Another thread about a scam (but not that kind)

[trev]

01865653811
Add that one to your do not answer list people.
It's an outfit called The Forrester's Fund, they claim to be a children's cancer charity (how low can you go?) who publish a quarterly magazine and for around £200 you, Yes You!, can be the only member of a trade advertising in it. Now imagine how much business that will generate. (yeah, right)
Anyway, a little bit of digging reveals that the calls come from a company called Vardis which is ran by a very nice man who has been in charge of several companies in the past, all of which have become insolvent but this has not stopped him getting £80 grand to spend on a very nice BMW. Who actually is in charge of the charity is unclear but there's an 80/20 split of the revenue in Vardis's favour. According to the charity's last available figures they've helped 285,000 children but on the revenue published that works out at 17 pence per child.
You can draw your own conclusions my learned friends.

 

[telectrix]

a couple of years ago i nearly got caught by these scammers. i refused to pay them till i saw copies of the mag. distributed all over the place as promised by their sales rep. needless to say, never even saw one mag. and told them to shove it when they threatened court action. that was the last i heard from them.

 

[trev]

Someone posted up on another forum that they offered them the same deal which was refused. They then sent some copy through to her that they'd lifted from another publication with a bill and said it was too late as the order had been placed. Legal action was threatened there too.
Funnily enough, despite their claim of having been going for 30 years no one has ever seen a copy of this quarterly magazine.

 

[sparkdog]

I usually get a call like that every year around christmas.

 

[markhtly]

'Vardis' rings a bell from years ago . Same company still goin' it seems . Must know how to exploit every loophole in the book . Sickening they can get away with it and not only get away with it but keep getting away with it .

 

[Farmelectrics]

how low can people go scum

 

[Pete999]

Jesus mate I remember back when before I was married these scammer's tried it on with me, so it aint new that was 45 years ago

 

[trev]

Jesus mate I remember back when before I was married these scammer's tried it on with me, so it aint new that was 45 years ago

It just seems that there's a few of these things that seem to do the rounds every now and again in a cycle. I've had none for months but in the past 2 days I've had a load of SEO companies, charity muggers, advertise in our mag etc phone calls. They've all been given the same answer but I thought it best to let people know they've surfaced again.
Nothing new as you say mate.

 

[SJD]

I too have suddenly had a few calls, after a period of relative quiet. These included a rather persistent Belfast based construction directory that wanted to "check my details" after a "customer had reported being unable to contact me" the previous day, and a few calls and SMS messages from some "Tradies" outfit that purports to help me work in NZ/Australia.