PLEASE HELP! phone scam, but not sure who.

psychoduck

Ok, 6 months ago I was contacted by Sapphire Members (part of ME Group, who are apparently terrible). My info had been passed to them after some surveys I had apparently done.

I do a lot of surveys for rewards, cash and vouchers, etc. So it seemed entirely plausible, as often I will get a call from legitimate companies offering me deals.

They wanted £1, and I would get use of their services for 14 days and a £20 voucher for fuel. Everything seemed ok, so I said yeah. Paid the one pound, and cancelled when it arrived.

They cancelled right away, and I had no issue with them whatsoever... except my "£20 voucher" was "£10 cashback" but other than that they were fine, and seemed pretty professional.

2 weeks ago, I got a phone call. They were offering a free trial of a service, I can't remember his wording exactly, but it was something to do with lowering medical costs. Prescription and such, I believe. I may be wrong.

I was again told I would get a voucher, but was not asked for any money whatsoever. Nothing. After he finished his 45 second speech explaining what they did, I was rushing and trying to end the phone call without coming off as a !!!!!!... again, like I said, I do get a lot of legitimate offers and such from proper companies, and had had no real issue with Sapphire so felt no need to be harsh.

After all, no money was being asked for, right?

He then told me he had to read some legal before we ended the call. All the usual, this will be sent out to you, you are free to cancel (cancel what? I got ready to ask) you will enter a contract if you dont cancel (How without my details)

Then the last line was "We will take payment from you using your last known payment method for... *name of company*"

Before I could say anything, he said thanks and hung up!

Now I've not received anything in the post, so I can't cancel anything because I have no idea who it is with... and what should have been no issue, because I gave no details, apparently will be an issue because they have my details from someone else (or part of the same company)

I'm not sure if it is ME Enterprises or not, because I cant find information on anything they run other than Sapphire Magazine now... but am worried that they will no take out, very soon, a lump sum for a yearly subscription that would be 'detailed in the letter' so I don't even know the price

Again, I gave this man ZERO information for payment. But they're using it from something else, I'm sure that's illegal, but without a name of a company or anything like that I have no way of tracking it down.

custardy

What exactly do you expect anyone to tell you?

hollydays

Search this site for me group international- it sounds similar

psychoduck

custardy wrote: »

What exactly do you expect anyone to tell you?

Wondered if anyone knew who the group might be? had a call that was similar, so I could get in touch with the group and cancel?

Dunno really, just generally be helpful.

psychoduck

hollydays wrote: »

Search this site for me group international- it sounds similar

Yeah, ME Group run the Sapphire Magazine which I've since read a ton of bad things about but as I said, I had no issue with them... it just sounds very similar to them, so I cant trust that they wont now be behind this.

I've searched everywhere trying to find the name of the offer/magazine that I was spoken to about but only Sapphire comes up, and it definitely was not that name again.

kimbaloo12

Just rang sapphire magazine coz took £79.99 from my account!! Received books day before & were soaking wet coz sent in plain white envelope.

Rudist lady I ever spoke to!!!

Refused to let me speak to manager - quite conveniently not in!!!

Have cancelled my account and will be taking further action. Was apparently told on phone I had 14 days from phone call to cancel subscription.

Absolutely RUBBISH. How can you cancel something when you've not even looked at it????


Only wish I could find the company the survey was from???

Perhaps they'd like to refund me???

COMPLETE SCAM DON'T BE FOOLED THIS COMPANY SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN & CUSTOMERS RE-IMBURSED !!!

grannyg23

Unfortunately I was foolish enough to believe the person that rang me saying I could get cash back for fuel,cinema & theatre tickets etc. So I paid the £79.99 & sent in fuel receipts. After 2 emails I got back £20 (this took 3 months instead of the promised 'within 28 days' stated on the voucher) They said this was due to the Christmas post! I then (17th Feb) sent in 2 more vouchers for fuel & 1 for cinema tickets and 1 on 15th April. As I did not hear anything I again emailed twice with no reply. Then someone rang me to say the details had been sent to the printers for the cheque to be printed. I have heard nothing since. I don't know if there is anything else I can do but I would advise anyone to steer clear of this scam.

Berrengaria

This company took me for the sum of £79.99. Their name is:
P Media S
Pembroke House,
Spring Meadow Business Park,
Cardiff,
CF3 2ES.
Their telephone number is: 08445671010
Good luck with this 'cause even though they broke their contract with me they will not refund the money they took from my account. Guard your bank account carefully because they waited for 3 months before taking from my account. I'd been lulled into a false sense of security by them - I thought they'd given up getting the above amount. How wrong I was. Would really like to know how you all get on.

Ann35

I've had a call this morning. Same intro. "You did a survey yesterday" - I do a lot of surveys so that was plausible. Long spiel despite my first question being "what's the catch" and "I've never heard of sapphire magazine and don't have time to read magazines anyway" - and it all ended up with "you only pay a pound for all that"!

He carefully explained that I could pay by debit or credit card online. I informed him that I wasn't giving anyone calling me up out of the blue access to my financial details. He assured me that they wouldn't be abused! He got a resounding "no."

At least the time he wasted calling me may have prevented someone less savvy from being conned!

Thank you MSE Martin - you teach us well.

hollydays

https://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/director/8787331/wayne-phillips

One of the companies Precision Affinity Specialists limited , has a proposal to strike off.

hollydays

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.
Mrs V. P. writes: Last October I was telephoned by Me Group and offered a new magazine called Me Like. This would be sent with vouchers and other incentives on a 14-day trial, after which I would pay an annual subscription of £79.99.
I received nothing but my bank account was debited. Me Group told me the magazine had not been published as there were problems, and my money would be repaid, but this has not happened.

Tangled: The Sapphire website
When the refund failed to arrive, you called Me Group repeatedly but only reached a taped message telling you to try again later. When you finally got through, you were told to send an email. And when this didn’t work you rang again and were told there would be no refund as you had not cancelled within 14 days of the original sales call, even though you received no magazine.
But how could you have a trial period if you never saw the product? And if there were problems producing the magazine, why did Me Group take the money? As a pensioner, almost £80 is a lot for you to lose.
And this is where it gets confusing, for there is no such company as Me Group. There is a website called meclub, which promotes a magazine called Sapphire, costing £79.99 a year. Internet records show the site belongs to ‘a non-trading individual’ who gives no name or address, even though it is clearly a business website.
The website itself says it is provided by Me Group International, but again there is no such company. However, there is another website, called megroupinternational.com, which reveals this is a telemarketing business and among other things it offers insurance policies through a company called Mefinance Limited.

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This company is licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority, but there is no trace of it at the Cardiff address shown on the FCA’s public register. It moved more than a year ago to another part of the city without telling the regulator. At the time you lost your money, Mefinance had two directors.

One, who has since dropped out, was Noyan Nihat, a London businessman I wrote about in 2011 when he was running a marketing company connected to Vitamail, a French health products firm known for sending mailshots giving the impression you have won thousands of pounds.
********
The remaining Mefinance director is Wayne Phillips. He said Me Group International is just a trading name used by Mefinance to impress multinationals. This is seriously misleading as his website says Mefinance is part of the international set-up, not the other way round.
Murkier still, Phillips told me: ‘The megroupinternational website should have been removed over 18 months ago.’
He added: ‘We currently shouldn’t have a corporate website. The website was terribly written at a time when the business was planning a different direction. It should not be accessible.’
So what about your missing £79.99? Phillips agreed the situation was unacceptable, adding that ‘two members of my customer service team have faced disciplinary action’. Failure to send you a magazine was ‘human error’, and you now have a full refund.
Phillips admits much of his business’s public face is misleading. He told me: ‘I am working on this immediately.’
Nonetheless, if I were the FCA I would be monitoring the behaviour of an authorised business that managed to get so much wrong.


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If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, Room 301, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.

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