AIBU to be angry that phone companies, I'm looking at you Plusnet, are profiting from vulnerable people being scammed with premium rate numbers?

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I'm unusually angry and frustrated. My mum, a clever, loving, trusting women in her mid 70's - tentatively getting online so she can book GP appointments and order her repeat meds, has been caught in an expensive email/ premium rate phone number scam.

I'd set her email up with a few store newsletters so when she received one that said it was from Morrisson and she'd been shortlisted to win £350 she thought nothing of calling the number.

I should mention she's also fairly deaf so when they asked her questions to win her £350 she needed to get them repeated. A premium phone lines dream. 48 mins around £50 of phone call later the call ended.

She was happily telling me how she thought she may be in with a chance to win because she was sure she'd answered all the questions. Painful alarm bells rang for me . I had a quiet chat with my dad. He was disappointed that a company like Morisson would go in for something like this. Completely missing the point that they too are an innocent party in all this.

Plusnet (their phone provider at my recomendation) wouldn't discuss the details with me, understandably, but found it all too easy to wash their hands. Nothing to do with them. I asked as my parents household would be vulnerable to this kind of thing, is it possible to block premium line number calls, like you can on your mobile, but apparently not. Absolutely nothing they can do - except profit from the vulnerable it seams.

My dad phoned them too. Initially they denied any record of a call, then my dad found the cost on his online bill and called back. Not their problem that it's happened, or it will keep happening to others. After all they're profiting from others pain!

So Am I Being Unreasonable to think phone companies shouldn't be washing their hands of scams when they're profiting?

It is unfortunate, but its not unknown that Plusnet do not offer the call baring function, especially considering they use the BT backbone.

I would start by marking those emails as spam though so they do not come directly into her inbox as that is not a plusnet issue.

Good luck in you trying to shame them though, hope you get somewhere as they are genuinely crap in not offering the service.

I'm with Plusnet.

Sorry, but your mum being taken in by a phishing/premium rate scam is not their fault OR responsibility.

These scams are well known.

My mother is only a few years younger than yours and knows better than to engage in such scams.

She has a list of premium rate prefixes next to the phone so she knows not to use them (unfortunately they are even attached to some 'legit' concerns - until very recently the UC 'helpline' was a premium rate number, this is why they tend not to agree with blocking them)

Plusnet (and other providers) don't get the majority of the money generated by these calls either, the scammers/business being called does.

In your position I think you need to educate your parents on:

A which numbers are premium rate services

B the most common scam techniques - phishing, pretending not to have heard the caller properly, mumbling so the caller can't hear them, malware (eg don't open unexpected emails), loan scams, fake security software etc

C preventive measures (eg getting decent security software and keeping it up to date, not opening unexpected email, not giving out security info eg passwords)

Scammers and scams evolve continually. The best way to avoid being taken in is a good healthy dose of scepticism.

Thank you. I will set the mail's as spam. She only gets a handful of emails. Literally the GP, pharmacy and a couple of shop newsletters. I don't know how they've targeted her.

I'm so annoyed at myself that this has happened and I didn't talk to her enough about scams and that it's put her right off the internet. Lack of online skills is so restricting with so much of the world online. I'd been trying to gently coach her and this is such a massive set back.

They haven’t targeted her though, they will use software so send millions of emails a second, they’ll go out to every iteration of an email addrsss you can think of, some won’t exist some will. Some will get filtered, some won’t. Unfortunately this has happened, and it’s awful that people are out there that do this to vulnerable people but all you can do is educate your parents and maybe ask them to check with you first.

Even yesterday DP got a dodgy text, we’re. It’s relatively savvy with stuff but still did a google to see what was what.

I wonder if it might be an idea for you to show her a few of the 'ads' about such issues? I'm sure they'll be on YouTube, perhaps there's some leaflets or something you can get for her?

Yes it's not targeted it's randomly generated email addresses and phone numbers they use.

I'm with tps which has greatly reduced nuisance calls but a few still get through. I take great delight in keeping them chatting until I have the info I need to report them, at which point I tell them I'll be reporting them for acting illegally! Hang up, block number and report.

My parents have that phone where new callers have to say who's calling first and then they can decide whether to answer or not.

My mum tends to the overly wary and won't use telephone or online banking. Inconvenient for her but it does make her less vulnerable.

My gran was scammed on her doorstep! "Roof repair" scammers (she was in early stages of dementia) - not the wisest move on their part as she was a well known and beloved member of the very small community. Took no more than a couple Facebook posts mentioning her as the victim for the thieves to be traced and police alerted. (Frankly they were lucky police found em first!)

You tube is a good idea. I should probably get over the pity party and accept it's not targeted. I've had so many different ones that have made me think twice over the years my filter is probably quite strong. I've not thought what it must be like to not comprehend these scams exist.

I am still disappointed that the big companies don't do something or show empathy. You'd think it would be quite easy to block scam numbers, have some sort of report a number function, a warning message when you dial a premium number.