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**UPDATED for Sept 2008**. In 2005 somebody telephoned me and claimed that the children’s books I’d allegedly sponsored were now ready for collection and they wanted payment. When I confronted them with the fact that I hadn’t ordered them, they said somebody else at the company must have done… to which I was able to reply - ‘there isn’t anybody else’. The lady on the phone threatened to take legal action and I wished her the best of luck after she said that she was from Child Protection UK Ltd of Denton, Manchester (she even phoned back to say she’d made a mistake and they weren’t a registered company - hanging up and swearing when I started reading out the address).

Needless to say as this blog entry rose up the Google rankings, Child Protection UK Ltd’s Managing Director ‘Paula Rainnie’ and I have gone on to discuss these experiences in much detail – by telephone and email. Paula confirmed to me that she was working with Trading Standards in Denton regarding this matter because she believes that they themselves are the victims of other companies trading on the CPUK name and using scam techniques to extract funds from victims. They do sell sponsored books on drug awareness and provide them to schools but Paula insists that within CPUK they do not use any bogus calling pressure techniques and are a reputable business. Understandably, accusations arising from the actions of these other fraudulent impersonators are frustrating for legitimate publishing businesses.

Since then I have gone on to blog about this experience and it led to a lot of feedback from other victims of similar bogus calls from a range of alleged companies involving ‘sponsored books’ for schools – be it drug awareness, crime prevention or other made-up / invented good causes. By September 2008 there had been over 400 comments / scam reports following two revisions of this article. Due to the volume of comments and length of this page I had to do some editing to highlight salient points and remove duplicated information. Now you will find this article broken down into sections, feel free to review areas as you see fit. I hope you will find the information useful and that it will give you some guidance on action to take, whilst reducing any anxiety and concern that you might have!

If you would like to do something proactive then please sign the online petition with Number 10. The objective of this petition is to raise the profile of these scams. This is primarily an opportunity to highlight the issue to friends, colleagues and our elected representatives. The more people know the fewer will be caught out, and the more likely action will be taken:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to urgently review and strengthen the protection afforded to UK small and medium sized enterprises against unfair sales practices and organised scams (such as rogue publishing houses) carried out from within the UK.” To sign up go to:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SME-Scam-Review/

Article Sections:
> A Typical Scam Call / Fraudulent Solicitation
> Trading Names Used by Scam Callers
> Suggested Advice on Handling Verbal and Written Demands
> Related Online Articles / Media Reports

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A Typical Scam Call / Fraudulent Solicitation
1. You receive a call asking for payment of something you didn’t ever actually order – usually sponsorship of books for schools in your area.
2. Despite you protests (which are often met with abuse) you receive a written invoice for a sum ranging in value from £99 to £400.
3. You receive more phone calls (which are again often met with abuse)
4. You receive a supposed final demand from debt collectors (usually the same company trading under a different name so not real debt collectors).
5. You receive more calls (which are again often met with abuse) or you give in… which often leads to more calls from other similar scammers! Sometimes you may receive a cleverly edited recording of the call so persuade you to pay up, however you should consult the suggested advice section of this article. A real world experience of such an audio response was. “Typically they have added that the call is taped at the beginning of the recording. Secondly, they are very clever and do not actually ask you confirm if you want these books, they only ask you questions about your business and get you to confirm your details.”

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Trading Names Used by Scam Callers
A number of trading names are often used by scam callers as identified in National Media:
Consumer champion Tony Levene fights for your rights - The Guardian
Stand firm in the face of threats from Education Support Publications - The Mirror
Carroll Dillon story - ‘Random Mostly Irish News’
However it is possible that scammers are trading off legitimate businesses’ trade-marks or that a business has employed a rogue sales representative: if in doubt find the company’s website and contact the company directly, since a legitimate publisher will publicise contact details, want to be aware if their identity is being hijacked, and will take action against any sales staff acting irresponsibly. I would of course be delighted to hear comments from any publishers who have fallen victim to their trading names being used in this scam or have had problems with sales staff, and to hear the action that they have taken to resolve the problem.

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Suggested Advice on Handling Verbal and Written Demands
Please note that the following information does not constitute legal advice, it is a summary of advice posted onto the site by other victims who have been kind enough to share their experiences with the wider business world (typically small businesses).
1. On receiving alleged evidence of a verbal agreement on CD:
“‘Recorded phone calls of verbal agreements’ - if they recorded a call without your knowledge and consent; that’s illegal and can not be used as evidence in court.”

2. Distance Selling Regulations which even scam publishers must abide by!:
*Advertisers must also provide information in writing.
*The consumer has a cooling-off period of seven working days.

“Have spoken to Consumer Direct today, they confirmed that businesses have a corporate identity, this gives them an equal right to when it comes to the protection issue of the Distance Selling Regulations. In short the 7 WORKING days cooling off rule does apply, this is further extended to 30 days if the seller does not comply with their obligation to inform the buyer of this right” “Send them a fax (i.e. in writing) telling them that according to your rights under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regs you are exercising your rights to withdraw, then TELL them to remove your information from their database as is your right under the Data Protection Act and ask for proof of this, finally point out that any further contact from them under the Administration of Justice Act will be considered harassment. Keep the sent receipt from your fax, file the documents in a safe place and forget you were ever contacted by them.”

3. Preference Services (although illegal companies may not care much about these!)
“Join the T.P.S.(The Telephone Preference Service) & M.P.S.(The Mailing Preference). Free to join & basically any company using direct marketing has to check your name against these lists & if you are on it, they are not allowed to contact you. If they do, say I am T.P.S registered & I will be reporting your business.

4. Reclaiming funds from scam publishers who get closed down
“If you have been taken for a ride by a company that has been closed down you may be able to reclaim a portion of what you paid by contacting the liquidators. Companies closed in the public interest are documented by the PIU database at
http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/compulsoryliquidation/companiesclosedipublicinterest.htm .
At least several of the entries request that people who have paid for but not seen evidence of production of publications make contact as they may be a creditor. As an example: “The Official Receiver is unable to confirm if the company produced and distributed any publications. If you purchased advertising and you have not received a copy of a publication please contact the Official Receiver’s office.”

5. Who to report fraudulent publishing matters to:>> Consumer Direct
“Consumer Direct urged me to recruit wholesale complaints to them from any of you as the issue will automatically be forwarded to Trading Standards centrally, and as TS has at least a Ministerial ear hitting the people that could ultimately make legislative changes from several directions could exert enough pressure to achieve the goals we would all like to see - http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/watch_out/scams/>> Companies Investigation Branch
“I received a reply from Companies Investigation Branch (part of the Insolvency Service) whom I’d sent a copy of all letters etc from Crime Prevention along with a covering letter with the full story. In their reply they basically say that it goes through a vetting process, taking into account any other information they have to decide whether to carry out a formal investigation. So if everyone else sends a copy of what they’ve received from the moron scammers to Companies Investigation Branch, hopefully we can get them closed down. The address is Companies Investigation Branch, Ground Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QW / http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/complaintformcib.htm

The CIB have closed down 60 rogue publishers since 2000, there are press releases about many of these companies (30) being closed down since 2006. The bad news is that before these scams are being closed down small businesses appear to have been conned out of more than £17million (from the 30 identified in press releases on the site which had numbers attached to them), and typically there is more than 18 months between incorporation and a petition to place the scammers into compulsory liquidation. The complaint mechanism is at best “difficult to find” (as is the CIB unless you know what you are looking for). They are not responsible for criminal prosecutions and have a target of 6 months to complete the investigation, during which time they cannot comment. They are only responsible for investigating limited companies: which I suspect means that if they can’t find a company registered by a trading name means that they are not going to actively progress.”

>> Trading Standards
“Trading standards has advised me to let them take me to court and then gather evidence as to why this agreement is invalid. You need to get in touch in writing lodging a formal grievance for which they have to reply within 14 days. I’ve just contacted Trading Standards in my area (thanks to this blog!) and they know the scam exists but not enough people come forward. So please, anyone with any kind of evidence - written or unwritten - call Trading Standards and let’s give them the stuff they need to get this rubbish stopped.”>> The Metropolitan Police:“The Metropolitan Police are aware of this scam. See:
http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/news/Rogue_Publishing_Houses.htm
They appear to have a specialist unit working in this area: SCD6 Economic and Specialist Crime OCU, Wellington House, 67-73 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6BE. They advise contacting your local police station. They also have an email address: fraud.alert@met.police.uk . They do not reply to this email (volume of emails!), but are collating information on fraud and scams to alert business and consumers, and to identify new opportunities to combat such scams. I am sure it would be of use if information is provided to this email address. I would however suggest making their life as easy as possible.

Perhaps people should:
- Use a common email subject “Information relating to rogue publishing houses”
- A sentence or two on why you are contacting them.
- Detail the following information clearly on separate lines or sections:
* Company and trading names used
* Dates of contact or frequency
* Trading standards contact and reference
* Local police contact and reference
* A list of written and/or CD information sent to you.
* Your details (!)

I am sure I don’t need to say this but please be polite, formal and helpful: I am positive that they are entirely on our side, but are perhaps overworked, under-resourced and need our help. I am going to contact this email and try to get a response on further advice on reporting and how to help them.”

6. Examples of letters sent in response to fraudulent payment solicitation:

a) Could be sent in reply to a false invoice and receipt of a sample book:

To whom it may concern,

We are in receipt of a sample of a book entitled ‘I can feel happy, I can feel safe’ and an invoice from you for the sum of £99 purporting to be in accordance with an agreement made by verbal agreement in March 2008 to enter into sponsorship with you.

We hereby deny any knowledge of said verbal agreement made to anyone at your company. Will you please forward to us the following:
Proof of the conversation,
Proof of a contract,
Proof of the advertisement,
Proof of distribution,
Any information held against our company or any of its employee’s, as per data protection act. If you are unable to provide proof of any one of these you should cease further demands for payment which may be considered harassment under the Administration of Justice Act which is a criminal offence.

Regards

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b) In response to receiving a final demand from an alleged debt collector
“I actually responded, why I don’t know, asking for the Fast Track Claim Number, the Particulars of the Claim, the details of the issuing Court and a copy of their completed Allocation Questionnaire so that we might file our counter claim and raise ancillary issues pertaining to their numerous breaches of the Distance Selling Regulations, the breaches of the Data Protection Act and Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act visa-vie harassment. Just mark anything you send “Without Prejudice” they cannot present that in Court without your permission.”

7. Checking that a charity is genuine… because there are many good legal causes out there!“If any firm tells you that money from your advert is going to charity then ask them for the name and contact phone number of the charity so that you can check for yourself. If the firm is legitimate then they will be happy to give you this information and the charity will be delighted that you have checked it out with them.On the other hand, if comments are simply made about helping abused children, bullied children or sick children then be very wary. If a firm is legitimately involved with a charity it will have a commercial participation agreement which sets out how much the firm gets and how much the charity gets. Firms involved in genuine ventures also have to read out a solicitation statement in which they tell you how much the charity gets from the venture. This is the law. See the Charity Commission website for more details.”

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Related Online Articles / Media Reports
1. Radio 4’s You and Yours: Publishing Scam - Small businesses targeted
2. Businesses Asked To be Wary Of Book Sellling Scam For Local Schools
3. Traders on alert over children’s book scam
4. The Metropolitan Police ( Rogue Publishing Houses)
5. Trading Standards Guidance (Publishing and marketing scams)
6. Carroll Dillon story in ‘Random Mostly Irish News’
7. Mirror.co.uk - Penman and Sommerlad Investigate
8. Consumer Direct - Scams
9. The Consumer Action Group
10. Blagger.com on Carroll Dillon Publishing

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PETITION REMINDER *****If you would like to do something proactive then please sign the online petition with Number 10!