Scam in progress...Australian advertising scam

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Feb 2010 Posts: 1

G'day guys,

A few months ago I read about advertising scams - you get a phone call from a publication that either invites you to advertise, or tells you that you booked in to advertise with them several months ago. I run a small-medium business so I paid a little attention.

On Wednesday afternoon I received a call from a private number. The lady on the other end said she was from a publication called "The A&E Report", a charity for Accident and Emergency Services. She claimed I'd booked an advertisement with them in October last year. Straight away I knew it was a scam...I am very specific about where I advertise and I wouldn't bother with them. I'm a pretty good actor, so I played dumb a bit and then feigned a moment of clarity - it must have been my ex-business partner who booked the ad and hadn't told me about it! The lady said yes, that sounded familiar, and asked what their name was again...Melissa I said, and she replies "Yes, that was her name". I haven't had a business partner in 3 years, and her name wasn't Melissa...

She told me she'd send me a proof of the publication in the mail, and tried to get me to pay via credit card over the phone. I told her I didn't have it on me and that I'd call back later that day. An hour later another lady called me and said that she would give me a 10% discount if I paid via credit card right then. Again I still didn't have my credit card on me.

Yesterday, the publication and my invoice arrive. I Googled them and nothing came up - they don't have an email address either. Their Australian Business Number checks out, but they only have a PO Box and a 1300 phone number.

I gave them a call today and left a message explaining who I was, and that I was calling to make payment. I am awaiting their call back.

Just to be 100% certain, I called a couple of the other businesses that had advertisements and they weren't as lucky as me - most had paid and were ripped off.

Now...what to do from here? Obviously I have no intention of paying them, but I would like to make their lives as miserable as possible and legalities aren't really all that important, as long as I don't go to jail. I had the idea of staking out their PO Box and following them back to their house.

My other idea, was waiting for them to call back, and when they do, explain that I'm only 10 minutes down the road and have a pocket full of cash, and can just meet up with them to settle the debt. Meet them in a carpark somewhere and then show their kneecaps who's boss.

Of course, I am just angry right now (and proud that I spotted) and want revenge. Any other ideas?

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:19 am

Jonno Lucas wrote:

I had the idea of staking out their PO Box and following them back to their house.

My other idea, was waiting for them to call back, and when they do, explain that I'm only 10 minutes down the road and have a pocket full of cash, and can just meet up with them to settle the debt. Meet them in a carpark somewhere and then show their kneecaps who's boss.

That seems like a rather bad idea. As for the PO Box, who says they empty it themselves? They might have someone do that for them and then send it to them in another PO Box or a regular address, etcetera, etcetera.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:22 am

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au

419Eater is my life Joined: 11 Dec 2009 Posts: 316

A meeting somewhere in front of (web)-cams, where you dont show up personally, but maybe get a useable picture of the person waiting for you.
Call in the time of appointment, to tell that you're on the way, but delayed, 'so please wait'...

And for baiting as we do it - they have your RL-details, so don't do it with your name and adress. We sign up for a fresh mail-account like Gmail with a randome name for that reasons.

Good hunting anyway.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 19 Nov 2009 Posts: 25

I had a company phone me up a few months ago asking for me to buy ad space on a 'childrens foundation' catalogue where all money for advertising will be given to this charity. As a new business It sounded good and the rates were ok especially when there will 10,000 copies sent out! So over the phone they (led me to believe) tied me into a contract with a recorded conversation with me saying ok! I learnt pretty quickly after that, luckily I didn't part with any money and looked them up on google. Here this is what a joke they are, you can do a search for them in google (vardis) and it has more search hits for vardis scam than the company!!!!

Anyway you live and learn, some harder than others but we will get there in the end!

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:33 pm

is this scam in brisbane?

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