They get stung for a couple of hundred quid for an ad that no one, may see, with the publisher' pocketing the money.
If you have not been asked to support a charity by buying space in some so-called diary, wall planner, children's book, book for schools, or drug awareness campaign for schools', you are in the minority.
Quite often the scam comes in the form of a reminder call' with the caller claiming you signed up a few months ago for a directory listing or an ad in a yearbook supporting whatever charity.
Mind you, the causes named in scams are often, in themselves, entirely worthy.
Earlier this year I heard of one where a rep claimed that a handbook' was supported by the Metropolitan police. The retailer was asked for sponsorship to the tune of £1,750.
The rep put him under pressure before dropping to £250. Fortunately the retailer didn't cave in.
The Met told the retailer to report it to Trading Standards. The TSO advised: bin it.
The DTI recently had two companies that were trading as support advertisers' wound up in the High Court. The companies had been misleading the small businesses they had persuaded to buy space and the charities to whom they had been promising a share of the revenue. Ads were being sold for between £100 and £1,000, but the amount of cash given to the charities ranged from nothing to 3.7%.
Companies after your hard earned cash also operate from abroad.
A retailer trading in Hackney told me that he had received a bill from a Continental company that claimed to be publishing a guide to European cities. It wanted £817 for a listing in this so-called guide.
The retailer vaguely remembered a flyer some months before and was not sure whether he had ticked a box or not.
My advice to him was the same as the TSO's in the other case: bin it.
{{INDEPENDENTS }}
If you have not been asked to support a charity by buying space in some so-called diary, wall planner, children's book, book for schools, or drug awareness campaign for schools', you are in the minority.
Quite often the scam comes in the form of a reminder call' with the caller claiming you signed up a few months ago for a directory listing or an ad in a yearbook supporting whatever charity.
Mind you, the causes named in scams are often, in themselves, entirely worthy.
Earlier this year I heard of one where a rep claimed that a handbook' was supported by the Metropolitan police. The retailer was asked for sponsorship to the tune of £1,750.
The rep put him under pressure before dropping to £250. Fortunately the retailer didn't cave in.
The Met told the retailer to report it to Trading Standards. The TSO advised: bin it.
The DTI recently had two companies that were trading as support advertisers' wound up in the High Court. The companies had been misleading the small businesses they had persuaded to buy space and the charities to whom they had been promising a share of the revenue. Ads were being sold for between £100 and £1,000, but the amount of cash given to the charities ranged from nothing to 3.7%.
Companies after your hard earned cash also operate from abroad.
A retailer trading in Hackney told me that he had received a bill from a Continental company that claimed to be publishing a guide to European cities. It wanted £817 for a listing in this so-called guide.
The retailer vaguely remembered a flyer some months before and was not sure whether he had ticked a box or not.
My advice to him was the same as the TSO's in the other case: bin it.
{{INDEPENDENTS }}
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