01792893377

Very elusive on the phone, I asked who they were and all they replied was "its about the mobile phone you bought"

Checked bank account and cancelled unknown Direct Debit.  

Would be simple if the company were open and honest who they were from the get go.  From experience if a company fails to disclose then chances are its part of the sales training pitch.

Just listened to one of the girls in the office fending of these creeps - very careful in their sales pitch to let you think they are the company you bought the phone from just changing the insurance deal you got. I suspect they are treading the line of legal practice, but you would have to wonder if this is the type of company you should be spending cash with - it just smacks of sharp practice.

This company uses illegal methods to obtain customers bank details to remove monies from their account

For the sake of google spiders, and a decent audience

01792893377

bank details

fraud

Carphone warehouse o2 phones4u vodafone vodaphone tmobile t-mobile talk mobile orange everything everywhere REI Real Estate International (Financial Services) Limited
Real Estate International (Financial Services) Limited     91 High Street
Gorseinon
Swansea
SA4 4BL
Customer Services: 01792 222322 / 222324
FAX: 01792 224055
EMAIL: REIFSCARE@YAHOO.CO.UK
EMAIL:  info@reifs.co.uk <mailto:info@reifs.co.uk>

CONSORTIUM TECHNOLOGY at Swansea are a bunch of rogues.  They have ripped me off for nearly a £1.000 and it appears I have not come back as yet, however, they are being investigated on several levels but that doesn't help me.,  However, anyone who has a call from them tell them where to go they will take your money and do bugger all and you won't be able to get your money back.  Wish I had thought of this scam nice earner.,

This company called my mum 1 hour after she bought a new phone offering her cheap insurance they said they were from orange and had lost her direct debit details so needed them again! It had only been 1 hour so alarm bells rang and she refused, the guy on the phone got really cross and told her if she didn't hand the details over then he would cancel her contract luckily she had the sense to end the call and went back to the orange shop who put her in the picture about this company and gave her details to complain to super cover who are investigating its a shame cos the deal is good just not the way it's sold but super cover put us in touch with mpi cover who also do this deal and I have now insured my phone my mums phone and my daughters phone with unbeatable service!!! AVIOD PROTECT A GADGET!!!!!!

some people are stupid to believe lies told by phones4u workers because protect a gadget is cheaper than them, when I first buy my phone from phones 4u they tell me to buy from them because carphone warehouse customers pay more because there staff not telling monthly price properly and they tell me another insurance company will call and is fraud company, i dont believe anymore what phones 4u tell me

cut your slanderous nonsense glasses kid and whilst on the subject go and visit your optician because those glasses look very 60's style and dated.....puppet!!!

Just had a call from this lot.  They used to call all the time but clearly got bored of the phone always being left to ring and ring !   I only ever pick up when I know the number.  Have no idea why they would call me.  I have been with O2 for 12 years now, last upgrade to my mobile was in November so they have no reason to contact me.

I will continue to ignore as they are in a group on my mobile with a silent ring tone.   I love being able to ignore all these creeps who constantly cold call   :o)

Something about accidents - ambulance chasers basically. Reckon you've done a survey with them, which is absolute rubbish. More people who don't get the TPS regulations.

It's probably not mobile phone companies/resellers any more, looks like the number/call centre has been reallocated to an accident claim company. They're still pests though.

You can get the fsa financial services athorities involved if there doing things like tht they by law must have all there calls recorded and u can get tht lad sacked if u want x

IN MY OPINION : Been misled by these in the past intimating in a very clever way that they were from Vodafone when in fact they are independent. When I realised I wrote to them & they did cancel the policy. Note this was before any Direct Debit was taken from my account so never had to chase for a refund.

Now been contacted by the same people for PPI Claims

Tried in several polite ways to say I am not interested (people there are only doing their jobs), but in the end putting the phone down was the only way.

Deceptive and devious!!

Scam operation - just do a search for mobile insurance scam and you'll get loads from South Wales

BBC:   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/8632325.stm

Swansea Trading Standards:

MORE than 10 local companies are being investigated by Swansea Trading Standards in relation to a mobile phone insurance scam which is affecting hundreds of customers in the UK.

The scam involves locally-based companies attempting to sell mobile phone insurance to individuals who have recently purchased mobile phones.

Complaints to Swansea Council's Trading Standards Department have detailed a number of worrying practices that are leaving consumers open to fraud.

And warnings are now going out to Swansea-based consumers to be on their guard if they receive unsolicited calls from companies attempting to sell mobile phone insurance.

David Picken, Divisional Officer in the Council, said: "Many of the customers who have called us claim to have been contacted by locally-based businesses attempting to sell them mobile phone insurance.

"Many of them who had bought new mobile phones from reputable retail outlets received unsolicited phone calls often within hours of the purchase and offering insurance for the phone. Some were even misled into believing that the company ringing them was linked to the retailer of the phone.

"Our concern is that these companies are not approved to sell insurance and are deceiving customers into paying for illegal products. These bogus contracts, unlike properly authorised insurance, do not have any protection for consumers.

"And in some cases customers are being asked for bank details and, in doing so, are leaving themselves at risk of fraud.

"We're now using our statutory powers to investigate more than 10 companies-many of which are based locally."

New power that came into force in May 2008 now provide local trading standards departments with the ability to go after companies who are thought to be conducting specific practices.

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 prohibits unfair commercial practices. The Regulations contain a list of 31 banned practices which are always deemed to be unfair.  And in addition, the prohibition relates to misleading actions, misleading omissions, aggressive commercial practices and commercial practices that contravene the requirements of professional diligence.

John Hague, Swansea Council's Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: "New trading standards powers are intended to stop consumers falling victim to trading practices which are unfair or operate to mislead or deceive people. Companies flouting the new laws will be investigated and action will be taken to prevent harm to consumers in Swansea and nationwide.

"I would urge all members of the public not to give out personal details such as bank details over the phone."

Consumers with complaints or who need advice about unauthorised insurance contracts entered into should contact the Consumer Direct helpline on 08454 04 05 06 or complain online at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk

Consumers can also contact the FSA consumer helpline on 0845 606 1234.
Caller: MPI COVER LTD

To be fair, this type of mobile phone insurance fraud is not limited to South Wales:

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/extra/news-item.cfm/newsid/1013

Warwickshire mobile phone insurance fraudsters jailed

Four men who ran a mobile phone insurance fraud from premises in Warwickshire (Rugby) and Solihull have been imprisoned, Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service are pleased to announce.

Three of the four men are brothers Carl Roderick (38) of St Ives Road in St Ives, Cornwall, Paul Roderick (37) of Maescynog, Ystradgynlais, Swansea and  Alun Roderick (31) of  Station Road, Abercrave, Swansea. The fourth man is Kieran Convery (26) of Mosborough Road, Sheffield.

On Monday 5th November 2012 at Leamington Justice Centre, Carl and Paul Roderick were both sentenced to 33 months imprisonment, whilst Alun Roderick was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Each of the Roderick brothers also received a 3 year ban on becoming a company director.

Kieran Convery was sentenced to 250 hours unpaid work to be served over 12 months.

The sentencing followed a lengthy investigation by the Central England Trading Standards Scambuster Team in relation to the sale of fraudulent mobile phone insurance policies being sold by Midland Communication Solutions Ltd trading under the name Mitele.

The prosecution was supported by Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service, a Central England Trading Standards Authority.

Warwickshire County Councillor Richard Hobbs, Portfolio Holder for Community Protection said:

“Many people across Warwickshire are the victims of scams and frauds each year, so I am delighted that we and our regional partners have been able to take action against those criminals who seek to scam Warwickshire consumers. This prosecution shows that agencies, working together across our region, can take on and beat the fraudsters!”

The three Roderick brothers all played a significant part in the running of the company and had pleaded guilty on 28 September to an offence of Fraudulent Trading under the Companies Act 2006. Convery, who was employed as a senior telesales employee had pleaded guilty to two separate counts of fraud under the Fraud Act 2006 for misleading members of the public into buying Mitele's 'policies'

In fact the prosecution proved that the 'policies' were, in effect, worthless pieces of paper which gave the consumers who purchased them no cover at all. The documents that were sent out contained the name 'Equity Red Star', which is the name of a genuine insurance company but whose name was being abused by the defendants and their company as they had no connection with, or authority to use, the Equity Red Star name.

The court heard how the company set up two call centres in 2008, one in Rugby and one in Tipton, as well as claiming to have a head office in Birmingham city centre. In fact, the 'head office' was no more that a serviced office instructed to forward post to the Rugby office. From their Rugby and Tipton offices sales staff were provided with lists of consumers to cold call on the phone and to sell the policies to. Sales staff were paid bonuses for every policy sold.

Complaints first started to come through because consumers noticed that the full amounts were being deducted from their accounts instead of the monthly payments as had been agreed. Other consumers complained after having multiple payments deducted from their accounts, and some consumers even reported having payments taken even though they had not taken out a policy with, or even any knowledge of, Midland Communication Solutions Ltd or its trading name, Mitele.

The court heard from Barry Berlin, prosecuting counsel, that consumers were intially misled into purchasing the insurance because of claims made that Mitele were in some way associated with O2 or The Carphone Warehouse, and that this was particularly influential because the victims had purchased a phone on that network or from that particular outlet.

The policies that were sent out lacked any start or end dates, and details were read out in court of consumers who tried to claim under the policies but were met with a constant string of excuses or false promises.

The operation ran for approximately 6 months at which point Paul Roderick arrived at work one day and told all of the staff to get rid of everything that they had because Trading Standards were about to visit. With that, the business shut down and they vacated the premises leaving a succession of unpaid bills including money owed to landlords, staff and recruitment companies through whom they had sourced their staff.

During these 6 months it is estimated that a total of 2500 policies were sold at an average cost of approximately £80. In total it is believed that the fraud netted just short of £200,000 during this period.

In sentencing the four men, His Honour Judge Parker said 'It was a scam, and a sophisticated scam at that'. He continued that the brothers 'had run a course of trading that involved multiple victims......on an industrial scale ...which involved sham insurance documents'.

He added that he considered it to have been a confidence fraud and that he viewed Carl Roderick, who had an entrepreneurial background, to have been the brains behind the business. He said that Paul later took over and as such had to be as culpable as Carl.

It was recognised that Alun Roderick did not play a part in the setting up of the business, and was only involved in the business for a few months, but nevertheless still managed staff and still played a crucial role in its operation.

Phil Page of the Scambuster Team said 'We are very pleased that the hard work put in to investigate this fraud has resulted in the sentences metered out today. The operation run by the Roderick brothers was a scam and a fraud although most of its victims will have been unaware that they have been defrauded. We are extremely grateful to those witnesses who came forward and to those Local Authorities that assisted us in these enquiries '.

For more information on scams visit: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/scams

Notes for editors

For further information, please phone Simon Cripwell, Trading Standards Officer on 01926 414039 or 07771 975570

The CEnTSA Regional Scambuster Team is a Regional Trading Standards Team set up with money provided by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and issued through the National Trading Standards Board to tackle fraud and scams that affect consumers across multiple local authority areas.

The Team is hosted by Solihull MBC and works with, and on behalf of, 14 Local Authority areas across Central England.

The offence of 'Fraudulent Trading' under section 993 of the Companies Act 2006 attracts a maximum penalty of 10 years, as does the offence of fraud under section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006.

For further information, please contact Phil Page of the CEnTSA Scambuster Team on 0121 704 8684