The article, in the Newsletter last month, entitled, ‘ Watch Out! Scams on your phone,’ was incorrect to say the least. Apparently, all the scams mentioned are just hoaxes or ‘urban myths.’

The scam where the receiver of the call is asked to press '9' to claim a prize, and is then charged £20 per minute with a minimum charge is £100 is untrue. It is not technically possible to set up a £20.00 per minute charge by pressing '9' on your phone, and in any event, the most expensive premium rate service in the UK costs £1.65 per minute.

Likewise, the mobile scam where you try to retrieve a missed call by dialling a number beginning with 0709 is a hoax. 0709 numbers are Personal Numbering Service numbers, and at their most expensive are £0.51 per minute. Not the £50 as shown in the article.

And finally, the mobile scam where the fraudsters can gain access to you SIM card by getting you to dial #90 or #09, is also untrue.

Vodafone is claimed to have stated - There has been some concern about a potential fraud that can be incurred by users of mobile phones by dialling 90#. We have been aware of these claims for some time, and have made lengthy investigations but have been unable to recreate the effect. In consultation with other networks, we believe this to be a false alert and an unsubstantiated claim.