Fraud Warning Issued to Channel by Chess

Chess Claims "Zoom Telecom" are Fraudsters

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telecoms fraud
Unified Communications

Published: February 28, 2017

Rebekah Carter - Writer

Rebekah Carter

Well-known Telecoms company Chess has sparked concern amongst the industry recently by claiming that calls which appear to be from “Zoom Telecom” are attempting to scam consumers by demanding payments over the phone. In posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook social media channels, Chess Telecom warned its customers to be wary of fraudulent attempts to obtain payments from them, directed by people who claimed to work for a business known as Zoom Telecom.

The company noted that their customers had been contacted through telephone connections by someone who identified themselves as the “Zoom Telecom” network. They were advised that Zoom was calling in order to obtain payment on Chess’s behalf, and were therefore authorized agents for the company. However, Chess note that this is completely untrue, and urge customers not to give their details out to anyone over the phone.

Customers Warned to be Wary

Chess noted that in some cases, customers were told that their direct debit payments to Chess had somehow failed, and that was why someone had called asking for money over the phone. The people from “Zoom Telecom” implied that if payments were not made immediately, then the services that customers had been getting from Chess would be terminated in a period of five days.

No matter the circumstances, every case that has been reported to the company so far has been issued in an attempt to gather payment. Unfortunately, many customers up until this point have believed that they had no choice but to hand over their bank details to avoid their services being affected, and this has led to bank accounts being fraudulently debited.

A Fraudulent Company

According to the website that has been set up for Zoom Telecom, the business is dedicated to providing top-class phone and broadband solutions to small and medium-sized businesses on the behalf of BT Openreach. However, it claims that it can offer the services for much cheaper than BT does. It claims that it will charge only £9.89 for line rental compared to BT’s £19, and around £7.28 for Broadband compared with BT’s £17.

News companies like CRN have attempted to contact Zoom through the numbers listed on its website, but calls have not been answered up to this point. Importantly, it may also be worth noting that Zoom appears to have a sister company called “Guaranteed Telecom” which is registered to the same phone numbers and same address.

Records suggest that Zoom was only incorporated first during January this year, and an application to remove the company from the register was issued during October. In November, a notice to voluntarily strike the company from the register was made too.

 

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