Emergency services scam

[fletchflash]

ive just of the phone from the 'Police Talk Initiative' team. Got a fantastic deal on a double page spread!...

Only joking! They have just rang me though, much to my anger. Had dealings with these people last year and thought I'd heard the end of it. These people make me sick! Actually none of them have been scousers when ringing me, the guy who rang me last year was from bolton.

 

[ktguk]

i emailed the local police force here and forwarded them all the info they sent me, and guess what they havent heard of them, so ive then forwarded all the info from me, them and the police to trading standards. but still cant see anything getting done about it

 

[m4tty]

Nothing will get done as no crime had been committed. I take it they do actually publish a magazine but you get nothing from it because it's rubbish advertising ?

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

As has been said already, it comes round every year in various guises...

They always hang up on me when I ask one of two questions..

1/ Exactly where is this "magazine/calender/wall chart" distributed and where I could see a copy of last years, so that I can contact "Last Years Electrical Contractor(s)" to see how much work they got from advertising!?

2/ Where did they get my name from... Cuz obviously my existing advertising MUST be working cuz they managed to find me, so I guess other people can use the same methods they used to find me, without me needing to pay them any money!?

GOLDEN RULE:-

Only agree to, or pay for, advertising YOU choose to instigate after conducting your own research..

Never on the spot when cold-called by a stranger!

:Salute Guinness

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 16:26 ---------- Previous post was made at 16:16 ----------

Nothing will get done as no crime had been committed. I take it they do actually publish a magazine but you get nothing from it because it's rubbish advertising ?

Agreed...

I am guessing a minimal amount of prints stuffed though a few letter boxes could allow them to legal say they have produced and printed something!

I just think of what some "Parish Magazines" are..

2xA4 sheets folded over giving 8xA5 sides..

Probably produced and printed by the Organist & flower arranger...

Front is just a picture of the local parish church,

back sheet is just blank.. so not much room inside..

BUT technically it IS a Magazine distributed to a small area!

:C :|

 

[fletchflash]

GOLDEN RULE:-Only agree to, or pay for, advertising YOU choose to instigate after conducting your own research..

Never on the spot when cold-called by a stranger!

Definately a good rule!

I'm getting really wound up at the moment with all the cold calls im getting. Had one yesterday and a couple of weeks ago from company claiming to be making a DVD for local building control wanting me to pay to be in a contractor list.

 

[Andy™]

probably one of the best one ive had was for advertising in some school text books. they hung up when i asked how many 8 year old kids need to call a sparky...

 

[ktguk]

Nothing will get done as no crime had been committed. I take it they do actually publish a magazine but you get nothing from it because it's rubbish advertising ?

thats the thing no ones heard of them, when i emailed police i asked them if they had commissioned these people or ever heard of them, because they were telling me they were from police force when they weren

 

[cadspark]

Had a call today from a man with a Liverpool accent offering me the exclusive right to be the only electrician in my area to advertise in their publication. It was a publication about avoiding rogue traders which I found a bit ironic as they are the rogue traders themselves.

I asked for some credentials such as a website address and he gave me this one and said there would be no mention of the publication on it as it has not started yet.

Advanced Publications

 

[sellers]

the actual lancashire fire service advertised in the local paper, advertising the importance of smoke alarms and how to get free ones fitted. To cover the costs they subbed 8 boxes for local contractors, 4 leccys, 4 plumbers! now that takes the ****!

 

[baldelectrician]

See here

Vardis - Blagger.com - The place to leave feedback and comments about companies you have used

 

[Cirrus]

These guys seem to be cropping up again. Had 3 calls from scousers all offering the same thing - for a payment I can have my details in a publication that will go out to 40K households on behalf of the Police! He said that they were doing their bit to promote legitimate trades as there had been so much hype about rogue traders lol. When I told him it was a scam each time he hung up. He calls from a mobile number and when I informed the Police they traced it back to a giffgaff pay as you go account and said it stops there - nothing more they can do!

Be wary!!

 

[boltonsparky]

also, if you get a call from 0151, its almost guaranteed to be a scam

Unlucky if you're a liverpool spark, you wouldn't be getting much work ignoring the 0151 numbers :slap

 

[binky]

Scousers - that will be the bunch of shits that tried to do me a few years ago. Out of interest M107 do you ever get a magazine called 'In attendance' posted to your station? I contacted regional press guy who had heard of mag and even placed adverts in it - that got stopped ] .

No emergency service sells advertising, also beware of Forresters who have re-surfaced again - nothing to do with Free-masons of the same name

 

[Doc Hudson]

As a related point, unless the law has changed, a telephone agreement can be a legally accepted formal contract and recorded telephone calls can be used to verify these contracts. But anytime any organisation is recording telephone calls they should let the other party know that the call is being recorded. However I understand that it has been known for unscrupulous companies to record conversations and then do a bit of audio editing to make it sound as though you were agreeing to purchase something.

It can be useful if you never to answer yes to any question they ask, as this is the one easy bit of audio that can be chopped to sound as though you are saying yes to a payment or product on offer. Questions such as.. Is that Mr xyz?, Are you based in the north east? Don't you agree it would be good to get more response from your advertising? can be used to get your voice saying yes, which is then easily edited to other parts of a conversation to create a false verbal telephone contract.

I am not sure if these practices have now all been closed down, but I do recall hearing of instances a few years ago of these fraudulent recored calls been made entrap people into contracts they don't want. Possible the doorstop selling laws are sufficient to revoke any such agreements?

Doc H.

 

[M107]

Yes Binky in attendance can be found at most fire stations.

http://www.inattendance.co.uk/Aboutus.htm

But I wouldnt bother doing any advertising as a tradesman, as most trades can be found around the brigades anyway & the fire fighters tend to stick to their own (mates rates).........if you get my drift.

As has already been siad no brigade (and I would imagine goes for all E Services) will cold call asking you to part with money for advertising.

 

[ProDave]

Another dirty trick these guys do is phone you to say they are just finalising the details of the contract you agreed with their colleague last week.

Now that might work with a small company, and the person answering the call may just fall for it and believe someone else in the company did agree to a contract. But as a sole trader you certainly know that you did not agree to anything, that's even if anyone spoke to you last week. So just tell them to foxtrot oscar.

 

[steptoe]

one of the benefits of a smart phone I suppose,

every single call made to or from my phone is automatically recorded, I can then go through them and delete/save them as I wish, I do this every couple of days or so.

 

[baldelectrician]

These people used to be in the guise of a crowd called Vardis

ktcUK

I would point out that you dispute the invoice and look forward to the day in court when you exect them to produce the full conversation before a court.

Tell them any you now consider the matter closed and any further communications will be ignored, with the exception of a court summons.