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Scots businesses targeted by scammers, warns MEP |
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
Unsuspecting Scottish business owners are being targeted by ruthless scammers posing as legitimate European companies in order to extort hundreds of pounds, according to Scottish Labour MEP Catherine Stihler.
The mailing scams are targeting small businesses throughout the UK and
Europe, and Stihler urged caution when replying to unsolicited mail.
Stihler said she had received many letters from constituents saying
they had been sent requests for their updated business details, which
are then returned by fax, to then find that the small print outlines an
astronomic charge of at least 980 Euros (over £700).
A request to cancel "the order" is then refused, and if payment is not
met the "debt" is sent to a sister company under the guise of a debt
collection agency, which proceeds to increase the amount to over 1,113
Euros (over £800).
Stihler said: "I would suggest to anyone who is worried about making
payments to such scams that they are well within their rights not to
pay. The 'contract' that they have been tricked into signing has been
judged as deceptive by several national authorities across the EU,
including the UK’s Office of Fair Trading.
"Although the companies and their sister debt collection companies will
continue to bully and threaten their victims, they have never been
known to take anyone to court. They have been known to offer a
'discount' as a gesture of goodwill which has tricked people in the
past into paying – I would not recommend taking them up on this offer,
as it is often not enough to end the harassment."
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