Safeguard Magazine & Others - Ignore Their Calls!

[DurhamSparky]

Right Lads/Girls

so far today i have received 3x phone calls from

Foresters Fund for children
Police Talk Magazine
Safeguard Magazine

all demanding money for adverts and advertising in there charity magazines!!!!

DO NOT FALL FOR THERE TACTICS!!!

the latest chap selling space in the police talk mag actually put the phone down on me when i told him i never heard of his magazine and when i asked who gets it he said , well the police, councils, local homes..... i stopped him there and said my G/F is a police officer and she never heard of it either..!! suddenly the dial tone was heard..!!


http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_i...me/Vardis.html
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/investi...9520-19117762/

im sure you all have similar experiences but be wary!!!

steve

 

[SirKit Breaker]

I had them call me ages ago, i told them to....................off and they never rang me again, cant understand why

 

[mogga]

My auld maw had a gentelman from the Indian sub continent call she started asking him questions about the guff he was slabbering then asked where he was "mumbie" She then asked if """Kevin " was his real name ie the name his parents had given him and would his poor old mother be proud of him changing his name ect ect ect por guy must have been suicidal by time hed finished with her

These calls tho I generaly tell them the wife deals with marketing and they should call back later

 

[UNG]

Many years ago had a few calls from a company claiming to represent some police related charity made an excuse that I had another call and could they call me later I then contacted Merseyside Police ( my local force) and spoke to various officers who may liase with the charity / company concerned eventually spoke to an officer in the fraud squad who was actually investigating the company as this scam had been running for a while. The company was closed down not long after following some convictions but a similar company / scam reappeared about 18 months later

Any calls I get now I cut them short and tell them to send details with a written request and contact details for the organisation they claim to be representing to the company PR dept for consideration calls don't last to long then and you never hear of them again

 

[russty]

Had a call today saying somthing about representing Aston Villa F.C for a magazine, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH he went on. Wouldnt take no for an answer even after telling him im not intrested because im a Derby fan!!!

 

[Dan]

lenny your sense of humour preceds you
just noted their vat no is also fake...
and they have some good press on uk business forum
maybe this forum should have a scams section,im sure this is just a small part of whats going on
and sure they are targeting new business(im only started 18mths ago)


im in the wrong job.

anyone want to buy ad space just call me

1 page £762,000

I'm interested in your advert mate (oh no, does this mean I'm committed now?!)

We couldn't have a public viewable scams forum but feel free to discuss possible scams in the arms.

I got scammed by this sort of thing a few years ago, and I think the general way to go about this is wait for any court letter, then reply directly to court with your findings. The courts DO know about these types of companies and expect it, they write back saying it's been thrown out of court and there will no longer be a date set for the case. Though as it's business to business "sales", police don't really deal with things like this (from what I can gather) - you as a business would need to defend yourself with your own commercial solicitors on actual real problems when it comes to B2B sales, therefore what this scam relys on is the fact that a percentage (quite high normally) WILL just pay the bill and hope the ad works. As it's cheaper than getting solicitors in.

But don't be fooled. You just need to write to the court in reply to your letter. If you DON'T get a letter, that's probably because they've already been thrown out quite a bit and they've stopped pursuing the issue via court, but they will still threaten it to you. This is normally the stage they change their names etc so they can submit the odd case to court to try and get the funds from the "client".

Or that's from what I can work out.

 

[Adam W]

Right Lads/Girls
so far today i have received 3x phone calls from

Foresters Fund for children
Police Talk Magazine
Safeguard Magazine

all demanding money for adverts and advertising in there charity magazines!!!!
steve

This sounds similar to the old 'Firefighters' benevolent fund diary' scam of a few years ago.

Remember if you buy something over the phone you have a 7 day cooling off period under The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000

 

[PAT ukLtd]

Unfortunately I was caught out this week 'EspressLtd' has cost me £300, but paid on credit card so hope to get back. Looked them up on Companies House Website, have only been going since Oct 2010 but have already registered several different addresses , latest is moving from Liverpool to London, also have had a couple of threatening phone calls regarding outstanding debts with other media companies, they got me, but I hope they don't get you .

 

[telectrix]

they are all bloodsuckiung leeches, trying to get you yo spend money on ads. nobody will see. i was conned by forresters, but recorded the sales pitch, where i said if i don't see the magazine all over the place they can whistle for the money.

 

[DurhamSparky]

i dont get pestered as much now!

latest sales was from a golf pro advertising company who utilise space around golf courses on the tee markers etc.. check them out with golf club and its legit so i took a deeper read but decided not to proceed as got enough adverts going

 

[Dan]

Thread move to the electrical forum.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

oh ok the pen IS for charity....i guess its MY sense of humour preceding me then.!

Yeah... and choose from either this lovely carrage clock or this charming set of pictures absolutely free when you sign up with us.....its free...its easy....and no salesman will call.......lol.........

 

[Richard Burns]

Yeah I got the call from Safeguard and did agree to their advert, but once they sent the information through they were charging a fortune for a small ad with a distribution of about 500 and only one ad not the entire year.
I sent them a letter saying I was exercising my right to cancel and would expect no further communication. No further problems.

 

[Geordie Spark]

One of my previous businesses was Exhibition Contracting which involved building, setting-up & sometimes crewing Exhibition Stands at places like Olympia, Earls Court, Birmingham & Frankfurt.

I took out a very nice half page full colour ad. in one of the better known trade magazines of the time, and very soon started getting phone calls from other trade mags. inviting me to advertise in their publications.

My standard reply was to tell them that I had never heard of their magazine, but if they sent me some free copies for me to look at I would consider giving them some business.

When the magazines arrived, I used them to to mailshot other companies who were advertising in them and thus drummed-up several new clients.

The magazine publishers would often phone me to ask if I had received their complimentary issues & asked what I thought of them. I would then tell them what I thought, and they would then ask if I would like to place an advertisement.

I would then tell them that I didn't thing their magazine would do much for me & suggested that they run a trial advert free of charge so I could test the water. Surprisingly, quite often they agreed and I got quite a lot of free advertising in glossy magazines that way !!

When you're dealing with these folk, it often pays to be a bit cheeky.