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New Scam or Costly Premium Rate Call Mistake
Here is another one, which was easily rectified. None the less it makes me wonder if it is another issue to watch out for
Over the past few days I had a fair few calls for people enquiring about a motorhome for sale. Don't have one, wrong number I thought at first. When the calls kept arriving I asked for the number they dialed. It was completely different to mine. So I asked where they got it. It was in an ad on the Caravan Club's Website for a motorhome at a ridiculously low price. The problem was that the number dialed was a premium rate number which was diverted to mine. Very costly for the callers.
Last night I stopped answering the phone to unrecognised numbers and I sent an email to the CC advertising people stating that the rip off premium number was being diverted to my phone and asked them to change it. I didn't mention any suspicions, just that it was a wrong number. This bit is what I found a bit worrying. If it was a mistake you would have thought they would change the diversion number and let the ad continue. Instead they yanked the ad entirely and to me that's a red flag. It's one to watch out for as most, if not all of the private ads on CC have premium rate phone numbers.
Now I'm just putting it out there as a theory not accusation. I wouldn't be surprised or put it past a dodgy salesperson to put fake ads and get the commision on the premium rate call. The setup appears to be open to this abuse.
Hopefully it's a genuine random mistake and one off. However, I don't want to be changing my number, because that is a hassle!
Anyone else had a similar experience?
Over the past few days I had a fair few calls for people enquiring about a motorhome for sale. Don't have one, wrong number I thought at first. When the calls kept arriving I asked for the number they dialed. It was completely different to mine. So I asked where they got it. It was in an ad on the Caravan Club's Website for a motorhome at a ridiculously low price. The problem was that the number dialed was a premium rate number which was diverted to mine. Very costly for the callers.
Last night I stopped answering the phone to unrecognised numbers and I sent an email to the CC advertising people stating that the rip off premium number was being diverted to my phone and asked them to change it. I didn't mention any suspicions, just that it was a wrong number. This bit is what I found a bit worrying. If it was a mistake you would have thought they would change the diversion number and let the ad continue. Instead they yanked the ad entirely and to me that's a red flag. It's one to watch out for as most, if not all of the private ads on CC have premium rate phone numbers.
Now I'm just putting it out there as a theory not accusation. I wouldn't be surprised or put it past a dodgy salesperson to put fake ads and get the commision on the premium rate call. The setup appears to be open to this abuse.
Hopefully it's a genuine random mistake and one off. However, I don't want to be changing my number, because that is a hassle!
Anyone else had a similar experience?
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