Watchdog issues stringent fines and warns consumers to beware of the ‘search engine climbers’
PhonepayPlus, the UK national regulator for premium rate services, today warned that consumers using search engines (such as Google) to find contact numbers for organisations should check returned results carefully before dialling any numbers.
A number of websites have emerged that offer numbers for information services ranging from government helplines to customer service lines for high street retailers. The numbers provided, however, are premium rate numbers, which cost consumers up to £1.53 a minute, for information that is generally available for free elsewhere. Using search engine marketing (SEM), these websites can climb to a very high position in sponsored links, being amongst the first sites returned when consumers search for specific contact numbers.
PhonepayPlus issued the warning following an adjudication in which two companies, AT Telecom Ltd and Customer Service Helplines (UK) Ltd, were fined £50,000 each for misleading consumers and failing to make the price of calling the premium rate numbers clear to consumers. The full adjudication is published today on the PhonepayPlus website.
Paul Whiteing, Chief Executive of PhonepayPlus said:“These fines show that we are serious about clamping down on such websites that can mislead consumers. We are aware that the people behind such sites have become adept at using SEM to push these sites to the top of the pile when a consumer uses search engines to find numbers. We have already worked with Directgov to forward a number of sites to Google and Bing when these sites use premium rate numbers for information available for free from the government, and we continue to look for ways to work with search engine providers to stop activity that causes consumer harm.
“Before calling any number, consumers should look carefully at the numbers that any websites provide and remember that premium rate numbers generally begin with 09 prefix.”
