[petkow]

Thanks Andy. As suspected it is bound to have been flagged somewhere before, and after your post I did a bit more research and saw a thread on a UK forum (known to you too) where one guy got so worried after phoning his mother and hearing the recording, had assumed his mothers house was being burgled and drove 1 hour to check up on her! (all subsequent calls using "high price" normal phone providers were just diverted to her answering machine). From there, and other threads the problem seems to be particularily bad whilst calling from Betamax/Finarea affiliates (no surprises there), but obviously these guys are pretty much uncontactable and largely unaccountable for their alleged faults! I presume most people just brush it off.

It is obviously more than just a bit of a problem, but my worry is it seems to be also getting worse! Yesterday somebody spent close to about 2 US$ in various failed attempts to get through to me this way! This may be relatively small money but to the operators of this con, this is an easy get rich quick scheme!

My particular problem is it also makes the recipient look unproffesional. For example, I rely on people calling me on my mobile for work purposes during normal business hours. Unfortunately dogs barking, TV on full blast and unprofessional phone pickups hardly sound very business like. However, I cannot convince people that the problem lies with their calling platform rather than with me! On follow ups with some of my callers they have often wrongly assumed I have been having a day off or lie-in or something like that!

From what you are saying above and from other threads I have read there has not really been a solution to this. From everything I have read, all complaints to watchdogs and regulators (e.g. OFCOM etc.) have not been very forthcoming. Is this something we just have to deal with if we want to continue having cheap options for calls etc.? I am stuck on this! A bit alarming as a lot of us rely on +447