When I realised that my latest phone bill had drained my bank balance by coming in at more than £100, I knew I had been conned.
But when I looked through the list of numbers I had rung over the last month and discovered it was a 40 minute phone call to Student Finance that was largely to blame, I was enraged.
Why was I being charged more than 40p per minute to enquire how much of my £24,000 student debt I had yet to pay back?
I quickly realised – to my own embarrassment – that I had fallen victim to an easy online money-making scam.
Having typed ‘Student Finance contact phone number’ into Google on my iPhone, I clicked on the first number that popped up on the search and was quickly connected through to the switchboard.
I was unaware that for the duration of the call, an online company was making 7p for every minute I was on the phone to Student Finance. On top of that I was being charged 44p per minute by my phone network provider.
As a graduate lucky enough to be able to start paying back my mountain of student debt relatively soon after leaving university, I was able to pay the bill without it having a significant impact on my normal spending habits.
But it was sickening to learn that these rip-off merchants are now targeting people worried about the impact of next April’s tax credit cuts on their ability to feed their families.
If the Government cares about the poorest and most vulnerable in society then they must take the easy step of classifying all 084 numbers for what they are: premium rate services, so the watchdog, Phonepay Plus, can close down these scams before they cripple too many more families.
