New danger in faxback fraud

A restaurateur is warning of a new twist to the faxback scam, which could cost businesses hundreds of pounds without them realising it.

Jan Dow received a call at his Mandarin Restaurant in Exeter, Devon, from a man asking him to fax his regular and Christmas menus. But the fax number given was an 090 premium rate line charged at £2 a minute.

Mr Dow said: "Other businesses need to be aware of this sort of scam. The caller gave me a number which was a mobile fax they said charged at local rates, but it was going at only about a tenth the normal speed. It would have cost about £10 for an A4 sheet, and our menus run to seven sheets."

Dow complained to telephone standards watchdog Icstis (the independent committee for the supervision of standards of telephone information services), which is investigating the complaint, and has since been told the number is operated by a service provider called Hoteldata.com based in Liverpool.