Harvesting Telephone numbers - Vision aka VARDIS - beware!

Had a run in today with a company called "Vision" aka VARDIS

Allegedly they are running a marketing campaign for forestersfundforchildren.org.uk

Their call centre monkeys were targetting any new businesses that sign up with our directory, and then giving a full on aggressive sales call trying to get you to hand over money for a charity handbook.

It sounds like a scam to me, and we got caught out with some rubbish bogus Police magazine a few years ago, so if anyone is contacted by someone representing forestersfundforchildren.org.uk - then beware. I can't say for sure it's a scam, but if you want to help charity, their are better ways than pressure selling.

I've had assurances that the company won't be utilising our data again, and apologies for any recent signups that may have been hit.

We put in occasional fake listings to catch out scammers and lazy marketers scraping our data, which is how we found out, but if anyone gets contacted by a marketing company as a result of listing with us, please PM me, as I will take it further

__________________
cheers Steve
Forum Admin - teaboy and general gofer...

Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance | Find me on Google+ | or even Facebook!

My Local Services - The UK and US Online Business Directory | JobsVitae - Recruitment Help and CV Creation

If you're here to spam, then expect a ban

I have had the police one a few months ago - call came through my answering service, can I speak to the owner of the company is's so and so in connection with a matter from the west sussex police, so I though oh dear what's happened and bang a charity police calender they where running etc nothing to do with the police

__________________
PDF Software | K Rend | Claim Back Construction Retention |Fast Drying Screeds

Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance

The most amazing thing I've encountered was a mailshot encouraging me to contact low-cost insurers (weblinks provided) to protect my small business against the risks of misinterpreting unclear government legislation and so acting illegally ....

This letter purportedly came from a government department, though there weren't any contact details given in the address and our company details were wrong. I reported it as a scam to Trading Standards ...

To my surprise, it was legit! The whole thing was a pilot exercise set up by Peter Mandelson's dept.

__________________
Career Counselling | Graduate Careers Advice
Outplacement Support

thanks for the warning Steve.

i get a lot of scam emails through but i kind of asked for that by putting my work email in the signature on all the forums i use. it's frustrating having to sift through the junk i get and see what is actually legit and the majority of junk is coming from the far east or the states.

i'm pretty sure the companies are harvesting them off one of the other forums we use.

__________________
Aaron Maxwell
Connect Telecom
Looking forward to getting you connected...
www.connect-tele.co.uk

I've had both of these lovely companies ring me ( police mag and childrens fund) and many more. These calls come as my business telephone number is splashed all over the Internet.

However, once I inform them I am a marketer, they can't get off the phone fast enough!

__________________
French Doors | Folding Sliding Doors | Folding Doors

Well, "I'll go to the foot of our stairs!"

The wonderful forestersfundforchildren.org.uk have just rung me again!

convo went like this:
Them: Hello, my name is Diane and I'm calling from a company called Vision. Can I speak to the owner of the business please.
Me: Speaking
Them: And how are you today?
Me: Fine until you rang! I presume you are ringing about advertising in the forestersfundforchildren magazine?
Them: Yes! So you have heard of us then?
Me: Oh yes.........I have just being reading on a forum all about your scam and the way you get your data. In fact your company is splashed about all over many forums!
Them: So you don't want to advertise then?
Me: Tell you what, why don't you do one and P*** Off!

Not the politest of "go away, I'm not interested and I'm busy" messages but they got the picture

__________________
French Doors | Folding Sliding Doors | Folding Doors

lol outstanding

Thing is they've been going for years, along with plenty of negative feedback, so it obviously doesn't harm them.

Mind you, they do seem to target new businesses, or fresh directory listings

__________________
cheers Steve
Forum Admin - teaboy and general gofer...

Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance | Find me on Google+ | or even Facebook!

My Local Services - The UK and US Online Business Directory | JobsVitae - Recruitment Help and CV Creation

If you're here to spam, then expect a ban

I had a call from them recently, its likely to be scam as they target new website owners.

AloeForBeauty

Within a couple of weeks of starting my business I had calls from both of them within a couple of days of each other, which rang alarm bells. First call Forrestfundsfor children from a man giving you all the info then a couple of minutes later a woman called looking to go ahead. 2nd call a woman called re police followed by a man - same senario.

The address they gave turned out to be a funeral home in Liverpool and when I spoke to the woman there she said 'oh no not again'. Although as far as I know the police have not done anything about it.

This all happened when I signed up with Google, Linkedin etc, but luckily I didn't give them any money!

Sounds like you had a close escape!! Very frustrating, why can't the authorities close them down.

__________________
cheers Steve
Forum Admin - teaboy and general gofer...

Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance | Find me on Google+ | or even Facebook!

My Local Services - The UK and US Online Business Directory | JobsVitae - Recruitment Help and CV Creation

If you're here to spam, then expect a ban