vitamail p.o box 1075 bedford mk41 9xp

lynx10

MindTripper wrote: »

... Notice that this page describes their "buyers" as being predominantly 55+ years old. This tallies with what I've read on this and other forums, that the recipients of the unsolicited Vitamail mail tend to be in the higher age bracket. These are the people Vitamail seem to be targetting for whatever reason.

Many thanks - I've forwarded details to the OFT, suggesting possible Data Protection breaches by UK-based operations acting on behalf of Vitamail.

Dave

MindTripper

lynx10 wrote: »

Many thanks - I've forwarded details to the OFT, suggesting possible Data Protection breaches by UK-based operations acting on behalf of Vitamail.

Dave

Vitmail have a similar order form webpage for the UK.
//lists.nextmark.com/market?page=order/online/search_results

I'm glad to help. A neighbour of my has been badly conned by these people & I'd love to see this scam stopped. You're doing a great thing Dave. Good on you! Thanks for doing this.

Gill

lynx10

Think Jessica
http://www.thinkjessica.com/stories/jessica.htm

Summary: ... Marilyn Baldwin said her 83-year-old mother, Jessica Looke, received up to 30 letters a day from companies around the world demanding money. The letters said that Mrs Looke, of Cherry Tree Mews, Chaddesden, had won money and that she must send the organisations a release fee to claim her prize. After the pensioner's death, Mrs Baldwin found that her mother had sent more than £50,000 to the companies and had stored about 30,000 of the letters in her house. She had spent her whole pension every week, withdrawn her savings and taken out loans to pay the fees ...

Source: Royal Mail Should Do More To Fight Scams, Derby Evening Telegraph, 22nd December 2007

lynx10

And here's a photo inside the Promondo (Vitamail ?) factory, looks as though it was taken during a school trip ...

Factory tour PROMONDO 15 april 2009
[Visite de l'usine PROMONDO (Carros, journee du secteur secondaire)]
http://dp3bellevue.over-blog.com/article-30293316.html

Mr_O_3

If you visit the website think jessica . com and take a look at the scam mail photos page you will see that people all over the country have and are being scammed by Vitamail... this site also shows countless other scam mailings..well worth a visit to see some old folk get over 100 scam letters delivered a day by their postman.. nothing is being done to protect them
:mad:

lynx10

Petition asking the Prime Minister to "introduce more protection for those suffering from mental health problems and dementia against postal scams." http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/think-jessica/

Petition response: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page21300 noting: "Although the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) does not take action in individual cases it does consider mass marketed scams as a priority area."

Also, the EU was reportedly in hot pursuit a couple of years ago, so precisely how many unscrupulous traders have been 'stopped in their tracks' by either the OFT or the EU ?:

Consumers: EU clamp-down on cross border fraudsters
Brussels, 27 February 2007
“Con artists are using mass e-mails or false promises of big earnings to trap vulnerable people," Mrs Kuneva said. "The fraudsters are clever – taking advantage of different legal systems across the EU to target vulnerable people. Their crafty schemes, such as personalising letters and making them look professional, are costing EU consumers millions of euros. In the UK alone, over 3 million adults fall victim to scams each year, costing each one an average of €1,500. This kind of malicious practice has to stop. The new EU-wide network of national watchdogs will help to stop unscrupulous traders in their tracks, by ensuring that they can no longer evade consumer protection authorities."
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/253&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

mfrgolfgti

As an update to this thread from a while ago, my Mum died recently and after she'd died she received some products from Vitamail. No phone number on any of the literature etc. I found references on here and also did some searching and found out the phone number of the people who mail the products out. They are Padeol, based at Glendle House, 48 Kimbolton Road, Bedford MK40 2NX. Their phone number is 01234 36 45 29. I rang and spoke to them and they said if I send the products back to the PO box address on the mailings I would get a refund. We will see.

Previously I had found a phone number of Promondo in France and rang them. The girl who answered the phone didn't speak English (or said she didn't) and when I explained in basic French my situation, she said no-one in the company could speak English. Strangely I find this hard to believe so I gave up on that one and will try sending the products back to the PO Box.

lynx10

mfrgolfgti wrote: »

... I rang and spoke to them and they said if I send the products back to the PO box address on the mailings I would get a refund. We will see.

Would you mind letting us know how you get on ? TIA

lynx10

OFT launches 'Scamnesty' as new figures reveal scale of problem and rise of online scams
07/10 1 February 2010

The OFT today launched its 2010 Scams Awareness Month by highlighting how scammers are targeting unsuspecting people using increasingly sophisticated and manipulative tactics.

New research for the OFT reveals the scale of mass-marketed scams in Britain, which arrive by post, email, text, phone or the internet and aim to mislead people to part with their cash. The survey found that:

* Around one in 11 (just over 4 million) adults say they have responded to a scam at some time in their life, of whom nearly a third lost money.
* One in 25 (about 2 million) adults have responded to a scam in the last 12 months.
* Around half (49 per cent) of those scammed have lost more than £50 in total, with five per cent losing more than £5000.
* Email is now the most common scam approach - 73 per cent of adults have received a scam email in the past year. This is followed by scams via a letter (21 per cent) and via text message (12 per cent). Social media sites appear to be emerging as a new route for scammers with nine per cent of adults having received an approach this way.
* Three in 10 adults who responded to a scam then received further correspondence from the scammer, with over half (54 per cent) being asked to send money, and a third (36 per cent) being asked to send personal information.

This year's Scams Awareness Month is seeking to raise awareness of the scale of the problem with a nationwide 'Scamnesty' run in partnership with 129 local authority Trading Standards Services. The campaign calls on consumers to drop scam mailings they have received into designated 'Scamnesty' bins or boxes at local libraries and public areas across the country. Consumers looking for their nearest bin can do a postcode search at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/scamnesty. The site also features an online bin where people can send suspected scam websites and emails.

... Consumer Minister Kevin Brennan said:
'It is really important that people are on their guard and know that help is available as scams can bring real upset and misery to their victims.
'We have invested £7.5 million to create 'scambuster' teams across the country. These specialist Trading Standards teams are working hard with the Police and others across local authority boundaries to come down hard on the worst scammers. We are determined to take the fight to these crooks.'...

http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2010/07-10

Swami

brendang wrote: »

has anyone ever heard of this company,as i have just recieved a letter today saying i have definetly won £10000 all i have to do apparently is make an order and return it with my winning certificate to get the cash,you can order health stuff for only £4 or so ,anyone had a similar letter

hey der, i also got d same kind of letter..... is it genuine....... its nt any forgot yeah. coz they havnt mention any contact no..... please reply to me......