Charities and Phone Scams
Since setting up Dubbed Creative, I have been subject to a large amount of Charity phone scams wanting the company to advertise on their wall chart, year planner or diary (five calls in the last week or so!). Unfortunately, as most new small businesses are not aware of these time-wasting calls, we are bitten heavily thinking we are doing some good.
Of course, they are not all scams, there are the odd rare ones which are genuine and talk properly on the phone with you without forcing you to buy their advertising space (which is reasonably priced!). But, because they get mixed in with the scammers, you fail to recognise them, and treat them the same.
The worst element about these calls is that when they call, they indicate that they
“spoke with you a couple of weeks ago”
and that you said “yes” to having an Ad space on their year planner. The next thing they say is
“the invoice for £400 will be sent out tomorrow, and we’re just checking that’s ok for you”
Like any small business, I definitely would not have agreed to that!!!
Well, that’s when my tone changes and I start questioning who they are and that I would not agree to having an ad at that price, especially for a measly little wallplanner ad!
At that point they usually put the phone down, or go to speak with their manager and will “call you back in 5-10 minutes” (but they never do). Of course, you also get the idiot who thinks they can still persist and persuade you that you agreed to it!
So, I think the best thing for me is to contribute my own way, to non UK charities. The time of hanging up is back! Hopefully this article will make some people aware of what to watch out for!
Whilst browsing the web, I came across this interesting and useful article.
UPDATE: I have since come across another post relating to Yellow Partnership (or Strawberry Educational - absolute fraudsters!) - Small business owners be aware of these scammers! One thing that I have noticed is they seem to always call from a mobile phone.
Here is a list of those that have contacted me to waste my time:
- Yellow Partnership
- Strawberry Educational
- Chambers & Croft
- Cooper Clarke
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