A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number). DO NOT call this number as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.
If you call this number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call.
If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 0207 239 6655 or ICTIS (the premium rate service regulator) at www.icstis.org.uk or your local trading standards office.
This is a genuine scam.
This service is under investigation by ICSTIS. Please be aware of this scam and forward this information to as many as possible.
Comments
So it's a "Genuine" scam? Is that some sort of seal of quality? Is a genuine scam better or worse than a fake scam?
Alan on 2006-10-19 10:29:26 +0000A "fake" scam would be one which later turns out not to have existed. I had an email alert about one today.
So the rule is - ignore a fake scam from some random email, pay attention to a scam the police say is genuine. Seems quite clear to me...
BB on 2006-10-19 12:46:25 +0000BB wrote "So the rule is - ignore a fake scam from some random email, pay attention to a scam the police say is genuine. Seems quite clear to me..."
If only it were that easy. Fake scams don't tend to come from random email addresses, they're generally sent on by well meaning friends and colleagues. The best thing to do is this. If you recieve an email about a postal/telephone/email scam, type a few relevantcomments into google and you'll pretty much get an idea of the validity of the warning without even having to follow any of the links. If it turns out to be a genuine scam (of which I've only ever come across 2) then spread the word. If they turn out to be hoaxes, reply to all, politely suggesting that the sender follows the couse indicated above before sending out any future warnings, and also suggesting that they pass the message back 'up the line'.
This Scam is an unusual one, in that it was a 'real' scam (i recieved various warnings about it last year) that was investigated and shut down. Somehow, the warnings have reappeared (it only takes one person to start it) and it's status now resides as a 'fake' scam.
HTH
Nige, Internet guardian :-)
NI on 2006-11-01 10:06:26 +0000The above article is not true. Please see the first item on our Latest News page as a matter of urgency:
www.icstis.org.uk/news/latest_news.asp
I'd be grateful if you could alert others to the true situation - we are being bombarded by people who have been caused unnecessary anxiety.
For our leaflet 'Are you protected against premium rate scams?' please click: www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs_news/prs_protection_factsheet.pdf
Kate on 2006-11-01 14:44:26 +0000Err the above note WAS true, even the website you quote says that the 'scam' was effectively closed down.. The charge of £15 is an urban myth and if you look on http://www.hoax-slayer.com/pds-phone-scam.html it also advises that this has been closed down..
M
Mel on 2006-11-07 15:01:19 +0000Perhaps the strangest twist in this is that the Richmond Police where the ones that asked me to post this notice in the first place... seems like might be the most confused of all.
Peter @ stmgrts.org.uk on 2006-11-07 15:14:23 +0000