Heroes and villains

Jackie West

From time to time, I look up from this screen and catch a glimpse of a stag, a buzzard, osprey, or the ‘hoodies‘ (they’re a gang in every sense of the word), or, if I’m very lucky, the latest additions to the list of ‘regulars’ the sparrowhawks – opportunists who are treating our bird table like a take-away… such is nature. Heroes and villains galore.

In this dog-eat-dog world (or up here, bird-eat-bird!), I continue to be amazed at the audacity of some people running scams, continuing, unfortunately, to catch some of us out for financial gain.

The Association of Exhibition Organisers, on their website, highlights third parties contacting exhibitors for entries into show guides. I can remember this scam running many years ago via fax (yes, before email!), and am surprised that it’s still going on…

So, a word of warning, if you are attending an exhibition, and you receive “…a misleading form, which resembles an organiser’s Free Catalogue Listing Service, inviting exhibitors to sign and return the form for an entry in an on-line directory…”

Throw it in the bin/delete it!

Because “…Doing so contracts the purchaser into the three-year, non-retractable agreement. Non-payment is then followed by aggressive debt collecting by Premium Recovery… Fairguide.com/Construct Data Verlag have no connection with exhibition organisers or any of their events but they deliberately target exhibitors who are about to exhibit across Europe…“

Examples of the forms, and more information can be found here.

In addition, I caught an interview on the radio, this week, with a representative from HM Revenue and Customs. It seems the email tax refund scam has gathered momentum again. Emails are timed to arrive around the time that our tax is due (January and July) and look to be the ‘real thing’ – of course they’re not. Seems like quite a few people have been taken in, and have given personal/bank details. HMRC say they will never contact anyone by email. If you want to learn more about this one click here.

Tip: if in doubt about the origin of any email which doesn’t get caught in your spam/junk mail box – don’t open just click on options and you can then see if the sender has a pukka address. (For users of Outlook, but I assume that all email clients have a similar option).

Onto more pleasant things – no, not the kilted Ghillie I’ve just spotted! – the contributors to this blog and newsletter. A big welcome to:

Sue Malleson who has written a little..err.. rant, Richard Stone who quite likes Twitter, and of course our old friend Chris Rand, who always stimulates us with his view on a subject close to our hearts (and budgets!)

In addition, you may remember the two Andy’s contributions to my Pro-Talk newsletter, Industrialmarketingtalk:

Andy Marken with his view from across the ‘pond’, his unique way of incorporating quotes from films within his articles – watch out for the Kill Bill references in a future posting which focuses on women and marketing (yes, I know it’s not strictly industrial, but it will make you smile and nod – that’s if you’re female…lol!).

The knowledgeable Andy Long giving us the benefit of his experience from dealing with the likes of you and I on a daily basis (I know! I’m braced!).

Both Andy’s will make their ‘appearance’ here in the coming months.

Hope the postings are useful to you. As always your feedback will be appreciated – post a comment, tell us what you think, or let us know what’s been working for you in these hard economic times… new contributors will always be welcome.