Unclaimed Prize Register?

tronstermonster

Hey, guess what? They are doing the rounds again! I have received my invite to get ripped off. I reasoned that it sounded like a scam but as I have entered the odd hundred or so competitions recently that it could be genuine :drool: and that the prize had been forwarded to some sort of clearing house, rather like the way that debt can be sold on. So I thought I would check it out via the money guru :money:. Lo and behold it is a scam!!

Thanks once again for saving my bacon or should that be :spam:

jenniewb

I got a letter yesterday. What a joke! Sent straight to the shredder (obliterate my address details). Why do they waste the paper- and who is getting it for them? Wish there were some sort of company whom you could send on these things to who would investigate and arrest, fine and asbo these people. Sort of like the Police maybe...?

Edricman

McIntyre & Dodd are still at it. I have been offered virtually the same set of prizes as in the previous messages for over 6 months. Several "deadlines" for the claim have come and gone, and now there is an unclaimed prize rollout, so they are persistent if nothing else.

It's interesting to see their tactics change as they go on trying to get a response. The name of the company changed to The National Awards Council and the UK Allocations Office at different stages to sound as convincing as possible. The tone changed too, from being invited to claim, to "you are required to ..." I checked with local Trading Standards but they didn't know them specifically.

Has anyone sent in a claim? I'd like to know what happened next, because if Mc & D's activities are illegal it would be good to see them closed down once and for all.

Bearo

I too have definitely won a prize from McIntyre & Dodd. Thing is though I don't want to waste £9.30 to see what I might have won.

Surely though somebody has to win the big prizes too. Are they not required to publish a list of winners too?

clangnuts

The £2,000 shopping spree will be the dodgy prize. It'll be 400 £5 money off vouchers, when you spend £25.

info_from_steve

Guess what, I've just had an invitation too:

Before anyone gets too excited they should read this from a Daily Mirror blog posted on 2/2/11

" Court smashes Purely Creative and McIntyre & Dodd scratchcard cons "

To find the story go to the Daily Mirror web site, search for blogs and paste in the above headline (without the inverted commas).

This possibly means that if you are sent an unsolicited invitation to participate then the company may be in breach of a court order. When I phoned Daniel at Consumer Direct (08454 040506) he was interested in seeing if this was the case. So you know who to contact if you also want to take action.

Coopdivi

Thanks for that, Steve. Here's your link:

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2011/02/court-smashes-purely-creative.html

info_from_steve

Further developments on recent M&D mailing

More research revealed this news item from the Office of Fair Trading from the 12/10/10:

'OFT secures undertakings from prize draw promoters, McIntyre and Dodd Marketing Limited and Strike Lucky Games Limited'

The article gave the email address of the OFT Officer, Mike Lambourne, who led the initial investigation.

Earlier today I sent him this email

” Dear Mike,

Dear Mike

I’ve just read that you were the team leader for the OFT decision against DMplc ‘s method of trading in a case which closed on 12/10/10.

They are again sending out similar mail shots to the public. After a brief investigation which lead me especially to the following discussion forums which linked to this thread and to the similar Community Awards Register Scam or Not thread



I have posted the following comments on both forums

” Guess what, I’ve just had an invitation too:

Before anyone gets too excited they should read this from a Daily Mirror blog posted on 2/2/11

” Court smashes Purely Creative and McIntyre & Dodd scratchcard cons ”

To find the story go to the Daily Mirror web site, search for blogs and paste in the above headline (without the inverted commas).

This possibly means that if you are sent an unsolicited invitation to participate then the company may be in breach of a court order. When I phoned Daniel at Consumer Direct (08454 040506) he was interested in seeing if this was the case. So you know who to contact if you also want to take action.”

I thought you would like to know that DMplc was active again

Steve Leary”

I have now received this email from a colleague:

“Dear Mr Leary,

Thank you for your email addressed to my colleague, Mike Lambourne.

As you are aware, the OFT considered that the promotions disseminated by McIntyre & Dodd and Purely Creative (and associated companies) were misleading and in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. As a result, we filed proceedings in the High Court to seek Enforcement Orders to prevent continued unfair commercial practices by the various companies. The High Court ruled that the promotions were in breach of the law and as a result the High Court accepted undertakings from the companies (and officers of the companies) which were incorporated into a Court Order. The Order prevents the companies from continuing the breaches of consumer law identified in the judgment and are designed to ensure that any future promotions comply with the law.
You may wish to note that the companies appealed certain aspects of the High Court’s findings (and the OFT cross-appealed) and the Court of Appeal has referred certain questions on the interpretation of the law to the European Court of Justice. While this process takes place, the High Court Order remains in place.

We are continuing to monitor the promotions of the various companies and their compliance with the Court Order. We would therefore be grateful if you could send us a copy of the mailing you received, for our consideration. It can be sent to me at the following freepost address (no stamp required):

Office of Fair Trading
2-6 Salisbury Square
Freepost KE6260
London, EC4B 4AH

Ultimately, it would be for the High Court to determine whether there has been a breach of the Order. Any such breach would amount to a contempt of court which is punishable by a fine or imprisonment.

Updated information and any further developments on this can be found on our website at the following address:

oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/consumer-enforcement/consumer-enforcement-current/prize-draw-promoters"

I’ll be sending in my copy of the invitation letter. I’ll try to keep you informed of any developments.

stillathome

I'll be sending my letter to the Office of Fair Trading too.

I've spent a few hours this morning seeing what this scam is all about. It seems the company have several PO boxes and telephone numbers or they are constantly changing them. Its clearly an on going scam.

The best advise I have seen so far is to continue to foward these letters to the OFT and hopefully the people behind them will be punished.

Thanks Steve.

Blue_Max

I got 'Notifications' from this company under the name 'Unclimed Prize Rollout' asking to call a profit making 0906 1581689 that cost £1.53 per min.
I found out their geographic number 01989 769 797.
The woman there made a lot of claims; sounded shady.

Other details of this company are:
Company Reg No. 02415951
Reg Office:
McIntyre & Dodd Marketing Ltd
t/a Unclimed Prize Rollout
Green Hays
Watford Road
Ross-on-Wye
HR9 5DB
www.mcintyreanddodd.com
01989 769 797