A SCAM by post!

Baz_2

mervyn11 wrote:

Hi
By all means bin all un wanted mailshots ....but TAKE YOUR ADDRESS OFF before you do !!!
If you really want to stop junk mail use the Royal Mail opt out service for all addressed mail.
To stop flyers etc being delivered by your postman he gets paid extra to deliver these ( sorry Mr Postie !! ) get in touch with Royal Mail & fill out the form & send it back to them.
They dont like you doing this so make it a bit difficult.
Perhaps there is another posting (sorry for the pun) that gives more details.
I have done this & also signed up for the telephone & fax preference service for my home & business.
Stopped virtually all junk anything !!
Pity there is not something for junk emails

But they also stop all other non addressed info such as bin delivery times and other council info that you may actually need.

mpython

Council info here is done by free newspapers distributors who aren't bound by Royal Mail opt out. Wish they were! Every Thurs a mound of adverts on my hall floor. Things like bin days can easily be looked up on line or in the local paper.

Biggles

By all means bin all un wanted mailshots ....but TAKE YOUR ADDRESS OFF before you do !!!

There's no reason to. If anyone was after your personal details, the name and address would be something they already knew, it's the easiest info to obtain.

oap

We had no contact with Readers Digest for years, then a very tempting offer of a big prize, so fell for it, now we are inundated with junk mail, things we have never heard of, I presume they sell on your address once they know you are still living there? We are going to do the cancellation thing with Royal Mail, as you say it may work quite well. Regards oap

hurrah

If you register with the MPS this usually gets you taken off direct mailing lists.

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/mps_choosetype.html

li'l_p

Gillyches wrote:

They said, if I do nothing I will be charged £99 for a one off membership fee!

So, how exactly are they planning on "charging you"??? If they have none of your details, i.e. bank account details, the only way they could charge you is by sending an invoice of which you would be right to refuse to pay, providing as you say, you have never dealt with this Company.

This is clearly *clever* marketing / scare tactics to get innocent people sucked in. Indeed, the best pleace for things like this are in the bin (better still, shredded!). Don't make any communication with the senders and ignore any further correspondence received from them otherwise you're just playing into their hands.

davenutts

:mad: My mother has just noticed a charge of £99.00 on her credit card which listed the ransaction as Home Shopping. I phoned the number (0870...) concerned and asked for details of what this was all about. It seems that one mail order company that she already dealed with, passed her credit card details to another company, who then give me her ring and asked if she would be interested in receiving their brochure. She doesnt remember agreeing but I guess she must have (although the cynic in me thinks the company sent it anyway) agreed to that and they asked her a security question "where was I born". She answered that question thinking no more of it. The company then passed her credit card details and the security question answer to Travelsteps. Because she didn't read the letter that came with the brochure, she didn't know that she had to cancel within a time period and so was charged £99.00.
Travelsteps told me when i phoned on her behalf that she must have agreed to this because she gave them the answer to my security question. They have told me they are refunding her money. We shall see!!!!.
Whatever happens this is a diabolical situation and a lot of people are probably caught by it. I would be interested to know if there are a lot of people caught by this and if it is illegal or just (as i suspect) playing on peoples apathy to reading the small print. This "scam" seems to rely on the person "opting out" ie cancelling, within a time period otherswise the "agreement" goes ahead.
Is it possible for Martin Lewis to investigate this?
I would like to know which of the companies that my mother dealed with passed my details on in the first place.

treliac

Anyone caught up in any trickery like this should contact their Trading Standards Office.

Mojisola

davenutts wrote: »

It seems that one mail order company that she already dealed with, passed her credit card details to another company, who then give me her ring and asked if she would be interested in receiving their brochure.

The company then passed her credit card details and the security question answer to Travelsteps. Because she didn't read the letter that came with the brochure, she didn't know that she had to cancel within a time period and so was charged £99.00.

Definitely report both companies to Trading Standards. Her credit card details should never be passed on to another company!

lollybluk

Please sign My petition about the Company Travel Steps, they have unlawfully taken £99 from my partners account without any permission, and they have done this to many others. If we get enough people together, we can stop this. Im already in talks with the Daily Mirror, Watchdog and Trading Standards. Please take a minute to reply to this post if you have been scammed, with details of what happened to you with this company! And I will add you to the petition.

Thanks


Louise