How to avoid premium rate scams The problem

One third of British adults have received a scam phone call

It’s often the same scenario. The phone rings and a recorded voice tells you that you're the lucky winner of an amazing car or holiday. All you have to do is call a premium rate number for further details.

But you won't end up with either prize, just a much bigger phone bill.

They work by tempting you to phone a premium rate number, with the promise of a prize or reward that may never materialise.

Calls cost £1.50 a minute so the longer you stay on the phone, the more money the scammers will make.

From our files

The government took action in 2006 against Hertfordshire-based Sure to Win Ltd after it conned consumers into calling a costly phone line.

The company, which traded as The Prize Bank Consortium, distributed more than 1.1million mailings urging people to claim their £10,000 prize.

Recipients were asked to either call a line costing £1.50 a minute, or to send a special text that cost £7.50.

Almost 204,000 people called. As the average call lasted almost seven minutes, many spent more than more £10, while a further 30,000 sent the reverse-billed text.

But nearly everyone who responded was entitled to just a cheap 'diamond pendant'.

Cheap pendant

Participants also had to pay an additional 'packing and damage waiver charge' of either £3.95 or £6.95 to claim their prize - but this was hidden in a long list of small print on the back of the mailing.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said the mailings were misleading as they implied that the recipient had won £10,000.

It obtained binding undertakings from the company to stop publishing misleading adverts for premium-rate prize promotions.

If you want to complain about a premium rate telephone service, contact ICSTIS on 0800 500 212 or visit the ICSTIS website.