Watch out for premium rate “personal numbers”
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) is raising awareness of the methods used by fraudsters to trick victims into calling apparent mobile phone numbers beginning with “070” which transpire to be premium rate numbers.
“070” numbers featured in over 2,600 fraud reports received by Action Fraud over the past year. Known as ‘personal numbers’, they are virtual numbers often programmed to forward incoming calls to one of a list of fixed or VoIP telephone numbers pre-selected by the client.
VoIP numbers allow phone calls over the Internet, enabling calls to be made or received anywhere with an internet connection, which makes tracing the calls much more difficult.
This enables potential fraudsters to provide an “070” number to victims while masking the number(s) that it diverts to, thus adding some protection to their true identity and location.