Phone scam gets cut off
Scammers who tricked people into calling premium rate phonelines have been fined £425,000.
The gang bought numerous landline numbers which were similar to those of local businesses and tradesmen.
It relied on callers mis-dialling and getting one of the numbers it had registered.
Victims then heard an automatic message directing them to call 118 820, which cost £6.98 for the first minute and £3.49 for every minute after that.
The Ireland-based company behind the scam, Call the 118 113 Helpdesk Limited, was run by 39-year-old Jody Rhodes of Dublin.
It is estimated to have made £500,000 to £1million from the scam, which ran from between January 2016 and March 2017.
A precise figure is not possible because it did not co-operate with the regulator the Phone-paid Services Authority.
A spokesman said: “The fines we issue are set by an independently functioning Code Adjudication Panel and are proportionate to the level of harm a non-compliant service has caused. In this case, that was very considerable.”