Regulator warns that number range reserved for radiopagers is being used in new premium rate ripoff

Had a "missed call" recently from an 076 number? It wasn't - it was actually part of a new scam, warns PhonePayPlus, the premium phone number regulator.

A number of people have already fallen victim to the scam, judging by the whocallsme site, which aims to offer reverse lookups to landlines for calls apparently coming from non-geographical numbers.

The tale told by bacon98 at the site is quite typical: "No idea why I've called this number twice but it's not a normal mobile number as I've been charged 42.6p+vat per call & I don't know whose number it is!!!"

The structure of the scam is simple enough: the scammers buy up a range of numbers through a network operator, then use automated systems to make "ghost calls" to a huge range of numbers, never completing the call. You get a "call missed" message, call it back, and the network operator charges you the cost of the call - which, because it's ostensibly to a radiopager, costs very much more than a landline or even mobile call. Under the contract, which it thinks is legitimate (after all, perhaps someone set up a company which needed to call lots of radiopagers in a hurry), the network operator then passes a large cut of the proceeds on to the scammers - who soon after disappear with the loot. Then they pop up again a few weeks or months later running a similar scam.

PhonePayPlus, formerly known as Icstis, which regulates the £1bn premium call industry in the UK, warned today that it will take "swift action against the misuse of 076 numbers". Which would seem to be swift action against any use of 076 numbers to leave missed calls. Radiopagers, of course, can't make calls.

As PhonePayPlus explains, those numbers, reserved for radiopaging services, are not allowed to be used to provide a controlled premium rate service and generate revenue.

But, it says,

"Unfortunately, there is evidence that 076 numbers are being used for the same kind of "missed call" scams that have previously operated on the 070 number range. "

Colour us unsurprised: premium rate number scammers are unrelenting in their efforts to whirl up and down the phone number stack in search of niches they can exploit for profit.

PhonepayPlus says that it "successfully tackled 070 scams through prompt and effective enforcement action, reducing the number of complaints by 69% in the last quarter" and that it "will take a similarly robust approach to any scams operating on 076 numbers and will fulfil its duty to regulate any service that operates, or appears to operate, as a controlled premium rate service, regardless of whether the numbers involved are designated as premium rate in the Ofcom Numbering Plan."

Of course, as with all premium-rate number scams, questions have to be asked too about the network operators that provide the numbers to the scammers. If PhonePayPlus finds them in breach of practice, it can fine and/or ban them (and frequently has).

Paul Whiteing, chief executive of PhonepayPlus, said: "we will consider using our Emergency Procedure to shut down any service that is operating a "missed call" scam, pending a full investigation. We will have no tolerance for 076 scams that harm both consumers and damage the industry."

So is there an 076 number in your "missed calls" list? And did you call it back?