Man sets up his own premium number to catch out cold-calling CMCs

One man who became so fed up with the cold-calling he was being subjected to on a daily basis has taken matters in his own hands and taken revenge on his nuisance callers by turning his home number into a premium rate line.

Since making the switch to the 0871 number back in November 2011, Lee Beaumont has earned more than £300 from the calls made to him.

Beaumont's anger was mainly directed at claims management companies offering him help to claim for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

"I was getting peed off with getting PPI calls when I was trying to watch Coronation Street and Heartbeat," Beaumont told the Guardian. 

"Originally I got the 08 number to get them to stop. But when I started making money I thought 'this is better'."

However, the premium rate service regulator, PhonepayPlus, has issued a warning to anyone looking to follow Beaumont's, example, saying that people could be breaking a number of rules by setting up premium numbers.

"Premium rate numbers are not designed to be used in this way and we would strongly discourage any readers from adopting this idea, as they will be liable under our code for any breaches and subsequent fines that result," a spokesman said.

Mark Dugdale