070 numbers - request for help with a survey, please

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Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 1:55 pm

First a bit of background in case people are not familiar with 070 personal numbers. They look like UK phone numbers, but they are actually "follow-me" numbers. You can redirect the call anywhere in the world for free. The caller pays the costs, and the provider takes a slice of that, sometimes not charging the subscriber anything for the service or number. Victims find them reassuring, and they lend credence to lads' claims that they are in the UK, so they are really something of a menace as far as 419 is concerned. The telecommunications regulator in the UK, Ofcom, has looked into use of these numbers before and may be doing so again. They used to insist on a pre-call announcement to alert the caller that they have called a personal number, but these have now been scrapped. The reasoning for the scrapping is set out on Ofcom's site (here).

I am going to be writing to Ofcom to ask them what they are doing on 070 numbers, and their abuse, and I'd like to be able to include some supporting evidence from Eater as to how often the 070 numbers are used in scams. I know it is not very scientific, but I'd like to run a survey for a week, starting this Saturday, 24th May. If you're interested in helping out, all you'll need to do is keep a note of how many scam emails you receive from 09.00 (your time) on Saturday 24th May until 08.59 Saturday 31st May, and how many of those have an 070 number. At the end of the week, please email me a note of the results to [email protected] The information will go to Ofcom in a collated form, and nobody apart from me will know an individual's results.

Please sign up here if you're happy to help, and thanks in advance - your assistance is much appreciated! Very Happy

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 2:18 pm

I'll monitor my catcher account and count them up. I'd like to wager that at least 80% of my incoming has an 070 number.

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 2:30 pm

One easy way would be to do a search on your 'catcher' account, or for me, one of my Lotto Lad baiting accounts for 070 and then 'top and tail' the result.

It might be handly to provide examples of the mails too, as it's one thing to make an assertion, but when faced with all the mails referring to winning lotteries, dead relatives and money stuffed trunk boxes, they speak for themselves.

Just my thought.

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 2:41 pm

And a good thought, Gomer, thanks. Smile

One or two examples per baiter would be really helpful, although I'd rather not have the entire contents of everyone's catcher accounts for a week. Very Happy

And thanks, M. Smile

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 3:50 pm

I'm in, but really don't get to many.

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 5:15 pm

Google says a lot

Quote:

Results 1 - 10 of about 247,000 for 070 scam. (0.61 seconds)

But I'll keep an eye out.

Elite Baiter Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 1455

You can get a list of phone lad nos from http://www.phonelads.com/phone-lad-blacklists.php. About 1200 of the 2600 seem to be +4470-

Chuck Norris Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 1369

I run across a shitload of these on the vlad escrow sites, if that would be of any help.

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 5:27 am

Thanks, guys. Smile

Any info will be useful. I'm not planning to make this something very scientific, I'm just putting together anecdotal evidence to support what I'm going to write to Ofcom. I figure the more people they get raising concerns about 070 numbers in scams , the better. Smile

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:47 am

I'm in. I have a very active catcher account, and every other letter seems to have an 070 number in it.

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:50 am

Thanks, mate. Very Happy

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:56 am

Both scam and spam? I've got a few that say something like "invest in us and we'll make your you get back 10 fold" etc.

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 6:05 pm

Either/both will work for this, thanks, Reaper. Smile

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 3:55 pm

I've sent some basic info. If you need anything else please let me know. I'll keep the e-mails on file if you want any of them

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 4:08 pm

I was just reading the rev paul is a fraud star thread and I see the lads phone no. there is a 070. now that I know about that I bet a will be paying more attention to that little fact.
*EDIT* oops my bad its Catherine who has the 070 no. Embarassed

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