Please Be Aware!.

Please circulate this around to those you know, especially as Christmas
is
fast approaching. The following 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

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/pds.as

This is not true.
There is a capped limit on 0906 numbers of £1.50.
Its an Urban myth to be charged £15 on connection, and calls are not allowed to last more than 6 minutes ie £9 Max call charge, as stated in the following link:

Linky to info


Still Who would be gullible enough to ring a premium rate service to pick up a parcel. Most carriers have 0800, or 0845 (or equivalent rate lines) for customer services.

ie the posting and passing on is the "virus" ie to get tons of useless mail and traffic on the net.


PLEASE CHECK these sorts of Scam Emails etc BEFORE passing on to others.
Usually a quick check will show it to be a nuisance email / post.

Matc - No offecnce intended. never panic, at these types of emails etc.. just quietly check first.


[Edited on 6/11/2006 by wilkingj]

I think in this case it's a bit harsh calling is an urban myth. It was a real scam for Christmas 2005, the only bit that was wrong was the £15 figure. If you were stupid enough to listen for the full 6 minutes you got stung for a mere £9 !

As for who would be gullible enough to ring a premium rate number to find out about a parcel.... believe me it's in the hundreds of thousands at least.

Agree completely that people should check them out first though before posting

quote:

---

Originally posted by wilkingj
This is not true.
There is a capped limit on 0906 numbers of £1.50.
Its an Urban myth to be charged £15 on connection, and calls are not allowed to last more than 6 minutes ie £9 Max call charge, as stated in the following link:

Linky to info


Still Who would be gullible enough to ring a premium rate service to pick up a parcel. Most carriers have 0800, or 0845 (or equivalent rate lines) for customer services.

ie the posting and passing on is the "virus" ie to get tons of useless mail and traffic on the net.


PLEASE CHECK these sorts of Scam Emails etc BEFORE passing on to others.
Usually a quick check will show it to be a nuisance email / post.

Matc - No offecnce intended. never panic, at these types of emails etc.. just quietly check first.


[Edited on 6/11/2006 by wilkingj]

---

I agree that lots of people would call any number if they thought that there was a parcel waiting for them.

No harm in passing it on. Although there are some emails you get, that you blatenley know are there just to get passed on to as many people as possible.

quote:

---

Originally posted by greggors84
Although there are some emails you get, that you blatenley know are there just to get passed on to as many people as possible.

---

Yeh, but when the police station send it to a work place it must be bad!

Have heard of a few people having these letters posted through there door in west norfolk.

Reminds me of a scam they used to do on the local trading estates round here.

Guy turns up at your office in a white van wearing a tshirt with a courier firm logo on it, carrying a big box. Box has your address on it, but a foreign name. Your receptionist says no-one here by that name, courier insists on delivering to the individual. He says "can I use your phone to ring my office?". Your receptionist gives him the phone. He phones his own 0898 number and makes like he's talking to his office. "Yeah it's Billy, can you check an address / parcel for me?" He gives them the code, they check on the "computer" then he says "they are phoning the sender", he hangs on. Eventually after about 10 minutes he says there has been a mistake and leaves with the box. All the time you have been paying his premium rate phone line. He changes the label on the box and goes to another company on the estate, and starts his routine all over again.

At £1.50 a minute, after 6 miutes he's made £9, if he can do 5 offices in an hour he's on £45 a hour (less the box and the van).

Watch out, there's a million scams out to rip you off out there.

Mike