London mint scam?

Outsider13

My Grandad recently applied for an equity release. He doesn’t have internet or know how to use email etc so he authorised me to liase with everyone and provide all the financials etc.
i was looking through bank statements to find an old transaction he had to show and I found numerous payments to the London mint. The statements I can view only go back to 2018 so there could be a lot more but between 2018-2022 I can see over £6,000 worth of payments to the London mint.
from searching online it looks like people would see an offer like 99p coin worth significantly more they’d order that then would start to receive other coins in the post ‘on approval’ then be sent an invoice followed by aggressive demands for payment with a seemingly impossible process for returns
my grandmother would have been living in 2018 in her 90s and would likely have purchased a special offer coin I can easily see that but neither of them have any interest in coin collecting and they certainly didn’t have the means to pay for these
i remember a few occasions their card being declined for their weekly shop and I sent them money to go back the next day and have to do their shop all over again
i I feel this company takes advantage of people and it makes me sick to think that in her final years they could have enjoyed holidays with this money instead of scraping by and they would have been so scared reading these demand letters
so what can I do?
does anyone have experience of claiming money back in situations like this?
I haven’t spoken to my Grandad about this yet because he would be so embarrassed. He is generally pretty fit and well for his age but recently had a bad fall and I can see how vulnerable it made him feel so I won’t discuss this with him unless there is a chance of good news. There haven’t been any payments for almost three years so it isn’t a current threat
im sending him money I can’t spare every month, he’s just got a tax bill on his pension that I’ll have to pay somehow and I would love to bring him some relief
i I can’t believe this company is still operating with all the vile reviews I’ve seen
my next step is to visit the bank so I can see how far back this actually goes and get evidence of all the payments
then maybe visit citizens advice
i found out recently he had been receiving crosswords in the post and sending £20 a time to enter a crossword competition which we discussed and he said he understood so I can see how he gets something through the door asking for money and he accepts it even though he never asked for it

my family has suffered loss after loss in the past few years, we live 300 miles away and all of us are struggling

Has anyone dealt with London mint?
has anyone made claims in similar circumstances?
any advice would be hugely appreciated

soolin

They aren't a scam company but they do did use to  use the buy one and you then subscribe to all future sales until cancelled method (which seems to have stopped in the past few years) . There are some other threads here:

london mint offers — MoneySavingExpert Forum

A lot of the threads here on MSE are old threads purely because I think the sign up is clearer now and they seem to have stopped the automatic sign up via a simple 'I agree' box that used to be in place- which doesn't help your situation at all I realise .

Just looking at this one for instance, it's no longer the 99p starter offer, they start high but state 'no further commitment required'

Remembrance 2025: The Voices of Veterans Fairmined Gold Layered Crown

Unfortunately I suspect that if your grandfather accepted the coins at the time then there is very little in the way of recourse for the monies paid out for just 'collectable' coins of little value. If your grandfather is vulnerable to these sorts of companies, and there are still many around, it might be worth looking into ways to get some way to see his accounts by way of a POA - with his permission of course. 

TELLIT01

Not a scam per-se but not a good investment either.  When my brother died I discovered that he had 'invested' in a similar coin scheme, but with a different company.  I managed to get rid of the sterling silver coins, but anything else was effectively worthless as although they were legal tender, they were only legal tender in Gibraltar, the Channel Island etc.

lincroft1710

If these payments were over 4 years, then the average would have been £1500 pa. If your grandfather is paying tax on his pension, then his annual income would be in excess of £12,570. So how much was he spending on crossword competitions?


Basically there is no comeback on the London Mint payments, unless you can prove (actually impossible) he did not receive the coins. The bank won't speak to you without him being present or a written authority and in any case, unless you can prove LM fraudulently set up a Direct Debit or Standing Order, nothing can be done

sheramber

How would the company know he was vulnerable, assuming he meets the definition.

Age alone does not make him vulnerable.

What has he done with all the coins? 

Pollycat

Outsider13 said:

my next step is to visit the bank so I can see how far back this actually goes and get evidence of all the payments

Do you (or someone else) have POA for your grandad?
If not, the bank may not discuss his accounts with you.

As someone else has mentioned, if his pension is taxable, I'd be looking at what he's spending money on.
You've said the London Mint payments stopped a while ago.

Outsider13

Thank you all
We have applied for POA
I have access to his account (with his permission of course)
I suppose I was rather naively hoping I could do something about it
When I visit we always use that time to get admin stuff sorted, replace or fix things in the house so maybe I’ll suggest looking around for things he doesn’t want to sell and hopefully we will come across the coins
the space isn’t untidy or cluttered so if he has them we will easily find them and have a conversation from there
they would buy random stuff occasionally and it would always be displayed so the coins aren’t interesting or precious to him
maybe we can atleast sell them on
i understand the point about the company not knowing they were vulnerable only I know that but from what I have read they were certainly unhelpful to many trying to return or cancel and unnecessarily aggressive with payment demands
i was hoping on those grounds maybe people had been able to claim money back after paying when under extreme pressure

lincroft1710

Define "extreme pressure".


Most companies will use pressure of some sort when trying to achieve a sale. what to you may seem "extreme" may be just normal sales tactics to others.


Without knowing exactly what your grandparents purchased and whether there is any intrinsic/collectable value, the hope would be that if the metal used is actually a precious metal and there would be some scrap value.

TELLIT01

If you do try to sell the coins you need accept that you will get a tiny fraction of the purchase price.