On the news this morning there was an item about the government considering an investigation into the way quiz programmes run their premium phone lines and to consider if they should be classed as gambling.

BBC radio ran an interview with a man who had racked up an £8,000 phone bill after he started phoning these TV programme premium lines.

Apparently he had won something before and so continued to phone them as he thought it would be easy to win something else.

I understand that you might get carried away one day calling This Morning trying to win some cash when you’re stuck at home with ‘flu, but with calls costing at least a pound a pop there must be a point (I’m guessing around the time you’ve made your 50th call) when you think “ Hang on, this is stupid. It’s costing me loads of money and I should really leave the house and do something more productive.”

If not, then the gambling mentality of being convinced you can win next time must take over and all rational thought goes out the window.

However, I really don’t think this is the TV programmes being sneaky; the price of the call is clearly displayed and it’s down to the caller to use their brain a bit.

The government should be looking at information lines, help lines and ticket lines that have premium numbers but don’t make it clear. Not everyone realises that the pre-fix 09 means a premium rate number.

The numbers have their own coding systems: 0900/01 numbers are capped to cost £1 for a ‘single drop’ or 60ppm up to £5, 0904/05/06 can be any tariff or fixed fee, 0907 are ‘pay for product’ services and 0908/9 are for adult lines.

I’m not sure how many people are aware of this coding system but a general tip would be to not call phone numbers that a) say they cost £1 a call, b) say you’ve won a mystery prize or c) you’ve found in a phone box alongside a picture of a pretty lady who offers special massages.