Elaborate Discover Discounts Scam Sept 2015

sunflowerseeds

Just been sent a very elaborate brochure through the post, not a circular - they do have my address, and they are saying that further to a purchase from Eternal Cosmeceuticals Limited I have a free 30 day trial of this discount club and at the end of the 30 days, if they haven't heard from me otherwise and as mentioned in the telephone call to me, they will upgrade to full membership at £99.99 which they will automatically take from my debit/credit card.
I have not bought anything from the above nor have I had any phone call.

There is a number to contact but I will not be contacting it. If anything fraudulent is taken out of my account, I know i have not authorised anything and so will ask the bank/card company to refund me as it's fraud.

See also http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/02034557400


Incidentally, I phoned the Action Fraud helpline who were actually worse than useless. They advised me to call the number!!!??? I mean this is an elaborate fraud as it much have cost them quite a bit to send me this glossy brochure and it would cost to send through the mail. They must want me to DO something in order for them to recoup money and so phoning a possible fraudulent number where they might try to glean other info from either the caller id or me inadvertently is what they are after. I can't believe that this so called helpline gave me this advice.

I'll update if anything does come out of any bank account at the end of the 30 day trial (which will be about 7th October).

yeslek26

I had the same letter on 16th September, I bought an item from a company called Rox who have obviously sold my details to 'Discovery Discounts'. No money has been taken out of my account but to be honest, I'd totally forgot about it until now! The company are based in Spain so would certainly cost a pretty penny to call, having said that I don't know whether to contact them 'cancelling' or not (not that I've actually signed up for anything but there are always loopholes they get through with things like this!).

sunflowerseeds

Just to let everyone know, I phoned the number 02034557400 in the end to cancel whatever it was that they had me "signed up" for and the call didn't cost me anything (checked my phone bill) and so far nothing has come out of my bank account.

bod1467

The call cost nothing because:

a) It's a geographic number

b) At the time you called, calls to geographic numbers were in your (paid for) calling plan.

sunflowerseeds

bod1467 wrote: »

The call cost nothing because:

a) It's a geographic number

b) At the time you called, calls to geographic numbers were in your (paid for) calling plan.

I know that - I just wanted to reassure others...someone on here mentioned they thought it would cost a lot to phone Spain; I was hopefully reassuring them it wasn't Spain and it was a free call.

micksbiz2

I don't wish to sound like a bore here. Everone is on here talking about the £99 that they nearly lost or that they lost and got back. Now I'm pretty sure that I work as hard as anyone on here to earn £99 and I'm pretty annoyed and loathed to say I wasted hours on getting my money back. I can assure you I never agreed to join any club or be affiliated with anything but I certainly had that conversation like most of you did. I didn't receive any brochure letter in the post because I made it very clear that I was not agreeing to anything the caller accepted that but of course it's 100% a scam and it's of no interest what your response is.

Maybe from my Mum (now departed) I was probably just a bit more sceptical more synical that something was really wrong with that conversation that lasted 1minute and 3 seconds and for that reason I was ahead of the game so it's not the £99 for me really - it's more the fact that everyone has learned over the last 15 maybe 20 years that its OK not to have any moral high ground on such issues - the government can lie and cheat and forget to teach the children the difference between right and wrong.

Also what about the old people that don't even spot they had stolen (cheated) £99 from them. Also those that found it but don't know how to get it back and probably loose sleep over it every night (it's quite possible I'm sure for old people to feel like that). It is absolute FRAUD. Anyone in this conversation saying we don't understand or we are wrong please go somewhere else your talking out of your A-S.

In fact we are all just fools of modern life. Can I suggest in the nicest possible way that none of you really want to do anything about this MAGGOT and only wanted your money back. That's not wrong by the way but it's almost like saying it's OK as long as I'm OK and fck all the rest of them. Also can I suggest that I can tell you it's a certainty he does a lot less hard work than any of you to earn £99 and you are probably not so old reading this or so poor but there are many more people older and poorer than us that can't or just don't know how to get their money back.

Is there anyone that has the venom enough to want to do something about this !!!!!!!. I don't know law at all to be honest but I'd be more than happy to put my £99 to see this guy just show up in court. Of course people like that don't often show. Maybe a small claim for costs incurred by us all would be good. Lost work time , stress even. I don't for sure know the name but it does not take very long to find it on the net it's there in black and white so to speak. Also it seems like this in one form or another has been going on for about 7 years and just moves , transforms and mutates and really nobody wants to sort it. Does anyone have a real telephone number, address email or anything about this person. I'd like for one to show and ask him a few questions. Maybe spoil a few of his days and make his life a bit harder like he has been doing for the last 7 years to other people with little/ no regard for the law or the poeple who's day he is spoiling or time he is wasting. Can I also just say what a Wan--- he really is.

micksbiz2

lots more info below for anyone
from a post on another site:
Has anyone received a call from Discover Discounts or Eternal Cosmeceuticals Ltd? I received an unsolicited call saying that I had recently bought something from Cosmeceuticals and they wanted to offer me a no obligation trial of their discount product. I said I wasn't interested, but the caller said 'let me send you our brochure - there's no obligation and if you're not interested it can just go in the bin'. I said ok and a week or so later I received a letter from Discover Discounts, saying I had agreed to a 30 day trial membership of their discount scheme and that at the end of the 30 days they will automatically debit me for annual membership of £99.99 !! The small print terms and conditions on the back of the letter say I must cancel within the 30 day trial period to avoid this charge - but only gives a phone number to call (0203 455 7400) and no UK address. The only address on the letter is an address in Marbella, Spain. This is a complete scam. At no time did I agree to a free trial of anything. Also - how did these people get my address, phone number and, presumably, my card details? This is very worrying. I have read on other forums that the people behind this have been operating this scam for at least 5 years under various different names, including Free & Easy Lifestyles, and Pressplay. The main individual involved seems to be a Mr Phillip Mason who is a director of whichever company this is (no actual company name is stated on the letter - just the trading name Discover Discounts). I intend to report this matter to both Trading Standards and the Information Commissioner's Office, as I consider my details have been passed on without my consent. I will also be phoning to cancel the so-called trial membership and telling them in no uncertain terms that they are a bunch of crooks.


and this site


beautyproductsdirect.com

and this address



[FONT=&quot]Eternal Cosmeceuticals Limited[/FONT][FONT=&quot].
7 Clarendon Square
Leamington Spa
Warwickshire CV32 5QJ
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]U.K.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]

(e) [EMAIL="info@eternalcosmeceuticals.com"]info@eternalcosmeceuticals.com[/EMAIL]


[/FONT]

LadyDee

They can only debit your account if you've given them your bank details. I wouldn't phone them, it would just be confirming that you are a likely contact for follow-up cold calling. Just ask your bank to confirm what DDs and SOs they hold and cancel any you are not happy about.

charlesj_2

We too fell victim to this one and were relieved of £99.99. My partner did receive a mailing before Xmas but binned it assuming it to be junk mail. Checking the joint account balance online and finding it lower than expected I found the offending transaction. My partner rang the phone number in the transaction details and it seems from her conversation with the agent that she will have ticked a box on another website (or possibly failed to untick) authorising her details to be passed to Discover Discounts. The agent said that she should have had a phone call also, which she didn't and agreed to refund the fee. Obviously as well as email/phone number her debit card details were passed on. The puzzling thing is which website and when because I can't find an online transaction on that debit card in the last year.

We've decided to contact the bank after the refund arrives to get a new card issued. I'm also inclined to contact trading standards and/or the Information Commissioner's Office. I'm not an expert but it seems to me that there may be a breach of the DPA. If I manage to figure out which website I'll post that here to warn others.