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In this issue:
Trading Standards have issued previous alerts about the dangers of engaging with spiritual healers and clairvoyants and have now received reports of a leaflet drop in the Augustus Road area of Coventry. We are therefore repeating our advice.
The leaflets may claim that they can remove all your bad luck, cure illnesses, reconcile relationships and make your business flourish, but in reality it is no more than a scam to take money from you.
We are therefore issuing a stern warning to beware of such claims from ‘healers’ and clairvoyants who advertise their services in free newspapers and pamphlets.
What is most concerning is that they tend to target the vulnerable and ethnic minority communities who often, due to embarrassment or religious beliefs will not report complaints.
In this latest leaflet drop, one of the mobile phone numbers quoted appears to originate from non UK based mobile service provider.
Trading Standards advice to consumers is not to throw their hard earned money after bogus miracle cures that do not yield any results.
Anyone who believes they may have fallen victim should report the matter to Consumer Advice on 08454 04 05 06.
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A National Trading Standards e-crime team, based in Yorkshire, has brought what is believed to be the first ever successful prosecution in the UK of a defendant involved in the Microsoft computer scam. At the end of March Mr Mohammed Khalid Jamil, was sentenced to 4 months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. He was also fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £5,665 in compensation to his victims plus £13,929 in prosecution costs.
The specialist e-crime Team together with colleagues from other Authorities brought Mr Jamil to justice after his company ‘Smart Support Guys’, duped a large number of UK consumers into handing over money.
Consumers in the UK received calls from people claiming to be “Microsoft Certified” engineers or from a company working for the American software giant. They told consumers their computers had serious faults, which if not fixed, could cause them to crash.
Consumers would be persuaded to give the callers remote access to their computer who would then remove programs that were protecting them leaving computers in a worse state before installing anti-malware software that Microsoft makes available for free. Charges ranged between £35 and £150, and many were elderly.
In reality the cold callers who were calling from call centres based in India had no links to Microsoft at all, and Microsoft have confirmed that SmartSupportGuys, run by Mr Jamil, is not a Microsoft registered partner and should not charge consumers for products which Microsoft provides for nothing.
Mr Jamil aged 34, of Luton, Bedfordshire, pleaded guilty at York Crown Court, to unfair trading by allowing his staff to make false claims regarding computer support services.
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Trading Standards are warning sun-lovers bound for Turkey not to be caught out by a new visa system which requires a visa to be applied for before travel.
Britons have always been issued with a visa stamp in their passports on arrival for a £10 fee, but this will begin to come to an end from 11 April, meaning visitors will have to apply online for an electronic visa (e-Visa) before travel.
Trading Standards are advising holidaymakers to be wary of unauthorised websites which try to charge for providing information about e-Visas and submitting applications.
Prospective travellers are advised to use the official Turkish government website (www.evisa.gov.tr) which will only charge a flat fee of $20 (converted into GBP according to the foreign exchange rate), for a 90-day, multi-entry visa. Cruise ship passengers with ‘British Citizen’ passports entering the country for a day trip, remaining in the port of embarkation and returning to the ship the same day will continue to be able to enter Turkey without a visa or e-Visa.
The new e-Visa will be emailed to travellers for them to print out at home after providing their name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, email address and passport details. They will then be required to present the entry document to border control on arrival in Turkey. Once in the country travellers should keep their e-Visa and passport safe, ideally in a locked safe.
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ONLINE shoppers are being urged to exercise caution over offers for “free trials” of diet products, such as ketone tablets, which are said to be popular.
Trading Standards receive a number of complaints from consumer’s who have signed up to these “too good to be true” offers, which have appeared in health magazines, pop up advertising on the internet and through unsolicited emails.
However, instead of paying the expected postage of around £5 to receive the ‘free’ slimming pills, they have found between £50 and £100 taken from their accounts. In some cases several debits have been made in quick succession, totalling several hundred pounds.
The scam businesses hide their terms and conditions of the offer on the website and the “free trial” actually requires the unsuspecting consumer’s to sign up to a rolling contract, committing them to pay for several months’ subscription for the product.
When consumer’s try to contact the business, they receive no response, or are pointed to the terms and conditions that they unwittingly agreed to.
Trading Standards also have concerns about the legality of some of the products being offered with fantastic claims being made about the effectiveness of the slimming pills.
Our Advice: Trawl through the website to identify the terms and conditions of the “free” offer, read the small print and don’t provide your bank details unless you are completely sure what you are signing up to.
Be extra cautious if the business does not provide the name and address of the owners and their address in the UK.
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