The Advertising Protection Agency

Nagaraja

I was contacted today by someone claiming to be from the Advertising Protection Agency. The caller claimed to have discovered my details in a publication from "Police community clubs of Great Britain" and was concerned that I may have become a victim of an advertising scam.

I HAVE!!

The problem is that the caller knew my full name.
I do not publish my full name online and am not the person listed on nominet, my partner is.

Basically the only possible way that this person could have known my name and be able to link me with the "Police community clubs of Great Britain" scam is if he had received my details from the people running the scams.

I'm hoping that someone on here will be able to point me in the direction of the official government agency which can handle my forthcoming complaint.

Any help would be gratefully received

drewe99

I have just received a scruffy photocopied letter threatening court action.To be truthfull i didn't realise you had to pay and did think it was Govt official site. Has anyone actually been taken to court by these jokers ?. I received my letter friday around 11.30, second class and have to 05/06/12 to pay. Rang them gave them my No and no reply !!! found this today ( D day)and just wondered how other's have got on.

Riz176

I too have received a 'Letter before Action' and after many emails and a call this morning, finally got a call back from P Medhurst. He basically told me that because I hadn't replied soon enough to cancel (received papers on 20th October 2011 which were dated 10th October, email sent requesting cancellation dated 21st October) I would be charged £39.95 even though they had cancelled my policy last year because it hadn't been paid! Has anyone actually been taken to court? and has anyone taken any further steps or just ignored?

Many thanks

societys_child

"Letter before action" means nothing. I f you receive stamped court papers (which is very very unlikely) then come back and post for advice. The whole thing is a scam.

katejo

Riz176 wrote: »

I too have received a 'Letter before Action' and after many emails and a call this morning, finally got a call back from P Medhurst. He basically told me that because I hadn't replied soon enough to cancel (received papers on 20th October 2011 which were dated 10th October, email sent requesting cancellation dated 21st October) I would be charged £39.95 even though they had cancelled my policy last year because it hadn't been paid! Has anyone actually been taken to court? and has anyone taken any further steps or just ignored?

Many thanks

I have sent you a private email.

katejo

Nagaraja wrote: »

I was contacted today by someone claiming to be from the Advertising Protection Agency. The caller claimed to have discovered my details in a publication from "Police community clubs of Great Britain" and was concerned that I may have become a victim of an advertising scam.

I HAVE!!

The problem is that the caller knew my full name.
I do not publish my full name online and am not the person listed on nominet, my partner is.

Basically the only possible way that this person could have known my name and be able to link me with the "Police community clubs of Great Britain" scam is if he had received my details from the people running the scams.

I'm hoping that someone on here will be able to point me in the direction of the official government agency which can handle my forthcoming complaint.

Any help would be gratefully received

I have just tried to send you a private email but MSE rejected your name. Send me one if you still need help. i can give you a Trading Standards contact name.

stoatwblr

Perhaps someone in Manchester can point their local trading standards office at this thread and the ADA adjudication?

abdsltd

I have a very similar story to others. About 2 years ago I was duped by a company asking for support on a local advertising campaign for safety at schools. Stupidly I agreed to part with my money only to realise later that is was a common scam. I was so incensed that I contacted Trading Standards who advised that I should just learn my lesson. Not satisfied with this approach I started to trawl the internet and found The Advertising Protection Agency. As an aside my impression of the website was that I was reviewing a company that had some form of Government backing. Others must have formed a similar opinion as complaints were made to the ASA on the following grounds:-
1. three complainants challenged whether the website implied that The Advertising Protection Agency (TAPA) had official status; and

2. three complainants, who had registered with TAPA through their website to prevent nuisance calls, challenged whether it was sufficiently clear that TAPA charged for its services.
The Ajudication in January 2012 stated in part:-
"Although we noted that some aspects of the website indicated that TAPA were not an official body, we considered that, in light of the name, service and content, the overall appearance of the site could lead users to infer it was an official government service and therefore concluded the ad was misleading."
(I state this as I received further phone calls from Tapa on 2nd July 2012 suggesting that an earlier statement I had made was incorrect and was invited to withdraw my statement - clearly they read a different report to me!)

I replied to the email enquiry page on their website and very shortly received a telephone call advising me of all the benefits. I was advised that the minimum contract period was 12 months and duly impressed paid a registration fee and completed a Direct Debit Mandate. On receipt of payment I then received a glossy welcome pack. Sure enough the marketting calls stopped but after a short spell I began to question myself what the company physically did. Notwithstanding this I knew I had signed up to a 12 month contract and therefore kept on paying the monthly fee until the end of the 12 month contract period and then cancelled. It was at this point when my problems started. After approximately 3 months after I thought I'd cancelled I started to get phone calls from either David Overton or Philip Medhurst. To begin with I was quite polite but when the phone calls became more threatening I told them to go away and put the phone down. They use exactly the same tactics as others have described. They tell you that you haven't followed their cancellation procedure on their website (if you follow the cancellation link on the website it doesn't take you anywhere!) I have cancelled by email, fax and post (recorded delivery) and yet still they tell me I haven't cancelled. I've advised them in writing that I don't believe they are a legitimate company and requested (again in writing) on numerous occasions that if they feel that they have a claim against me that they should write, and in doing so copy me any outstanding invoices they feel they may have raised - My first request was in March 2012 and I'm still waiting. My own feeling is that try to use bully tactics in order to convince people into giving them their debit card details so that they continue with their scam. I cannot write on this post what I think should be done with this pathetic people. Stay clear!!!
As of 2nd July they continue to claim that they are building their case against me - It must be a complex legal case!
I have now involved the police and will be following the matter up with trading standards also.

TTB

DO NOT PAY THIS COMPANY ANY MONEY!

I, like many others, thought this was a free service and was chased and threatened for payment. I also received a letter stating that a court summons was going to be issued within 7 days if I didn't pay - that was back in March 2012.

As soon as I quoted the ASA ruling and effectively said "let's go to court", everything stopped. I would advise all to use the ASA ruling when dealing with these scammers. They will threaten and they will pester, but in my experience and all of those who have commented on 'Who Calls Me', nobody has been pursued through the courts.

For me, they have finally gone away. They will leave you alone, eventually.

busy_bee42

sheraa wrote: »

Hi, any advice from you guys. i got a call from a scam charity fell for it, then fell into the trap of TAPA then realised i made an even bigger mistake, paid TAPA for 1 year up front, then after 1 year was up. daniel asked to renew it, so i said no giving my made up reasons & he was ok with it now, today 3/4 months later, i get a call from Dave, who is trying to tell me i owe 3 months money, i said no because contract ended so he asked if i wrote to cancel, so i said i don't need to cancel a contract thats already ended, i said it ended in november or december then he said oh actually you owe 4 months, so i argued with him why was the his collegue ok with the fact that the contract ended & i didnt renew & also i said to him to send me a letter highlighting where it tells me i have to write & how much i owe, he said i'm not going to write a letter wasting our time and resources, so i replied good for you, you wont get any money then & hung up, hes then sent me an e-mail e-mail sayin they've tried contacting me & have left messages & that i owe money! (which they haven't) but not sayin how much or for what & a link to pay them some random amount lol

I am in the same situation having paid a year to TAPA and now they are on the phone for me to renew. Not sure what to do and they are calling back on Monday to see what I have decided. One part of me says not to renew and then I don't want the bother of them constantly calling or threatening me. They are always friendly. I to had the problem of giving to a charity to help school safety and then had loads of other charities on the phone. Once bitten! Did not realise TAPA would come along, are they really as bad as everyone makes out?