My phone rang today and just as I was about to pick up and they hung up. When I re-dialed it was this number - 07096 80 77 66 - but when I rang it, it was a recorded message of this man saying that it was a privacy number and to visit privacynumbers.com. It was about a 10 second message and when I hung up I got charged £1.50 for it. I looked online and found this stuff:

This at Ofcomwatch.co.uk
...and at a forum here

Come on, I thought everyone knows, never ring back numbers you don't recognise, especially those that begin 070 or 09x.

In all honesty, not being disrespectful, but you only have your own stupidity to blame.

Obviously not all

Yes, obviously I thought wrong!

Hopefully they have learnt their lesson this time.

Most people think every number starting 07 are mobile numbers.

09 numbers are known to most that they are premium rate, however very few people have any idea that an 070 number is not a mobile number.

Thanks a bunch!!....I regard myself as pretty streetwise and not AT ALL stupid but i fell for it too

LOL. You won't be doing that again in a hurry!

I take it 07865 is a shyty 3 mobile ?

Even if it is i don't phone 3 anyway!

Yes, it's either a Three mobile number or originally was a Three mobile number, either way from a landline you will be charged as per the original network.

http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/codelook.asp

Thanks for the link BexTech

No worries, a similar one here too.

If anyone gets these calls, they must report them to Ofcom on telephone number: 0207-981-3040 Monday to Friday 9am to 5.30pm.

Include:

The 070 number
The company name (If known)
Your details including network operator.[list=1][/list]
When you contact Ofcom.

That should be 020 7981 3040

That is the same number the guy above has put. Has he edited his post?

No he hasn't edited his post, but it isn't quite the same number, he has part of the local number mixed into the dialling code.

Therefore people living in or visiting London may think they can dial 981 3040 they will find the number doesn't work as it is a digit missing.

The Code for London is 020, therefore the local number is 7981 3040, if you dial 7981 3040 anywhere in London you will get through.

Jeez - as if there aren't enough posts on these forums complaining about spelling and grammar already, now we have number formatting.

Oh, and that should be code not Code.

Wouldn't it just be easier to dial 0207-981-3040 anywhere in the UK, including London - saves messing about thinking about whether you are in an area classified as a local call to London?

If you are calling from a mobile telephone, which this forum is dedicated to, you need to use all the digits anyway.
Last edited by dawson : 23-04-2006 at 10:55

Everyone down here in London advertises it as 0207 or 0208.

Not many people use local dialling too, I've seen people dial 0207 within London.

And not all of Greater London is 020 3,7 or 8.

There's 01895,01992,01708,01959 and 01753. They all cover bits of Greater London. These area codes seem to cover London boroughs.

Uxbridge
Colnbrook
Biggin Hill
Romford
Upminster
Waltham Cross/Enfield lock

And then 020 8 covers Elstree and Borehammewood which is strange since it is under Hertfordshire County Council and its not Greater London authority.

Far from everybody! I see loads of 020

No, it would be easier to call it 020 7981 3040 anywhere in the UK, since that is correct, it can't confuse anyone.

Same thing happens here in Leeds, some people insists on quoting 01132 as the area code instead of 0113.

This causes me to get lots of wrong numbers.

My number is 0113 224 7xxx and I get calls a couple of times a week from people looking for Leeds 247 xxxx numbers who dial 01132 247....

You can't do it on a mobile phone and you have to dial 0203,0207 or 0208 anyway and everyone I know outside London said they prefer it as 0207.

BT can't even do it either!

The 1471 service says '02073 intead of 0207 3 or 020 73.

Well all the advertisements I see use the incorrect format inlcuding the local council and some ad's still say 071 which very old.

That's nonsense, many, I'd say most use 020

Both the Newham and Waltham Forest council web sites use 020 on their front pages, which one doesn't?

What does it really matter. If you live in an area code you know what it is, and how to dial the number.

If you don't then something is wrong.

You often see Sheffiled numbers as 01142 or 01143 when the actual code is 0114, so? Unless your a bit simple its easy to recognise what number to dial.

If people who live in London and don't have an onuce of sense want to dial the number they could just dial it in full.

It matters to me because I think it causes more wrong numbers, like I said above.

If someone gets a Leeds number 247 xxxx and thinks the Leeds area code is 01132, they phone a wrong number.

Maybe thats because they are "bit simple" but makes it worse, cos I have to explain to people who are a "bit simple" that I am not the tax office.

I work in Leeds and live near Sheffield. If i ever see a number saying 01132 i know what the area code is (even though i don't live there) and adjust number so it makes sense. Surely people who live in Leeds and use internal numbers all the time have enough brain cells to work this out? Many of our numbers in the company are written 01132 for some unkown reason the 1k+ staff don't seem to have issues with the numbers.

I mean its not hard to work out that Leeds and Sheffield numbers have 7 digits whilst other surrounding areas such as Rotherham, Doncaster have 6 digits.

Just received a missed call on my mobile this morning, with the prefix "0709". So being inquisitive decided to enter the number into google. BEWARE THIS IS A SCAM, where you receive a missed call, and most people curiously would call back to see who the caller was, but it will connect you to a premium rate telephone line costing £1.50 a minute. BE WARNED!!!!