Scam of the day

PeteHall

PeteHall

Moderator
Not quite a scam, but a nuisance call with a slight twist on the usual in that he actually knew some of my personal details and stayed on the phone much longer than usual...

Received a call today from 0161 525 2544

The caller claimed to be from RTA Management (short for Road Traffic Accident Management). While I kept him talking, I checked this out on companies house and the only RTA Management is dissolved and there is no company under the full name. A google search brings up hundreds of no-fault accident claim companies.

As usual, the caller claimed had I been involved in a minor non-fault accident within the last 3 years. He claimed to have gained the information from "UK National Survey Department" (which does not exist).

I asked what the vehicle was and he gave me the make and model of a vehicle I own, I asked the registration and he gave me the registration of, you guessed it, the vehicle I have for sale (that started this thread).

He claimed his company address was 171 Garrette Lane, London. The closest address by Google is "Garratt Lane" and there appears to be a curry house at 171. He said he was calling from that London address, despite calling from a Manchester number and having a fairly poor grasp of the English language...

I informed him that the vehicle had never been involved in an accident and asked again where he had gained the information.

I informed him he was in breach of GDPR and requested a company number as his company did not appear to exist based on the name provided and I wanted to report his company for breach of GDPR. He could not provide a company number and eventually hung up when I pressed for this.


Slightly more clued up than the usual "you've been in a no-fault accident" call, in that he knew all the details of the car, which I assume he got from my advert to sell it. He was also a lot more persistent than usual. they normally hang up as soon as you ask where they got your phone number or what vehicle was involved. These low-life scammers really boil my blood!  :mad:
 
C

crickleymal

New member
I had an ambulance chaser phone me up whilst I was in the waiting room waiting for a blood test. "Oh f*** off!" said quite loudly caused a few heads to turn. When I explained that it was an ambulance chaser people were happy with my response.
 
SamT

SamT

Moderator
Imagine my surprise when some 'Prevention Foundation' leaflets arrived in the post, along with our certificate and an invoice for ?399 quid turned up on the door mat at work on Monday!!.

This has been followed up with several calls.. They're now getting quite shirty when we are saying we never agreed to anything, certainly not 399 quid.

This one really annoys me, its registered as a CIC on companies house, has a vaguely crap website, facebook, linked in, insta presence, with very few followers/likes what ever.  But then they do appear to be actually doing some sort of work with schools and bullying.

They reckoned they'd sent stuff to a local school, Birkdale already. 

Birkdale is sheffields posh expensive private school, which happens to be the closest school to our office on google maps.  I very much doubt they have an issue with knife crime and I'm not sure what good 399 quids worth of booklets is going to do them.

What bugs me is they're using underhand techniques to get money and then being threatening on the phone when we've refused to pay.  Which then makes it harder for other, more genuine charities to collect money, if everyone is suspicious about scams.

Had they used a more soft approach, asked for less money, agreed stuff upfront, I may well have given them some dosh.

:cautious:
 
W

Wardy

Active member
A short while back I had a GDPR issue with an insurance broker keeping too much of my details.

It started when I bought a new vehicle and searched online for insurance before settling on one.
The next year I received a renewal note that seemed to be an automatic renewal from my insurer, but something seemed wrong and then I realised it was from a company I had declined and did not represent my insurer.
As I digested this I realised the form had much more personal information than they needed and I was not sure I had provided all of it.
All of this on an insecure email!

I decided to "unsubscribe" asap to remove my details from their site, only to find that when I followed the option it took me to a company in Belfast that had a statement saying that they believed they had a right to keep my details and there was no option to stop them.
I was now getting annoyed and then I realised I could edit my details.

Now the fun began
I changed my name to A N Other
Put my Date of Birth as todays date - bit young to drive, but not necessarily to own a vehicle
The vehicle became Old Banger etc.
all went well until I got to the address and then it spotted that Back of Beyond was not a real address as the fictitious post code did not fit.
Not quite beaten I spotted their post code on the form - I entered the post code and it auto filled their own address - result.
On a roll I put their email address in as well for good measure.

Now all I had to do was submit.
At which point an auto message popped up saying they apologised as they would not be able to quote over the internet, but would get an insurer to contact me by phone the following day if I gave a time and appropriate number.
I duly entered their phone number and asked for the call at 11am
Unfortunately I never found out how their enquiry went.

As the saying goes there is more than one way of skinning a cat.
Whilst they were determined to keep some details, they were not worthy of keeping mine. 
 
royfellows

royfellows

Well-known member
One could create a fake ID with a throw away email address. An address can be a derelict building, enough of these in Wales, a postcode can be generated by websites that do this.
 
J

Jenny P

Active member
"Prevention Foundation" also had a try at the British Caving Library and, having checked that it did exist, I vaguely agreed thay we would provide some leaflets to the local school but I deliberately used my own name and postal address in all the information I gave them.  No amount of money was ever mentioned but I thought that, if it did turn out to be worth while I'd willingly shell out ?20 or so myself for the little primary school just up the road from the Library.

Similar story to Sam T.  Long story short, an invoice for ?199 arrived - no way am I paying that for about 20 four-page leaflets.  So I ignored it; they threatened a bit but then gave up after about 4 weeks.

If it's a scam, it's not a very productive one.
 
royfellows

royfellows

Well-known member
Its a 'grey'scam like Rapid Secure who board windows up for the police who have a duty of care to leave buildings secure after break ins. I was broken into about 15 years ago and few bits of little value taken. I got home and found a window boarded up and the lights on. Next door gave me the story. I removed the boarding and got a new pane cut for ?12 which i fitted myself. A week later an invoice for ?230 for nailing up a sheet of boarding ply. Refused to pay regardless of letters and calls etc. Heard nothing more.
One cannot be forced to pay for a service not requested and if they pursue the matter through the courts not only will the case be thrown out but they risk being declared vexatious litigants for misuse of the civil justice system.
 
tomferry

tomferry

Well-known member
Saw a brilliant one last week .

One of my beagles is getting very old looking at replacing him , we have two in a heated Kennel outside use them as guard dogs because their howling is very loud , in the village we live get a lot of robberies sadly , anyway !

I told me wife to find another puppy she starts looking for re home option because many people have bought dogs during covid and now don?t want them ! We find a site re home beagles for free , I think brilliant !! Start messaging the person they ask many questions about the conditions we will give the dogs and do we walk them etc etc gave all the correct answers , then they start trying to get a exact address ! I told her to only reply Northamptonshire .

They said great that?s ?240 and we shall post one two you !! Click here to pay , I didn?t I replied excuse me what are you on about was that message meant for me I want to collect it to view , they said sorry your quote is ?60 ! I said I cannot afford that sorry ! They said send over ?20 and we shall post it ! I said where are you they said California! I said right I?ll collect it ! They never replied ! Best thing was they didn?t even ask if I wanted a dog or bitch !
 
F

Fulk

Well-known member
Hi, Down and beyond, I just love the idea of posting a dog! I wonder if it would bite the postman?
 
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