We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
everbright smiles scam
Options
Comments
-
From: http://www.orderedmanagement.co.uk/info/Trading_Planet.htm
Statement about Trading Planet Ltd and Health Science
An international internet scam has been using our address without our authority and we wish to help victims of the scam by providing this information.
We registered the company, Trading Planet Ltd, on 4 August 2009 but we never used the company for any business; nor did we release control of the company to the people who have used the name.We found out about the scam as packages started to arrive at our offices in mid August. When we realised the seriousness of the situation, we wrote to Companies House and asked them to dissolve the company.
We had no knowledge of the name "Health Science" until we saw it on packages arriving in our office.
This matter is in the hands of Avon & Somerset Police, whose telephone number is 0845 456 7000. Please quote Crime Number AS2009 0908/0271. If you are a victim, or if you have relevant information about this, please report it to your local police, but tell them the Crime Number (AS2009 0908/0271).
Returned goods are being handled by a packaging company in Scotland and the address to use is PO Box 13579, Linlithgow, EH49 9AH.
A victim of the scam has put together some useful information showing how she got her money back and you may like to look at her website - www.tlcinvestigations.co.uk, which also contains a lot of information about the people behind the operation.
This is an ongoing scam for which we are among the latest victims. We have no involvement in the scam, but have been put to a lot of trouble and expense because of it. We strongly urge all victims to report the matter to the police and to their bank's fraud department.
Source: http://www.orderedmanagement.co.uk/info/Trading_Planet.htm"The happiest of people don't necessarily have the
best of everything; they just make the best
of everything that comes along their way."
-- Author Unknown --0 -
gem68,
I'm so sorry you've got this worry.
From what you've said, I think what may have happened is that you have cancelled with "Clean Whites" but not with "Everbright Smiles".
Please don't trust emails. The Everbright Smiles email address is shown in their T&Cs as being [EMAIL="care@everbrightsmiles.com"]care@everbrightsmiles.com[/EMAIL] but I've never had a reply when I've emailed them.
I would urge you to phone 0203 371 9369 (see post from "HSG" and remember that you will need to make allowance for Texas being 6 hours behind us as this call will probably transfer you to Houston).
You can ask them if they have made this charge against your account as that seems the most likely scenario if you haven't cancelled your "contract" with them. You must cancel with them and any other organisation they have passed your details to, so you'll need to get names and contact details from them to do this.
Have you cancelled your debit card yet? I really think you must do this straight away and safeguard yourself. You may wish to consider closing your account to protect yourself further.
Best wishes,
AG0 -
i've been in to bank,emptied account,cancelled o/d,opened new account and am in process of sorting all dd's and standing orders out.
head office said dispute is "in progress" and now at least they can't take cash that i need,still £147 + short of course.feel i little more relieved and bank have been fab to be honest,both in branch and head office.
have cancelled with both everbright and clean smiles,everbright state they don't know who the 3rd company who took the£147 out are.haven't heard back fron clean smiles.
hope everyone else is doing ok.0 -
Hi, Yes I've also been sucked into this stupid scam.... what on earth was I thinking as I've never done this before. I only got as far as giving them my card details and waiting for products to arrive (not here as yet). In meantime discovered on here that this is a scam. I am in Australia and have called my bank. They advise that they are well aware that this is going on. Their advice was to send a cancellation email to these companies, which I have done via their Contact Us section cancelling both orders and have taken screen dumps of these. I have received a standard email response to both emails to them. The bank advised to wait to see if anything now gets charged to my card. I don't mind paying the $2.95 or whatever it was I originally thought I agreed to, if they send the sample products, but not to anything else. The bank have said that the company will change their name each time they charge to your credit card so you need to keep an eye on future statements. The bank said to advise them of any charges that come through and they will challenge them. They said to keep a record of my cancellations.
I have since decided to just cancel my credit card as I don't want the hassle of having to worry about potential charges coming through every couple of months. For the sake of changing a few direct debits that I have set up, I think it will be worth it, and it will be a very big lesson not to be so stupid again! The lady at the bank said that there is no such thing as a "Free Trial" on the internet - there is always a catch. Just try downloading a free trial program and you'll see. You'll just use up half your download limit only for them to ask for your credit card details. I learnt that one the hard way too..... slowly getting there! Next time I see something that sounds too good to be true I'll try looking here first.
A very big thank you to whoever runs this website (Martin?) and to all of the people who contributed to this post/forum/thingy.0 -
Hi,
I would like to know how many people who got the aformentionned cancelation email* got to stop the charges.
After I got the order confirmation email with basically no information in it, I suspected it was a spam. Then, called the bank (not good idea) and try to cancel this through their automatic voice service over the phone, directly with two different custumer service agents (I am in Canada and got to call the UK many times), and I only could get that silly cancelation email with no specific information in it. My bank said they need a written cancelation with specific information of the transaction and with my credit card number which of course I could NOT get from them (I got all type of excuses). So, I sent by regular mail (with a tracking number) the cancelation request.
So, is there anyone who has got that "general" cancelation email and had been charged again?
They (the bank) know very well what this is going on, and I just do not understand how this people can still doing this as nothing.
Anyway hope everybody could get this solved
* "
Dear ******,
Thank you for contacting our customer support department.
Your account has been cancelled successfully as of today.
This cancellation implies that beginning today, our company will make no more charges and no more products will be shipped to you.
Thank you for your business. We look forward to serving your needs in the future.
You can also contact us on the following phone number from 9.00h to 21.00h CET:
+44 203 139 9027
Sincerely,
Customer Support
"0 -
Hello Nicezatba
If you ordered a trial from 2 different companies (ie two different names of product) it is almost certain that you will need to contact two different places to cancel both.
The telephone number you used seems to be that of "Trading Planet Ltd" (but please see post from "competitionscafe" after this one) in the UK who deal with "Clean Whites" but not with "Everbright Smiles".
According to Everbright's T&Cs in December, and as far as I know, the number to use to contact "Everbright Smiles" to cancel is 888-694-9257 (USA). The UK number (0203 371 9369) is merely an answering machine which transfers the call to the States. Opening hours are Mon-Fri 6am to 4.30pm CST.
I cancelled with Everbright Smiles within a few minutes of giving them my C/Card details on 29th December and have not (to date) been charged anything over the original shipping charge (but I'm still touching wood every time I say that!).
The cancellation (RMA) number they gave me was my order number with a "Q" in front.
Hope this may help you a little.
p.s. Have you cancelled your credit/debit card yet? If not, please do consider doing this as soon as possible.0 -
Agnes_Grey wrote: »
This is most curious.
I too just telephoned 020 3139 9027 and eventually got through to “Monica”.
When asked, she said that the company she represents is called “Trading Planet Ltd”. I asked her what products this company deals in and she said “Clean White”, “AcaiBerry”? and electric cigarettes!
Interesting letter here (from: http://www.canyoutrustthem.com/index.php?go=details&id=4184 )
Dear Ms XXXXXX
We just received your letter and, although we have nothing to do with the sale or supply of SUP*CLEANSECOLON or any other goods we do know what you are talking about and I will try to help you. Most importantly, I notice that you are up to the date for cancelling your order, so I am reacting to the urgency emailing this reply.
I am sorry to hear that you have been caught by this scam. We are victims of the same scam but on the other side of the problem. We formed the company, Trading Planet Ltd, and I am the sole director; but it was not formed for the purpose that the name is now being used. Trading Planet Ltd was only registered in August 2009 and, when I realised that the name was being used in this way, I reported the matter to the police. We are also in touch with Trading Standards, the Companies Investigation Branch (a government agency) and are doing what we can to help in the hope that they can stop this deceitful trade.
We have not taken your money; we are not involved in the business in any way at all. The scammers have used our address without our authority and put us in a very difficult position that is costing us a great deal of time and money and has damaged our reputation.
Before continuing my explanation I must give you some relevant contact points:
We have reported this to Avon & Somerset Police, and their contact number is 0845 456 7000. The Crime Number for this case is AS2009 0908/0271. I suggest that you actually report it to your local police and tell them this Crime Number, because the more police forces that get involved the more likely they are to give the matter priority.
The goods are sent out from a packaging company in Scotland and, whilst they are not the scammers, they are paid to package and deliver the goods and to receive any returns. The address to use is PO Box 13579, Linlithgow, EH49 9AH.
The people who are behind this scam run a website at <http://www.tradingplanetltd.com/> http://www.tradingplanetltd.com/ which claims to offer “customer service” and even lists a contact telephone number. A month ago, people were telling us they did not get much help there, but more recent reports suggest that it is worth phoning (in UK office hours) and they have obtained refunds. But we can also recommend the following information source...
We have discovered a website that lists the steps a previous victim used effectively to get her money back. Since the site started it has accumulated a lot of additional information. It is <http://www.tlcinvestigations.co.uk> http://www.tlcinvestigations.co.uk
This is an international fraud and the police tell me it is likely to take a long time to achieve a prosecution – if at all. They know the name of the people who seem to be behind it (you will find their details on the www.tlcinvestigations website) but they need to get them extradited before they can be prosecuted.
Some credit card companies have declined to help card holders on the basis that they accepted the Terms and Conditions on the scammers’ website. If those “Terms and Conditions” claimed to be in the name of Trading Planet Ltd they could not be valid, because they were never approved by the director of Trading Planet Ltd (me). However, the scam may have moved on now and be using different names.
We have heard that, when people cancel debiting instructions for a particular company name used by the scammers they simply bill it in another name. Some banks are being helpful, but others seem to be shrugging their shoulders at the problem. The most effective way to stop the transactions is to cancel your Credit Card and get a new one with an entirely new number.
We have heard that the scammers are now using other company names. They may have moved on from abusing us, but the problem continues.
PLEASE REPORT THIS TO THE POLICE AND TO ANY OTHER RELEVANT AUTHORITIES. We don’t think the authorities are taking this seriously enough and we hope that more complaints will cause them to take more action.
I wish you well.
Regards
Derrick Phillips
Source: http://www.canyoutrustthem.com/index.php?go=details&id=4184"The happiest of people don't necessarily have the
best of everything; they just make the best
of everything that comes along their way."
-- Author Unknown --0 -
Hello Competitionscafe,
Thank you for the all effort you have put into giving us so much information about these scams
I really sorry if the quoted bit of my post was misleading in any way. I was passing on what I was told by "Monica", and I hadn't at that stage seen that the Trading Planet Ltd name was being used illegally. Sincere apologies if I’ve caused confusion to anyone.
If it's of any use, I found out that my Everbright Smiles trial (delivered to me after the end of the trial period) was delivered by Royal Mail working on behalf of "City Link" who, in turn, was working for a distribution agent, Quantum Straightforward Ltd in Swindon, Wiltshire. This information was given to me by the Security Manager of City Link after I contacted them and he made his own investigations.
I then contacted the director of Quantum Straightforward Ltd. who seemed genuinely upset to be implicated in such goings on. He had no idea about what to do if people started to return the items to his company (the Company’s name and address were omitted from my package, but had since been shown as the origin of the parcels). He said that none of the parcels is logged or numbered so he wouldn’t know where they had come from if they were returned there. (This is why I followed the instructions in the T&Cs and returned my trial to the Texas address in the hope that by doing so, I would have complied with all that was required and wouldn’t get charged again).
I asked him to stop dealing with Everbright Smiles. It would be interesting to know if he did.0 -
I fell for this back in Nov 2009. They charged me £11.90 shipping (not the $4.95 stated). I immediatly went onto live chat and cancelled but they refused to stop the shipment. They emailed me a cancelation number confirming future shipments wouldnt be sent.
The item didnt arrive (suprise!!!!) On checking my card statement they had billed me £56.99 at the same time as the £11.90 shipping, and a further £56.99 in January. I contacted my CC company, and they told me they had numerous complaints about them. They asked for the email I recieved with the cancelation notice, whick I posted. Money back in my account 2 weeks later, credit card cancelled and new number issued (with higher credit limit, bonus)
Then, at the end of Jan, I recieved a package from them, it was my alleged trial. Phoned credit card company who confirmed no more money could be taken. so I decided to use it. The annoying thing is, it works brilliantly. If the company wasnt a complete con, I would have continued purchasing it from them, even for the £56.90 a month.
They are conmen, so I would advise everyone to avoid like the plague.0 -
Agnes_Grey wrote: »I really sorry if the quoted bit of my post was misleading in any way. I was passing on what I was told by "Monica", and I hadn't at that stage seen that the Trading Planet Ltd name was being used illegally. Sincere apologies if I’ve caused confusion to anyone.
No need to apologise - it's the scammers who are misleading people with their multitude of various company and product names (most likely intentional in order to cause confusion). If they have indeed 'hijacked' the name and address of an innocent UK Ltd company as appears to be the case, then that is a serious offence of fraud. The more people who report this scam to the police (using the crime/case number (AS2009 0908/0271) ) then the more chance of a prosecution, but even then with the perpetrators being abroad the chances of them facing trial in the UK are small. All information can however be passed on to the authorities in other countries to assist with their own investigations.
www.econsumer.gov is also useful.
On their websites, Everbright smiles scam are giving these addresses as their current contact details but who knows if those are just bogus too?
H5-UK Ltd
43 Iveston Road
Delves Lane, County Durham
Consett DH8 7HR
United Kingdom
(020) 3371-9369
Everbright Smiles ∙ US Headquarters
15621 Blue Ash Dr, #160
Houston, TX, 77090
Toll Free: 1 ∙ (888) 694 ∙ 9257
E-mail: [EMAIL="care@everbrightsmiles.com"]care@everbrightsmiles.com[/EMAIL]
888-694-9257
RETURNS
PO BOX 90944
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77090
The BBB gives similar info:
"Per the company's website they are based out of the United Kingdom but they have a US headquarters in Houston which appears to be an apartment building according to Googlemaps.com"
694 ∙ 9257
H5 UK Ltd
43 Iveston Road
Delves Lane, County Durham
Consett DH8 7HR
United Kingdom
Premiere Whitening ∙ US Headquarters
15621 Blue Ash Dr, #160
Houston, TX, 77090 E-mail: [EMAIL="care@premierewhitening.com"]care@premierewhitening.com[/EMAIL]
Toll Free: 1 ∙ (888) 694 ∙ 9257
Business Name: Premiere Whitening
Dazzle White
E-V* Teethwhitner
Ever Brite White
Everbright Smiles
Farend Services Limited
Fyso Distribution Center
immaculatewhite.com
Koprcyn Teeth Whitener
Naturale Source
Pre White
Business Address: 15621 Blue Ash Drive, Apartment 160
Houston , TX 77090
From:
http://www.bbb.org/houston/business-reviews/dental-equipment-and-supplies/premiere-whitening-in-houston-tx-90012000/
"The happiest of people don't necessarily have the
best of everything; they just make the best
of everything that comes along their way."
-- Author Unknown --0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 350.8K Banking & Borrowing
- 253K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.5K Spending & Discounts
- 243.8K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.6K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.8K Life & Family
- 257K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards