02089564065

I too have just had a call from Max Balder who cant send an email but wanted to speak with the CEO about Excellence in Social Awareness of People with Long Term Conditions
He was very well spoken and had a pushy attitude.

www.google.co.uk/search?q=Parliamentary+Infor ... ion+Office+scam

Says it all really :-)

"Scam Warning Over Publication 'Sponsorship'

A Devon sheep farmer has warned of an attempted scam to extract money from farmers. Ben Drury, from Dartmouth, was targeted and is concerned that other farmers may fall for the scheme. He received a phone call from a "William Henshaw" purporting to be from the "Parliamentary Information Office" who asked him if he could write a 500-word essay on his farming business. It would be used in a bound edition of parliamentary reports, with a print run of 10,000."

just received a call from the "Parliamentary Information Office" someone with a fake British accent asking to speak to the MD. Thought as much that it is a pushy sales call. Did my research and see that the publication called "Parliamentary Yearbook" is a fake with a dubious circulation. Unfortunately I put this call through and believe that they are asking for 5k for an "advertorial" in this "Yearbook' which is being headed up by "Vince Cable'. My boss did his research and found that there is no such publication and none of the MPs have heard of this. Also believe that the office has a high turnover. the poor staff are underpaid and work on wages below minimum wage. Its high time we report such dubious and fake organisations. its blatantly a scam. How can the directors sleep at night when they scam so many people! its just sad and really shocks me! I am no longer entertaining such calls!

'Olivia Bennett' is the latest incarnation - 13/02/13, same patter as above, 'Socially Responsible Enterprise' being the new angle.    Well done you guys - threads/sites like this save people thousands that they haven't got!

Cheers - John

Funny that, Olivia Bennett is also searching out Excellence in Stress Management and Well Being.   Tom Collins is her "Financial Director".  Dropping in names like Jeremy Hunt, MP Charles Walker and Andrew McCulloch Chief of the Mental Health Foundation...etc.  

Phone number is now 0208 956 4110

thanks for this site.  I am staying well away

I used to work for this lot back in my late teens, a few years ago, just to earn a bit of money during my summer holiday.

I cannot stress enough the absoloute contempt I have for these guys after seeing how they work from the inside.

The employees, for the most part are young impressionable kids, learning their business practice from the most corrupt charecters in the industry of cold calling,


I witnessed blatent lying, emotional blackmail and manipulation in order to swindle money from small business and charities. and our teacher of these black arts was B , but people here may know him as Richard Lewis he likes to talk with a posh english accent so be aware if he calls with another name.

We were encouraged to use fake names, normally standard english ones which are easy to spell. We were also told to be persistant, some people complained about beign called for the 5th time in a week, we said ok, hung up , and took no further action.

Receptionists and non-decision makers are reffered to as 'oileys' and they are to be by-passed as you put on a facade of being to important to discuss anything with them, ..  

the product offered , useless, we all knew it at the time. we were being taught to scam, the place was a cross between 'Oliver!' and 'The Boiler Room'

I have since worked in Politics at Westminster level, i can tell you , noone has heard about these guys or any yearbook, we sold the advertising space as a document being seen by the mopst important decision makers in the UK.. nonsense.

My peers who were good , made incredible commissions , and got very rich.. fast , very fun for a young guy,

Sicne those days I have grown up a bit, i used to think of this as a case of good sales, and those who fall for it only have themselves to blame.( and to some extent i still do)

In hindsight the place is a lot more dangerous then I first thought, the economy is bad enough for fledling companies without scamsters like this fleecing your marketing budget.

Moreover, the young minds are getting taught a terrible lesson in business ethics .. which is more of a shame for them as I beleive that those who are not honest in business, make the quick buck and in the long term find themselves in the gutter.

Keep exposing these guys, keep naming these guys and for your infromation they have a habit of changing their company name on the phone.. so keep naming and shaming them whatever they call themselves.

Have been hounded by a pompous Charles Hudson character saying he is working for the Parliamentary Office.  Same old story of selling space for an editorial on "Excellence in Energy" all endorsed by Ed Davey. Opportunity to be one of 6 limited spaces to be along side pieces from DECC and trade bodies. Used industry trade organisation in his pitch saying they were getting support and advice from them "part of the steering group".  This suprised me and gave it some official status which I am now following up.

We've been receiving calls on a regular basis from a lady calling herself Diana Henley from the Parliamentary Information Office regarding an initiative aimed at our business.  She is "frightfully posh" and  wants to speak to the MD.  So far I have been able to stall her.  However, having discovered and read this website, I am advising everyone not to put her through to any of our Directors.

Had a call today from Diana Henley regarding our company being "chosen" to enter a 1500 word piece for the Parliamentary Year Book. How does £1750 sound.....expensive I said. Well its a leather bound production which is costly to produce. "Email me the details" I requested, so I can discuss it with my fellow directors. Yes I'll do that she said, thank you for your time. Don't you want my email address I said???  Oh, Oh...yes.  Enough said!!

Call from Elizabeth Rose.  Told her she was a fraudster.

Joseph Wilson, very posh sounding has called us several times asking to speak to our Managing Director about a new Government initiative.  Stresses that he must speak to the MD and asks if I am his PA.  On one occasion left the name of his PA should our MD call him back.  I became very suspicious so googled to see if the Parliamentary Commission were running such initiatives, to find this thread and I am glad I did.  I am a very seasoned senior manager and even I could have been fooled.  Thankfully our MD doesn't like talking to anyone so he was never going to get through anyway lol

Just had a call from 'Joseph Wilson' . He is asking practices to submit (for a fee) to the 'parliamentary yearbook which forms the basis of the Queens Speech' - and puports to be from the 'Parliamentary Office' and working for MP Owen Patterson.  This 'yearbook' he says would be given to many decision makers and MPs. He's quite compelling, so practices should be aware - if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is!

02089564044 this time. Charles Hudson - very chummy, very plummy, from the Parliamentary Information Office wanted to speak to the MD.  Our organisation had been recognised with regard to our excellence in the field of oil & gas and subsea. A ten-minute conversation elicited no further REAL information - Ministers (can't name them but they're from the Department of Energy and Climate Change) want information about us and Charles' company is preparing a report.  I can't have a copy of a previous example. Will this lead to face-to-face meetings? No, it's information gathering.  What information do you want? Well, I'll be able to explain it to the MD. Explain it to me? (I've been with the company for longer than the MD), Well, give me an idea of the MD's calendar and I'll phone at a more convenient time.  Yeah. Right, Don't hold your breath, Charles.

Got a call from Charles Hudson, toffee nosed chap, demanding contact numbers and names,  got nowhere with me and I shall chase him if he calls again.

A Charles Hudson left a message for me today.
Giod news etc. selected for oil and gas expertise blah blah

My boss, quite rightly so as he is the Group Operations Director of a large group of companies, will not take calls unless I can provide a good explanation of what it is all about or that he has pre-informed me that he is expecting a call.

Today I have received a call from a chap called Basil Newman (seemingly had a very posh [plumb-in-mouth] type of English accent, which I hasten to add had flaws and I could hear the person behind the voice.  He was clearly young and said that he could not divulge information to me and that due to protocol and the fact that it was a government office, could only speak to my boss.

Really..........!  They clearly don't know PA's, do they?

He was never going to get though the inpenetrable barrier of a very 'pissed off at getting yet another ridiculous sales call' PA.

I don't always like the internet, but on occasions it comes up trumps and I Googled The Parliamentary Information Office, found a number and the words Year Book and called that number.
'Yes, Basil Newman works here.....can I put you through?'.......
'No thank you.  Can you tell me if the Year Book is offering advertising space?'.........
'Yes, can we help you with this?'..........
and so on!!!!

So much for secrecy!!!!

All, please be warned.  If a person calls and won't speak to you about something that doesn't involve data protection (and even then I'd have my doubts), don't be fooled.  Don't get caught up with something that can cause grief.

It has taken me years of these nusicence calls to become hardened enough with the 'buck stops at me' scenario and it is always difficult to say no, so just take names, telephone numbers, company name and as much other information as you can gleen then look it up on the internet.  The chances are that you will be glad you checked.

Just experienced the same as all the previous comments..................

A very fake posh sounding 'Mr James Winthorpe' claiming to be from the 'Diplomatic Information Office' wanting to extend a personal invitation to the MD ...........blah blah blah

He called from 0208 956 4033

just taken a call from Robert Black 0208 956 4033 about being invited to contribute to a report on excellence within the catering industry to coincide with the Queen's speech. V persistent, a little patronising and not good at listening.  My MD won't be calling him back!

Call from the Diplomatic Information Office - from a very plummy Edward Jones - saying we'd be selected to participate in a new report on childcare by Vince Cable.

I said I'd call him back - did some research - and found nothing that he had told me actually existed!