Petition End the great voicemail scam

Every day thousands of people make fixed or mobile telephone calls that are routed without warning to a voicemail system. This call, having been connected, is chargeable (or countable within a service plan) and some phone companies will then charge or count the subsequent call made by the would be recipient when they collect the message.

Often this scenario will trigger a spate of calls, messages and return calls that the originator never wanted.

I am petitioning for an amendment to be made to existing legislation requiring a new clause in the current Conditions of Entitlement (overseen by OFCOM) for Providers of Publicly Available Telephone Services or Networks in the UK, requiring them to insert an automated warning BEFORE a call is routed to voicemail. EG "This call will be transferred to a voicemail service in 3 seconds. Please hang up if you don't wish to leave a message".

The bottom line is that callers must be able to CHOOSE to leave a message or not.