Episode 6 Rip Off Britain

We asked you to tell us what's left you feeling ripped off

and you contacted us in your thousands.

You've told us about the companies you think get it wrong

and the customer service that simply is not up to scratch.

If you're paying for good service, you expect a good service

and a good product, whatever it may be.

At the end of the day, we expect value for money.

You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money

and investigate the extra charges you say are unfair.

The wool's been pulled over our eyes.

I don't think we get a fair price.

I think they should always put the customer first.

And when you've lost out but nobody else is to blame,

you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.

And no-one could sort that out for you over ten years? No-one has.

So, whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake, we're

here to find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.

Your stories, your money. This is Rip-Off Britain.

Hello and welcome once again to Rip-Off Britain where,

as ever, the team has been going through all the letters and

e-mails that you've very kindly sent

on a really quite extraordinary range of subjects.

What they all have in common, of course,

is that somewhere along the line, things have not gone the way

that you thought that they would or should,

leaving you, in some way, feeling short-changed or disappointed

with the service that you received.

So, as we investigate some of your stories today, we're going to

be pushing for answers on exactly what it was that went wrong.

And we'll also have plenty of unmissable advice so that,

if you find yourself in a similar situation to the people we are about

to meet, you will have a much better idea on what to do next.

Coming up, the families who invested everything in overseas property

they fear will never be built.

We took 40 years of hard work to accrue that money

and I will not give in until I've got our money back.

And a sinister twist in telephone scams -

how the fraudsters hijack numbers they know you trust.

The number that showed up on my phone was the same number as

the Santander card.

And that convinced me he must be from the bank.

Now, you send us hundreds of e-mails and letters,

and we love getting them.

Sadly, a lot of them are about situations where your money didn't

get you what you were expecting, and here's a classic case of that.

Things didn't go to plan and the implications of that

have caused an awful lot of stress and bother.

In 2012, Rip-Off Britain told the story of James

and Christine McBride and their son, Greg.

Five years earlier,

they'd invested ?75,000 in an off-plan cabana on the Caribbean

island of Saint Vincent in the Grenadines through a company

called Harlequin Property.

'Welcome to Harlequin Property.'

The McBrides had bought the property at what they'd been told was

half its market value and were assured it would be ready

for them to rent out less than two years after Greg signed the contract.

In fact, after three-and-a-half years,

the resort still hadn't been completed,

and with James and Christine relying on the rental income to fund their

retirement, that had a disastrous impact on the family's finances.

The worry about where our money had gone all started to kick in

and I was frightened, I suppose,

that we'd invested in something that was going to go down the drain.

Well, it was after that point, having abandoned hope of ever

seeing their property completed, that the family came to us.

By now, they just wanted their deposit back,

and when we intervened, they got it.

Harlequin returned their ?75,000 in full.

It was a great result for the McBrides.

But there are many other Harlequin investors who haven't been

so lucky and have ended up with neither their property or a refund.

Among them, Joy and Reg Wickham.

The fear of never seeing our money again

and what the future would hold for us without that money,

doesn't really bear thinking about.

Their dealings with Harlequin began in 2010.

Like James and Christine, Joy and Reg were hoping to

fund their retirement with a rental property in the sun.

They had a lump sum of ?40,500 to invest.

We wanted something that would show a return as soon as possible

to sort of coincide with my retirement.

After hearing about Harlequin from a financial adviser, the couple

visited the company's head office to learn more and decided to invest.

We put down the initial deposit of 40,500 against the purchase

price of 135,000.

That was for an off-plan studio apartment

on the Two Rivers Resort in the Dominican Republic.

But the following year, alarm bells began to ring

when it became clear that progress on the resort was seriously delayed.

We were told, no, it's like a year behind and it's going to be 2013.

We were a little bit choked because we wanted something to give us

a return as soon as possible.

By the time 2013 arrived, Reg had been diagnosed with cancer,

and both he and Joy were no longer working.

With all their savings tied up with Harlequin, they were desperate

for cash and asked the company to give them their deposit back.

They were pinning their hopes on a clause in the contract which

stated that if the building was not completed by 30th June 2014,

then the couple would be entitled to a refund.

So that's when we thought we should be entitled for them

to definitely give us our money back.

In the meantime, desperate for cash, the couple felt they had no

choice but to sell their much-loved home in the UK and downsize.

We still have a nice home but I don't feel at home here.

You all right?

As the refund deadline approached, Joy

and Reg received a call from the boss of Harlequin Property,

David Ames, who told them that the company was restructuring

and their best chance of recovering their money was to

move it into what he called an "investment trust".

But when they examined the small print,

they saw a condition which meant that, in doing so,

they could be severely limiting their options in pursuing any claim

or legal action against Harlequin.

We didn't want to join the trust

because the trust wanted to tie our hands behind our back.

So the couple rejected the offer,

believing that holding out for the breach-of-contract date still

represented their best hope of getting the money back.

But when that date finally arrived,

the couple were told that the company restructuring was ongoing

and it wouldn't be

until mid-2015 that its financial position would be any clearer.

We need our money back so that we can generate an income with

that money to help us as we approach retirement.

But mid-2015 came and went without any definitive update from Harlequin.

Since we were last on the programme, I've e-mailed Harlequin again,

asking when we're going to get our money back,

and their reply was they cannot allow investors to

cancel their contracts whilst the restructuring process continues.

As far as I'm concerned,

they cancelled the contract a year ago, not us.

In fact, with Harlequin Property the subject of an ongoing investigation

by the Serious Fraud Office and Essex Police,

Reg and Joy fear their hopes of ever seeing any of their money

back from the company are further away than ever.

So they're meeting solicitor Malcolm Evans, who's worked with scores of other investors

whose dealings with Harlequin have left them in the same desperate situation.

There is in law, I think, the basis for a claim.

What I can say,

without any hesitation, by having this foreign jurisdiction

layer makes the process a little bit more difficult.

But that isn't the only hurdle.

Even if you were successful, there is

the issue of whether you would be able to obtain any

compensation, given Harlequin's fairly fragile financial state.

Uncertain about their chance of success,

Malcolm advises others to think very carefully

before investing in similar developments overseas,

whatever the promised benefits.

It's well recognised that this particular investment,

which is unregulated,

is only suitable for experienced investors.

It's so off-piste.

You'd regard this as being a rather exotic

sort of investment. This is high-risk.

For its part, however, Harlequin Property insists that...

..telling us...

It's confident that various factors over the next few months

including a potential deal with an international property company

will put the company in a position to...

And...

In the past, it's promised such options will include refunds

for those who request it.

As for the Serious Fraud Office investigation,

Harlequin Property is confident that there is...

..but...

But for Reg and Joy and others in the same boat,

the only news they want from Harlequin,

after years of uncertainty,

is that they will finally get their money returned.

We took 40 years of hard work to accrue that money

and I will not take no for an answer

and I will not give in until I've got our money back.

Research that's been done especially for Rip-Off Britain

by the Money Advice Service suggests

that there are eight scam phone calls generated every single second.

And what's more, nearly two-thirds of us have received

a suspicious call in the last 12 months.

And, if all of that wasn't bad enough,

there's now a truly terrifying reason why

you just might very easily be taken in

by whoever it is who's on the end of the line.

And that's because some scammers have found a way

to make their calls sound all too plausible.

Whenever the phone rings,

before deciding whether or not to answer, many of us rely on the fact

that we can actually see the number of whoever it is that's calling.

And, better yet, their name.

Especially if it's someone whose number we've programmed in,

such as a friend or relative, or perhaps the bank.

But what if the name or number displayed isn't really who it

appears to be?

I wouldn't have thought that was possible.

You would trust the phone number.

If it said "bank" on my phone,

then I would definitely believe that's who was actually calling.

If the number that I got over the phone matched the one on the

back of my card, then no doubt, I'd definitely believe that.

Well, perhaps they shouldn't.

Because the terrifying reality is that there is already

widely available technology

that allows someone not just to disguise their number

when they call, but to display on your telephone instead

a number that looks reassuringly familiar.

It's known as number spoofing.

And it's being increasingly used by fraudsters

who know that we're all becoming more wary about who's on the phone.

Pensioners Tricia and Andy Evans from Kent were caught out after

getting a call from what appeared to be their bank, Santander.

And what helped convince them of that

was that it was the bank's number displayed on the phone.

The number that showed up on my phone was the same number as

the back of the Santander card.

And that convinced me he must be from the bank.

So, we thought, well, that's it,

it can't be anything else.

It seemed to be that he was from the bank.

That he was phoning me to help me.

The person at the end of the phone said that their accounts were

at risk from fraudsters, and, to avoid losing their savings,

they'd need to act fast, and move their money into different,

supposedly safer accounts.

I was in a panic that we were losing our money.

He said, right, from your cash ISA account, we'll move that first,

and he wanted me to take the whole lot out.

With the number displayed on their phone

so clearly that of the bank, or so it seemed,

Tricia had no qualms about transferring a total of ?50,000

from their various accounts into what they were told were

the new ones that the person calling had set up for them.

And it was only the next day,

when the couple rang the bank to check that their money really

was now safe, that they discovered it had all been an elaborate con.

They'd been tricked into handing ?50,000 to scammers.

My overall feeling was devastation, to be honest.

I did go down into a very deep depression afterwards,

for quite a long time, because we'd lost a lot of money.

And I was thinking, you know, that's our retirement fund gone up the creek.

But I did feel...I felt really, really stupid, to have been conned.

We just couldn't believe it, really.

But, at the end of the day,

it was down to the scam he did with his phone, and the way he talked

on the phone was so convincing that we just accepted it.

Once the bank had been notified,

it was able to halt the transactions that hadn't yet completed,

recovering ?27,500 of the couple's money.

But the remaining ?22,500

had already gone into the scammer's accounts.

The bank told us that, while sympathetic to the couple's

situation and the distress caused by being the victim of a scam,

it didn't have an opportunity to prevent what happened,

because by the time Tricia contacted Santander,

she'd already transferred the money

and, as she had authorised the transactions,

the bank cannot accept any responsibility for the losses.

Now, in the past, we've highlighted many of the ways in which

phone scammers can dupe you into handing over your cash.

But this number spoofing raises the game to a whole new level.

In simplistic terms, number spoofing

is simply where you can arrange for the phone that you're using

to be shown up as a different phone number altogether,

a number that you can choose,

that might suit you in some way.

And while many legitimate businesses use this technology to reach

their customers with a familiar number,

it is clearly also being used by criminals to scam their victims.

There are now apps, commonly available apps,

where you can download an app onto your phone

and make use of this function very easily, very readily,

and that's why it's become much more widespread

in the last couple of years.

And if it wasn't bad enough that banks and businesses can have

their numbers spoofed,

unfortunately, scammers have found a way to take advantage

of private residential numbers, too,

hiding behind a genuine looking number that could even be yours,

as samba musician John Last from Ipswich discovered in 2015,

when he suddenly started getting calls

from people he didn't know from all over the country.

The first calls started at the end of June

and are still ongoing.

Most of them are late afternoon, early evening.

Some are every two minutes, every five minutes.

And what he's told is always the same.

Each caller says they've received a phone call from someone using

John's number, claiming to work at Microsoft.

John was initially confused. He knew he hadn't made any of the calls,

and he'd never worked for Microsoft.

Nor, at this point, had he heard of spoofing.

So he had no idea how his number could be used without him knowing.

Wondering if someone had been able to tap into his line,

he contacted his phone company.

They had no idea what was going on, either.

They came and checked the line three times, and there was never a problem

with the line.

John contacted Trading Standards who told him that his number

appeared to be being used as part of a scam,

where fraudsters were trying to access people's computers remotely

to steal their personal details,

and they'd found a way of using his number without him even knowing.

I'm angry that these lowlife can do this

but there doesn't appear to be anything that I can do,

other than change my number, and why should I, anyway?

It's my number. Why should anybody else steal it?

Phone regulator Ofcom is so concerned about number spoofing

that it's joined an international task force,

specifically set up to tackle the problem.

But in the meantime, the best advice to avoid being taken in

is that, even if it looks like you are being called by

a number that you recognise or trust,

if anyone asks for any personal details,

assume you're being scammed and hang up.

You can always ring back to check if the call was genuine.

Back in Kent, Tricia and Andy wished they had known how prevalent

spoofing can be,

as not being aware has cost them ?22,500.

It's made us so mistrusting of virtually everybody.

Which is not a nice way to be.

It's just horrible. I can't say any more.

Our Rip-Off Britain pop-up shop is back and open for business.

Hi, are you being looked after?

Yes, my wife, Liz...

Ah, hi, Liz, how are you?

This time, we're in Nottingham, giving the opportunity to get

free face-to-face advice from our top team of experts.

Do keep an eye on the rules, because they're changing

and there may be a chance where you get to renegotiate your deal.

James came to see if financial ombudsman Martin James

could help him get his money back,

after his second-hand car broke down only weeks after he'd bought it.

I bought a car last June.

And about three weeks later,

it caught fire when I was driving to work.

It caught fire? Yeah.

As I was driving it!

So this was only three weeks after you'd bought the car,

so your insurance, did you make a claim on that policy?

Yeah, I did, yeah. OK, and how did that go?

I lost over ?500. From that, on the valuation of the car.

Right, I see, OK.

After examining the car,

the insurance company told James that it was a write-off

and although he'd paid ?2,500 for it just three weeks earlier,

his policy would only pay out 1,900,

leaving him almost ?600 out of pocket.

We can get one of my colleagues to see if we can send a letter, maybe,

to the insurance company,

just to double-check if they've used the right valuation,

and maybe that might make a little bit of difference

and it won't cost you any money to do that.

So, how does all that sound, James?

Great. Anything that can help, is better than nothing.

Well, that's what we're here for, isn't it? Fantastic.

Thank you very much. Thanks for coming, then. No problem.

And when Martin's team did contact James'

insurance company to discuss his case,

because James had only had the car for three weeks,

his insurer has agreed to pay out the extra ?600.

Another great result.

And it wasn't just inside our shop where our experts were

handing out advice.

Out in the shopping centre,

lawyer Gary Rycroft was particularly keen to flag up a problem

that an increasing number of us are storing up for the future -

what to do with all the photos and information that we might

have saved online.

Do you know where your digital assets are?

Blank faces all round!

What's a digital asset?

There's digital assets that have financial value,

such as online bank accounts.

There are digital assets that have sentimental value,

such as photographs that you may load up,

and there are digital assets that have social value,

such as social media.

We're talking about what happens to those assets when you pass away.

Have you got lots of digital assets on your telephone?

I have, yeah, photos, videos, music, all sorts.

Would you know what to do with them? No.

Right. Well, we're talking about the digital world,

but I think there's actually a lot to be said for good, old-fashioned pen and paper.

So, write it all down on a digital directory and then there's

a written record that can be found by your nearest and dearest

after you've passed away, and we can give some of these away. It's all free.

The other really important thing to do, Angela, is make a will

because, if you make a will, your executors, the people you

name in your will to look after your estate after you've died,

they have the legal authority to track down all of these assets

and pass them on to your beneficiaries.

Is this anything you'd ever thought about?

No, not at all, not at all.

Will you think about it now?

I will, yeah.

But, I tell you what, why don't you hand those out?

There's a lot of them there. Hand them out to everybody.

And you can download Gary's digital directory from our website...

..where you'll also find plenty of other tips and advice

from the rest of our team of experts.

Now, if ever there was a story that highlights just how careful

you need to be about what you sign up to, it's this next one.

Because you often tell us about contracts that can automatically

just roll on, if you haven't got around to cancelling them.

But the consequences of that aren't normally quite as shocking

as they turned out to be for some of the people who got in touch

about one particular company.

There are several things you need for a successful wedding -

a talented photographer...

And smile.

..a beautiful bridal gown...

OK, I think this one will be just perfect for you.

..and a gracious host.

Ladies and gentlemen,

please stand and greet our lovely bride and groom.

In fact, the 21st-century wedding has a whole host of experts

on hand to make sure that your wedding day is

as spectacular and special as possible.

So, for businesses keen to win a slice of the wedding action,

the key to success is making sure as many people as possible know

where they can find you.

Dickie Richards is a toastmaster, and his job is to make sure

that the wedding day runs without a hitch.

Please raise your glasses!

But he knows only too well, that,

in the competitive market of wedding services,

standing out from the crowd can be tricky.

It's like any business, really.

You've got to do some sort of PR or networking.

So, when Dickie received a phone call from

a website called planmyweddingUK.com,

run by Essex-based Wedding Directory UK,

and not to be confused with other companies of a similar name,

he felt it could just provide him

with the type of promotion he needed.

All Dickie had to do was to pay marginally under ?250

to advertise on the site,

with the hope that more bookings and more work would come through.

Are you happy with what they offered you at the beginning?

It sounded very good.

?250 for an entry on their website.

What did they say you would get from that, though?

Well, they promised me a lot of bookings.

In fact, they quoted a guy who was a toastmaster

and they said that he was getting three bookings a week.

Impressed, Dickie was persuaded to fork out not far off

another ?500 for some further ads

but none of them brought in any extra business.

I always ask potential clients where they got my name.

And none of them had mentioned this particular website,

so I've had nothing whatsoever.

Dickie resolved to put the whole thing down to experience

and thought little more about it.

Until, that is, his year-long deal with planmyweddingUK.com

was about to end.

And that's when Dickie claims the company rang him

with some devastating news.

The bombshell landed this year when I was approached by

a guy asking me for ?8,000.

8,000, from the same company? Plus VAT.

Same website? Same website.

But why? Offering you what?

Well, this was because I hadn't cancelled and, by not cancelling,

I'd agreed to go nationwide.

The terms and conditions do state that,

unless you specifically cancel, the contract will roll on.

So you must have been shocked at that.

I was staggered.

And I just told them flat, I haven't got that sort of money.

And were you worried, were you frightened by that?

I was very much intimidated.

But the contract only specified an increase of 20% on the original fee.

Nothing like the sums Dickie said were being demanded of him.

In the end, after protracted negotiations,

he agreed to pay the company ?200 to settle the matter once and for all.

I was up to here with it, to be honest.

And I just wanted to get them out of my head.

So you were afraid, and you gave in.

Yeah, yeah.

But there are plenty of other customers of planmyweddingUK.com

who've also ended up far from happy.

Introducing Lavina Best of Viva Bridal.

Lavina Best paid around ?500 for a year's advertising on the website

but, as with Dickie, it brought in no extra work,

so she didn't want to sign up for yet another year.

However, when she told the company that, she, too,

fell foul of those pesky terms and conditions.

They contacted me, explaining that the contract was up for renewal.

And they said, you're in a contract, you have to go ahead.

Why were you giving in to that?

Because I just felt so pressurised.

If I didn't sign up at ?485 plus VAT, it was going to go up to

over ?700 and he said it was a contract I couldn't get out of,

because I hadn't given notice.

Introducing Simon Mitchell, of Photo Enterprise.

And wedding photographer Simon Mitchell parted with ?800

after being cold-called by a representative from the website.

I feel like a fool. If what he had said was true,

then I'd be in a great place right now.

Sadly, I haven't had one phone call.

Today, I've met three people who'd been totally ripped off by

what they've experienced,

and I have to tell you, I could add many more similar stories to that.

In fact, one of the customers on the website was so incensed by

his treatment that he decided to e-mail every single customer

that advertised on planmyweddingUK.com.

Now, out of the 227 e-mails he said he sent,

he got 100 responses.

And we have to tell you that each of them had

a negative experience to share.

And not one of them said they had any leads from advertising

on this website.

The company behind planmyweddingUK.com,

which is called Wedding Directory UK Ltd,

has now ceased trading and their website is no longer online.

The company categorically denied most aspects of the

complaints that we put to them, especially Dickie's claim,

that they demanded thousands of pounds from him.

However, it claimed that it had become aware that someone was

posing as a PlanMyWedding representative

and had been phoning customers asking for cash.

And it insisted that all the charges were outlined in the terms

and conditions agreed by the customers.

But for those who told us a very different version of events,

it's been a sobering and very expensive experience.

I think I should have looked at things more closely.

Gutted, angry.

I feel stupid. Yeah, totally stupid.

Well, don't forget you can find advice on all the stories

we've featured today, and a lot more, on our website. It's...

And, by the way, you'll also find on there a link

to send us your own stories, so do please keep them coming in,

because we love reading through them.

And it's by sharing your experiences with others that we can make

sure that they don't end up feeling ripped off as well.

But I'm afraid that's where we have to wind things down for today.

We'll be back very soon with even more of your stories.

But, until then, thanks for joining us,

and from all the team here, bye-bye.

Goodbye.

Hello, I'm Tina Daheley with your 90 second update.

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