MP Warns of Phone Bill Internet Scam

11.14.26am GMT Tue 15th Feb 2005

Vincent Cable MP said he had encountered a growing number of cases of local people being subject to Internet Fraud by companies with telephone addresses in places like Tuvalu, Cape Verde or Diego Garcia; and are then threatened with disconnection by BT if they fail to pay what are often massive bills.

Vincent Cable has written to the telecom regulator, Ofcom, and the premium line regulator, ICSTIS, demanding that action be taken against BT for "acting as a debt collector for fraudsters. BT is taking a rental income from these lines and enforces payment from customers. Yet it has the nerve to suggest that if people are being defrauded it is none of its responsibility and unhappy customers should write themselves to some God-forsaken tropical island which the fraudsters are using as a postal address.

"BT is either being utterly pathetic or worse. If it is duped into accepting business in the form of connections with fraudulent premium line companies, it must pay the bill; not the customer. It offers a bar on new calls but this is too late and sometimes doesn't work. The so called regulator is inundated with so many complaints that it cannot handle them. There is a major scandal here and the regulatory authorities should get off its backside and tackle it."

Contacts:

Mrs Hubbard, 85 Marble Hill Close, Twickenham - 020 8892 9700

Mrs Banfield, 34 Northcote Road, Twickenham - 020 8891 1197