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Personal: Telephone Soliciting

All my personal telephone numbers have been registered with The Telephone Preference Service for some time, but today I received a recorded advertising message which has just p–ed me off. I’ve reported it to TPS and to ICSTIS (the UK regulator of premium rate numbers) with the following message:

On 15th September 2003 at 19.29BST, I received a recorded (female voice) telephone call to my home residential number (that is listed with the Telephone Preference Service).

The message said I had won a £1000 prize award (well, my telephone number had) and that I had to call 0906 638 9992 at £1.50 per minute (call last 7 minutes) to claim the £1000 award. For terms and conditions, I was to see www.moreflights.net (may be incorrect) or write to PO Box 6017, Basingstoke, RG21 4BZ.

It’s bad enough that I was called whilst my number is listed on the TPS, it’s twice as bad that it was a recorded message that had no human operator at the other end, third that I had just got to sleep after an extremely long and hard shift at work, fourthly that it was advertising a premium rate phone number and fifthly that it’s probably a “rip-off/con”!

I hope this company (which failed to give a name, details of where they had got my number – apart from ‘randomly chosen’ or any other identifying information) gets massively fined and shut down!

473 Comments

  1. carolius carolius

    Hi again – my complaint about Jackpot Promotions is now with ICSTIS-the link is at the top of the page – so here’s looking forward to them getting a massive fine or being shut down. Please complain everyone ! Especially those of you with the latest number they are using . The one they used with me was 09061119000

  2. selina law selina law

    man..i totally fell for it..im so stupid! im only 16 and still studying at highschool. i have to pay my own bills as im a foreign student, and rent here isnt all that great. i thought that it was such a great opportunity since ive just finished my exams, and then i realise that it was all fake! i really do hope that God will punish those people severly!! the information i was given was similar to some other people’s that’s mentioned. the number i was given was 09065709549 and also a claim code by Premier Hotline Promotions.
    and the address was
    UNIT 3-4 woodlands business centre, Basingstoke, RG21 4JX
    please .. help me to get these very disgusting sick people!!
    thank you

  3. Bradleigh Bradleigh

    I had a message left on my machine, didnt fall for it. But ive seen all these phone numbers, so i have rang them and the people i spoken too, ive threatend, to smash there office up, therecars outside there offices and to give them a hiding too. If Any one has an address where these people are..tell me and ill send some of my people around..and maybe these pgone calls will be stopped…

    Brad

  4. Bradleigh Bradleigh

    I had a message left on my machine, didnt fall for it. But ive seen all these phone numbers, so i have rang them and the people i spoken too, ive threatend, to smash there office up, therecars outside there offices and to give them a hiding too. If Any one has an address where these people are..tell me and ill send some of my people around..and maybe these pgone calls will be stopped…

    Brad

  5. Aardvark Aardvark

    Ah, the delectable Ms Fisher of x4344 somewhere in Basingstoke (or is it Cheshire?) is at it again. I’m registered with TPS too, not that it does any good apparently.

    I have had calls to 09xx numbers from my phone barred by BT after I got stuck with a £40 bill for the kids phoning the numbers on some scratchcards thinking they’d actually won something. The same scam by another means.

    BT can fix you up with “Choose to refuse” at £8/qtr. This allows you to block further calls from any incoming number by entering a code immediately after finishing the call. It works with withheld numbers too and with numbers for lines provided by other phone companies, but doesn’t stop the scammers changing their numbers.

    I did get “prize” holidays from 2 of these. Let me explain how the scam works. You pay an “admin fee” of up to £50 per person (2) and your departure date and point will be sent to you any time in the next 18 months, with only a minimum 2 days’ notice. If you can’t make it at that short notice, you lose your fee and the “holiday”. Alternatively you can pay what amounts to almost the full price to guarantee your chosen departure date/point. You can also take more people, at a “discount rate”.

    It’s just a scam to sell unsold/unpopular holidays. Maybe the holiday operators should stop clearing their bargain bins to greedy scumbags like Ms Fisher and cut them off at the knees? No product, no scam.

  6. nick nick

    i have been getting this number calling me lots of times,
    01273 861500

    did a search on google for it, hoping to find out where 01273 area code was and found this site!

    they havent left a message as yet, although i thought they did leave a message for phil, again cant rememeber the details, think he may have left a number, not sure..

    how do i stop them calling? will bt be interested, i guess not until they try and con me..

    if anyone else has any info i would be interested in hearing it.

    thanks

    nick

  7. Oliver Oliver

    Just heard 1571 message with same old bull from good old Nikks. Did a bit of digging and came to this site. FYI – Phone number to call though was 0905 809 0202.

  8. nick nick

    just had a call from this number (01273 861500) and its was sky, offering me extended warranty so a red herring there..

    hope this helps

    nick

  9. Ben S Ben S

    Just to let you know that I had the updated version today, which is aptly April Fools day!

    At the end of the message I was informed to ‘Hit Zero’, where upon I was connected with an operator!.. I pointed out my affiliation with TPS, to which she said ‘Oh that does not affect us!’.

    I was then asked to dial 09065 709524. Call me crazy but I wanted to know who this lot were, I dialled the number. £1.50 / min for 7 mins to find out that I had not won £1,000 in ‘crisp’ £20 notes, but I had won a book of money off vouchers to the tune of £2,000.

    All I have to do is send a large SAE to Premier Hotline Promotions. 3-4 Woodlands Business Village, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG12 4JX – oh and include more personal data than I allow my G.P.! ! ! They did give me a reference number as well, so if you want to send off it’s 2977.

    Next Stop TPS and ICSTIS

  10. Colin Colin

    I’ve also been caught by this scam (April Fool!). As I live near Basingstoke maybe I’ll cruise round to Woodlands Business Centre (instead of the Bahamas) and see what is going on. I’ll post any result that I come up with.

  11. Laura Laura

    Just found exactly the same message from a ‘Lesley Fisher’ on my answerphone. Glad I googled the number first!!

    Thank you!!

  12. Helen Helen

    So peed off, just been caught out too!!
    ‘Nicki Fisher’ left a message from ‘Jackpot Promotions’the only reason that I fell for this scam is because I’ve been stuck in the house for the past six months on the sick from work and have entered competitions via email, telephone etc, so I did believe that this could have been my lucky day and she did convince me.
    Oh well, thats a few quid gone down the drain, at least I won’t fall for those B*******s again. Let’s hope that somthing can be done to prevent this happening to other people.

  13. scott scott

    yeah i have had these calls too three in the last two days. the tps can do nothing about these companys because they are not members of the DMA. another option is to get the companys name then search on the companys house website for the address. http://ws4info.companieshouse.gov.uk/info/ . now write to the company informing them that under the data protection act they do not have your permition to use your data for direct markiting perposes. then if you get called again they are making a criminal offence and report them to the information comissioner who will sort the matter out. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/

    Enjoy

  14. Richard Richard

    Hi, Thanks to your site and people on it I did not fall for Nicki Fisher’s almost too good to be true offer. The number to call in this instance was 0906 111 9000. I could have done with the £6000 cash though (couldn’t we all). I felt it was not genuine for two reasons. Firstly because she says “this message is for the” slight pause, “******** family”, another slight pause, “I’m the claims manager for…” I could hear that our name was added so I knew it was automated. Secondly because it was a Premium rate number. Thanks to all who posted, this enabled me to confirm my doubts.

  15. I too recieved a call from Miss Nikki Fisher.
    Luckily I was at work and my parents were out.
    So when I got home I thought i would check the thing out.

    I had the message on 1571 and thought it was a bit suspicious due to the fact that they only left a premium number.
    Just gotta delete the bastard incase my parents think its legite.
    Thanks for posting everyone.

  16. chief chief

    Just got the Nickie Fisher call and decided to call it back to se what was what….oh dear !!

    I was asked to send a large SAE to Jackpot Promotions, PO Box 2087, Wrexham, LL11 4ZQ as I had won a trip to the bahamas.

    Will be registering with TPS ASAP as we seem to be getting az lot of unsolicited calls lately. I guess we just hope that for once we might actually win something !!!!

  17. Claire Claire

    Had a lovely phone call from Nicky Fisher today. Has changed her number again – now on 0906 1118080. Didn’t phone – will take the risk of not winning the holiday!

  18. Smarty-Pants Smarty-Pants

    Hi Folks,

    Just listened to that Nicky Fischer lass on my answer phone, gosh how I want that 42 Inch plasma telly. Nice to know that people hate these scams so much that they’ll help other to avoid them by posting pages like this. TTFN. Smarty

  19. Steve T Steve T

    I have also just taken a call from Ms Fisher: she’s clearly a busy lady.

    Have made a complaint to ICSTIS:

    “I have just received a call, consisting of a recorded message from a Nicky Fisher of Jackpot Promotions, informing me that I have won one of the following prizes:
    * A VW Beetle
    * A 42” plasma screen
    * A personal DVD player
    * A PC worth £2500
    * A cruise to the Bahamas
    * £6000 in cash

    “The number given to claim the prize was extension 4344 (no actual telephone number given) or by automated claims-line to 0906 11 22 000.

    “Can you please assist me to claim my prize without using the expensive number given? The caller clearly stated that I could claim by other means.

    “Further, my number is registered with the TPS. This is obviously in contravention of their code, but I will put up with it if the offender wishes to give me £6000 in cash.

    “I look forward to hearing from you.”

    Has anybody had a response to their complaint?

  20. ade ade

    Just had the Nicky Fisher call. It’s the first time I’ve had a call like that. Thanks to all who posted for saving me the trouble of establishing that it was as fake as I suspected.

    As someone who used to work shifts I can’t say too strongly how annoying these calls are.

  21. Kitty Kitty

    just had the whole Nicky Fisher/Jackpot Promotions/42″ TV call. didn’t have time to write down the number so I thought I’d try and find it on the internet – wow! real glad I didn’t have a chance to call! I’m not registered with the TPS but not sure how they got my number – don’t enter comps that want personal details and never under my “family” name.

  22. Tony Tony

    Nicki Fisher just called, yeah, we too had one the prize. I feel sorry for her and her company, they just can’t give this stuff away….

    Thanks to this page I will not be adding to her companies profits. This stuff must surely be illegal, there was no ‘may’ have won a prize ete… it was ‘you’ve won one of the major prizes’…

  23. Cliff Thomas Cliff Thomas

    I have had a phone call from Jackpot Promotions as follows:
    This a message for the Thomas family. I am Nicky Fischer, the claims manager for Jackpot Promotions, and you entered one of our competitions last year. I am delighted to inform you that you have been drawn as one of the major prize winners now basically that means that i am pleased to tell you that you have won either a 42″ plasma television, a personal dvd player, £2,500 personal computer, an all expenses paid cruise to the Bahamas, or £6,ooo cash or possibly our star prize which is a £15,000 volswagen beetle. Now in order to claim your prize you call call me, my extension number is 4344, alternatively you can call our automated claim line on 0906 1122000 thats 0906 1122000

    Reported this bogus call to ICSTIS

  24. Rich Rich

    Have had one of these too and was tempted but went on a search to find the rest of the phone number that went with the 4344! This page popped up. Many thanks for the info. I have passed this on to the local radio station where there is a presenter who champions consumer rights and is really hot on exposing this type of scam. Hope he picks it up and runs with it

  25. David Johnson David Johnson

    Just listened to an answerphone message that is the same word for word as that listed by Cliff Thomas, above. Like so many others, and despite being quite tempted, I found this site through Google and was very glad I didn’t ring!

  26. Stephshirley Stephshirley

    Hi there
    We received an ansaphone message from Miss Fisher, exclaiming we had won a prize, plasma TV, £6000 etc etc. As this seemed so much more genuine than the automated calls we get all the time, we phoned the number – informed was a premium rate at £1.50 and figured, just this once, it would be worth the cash! 6 minutes later, realised we’d “won” a crappy cruise to the Bahamas. Usual speil about SAE etc. Note on your site that so many others have won the cruise too if we all took up our prize the boat would surely sink under our combined weight!!! Anyway, would love to hear from anyone who has since received their phone bill, to make absolutely sure that the £1.50 per minute is, unlike the prizes, kosher. Look forward to your reply.

    All the best and down with Miss Fisher – Happy Sailing!!

    Steph & Shirl

  27. Robin Robin

    Well I have been texted a standard message telling me i have won many riches from PHP at the address in Basingstoke. But a total of 8 times including 05:00, 06:00 and 07:00 this morning. I am currently considering two possible courses of action. 1 the levelheaded complaints route or 2 throwing bricks though there windows every hour on the hour.

  28. Vanessa Wilson Vanessa Wilson

    Well here is another mug. What an idiot, I got the call last night – usual stuff. The admirable Nicky Fisher from Jackpot Promotions … plasma TV, PC, £5000, personal DVD player, VW Beetle or of course, the 7 days all inclusive cruise in the Bahamas. I never ever fall for these scams … but there was something about this one that rang true (and I did enter a competition for a Beetle). Anyway, feckwit here phoned the premium number (after ignoring all the alarms bells about her leaving an extension number or premium rate number – but no switchboard number) and surprise surprise won the Bahamas cruise. Had I won something else, I would have totally believed it but with the ‘prize’ being a holiday, I was suss about the whole thing. However, I spent all of last night wanting to believe, desperately wanting to believe and I had every intention of sending an envelope. In fact, to be brutally honest, if I have a large envelope with a stamp at home, I would have ran to the postbox there and then – spot the idiot eh!!!. Then this morning, decided to try Google first and here I am. I have to admit tho, I am very frustrated, I want that holiday !!!
    The address she was using last night was PO Box 2087, Wrexham, LL11 4ZQ and my claim number is BH1104 if anyone else wants to give it a go … see what happens.
    Oh – another thing, I too am registered with TPS. Sounds to me like this Nicky Fisher has managed to get a hold of the TPS database.

  29. Steve Steve

    Anyone know what happens after you send your details off for the Nikki Fisher scam?

  30. Robin Robin

    Well after a while searching companies house finding there address selecting a good few heavy house bricks I decided to complain to ICSTIS. There windows are safe for another day………

  31. Rob Rob

    I also received a message on my answering machine from Nicky Fisher (yesterday). Fortunately, I Googled before ringing the number, so thanks to those who posted warnings.
    As I’m registered with the TPS I shall be reporting it as well.

  32. Jonathan Jonathan

    I got the call from Nicky Fisher today. I was at out at the time so it was left on my answer phone. Has anyone spent the £10 yet to find out what the scam is? Here’s the full transcript of the message left on my answering machine: …
    “I’m the claims manager for Jackpot promotions and you entered one of our competitions last year. I am delight to inform you that you’ve been drawn as one of the major prize winners. Now basically that means I’m please to tell you that you have won either a 42″ plasma television, a personal DVD player, £2,500 personal computer, an all expenses paid cruise to the Bahamas or £6,000 cash or possibly our star prize which is a £15,000 Volkswagen Beetle. Now in order to claim your prize you can call me, as I said my name is Nick Fisher, my extension number is 4344 alternatively you can call our automated claim line on 09061118844 that’s 09061118844 calls cost £1.50 per minute but may cost more from a mobile depending on your network provider. and If you’re not the phone bill payer you must have the phone bill payers permission to call this service. The average call duration is 5 minutes and 50 seconds and callers must be aged 18 years or older. The closing date for this promotion is 30 November 2004. Ok, thanks bye bye.”

  33. Al Al

    I’ve also been receiving similar text messages from Premier Hotline Promotions.

    After a bit of digging around, I managed to call PHP’s head office, and spoke to a nice guy called Jason Gambling there. He has promised to find out why I was on their mailing list and remove me from it.

    His number is 01256 349007 if anyone is having similar problems.

  34. wt wt

    i also had a call from jackpot promotions saying that i had won a luxury holiday in the barhamas! well it’s also cost me £1.50, i wish companys like these would give the promised prizes! i will not be sending an sae, but a refund for the phone call would be nice!! 🙂

  35. wt wt

    they gave me a different number 09061122000. not seen the phone bill yet! 🙁

  36. Scott Scott

    I got home from work today to be told by my wife that she had received a ‘strange’ phone call, I’m sure you can guess the rest. This was from Exceptional Promotions – 09065 709 495, basically telling her she had won £1000 and to call back…. Being foreign, she was not aware of this type of scam, so I now have the phone bill to look forward to. I have complained to ICSITS, but would love to get my hands on the scum who do this.

  37. JM JM

    I had a call from Nicky Fisher last week (about 31/3/04) promising the ‘usual’ prizes.
    It seemed too good to be true but as I had just entered some online competitions on ‘My Offers’ a few days before I thought there might be a connection.
    Fortunately cynicism won the day and I didn’t waste money calling 09061119000!
    I wonder if any other recipients of these calls had been entering on ‘My offers’?

  38. Molly Molly

    I have just spoken to a person who claimed to be Nikki Fisher herself. She informed me that we had won third prize in a competition we had entered some time ago for a VW Beatle (she even mentioned a shopping centre that we frequent as the place of entry – perhaps data sharing from a competition we did enter there once?)- an all inclusive trip to the bahamas!!!!! – all we had to do was send a SAE to an address in Wrexham. For more information she gave us 09061122244 ex 4344. We didn’t call and just as well. We may send off the SAE just to see what the con is as so far its cost us nothing – she has changed tactics obviously. This has come at a really bad time as my partner and I are about to be married and he is recovering from Cancer so this trip would have been fab. Will let you know what (if anything) we get in return.

  39. Laura Laura

    We just had an e-mail from someone called Anne. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same company:

    Dear Friend,

    We are sorry to trouble you, however we have excellent news for you. When you contacted our associate company sometime ago you were automatically entered into a draw and you have been successfully drawn. Therefore you are guaranteed to receive one of the following, £30,000 cash, a Sony Widescreen T.V. £500 cash, a luxury world cruise worth £2,650, a Paris £1,000 shopping spree, £1,000 of discount holiday vouchers, a laptop computer, a Hatton Garden Diamond shopping spree ,an amount of cash to pay all your household bills for a year .or a holiday in barbados. I hope you agree that this is excellent news, all you have to do to claim, which ever listed above is yours is to call the official 24 hour claim line telephone number 0906 170 6006 and quote reference number *****, once you call 0906 170 6006 and quote reference number ******* your item will be immediately sent to you, so to avoid disappointment please call quickly.

    Yours Sincerely
    Anne Evans nn_evans@yahoo.co.uk
    (payout group)

    grrr.

  40. Helen Helen

    I have received one of Nicky Fishers calls today. It was identical to the one received by Johnathan on April 6th. I am now looking forward to receiving countless txts and calls on my mobile. Just glad i found this site and discovered what a con it all was.

  41. pete welsh pete welsh

    Who is this Deborah Hastings on 09061206024 who has given me 24 hours to claim a guaranteed £5000?
    Any answers please respond asap.

  42. Carole Carole

    We had a number of these calls some months ago. We tried to complain to BT and TPS but they said they couldn’t help. Apparently (according to a BT person) the message left on 1471 – eg ‘with held the number’ etc has some bearing on whether the sender is in this country. Bear that in mind!!
    We had another one today and I was soooo cross I really didn’t listen to the whole thing but I did get the phone number to ring 0906 11 22 000.
    The annoying thing is you just cannot cut them off. What if you were waiting for an important call to come through or some one was trying to contact you?
    If this website isn’t a con maybe we can consolidate info and go get these HORRIBLE people!!

  43. Chris Chris

    Yep,
    Yet another call from Nicky Fisher of JackPot Promotions.. (11th April 8.15PM). £1.50 per minute, min 7 minutes etc.
    This time the call back number was 09061100088. I too am supposed to be on the TPS list. I too will complain. The problem is that these guys seem to be too smart and too quick for the regulators but TPS please rise to the challenge – I suspect we are in the minority in checking these shisters out first on the web.

  44. Sarah Sarah

    Have just returned from a day away to find Nicky Fisher had called, must say her message did not even sound pre-recorded. Same message as many above “Hello ****** family I am calling on behalf of Jackpot Promotions, you entered one of our competions last year and you have definately won a major prize, either 42in Plasma Screen TV, Personal DVD Player, £2500 personal computer, an all expenses Cruise to the Bahamas, £6000 Cash or the star prize of a £15000 VW Beetle” She then went on to say “as I said, my name is Nicky Fisher”, this got my interest as I thought she had not mentioned her name in the first place but she seemed to have forgotten that, anyway she gave her extension number as 4344 but where I thought?, then she gave the other number as 0906 111 8080, I notice this is a different number to previous posts, perhaps her other lines are so busy she has had to get more numbers!!! Bless though, she did happen to mention that the call had to be made from a land line, by an over 18 yr old and that it would cost £1.50 per minute and would last approx 5 minutes and 50 seconds and that the closing date for this competion is 30th November 2004. I do enter competions occasionally but I don’t remember entering one last year with a closing date so far away. My hubby said I should check the web before we phoned, so glad I did. I hope our lovely Nicky goes on the cruise herself, and falls overboard!

  45. Mama Jen Mama Jen

    Also been Nicky Fishered but I’m not TPS-ed. How come she hasn’t been shut down by TPS yet when the first logs about her are 2 months ago?

    Please let all your friends know, it really doesn’t sound like a pre-recorded message. Was nearly taken in. Bless the boyfriend who told me to google it.

    See y’all in the Bahamas then?

  46. John John

    Groan… I got the same call from Ms Fisher 10 April 2004 (around 3pm) and in a moment of madness called the number. Why didn’t I do an internet search first? I too believe I’m registered with TPS. Thanks for the heads-up regarding ICSTIS – I intend to complain.

  47. Sally Sally

    Hi,
    I just got a call on my answerphone from ‘Nicky Fisher’, and being a bit dubious i too googled ‘nicky fisher’ and ‘jackpot promotions’, and it brought me here!

    Thanks for the wonderful thread, its a relief to know i’m not the only one that nearly fell for it.

    The number i got to call was 0906 11 222 44
    This is really disgusting, i want to complain to someone, but dont know who!

  48. Fran Fran

    I got the message from Nikki Fisher too but ever the optimist (or rather mug) rang the premium line before reading this . . . I won’t get cauhgt out again!
    Wasn’t regstered with TPS before but certainly am now.

  49. Steve Steve

    I had the Ms Fisher call today.

    From the start it didn’t sound right, a recording of ‘you have one message waiting’ (when I don’t even have an answering service) followed by the too-good-to-be-true message that we had won a long list of fabulous prizes and should dial 09061122244 OR ext. 4344

    She quite happily told me about the £1.50 per min cost and that it would last for so many minutes etc. I thought I’d check it out and here I am.

    Never forget: if it sounds too good to be true – it probably is!

    Take care all…

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