I suppose that a lot of you already know this but I can't believe that I'm the only one who didn't.
I got a missed call on my mobile and as I have a lot of free minutes I decided, foolishly to call back altho' I didn't recognise the number. Fortunately for me  my  phone provider 3 gave me a warning saying that 070 numbers were not included in my free minutes and that the charges could be anything from 25p to £1.50 per minute and gave me the option of hanging up. I had thought that all 07 numbers were normal mobile phone numbers but that is clearly not the case so I thought I would share this with you. Do you know of any other 07 numbers which are premium numbers.

reggie wrote on Oct 7^th, 2007 at 4:18pm:

... Do you know of any other 07 numbers which are premium numbers.

Some mobile numbers, which begin 075, 077, 078 and 079 are outside your minutes. These will probably not be the main UK networks.

For example, although the Channel Islands and Isle of Man aren't part of the UK, they use our numbering. Some landline packages don't include calls to landlines in those locations and I believe that mobiles are the same.

Three's pricing booklet is available in PDF here. Refer to page 32 where you will find a whole host of 07 prefixes which aren't included.

reggie wrote on Oct 7^th, 2007 at 4:18pm:

I suppose that a lot of you already know this but I can't believe that I'm the only one who didn't. I had thought that all 07 numbers were normal mobile phone numbers but that is clearly not the case so I thought I would share this with you.  Do you know of any other 07 numbers which are premium numbers.

Yes, 070 numbers are, at the moment, 'personal numbers' and are misused in the way you describe by unscrupulous people to make money from unsuspecting members of the public.  Patientline is a typical example (charging 49p per minute to call a bedside phone in an NHS hospital from a BT landline).

Technically, they're not Premium Rate numbers (but, of course, they are in reality).

Ofcom has said it may move the 070 range to the currently vacant 06 range to avoid confusion with mobile numbers but, as Dave points out, that won't be an end to the confusion.

Numbers that Vodafone regards as "non-standard" are here.

Just been caught out by 070 number. As a taxi driver I was given 070 number to ring on arrival for return. Fare came out after 3 calls and paid £3.50 fare for short journey. 2 weeks later I get bill from Vodaphone showing 40p, 68p and £2.96 for what I thought would be inclusive minute calls.

Dave wrote on Oct 7^th, 2007 at 10:46pm:

Some mobile numbers, which begin 075, 077, 078 and 079 are outside your minutes. These will probably not be the main UK networks.

Surely the OP was talking about 070 Personal Numbers Dave and not about mobile numbers at all, be they UK mobile numbers or channel islands or Isle of Man mobile numbers.  I therefore fail to see why you have not written your response with reference to the big Personal Number 070 ripoff that I thought all regulars on this forum (such as yourself) were very well tuned in to.

It is to Three's immense credir that they play a message that prevents their customers being conned when calling these numbers . Typically the other wideboys of the mobile industry such as Vodafone, 02 etc do not provide these warnings as they also pocket a huge ripoff charge for calling the 070 number along with the called party who takes another major chunk.

There is no case for any Personal Numbers to exist as their only stated reason for existence is still to fleece the public by misrepresenting a premium rate number as appearing as though it is normal rate (just like 084 and 087).  But the stupid regulator deliberately allowed this system to grow up in order to allow its greedy telcom buddies to become rich.  Now it is trying to take credit for belatedly starting to take action (at the speed of a garden snail) to close down a scam that it made possible.  Even the alleged original purpose of 070 numbers has always been a con because the charges levied are not proportionate to the benefit of the service received and they are also paid by the caller when they should be paid by the called party who derives the benefit from the service.

See www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/20/070_phonepayplus_fine/

and

www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/06/ofcom_phonepayplus_oversight/comments/

and

http://myreader.co.uk/msg/141413107.aspx


Quote:

For example, although the Channel Islands and Isle of Man aren't part of the UK, they use our numbering. Some landline packages don't include calls to landlines in those locations and I believe that mobiles are the same.

I have a Jersey mobile with United Mobile and www.18185.co.uk charges calls to it at the same rate as calls to other UK mobiles.  I am told that this is also true of mobile operators and that calls to Jersey mobiles do generally come out of bundled inclusive minutes.

NGMsGhost wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 1:52am:

Dave wrote on Oct 7th, 2007 at 10:46pm: Some mobile numbers, which begin 075, 077, 078 and 079 are outside your minutes. These will probably not be the main UK networks. Surely the OP was talking about 070 Personal Numbers Dave and not about mobile numbers at all, be they UK mobile numbers or channel islands or Isle of Man mobile numbers. There is no case for any Personal Numbers to exist as ... Quote: For example, although the Channel Islands and Isle of Man aren't part of the UK, they use our numbering. Some landline packages don't include calls to landlines in those locations and I believe that mobiles are the same. I have a Jersey mobile with United Mobile and www.18185.co.uk charges calls to it at the same rate as calls to other UK mobiles.  I am told that this is also true of mobile operators and that calls to Jersey mobiles do generally come out of bundled inclusive minutes.

Dave's comment was specific to the OP question he quoted: "Do you know of any other 07 numbers which are premium numbers."

When 070 numbers first appeared, they were about on a par with mobile to mobile calls at the time, 50 pence a minute or so, but a bit later they were  actually included in one or two lots of contract minutes. As you suggest, nowadays they're just about a total anachronism; though one or two people may be using them for diversion to foreign mobiles, there are cheaper ways overall

I think perhaps it was me who first told you that 18185 tariffs to Guernsey Jersey and Isle of Man mobiles (as well as some others) were the same as for UK main networks. I'm glad that your worries about this changing have not yet been vindicated.

Note that Jersey mobiles do not generally come out of all networks' minutes -
3, Vodafone: no
T-mobile: don't think so
Orange: don't know
Virgin: yes
O2: yes at the moment, for some or all people but needs checking, and there may be changes soon, as noted in their T&C

Isle of Man mobiles 07624 and 07924
3, T-mobile, Vodafone, : no
Orange, Virgin: yes
O2: yes, but remarks as above

IoM 078722 (this SIM doesn't have free roaming in UK, which is why I haven't checked much)
3, T-mobile, Vodafone: unlikely
Orange: don't know
Virgin: probably, but check
O2: as O2 remarks above

There are other non main network prefixes. When this thread was first posted, a number of these were in use for callthrough services, which the main networks were in the process of taking sanctions against, for example T-mobile had blcoked most of them from the start, while Orange and O2 were in the middle of doing so. There are other services on other 07xxxx (1st x not 0), such as VoIP operators designed to be used via wi-fi, or a few GSM low power operators, and some of these have been or are also being squeezed out of inclusive packages


And diverging a bit from topic: Sim4travel (also Jersey numbers) have recently notified forthcoming T&C changes, about daily connection and maintenance charges.

andy9,

Have you just been on a long summer holiday or something?  I just wondered because you seem to be in an unusually good mood, especially in relation to the content of any post from my good self. ;)

So far as cost of calling is concerned it seems often the telcso only bother to change the caller rate for calls to numbers on which their underlying costs are higher (but they seem initially unaware of it) when a lot of calls start going to those numbers and they begin to start to lose money on them.

For instance calls to US 1-800 numbers with 18185.co.uk used to be charged at the same 0.5p per minute as other geographic numbers in the USA but in the light of experience 18185.co.uk have now revised the per minute charge for calling US 1-800 numbers to 3p per minute, even though they still charge regular geographic area code numbers at 0.5p per minute..........

I received a message from a woman to call her back on her mobile, the number she gave me was 07036524955.
I spoke to her for 10 minutes and when my bill arrived it was £15. She had tricked me and given me a premium number.
WHAT SHOULD I DO?

0208meir wrote on Sep 17^th, 2008 at 5:43pm:

I received a message from a woman to call her back on her mobile, the number she gave me was 07036524955. I spoke to her for 10 minutes and when my bill arrived it was £15. She had tricked me and given me a premium number. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

You should not call 070 numbers.

Is there anyway I can get my money back?
Is their anyway she can be punished for this ?

0208meir wrote on Sep 17^th, 2008 at 5:48pm:

Is there anyway I can get my money back? Is their anyway she can be punished for this ?

No and no.

Why did you call her back when you didn't know who she was and why did you remain on the line for 10 minutes?

It was on a chat line, and she sounded cute.

0208meir wrote on Sep 17^th, 2008 at 6:01pm:

It was on a chat line, and she sounded cute.

Perhaps you will have to put this down to experience.

It seems that complaints to phonepayplus do occasionally work however:

http://newsweaver.co.uk/phonepayplus/index000298403.cfm?x=bdnF1k0,b9D2mhhD


Quote:

PhonepayPlus, the phone-paid services regulator, has launched an investigation following 31 complaints from members of the public.  Having contacted the network operator through whose network the service operates, PhonepayPlus considers the service provider responsible under the PhonepayPlus Code of Practice to be ‘PremTel Limited.’ The complaints relate to an email which resembles an invoice for computer equipment. The email encourages recipients to call ‘070’ prefixed numbers which are charged up to 50p per minute from landlines, and potentially considerably more from mobile phones. Due to the very serious nature of the alleged breaches of its Code of Practice, PhonepayPlus has invoked its emergency procedure to bar access to numbers associated with the service with immediate effect.

I think the ASA is best at dealing with complaints and doing so generally fairly most of the time.  I believe phonepayplus (ICSTIS) arent that bad with dealing with complaints unlike OfcoN that go out their way to avoid dealing with any consumer lodged complaints.

However, if I were an OCP and regulary meet OfcoN execs, etc for lunch and meetings etc then they will deal with a complaint even if only one OCP lodges a complaint.

Just what does OFcoN propose to do now with 070 and the scams now that they dropped the free-to-caller cost announcement?

bbb_uk wrote on Sep 19^th, 2008 at 2:27pm:

I think the ASA is best at dealing with complaints and doing so generally fairly most of the time.

They seem to be properly investigating my recent complaint against match.com's tv advertisements (seen on Formula 1 Racing on ITV amongst many other places) that they could not substantiate their ludicrous claims that they now had "too many women" on their dating database and so were short of and desperate for more men to sign up.

We all know in reality nearly all these internet dating services and webcam chat sites have 10 times more men than women on their books.  You only have to visit any web dating chat type site to see that is the case.

Todays Daily Mail (p58) has an advert using an 070 to receive an info pack. It is a pn3 cost from a BT landline @ 49/39 pm! I have never seen an 070 used in an advetisement in a national daily!

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