Cumbria County Council’s Trading Standards are warning consumers to be alert to a parcel scam.
A card addressed to the householder is delivered through the post. The card indicates that a digital camera is awaiting delivery to the address. The householder is invited to ring a telephone number, quoting a security confirmation code to release the parcel.
The telephone number is a premium rate 0906 number, costing £1.50 per minute. Callers are taken through a series of questions lasting 6 minutes, raking up a whopping £9 charge to the householder.
Phil Ashcroft, Head of Cumbria Trading Standards says:
“The cards looks like a typical ‘we called but you were out’ card used by various home delivery organisations. It is, however, a cunningly worded invitation to telephone a premium rated service. The cost of the call is shown in minute print on the card but, in my opinion, it has been designed to trap the unwary. The value of the item will almost certainly be less than the cost of the phone call.”
The Parcel Delivery Service is run by Wrexham based Studio Telecom. Studio Telecom, which has offices in Belize, Central America, was fined £20,000 in June 2005 by ICSTIS for a similar scheme involving mock checks.