Online hoax warns users to avoid call from 02079461291 or be charged £340

Warnings are spreading through social media that inform readers not to answer any call from a certain number as it will cost you £340 just for doing so.

FALSE

An example of the warning can be seen below –

“Urgent my friend has just answered a phone call from 0207 946 1291 thinking it was business, it has cost him £340 to answer the call, apparently numbers starting 0207 946 are not issued by Ofcom ….. etc etc”

The warning is misleading and inaccurate.

Firstly, the warning has been spreading across the Internet since around April 2016, so if scammers were using such a phone number, they wouldn’t likely be using it anymore.

Secondly, despite the message clearly being aimed at UK readers (with the mention of the UK telecommunication regulatory body Ofcom) the message appears to assert that victims can be charged £340 for answering a call on their mobile phones, which is not possible in the UK.

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In the UK, mobile users cannot be charged for receiving calls, regardless of whether those calls originate from inside the UK or abroad. The only exception to this is when the recipient of the call is abroad themselves, in which case international charges may apply. However those charges would not instantly jump to £340 as quoted in the above warning.

As such, this warning is completely inaccurate and should not be circulated.

However it is worth noting that premium rate scams are a real type of threat. Despite the description in the above warning, these scams would require the recipient (the victim) who received the call to be tricked into returning the call before any charges could be made. Upon returning the call, the victim is then charged at a premium rate.

Though even with these scams, the figure given by the above warning of £340 is grossly exaggerated. Callers can be charged at premium rates but not even the highest billed tariff will charge anywhere near £340 for connecting a call. Premium rate calls are usually between £1.50 to £4 per minute.