Emergency Services Press

[plumb/one]

Same here we had a letter from them with extra charges mind you for putting the matter in their sol's hands which in turn told us we had 7 days to pay like you.
They can do their best, hell will freeze over before we part with our hard earned cash.

 

[First Aid Trainer]

I've received 5 calls all in the last few months from people claiming to be from Bershire NHS Trust press office and from Berkshire Police Initiative. The first calls from 'NHS press office' were claiming to get me a contract to train all the GPs in the area. When I pushed them with some questions they became quite aggressive and said that they would make sure I get struck off and never get any work from them. I asked the guys name and told me he was Paul Popoldopolous and I asked for his number and his bosses name as I didnt like his attitude, he told me that he had better things to do like pick his toe nails and hung up!

I had three of these calls (back in March 2011) from two different people, both of which had Liverpudian sounding accents.

Last week I had a call from a Liverpudian guy to my mobile saying he was from Berkshire Police Initiative regarding some advertising, I told him I couldnt talk and to call me back. Today I got that call back and he went through their magazine that was going to be distrubuted quarterly to 48000 businesses throughout Berkshire and that if I went with them I would be their only first aid trainer.

He talked me through their website which he encouraged me to view whilst on the phone esbullitin.co.uk which looks legit and I told him to give me half an hour to think things over before comitting. He gave me his name, Michael Long and could only give me a mobile number as he wasnt working from his office. He said if I needed reassurance that they were legit to call their 0845 number which you can find on one of their online versions of the magazine. I did this and got through to Kevin in the print department, who said they were publishing this magazine throughout the country and that Micahel Long worked in their sales department.

I decided to Google it and came to this thread, where there is good and bad written about them (mostly bad!), so I decided to call Consumer Direct (Trading Standards) on 08454 040506. They advised me that this had all the hallmarks of a well known advertising scam, where they'll take your money over the phone by card and even send you the artwork of your advert but there will be no publication that will ever get distributed. They also informed me to expect invoices from them, followed by solicitors letters and debt collectors, all of which would be fake and that I should ignore any and send copies to them. They also informed me to report it to the local police (Thames Valley Police seeing as there is no such thing as Berkshire Police!!!), which I have done so and they have passed it onto their investigation team.

Being a relative new company, I'm keen to advertise my business to other businesses and feel stupid for being so gullable but at least I'm not a grand out of pocket!

Just glad I came accross this thread before I parted with any money!

 

[plumb/one]

Hi Good to hear that you took a stand from this web site as to whether to part with your money or not and believe me you made the right decision i had the same as you but went one step further to the stage where they sent me the art work and a load of crap that was i then told them i was not interested in the advert.
This was part by the way they worked and the feedback on this site, after then i had invoice for the advert plus a solicitors letter threatening court action if i didn't pay in 7 days (yeah right)
That was weeks ago

 

[Newmedia]

Who is the solicitors they use and why would solicitors help them I wonder???

 

[Merchant UK]

Who is the solicitors they use and why would solicitors help them I wonder???

I think even the Solicitors are fake also, Get in touch with Trading Standards and complain to the law society about the solicitors letter if its real

 

[DavidWH]

If only I'd googled it sooner.

I've falled foul of this, and sadly paid. I was persistant, and eventually they knocked the price down to just over £100.

They sent me a previous copy of the magazine, and been a printing company noticed that the print quality was crap. They cannot produce 40,000 of these on a laser printer!

I rang them to cancel and had a heated conversation... I spoke with trading standards who inform me that distance selling regs don't apply on business to business sales, and that I can demand a refund.

It's not happened and I havent received a copy of my phone conversation... I've sent an invoice for the money they owe me and will try and issue a court summons to them.

I spoke to one chap and asked to speak with Mr Daly... it went quiet and I was told nobody by that name worked there.

I asked where to send my invoice, I got their London address, I then questioned that because a who-is query gave me an address in the Wirral. When I mentioned that address it was deathly quiet again.

I have contacted Visa Disputes who aren't very helpful!

 

[Merchant UK]

If only I'd googled it sooner.

I've falled foul of this, and sadly paid. I was persistant, and eventually they knocked the price down to just over £100.

They sent me a previous copy of the magazine, and been a printing company noticed that the print quality was crap. They cannot produce 40,000 of these on a laser printer!

I rang them to cancel and had a heated conversation... I spoke with trading standards who inform me that distance selling regs don't apply on business to business sales, and that I can demand a refund.

It's not happened and I havent received a copy of my phone conversation... I've sent an invoice for the money they owe me and will try and issue a court summons to them.

I spoke to one chap and asked to speak with Mr Daly... it went quiet and I was told nobody by that name worked there.

I asked where to send my invoice, I got their London address, I then questioned that because a who-is query gave me an address in the Wirral. When I mentioned that address it was deathly quiet again.

I have contacted Visa Disputes who aren't very helpful!

What was the name of the company, i'll see if i can find some extra info for you ;-)

I'd also get in touch with the police as giving you false information during a sale is Deception (IE obtaining payment by deception)

Report it as a crime and don't give up if they try and fob you off

 

[Paul Hughes]

Hi there

I've recently set up a new business and am being plagued by these calls. It's particulalrly annoying since I have to answer many of them due to the nature of my business. Unless it's an out of area code I can't ignore "unknowns."

I've just had Michael Johnson from Berkshire Police Initiative call me. I didn't answer but he left a message. He was a softly spoken scouser. It was the usual style of call - I'd be the featured example of my trade, call back to discuss rates etc.

I have his mobile number and his message saved.

Is it any use going anywhere with this or shall I simply ignore it and delete the records?

Paul

 

[boomer]

Hi there

I've recently set up a new business and am being plagued by these calls. It's particulalrly annoying since I have to answer many of them due to the nature of my business. Unless it's an out of area code I can't ignore "unknowns."

I've just had Michael Johnson from Berkshire Police Initiative call me. I didn't answer but he left a message. He was a softly spoken scouser. It was the usual style of call - I'd be the featured example of my trade, call back to discuss rates etc.

I have his mobile number and his message saved.

Is it any use going anywhere with this or shall I simply ignore it and delete the records?

Paul

Do no harm to inform trading standards so they can add it to their file as another attempt at extortion. See what TS say and advise and follow their advise.

But above all dont pay anything.

 

[mit74]

ignore them and as soon as you realise it's a sales call tell them you're not interested and hang up. Try not to converse or give them any information with them or they'll claim you agreed to an advert.
As a new business you're going to get all manner of advertising, health and safety, SEO and information sellers pretending they're a governement body who needs to confirm your details.They prey on people's naivety.

General rule: never agree to anything over the phone. Personally I wouldn't buy anything from telesales.

 

[Paul Hughes]

Thanks. I know never to converse or buy from them. Sorry, my question was unclear. I meant: "is it a productive use of time to report them to TSI or police etc?"

I've read a lot about these scams of late and it appears that most people find the authorities to be rather uninterested.

Paul

 

[mit74]

yeh pretty much not interested. TS will just advise you and the police will probably just tell you to stop wasting their time.

 

[Paul Hughes]

It's amazing, isn't it?! You'd be prosecuted for calling a police horse "gay" but defrauding people of thousands of pounds, through pretending to be a policeman, is unofficially tolerated.

 

[mit74]

It's amazing, isn't it?! You'd be prosecuted for calling a police horse "gay" but defrauding people of thousands of pounds, through pretending to be a policeman, is unofficially tolerated.

don't get me started!!! If they can't instantly get a conviction they don't want to know.

 

[Splashy]

It's amazing, isn't it?! You'd be prosecuted for calling a police horse "gay" but defrauding people of thousands of pounds, through pretending to be a policeman, is unofficially tolerated.

No they wouldn't, again barrack room lawyers not understanding the law and no they haven't (read the OP again!) It's very easy bashing anything when you don't understand the law and where the boundaries are. Some Forces do investigate these criminals as it is a fraud or attempt fraud but remember they can only spend their cash once and have to prioritise. Some forces can afford to investigate these type of crimes, some can not. It is never as easy as you imagine, the Police are dammed if they do and dammed if they don't so stop bashing them by half quoting internet nonsense - next you'll be saying it is the law that a pregnant woman can wee in a Police Helmet

 

[crphillips]

These mags are dreadful. They word it all so that it sounds like your privileged to have been selected to go in their magazine and babble on how it will go to your chosen schools and businesses for FREE............then at the end of the conversation and all the bull they say "so is it ok to take your card details and process the payment?" I'm like...."what payment, nothing was mentioned about any payment, I thought I'd be specially selected and it was all free?"............see you later!

The OP and the person who thanked him are clearly the same person.

What a dreadful way to make a living. I really couldn't live with myself if that was the way I needed to operate to make some money.

In response to the post above......it's definitely illegal to wee on a police mans shoes!

 

[mit74]

No they wouldn't, again barrack room lawyers not understanding the law and no they haven't (read the OP again!) It's very easy bashing anything when you don't understand the law and where the boundaries are. Some Forces do investigate these criminals as it is a fraud or attempt fraud but remember they can only spend their cash once and have to prioritise. Some forces can afford to investigate these type of crimes, some can not. It is never as easy as you imagine, the Police are dammed if they do and dammed if they don't so stop bashing them by half quoting internet nonsense - next you'll be saying it is the law that a pregnant woman can wee in a Police Helmet

I'm not sure entirely what your getting out here, most of it doesn't make sense but what do you mean quoting internet nonsense? Sam Brown was arrested for calling a police horse gay FACT and the police still stood by the proecution even after the courts threw it out. A pregnant woman can pee anywhere see wants to without fear of arrest for indecent exposure FACT The police helmet part is just a silly myth someone added to it to make it more interesting.

The fact is though this is a multi million pound scam that hass gone on in Liverpool and Manchester areas for years without these forces doing anything worth while. There are websites dedicated to bringing them down with hundreds of statements from others who have been scammed. Thousands of small business owners are threatened, intimidated and verbally abused weekly by these scammers. They arrested the 2 main culprits from Liverpool years ago but they just setup the businesses with new names and the police just say they're powerless. Personally I don't think that's good enough.

It is so professional now that they even have scam baliff companies and the follow up scams, such as the telephone prefrence scam where they promise to stop all the calls if you join their service (for a 'small' fee) both are owned by the same people. If you want to know the scale of the problem just google advertsing scams.

 

[ThePublisher]

Dragging up this old thread as it's good to see that the ringleader for the Emergency Services Magazine scam has been jailed for 7 years.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/ringleader-who-lived-high-life-10774561