Police begging calls... Is this really Britain?
Discussion
I had a call from the Police today. They were begging for money!
No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
No, no no, that's a scam.
It is a small printing company, probably on Merseyside. They thank you for previous adverts supporting the police, or say they represent the police and would you put an ad in their publication. Poibly mention soemone's name at your firm?
You pay a few quid, they produce a few crappy little A5 mags once they have scammed enough revenue and they trouser the bulk.
Barely legal but they do produce a mag of sorts.
Been going on years.
It is a small printing company, probably on Merseyside. They thank you for previous adverts supporting the police, or say they represent the police and would you put an ad in their publication. Poibly mention soemone's name at your firm?
You pay a few quid, they produce a few crappy little A5 mags once they have scammed enough revenue and they trouser the bulk.
Barely legal but they do produce a mag of sorts.
Been going on years.
Edited by DSM2 on Thursday 25th February 16:42
don4l said:
I get these calls also.
I'm fairly sure that the caller works for the publisher, and not the police. I'm equally sure that the publisher will make a lot more out of this than the police. So I consider it to be a scam.
Don
--
Yep, it's a scam.I'm fairly sure that the caller works for the publisher, and not the police. I'm equally sure that the publisher will make a lot more out of this than the police. So I consider it to be a scam.
Don
--
Usually start off with "we phoned you 6 months ago and you said you'd take a 1/2 page ad...blah, blah" then get really aggressive when you say 'no I didn't'.
Funnily enough, bloke that phones me (in Hants) is a scouser...
We've had this too, also there's another going on where they claim that you ordered books for the local children schools / homes and that if you do not pay they'll be taking legal action to claim the money 
I did post about it a while ago but cannot remember what the "company" was called *EDIT*
They were called Fairchild publishing, thread is here :-
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
I did post about it a while ago but cannot remember what the "company" was called *EDIT*
They were called Fairchild publishing, thread is here :-
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Edited by Monki on Thursday 25th February 17:00
Just called the local Police. They say it's a scam, but there's nothing they can do.
That sounds more like Britain.
I apologise for posting this on apparently the wrong forum. It was done in haste. To bring it "on topic", may I just say;
In all the crappy law that's been generated by the politicians in the last ten years, why hasn't this been sorted out?
That sounds more like Britain.
I apologise for posting this on apparently the wrong forum. It was done in haste. To bring it "on topic", may I just say;
In all the crappy law that's been generated by the politicians in the last ten years, why hasn't this been sorted out?
Edited by dilbert on Thursday 25th February 17:13
DSM2 said:
No, no no, that's a scam.
It is a small printing company, probably on Merseyside. They thank you for previous adverts supporting the police, or say they represent the police and would you put an ad in their publication. Poibly mention soemone's name at your firm?
You pay a few quid, they produce a few crappy little A5 mags once they have scammed enough revenue and they trouser the bulk.
Barely legal but they do produce a mag of sorts.
Been going on years.
Spot on. They are a printing company. They do actually produce the magazine and deliver it to your chosen school (which keeps them inside the law) with character based picture stories involving anti-drug/alcholhol messages, etc. a bit like the Beano for 21st century (f***** up urban Britain.). But they charge a significant amount of money for x number of magazines. The scam though, is that it costs peanuts to print on presses that would otherwise be redundent, eg: spare press time between 'real work'. They are based in Stockport. Just tell em to pIt is a small printing company, probably on Merseyside. They thank you for previous adverts supporting the police, or say they represent the police and would you put an ad in their publication. Poibly mention soemone's name at your firm?
You pay a few quid, they produce a few crappy little A5 mags once they have scammed enough revenue and they trouser the bulk.
Barely legal but they do produce a mag of sorts.
Been going on years.
Edited by DSM2 on Thursday 25th February 16:42
s off and put the phone down.If you get it again, let them do the talking let them carry on, keep the call going, then say "excuse me one moment" say to someone else in your room "is that enough time?" Then go back to the caller stating they have called a private government security department and the call has been successfully traced.
= No more calls.
= No more calls.
Watch out!
The sales guy will still put an add in, take his commission, fks off and the company chases you for the bill.
I had my company advertised in a diary. The sales guy did contact me but I told him I wasn't interested. Accounts got a bill couple of months later for £300 with a copy of said diary. Just as well I sign off on all bills.
The sales guy will still put an add in, take his commission, f
ks off and the company chases you for the bill.I had my company advertised in a diary. The sales guy did contact me but I told him I wasn't interested. Accounts got a bill couple of months later for £300 with a copy of said diary. Just as well I sign off on all bills.
FourWheelDrift said:
If you get it again, let them do the talking let them carry on, keep the call going, then say "excuse me one moment" say to someone else in your room "is that enough time?" Then go back to the caller stating they have called a private government security department and the call has been successfully traced.
Or you could do the murder scene call. 
dilbert said:
I had a call from the Police today. They were begging for money!
No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
Not really the fault of the police then?No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
ExChrispy Porker said:
dilbert said:
I had a call from the Police today. They were begging for money!
No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
Not really the fault of the police then?No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
They say that they can't do anything about it. Presumably they have looked into it and discovered that the scam is classed as "barely legal".
On the other hand, I believed after I'd felt angry, that I had rebuffed a police officer. As far as I'm concerned the person I spoke to impersonated a police officer. He didn't give me his number, but he did give me his name. Impersonation is an offence, and I don't think they look on this lightly. Certainly if an average joe wanders around the town wearing a police uniform, he's going to be nicked, number or not.
They could do something, but they don't deem it important enough. The police are guilty of that IMO.
Remember the VAT carousels?
That went on for ages, and probably still is, with complete knowledge of the government.
The point I suppose is, that you can make business out of crime. The trick is knowing when to get out. That's only possible because of priorities.
dilbert said:
ExChrispy Porker said:
dilbert said:
I had a call from the Police today. They were begging for money!
No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
Not really the fault of the police then?No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
They say that they can't do anything about it. Presumably they have looked into it and discovered that the scam is classed as "barely legal".
On the other hand, I believed after I'd felt angry, that I had rebuffed a police officer. As far as I'm concerned the person I spoke to impersonated a police officer. He didn't give me his number, but he did give me his name. Impersonation is an offence, and I don't think they look on this lightly. Certainly if an average joe wanders around the town wearing a police uniform, he's going to be nicked, number or not.
They could do something, but they don't deem it important enough. The police are guilty of that IMO.
Remember the VAT carousels?
That went on for ages, and probably still is, with complete knowledge of the government.
The point I suppose is, that you can make business out of crime. The trick is knowing when to get out. That's only possible because of priorities.
ExChrispy Porker said:
dilbert said:
ExChrispy Porker said:
dilbert said:
I had a call from the Police today. They were begging for money!
No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
Not really the fault of the police then?No doubt the chap I spoke to was salaried, but I didn't tell him I wasn't. Just merely that my business doesn't have any money. I also asked him, like I did last time, to remove me from his calling list.
They wanted me to advertise in their local magazine, an initiative aimed at doing something about the kids hanging about on street corners (apparently). The techniques used to sell this "service" were akin to those used by charitable organisations, and double glazing salesmen.
They phone on spec, and then use pressure techniques. They plead hardship, and then go into the details assuming that you're going to give them money. You have to object, in order to get them to stop. The rationale is that normal people don't like making objections.
In the back of my mind is the unspoken issue. Perhaps in future the police will be demanding money, and letting kids hang around with bottles of cider in my area, if I don't pay up. Menaces.
This makes me very angry. I feel uncomfortable telling a policeman, using pressure sales tactics, to naff off when I'm angry. I wonder if he's going to get his stick out and start beating me.
It is possible perhaps that this was a bogus caller, pretending to be from the local police. I doubt this however, they left their telephone number by CLID.
Does anyone else think there is something wrong with the Police begging like this?
They say that they can't do anything about it. Presumably they have looked into it and discovered that the scam is classed as "barely legal".
On the other hand, I believed after I'd felt angry, that I had rebuffed a police officer. As far as I'm concerned the person I spoke to impersonated a police officer. He didn't give me his number, but he did give me his name. Impersonation is an offence, and I don't think they look on this lightly. Certainly if an average joe wanders around the town wearing a police uniform, he's going to be nicked, number or not.
They could do something, but they don't deem it important enough. The police are guilty of that IMO.
Remember the VAT carousels?
That went on for ages, and probably still is, with complete knowledge of the government.
The point I suppose is, that you can make business out of crime. The trick is knowing when to get out. That's only possible because of priorities.
Unless it's recorded, and presumably subject to the full rigours of the legal system, then it's difficult for the police to prosecute.
I get the impression you're more annoyed at me for typing, than I am at the Police, however.
ExChrispy Porker said:
Not really, but the title 'Police begging calls' is not really a fair description is it?
Yes it is, and whilst I don't feel I have to justify myself to you I will anyhow. That's because I feel a bit guilty (but not hugely) for accidentally posting in the wrong forum.As you will know, I can't change the title, or move the thread.
When I posted the title was an accurate reflection of my understanding, on the basis of what I was told by the cold caller.
Had I not posted, it would still be true.
Are you hard of understanding?
The reason it's fair to assume that the police are at fault, is that they would be justified in making "cold calls". The police know that cold callers are doing so in their name, and they choose not to do anything about it, describing the activity as "barely legal". Like a part worn tyre.
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