ESP-school book scam-Want money for sponsored book our company never agreed on.

[davecrasher]

HI,
Recieved a phone call 10 days ago telling me the book we are sponsoring is ready for publish and they will send a copy of the book for our approval,also they would send 30 books to a choosen school in my area,this is going to cost £199.00.The book is called Drugs thugs and internet bugs.
I said to the person on the phone i was not aware of this sponsorship,He replied" the order was done over the phone in december which i agreed for them to go publish these books etc etc,I said there has to be a mistake,i would not give the go ahead for this,but send me the book and the invoice and i will look at it.
Today i recieved a phone call(withheld number) from ESP asking for payment by credit card,i asked the lady for the school these books were going to,she did not know and would get back to me,i replied saying i would forwad a cheque on.
I have come home and researched this and it is a complete scam,they do this to small buissness hoping to be paid outright with no questions asked.
I thought i would make this aware for other people and would be gratefull if anyone else has had this scam pulled off on them.
With research they will send me letters with deadlines,threaten to go to court and abrupt telephone calls.

I cant wait cause they dont have a leg to stand on.

Cheers

Dave

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[Conniff]

This is the exact scam as the listing in a business directory and other things. It has been going on for years. You should report it to the police and get it logged. I know they can't do much, but if one day someone does have the evidence to bring them to court, then your logging will help.

School Books Scam Continues To Target Businesses - Firetop

[Michael Browne]

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

SCHEDULE 1Regulation 3(4)(d)

Commercial practices which are in all circumstances considered unfair:

21. Including in marketing material an invoice or similar document seeking payment which gives the consumer the impression that he has already ordered the marketed product when he has not.

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (No. 1277) - Statute Law Database

[patdavies]

But they are not targeting consumers, they are targeting businesses...

[wino]

We had this all the time when we had our business. If it wasn't books for schools it was year planners for the police or diaries. They all said we had agreed to sponsor them. (LOAD OF RUBBISH)

One woman got quite abusive on the phone saying I was ripping them off as it is too late to take our sponsorship out of a diary and I was after free advertising. She threatened to take us to court. I told her to send me a copy of the diary and never heared from her again.

These people will ring and ask for the Manager or ask for the Managers name then ring back months later saying Mr or Mrs Manager had agreed to the sponsorship.


Once we received a certificate from a charity for us to display on the wall for our customers to see saying we sponsor them and an Invoice for £25 that I had agreed to donate. When they rang I said I was the Manager and I had never agreed to this. They said it must of been another lady in our office. As I was the only lady they gave up trying to convince me.