We’ve often advised hanging up on any business that calls you unprompted, and here’s another good reason to do so. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) has warned of a rise in scams where companies pretend they are representing a consumer’s existing phone or internet provider but then conning the customer into switching to a different service.
Picture by Asurroca
The latest TIO newsletter highlights the issue:
Often a telemarketing call has two parts: a “pre-sale” conversation where the product is broadly explained, and then a “verbal authorisation”, in which the consumer is taken through the terms and conditions and agrees to the transfer. The TIO has observed that where a consumer is misled during the “pre-sale” part of the transaction, they may remain misled in the verbal authorisation stage, where they agree to the transfer. As a result, they aren’t giving informed consent to transfer their services to the new provider.
At Lifehacker, we’re firm believers in hunting down good deals, but the way to do that is through your own research, not because someone is being persuasive or pushy over the phone.
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