# PSA: Fraudulent Advertising Scams (New Campaign out)



## Sphinx111 (Jan 4, 2013)

Hello dog-lovers,

Please read the following carefully if you have advertised your business online in any directory websites, or if your website is on the first few pages of google results for pet services in your local area.

It's that time of year again when small-business owners are getting back to the hard work of winning clients in the new year, which means its prime-time for Scam callers.

Bogus charity affiliations (where a caller offers to list your services from a charities website for a small donation) are dying out according to a good friend in Trading Standards, however there is a recurring problem back again.

This year sees a return of "Revetco" now going by the new name of "Blue Light Magazine", a particularly persistent group who have had a good amount of success scamming small businesses out of their advertising budgets.

In brief, the group calls a small business, typically those with inexperienced directors from Pet Services, Carpet Cleaning, Independent Maids etc, and offers local advertising at a very reasonable cost in a widely distributed Magazine. Typically they will advertise their magazine as representing the Emergency services, or in affiliation with the Post Office, though they are using these claims less frequently now. They will offer variable sizes of adverts, with the guarantee of exclusivity in your local area. The scam lies in the fact that the magazine is not distributed to anyone except paying advertisers. You are paying for a service that they have no intention of providing.

If you take the call and express an interest in any of the options offered, you will very shortly receive a follow-up call from their "design team". The design team takes some basic details and all together the call is rushed through in approximately 2 minutes. They do not pursue payment at this point.

Very shortly afterwards you receive a sample magazine with your advert in, also including an invoice for payment within (typically) 14 days. If it has reached this point you MUST do at least one of the following:


If its less than 7 days since the first telephone call, contact the company by email or phone, quoting the following "Under the Distance Selling Regulations I request to withdraw any implied or otherwise acceptance of services or goods offered"
Additionally - Contact your local trading standards officer, informing them of the attempt, as well as obtaining a point of reference for further communication should the company proceed with the next steps.
Inform police Fraud unit at your own discretion. If you have felt threatened at any point in the discourse, then please contact the fraud unit regardless of whether you were caught by the scam.

If you allow it to progress further the scam group may decide to go as far as hiring debt collectors to intimidate you, although this is much rarer than the threatening phone calls which are the norm.

This is a wide ranging scam that experiences "Campaign drives" at this time of year, and usually dies out around March/April when the company closes down, reforms and produces materials for the next year's chimera-like incarnation.

Please have a healthy amount of suspicion, and only advertise with companies you can verify yourself (or through trusted contacts.)

Have a happy scam-free new year everyone!

Kind Regards,
Edward Langdon
(Director of 2 Tired Dogs)


----------



## Blacklabpictures (Oct 30, 2012)

Thank you for this, good to know


----------



## rona (Aug 18, 2011)

I had several calls from "the police magazine" last year.


----------

