WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT...

As business owners you may receive calls from a firm that has been closed down by the government 3 times in total for conning money out of business owners. They pray on your good nature pretending they are raising money for dying kids. They don't distribute the publications properly either, so you won't get any business from their adverts.

I got stung and I want others to be aware of what they are doing, it’s scandalous. Here is some information about them....

The company is called ‘Chestnut House’ who claims to raise money for sick and dying children on behalf of the ‘Honeyrose Foundation’. They cold call businesses and ask them to help sick kids by buying an advert on their wall planners. Please read the following very carefully…

The DTI closed them down on Thursday January 18th 2007 they were called Hamilton Forbes Ltd at the time. This is for the same reasons they were closed down when they were called Barrington House Publishing Company Ltd and Barrington House Publishing Corporation Ltd. These reports should explain why they were closed down…

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/investigates/tm_method=full&objectid=18861963&siteid=89520-name_page.html

http://www.whitehallpages.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=19821&newlang=eng&topic=6&catid=0

Each times the Department of Trade and Industry catch up with them, someone else from within the firm takes over and the real owner or one of his family members is then employed on a very large salary. This time Chestnut House is ‘run’ by his former accounts manager and her boyfriend. The real owners wife is employed as an office manager, taking most of the profits in her wage. They are now in offices in Halsall, Lancs and Liverpool, Merseyside. They work on behalf of the Honeyrose Foundation who, by the way only send adults over the age of 40 on days out and only get 5% of Chestnut Houses profits - NOT what they tell you when they try to get you to buy advertising space. They are now calling themselves Chestnut House but have another trading name of Armstrong Faith.

PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION TO ANY BUSINESS OWNERS YOU MAY KNOW AND HELP STOP THESE UNSCRUPULOUS CONMEN ONCE AND FOR ALL

*If the links I provided above do not work please go to www.mirror.co.uk and type 'hamilton forbes' in the search box, also look at 'hamilton forbes' and 'chestnut house honeyrose foundation' in Google.

Re : WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT

There are so many scams out there these days aren't there!

Re : WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT

Scammers are sadly a fact of life, but just like the fact for every criminal there are tens of ordinary, law abiding and honest people, so you have to remember the same in business - most are reputable and above board.

Lianne

Re : WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT

Thanks for the warning, nut cracker.

Re : WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT

Is it just me being unlucky, or are there more scam calls and messages this year than last year by about three fold?



Tim

Re : WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT

Nope - not just me, article in todays paper saying these are increasing year on year in the UK particularly because the government (or the powers that be in general) aren't doing much to discourage the scams... all these quangos and bodies are far too busy writing reviews and finding learnings on how to stop these things in future for anyone to actually be thinking about how to stop them now!

Tim

Re : WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT

Yep these scammers sure are everywhere!

And all the emails apparently from banks,paypal etc phishing are very annoying too!

Stephen

Re : WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT

Hello my name is Robert and I am at thias very moment being scammed by Honey rose/chestnut house. I advertised my business (tiling) in the local newspaper, chestnut house got in contact with me and asked me to advertise in their year planner, I agreed however I immediately got a phone call from from a mobile phone. They said that I had to pay £495 for an advert I had I had agreed to. They claimed work along side honey rose foundation. They were rude and even swore on the phone.I confronted one gentleman who called me and he told me to go to the toilet hold the basin and have a good ****. Amusing as I thought this was it was not acceptable. I contacted honey rose and complained. I asked them why they were using my details to claim more money out of me. They said that they hadn't passed my information on to anyone, however, I contacted some of the other businesses on the "wallplanner" and they have all recieved the same phone calls, it is obvious that they are just scamming people.

I have not paid honeyrose a penny and do not intend to, however because I keep getting these abusive phone calls I may have to change all my contact details, this will include changing all my business cards and this will make me look unprofessional and inevitably affect how much business I attract.

I am continually recieving these phone calls and honeyrose have told me that they are now giving me seven days to send them money for this "wallplanner" or they will be employing a debt collection agency to get the money from me and that I will incur their cost too.
I am now in the process of contacting everyone on the "wallplanner" and suggesting that anyone who has been affected by these immoral PEOPLE should contact watch dog as if they get somany complaint they will investigate them.

If anyone has any suggestions for my next course of action please reply.
Kind regards Robert

Re : WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT

Hi Robert

Sorry to hear about this. I know most small business owners seem to get this sort of phonecall thanking them for advertising with this sort of thing, even when they haven't. I regularly get calls along the lines of "thanks for advertising in our calendar, the children were really pleased with the money it raised" even though I've never done anything like it followed by "which school would you like to donate your money from this years advert too" - I always hang up before it gets any further.

The really depressing thing about modern day Britain is we live in a country where the crooks get away with it, the police are powerless to do anything about it, the government don't care (there are much easier suckers to bleed money from - i.e. the law abiding, tax paying majority), and so these scams just go on and on.

Only thing I can suggest is adopt a strict policy of always hanging up as soon as you realise who it is from and they will soon get bored.

Re : WATCH OUT FOR A CHARITY ADVERTISING SCAM THAT

Well said Lianne!