07983391556

called and talked about rougue traders then hung up, tried calling back 5 xs and no reply.

Phoned selling advertising space in the community police mag.

Saying I would be the only Police recommended Computer repair company

BEWARE SCAM 2012
I listed my business on the Freeindex Directory, within an hour I had a call from this number, and reported the cold call to Freeindex - here is their reply:


From your message, and from the information supplied by other people who have been called from that mobile number, I think you may possibly have encountered a notorious scam operation. This scam is discussed on our forums and elsewhere - it's often referred to as the police magazine scam, or the community / charity magazine scam. Searching for either of those terms should give you plenty of results from other businesses who have received cold calls from the same people.

These scam operators work by browsing a range of directory websites and obtaining contact telephone numbers for active business users. When they call, they usually claim to represent an official organization like the police or the local council in order to appear credible. They will try and sell you advertising space in what they claim is an official magazine, often telling you that your business will be the only one in your sector / industry that is featured in the magazine. If you agree to the advertising, or even if you just ask for more information, then their normal practice is to send you a large (and illegal) invoice after a few months.

Sadly, a few businesses will simply pay the invoice without question, or will consider it easier to pay without challenging the company about their actions. That's how the scam operators make a profit.

If you were contacted by these scammers, then they would have had no qualms about giving you false information, such as telling you that they are located in Weston-super-Mare in order to make them seem like a local organization - I see that your own FreeIndex profile lists your business in Weston-super-Mare.
The scammers would also not hesitate to claim that they were given your phone number directly by a reputable company such as Thompson Local, when in fact they appear to get all of their contact numbers by searching directory websites like Thompson Local, FreeIndex, and others.

I can assure you that FreeIndex has absolutely no business relationship of any description with Thompson Local. Nor do we distribute your telephone number (or any of your contact details) to any third parties whatsoever. When you enter your contact details into your FreeIndex business profile, those details are only ever shown on your FreeIndex profile page.
I don't have any special knowledge of how Thompson Local operates or of any partners that they work with, but I would say that it is highly unlikely that Thompson Local were involved with the cold call you received in any way. The cold caller probably got your phone number from your FreeIndex profile page, but pretended that he had been officially given your details by Thompson Local, again, probably in an attempt to appear credible.

Unfortunately there is very little that we at FreeIndex can do about this scam, apart from continuing our security measures to deter cold callers (such as only allowing a user to view a limited number of telephone numbers in a set amount of time). The scammers seem to constantly change their telephone numbers and there seems to be more than one person operating this scam. As the caller in this case claimed to represent your local council, what you may want to consider is reporting the incident to the council directly. The council will probably confirm for you that they have no association with the call that you received, and they may be able to advise you about further action that you can take.

Thank you for taking the time to let us know about this issue. If you have any further details which may be relevant to this case, then we'd welcome that information as well.

I got this scammer today, and the above rings true.. new business, new phone nuimber.. getting a few a day!

exactly the same happened to me.... their dodgy looking website rang alarm bells right away and prevented me being pulled in...

I've just had the same call, an hour after registering our new business with FreeIndex. Alarm bells were ringing (no email address, really?). Googled his mobile number and found this thread.

Thanks to all who have posted :-)