Caught out by DazzleWhite

competitionscafe

aaabbb wrote: »

Hi Durrutti,

I am also having the same problem as yourself and many others on this forum as I can see.
I am trying to contact many different numbers but majority of them do not work or either I receive a voice recorded machine. Because I am from Australia and the company is in the U.S. I probably can't get through to anyone due to the difference in time zone. Your method of contacting the live chat room sounded like a really good way of getting through to them. I have searched the net for the website or link to the live chat room but I can't find anything. Do you have the link for this live chat?? If you could help me with this I'd appreciate it alot!

Try this one:
http://server.iad.liveperson.net/hc/5798826/?cmd=file&file=visitorWantsToChat&site=5798826&byhref=1&imageUrl=http://server.iad.liveperson.net/hcp/Gallery/ChatButton-Gallery/English/General/3a

Numpty_Monkey

dnpuckitt is a spammer:spam:

sooperb

My bank asked me to contact them urgently today. It appears that an attempt was made to withdraw £1.07 from my account. The name of the company meant nothing to me, she said it appeared to be an American investment company. Now I am very protective of my banking details etc. so from my perspective the only likelihood is that the toothpaste company, possibly miffed that I won out against them, have passed on my banking details to a.n. other who has bided their time and then attempted to lift money from my account.

So firstly praise again to First Direct, without their vigilance I may have been many pounds lighter. However, they must perhaps also take responsibility, if they had changed my debit card as first requested, this couldn't have happened! They have decided to do so this time! Only a slight inconvenience to be without it for up to a week!

Might I suggest that all of you who didn't change accounts, cards etc. keep a weather eye on your account for a while, just in case?

angharad

I got had 4 times by these oicks last November, a situation exacerbated by Santander Zero's abysmal performance in refunding my money. I am taking action with the Financial Ombudsman re Santander.

I also took the matter to Trading Standards and discovered that a case was being made by one of their offices in the N of England. It was well known that the so called free offer was linked to these 'lose belly weight ads'.

I saw the toothpaste ad again quite recently on one of the forums I belong to. I started a thread to warn people - guess what, it wasn't published! Shame on them!!

Thanks for the warning, Soo, I am far more careful checking my statements these days.
Angharad Fran

Tammy86

Hi guys,

Just to let you know, I had my bank phone me this morning regarding attempts on my account of insignificant amounts (but every penny counts!)
It was to a solicitors and to Apple. :eek:

Anyway, luckily it was flagged and no money was taken. Also it was on my old account and they just wanted to see if I used that by accident. Lovely bank.

I cancelled my order in October last year and they are still trying to scam me.

Please just check your accounts carefully and report anything you don't recognise.

Hope this helps!

Tammy

competitionscafe

Twenty-seven companies involved in the mis-selling of health supplements have been wound up in the High Court following an investigation by Company Investigations of the Insolvency Service.

The investigation found that all of the companies (see list below) had their registered offices in the County Durham area but traded internationally, mainly from locations in Barcelona and Malta by placing "Free Trial Offers" for health supplements on numerous websites.

Customers responding to a "Free Trial Offer" supplied their payment card details believing that only a small charge to cover postage and packaging (typically £3.95) was required. However, if the customer failed to cancel the “Free Trial Offer” within the cancellation period (usually 15 days) they were deemed to have agreed to an ongoing supply of the product from the companies, at a cost of around £70 to £80 each month.

Commenting on the case, Stephen Speed, Chief Executive of The Insolvency Service said;

"The Insolvency Service is determined to come down hard on companies who seek to rip off the public by mis-selling products. I urge all consumers to be vigilant when it comes to ‘free trial offers’, and remember if it looks to good to be true, it often is."

Analysis of the available records for just seven of the companies found that they had turnover in excess of $19 million in the period August 2009 to March 2010 which was processed through merchant accounts based in Germany.

The products offered by the companies included Acai Berry Detox, Acai Power, Effective Acai, Acai Detox, Absolute Acai, Colon Cleanse Fresh, Colon Purify, Life Cleanse, Resveratrol, Resvmax, Miraculous Teeth Whitening, PureClean Teeth, Dermasensation and Dermainfuse.

Full story:
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=415330&SubjectId=15&DepartmentMode=true

sooperb

I had an email this morning, not even in my spam, from IDOL SMILE with all the usual gubbins. I couldn't find anything on their opening page on their website that even hinted at terms and conditions, when I tried to progress it required me to fill in my details so I binned it.

At the bottom of the page was something in tiny print but it wasn't clickable. As per cc's post above, just look at the money they make, it's scandalous especially when you think of all the poor devils who have been scammed that it represents.

sooperb

The livechat link posted by Competitions cafe now links to something called swipeauctions.com and is their helpline. No doubt this is just another arm for the scammers. Their office is registered in Colorado and curiously in Bristol. It's one of those sites where you bid on items in the hope that you can get them for silly money. You have to spend $159 signing up though, which gives you 300 bids.

polly4u2

I am glad they did. These guys will keep on charging our credit cards and when you call they will keep you on for hours. This has to stop!

competitionscafe

FTC Charges Online Marketers with Scamming Consumers out of Hundreds of Millions of Dollars with ‘Free’ Trial Offers:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/05/jessewillms.shtm

http://strangelyperfect.tv/10530/jesse-willms-settles-in-court-with-google-a-google-win-against-the-scammers/