I agree with all that has been said already. I am a person who really does get sick of asking withheld numbers to call back. In fact I've got someone who keeps phoning me once a week for the last 12 months. I'm not however going to pay for the luxury of barring him - well not at 10p a minute to myself, or at the risk of losing business by taking on an 070 number.

The first time used an 070 number to track some newspaper ads. Do you know that all that happened was that there was great confusion. The same people seeing my ad online thought I was two different people, so would enquire on the 070 then ring back on my real mobile number. Those who already had my mobile would call on the 070 and wonder what was going on. Girls have been known to advertise with new  numbers in order to conceal bad service or even worse. To top it off a chap who liked to phone for a 'chat', although annoying to me really wasn't happy to receive a bill for ?80 on his contract mobile. Imagine if his partner spotted that one!!!and also imagine if that got around on the internet. Ok his own fault for calling all the time,  I didn't realise which number he was using since he'd told me he'd seen my web presence. A lot of folk would have assumed I was creaming the profits from that one - I didn't the 3rd party carrier who gave me the number did(in the same way you would of course). I had stopped using the 070 by that point.

The second time I was allocated an 070 number was by a website that offered me free advertising. This once again caused much confusion, some clients thought I was someone else or would ask me which number was mine or the best phone to call me on. They were wasting time ringing both and they thought I had 2 phones, would ring one and if couldn't get through would ring the other. When I explained they were very suspicious.

The 3rd time a website I was advertising on allocated me an 070 number without asking me, once again I got calls on both numbers, confused guys who'd got my other number and once again thought I was a different person.

By this point I'd seen numerous posts on forums(I'm on a few you see) asking about 070 premium numbers. The consensus was that these were scam numbers, that rob you of credit and that girls cream off the profits.

Now I'm all for stopping TWs and habitual texters(which is what the 070 prevents) however not at the expense of genuine clients. Quite a few do text and are genuine, but all the 070 would do is show an unsent text and the sender would then think "wrong number I won't bother ringing it".

I finally after a lot of wrangling did manage to get the 070 from the final ad removed, not after the person supplying in went on and on about the benefits you describe.

I had been pointed towards an 'escort safety' site a while back offering such a service and it just doesn't work. Regards withhelds isn't it against the data protection act to display a withheld number?and how would you do that with a works switchboard?My experience is that most who use withhelds do not go on to book, and those that do(back when I would accept them) don't show up. So knowing their numbers would just be letting in a lot more TWs.

One other point is that when you ring back from your mobile it's from your mobile number, a lot of guys won't answer numbers they don't recognise especially if they are using a seperate phone and/or are very suspicious if you do.

This whole industry operates on an aura of suspicion with guys suspecting scams, police intervention, illegality, scams from SPs all the time.  Being consistent is the key to this.

This scheme sounds like it comes from someone who knows a little about the industry, but has never been on the receiving end.

By the way I've now managed to upl0ad black & white list to my phone now and am now blocking all withheld numbers with this. Blooming great.

Quote from: amy on 03 January 2011, 12:02:50 am

a call recorded without the other party's knowledge and consent would not even be admissable as evidence in court because this would be a breach of the Data Protection Act.

A small point Amy but what you say is not strictly true. It is allowed but even reading the rules it's clear they're still open to some interpretation. Typical legal fog. See here http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/oftel/consumer/advice/faqs/prvfaq3.htm

It's a moot point as in practise I'm sure punters would baulk at the thoughts of their voices being recorded.  

Indeed, but incorrectly gathered, stored and distributed information has got people off in court before and there are enough loopholes without providing others. If it was an individual doing this without any real knowledge of the restrictions it might not matter, but it's hardly a good idea for a business plan.

Have you found our Forum Guidelines yet, just out of interest? There's also a Hello thread (where most people introduce themselves, say hello and how long they've been sex workers, that sort of thing) in Blather and Babble in case you fancy going the more usual newbie-on-forum route.