Satcover limited

ed237

On about 11th June 2009 I placed an order on line with Sky for one of their Sky+ boxes, this was all well and good, due to be installed on 23rd June 2009-06-19.

Today my partner Lesley whilst checking her own bank account on line discovered a £6.00
Direct debit to a company called Satcover with a reference number RS74411/909/0, Lesley had to dash off on the school run and work leaving me thinking about this.

I did a check on line to find this company is able gain information to Sky customer accounts,

Having read the information at I called my own bank to check if such a direct debit was on by account, was informed that this was not the case.

When I took out the order with Sky TV I used my own name and my own separate bank account.

I used to have Sky but cancelled it some years ago, Lesley move in with me about 3 years ago and had Sky which she transferred to the above address; this was cancelled about two years ago.
Lesley was the last person from this address who had SKY in her name and paid through her own account.

We have had no contact with the company in question, there has been no letters from this company and both Lesley and myself were unaware this company existed; we have not had any weird phone calls for such a product.

Lesley has just been in touch with her bank and sorted this out with no problems; the bank informed her that this was set up on the 16th June 2009.

I assumed that Sky used contractors sometimes to install kit in people’s homes but it appears they have their own department.

This leads me to the conclusion that it may an internal problem at Sky, there appears to be a common link with Sky and my address.

Information appears to have been obtained regarding my order for Sky, the address appears to have been used to relate to the bank account of Lesley whose details will have been held with Sky.

I am also on a military forum for the Infantry Junior Leaders battalion and put out an alert for members to check their bank accounts and to make people aware of this scam; I did not see the programme on BBC Watchdog regarding this company.
One of the members of the forum actually worked at Sky who sent me an e-mail saying:

Eddy, I worked at Sky in Livingston for 6 years. I was latterly in the dept that checked for possible fraud by staff among other things. I was horrified over their protection of CC details. I had two cardboard boxes under my desk with printouts of all the CC transactions on accounts for the last month. These were left there in the open when I was not there open to anyone. They have, I believe tightened up this kind of thing but too many companies have this kind of printout floating around.

This does not of course explain how this dodgy company has your partners details.

Very strange.



From the information I have it would appear that this scam was aimed at people who had Sky but their warranty was about to expire.

Seems in my case some one has had to access my order then access details of my address then again access details of my partner in order to extract her bank account details.

As I type my partner has accessed her bank account on another computer and is pleased that the bank have reimbursed her and cancelled this direct debit.

My computers are regularly cleaned of all cookies etc and we do not use the auto fill function when ordering on line, now had this been the problem then it would have been my account that this scam went for.

I sent Sky an e-mail but am awaiting a response; being impatient I waited for over 2 hours then phones Sky, after getting through their nightmare of a call system I spoke to one of their staff. She initially tried to fob me off with they didn’t know anything about it, when I mentioned your programme and what I had learned of the company in question they said they will get back to me due course. Sky also said I should also get in touch with BBC Watchdog and Ofcom.

I hope the information I have given you above is of use to you.



The above letter was sent to trading standards and BBC watchdog, who ran a slot on this(these) companies.

From my experience of this company (satcover) they have no standards in the way they operate, my partners step dad is having Sky fitted today but has also had a telephone call from satcover, since placing his order, luckily I have warned him to check his bank account.

angecertain

Same problem here, This company took money from my account in 2005 which of course I cancelled. Today I see that they have taken £6.00 which I have had refunded from Bank. II have tried contacting them by phone but you just keep hanging on. This is so wrong that they can just get all your details and fraudulently take your money:mad:

nico11

Same here...noticed on my text statement that a £6 dd had been taken by this company today even though I have never heard of them and havent taken out any cover on anything. Spoke to bank who are getting back the £6 and cancelling any further payments.

This is theft and they should be punished!

JacquelineS

I have had money taken out of my account today by Sat Cover Ltd and have logged a complain with Watchdog online and also my local Trading Standards Office (Wiltshire) and the West Sussex Trading Office (email address is here: trading.standards@westsussex.gov.uk )

I think the only way anyone will take action against this fraudulent company is if we all unite and write to Watchdog and the Trading Standards Office. This is what I have written:

I would appreciate some advice please? Today, I checked my bank account and a company by the name of Sat Cover Ltd have deducted £6 by Direct Debit and this has been done illegally. I have not signed a Direct Debit form authorising them to take this money out of my account and have therefore contacted the bank to firstly cancel this Direct Debit and also to ask if they can reclaim the £6 back for me. With Direct Debits there is no way of stopping this company doing it again and again and they could take any amount of money they wanted and do it illegally. I can't even block this company from setting up another direct debit which in my mind is criminal. I have tried to call Sat Cover Ltd but they either do not answer the phone, or the line is permanently engaged. The only way to secure my money is to change my bank account but I have been with my bank with the same bank account number for 35 years now and don't want the hassle, but if it is the only way around this problem then I will have to take those measures. Interestingly, the bank customer service advisor said that he had had lots of complaints in the last few weeks regarding this company taking money out of the bank accounts illegally.

I have been online and there are numerous complaints about this company in blogs on lots of websites.

The company details given to my bank account on the fraudulent Direct Debit form are:
Sat Cover Limited, Imprium House, FordLanr, Ford, ARUNDEL, West Sussex, BN180DF. Tel:- 08702240442.

I have sent this email to both my local Trading Standards Office (I live in the Salisbury, Wiltshire Area) and have also sent it to the West Sussex Trading Standards Office.

Good luck everyone... we may get our money back if we all unite!

ed237

There are a number of problems here.

1. This company has access some how to records held of customers of Sky, this includes addresses and banking details, this is illegal under the data protection act.

2. The illegal acts of setting up direct debits.

3. The extraction of money from peoples accounts, commonly known as theft/fraud.

4. When the heat is turned up on these companies (company) they have a quick change of company title.

Bottom line of this is the more people who complain the better.

You would have thought the banks would want to pursue action against this company however they seem to accept a lot of fraud before they take any action.

This company must be raking it in.

geranium72

for those whose bank say they can't stop them setting up another direct debit - my bank have said they have put a warning note on the account not to set up or accept a direct debit from them without first contacting us - so it may be worth going back to your bank on this
I have also emailed consumer direct

ed237

The below e-mail just received from trading standards complete with a reference number.

So should you have a complaint then the more the merrier to Trading Standards.

Having done some research on this company their are many complaints on various forums, unfortunately many complainants will not get in touch with trading standards, these are the people with the power to act in such cases, but as my reply below indicates they need to have a good few complaints before they take action.

UK Banks Direct debit Guarantee is quite good but the bank may try to fob you off but you just firmly state that "this was not authorised by me and I want to immediately exercise my right under the guarantee"



H ello Mr ****

Thanks for your email with information about the above. We have a small number of complaints about them.

With the recent changes in the law and the way in which the Government wants Trading Standards to operate, information like this is generally collated centrally and notified to the Trading Standards Department local to the business, for consideration as to what course of action is appropriate, if there are enough complaints.

Your complaint has been duly logged. Thank you again.

Regards

John Taylor
Client Services Officer
Trading Standards
13 Earl Street
Carlisle CA1 1DP
01228 227447

NicolaC

no time to type as i have a baby in my arms.
they took £6 from my account yesterday with no authorisation. after 30 minutes on the phone without actually getting through to a person, i shall be taking this further and will keep an eye on this thread.

Seemore_2

I honestly wouldnt want to waste time and money phoning these people, as they clearly know what they are doing and will simply fob you off with excuses. I would say its probably best to just contact trading standards. Here is the address for the area where the company currently appear to be based.


Trading Standards Service
Centenary House
Durrington Lane
Worthing
West Sussex
BN13 2QB
Telephone 01243 642124
Or send us a Fax on 01903 839743
Or e-mail us on [EMAIL="trading.standards@westsussex.gov.uk"]trading.standards@westsussex.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

However there is a note on the West Sussex Trading Standards website to say that consumer complaints are now dealt with by an organisation called Consumer Direct. Unfortunately as a new user I cant post a link to their website.

I also sent a secure message to my bank, Alliance & Leicester, and have received an acknowledgement and reference number to say this has been referred to their specialist fraud team.

JacquelineS

Another thing you may do to stop them taking money from your bank is to log on daily and check your Direct Debits. This company set up the Direct Debit on my account on Friday 19th June and the money was deducted yesterday, 23rd. If you take a note of your list of DDs you will see the SatCovLtd Direct Debit at the bottom of the list. I am checking mine twice a day from now on and will cancel it immediately to stop any payments going out.