Does anyone have experience with 'Privacy Telephone Numbers'?
Hello all,
I have been scouring the web for ideas and such like and came across a uk site called
www.freeads.co.uk
Now for the interest of all, I notice that on their website they have a system in place which handles customers personal mobile/telephone numbers.
I'm not too sure how this system works to be honest but I have a sneaky feeling that they may actually be breaking ofcom's regulations regarding the use of 070 telephone numbers and gaining from these types of personal number codes. (If it starts 070 it is classed as a personal number).
See extract from a link on their site:
Calls to Freeads Classifieds advertisers Freeads Classifieds does not display sellers' private telephone numbers on adverts and instead allocates each advertiser a "privacy number". Privacy numbers help to keep advertisers' personal details, in this case their phone number, hidden from other users of the website. This is done so that no one can abuse the information held on Freeads Classifieds other than for the purpose of contacting advertisers regarding their ad.
When a user calls a privacy number their call will be redirected to the number the seller has provided. Once the ad expires, so does the privacy number. Our privacy numbers start with 0701, 0703 and 0705, and are displayed on the individual ad page for each advert, we require sellers to enter a number as this ensures that we can maintain the quality of content on the site.
Freeads Classifieds allow you to buy and sell for free and in order to maintain the website we do make a small amount from calls. There is no connection charge and all calls are charged at 51p per minute from this service. Rates on other price plans and from other service providers, including mobile service providers may vary.
Thanks for using Freeads Classifieds.
Now my questions are:
Is this actually illegal to do in the uk?
If not how would one go about obtaining and setting up a service like this?
Has anyone had or got any experience with this?
If it is possible it is a damn good way of protecting the clients number in one sense but a bit sneaky in the other sense because of the call charges. Its also a blooming good source of revenue too.
Bleem