Others complained to BBC News Online that they spent more than half an hour in a queue for the technical help line of the Genie Wap service - a premium rate call costing 50p a minute when accessed on a normal telephone landline.

BBC: BT in Wap phone trouble

The tricksters then permanently divert the number to a local rate call and scoop up the difference between the premium rate and the local call.

BBC: Oftel issues scam warning