Sky UK Warn of Fake Premium Rate Call Sites Targeting Customers
Sky UK (Sky Broadband, Sky TV etc.) has warned customers of their services to be aware of “scam” websites that operate by “manipulating Google results or using deceptive ads” to target people looking for Sky’s support. Such sites are designed to “mislead customers” into calling premium rate numbers instead of the correct ones.
According to Sky, these “fraudulent sites“, some of which may adopt a similar style to Sky’s own website in an effort to “pose as Sky customer service“, direct users to phone premium rate numbers that “charge exorbitant rates” (sometimes up to more than £10 per minute!). Savvy consumers who know to check for the legitimate Sky domain will quickly spot these, but others can still be tricked.
Sky themselves say they “never use premium rate numbers” for support, although consumers who aren’t using either their Sky Mobile or Sky Talk service (i.e. support calls are usually free on those) may find that calls to their 03 numbers do still attract a cost (this can vary depending on where you’re calling from and what service you’re using).
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Sky asks that anybody who encounters any suspicious websites or phone numbers like this should report them to the operator immediately so that they can take action to get them removed. The provider also provided a screenshot of a dodgy support site below, which appears to have been shut down some time ago.
Example of a Fake Sky Support Site
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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There aren’t any premium rate numbers costing £10 per minute, the highest is £3.60 per minute or £6 per call.
That’s the figure Sky gave, although the maximum for ‘official’ PRNs is £3.60, but I am aware there have been ways of manipulating call charges in the recent past (not sure if this still occurs) to go higher than that. I suspect they’re not talking about 09s for those.
There used to be some crazy high rates for 118 numbers but I believe they’re now capped at £3.65 per 90 seconds and have been since 2019.
The only way I’m aware of to charge £10 (per call, not per limit) would be to have somebody call a standard number, capture their number and send them a £10 premium rate text.
One of Sky’s main problems is that its so incredibly easy for scammers to do this, because Sky has made it virtually impossible to call them. They do not put any contact numbers on their website, instead badgering you with self-service or a chat bot. Even a google search for “sky customer service number” yields hundreds of different possible numbers, and any one of them could be fake, because Sky do not make it clear on their website.
If sky wants to solve this problem at source, then they need to make it clear on their website what their contact number is. Burying it behind endless self-service guides and chat bots is not the solution.
You’re right. Doing a bit of lateral thinking I tried the saynoto0870 website, (https://www.saynoto0870.com) put in “sky” and it came up with a Freephone number (0800 1512747) and a couple of 03.. numbers.
Even more frustrating is when you get caught in a loop with the website / bot and being on a call to them.
The website will force you through the troubleshooting and then eventually decide you need to call, you call and the bot on the phone will then helpfully tell you it can be solved by going to the website or community and then again you’ll be told you have to have phone and ignore the bot.
How does the scam work — I’m not sure if they make any money out of 0330 numbers? (perhaps that’s why you chose this screenshot, because it’s one of the less harmful ones!)
I imagine the scam works by you calling them and they call sky and forward the call, essentially a middleman that is ofcourse billing you at a premium rate minus whatever it costs them to call sky
Idk I could be wrong
So, 03 numbers cost the consumer the same as 01 and 02 landline numbers, at the retail level. However, the wholesale call termination charges are higher!
And of course there’s the opportunity for fraud, although that’s a different issue.
If you call an 03 number the charges stat the same even if the call is transferred to somewhere. 03 numbers are usually in call plans.
Ofcom really does need to go after the range holders and throw the book at them.
I’m sure if analysis was done on previous PSA cases it would lead to a pretty obvious set of range holders who are involved in this too often for it to be classed as an unfortunate coincidence.
Premium rate numbers should be banned. In 2024, we have several friction-free mechanisms for service providers to bill their clients, including Paypal, Stripe, Shopify.
There is no need to sustain this scheme which is too easy to accidentally fall prey to, and virtually impossible to get any redress.
This has been going on for years. We had the same issue when I worked for the ISP named after the singers of 80s classic “It’s my life”, the provider that rhymes with Ken.
Problem is, it’s too easy for anyone to just stick a website up, do some search engine optimisation and bingo, their premium number is up and running.
Sky needs to put its own house in order. I have had two calls in a week from Sky in which the caller asked for my password in full. Neither caller seemed surprised when I said that no responsible organisation asks for a full password and I was treating the calls as a scam.
Had the same of Three recently to discuss upgrade options (which is legit as my contract is up in the next couple of days) and when he asked for various personal details he seemed surprised that I refused to hand them over.