Comments on: 3Com 3G Phone Scam

By: Michael Couch

Michael Couch — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:54:34 +0000

3Direct & 3G are pestering my mother trying to get her to take a mobile phone on her DECEASED husbands account. It is no good either of them saying it is not them as I have just looked at both 3G & 3 Direct,s web pages and both of their customer service telephone help lines are identical. I shall be phoning tomorrow to get this nasty cold calling stopped.Once again this cold calling has to be stopped
before it really upsets an elderly person and causes either a stroke or a death.

By: Mr Peters

Mr Peters — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:17:24 +0000

Had a phone saying they were t mobile and would upgrade me with a new phone, I received phone and realised this was not t mobile, but g3, I phoned straight back and returned the phone, with proof of purchase and they say they have not received it??? they are now sending bills even though the phone was never activated, and they have set the debit collectors on to me, I have contacted trading standards. I am not young and this is upsetting me greatly

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:32:29 +0000

Just had a call from those plonkers.

I told them I wasn’t interested but they persevered.

Me: “where are you calling from London”?

Him: “of course sir”!

Me: “So how is the weather up their in Manchester?”

Him: “Good sir, good”.

After asking him where he got my number from he said the white pages. I told him that it was impossible as I am TPS, and I bet he didn’t know my name. He told me that I am quite silly because names aren’t listed in phonebooks only numbers! riiiggghhht whatever!

So I asked to speak to the manager, and he proceeded to call me an a*shole and a c*nt and that he was a manager. After sinking my teeth into him he asked me why I was speaking to him. Because you called me you retard!!!!

So needless to say he didn’t get a deal out of me….

By: simone

simone — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:05:08 +0000

I have just had 2 calls for to people who could not speak english at all. They tried to sell me a phone. I asked where they got my number from and they said BT which is odd as I am with NTL/Virgin and ex directory.
I put the phone down on them twice and both times after asking to speak to a manager and then shouting and them.I did 1471 and got the number 0701 2212212
This is aboiously a scam of some sort and urge people not to pass on any personal details.

By: henry ayton

henry ayton — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:39:53 +0000

hi to all,,ho read this,,my dad was on 3.he past awawy in may of this year,,3 keep phoning my house asking for him,i keep telling them hes past awawy,,ive tried to get them to stop phoning my house but thay just keep phoning,,ive had it up to my eyeballs with 3,,ne 1 got ne help thay can offer me,as this 3 is upseting my mum badly,,thank you kindly

By: jamie

jamie — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:05:15 +0000

Had another call from them again the other day. seems they are now trading as 3direct now maybe its just me, but that set alarm bells off after reading all abouth the sky scammming company satellite direct!! are they becoming a full scale ‘across-the-board’ scamming monster?

By: Holley

Holley — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:09:51 +0000

Here’s another twist on this scam… we were called with this great deal – 17.50 per month with 14 days cooling off period. My partner cancelled BEFORE the phone was sent, but the phone was sent anyway. We were told by the Glasgow office to return the phone but then got calls from India NOT to return the phone but that a courier would come to collect it. This went on for 3 months! In the meantime, despite the cancellation of the contract, they took out 17.50 from our account – (although the Indian call centre told us to ‘ignore any bills’) and we cancelled the direct debit and had our bank get the dosh back. They then had the audacity to rebill us that 17.50 plus another 17.50 for another month! No couriers have ever arrived to collect said phone. Now 3G or whoever they are are demanding not only demanding the 35 quid (which has now gone to a credit collection agency thus threatening to affect our credit rating!)but they want 300 odd quid for non-return of the phone within 14 days! We have now referred the case to Trading Standards…. we shall see what happens next…

By: mat ahoy

mat ahoy — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 18:23:08 +0000

i got a call off this so called “3com” last week,offereing me similar great deatils,saying they have just signed a million pound deal with o2.stating all my conversations will be recorded.

they sent me a phone,which i actually told them i didnt want anymore,say came back and said i cant cancel as my reason for cancelling isnt good enough!i mean,what is a good enough really for them?!?

after days of ringing and being fobbed off by them saying they wil ring me 2moro,and them saying i still cant cancel i went do to my local trading standards office and got them on the case.there is a clause to get out of verbal contracts within 7 days,they cracked on the phone saying “we had no record of you ringing up and speaking about this matter at all”,even though id been ringing for 3 days trying to sort it out.i asked for each of the peopels names and it was the same person each time but each tim giving different names,when questioned this one said” yeah we get that all the time,we must just sound similar”

these people are scumbags and after trading standards were on the case they cancelled straight away.so be warned.

so i have an address to send the phone back,but what happens if i dont send the phone back?hum,anyone got any ideas?

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:37:02 +0000

I had the same problem with 3, i got a telephone call saying i would get a new phone 600 minutes free for the next 3 mths there after Â£40 a month. I thought that’s great, but then i got a bill in that month stating a owed Â£170, I still had 565 minutes to use, they told me it was excluded numbers i was getting charged for. then they decided to let me keep the phone on a pay as you go for all the misunderstanding. I agreed of course.

By: Sharron Foster

Sharron Foster — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:50:05 +0000

Hello,

Yes i have just been contacted by this company however they did not speak.

I pressed 1471 and got 0018007018418 an American number. I automatically came to the internet and found this! So I guess they are still up to no good.

By: Usman Tar

Usman Tar — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 15:51:36 +0000

I have been expecting important call from the states. The phone rang this morning from the following numbers: 0018007018418; but the line off just before I was able to pick the phone. Just to be sure, I googled this number and discovered that the call was from some scammers. Thanks to the internet, I have been saved. They would have cajoled me into giving vital information about myself and finances.

By: jamie

jamie — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 02:01:11 +0000

well this is very very interesting. about 3 years ago, i got a call from this ’3com’. i was 16 at the time, and all the talk of the latest phone, half price line rental blah blah caught my attention and i snapped it up in a flash. 3 and a half long weeks later my phone arrived, and i had to ‘register’ the sim card. from that point, every day i received a call from an 087 number ‘checking’ i was getting on ok with the phone, seeing if any other family members would be interested etc. then, within about 1 week i received a bill for over Â£90. i couldnt work out how i had used the phone that much, especially seeing as i was meant to have 400 minutes. well i ended up paying it, stupidly, and received another shocking bill the next month. i decided to take it to the 3g shop and ask what was going on. it was there i was told that all the calls i had received off the aforementioned 087 number had all been reverse charged to my phone. it had turned out it worked a lot like ring back on your home phone. when their number is free , it rings you, but when you answer you are actually ringing them.
i was intent i would not pay it, and the tried to cancel the agreement. however i was apparently in a legally binding contract, which was funny, as nothing was in writing, all the agreements took place over the phone. the strangest thing was that they knew i wasnt even old enough to own a contract phone, yet they went ahead and gave me one anyway. i refused to pay for nearly 6 months when finally a letter from a debt collection agency came in and i was told i would end up in court if i didnt pay my Â£287.65 bill. i tried to explain but apparently the 3 network had provided them with copies of my bills showing that i had rung the 087 number, so i had to pay. these bastards need to be sorted out.

By: Mo

Mo — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:16:22 +0000

I just got almost exactly the same call today, I just hope giving them my name, number, address, and bank name wasnt enough for them to get enough info.

…but I did get this number from them 0018007018418 (it was the number that called).

Remember every one, if it is too good to be true, it ALWAYS is.

By: ModelCitizen

ModelCitizen — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:06:54 +0000

Yup, I have just received a text message (and I too am TPS registered). It states:
“We currently have a message awaiting your collection. To collect your message just call 0871 872 3816.”

The text message appears to come from the number 20105996500 which may be an Egyptian number.

I’m not going to ring an 0871 national rate number to find out what the scam is so forwarded the message to what I believe to be Orange’s spam reporting number: 7726 (but I may be wrong).

By: sparkly1

sparkly1 — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:22:54 +0000

I’m not taking any chances, I got the msge below this moring, thought “oh yeah bog off morons like I’m gonna fall for that” I aint even curious in the slightest about it so I deleted it pronto, and if they bother me again I’ll jsut keep doing the same. (dont care if it’s a scam or not I ant interested or curious enough to chance it).

says i have a msge waiting collecgtion and to ring 0871 872 3816

it’s gotta be tosh aint it.

By: alan purton

alan purton — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:52:48 +0000

hi, i just had a message from someone saying they have a recorded message for me, call 08718723810, when i called they said a few questions first, can you punch in your phone number, a few times i got this has not been recognized, same as my network, not recognized, so im still on the line repeating this by punching keys on the phone, i got wary then hung up, im not sure if its genuine, or a scam, any advice please, cheers alan

By: Dnz

Dnz — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 20:25:07 +0000

Hi,
I Keep getting these, but unidentifiable company name
“oagzz”
“pardon?”
“urrggzzzz” -
“oh right – and if I need to call you back what’s your number?”
(Launches into sales patter again)
“Can I speak to your supervisor?”
“I am the supervisor”
“I don’t think you are”
(click)
” – oh they’ve gone”

Anyway – today they called with a different company name “Buzz” apparently of Green Lane a UK registered company on behalf of 3G … whatever!
– After advising I was not interested I passed him on to my 3yr old.
(still no shaking him)
I then launched into my own patter about the TPS service (not that is would affect the Indian gentleman, but hey, he has to listen to my crap now..)
Not long before he hung up.
– Well they didn’t hide the number, it was 08007018418
but when called it says that the number isn’t free from outside the United States.

DnZ

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:46:36 +0000

They just called me. Exactly the same as above.

By: Faheem

Faheem — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:33:45 +0000

I got the same 5 minutes ago, from a mobile and I got their number, lol, 07976715311 so watch out if they’re stupid enough to use it again

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:29:13 +0000

Another call today, this time the call centre was obviously too busy because after 10 seconds (just enough time for me to get my trusty notepad and pen ready) they hung up without presenting me with the infamous unbeatable but unrepeatable offer.

The caller withheld their number, obviously, so I don’t know if it was Threecom again or not. The quality of the line and the musak selection was certainly the same as before.

So now it’s lunchtime, and I have to go and post a letter, but if I go out, I might miss a once in a lifetime bargain opportunity. Oh the quandry!