Lapland New Forest Scam. How to get money back...

Road_Hog

I know we've seen pictures of the "tents" already but this one that is a slightly wider angle and also shows the field in the foreground, really does give a taste of what it is going to be like. I can't wait to see some photos of it that have been taken today.

hollydays

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1336157

not sure if this has already been posted.

Road_Hog

According to the Guardian, the reindeer aren't coming now either.


"What their parents may not know is the reindeer aren't coming, the huskies are in fact a "similar looking" breed of dog and, in a last minute change of plan, the ice rink has been replaced with "a rollerskating platform". Trading standards officers who will attend the opening, said yesterday they had "serious concerns".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/dec/06/lapland-west-midlands-concern

Dough_2

As a bit of a test on the Lapland West Midlands website, I tried to buy 10000 tickets for one of the days that are marked as 'very nearly sold out'.

Surprise surprise, they were happy to proceed with my order and took me to the paypal page. No doubt if I had entered my card details they would have tried to take the £250,000 these tickets would cost. (might have stretched my credit limit a bit though.)

There's obviously no limit on the number of tickets they will try and sell. Obviously another scam.

codger

The pic from Road-Hog just about says it all.

Re the other picture, the financial one. Here's a quick summary:

PAYPAL: Lapland West Midlands has opened a merchant's account with payments processor, PayPal. One of PayPal's principal commitments is the protection of payee data, i.e.: no PayPal merchant will, as a condition of transaction, seek to know a purchaser's credit or debit card details.

Lapland West Midlands is, however, making it a condition of transaction that it sees a payee's credit card details before it releases tickets purchased via PayPal. This is a serious breach of PayPal policies. It has been reported.


DISNEY: as santaclaus has noted, the Lapland West Midlands website has yet again been changed, resulting in a material down-grading of earlier promises made to potential customers who may well have booked tickets on the basis of those promises.

The "favourite cartoon characters" are no longer on ice, but "on show". The event organisers are fully aware that this change is significant but have chosen to obscure it.

They are also aware that the Disney Organisation is fiercely protective of copyright and so have removed from the website earlier pictures of Disney cartoon characters. But they continue to feature Mickey Mouse on the welcome page. Lapland West Midlands has been reported to Disney.

LOCAL AUTHORITY: no permission for the event in this car boot sale field has been applied for so none has been given. Lapland West Midlands website's original assurance to the contrary was a lie. Local authorities have the power to prosecute up to the sum of £25,000 for breaches of this kind.

As the "Experience" should by now be well underway, here's hoping for some pix here of the snow-covered car boot sale field -- sorry: "enchanted wonderland".

hollydays

that building in the distance in road hogs picture is the contact address in question.

codger

Heigh-ho.

Lapland West Midlands website update:


This account has been suspended.
Either the domain has been overused, or the reseller ran out of resources.

neiljaxx

Sky News just said it was cancelled... How very suprising, I'm simply stunned. Maybe the real Santa couldn't make it?

codger

TRAGIC!!

But will the organisers now be prosecuted for attempted fraud or is that too uncharitable at this season of goodwill?

neiljaxx

Yep, confirmed by the Sky News outside broadcast team, there was nothing there except some cheap tents. They were empty aswell. To quote the Sky correspondent, "Lapland West Midlands haven't packed up and left, they were never there in the first place." So it's confirmed, scam number 2 closed, are we placing bets on where number 3 will be?