HALESOWEN residents are warned to be on their guard against firms offering cash prizes in return for ordering over-priced products.
Retired insurance executive Malcolm Whitehouse has received two lots of personalised letters from foreign based companies in recent weeks claiming cheques of £7,000 and £15,000 plus a flat screen TV are waiting for him.
The lure of the £15,000 cheque is from a French-based company called Vitamail, whose selling techniques have been heavily criticised by consumer watchdog groups over several years.
To claim his TV and £7,000 cheque Mr Whitehouse, of Churchill Road, has a choice of Belgian chocolates, biscuits and cakes to order, allegedly with up to 50 per cent off from a firm called Delices and Gourmandises.
But with cherries in brandy at £21.45 and a tin of biscuits at £15.92, they are far from bargain basement prices.
Such companies target elderly consumers - and, of course, the cheques and expensive free gifts never arrive.
They use PO box numbers which makes it difficult for the Office of Fair Trading to track them down, especially as they are based abroad.
Mr Whitehouse, aged 71, said: “These are obviously scams, but they appear quite plausible and I want to warn people not to be taken in.”
Dudley Trading Standards advice to residents is to never send money to claim a prize and to never give bank or credit card details to anyone to claim a prize.
Councillor David Stanley, cabinet member responsible for trading standards, said: “People should always be suspicious of prize draws and similar offers which arrive out of the blue. If they appear to good to be true, they usually are.
“These cons, which often begin with unsolicited mail arriving through the post, are very convincing and are designed to draw people in.
“Before they know it they have sent thousands of pounds to overseas criminal gangs which they have no chance of ever recovering."
Anyone who thinks they, or someone they know, may have been a victim of one of these scams should contact Trading Standards immediately on 08454 040506.
1 partial well informed comment:
Perhaps Trading Standards can ask Spring Global, the company that brings Vitamail junk into the country, or perhaps Royal Mail who part own Spring Global with TNT and others why they knowingly hold contracts with scam companies like Vitamail despite mountains of evidence that they are ripping vulnerable people off left and right. Perhaps they can ask Royal Mail why it offers Vitamail Pre-Paid branding on what are quite obviously scam letters designed to defraud the public. Elderly people tend to trust the Royal Mail logo and don't expect to be conned by items carrying those words.
