New mobile phone scam

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 09:56:06 +0000
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>
Subject: New mobile phone scam
X-Sender: nbr () popin newcastle ac uk
To: dave () farber net

Hi Dave:

Here is an article from today's (UK) Guardian newspaper, about a mobile 
phone scam they claim to have uncovered. If it is indeed new, you might 
want to send this to IP.

cheers

Brian


> New mobile phone scam promises prizes but could cost a small fortune
>
> Watchdog acts after Guardian investigation exposes calls con
>
> Audrey Gillan
> Wednesday February 18, 2004
> The Guardian
>
> Mobile phone users are facing the biggest spam nuisance to date as 
> computers bombard thousands of phones with a new scam called "missed call 
> marketing", the Guardian can reveal.
>
> Companies operating the scheme are facing a crackdown by the government 
> regulator, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Telephone 
> Information Services (ICSTIS), which said missed call marketing was, in 
> its view, "completely illegal". It has now suspended the numbers operated 
> by one company and launched an investigation after the Guardian passed on 
> details of the ruse.
>
> Experts predict that the con could surpass the cost and inconvenience 
> caused by conventional spam text messages, which have doubled to 2bn in 
> two years, but which have now become too widely known by the public after 
> a previous crackdown by the regulator.
>
> The latest scheme promises a cash prize of £1,000 which rarely 
> materialises but costs each unwitting victim about £15 in premium rate 
> phone bills
>
> It uses computer-generated calls to ring target phones just once so that a 
> number is left behind as a missed call. When users ring the number to find 
> out who has been calling them, they are answered by someone saying 
> "customer care" then the voice goes into the "congratulations" spiel. The 
> caller is then referred to a premium rate number where they can find out 
> more details of their "fantastic prize". At no time are they voluntarily 
> told how much this will cost them but a call to the number given to the 
> Guardian lasted 11 minutes at a cost of £1.50 a minute.
>
> Last year, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that telephone 
> companies must seek the permission of the phone user before bombarding 
> them with marketing material. Under a European commission directive 
> brought into force last year, unsolicited marketing material can only be 
> sent electronically if the receiver has previously notified their consent.
...

Full story at:

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/mobile/article/0,2763,1150247,00.html
--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/