dodgy advertising companies

corky1980

Does anyone here know much about dodgy advertising companies?

About 3years ago my Uncle got conned by some company called National Development Publications from kimmage in Dublin He has a company in Cork and they got about 900euro taken off them for some ad for some profile they were doing in the magazine.

I think the gimmick is they ring up and say they make a magazine for the national development plan or something and the company are pushed into taking an ad to go along with whatever profile theyre doing.

I met a guy then last week who told me a similiar story about a different company in dublin saying they were local Gards or something...

Is this legal? And is there many more companies out there like this?
Is there any way to stop them?

Sponge Bob

Lots of them are based in England ( some pretend to be directories not magazines) and the message is not to advertise with them if you do not know who they are .

corky1980

really? this one was based in Kimmage in Dublin, in some industrial estate.
is there many more of them in Ireland?

Oryx

I have no clue how many there are, but I get this kind of call now and again. The last one said they were working on a booklet on road safety with the gardai and the RSA. The number (midlands I think) came up on caller ID, so I passed it on to the RSA, who were actually very concerned at having their name used this way.

I had asked the caller scammer to call back, but somehow they didnt.:)

corky1980

It was good you reported it to the RSA, did you mention it to the Gards as well?

I found their website
http://www.nationaldevelopment.ie/

Is there any consumer group you can report it to?

corky1980

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jor el

corky1980 wrote: »

Is there any way to stop them?

Yeah, don't take out the ad, and hang up the phone.

Run_to_da_hills

I have seen the same shower making county GAA Football / Hurley team calendars, I.e., They approach your business telling you some story that they are offiliated with the local GAA football or hurlers team. That if you place an add on their calendar it will guarantee 10.000 hits with destribution of these things.

When you get your A2 poster size single sheet calendars they are so woeful and tacky and full of adds you would not want to put them up. The only ones you will find putting them up are those that got stung by them. They could charge up to 500 for a placement. :eek:

Keep away from them. The GAA have got nothing got to do with these.

corky1980

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

I have seen the same shower making county GAA Football / Hurley team calendars, I.e., They approach your business telling you some story that they are offiliated with the local GAA football or hurlers team. That if you place an add on their calendar it will guarantee 10.000 hits with destribution of these things.

When you get your A2 poster size single sheet calendars they are so woeful and tacky and full of adds you would not want to put them up. The only ones you will find putting them up are those that got stung by them. They could charge up to 500 for a placement. :eek:

Keep away from them. The GAA have got nothing got to do with these.

its amazing they still get away with it,
why hasnt some newspaper covered this??
or why dont the GAA do something about it?

Run_to_da_hills

corky1980 wrote: »

its amazing they still get away with it,
why hasnt some newspaper covered this??
or why dont the GAA do something about it?

Its down to being "fly by night" I.e. they are gone within a couple of weeks and are uncontactable after that, they would operate from a shorter term rented office and use a name that sounds "official", design the calander on a computer using photoshop or something similar and sub the printing out to some local printing firm. I got stung myself out of it 10 years ago for 200 old money. I believe they crop up every year and would be more popular in country towns where the GAA teams are doing well.

It would be in the Medias interest to publicise and warn about these because it is robbing them of advertising revenue. Ask any small business in Ennis that has been operating for the last 10 years and they will tell you about them.

corky1980

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Its down to being "fly by night" I.e. they are gone within a couple of weeks and are uncontactable after that, they would operate from a shorter term rented office and use a name that sounds "official", design the calander on a computer using photoshop or something similar and sub the printing out to some local printing firm. I got stung myself out of it 10 years ago for 200 old money. I believe they crop up every year and would be more popular in country towns where the GAA teams are doing well.

It would be in the Medias interest to publicise and warn about these because it is robbing them of advertising revenue. Ask any small business in Ennis that has been operating for the last 10 years and they will tell you about them.

would you know anyone at a magazine or nation wide newspaper that could do a feature on it

corky1980

jor el wrote: »

Yeah, don't take out the ad, and hang up the phone.

okay, thats a fair enough point but if someone is unfamiliar with this whole area and there is a guy on the other end of the phone pressuring them into doing something and saying he is from some local authority then it is often hard to just hang up.

Is there legally anything that can be done~?

jor el

corky1980 wrote: »

Is there legally anything that can be done~?

I wouldn't think so, unless the ad/magazine doesn't exist, then it would be fraud. If you get what you paid for, then there's nothing wrong with a hard sale tactic.

They are perfectly entitled to offer services to a business, but the business must take responsibility for checking out what they're paying for. Any business, or individual, who gives out payment details to someone who rings them, is being more than a little naive if they don't do at least some checking on it, regardless of who they claim to be working for.

corky1980

jor el wrote: »

I wouldn't think so, unless the ad/magazine doesn't exist, then it would be fraud. If you get what you paid for, then there's nothing wrong with a hard sale tactic.

They are perfectly entitled to offer services to a business, but the business must take responsibility for checking out what they're paying for. Any business, or individual, who gives out payment details to someone who rings them, is being more than a little naive if they don't do at least some checking on it, regardless of who they claim to be working for.

fair enough, but pretending to be a gard or to be from a government authority like the National Development plan must be some kind of crime

corky1980

http://neilmichael.wordpress.com/2006/04/03/carroll-dillon/

i noticed this on a blog, its about a company called carroll dillon who were doing something similiar.

"Well-meaning small businesses were persuaded to hand over cash to pay for adverts in booklets Bates wrongly claimed had official police, government and National Union of Teachers backing.
Telesales staff tricked more than 7,000 people into believing they were helping in a nationwide crime prevention initiative that would reach 300,000 UK schools.
The sales teams were also instructed to pretend the people they called that they had actually been contacted previously and had already agreed to buy ads in the bogus booklets.
Premier Services - a debt recovery company linked to Bates and his colleagues - mailed threats of legal action to anyone who refused to pay for the adverts.
The threatening letters were sent on out-of-date county court forms and despite never having agreed to buy adverts, people still paid up."

corky1980

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-consumer-issues/151539-vardis-advertising-scam.html

Run_to_da_hills

corky1980 wrote: »

would you know anyone at a magazine or nation wide newspaper that could do a feature on it

This all happened 10 years ago, I would probably have company records or reciepts from the crowd that produced them but more than likely they are well gone. I posted a note on this topic in the Clare regional section enquiring about if any one had dealings with any of these calandars recently.

dilallio

These scammers sometimes put ads in local papers looking for people who want to make extra money at home. They will get these people to make sales calls for them, and make it look like they're a reputable Irish company, when in fact they could be far away from Ireland.
Beware

corky1980

i think if people are made more aware about this then these people would find their jobs a lot harder.

I dont know if the rest of you read that article I posted earlier about Carrol dillon publications. There was a huge fuss made there and they got put out of business. The were scamming small business people into supporting some dugs awareness publications, which was full of dodgy information.:eek:

Is there any consumer action group in Ireland which they could be reported to?

jor el

corky1980 wrote: »

fair enough, but pretending to be a gard or to be from a government authority like the National Development plan must be some kind of crime

OK, if they are claiming to be Gardai or government officials, then that would be a crime.

corky1980 wrote:

Is there any consumer action group in Ireland which they could be reported to?

But they are targeting businesses and not consumers, so groups like the National Consumer Agency won't get involved. If your business has been targeted and you are being asked to pay money, get your company solicitor involved, and possibly the Garda Fraud Squad.

corky1980

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/archive/index.php/t-2055281983.html

this page has a similiar example, Im amazed by the amount of companies out there who get away with this.



"Has anyone come across companies called C.H.A. or Costello?
Recently got an invoice in the post from C.H.A. for over £350 Sterling for an advertisement they said I had asked them to put in their magazine. There was also a copy of the magazine. It was called Waiting Room. There were no ads in it except for mine... printed on a page of A4 paper and stapled into the centre of the booklet!
Since then they have been ringing and being very abusive on the phone. Demanding the £350 and threating legal action.
Of course I never looked to advertise in this booklet.

Then today another envelope arrives. This time from a company called Costello Ltd this time looking for over £600 for a similar "service". Another magazine with an ad for my company printed on A4 paper and this time a book marker with my company details on it too.

Both companies are based in Manchester. The invoices have what look to be legit postal addresses on them and phone numbers. On calling the phone numbers different people answer and give the company names."