she thought she had won a gift

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– A nonagenarian victim of a telephone scam sees her bill jump.

It’s a process as old as time. And yet, it still wreaks havoc in the country. Above all, scammers always have more imagination to lure their prey. This is what happened to an elderly person living in Ille-et-Vilaine, reports the Republican Chronicle. Last December, the nonagenarian received several phone calls. At the end of the line, the aigrefins promise gifts messy. The resident of the country of Fougères doesn’t have much to do: just call back to get these famous gifts.

But at 94 years old, it’s hard to always be wary. In reality, at the end of the line, the scammers have only one goal: to get the old lady to call back as long as possible since they had set up a system of premium rate numbers. In a few days, after having made numerous calls, the nonagenarian received a huge bill of 357 euros, while she normally only pays 50 euros. Faced with this situation, his son contacted the local branch of UFC-Que Choisir which itself got in touch with its operator.

The operator grants compensation to the nonagenarian

Given the situation of the victim, and taking into account his age, the operator did not hesitate to make a commercial gesture of 149 euros on his next bill. The entire amount is not reimbursed (there remains around 150 euros to be paid), but the operator considered that premium rate calls were authorized by default on the old lady’s telephone line. Since then, his son has asked that these numbers no longer be used. Some precautions to take in this type of case: first of all, do not call the same number several times if it is promising you gifts, this is very generally a sign of a scam. Then, report any unwanted cold calling, whether by message or voice.