A BUSINESSMAN has warned of a scam which has stopped him from using his telephone number.

Ruben Caruana, 53, runs the Glass Studio, in London Road, Southend. For the past three years his phone service has been provided by XLN Telecom.

But the number was apparently hijacked in a scam commonly known as phone slamming.

This is when a telephone provider is changed without the customer’s consent and they are then billed by the new company.

Under existing Ofcom rules, if a telecom company is told its customer wishes to switch, all the existing provider can do is inform the customer.

But the switch is almost immediate, so there is often no time to stop it. In some cases, like Mr Caruana’s, the new provider fails to initiate the switch, leaving the customer with no telephone line.

Mr Caruana, said: “I got a text saying I wanted to change providers.

“I got back in touch with the company almost immediately, but they said it was too late.

“They said my number had been stolen and it would take up to ten days to correct and I may not get my number back.

“I didn’t sign anything or make any agreement by fax.”

Not only is Mr Caruana missing business calls, he faces having to reprint stationery, business cards and advertising, including on his vehicles.

James Wilson, spokesman for XLN said the company pulled out the stops to get Mr Caruana reconnected yesterday evening.

He said: “In this instance we received very short notification the customer wanted to transfer to another service provider and attempted to contact the customer to verify, by which time it was too late. The line had been transferred and the new service provider had not made it live.”