"Derek ^" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 22:08:07 +0100, Guy King
wrote:

The scammers hope to make lots of money by people ringing a premium rate
phone number. However, these days the numbers get shut down quite
rapidly. The scammers share of the phone charges used to be available to
the scammers straight away, so they could wait till the line's shut
down, clear out the account and disappear with the profits. Doesn't work
like that now - the money isn't available straight away, it's retained
by the telco and is forfeited if the number turns out to have been used
fraudulently.

IIRC that was introduced because scammers had taken to scamming
themselves (as it were) by phoning their own premium rate numbers,
immediately making off with the proceeds, and leaving an enormous
unpaid phone bill.

A classic of the genre was carried out in NY, probably lot's of other places
as well. A courier would turn up in reception to collect a package, of
course there was no package and the reception staff would not know anything
about it. So the "courier" would say "Oh could I just use your phone to call
my office and check what the problem is?" Of course he wouldn't phone his
office but instead a $30 a minute south seas premium number set up by the
scammers. Get 20-30 people to do that 20-30 times a day and you have quite a
little earner.

H