It has been brought to our attention that there are calls being made to local business by a representative of a “magazine” trying to sell advertising saying they are working on behalf of West Midlands Police – THIS IS NOT TRUE.
West Midlands Police do not work with any third party advertisers.
As a force, they took the decision several years ago not to support any third party advertising to try and prevent these people being able to operate in our area. Unfortunately there are a number of unscrupulous ‘advertisers’ who use the name of the police and other emergency services to try and solicit advertising from unsuspecting businesses and it’s a national problem.
In cases where people do pay up, often nothing is forthcoming, it is of poor quality or it contains advertising from businesses from over a very large part of the country which are not targeted and therefore do not result in any leads.
So be aware – check and double check the credentials of anyone offering you advertising. A quick google of the name of the magazine and or the company that’s offering the advertising maybe enough, but if in doubt just hang up.
Any credible agency will be more than happy for you to run these checks before taking any payment.
One reply on “Warning to local businesses – Scam advertiser alert”
This is a bit late. We were stung by this scam two years ago. Its been going on for some time we report it to Wolverhampton police but they didn’t want to know!!