Publishing Fraud

Publishing Fraud

This is a fairly new, but rapidly growing, fraud against businesses. Many of those engaged in this type of offence seem to come from the Merseyside area, but you should be wary of all approaches received from publishing companies who offer services as described below. Just remember that some may be legitimate bona-fide companies.

This type of fraud usually involves businesses receiving a telesales cold call where the caller claims to represent a charity, any of the 999 services, rehabilitation projects etc. The intention is to provide some kind of publication, perhaps a diary or similar, for one of the above. The caller will be asked to support the project by advertising within the item to be produced.

This fraud can take various different formats, but basically you will either end up paying for advertising that will never appear, or you will receive invoices for advertising that you have never authorised. These may even be followed by threatening letters from debt collection agencies.

If you receive a cold call from someone you are not certain of, make a record of the conversation.

• Educate your staff to be aware of this as well, and make sure that your accounts department are vigilant towards unsolicited invoices.
• Note the time and date of the call, plus any names and details of the caller if given. 
• Exactly who they are acting for, ie which charity, which emergency service.
• What exactly is the publication, which area does it cover, what is the distribution.
• Make some basic checks for yourself. Contact your local trading standards dept., check the Charity Commission, either by phone or by carrying out a simple check on the Internet.
• If you are not happy with the validity of the caller, tell them that you are going to contact trading standards, the Charity Commission, even the Police.