070 Fake phone interviews: Preying on the vulnerable

With a figure released recently of unemployment at 7.7% nationwide the lowest since 2009, we’re lead to believe that the economy is on the up. However, that still leaves 2.487 […]


With a figure released recently of unemployment at 7.7% nationwide the lowest since 2009, we’re lead to believe that the economy is on the up. However, that still leaves 2.487 million people desperately searching for work. Youth unemployment is still desperate in particular and in my experience severely exploited.

Having finally found a summer job when I retreated back home after my first year at university, I had begun to apply for a great number of jobs in Southampton for this coming year. Bar work is something I had gotten some experience in and came across a vast amount of vacancies for. When I browsed the popular advertisement site, Gumtree, I had not anticipated I would be a victim to a cold-hearted scam.

“URGENT BAR TENDERS, GLASS COLLECTORS AND FRONT OF HOUSE STAFF NEEDED FOR NEW STUDENT SOUTHAMPTON BAR OPENING”. I promptly rang the number given in the short advertisement. I had experience and a flexible schedule -great I thought! I rang the number given for a man called ‘Pete’. He had told me I had just caught him as he was leaving work and he would give me his colleague’s number to catch him as he was still in the office. I jotted down the number he gave me and without a thought rang his colleague.

I got through to a noisy line asking several times if this was the number for the job advertised on Gumtree. After a minute of static noises and a vague male Indian accent in the background I finally got told it was. “Why do you think you’d be ideal for this job?” he launched in. “What experience do you have?” he carried on. I gave long, elaborate answers, excited with the impression that this phone interview meant that they were desperate for staff and I would secure the job outright. Over 50 minutes the conversation went on and the questions became repetitive and suspicious and I got the impression the man wasn’t listening at all. “What were the last three books you read?”, “How do you deal with disappointment?”, “What is your medical history like?”. And the interview concluded with “Thank you. You will hear by October 17th. Bye.” And the line went dead. 17th of October?! I asked myself, the advert said “urgent”!

Annoyed and suspicious, I glanced at the number I had rung, beginning with 070. I then googled it and found it was in fact a ‘personal number‘ or ‘premium number’ wherein the owner profits from phone calls made to the number. These numbers cost between 50p to £1.50 per minute to ring. Panic stricken, I then called ‘Pete’, first number back, telling him my concerns about it being a potential scam. He kept a quiet, innocent tone rejecting my concerns and told me I would in fact hear by October 17th.

After more research on the internet, I had found fake interviews undertaken with personal numbers were not uncommon. 070 numbers are provided by Phone Pay Plus. They are often mistaken as ordinary mobile numbers because they begin with ’07’ and are eleven digits long. They are also one of the only premium numbers that do not have a cost warning at the beginning of the call making them ideal for scams. The BBC website had reported a similar case to mine of a young man who rang an 070 number advertising a bar job and was told to hold on the line until a manager could speak to him. Eventually giving up, he later found he had a £60 phone bill from that one call. Another variation of this scam are jobseekers who are with agencies being sent emails offering phone interviews for jobs. They unsuspectingly ring the 070 number and never hear anything again but are left with a hefty phone bill.

I checked Gumtree again later that night and had found the advertiser had posted the same advert in other major student cities such as Cardiff and Nottingham under different bar names. It was only an hour later when the adverts were deleted. Ringing the numbers back too proved to be impossible as my calls went ignored.

I had checked my phone bill and found I had a bill of £47 for those 50 minutes of embarrassing self promotion and false hope. These 070 scams are little known currently and need to be brought to attention so other victims do not fall into the same trap. They are some of the most cruel scams as the victims are too vulnerable and desperate for work not to take a chance. It is important to be wary of nondescript internet adverts and numbers given as you then run risk of being caught up in a scam yourself.

Currently the only organisation dealing with these scams is, Action Fraud who specialise with internet fraud and viruses. Their number is 0300 123 2040 to report your case.