Earlier today I received a phone call from an automated voice telling me I was liable for a free loan or compensation or lottery winnings or somesuch rubbish. It told me that if I pressed the number five on my handset I could hear all about it. Annoyed at being bothered, I hung up. The call didn’t end. I hung up again. The voice carried on talking. I unplugged my phone for a few minutes, plugged it back in and the voice was still there. I listened, rather creeped out, as it came to the end of the recording and finally disconnected me.
I didn’t press the number five on my handset, despite it telling me to.
I dialled 1471 to see who’d called me and discovered it was a 001 country code, which meant that the call had come from America. So I rang BT to check with them that I hadn’t been the victim of some scam and hadn’t been paying for the call at extortionate rates from the second I picked up the phone (because I’m rather paranoid about things like that).
BT informed me that the call came from Michigan, that the only way I could have disconnected it was by unplugging my phone from the wall for 15 minutes, that I hadn’t been paying for it, but if I had followed the automated voice’s advice and pressed the number five on my handset, the call would suddenly have cost me over one hundred dollars a minute.
That’s around £51 for 60 seconds of automated voice.
BT also told me that people fall for this trick quite often. I’m imagining little old ladies pressing the number five on their handsets because they really believe that they are eligible for a free loan or compensation or lottery winnings or somesuch rubbish. One hundred dollars a minute.
One hundred fucking dollars a MINUTE.
What kind of sick scam are these despicable people pulling? After a quick internet search I found other people complaining about them, too. It seems they’re based in Lancashire and they’re a ‘debt solutions’ firm. Anyone fancy burning down their offices? While they’re still inside, perhaps? Although burning might be too good for them, actually. Immoral, scheming, thieving bastards.
Although at least they’re better than that guy in Austria who kept his daughter in a cellar for a quarter of a century. You’ve probably heard about it on the news, so I won’t go into detail, but suffice it to say that I have never been so sickened and incensed about anything in my entire life. If that guy was being kept in a jail somewhere near to me, I’d claw through the walls to reach him and rip him to shreds for what he did to that poor girl.
Sometimes I’m ashamed to be a human being. There are so many ways to hurt people, and so many ways to hate.
7 Comments
Monday, April 28, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Actually ripping to shreds might be a bit generous. Burying him alive in his sodding cellar might be more appropriate.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 12:20 am
Sorry, but that is utter tosh – you cant get charged $100 per minute for an incoming call.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 12:09 pm
What about making him immortal and letting him suffer a bruning cellar FOR EVER? It seems a bit harsh, I know, but that’s my feelings. Being a mother myself I cannot understand how HER mother never suspected of anything…
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I think it’d be great to combine the two and have him on on of those eternal cold call “press 2″ thingos. But like, forever. xx
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 3:59 pm
1. Report the fuckers.
2. The world is a very sad, scary place.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 4:48 pm
To Toby (I only just saw your message) – no, you can’t get charged $100 a minute for an incoming call. However, if you press five on the handset like they asked, it changes the call to an outgoing call, and you CAN get charged $100 a minute.
Like I said in my post, BT told me it happens all the time. People are dumb enough to press the button. Why, I don’t know…
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Why do people give their bank details to African email scams? Or open the door to Jehovah’s Witnesses? Sadly, people are just stupid.