A LEADING consumer association in Spain has released details of the five most common forms of telephone-based fraud, annoyances or forms of deception which are not technically illegal which it deals with on a daily basis.
The OCU receives over 40,000 complaints relating to mobile and landline phones and internet connections every year, and a significant number of these concern premium-rate lines and text messages, hard selling via cold calling and bothersome advertising.
One of these is the 'missed call scam' whereby the mobile phone owner fails to answer a call in time from an unknown number and, when returning it to find out who it was, is re-routed automatically to a premium-rate line – typically those starting in 806, 807, 906 or 907.
These either cost a very high sum per minute or, if the phone owner picks up in time, will be billed up to €4 just for answering.
A similar fraud involves an answerphone message if the phone owner answers in time, advising of a message or package to be sent to their home, which they need to send a text message to confirm can be delivered.
From that moment on, the mobile user is billed for a subscription to an expensive 'service' whereby he or she is charged a high amount for receiving adverts via text message – a system known as SMS Premium.
Other premium-rate phone number scams include calling or texting the mobile user about a job offer, which they are then advised to call a certain line to get details of.
These are high-cost numbers, usually starting 806 or 807, but in the event of a voice call the mobile user is told to phone 'eighty, seventy-five', and so on rather than 'eight zero seven', in an attempt to ensure they do not notice this is the case.
Apps with a built-in virus are frequent, but the phone owner does not realise until he or she gets a bill at the end of the month.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com