SMS scam catches mobile users

SMS conmen are preying upon gullible mobile phone users with a text message that is tricking them into running up huge bills on a premium rate number.

The message reads: "Please call me on 09011500065 Urgent". But the number given is a premium rate number which charges users 60p a minute. Once connected the call gives a false engaged tone, fooling people into persistently trying to get through, while all the time their calls are being connected.

In a statement BT Cellnet said: " BT Cellnet is aware of this particular number and have taken immediate action by reporting it to ICSTIS - the premium number regulator - for immediate disconnection. We have advised customers who have been affected like this to refer the cases to the Nuisance Call Bureau."

A spokeswoman added that BT Cellnet does not sell on its subscriber details and that users should not respond to text messages from numbers they do not recognise.

By the time of writing the number had been disconnected.