All Scams articles – Page 6
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Dear Jac
Price match or rum deal?
It’s the way they package these juicy deals. My correspondent from Norfolk found Sainsbury’s Brand Match wasn’t all it was banged up to be.
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Dear Jac
Look after your customers
Mick Pinder (Overton Corner Shop) has forwarded a warning from the National Federation of Retail Newsagents about scams involving Ukash vouchers.
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Dear Jac
Policing the publishers
I have written from time to time about publishing scams, whereby retailers have been persuaded to buy advertising space in magazines that claim to support the emergency services or promote drugs awareness in schools.
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Dear Jac
Saved from a scam by super staff
I have a little queue of complaints about PayPoint that I will tackle in the next issue when I have had time to get responses. Meanwhile, though, PayPoint itself sent me this story about an alert shop assistant who saved a customer from a scam.
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Dear Jac
Naming and shaming
Unlike the previous story, this one is anything but anonymous. Chartered surveyor and rating consultant Ken Batty in Preston writes to me from time to time to update me on various cowboys he has uncovered (unfortunately, his industry is littered with them).
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Dear Jac
Bright sparks having you on
If someone offers you a free compliance check, a just-to-be-on-the-safe-side sort of thing, odds are they will find something wrong that you will have to pay them to correct.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: You have been warned
In fact, I've been warning for the past few months about fraudulent transactions through PayPoint. Get the money first, I said. Get the money first, says PayPoint. Get the money first, says its literature. And every time I report on one of these...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Is this scam the oldest in the book?
You have to grudgingly admire the audacity and dexterity of the sleight-of-hand merchants that try to do you out of tenners. Do 10 shops a day and you've made a hundred quid. Mohammed Sajid says he always reads this column for news on the...
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Dear Jac
Dera Jac: Scammer time is here again
You can call this once bitten, twice shy, says Jignesh Patel who runs Shreeji in London’s Kentish Town. A big, nicely dressed, softly spoken guy came into his store during a busy period and cashed in some scratchcards. While this process was taking place he walked around the store picking
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Scammertime is here again
You can call this once bitten, twice shy, says Jignesh Patel who runs Shreeji in London's Kentish Town. A big, nicely dressed, softly spoken guy came into his store during a busy period and cashed in some scratchcards. While this process...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Are dairy’s demands just milking it?
Have any of you received a solicitor's letter on behalf of Medina Dairy, demanding sums of around £300+ to prevent court proceedings? I ask because a retailer, who wishes to remain anonymous, has received such a letter and believes there are others...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Yet another point about being caught out with PayPoint
Those of you who do not have PayPoint terminals will probably find it irritating that I write so often on the subject on the other hand, those of you who do have terminals, take good note of the following. This is a warning from Chetna...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Now it’s time to get serious
I urge all retailers with payment terminals to read this article carefully. We've said in the past few columns, get...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: And here’s a tip to avoid being caught out by crooks
Glyn Reece, my Northern correspondent (Penny's in Chester), tells me that the simple ploy of facing your terminal inwards means people will not be able to secretly photograph transactions or to memorise them. You wouldn't think people had memories...
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Dear JacDear Jac: Look after the pennies
Here's another instalment in my occasional series entitled 'The customer isn't always right'. What would you have done when faced with this dilemma? Presentable middle-aged lady buys a chocolate bar and you give her the 50p change. She...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The night they invented...a scam?
The trouble with being a specialist is that you sometimes attract specialist problems. Harpal Rai has featured twice before in this column (with his name spelled incorrectly as Hartal, so from now on I'm going to refer to him as 'Paul', just the...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Secret shopping - convenient ways to hide a camera
Subhash Varambhia writes from Snutch Newsagents in Leicester: "Following your article (on possible Ukash vouchers fraud) I was in Maplin Electronics and what I saw shocked me and may be the answer to your query." My query was could the...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The latest on leasing debts and threats
In the last issue I promised you more information on defunct photocopier supplier Lanwall and various leasing deals via the likes of Bank of Scotland Equipment Finance and Key Financial. There is still a lot of noise out there, but so far...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Three’s a crowd in this case
Mansukh Waru, responding to the report in my last column over Ukash voucher fraud, knew instinctively that something was amiss when three blokes came in together at his Ministore at Sutton, Surrey. He says: "One was on the phone, one...
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Dear JacDear Jac: No such thing as a free lunch
It's a favourite expression among journalists and now it's one of Hartal Rai's. His cryptic message on my answerphone said the problem concerned the Italian football team, South Africa and pasta. Hartal, who runs the award-winning Rai's...