Business scam - beware

dizzie

I am a partner in a business in West Yorkshire. I was visited this week by a lady who said she was from the National Blood Service. She asked me if I was aware of how short blood supplies are and said that they were running a campaign to get more donors before Christmas. She brought with her a poster, which had a picture in the middle of it and space for businesses to advertise around the outside. She said that they needed to get advertising sponsorship to fund production of the posters. The smallest advertising space was £100 and a larger one was £150. She said that she was just looking for a "commitment" on the day and that the fee would be payable later.

I told her that we had set our advertising budget for the year, but since she had been a bit "high pressure" and pulling on the heart strings, I said I would need to discuss it and get back to her. She wouldn't give me a telephone number but said she would call back tommorrow. When she called back, I told her the answer was no, and she almost tried to argue with me before giving me a very disapproving look and leaving (which started to ring alarm bells with me). She was a smartly dressed woman, slim, white and about mid to late 50's with long fair hair.

I decided to search for the National Blood Service on line and came across a newspaper article in the South of England in which police were warnng small business owners to be aware of this scam, having confirmed that it was nothing to do with the National Blood Service and that they never canvass business to try to raise funds in this manner.

I guess with the current economic climate, there may be more people out there trying to get money in whatever way they can. Please be on your guard.

dizzie

Just an update on the above thread. I reported the scam to West Yorkshire Police and Trading Standards, and visited the small business in our vicinity to make them aware of this. I found two businesses who had agreed to place an advert (because of course they had been told that this was sponsoring the National Blood Service which is a worthy cause). They had signed a contract issued by a company calling itself " Town and Country Publishing " based in Bedfordshire (I don't know if this company actually exists or not). The contract says it can not be cancelled. However, on the basis that fraud/deception was used to get the businesses to sign up, I don't think it can be worth the paper it is written on.

And just to reiterate, this has nothing to do with the National Blood Service who are an NHS funded body. They are horrified that these people are using their good name to scam businesses.