Vent/Warning re The West Midlands News

DelDelDel

Sad to say that West Midlands News and wmnonline.co.uk are still touting for business. I believe that this is a con, and I have a good deal of evidence to support that view.
Back in 2008 I took out a couple of adverts with Warwickshire Weekly News, but became suspicious when I was unable to find anyone who had seen the paper. I refused to pay the bill until evidence of circulation could be provided. It wasn't, but some months later they started court proceedings for the debt. This is a scary prospect for a sole trader, so I gathered what evidence I could. The evidence backed up my suspicions and in the end I was disappointed that they failed to turn up to the court hearing. The case was duly struck out by the judge at Warwick County Court on 19th April, 2010.
There are about 70 companies past and present associated with newspaper titles, all with registered to a Nottingham address and central administration in Journal House, Curzon Street, Derby. West Midlands News Ltd was one of these papers, and had the same directors as Warwick Weekly News Ltd, which by the way had changed name every couple of years, as publications had been dropped. Both papers operated out of Trinity House in Leamington Spa.
Proving that a paper has not been circulated is quite difficult, but I enquired far and wide and could find nobody who got the paper. My suspicion is that they produce maybe a couple of hundred papers, so that they can send the invoice with a sample paper.
Curiously and I think illegally, neither the paper nor the website give the company name or the company registered office address. This should put you on suspicion.
For a newspaper, you must have independant verification of circulation, and that comes from the Newspaper Society. You can check this yourself for free. West Midlands News is not included in that database, draw your own conclusions.
I have heard from Trading Standards that there is a cunning trick used by some sales people who say forty-five thousand, but later claim that they said four to five thousand. Beware!!
Well, I could go on, but that's enough for now.

codger

DelDelDel wrote: »

I refused to pay the bill until evidence of circulation could be provided. It wasn't, but some months later they started court proceedings for the debt. This is a scary prospect for a sole trader, so I gathered what evidence I could. The evidence backed up my suspicions and in the end I was disappointed that they failed to turn up to the court hearing. The case was duly struck out by the judge at Warwick County Court on 19th April, 2010.

Well done DelDelDel. It's a shame you had the worry of a civil action but, then again, these fraudsters count on that worry as a weapon in their armoury. And this bunch of bottom feeders are running just that: a fraud.

As a lot of people simply aren't media aware, or have much if any understanding of how an ad agency works (by which I mean, always regard yourself as an ad agency if you ever receive a cold-call from someone purporting to represent a newspaper or magazine) here's the procedure:

1) Thank the caller for getting in contact;

2) Ask for the Rate Card (this lists the display, semi-display, and classified advertisement rates as well as premium charges for special positioning like I/S/F (inside front cover) and DPS (double page spread);

3) Ask for two (2) copies of the publication, two different issues of different dates (you can say that one is for filing, the other is for your Marketing Director);

4) ask for the Rate Card and copies of the two separate issues of the newspaper, magazine or other class of publication to be sent to you by post;

5) Tell the caller you do not book any advertising with any media, anywhere, until you / your company has received all the above by postal mail.

(Point out that you do NOT accept anything via email because you ain't stupid: reputable newspapers and magazines always deal in hard copy print-outs whereas criminal fraudsters create "newspapers" and/or "magazines" in cyberspace. . . and then email 'em out as if they're real.

It's actually very simple. Very straightforward. I ran a major ad agency for years so I'm well acquainted with standard practice.

If the steps above are followed -- doesn't matter whether it's a newspaper or magazine for a general audience, or a bunch of fraudsters trying to con you into falling for the charity / emergency services publication scam -- there wouldn't be a fraudster of this kind anywhere in business in the UK today.

Come on, people. Time to put all these swine out of business!

DelDelDel

Thanks Codger
I would point out that they may be able to provide copies of papers, but that is no evidence of large scale production or circulation. What it will enable you to do is contact other businesses and ask them if any of their employees or customers received a copy of the paper through their door.

I forgot to mention that one damning piece of evidence was a 2 page list of complaints regarding businesses operating out of 18 Curzon Street, Derby. I obtained this under a Freedom of Information request from Derby City Council. More than 20 different publications have been complained about and complaints include breach of contract; advertising scam; unsolicited invoice; high pressure selling; miss-selling; sub-standard services; verbal misrepresentation; bogus selling and so on.
The odd complaint arising from some over-eager sales person could arise from an otherwise legitimate operation, but 55 complaints in 4 years?? Many unhappy customers will not go that far, or will contact their local trading standards, or Nottingham Trading Standards where the official registered office is.
I know Reading University alerted other Universities after they experienced problems, and if you scour the web you will find other complaints on forums and blogs.
It's just a shame that there is no national authority that takes positive steps to call these people to account. When enough people catch on to their bogus publications, they simply change the company name and the publication name and find fresh victims.

docmatt

Why you give your credit card details to a magazine/newspaper article you've never heard of is beyond me