That's quite a clever scam, actually. You'd only need one person every couple of hours to pay the charge in order to stay asleep and you'd be comfortably over the minimum wage. And if they paid it by giving you their card number you could retire to the Bahamas. (Did you 1471 them?)
And why are they telling you it's ready for delivery, not collection? That seems odd too.
Apparently they were ringing to apologise for a 20-minute delay and let me know that it was finally about to be delivered. That didn't strike me as obviously odd, except insofar as it would have been above-average service based on my previous experience of delivery restaurants...
Oh, and my caller-ID phone said "ID withheld". I didn't try 1471 proper, but I assume it'd have told me the same.
It certainly did occur to me that it might have been a scam or hoax. That's why I kept asking them what they thought my address was rather than telling them what it really was, and why I told them to send me a bill if they thought I owed them money.
Indeed. It sounds like a scam to me, too. I'd be tempted to report it to my telco (who probably can find out who called, despite it being witheld).
Quite apart from anything else, why would a legitimate curry house phone when a curry was ready for delivery in any case? And why would they not identify which curry house they were?
I can see the trick working on households that are more easily confused, especially ones where several people share the phone line.
Why would they phone when ready for delivery: they did explain this, see above. And although I didn't happen to mention it in my post, they did identify which curry house they were.
Was it a curry house you're familiar with? Or could it have been a plausible but not-actually-existing curry house? It sounded like a prank to me, because people woken in the night might give out their c'card number just to get someone to go away. (since otherwise, you could just have agreed to pay GBP20 when the food showed up - food is always good!)
The name they gave is really the name of a Cambridge curry house, yes.
since otherwise, you could just have agreed to pay GBP20 when the food showed up - food is always good!
Not if you're uncertain of its interaction with your dietary requirements, and certainly not if you also have to pay £20 for it and get out of bed! :-)
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And why are they telling you it's ready for delivery, not collection? That seems odd too.
It certainly did occur to me that it might have been a scam or hoax. That's why I kept asking them what they thought my address was rather than telling them what it really was, and why I told them to send me a bill if they thought I owed them money.
Quite apart from anything else, why would a legitimate curry house phone when a curry was ready for delivery in any case? And why would they not identify which curry house they were?
I can see the trick working on households that are more easily confused, especially ones where several people share the phone line.
since otherwise, you could just have agreed to pay GBP20 when the food showed up - food is always good!
Not if you're uncertain of its interaction with your dietary requirements, and certainly not if you also have to pay £20 for it and get out of bed! :-)