Ruth Gibson Floor 3 Competition Group Riverside House

2A Southwark Bridge Road London SE1 9HA By email to : ruth.gibson@ofcom.org.uk. 7th November 2005 TUFF RESPONSE TO CONSULTATION ON PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO GUIDANCE ON ACCEPTABLE USE OF 070 NUMBERS Ofcoms action in clarifying the use of Personal Numbers is long overdue TUFF members have suffered and continue to suffer from a huge series of problems associated with the 070 PNS number range. In relation to the true level of misuse of PNS ranges, it would appear that OFCOM have mounted ONLY a small number of investigations. Even so the numbers dealt with by OFCOM have been increasing which we believe clearly demonstrates that there is continuing and growing problem in this area. TUFF members have suffered multi million pound losses due to PNS AIT and in all cases this could have been prevented or at least minimised, if TCPs and their Resellers were held to account more by the regulatory authority. It is accepted by TUFF that this may be beyond the scope of the current organisation within OFCOM and we wonder if PNS should be brought under the remit of ICSTIS who have a mature and responsive process for monitoring, investigating and dealing with such abuse. There have been Millions of pounds of AIT retentions made by OCPs over the last few years which we believe clearly demonstrates the high level of misuse occurring within the Industry. Such retentions have been made because in these cases there is clear evidence that the PNS numbers were not used to provide any benefit other than financial for the Reseller and TCP. TUFF believes it is essential that OFCOM provide further and more detailed clarification on the rules associated with revenue share. Despite there being no end user revenue sharing within these ranges is still being used as an ICSTIS free alternative to PRS.

THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNITED KINGDOM FRAUD FORUM LIMITED All Correspondence: PO Box 28353, London, SE20 7WJ
Registered Office: (Not For Correspondence) 142 High Street, Penge, London, SE20 7EU Tel: 020 8778 9864 - Fax 087 12247603/020 8659 9561 - e-mail: tuff@tuff.co.uk Web: www.tuff.co.uk Registered in England and Wales No 4018260, VAT Registration No 719 0057 48

PNS revenues clearly are shared between the TCP and the PNS Reseller leaving an opportunity for individuals to become involved with misuse for profit. The high and increasing volumes of PNS traffic are indicative of these levels of this misuse. TUFF believe there is a strong case for some form of proactive monitoring in order to establish the true levels of misuse and breaches of the guidelines. TCPs & Resellers complain when tackled by OCPs about their apparent misuse saying that it is for OFCOM to Police their usage not the Industry. Perhaps OFCOM could clarify the role of the Industry, OCPs and TCPs in assisting with policing any misuse of PNS. A growing trend in PNS misuse is the activity known as Wangiri (short calls)- the dumping of PNS CLIs on mobile phones by dialing every mobile in a whole number block. This Wangiri is not only taking place in the UK it is now targeting overseas mobiles. It is hard to believe that the TCP is unaware of this outgoing calling activity? There is evidence from TUFF members that in a typical weekend there are perhaps 10000 returned calls to those PNS numbers. The message received on calling back to the PNS is generally a fake voicemail or attempting to connect you please wait then after 40 seconds or so this changes to sorry leave a message. A test made by one of our members this week revealed the following messages on a whole series of PNS numbers. In each case these messages were used on many different numbers and were ALWAYS given immediately on answer, there was never any connection made to a true PNS user :Sorry but the users mailbox cant accept more messages Sorry the person you are calling is temporarily unavailable Please wait while we connect your call - - Trying to connect you ------ Leave a message Hello youve reached Sarahs answering service please leave a message TUFF has also been informed by its members that PNS ranges in the UK are still being used for international call completion to various places in the Middle East. Previously this was restricted to the use only one PNS number, but now there is evidence that the spread of this service is over 10 numbers all of which reach the same bureau to complete the last leg of the connection. The bureau makes no charge for this in-country connection so we wonder how they make their money IF there is no revenue share? Are these calls fraudulent?

THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNITED KINGDOM FRAUD FORUM LIMITED All Correspondence: PO Box 28353, London, SE20 7WJ
Registered Office: (Not For Correspondence) 142 High Street, Penge, London, SE20 7EU Tel: 020 8778 9864 - Fax 087 12247603/020 8659 9561 - e-mail: tuff@tuff.co.uk Web: www.tuff.co.uk Registered in England and Wales No 4018260, VAT Registration No 719 0057 48

The latest AIT losses are being caused by a new technique being employed by a number of TCPs on behalf of their Resellers. It is that of changing a Pence per minute PNS into a Pence per call PNS (single drop). This appears to be done purely for the purposes of taking advantage of OCPs and the lag in rating changes. As soon as these changes from PPM to PPC go live there is an immediate stream of hundreds of thousands of 1 second calls purely to take advantage of rating anomalies. TUFF wonders if OFCOM have ever actually studied the nonsensical reasons OCPs put forward for these PPC services. Similarly can there truly be a genuine need for such instant pricing changes. How can a legitimate service be at one moment charged at PPM and the next, be charged at PPC? TUFF has been informed by many Overseas Telcos that the UK is rapidly becoming known across the world for the Adult Dialer software that operates on UK PNS numbers (and also 0870). Does OFCOM not agree that it is bad for the UK Industry that this situation should be allowed to continue? There is no regulation to control or prevent dialer software on PNS ranges. It can be little surprise then to hear that what is out there would not conform to the ICSTIS (PRS) Dialer Registration requirements. TUFF members regularly discover PNS numbers being used for PRS type services.

TUFF believes that there is an urgent need to amend the rules of engagement for PNS rather than amending just the Guidelines. Where there is money to be made from AIT, unscrupulous TCPS and Resellers will continue to use PNS unless rigorously controlled. Misuse detected should result in rapid action to shut it down. The Emergency Procedures such as that used by ICSTIS to stem continuing consumer harm and stop revenue flows would appear to be essential across all revenue and potential revenue share number ranges. Might it therefore not make more sense to bring such services under the single regulatory authority and control of ICSTIS. TUFF believes that unless such changes are made then there will continue to be a high level of Consumer harm and the OCPs will also continue to be powerless to deal with such abuse.

J A Wraith CEO

THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNITED KINGDOM FRAUD FORUM LIMITED All Correspondence: PO Box 28353, London, SE20 7WJ
Registered Office: (Not For Correspondence) 142 High Street, Penge, London, SE20 7EU Tel: 020 8778 9864 - Fax 087 12247603/020 8659 9561 - e-mail: tuff@tuff.co.uk Web: www.tuff.co.uk Registered in England and Wales No 4018260, VAT Registration No 719 0057 48