Police are warning the public not to take a business phone number as an indication that it is legitimate or that it is based in the UK. An increasing number of UK-formatted telephone numbers have become available to individuals and organisations who are in fact based abroad.
Some of these are being used by scammers, who are effectively beyond the reach of British law enforcement agencies.
PC Steve Murphy, from Leicestershire Police’s South volume crime department, has investigated one case where a South Leicestershire resident lost more than £500.
PC Murphy said: “The young man was looking for a car loan. He saw a plausible-looking site on the internet, and provided his details. He was then called by the fraudsters who gave him UK addresses and what appeared to be UK numbers.
“He communicated using these numbers and was told he would have to pay a £70 application fee for the loan, and he thought he would get the money for his car. Then he was told he would have to pay a refundable £250 charge to insure the car. He did this, but was then told the money had not arrived – so he parted with another £250.
“When he reported the matter to us, we discovered the website and phone number were based in Asia. There was no loan company, and the fraudster was effectively beyond the reach of British justice. I think the victim would have been a lot more wary if he had been faced with an overseas phone number in the first place.
“There seems to be a general awareness that internet sites are not always what they appear to be, and now that caution needs to be extended to what appear to be UK phone numbers.”
Part of the tactic used by the fraudsters is to adopt business names which are very similar to legitimate UK-based loan companies.
PC Murphy said: “I would advise internet users always to research carefully any company they intend doing business with or are passing personal information to. Simply enter the phone number into your search engine and you may access posted warnings.”
