involuntariness handover: The season of the scam

It's that time of year ...

As the hospitality industry begins planning it's marketing for the coming year, so do the regular advertising scams begin. Already there are reports from Mid Wales and Anglesey of rogue activity. History suggests that this will intensify and become more widespread over the coming months. Small businesses are especially at risk because it is sometimes difficult to keep track of transactions at a busy time; or because insufficient research is undertaken into advertising media or 'special offers'. So beware of unsolicited snailmail, phone calls or email, be particularly careful when selecting online media, and report all suspicious contacts to the Trading Standards 'Scambuster Wales Team' (for details, go to the foot of this post). On no account submit your credit card or bank account details unless you are absolutely confident that you are dealing with a legitimate company.

The false invoicing scam

Reports are coming in of rogue callers threatening a visit from bailiffs unless an "outstanding invoice" is settled immediately. In some cases the callers quote a spurious County Court Judgement Number, a bailiff registration number and even claim to have signed documentation acknowledging the debt. This is only one variation of the 'false invoicing' scam, which trades on panic in the face of possible litigation and the possible lack of communication between marketing and accountancy personnel.

A simpler variation is the submission of an invoice for advertising or other services in the hope that it will slip through the net into the accounting system and be settled as a matter of course. In most cases the advertising medium does not exist.

The free entry scam

Many Internet directories and similar web sites are perfectly legitimate, and free listings are part of the tactical toolbox for developing inbound links and raising search engine rankings. But beware: there have been recurring scams offering traders a 'free entry', only for the targets to discover that the small print commits them to a (sometimes substantial) monthly payment.

The cloned web site scam

There are instances where online publishers have deliberately set out to scam potential advertisers into believing that they are buying space on an 'official' web site - part of the marketing services offered by Visit Wales, local authorities, regional and local tourism associations and the rest. Among the gambits used in the past have been official sounding domain names, web sites designed to mimic the appearance of mainstream online publications, and misleading copy. Where destination marketing is concerned there is a limited choice of relevant domains and the majority of publishers have no intention to deceive. Ethical commercial businesses will differentiate themselves from not-for-profit web sites. Whether to advertise on non-commercial or commercial web sites is, of course, a management decision; but make sure that you are advertising where you think you are!

Scambuster Wales

The Scambuster Wales Team was established by the Wales Heads of Trading Standards in 2009. The Team was set up in recognition of the need to work across local authority boundaries where dishonest activity is concerned and the need to correlate cross-region intelligence. If you have information about a scam or think you have been a victim of a scam, you should contact Consumer Direct Wales on 08454 040506, who will pass on the details to the Scambuster Team and give practical and impartial advice. For more information on Scambuster Wales, click here.

Pentre Ifan in Silhouette by Bruce Holder, from Share Wales on Flickr

Pentre Ifan in silhouette