Phone scam firm fined and banned

A company which hoodwinked jobseekers and househunters into calling a premium rate line – under the guise of a mobile number – has been banned by the regulator after consumers racked up hundreds of pounds in phone bills.
RS Premium ran ads and sent emails asking people to call a 070 number which charged the caller up to 50p a minute.
One caller who complained to PhonepayPlus reported being charged £130, while another said her profoundly deaf daughter had been landed with a £95 bill after contacting the number via text.
Callers were never told the cost of the calls or offered a job interview or a home viewing. The company has been fined £120,000 and will no longer be allowed to operate a premium-rate phone number.
In October PhonepayPlus fined a sole trader, John Francis, £75,000 for a similar scam, and it said consumers should take care when dialling 070 numbers.
PhonepayPlus chief executive Paul Whiteing said: “No scams are acceptable but those that target people who are working to find a job or a home and are already hard pressed are particularly shocking and will not be tolerated.”
In the past the communications regulator, Ofcom, had proposed closing all 070 numbers because their resemblance to mobile numbers made them popular amongst fraudsters. It reversed that decision, but is currently assessing their use.
The move comes as Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo have banned the use of premium rate numbers in directory enquiries type websites. Website owners have seen their domain names being disabled over the last few weeks and have been told by customer service representatives at the advertising platforms that the business model will no longer be allowed to run on the respective networks.