Man Charged Cold-Callers 15 Cents Per Minute, Made $500 Profit So Far
A clever British man decided to turn the tables on pesky cold callers who annoyed him during his favorite TV shows.
Lee Beaumont from Leeds in the north of England had enough of constant cold calls trying to sell him personal injury insurance. So he spent a mere $18 to get himself a premium rate phone number, which costs the caller 15c per minute to call.
The Daily Mail in Britain reported that Beaumont said: “I was getting annoyed with the PPI calls when I’m trying to watch Coronation Street for instance, so I’d rather have an 0871 premium numbers so I can make 10p a minute.” (10p = 15c)
Loosely translated into American, that means that he was getting bummed out by the persistent cold callers who disturbed him while he was watching a depressing British soap opera, some of which is set in a small dark pub.
By having the premium rate 0871 number, as well as retaining his regular phone line for family and friends, he made a steady 15c for every minute he had to endure an annoying cold call.
Beaumont said it was really easy to research and install the new premium rate line, but the cold callers weren’t so happy.
He said: “Some companies are fine with it. Sometimes they won’t call me, and I say fine, you’ve got my email address – email me. And 99 per cent of the time they will use my 0871 number.”
So far he has made around $500 from the calls, which reached 20 to 30 per month. He now welcomes cold callers and tries to keep them on the phone for as long as possible.
