The calendar/wallplanner scam

[Mike George]

As mentioned on the 'scam alert' topic, it's that time of year again, when you will get phone calls from publishers of calendars and wall planners offering you the chance to be 'the only courier in your area' on a calendar or wall planner which will be sent to local businesses.

They are always for a good cause - children's charities, the fire brigade, etc. They take your money and send you a proof copy of your ad. The actual product probably never gets printed, and the charity may or may not get any of your money.

A Shed 5 member has had a phone call offering ad space on a website in support of the NHS, which sounds to me like an updated version of the same old scam.

For more info on common scams see http://www.courierology.co.uk/scams.php

[faqtag wall planners]

[Anonymous]

Nice one Mike, thanks for addressin that to everyone, especially gullable newbies like myself who could fall for scams like the one you mention.m

[Anonymous]

In another life i am ashamed to admit that i sold this.

Belive it or not there are some printers that do deliver the calenders/wall planners/diaries .

The sting in the tail is all the money charged for your adds go to the printer the charity or cause gets thier calenders/ wall planners /diaries free of charge.

On the surface this sounds a good deal for the good causes but i can tell you the biggest winners are the printers.

Do the adds work, well when was the last time you looked in your diary or looked at a wall planner and responded to an add>

[bramble43]

Had a call today, forester something, wanting to put a calendar together for childrens charity.
Declined the nice ladies offer and googled company and phone number, company owner is total con artist and never manages to pay the charity or his taxes before getting bankrupted, according to some sites.
If you do want to pay a real company for space on a wallchart, when they call ask for them to call back in an hour, tell them you want to google them to check them out before you agree to anything.
They'll either be honest, stupid or have huge balls to call you back

[Anonymous]

Hey Mike thanks for the info......up here in Manchester the scam is diaries as well and the best ones say its the police, or fire brigade, home for the blind think you get the idea!!!!! Cheers stephen

[cid_couriers]

We all know these people use a script to make the calls, I've managed to get my reply "script" for all them down to just two words - the second being "off"

[bramble43]

Just had a call from the foresters fund for children, 25000 wall planners blah blah.... CLICK

I would suggest anyone else does the same

[hlh]

i got the forrester fund and police today i could only think of 2 words before i hung up lol

[Northampton Motorcycle Co]

I found this on youtube a few weeks ago..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh4EPcOpSy8

Only had to use it once but trust me, it works a treat and it had me and my girlfriend in stitches...lol

I've had these cold callers for years and am now quite looking forward to the next one.. ..This was the first time they hung up on me!!!

Cheers, Chris

Try it and post your results..........

[Stuart Farrington]

I've had someone ring me from a private number several times recently and I suspect it's these idiots.

Each time it's happened I've let it drop on to voicemail, they don't actually leave a message as such but the phone at their end isn't disconnected so when I listen to the message I can here background noise of a printer and someone doing a sales pitch about advertising.

[bramble43]

I just want them to go away, go far far away, take the yellow brick road. i'm singing the theme tune in my head now., they call my freephone number which diverts to landline which diverts to mobile most of the time and i'm paying silly phone bills for these low life to call me and sell me something i don't want, if i want something i'll look for it, i will not buy something off of someone who trys to force it on me

Oh yeah, and this if flaming funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kYWWMHTKXs

[simon leak]

some good fun to be had with the numpties

bramble - that was the tops.

reminded me about the one where the man had been burgled - phoned police, police said - yes sir someone will be there soon. 3 hrs later no cops. he phoned again and said he was holding his wife at gunpoint and then will commit suicide. cops turned up 2 mins!...........

[bigbeefy]

wall planners etc etc had them all on the fone

remember guys they can record the call

so what i do is ask them to hold for 2 seconds as i always record any sales calls the dodgy ones always hang up

[Noble Express Couriers]

I actually fell for one of these a few years ago - this was for a childrens charity or something - it left me quite a few hundred quid out of pocket. Now if anyone rings up asking for me to advertise, allbeit for charity causes or what I just tll them to do one...THey could be genuine you never know, but I aint risking pating another penny to these scum-bags - il bnever make that mistake again....I hope!

One actually rung me and said my ad was at the printers and it couldnt be cancelled - I said I hadnt ordered nothing, and he said that he had my call recorder. So I asked him to play it...only then did he swiftly end the call!!

Interestingly though, about 99% of these callers I had were of scouse origin........

[rhubarb]

I actually fell for one of these a few years ago - this was for a childrens charity or something - it left me quite a few hundred quid out of pocket. Now if anyone rings up asking for me to advertise, allbeit for charity causes or what I just tll them to do one...THey could be genuine you never know, but I aint risking pating another penny to these scum-bags - il bnever make that mistake again....I hope!

One actually rung me and said my ad was at the printers and it couldnt be cancelled - I said I hadnt ordered nothing, and he said that he had my call recorder. So I asked him to play it...only then did he swiftly end the call!!

Interestingly though, about 99% of these callers I had were of scouse origin........

I had this happen to me too..He was doing my head in, so I send send me some info, which they did, the advert(proof) looked rubbish, so I cancelled it..They then started sended me invoices for £250...I politely wrote a firm letter saying I hadn't ordered it, and that I'd cancelled it..They then offered to send me an email of the recorded phone call saying I'd ordered it...Then it was more invoices and threats to take me to court..It all ended when the original salesman phoned me, and I said is this being recorded, he said yes, I said well one more call or letter or bill for something I didn't ask for, I shall come up to your offices mob handed and beat the poo out of the place Never heard from them again..

Incidently, the firm was based in Stockport, connected to the firebrigade, scumbags

[Anonymous]

Had the same happen to me today. Some planner to raise money for kids....Er no thanks.

[maverick]

rang me yesterday told them to go away in short jerky motions

[Hitman84]

had the same yesterday, telling me i had agreed to sponsor some book for schools or something at a cost of £95+Vat and that my business details would go into these books targeted at 5-9 year olds, which in effect with profits that go to sick and needy children.

Then went on to say, we will send you a copy out to your address, we just need to take the payment from you now as the books are going to press.

Needless to say she got a bit moody when i said i havent f***ing signed up to no sponsoring etc and she said i will try and get a cancellation for you and the fee is £30. Told her :censored: and to do one, can safely say she never called back !

[Anonymous]

When would 5 - 9 yr olds ever need a courier?

[Hitman84]

When would 5 - 9 yr olds ever need a courier?

a point i raised too, which was graced with a response of "just think of the children you will be helping to recieve treatment and help when they need it"

What a load of "rubbish" !!

[Anonymous]

I feel really bad now!

I few years ago (before I worked for the police lol) I was asked to create a software package for a company looking to hold a database of customers.

We agreed a cheap cost of £600 (I needed some extra money and had already created a similar software package)

They paid me £300 and held the other £300 until completion.

Less than a week later, I had fully customised the software for them and they asked for a few additions. They wanted it to display - and I quote - "a picture of the member or their company logo" I told them this would be an extra £400 but we finally agreed on £250 as I just wanted to get the money.

When I came in with the updated software they told me that they was happy with the software but wanted a few more changes! I was getting annoyed and demanded full payment before I did any more work.

They offered me a full time mon-fri position inhouse until software was complete at £350 a week. This suited me on a temp basis so I agreed.

After the new updates was completed they asked me to stick about as people was asking for adverts to be created on their behalf so I did.

Another addition was a postcode validator that looked at the postcode and then arranged each company into their own locality.

After 3 weeks, I finally heard a phone call in the other office (I was there to upgrade a few computers) and it was then I heard the "Hi, im Bob from the Fire Service, I just want to thank you for your kind donation last year to the service and was hoping you would be as generous again today. We are creating a flyer/wall poster/diary on behalf of the Fire Service and we can have your advert prominently featured for £195/£250/£450* Is that ok? It will be delivered to every public house in your local area"

* = depending on how receptive the "client" was

I asked the manager about this and he said "we just tell them that" I asked what do you do when people say they havent seen the posters? and he replied "We get a handful of wall posters printed for each "zone" and send them out as examples."

I was shocked and walked out right there without the remainding £550 that was owed to me.

I cant imagine how much money they was making to pay 4 full time sales staff, a manager and then my £350 a week on top!

[Fridge]

I have had a couple of calls over the last week about this.

One was for a kids cancer charity saying i'll be in the book as the only courier.

I believe charity begins at home, and i admit i said yes.

They said the could do it for about £275 and the advert will be in the books for a year.
When i got the letter through it was something like £327... they didn't mention VAT.
Work is slow so am going to pull out of it, just can't afford that sort of money. I also had a call from another one for the NHS and said no can do.

I am now getting fed up with cold callers offering this that and the other.

One bloke didn't stop going on about what they offer til i shouted "F**K OFF" down the phone, then he shut up