Hi my mother has been scammed

greenbrucelee

My mother received a telephone call from a company saying her area is high for nusiance calls and they could provide her with a way of stopping them. She stupidly gave her bank details and 28 days later she received one of those call blocker devices that you can buy for £30 of amazon.

The company is called Privacy Guard which is part of LBA marketing in Bognor Regis West Sussex. I have phone the number on the poorly designed company letter and it goes to an answer machine each time.

I left a message saying that the bank has been informed to block any payments on her card as she was offered a £2 a month deal for three years. I also said I would send the device back to address given on the letter and I will do this recorded delivery and write a letter keeping copies for myself

Is there anything else I should do or be aware of?

Thanks for any advice.

(might I just add my mother has parkinsons disease and gets confused sometimes when being phoned by people she doesn't know and she could not remember the name of the company until we got the device)

She only got the device on Monday. 28 days after the phone call

hollydays

Return it under. Distance selling regulations

hollydays

What details do you have addresses etc phone numbers, do we even know if they are a real company, they don't seem to have any obvious online presence.

bris

Bit ironic really, scammed into buying a nuisance caller device by a nuisance caller, you couldn't make it up.

hollydays

Yep, and they have their own device to avoid nuisance callers-namely an answer phone.

hollydays

There do seem to be several companies like this in Bognor Regis , directors being named mercado and Logan. Also have a satellite tv insurance service..sky defence ltd( strike off action 2012) etc etc



Also found this link, Bognor Regis again-
If someone's called you saying that you need to renew your Sky warranty, read this

By Andrew Penman on June 27, 2012 11:01 PM in Investigations news
For reasons that we can't fathom, there's a pleasant strip of the Sussex coast that's home to one of the most prevalent scams we've encountered.

It begins with a coldcall that might leave you thinking it's from Sky and you need to renew the warranty on your !satellite gear.

Barry Lee from Southampton tells us that he's been called by "a woman purporting to represent Sky insurance".

"She said that as I hadn't called them out in the previous 12 months I was entitled to a 35% discount for the coming year," he said.

"She asked for my debit card details, which I wouldn't give, as the new debit was for a different amount.

"Then she suggested that I give my account number and sort code, which she would put on a direct debit form, which she would send to me, which I agreed to. A few days later I received a letter which said that a direct debit had been set up for £60, which obviously had nothing to do with Sky.

"I phoned my bank immediately and cancelled it."
The letter came from a finance processing firm called !Interbacs Limited on instructions from L&C Support of - we could have guessed - Bognor Regis in West Sussex.



Trading as Aerial Support, L&C Support was named after its directors, 31-year-old Liam Greenfield (above) and Christopher Williams, 29.

The firm has just been put into compulsory liquidation in the High Court by HM Revenue & Customs over an unpaid £18,000 tax bill.

So why was it drumming up new customers just before it was about to be shut down?

"At the time we didn't know that it was going into liquidation," Liam Greenfield told us, explaining that an offer to repay overdue VAT in stages was rejected by the taxman. And what about all the online comments from people who say they were coldcalled by L&C Support and got the !impression it was a call from Sky?

"What is so frustrating about the whole set up, as you're probably aware yourself, is that there are about 30 companies in this area who deal in this," said Mr Greenfield.

"You do get some other companies who take the absolute whatsit, they are quite happy to lie to the customer, saying 'Yeah, we are Sky TV'.

"We say we are ringing up regarding Sky TV and obviously some people do sometimes think we are Sky but our paperwork clearly states we are nothing to do with Sky."

He said that a company called !Aerialtek has been formed to take over the work of L&C Support because: "We didn't want to leave our customers in the lurch".

This is run by Eleanor Greenfield - Liam's mother. Does she have the experience or time to run what claims to be a national repair and warranty firm? According to her Facebook page, she has already got one job as a support worker.

"She's only part-time," assured Liam. "Aerialtek will pretty much run itself."

If it succeeds, that will make it fourth time lucky. Before Aeriaktek and L&C Support there was Box Cover Limited, run by Liam's wife Lisa Ferrett, and TV Solutions (Chichester) Limited, run by Joseph Greenfield. Both were dissolved after a short life - not that we're suggesting they did anything wrong.

A Sky spokesperson said: "The only approved warranty product from Sky is called Sky Protect.

"It's not illegal for other companies to sell warranty services for Sky's products, but it is against the law for them pass themselves off as being endorsed by Sky.

"We continue to actively monitor and investigate companies selling repair plans or insurance for digital satellite equipment that we receive complaints about, and where there's evidence of companies wrongly claiming that they are endorsed by Sky, we take the appropriate legal action in order to protect our customers."

By the way, if you want to see pictures of Aerial Support or L&C during happier times, there are some glorious Facebook pictures captioned "Aerial Support on tour in magaluf 2010" that are here, until they remove the link.

greenbrucelee

I dont have the letter at the moment as I am at work but if I remember correctly the company address is 229B Pragham Road Bognor regis.

I have seen a street map of the road and it's either ran out of someones house or a small cabin on an industrial part of the street.

The letter that came with the device started with Dear Mr Customer

And it had been printed on google as it said at the top of the letter.

Apparently according to a couple of sites on the net the company is worth £100 and the company director is called Bobby Jennings and he has been running the company for 3 months.

The postcode is also linked to satelitte repairs.

The phone number starts with 03 I will post it later tonight but when you call it goes staright to a recorded message saying the person is unavailable, please leave a message.

I will read up on distance selling regulations.

Any other advice?

hollydays

The address is pagham road and the company is LBA marketing limited not IBA MARKETING.post as much information about them as you can


FLAT
229B PAGHAM ROAD
BOGNOR REGIS
PO21 3QD
Date of Sale Sale Price
11th October 2006 Click for Price


It's a flat, and as 229 is whitlocks
estate agents, I suspect it is the flat over the estate agents.perhaps you could give whit locks a call and pick theirbrains.

greenbrucelee

Sorry I havent been on there was a family crisis.

The estate agents wouldn't talk to me, so all I have is the phone number given on the letter which is 03302231611

The bank said they will either stop or return if any payments go to them, I have returned the box by special delivery.

I used the track and trace on the post office website and the item was tried to be delivered today but no one was there to answer the door so the royal mail have taken the box back.

I did not put a return address on the parcel but there was a letter inside which has my address on.

I am worried that the company will say that it was never returned and try and charge my mum for various costs etc.

Any advice?

hollydays

You've proof you tried to return it, should it ever be queried.with track and trace, don't they give you a sticker that they fix on that has your postcode on?

What did the estate agent say?
Can you scan the letter they sent and post it( minus personal details)

hollydays

Have private messaged you