus prize competitions and via the Internet has at least doubled in the last year alone, according to the Trading Standards Institute (TSI).

The institute has also called for "strict new regulations and tough penalties" for fraudsters who break guidelines.

"We estimate that more money is probably being taken from consumers every day in premium rate scams than through any other scam," said TSI chief executive Ron Gainsford.

"It’s like a sickness that is reaching epidemic proportions – and we are struggling to contain it," he said.

The TSI advised that consumers can protect themselves by setting up a call-barring facility on their phone. Most phone companies offer the service, but some charge for it – it should be free, the institute said.'

TSI is also lobbying for premium rate phone numbers, currently all prefixed 090, to be split into two distinct categories with different prefixes so consumers can easily recognise those which are going to be particularly expensive.

(gmcg)