Web phone con to catch the unwary



Came across a web scam today while looking for a phone number for Groupon, the coupon guys, so beware!

Look at this screenshot below.



Of course the 09 code gives it away.  And they do say,

 ‘n.b. the information we provider can also be found without charge …’

... as if that mitigates their con.  But this could easily catch out the unwary with a £1.53p per minute bill, plus a per second charge thereafter.

This scam factory’s ‘justification’ really killed me:

“Why use us? We believe that people have enough going on in their everyday lives to spend time looking for numbers that some companies make difficult to find.  We charge for our service to cover the cost of researching and managing the phone number database…”

What a con!

My recommendation to find numbers easily and avoid the 0845 or 0870 scam used by many businesses  is to log on, free, to ‘say no to 0870’, saynoto0870.  Their database of non rip-off numbers is maintained by people like you and me

I also think that legitimate businesses should be acting to stamp out these scam merchants.  Surely ‘Groupon service number.co.uk’ – the address for the scam merchants above - is blatant ‘passing off’?  And that IS a crime.

Google themselves should also be closing these people down – the people behind ‘Groupon service number.co.uk’ have paid to get top billing in Google searches, to ensure they get the best chance to catching the unwary.

Look at what a Google search for Groupon contact throws up – loads of scam merchants!




And another ... In thius case, the use of a Google Map adds a veneer of legitimacy.

 



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