The Sunday Mercury has won a major battle to stamp out the ruthless conmen cashing in on premium-rate telephone lines.

As a direct result of the paper’s hard-hitting Pull the Plug campaign, the Department of Trade and Industry has announced that new regulations will be brought into place later in the year to give watchdogs greater powers.

The DTI is to change the system under which only some premium-rate line operators have to submit themselves to vetting by the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services.

As things stand, only lines offering credit deals, live conversation, online and internet services and where the proposed charge is more than £1 a minute, or the total cost of the call exceeds £5, need prior-approval.

But after the regulations are changed, every applicant will be vetted.

Rob Dwight, for Icstis, said he was delighted with the Government’s decision and praised the Mercury for kick-starting the move for new legislation.

He said: “In future, we will be able to carry out checks which will substantially improve the chances of rooting out the small minority of people exploiting premium-rate services.

“We have been seeking changes along these lines for some time but the Sunday Mercury’s campaign appears to have hurried things along and we are grateful.”

The Mercury launched the Pull the Plug campaign after becoming concerned at conmen who take out premium-rate lines solely to rip off the public, by luring them into ordering non-existent goods or services.

Over the past year, the paper has unmasked several greedy conmen cashing in on premium-rate lines, such as one in Birmingham, where families desperate were targeted for cash loans through a scam which netted an estimated £1m.

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