Rip Off Britain (2009) s07e07 Episode Script
Series 7, Episode 7
1 We asked you to tell us what's left you feeling ripped off and you contacted us in your thousands.
You've told us about the companies you think get it wrong and the customer service that simply isn't up to scratch.
If you're paying for a good service, you expect a good service and a good product, whatever it may be.
At the end of the day, we expect value for money.
You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money and investigate the extra charges that you say are unfair.
The wool has been pulled over our eyes.
I don't think we get a fair price.
I think they should always put the customer first.
And when you've lost out but no-one else is to blame, you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.
- And no-one could sort that out for you over ten years? - No-one has.
So whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake, we're here to find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.
Your stories, your money, this is Rip-Off Britain.
Hello, and welcome to Rip-Off Britain, where today we're going to be tackling one of your single biggest bugbears and, I think if we're honest, it's one of ours as well.
That is we're going to be talking about all of those unwanted calls, letters and texts with which we're bombarded pretty much every day.
Whether they're trying to flog us something which, in all honesty, we really do not want or, even better still, convince us that we're in line for a pay-out, which I think, chances are, we're never likely to see, are we, Julia? Probably not.
Well, in the days when it was just junk mail we had to contend with, the direct marketing industry used to insist people actually liked getting offers through the post.
But even if that was once true, it really isn't now.
Whose heart doesn't sink when they answer the phone and hear one of those pre-recorded messages telling us their records indicate we're owed some money? What about that non-existent accident we recently had? Yeah, what a mystery that one is.
But for many people, you know, these kind of marketing tactics are more than simply an irritation.
If you're really being plagued by them, it can cause considerable distress and a lot of anxiety, not least because you might think there isn't very much you can do to stop them.
I'm very glad to say that that's not the case.
Throughout the programme, we'll have plenty of tips to help cut down the amount of unwanted marketing that you're getting as well.
Coming up, the elaborate con that starts with someone calling you and pretending to be from your phone company.
To think that I took these people at face value, that they were so slick and clever, how they'd staged this whole scam for hours.
And how this man found a solution to the barrage of calls it seemed he couldn't stop.
The telephone was intruding into my life and taking part of my life away, really.
It sounds extreme, but it was.
Now here's one of the things that you complain to us about most of all -- those dreaded nuisance calls.
It's no wonder that we're all hung up about them because an estimated one billion of them are made every year.
What, perhaps, is even more frustrating, as continues to be the case with so many of you, is the fact that you're still being plagued by them after signing up to the official services designed to filter them out.
So, in the end, is there anything that can be done to stop those companies determined to pester us in our homes? You are in the middle of something, you hear the telephone ring and you rush to answer it, thinking it might just be somebody important Hello? .
.
only to be greeted with an automated message or someone trying to sell you something.
It's pestering like this that you've been telling us you could really do without.
You think, "Oh, this actually might be important.
" No, it's not.
It never is.
I donated to a charity a few months ago and now they call me every day.
Every single day.
Sometimes two or three times a day.
I don't answer them.
I just literally put the button down on them now.
I think they're absolutely awful.
But whilst for most of us these are, as the name suggests, simply nuisance calls, for others, they can have a far greater impact.
You all right, Mum? How are you today? I'm OK, thank you.
87-year-old Catherine is mum to Terry and is known for her great craftwork, selling greetings cards and little knitted outfits and donating them to the local hospital.
But recently, she was diagnosed with dementia and now relies on her son Terry and her daughter-in-law Jenny.
- Have you had breakfast this morning? - Yeah.
- What did you have? Eh What did I have? Toast.
- OK.
Make it yourself? - Yeah.
Catherine's memory loss means that she struggles to remember even the simplest of things, so Jenny and terry now visit every day to check on her.
It was on one of those visits that they realised that there was a risk to Catherine that they hadn't really anticipated.
As a result of visiting, we discovered that she'd got more than 40 bags of what I would classify as junk mail.
Starting to look through that and talking to her, we discovered she was getting a lot of pestering phone calls from various companies, like PPI, but very pressurised, bearing in mind she's very vulnerable and old.
Jenny and Terry discovered that Catherine had been bombarded with mail and phone calls from companies asking her for money.
She gets lots of calls from various charities, companies that she can't remember who they are.
Companies asking for her bank details and she doesn't know why.
Sometimes she's not in the right state of mind, I don't think, to even understand who she's giving her details to.
Jenny estimates that Catherine now donates hundreds of pounds a month to many different companies and that many of these arrangements were made as a result of Catherine answering a cold call.
- You can't remember how many you've had in the last week or so.
- No.
OK.
But you've had a few, yeah? - So I'm told.
- OK.
You can't really remember.
- No.
As a result of Catherine signing up to so many companies, she's been inundated with products she neither needs or wants, most recently diet supplements.
This is why we're so concerned about her and worried about the people out there that are preying on her, basically.
Some may be legitimate and I think some aren't.
I know she's bought some medication -- it's like garlic pills and stuff.
There's enough there to keep the whole street going for a month.
Although they can't say for sure, Jenny and Terry think that Catherine probably gets around 12 nuisance calls a day, one of which came through while we were filming.
Hello.
A laptop? Yeah.
What about a laptop? So I need to switch the laptop on so you can see what the problems are? Yes? I'm in front of my laptop.
Transferring me to a senior technician, OK.
Just the normal screen with the start button.
They're going to fix my computer because apparently it's got a virus.
As you can see, I have no computer in front of me.
We do not have a computer or a laptop of any description in this house.
It is a scam.
If my mother had picked that call up, I don't know what she would have done.
She might have told them she hasn't got a computer, but she would have been very confused and very concerned as to what's going on and why.
Nuisance calls and the companies who make them have been described as a modern-day menace after MPs said they had reached plague-like levels.
In fact, the government are so concerned that it's created a nuisance calls taskforce to try and tackle the problem.
For the people who have been in touch with us, that can't come soon enough.
But, in the meantime, those dreaded calls are still coming through.
So later in the programme, we'll be seeing if there's a more immediate solution to the problem so that people like Catherine don't keep getting calls that they really don't want.
Here's what I want to ask you -- when the telephone rings and you answer it, do you ever really stop and question whether the person you're talking to is actually who they say they are? Particularly, and you know the scene, when you're in the midst of doing 101 things all at the same time.
Let's be honest, it's the last thing you'll probably be thinking about, but without realising it, that's when we're at our most vulnerable.
If the person on the other end of the phone is any good, they may get you to reveal more about yourself than you ever intended, as indeed our next story explains.
If only real life was like the cops and robbers shows of yesteryear, where all crooks committing their dastardly deeds wearing clothes that allowed us to know exactly what they were up to so that we could always see them coming.
Of course, real life is much more complicated.
Today's scammers and fraudsters are more cunning than ever with their disguises and deceptions.
But security consultant Jenny Radcliffe can see through all the devious tricks that they come up with to get their hands on our valuable information.
From a psychological point of view, there are four things that scammers use most often to get people to give up information or details that they shouldn't.
Any combination of those is enough to make most people start talking.
Graeme Smith from County Durham found out to his cost just how devastating the effect of the tactics of such fraudsters can be.
In February 2015, he unwittingly fell victim to a phone scammer claiming to be calling from TalkTalk, the internet service provider.
I received a phone call on my landline .
.
which just said, "This is TalkTalk phone department here.
"We've identified that your computer is at risk "and is being attempted to be hacked into.
" That got my attention straightaway.
Although naturally alarmed, Graeme thought the call was entirely plausible as he did have a broadband service provided by TalkTalk.
They said, "Can I just go through some security "and ask for your full name and ask for your date of birth?" I did pass that on because that's what they all do.
Everyone does it.
Everything sounded very, very genuine.
The female caller told Graeme that his computer was under attack by a mystery hacker who was trying to access his personal information.
At that time, I was really panicking thinking, "What's going on here? "What's been happening with my computer?" I asked, "How long has this been going on for?" They said, "About three weeks.
" Next, the caller told Graeme that she was going to transfer his call to a colleague who would be able to stop the trackers in their tracks.
She said, "I will transfer you over "to our senior technician who would explain how we're going to help you, "but in order to do that, he had to download some software.
" Graeme, staying on the phone, walked over to his computer and following the instruction from the so-called technician, he clicked on to some links that he was told would remove the threat and protect his personal data.
One of the downloads allowed the caller to share Graeme's screen, meaning that they could see everything that Graeme had on his monitor and, what's more, it allowed the caller to remotely take control and potentially access any information on his desktop.
He proceeded to show me the errors that we were referring to, which was the threats to my computer.
They said, "We're going to have to remove them.
" So they started to begin a scanning process.
It went on and on and on.
But next the caller had some seemingly better news.
Because of all the inconvenience and distress Graeme had been subjected to, the caller informed him that he would now be passed to a worker in TalkTalk's refund department.
He introduced himself as a chap called Alex Thomas.
He said it was, because of this inconvenience, it was TalkTalk's policy that they would recompense the customer, ie myself, for the inconvenience to the amount of £250.
I was led to a screen with all of the major banking icons.
I was told to click on the icon for my bank.
Santander is my bank.
In order to complete the transfer, Graeme was told that he would need to provide a one-time passcode.
This technology is used by Graeme's bank Santander as a security measure when you set up a new account into which you want to transfer money.
This should have been a big warning sign as, after all, it was Graeme who was expecting to be paid, not the other way around.
But so convinced was he by the person at the end of the phone that, when Santander sent him a text with the passcode, he did as he was told and simply handed it over without realising how that passcode would be used.
By now, he'd been on the phone for over two hours waiting for the scanning of his computer to complete.
I said, "This is taking quite some time.
Why? "How long is it going to take?" He said it was because my computer was running slow.
I said, "Well, it's now lunchtime.
" He said I can go away and have a sandwich and a cup of tea, which I did, but I had to leave my landline open so they could communicate.
At six o'clock, a full nine hours later, Graeme, still on the phone, was told that the scanning process was still incomplete and that he'd have to keep his computer on overnight so they could finish the job.
That's when I thought, "This is not right.
Something is wrong here.
" But I did leave it on a bit longer.
Again, dead frightened and scared to shut the computer off for fear of what damage I would do to all my software.
The following morning, sick with that gnawing feeling that he may have fallen for a scam, Graeme rushed to his bank, Santander.
I printed off a mini statement.
Instead of getting £250 credit which they promised me, I had a deduction of £2,815.
I realised, at that stage, that I'd been scammed.
I felt an absolute fool.
I was angry with myself.
I am not gullible, I'm not naive, I'm intelligent.
To think that I took these people at face value, that they were so slick and clever, how they'd staged this whole scam for hours.
Realising the scammers had enjoyed free rein to access all the information on his computer, Graeme raced home to disconnect.
I immediately shut down my computer, I immediately closed down the landline, I rang TalkTalk to say, "Have you called me officially?" They confirmed they had not.
I then rang Santander to report that I'd been a victim of crime.
By now, it was just too late.
Even though TalkTalk had confirmed the call was not genuine, the money which Graeme had authorised had already left the bank account, so there was nothing neither they nor his bank Santander could do about it.
Then, the following day, to Graeme's astonishment, Alex called back.
He was casual, cool, calm and collected.
I said straightaway, "Where is my money?" He was adamant he was a genuine person.
He desperately wanted to win my confidence yet again for the second time.
I said to him, "You are a thief, you are a scammer.
" He said to me, "If TalkTalk has made an error "and taken money out of your bank account, we will pay you double.
" Graeme very sensibly hung up, determined that they wouldn't get any more of his hard-earned cash, but he still has no idea how or why this scammers targeted him in the first place.
One explanation could be the data breach that TalkTalk announced it had suffered earlier this year.
This saw thousands of their customers' account numbers, addresses and phone numbers fall unwittingly into the hands of online criminals.
TalkTalk have admitted that Graeme's details were amongst those illegally accessed and, while this didn't include his bank details, the fact that the scammers already knew the basics was perhaps enough to win Graeme's confidence and con him into thinking that he was actually dealing with TalkTalk.
When we contacted TalkTalk, the company told us that it's "very sorry" that Graeme fell victim to this sophisticated banking fraud, but stressed that "scams like this are a growing problem "for all companies, not just TalkTalk.
" And while it reiterated that no sensitive information like bank details had been stolen when a "limited amount of customer data was accessed illegally", it said that, following that incident, it had twice written to Graeme, along with all its customers, to warn about the risk of such scams.
TalkTalk went on to stress that it will never call customers asking them to download software on to their computer or to hand over sensitive information, such as bank details.
We also contacted Graeme's bank, Santander, but they told us that as the case is being reviewed by the Ombudsman, it can't comment.
For security consultant Jenny Radcliffe, what happened to Graeme is depressingly familiar.
It's a classic scam -- everything from making him rush, telling him that he's under attack right now, but we can help you take action -- you're sort of thrown a life belt in the middle of a crisis.
If people start to believe that, it's easy to act irrationally.
It might sound as if Graeme acted foolishly or irresponsibly, but you've got to remember they told him there were problems with his account, they told him that that sounded familiar, they called him from a company that he happened to be with, they created that rapport, that empathy.
So Jenny has some tips to help you see through a caller who isn't who they say they are.
The first thing is be suspicious and suspect.
We need our radar to be fizzing.
When that phone goes and somebody is friendly and asking for information, or telling us that we've made a mistake and we need to pay something, you should be really suspicious of that person.
One thing we don't like to do, especially in the UK, is really get confrontational and challenge people's identity, but if those people are legitimate, they won't care about that.
They understand that we're all in this together to try and protect ourselves against the conmen.
As for Graeme, while he accepts it's unlikely he'll get his money back, he's adamant that the way he lost it was not his fault.
I do feel foolish.
However, I've got e-mail confirmation from TalkTalk that my personal details have been stolen and are now in the hands of criminals.
These crooks got into my bank account -- that shouldn't happen.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain, could this box be the solution to the nuisance callers that are plaguing people like Catherine? She knows if she picks the phone up, it's going to be someone she wants to speak to rather than somebody she's scared of speaking to.
Rip-Off Britain is on the road again and this time, to open up our Pop-Up Shop, we've come to Nottingham.
I must tell you, this year, it's bigger and better than ever.
We've taken over this shop in the middle of the shopping centre and we've filled it with experts who are on hand to give free consumer advice to anybody that pops in.
And, as well as the shop, we're going to be out in the mall to meet shoppers face-to-face and help arm them with advice to stop them being ripped off.
One of the visitors inside the shop was Rose, who came with her partner John to see our financial expert James Daley to talk about her pension.
She used to have a private one, until she joined her work pension scheme at the NHS, but as she only works part time, she's worried that what she'll eventually get won't be enough.
I don't think it's going to give me enough income to last me all month, you know, with the bills and everything.
The other thing I'm not sure whether you've factored in or not is your state pension.
That's going to be worth somewhere in the region - of £140 a week for you.
- That's OK, yeah.
That's something to add in there as well, but at least you have got a final salary pension because they are the gold-plated pensions that most people aren't lucky enough to have now and which will continue to pay out for as long as you live.
The good news is you've got a few different options with that additional sum of money that you saved in the personal pension.
From April in 2015, the rules have changed so that there is a lot more freedom to do anything you want with your pension pot.
You've got three main options.
One is that you can take the money out and, because you're already past 55, you can do that now if you want to.
- Oh, right.
- You can simply take it and, when you do take it, 25% of it will be tax free.
The second option open to you is that you keep that money invested and put it into something called an income drawdown plan.
What that does is give you the chance to still grow your money but start taking some of it out as an income, effectively, over the next few years.
The third option is that you buy what's called an annuity.
That's just a product that guarantees to pay you an income for the rest of your life, but if you die, you tend to lose all the money you haven't drawn.
It's a bit of a gamble on how long you're going to live.
But if you want some more help and advice, the government recently started up a new service called Pension Wise, that's entirely free and it's designed to help people just like you -- retiring, trying to make decisions.
- Thank you.
- Lovely, thanks for your help.
- Thank you.
Outside in the market, our technology expert David McClelland was sharing tips on how to tackle the unwanted text messages that so many of us now get on our mobile phones.
Eden, do you get a lot of spam on your phone and on your iPad and everything? I do, it's quite difficult.
Pretty common, isn't it, for people to be bombarded with spam? It is a growing problem.
Unfortunately, as long as there's easy access to SIMs and computers that can send text messages to random numbers, it's not going to be a problem that goes away that easily.
It is illegal to send a text message unless you've got the permission of the person to whom you're sending it.
What you can do to try and stop those spammers from spamming you again is there's a number -- 7726, which on your phone keypad, it spells spam.
If you're on one of the networks, it's 37726, but if you forward the spam message and the number it came on from to this, then the networks will do their best to try and stop it.
- Oh, right.
OK.
- They say that they stop around 50,000 spammers per month, so it's definitely worth doing that.
- That's huge! - That is massive, yeah.
But what about spam phone calls? Spam phone calls -- we get them on the home phone.
The trouble is, I mean, we always say put the phone down, but if you do that, David, it means that they've still got the number, they may call back again.
How do you stop them doing it? Exactly.
Well, I mean, there's the official routes, things like the Telephone Preference Service, so you can put your telephone number on that register.
In theory, companies that abide by the law, at least, - cannot continue to call you.
- So you found all that helpful? - That is all helpful, yeah.
- And you've remembered the number? - 7726.
- Well done.
And it spells "spam" on your keyboard, there you go.
- Spam on your keyboard.
No more spam.
- No more spam.
It wasn't so long ago that the term "chugging" was first coined to describe those people who approach passersby to ask for charity donations.
Well, now there is another word that you can get your head around, that is "sugging".
Don't worry because it's one that we've never heard of before either, but it refers to those people or companies that pretend to be market researchers conducting surveys, when in reality all that they're actually trying to do is generate sales leads that will result in someone trying to sell you something.
The chances are that any information that you hand over is going to end up on some database that's then shared with other businesses, leading to even more calls from people trying to sell you even more stuff that you've probably never heard of and certainly don't need.
But the surveys that draw you in can sound very appealing, with the promise of vouchers or extra cash just for taking part.
That was what drew in the couple in our next film.
Now, at first, they were very happy to answer questionnaires on their lifestyle habits, but what happened next was definitely not what they thought they'd signed up for.
It's easy to see why grandparents Robert and Anne Williams from Denbigh in North Wales thought that the surveys and questionnaires they took part in were worth a few minutes of their time.
In return for answering lifestyle questions online or over the phone, they could earn themselves money-off vouchers or gift cards for high street stores.
But while that seemed to be a perfect way to top up their income, they began to wonder if some of those surveys came with an unexpected catch because, soon after they started doing them, they noticed that they were receiving more and more cold calls.
This week and last week were the worst weeks and days we've ever had with constant calls asking the same particular questions, refusing to accept that we don't want them, even when we've requested politely, so we're just getting fed up with it.
Now, the sudden rise in their cold calls could just be a coincidence, but Robert and Anne firmly believe that, somewhere along the line, the personal details they submitted with their various survey answers have ended up being made available to other companies and businesses.
I thought they were genuinely doing research.
That's why I completed went along with them.
Now I've realised they're doing a survey so they can sell that information on to people, so now we can be pestered not from one but by 100 different organisations and groups because, I assume, it's valuable information that can be sold on the general market.
One unexpected call came from a company called Sapphire based in Cardiff, not to be confused with other companies of a similar name.
The sales representative told the couple about a fantastic offer which could bag them up to £210 in cashback vouchers.
All they needed to do was subscribe to the company's lifestyle magazine for a year.
They were offering cash-back vouchers for fuel, travel, leisure activities, restaurants, but that it would cost 79.
99, which I declined.
Robert and Anne weren't interested in paying 79.
99, but then the person on the phone made them a better offer.
If they accepted a free trial of Sapphire's lifestyle magazine, they would no only still receive £10 in fuel vouchers, but they could cancel the subscription without any cost within 14 days.
All they needed to do was pay £1 for postage, which they could do by credit or debit card over the phone.
I was promised that if I cancelled within 14 days, that no further money would be withdrawn from our account.
It was the fuel vouchers, really, that we were interested in, - wasn't it? - Yeah.
- She promised, "Oh, yes, there'll be no problem.
So, thinking they had nothing to lose, Robert and Anne handed over their credit card details to the caller from Sapphire and thought little more of it.
The magazine and, most importantly for the couple, the £10 fuel voucher arrived a few days later.
Not interested in the magazine, Robert followed the instructions on how to cancel the subscription before the 79.
99 fee was taken away from them.
I put in a phone call.
I also sent e-mails.
When I read the little letter, it did say specifically you had to cancel within the given period of 14 days.
Satisfied that he had cancelled in time, Robert was then shocked to discover that, a week later, 79.
99 was taken from his account anyway.
I couldn't believe it, they've actually taken it out.
They haven't listened to what I said to them on the phone, they haven't reacted to the actual advice they give in their own letter to cancel it.
Robert immediately contacted Sapphire to find out why they had taken the money and when it would be returned.
The question I had then to ask was -- how do get it back? Try as I may, I couldn't.
Despite further phone calls and e-mails, the company refused to budge, insisting that Robert had not cancelled within the 14 days.
You know, some people can't afford to lose that much money, can they? £80 is an awful lot of money.
It doesn't grow on trees.
Well, we've heard from a number of people who've had similar experiences.
And while Sapphire themselves dispute the facts in some of the cases, there are at least two details that are common to everyone to whom we've spoken.
The first is that they got that call from Sapphire completely out of the blue.
The second is that, rather like Robert and Anne, they all agree that the call from Sapphire started to come in the middle of a number of other calls that they got after they had filled out a number of questionnaires and surveys.
As far as they're concerned, that has to be more than just a coincidence.
Sharon Bunn from Banffshire in Scotland and Susan Martin from Hemel Hempstead are also among those who have contacted us on this subject.
While they can't prove any link between Sapphire and those surveys, they too are adamant that they didn't have the same number of unwanted calls until they started doing them.
So, at the very least, they'd like to know how it was that the company got their details.
Meanwhile, Sapphire has also attracted the attention of Trading Standards in Cardiff, which has received around 100 complaints about Promotional Media Services, the company that ran it until January of this year.
The company which ran Sapphire -- Promotional Media Services Ltd -- is now in liquidation.
When we contacted the company, it didn't confirm whether it had got hold of the details of people like Robert and Anne through some sort of survey, but nor did it say it hadn't.
Instead, the company insisted it preferred not to get hold of people's details that way "due to areas of compliance" it had found "difficult to control", as well as "inaccuracy in information.
" It stressed it didn't itself "carry out any survey calls" to sell its products and said any telemarketing companies it did use had "to go through a due diligence process to prove "they have control of the call centres used to generate data".
But there was good news too.
The company told us it had made "a complete administration mistake" in regard to the money that it charged Robert and Anne and promised that it would be communicating with all of the unhappy customers we've spoken to "to ensure that any issues are fully resolved.
" Even so, those customers remain convinced that there must definitely be a link between the surveys that they did and the call they got from Sapphire.
And whether or not they're right, it's undoubtedly the case that some surveys you may be tempted to take part in are not proper surveys at all.
Instead, as Robert and Anne suspect, they're simply a clever way to generate sales leads.
The Market Research Society, who are tackling the problem of personal details being passed between companies, has seen a big rise in complaints about this one issue.
In the last year for which we have the full data, we've got about 1,200 complaints about data-related issues.
This is growing.
Increasingly, they're questions about people's data being used for selling.
Ring us or e-mail us and we will investigate any complaint.
The Market Research Society has a strict code of conduct for its members to follow and, in particular, it warns that you should never hand over financial information to anyone claiming to be conducting market research.
If anyone ever asks you for your bank details, that should be a huge red flag.
Don't do it.
With proper market research, you're looking for an accredited company member.
If you get called up, if they don't say they're an accredited MRS company, just put the phone down.
But it isn't always easy to tell what's genuine market research and what isn't.
But, in future, Robert and Anne will be much more wary if anyone asks them to take part in a survey or questionnaire.
If friends of ours actually received a similar phone call, I would say to them, "Don't ever start it", because your phone will never stop from phone calls asking you to complete surveys.
So the thing is, say no and have a peaceful life.
Now, all through today's programme, we've heard about what's been described as a modern-day plague -- those nuisance calls.
With over a billion of them made to home owners right across the UK every year, people across the country are turning to a new technology.
But are boxes like these really the key to ending unwanted calls? Rita and Keith from Yorkshire are both retired.
Rita used to work as a receptionist, so she's no stranger to talking on the phone, but she wasn't expecting to answer so many unsolicited calls at home once she stopped working.
There has been a gradual build-up of calls over the years, from originally two or three up to The maximum has been seven in one day.
The calls can disrupt home life at all times of the day and night, much to the couple's annoyance.
Hello.
Goodbye.
It's just annoying that my space is being verbally invaded by something that's unwanted.
Rita thinks that her phone number may have been sold or passed on by a company she's previously contacted and she's probably right.
Maybe I've bought something over the internet, or bought something through a magazine, and then they've passed my details on to somebody else, on to a third party, which is wrong because I don't want that.
Bye.
So, in an attempt to stop the calls coming, Rita signed up to the Telephone Preference Service, the free service where you opt not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls.
It's a legal requirement that if a number is registered under TPS, stating they don't want to receive cold calls, companies are simply not allowed to call it, but Rita says this has not stopped the calls getting through.
Hello.
It's annoying that they are somehow deviously finding a way round them.
This service was set up to stop these calls, to stop unwanted calls.
Pensioner John Downes has also grown frustrated with all the unwanted calls he's been receiving.
John acts as a carer for his wife Wendy, who suffers from dementia, and life at home has been made even more difficult by the sheer number of cold calls.
It was getting more and more and more intrusive into my life.
When you've somebody that's ill and you've hospital appointments and things like that, you have to answer every call.
When every other one is trying to sell you something then it does get distressing, yes, it does.
Things got so bad that, at one point, John was receiving up to 14 unwanted calls a day.
I look after my wife and the telephone was ringing, and I was going back to answer the phone.
Of course, my wife's not well, so things were happening and it sort of built up over that, and got more and more annoying that the telephone was intruding into my life, and taking part of my life away, really.
It sounds extreme, but it was.
In 2014, the Information Commissioner's Office received over 175,000 complaints relating to nuisance calls and texts and, from April 2015, they've had new powers making it easier for them to fine the people behind them.
Previously, if you'd signed up to the Telephone Preference Service but were still getting calls, action could only be taken if you could prove that these unwanted calls had caused you distress, but not any more.
Now if a company contacts anyone who's on the list, they have committed a serious breach of the law.
But this law doesn't seem to have deterred the unwanted callers pestering 87-year-old Catherine.
Earlier in the programme, we heard how Catherine, who has dementia, has been bombarded with nuisance calls despite being signed up to the Telephone Preference Service.
To try and finally stop the calls, her daughter-in-law Jenny got in touch with her local council's Trading Standards team, who were able to come up with a solution.
They offered to install a nifty little box that works as a call blocking device in Catherine's home.
Steve Smith, the man who invented it, is going to fit it in person.
- This is Cath, my mother-in-law.
This is Steve.
- Hello, there, Cath.
- Hi, Steve, nice to meet you.
- Very nice to meet you too.
If you'd like to go back through the doorway Once the box is fitted, you load it up with friends and family phone numbers and it lets them straight through.
Everyone else is blocked with a message asking them to ring their carer if the call is important.
There are other similar boxes available to buy, although, as we've reported before, watch out.
Some are a lot more effective than others.
This device, however, is the one that around 100 councils right across the country are now loaning out free of charge to those worst affected by persistent unwanted calls.
OK, what I'm going to do is install the equipment.
We simply unplug the telephone from the phone line and plug it into the back of the unit here.
Then we plug the unit back into the telephone line.
Then we plug the power into the unit.
OK, we're all ready and set.
For Jenny, the idea that her mother-in-law may no longer be bothered and confused by nuisance calls is an enormous weight off her mind.
She knows if she picks the phone up it's going to be someone she wants to speak to rather than somebody that she's scared of speaking to, or somebody that's going to prey on her.
We're just trying to give as much support and help as possible to make her life more comfortable and less stressful, basically.
So has it done the trick? Well, Jenny's reported that the nuisance calls have now stopped altogether, which is a huge relief.
That's also the verdict of Rita and Keith, and of John, all of whom, thanks to their local Trading Standards, have had call blockers fitted.
It's just been like being in heaven.
It just doesn't It just doesn't ring apart from the odd one the odd one, and I can cope with that.
One call I can cope with, but it's when it's multiple calls going on and on and on I think these companies should be stopped from doing this.
It's annoying to me, it's more annoying, probably, to a lot of people.
It should be stopped.
It just shouldn't happen.
So if you or a relative is having real problems with nuisance calls, it is worth seeing if your local Trading Standards office does have something similar.
You'll find more information about how to handle nuisance calls on our website.
It's Here at Rip-Off Britain, we're always ready to investigate more of your stories.
Confused over your bills or feel you're paying well over the odds? It's far too small and it's done on purpose so that you can't actually read it.
People'll look at it and they'll say, "I can't be bothered reading that.
" Are you unsure what to do when you discover you've lost out and that so-called great deal has ended up costing you money? People are buying into this, I did.
Are they going to be as awkward with them as they were with me? You might have a cautionary tale of your own and want to share your story with us, so that other people don't do the same thing.
Just fobbed off completely and very disappointed.
Well, you can write to us at Or you can send us an e-mail to The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.
Now, I'm quite sure you'll agree that we've heard some really shocking stuff today when it comes to how we can all be targeted.
But, of course, we may unfortunately and without fully appreciating it have given these businesses the in to repeatedly get in touch, so you really do need to be very careful about what you're signing yourself up to.
Absolutely.
If you don't want your details sold on to a third party, or indeed used at all, then make sure you tick the right box when filling out any kind of form.
You need your wits about you because sometimes the wording is such that ticking the box you think is stopping your details being passed on is actually giving permission for it to happen.
That could mean those calls and letters just keep on coming.
And although as we've seen there are now some very effective ways to stop all of that unwanted communication, if you don't want to be contacted out of the blue in the first place, then it is really much better to prevent it happening at the beginning rather than trying to sort it out at a later date.
But I'm afraid that that is all that we have time for today and it's where we have to leave you, but we will be back very soon to investigate more of your stories.
- Until then, from all of us on the team, bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.
You've told us about the companies you think get it wrong and the customer service that simply isn't up to scratch.
If you're paying for a good service, you expect a good service and a good product, whatever it may be.
At the end of the day, we expect value for money.
You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money and investigate the extra charges that you say are unfair.
The wool has been pulled over our eyes.
I don't think we get a fair price.
I think they should always put the customer first.
And when you've lost out but no-one else is to blame, you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.
- And no-one could sort that out for you over ten years? - No-one has.
So whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake, we're here to find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.
Your stories, your money, this is Rip-Off Britain.
Hello, and welcome to Rip-Off Britain, where today we're going to be tackling one of your single biggest bugbears and, I think if we're honest, it's one of ours as well.
That is we're going to be talking about all of those unwanted calls, letters and texts with which we're bombarded pretty much every day.
Whether they're trying to flog us something which, in all honesty, we really do not want or, even better still, convince us that we're in line for a pay-out, which I think, chances are, we're never likely to see, are we, Julia? Probably not.
Well, in the days when it was just junk mail we had to contend with, the direct marketing industry used to insist people actually liked getting offers through the post.
But even if that was once true, it really isn't now.
Whose heart doesn't sink when they answer the phone and hear one of those pre-recorded messages telling us their records indicate we're owed some money? What about that non-existent accident we recently had? Yeah, what a mystery that one is.
But for many people, you know, these kind of marketing tactics are more than simply an irritation.
If you're really being plagued by them, it can cause considerable distress and a lot of anxiety, not least because you might think there isn't very much you can do to stop them.
I'm very glad to say that that's not the case.
Throughout the programme, we'll have plenty of tips to help cut down the amount of unwanted marketing that you're getting as well.
Coming up, the elaborate con that starts with someone calling you and pretending to be from your phone company.
To think that I took these people at face value, that they were so slick and clever, how they'd staged this whole scam for hours.
And how this man found a solution to the barrage of calls it seemed he couldn't stop.
The telephone was intruding into my life and taking part of my life away, really.
It sounds extreme, but it was.
Now here's one of the things that you complain to us about most of all -- those dreaded nuisance calls.
It's no wonder that we're all hung up about them because an estimated one billion of them are made every year.
What, perhaps, is even more frustrating, as continues to be the case with so many of you, is the fact that you're still being plagued by them after signing up to the official services designed to filter them out.
So, in the end, is there anything that can be done to stop those companies determined to pester us in our homes? You are in the middle of something, you hear the telephone ring and you rush to answer it, thinking it might just be somebody important Hello? .
.
only to be greeted with an automated message or someone trying to sell you something.
It's pestering like this that you've been telling us you could really do without.
You think, "Oh, this actually might be important.
" No, it's not.
It never is.
I donated to a charity a few months ago and now they call me every day.
Every single day.
Sometimes two or three times a day.
I don't answer them.
I just literally put the button down on them now.
I think they're absolutely awful.
But whilst for most of us these are, as the name suggests, simply nuisance calls, for others, they can have a far greater impact.
You all right, Mum? How are you today? I'm OK, thank you.
87-year-old Catherine is mum to Terry and is known for her great craftwork, selling greetings cards and little knitted outfits and donating them to the local hospital.
But recently, she was diagnosed with dementia and now relies on her son Terry and her daughter-in-law Jenny.
- Have you had breakfast this morning? - Yeah.
- What did you have? Eh What did I have? Toast.
- OK.
Make it yourself? - Yeah.
Catherine's memory loss means that she struggles to remember even the simplest of things, so Jenny and terry now visit every day to check on her.
It was on one of those visits that they realised that there was a risk to Catherine that they hadn't really anticipated.
As a result of visiting, we discovered that she'd got more than 40 bags of what I would classify as junk mail.
Starting to look through that and talking to her, we discovered she was getting a lot of pestering phone calls from various companies, like PPI, but very pressurised, bearing in mind she's very vulnerable and old.
Jenny and Terry discovered that Catherine had been bombarded with mail and phone calls from companies asking her for money.
She gets lots of calls from various charities, companies that she can't remember who they are.
Companies asking for her bank details and she doesn't know why.
Sometimes she's not in the right state of mind, I don't think, to even understand who she's giving her details to.
Jenny estimates that Catherine now donates hundreds of pounds a month to many different companies and that many of these arrangements were made as a result of Catherine answering a cold call.
- You can't remember how many you've had in the last week or so.
- No.
OK.
But you've had a few, yeah? - So I'm told.
- OK.
You can't really remember.
- No.
As a result of Catherine signing up to so many companies, she's been inundated with products she neither needs or wants, most recently diet supplements.
This is why we're so concerned about her and worried about the people out there that are preying on her, basically.
Some may be legitimate and I think some aren't.
I know she's bought some medication -- it's like garlic pills and stuff.
There's enough there to keep the whole street going for a month.
Although they can't say for sure, Jenny and Terry think that Catherine probably gets around 12 nuisance calls a day, one of which came through while we were filming.
Hello.
A laptop? Yeah.
What about a laptop? So I need to switch the laptop on so you can see what the problems are? Yes? I'm in front of my laptop.
Transferring me to a senior technician, OK.
Just the normal screen with the start button.
They're going to fix my computer because apparently it's got a virus.
As you can see, I have no computer in front of me.
We do not have a computer or a laptop of any description in this house.
It is a scam.
If my mother had picked that call up, I don't know what she would have done.
She might have told them she hasn't got a computer, but she would have been very confused and very concerned as to what's going on and why.
Nuisance calls and the companies who make them have been described as a modern-day menace after MPs said they had reached plague-like levels.
In fact, the government are so concerned that it's created a nuisance calls taskforce to try and tackle the problem.
For the people who have been in touch with us, that can't come soon enough.
But, in the meantime, those dreaded calls are still coming through.
So later in the programme, we'll be seeing if there's a more immediate solution to the problem so that people like Catherine don't keep getting calls that they really don't want.
Here's what I want to ask you -- when the telephone rings and you answer it, do you ever really stop and question whether the person you're talking to is actually who they say they are? Particularly, and you know the scene, when you're in the midst of doing 101 things all at the same time.
Let's be honest, it's the last thing you'll probably be thinking about, but without realising it, that's when we're at our most vulnerable.
If the person on the other end of the phone is any good, they may get you to reveal more about yourself than you ever intended, as indeed our next story explains.
If only real life was like the cops and robbers shows of yesteryear, where all crooks committing their dastardly deeds wearing clothes that allowed us to know exactly what they were up to so that we could always see them coming.
Of course, real life is much more complicated.
Today's scammers and fraudsters are more cunning than ever with their disguises and deceptions.
But security consultant Jenny Radcliffe can see through all the devious tricks that they come up with to get their hands on our valuable information.
From a psychological point of view, there are four things that scammers use most often to get people to give up information or details that they shouldn't.
Any combination of those is enough to make most people start talking.
Graeme Smith from County Durham found out to his cost just how devastating the effect of the tactics of such fraudsters can be.
In February 2015, he unwittingly fell victim to a phone scammer claiming to be calling from TalkTalk, the internet service provider.
I received a phone call on my landline .
.
which just said, "This is TalkTalk phone department here.
"We've identified that your computer is at risk "and is being attempted to be hacked into.
" That got my attention straightaway.
Although naturally alarmed, Graeme thought the call was entirely plausible as he did have a broadband service provided by TalkTalk.
They said, "Can I just go through some security "and ask for your full name and ask for your date of birth?" I did pass that on because that's what they all do.
Everyone does it.
Everything sounded very, very genuine.
The female caller told Graeme that his computer was under attack by a mystery hacker who was trying to access his personal information.
At that time, I was really panicking thinking, "What's going on here? "What's been happening with my computer?" I asked, "How long has this been going on for?" They said, "About three weeks.
" Next, the caller told Graeme that she was going to transfer his call to a colleague who would be able to stop the trackers in their tracks.
She said, "I will transfer you over "to our senior technician who would explain how we're going to help you, "but in order to do that, he had to download some software.
" Graeme, staying on the phone, walked over to his computer and following the instruction from the so-called technician, he clicked on to some links that he was told would remove the threat and protect his personal data.
One of the downloads allowed the caller to share Graeme's screen, meaning that they could see everything that Graeme had on his monitor and, what's more, it allowed the caller to remotely take control and potentially access any information on his desktop.
He proceeded to show me the errors that we were referring to, which was the threats to my computer.
They said, "We're going to have to remove them.
" So they started to begin a scanning process.
It went on and on and on.
But next the caller had some seemingly better news.
Because of all the inconvenience and distress Graeme had been subjected to, the caller informed him that he would now be passed to a worker in TalkTalk's refund department.
He introduced himself as a chap called Alex Thomas.
He said it was, because of this inconvenience, it was TalkTalk's policy that they would recompense the customer, ie myself, for the inconvenience to the amount of £250.
I was led to a screen with all of the major banking icons.
I was told to click on the icon for my bank.
Santander is my bank.
In order to complete the transfer, Graeme was told that he would need to provide a one-time passcode.
This technology is used by Graeme's bank Santander as a security measure when you set up a new account into which you want to transfer money.
This should have been a big warning sign as, after all, it was Graeme who was expecting to be paid, not the other way around.
But so convinced was he by the person at the end of the phone that, when Santander sent him a text with the passcode, he did as he was told and simply handed it over without realising how that passcode would be used.
By now, he'd been on the phone for over two hours waiting for the scanning of his computer to complete.
I said, "This is taking quite some time.
Why? "How long is it going to take?" He said it was because my computer was running slow.
I said, "Well, it's now lunchtime.
" He said I can go away and have a sandwich and a cup of tea, which I did, but I had to leave my landline open so they could communicate.
At six o'clock, a full nine hours later, Graeme, still on the phone, was told that the scanning process was still incomplete and that he'd have to keep his computer on overnight so they could finish the job.
That's when I thought, "This is not right.
Something is wrong here.
" But I did leave it on a bit longer.
Again, dead frightened and scared to shut the computer off for fear of what damage I would do to all my software.
The following morning, sick with that gnawing feeling that he may have fallen for a scam, Graeme rushed to his bank, Santander.
I printed off a mini statement.
Instead of getting £250 credit which they promised me, I had a deduction of £2,815.
I realised, at that stage, that I'd been scammed.
I felt an absolute fool.
I was angry with myself.
I am not gullible, I'm not naive, I'm intelligent.
To think that I took these people at face value, that they were so slick and clever, how they'd staged this whole scam for hours.
Realising the scammers had enjoyed free rein to access all the information on his computer, Graeme raced home to disconnect.
I immediately shut down my computer, I immediately closed down the landline, I rang TalkTalk to say, "Have you called me officially?" They confirmed they had not.
I then rang Santander to report that I'd been a victim of crime.
By now, it was just too late.
Even though TalkTalk had confirmed the call was not genuine, the money which Graeme had authorised had already left the bank account, so there was nothing neither they nor his bank Santander could do about it.
Then, the following day, to Graeme's astonishment, Alex called back.
He was casual, cool, calm and collected.
I said straightaway, "Where is my money?" He was adamant he was a genuine person.
He desperately wanted to win my confidence yet again for the second time.
I said to him, "You are a thief, you are a scammer.
" He said to me, "If TalkTalk has made an error "and taken money out of your bank account, we will pay you double.
" Graeme very sensibly hung up, determined that they wouldn't get any more of his hard-earned cash, but he still has no idea how or why this scammers targeted him in the first place.
One explanation could be the data breach that TalkTalk announced it had suffered earlier this year.
This saw thousands of their customers' account numbers, addresses and phone numbers fall unwittingly into the hands of online criminals.
TalkTalk have admitted that Graeme's details were amongst those illegally accessed and, while this didn't include his bank details, the fact that the scammers already knew the basics was perhaps enough to win Graeme's confidence and con him into thinking that he was actually dealing with TalkTalk.
When we contacted TalkTalk, the company told us that it's "very sorry" that Graeme fell victim to this sophisticated banking fraud, but stressed that "scams like this are a growing problem "for all companies, not just TalkTalk.
" And while it reiterated that no sensitive information like bank details had been stolen when a "limited amount of customer data was accessed illegally", it said that, following that incident, it had twice written to Graeme, along with all its customers, to warn about the risk of such scams.
TalkTalk went on to stress that it will never call customers asking them to download software on to their computer or to hand over sensitive information, such as bank details.
We also contacted Graeme's bank, Santander, but they told us that as the case is being reviewed by the Ombudsman, it can't comment.
For security consultant Jenny Radcliffe, what happened to Graeme is depressingly familiar.
It's a classic scam -- everything from making him rush, telling him that he's under attack right now, but we can help you take action -- you're sort of thrown a life belt in the middle of a crisis.
If people start to believe that, it's easy to act irrationally.
It might sound as if Graeme acted foolishly or irresponsibly, but you've got to remember they told him there were problems with his account, they told him that that sounded familiar, they called him from a company that he happened to be with, they created that rapport, that empathy.
So Jenny has some tips to help you see through a caller who isn't who they say they are.
The first thing is be suspicious and suspect.
We need our radar to be fizzing.
When that phone goes and somebody is friendly and asking for information, or telling us that we've made a mistake and we need to pay something, you should be really suspicious of that person.
One thing we don't like to do, especially in the UK, is really get confrontational and challenge people's identity, but if those people are legitimate, they won't care about that.
They understand that we're all in this together to try and protect ourselves against the conmen.
As for Graeme, while he accepts it's unlikely he'll get his money back, he's adamant that the way he lost it was not his fault.
I do feel foolish.
However, I've got e-mail confirmation from TalkTalk that my personal details have been stolen and are now in the hands of criminals.
These crooks got into my bank account -- that shouldn't happen.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain, could this box be the solution to the nuisance callers that are plaguing people like Catherine? She knows if she picks the phone up, it's going to be someone she wants to speak to rather than somebody she's scared of speaking to.
Rip-Off Britain is on the road again and this time, to open up our Pop-Up Shop, we've come to Nottingham.
I must tell you, this year, it's bigger and better than ever.
We've taken over this shop in the middle of the shopping centre and we've filled it with experts who are on hand to give free consumer advice to anybody that pops in.
And, as well as the shop, we're going to be out in the mall to meet shoppers face-to-face and help arm them with advice to stop them being ripped off.
One of the visitors inside the shop was Rose, who came with her partner John to see our financial expert James Daley to talk about her pension.
She used to have a private one, until she joined her work pension scheme at the NHS, but as she only works part time, she's worried that what she'll eventually get won't be enough.
I don't think it's going to give me enough income to last me all month, you know, with the bills and everything.
The other thing I'm not sure whether you've factored in or not is your state pension.
That's going to be worth somewhere in the region - of £140 a week for you.
- That's OK, yeah.
That's something to add in there as well, but at least you have got a final salary pension because they are the gold-plated pensions that most people aren't lucky enough to have now and which will continue to pay out for as long as you live.
The good news is you've got a few different options with that additional sum of money that you saved in the personal pension.
From April in 2015, the rules have changed so that there is a lot more freedom to do anything you want with your pension pot.
You've got three main options.
One is that you can take the money out and, because you're already past 55, you can do that now if you want to.
- Oh, right.
- You can simply take it and, when you do take it, 25% of it will be tax free.
The second option open to you is that you keep that money invested and put it into something called an income drawdown plan.
What that does is give you the chance to still grow your money but start taking some of it out as an income, effectively, over the next few years.
The third option is that you buy what's called an annuity.
That's just a product that guarantees to pay you an income for the rest of your life, but if you die, you tend to lose all the money you haven't drawn.
It's a bit of a gamble on how long you're going to live.
But if you want some more help and advice, the government recently started up a new service called Pension Wise, that's entirely free and it's designed to help people just like you -- retiring, trying to make decisions.
- Thank you.
- Lovely, thanks for your help.
- Thank you.
Outside in the market, our technology expert David McClelland was sharing tips on how to tackle the unwanted text messages that so many of us now get on our mobile phones.
Eden, do you get a lot of spam on your phone and on your iPad and everything? I do, it's quite difficult.
Pretty common, isn't it, for people to be bombarded with spam? It is a growing problem.
Unfortunately, as long as there's easy access to SIMs and computers that can send text messages to random numbers, it's not going to be a problem that goes away that easily.
It is illegal to send a text message unless you've got the permission of the person to whom you're sending it.
What you can do to try and stop those spammers from spamming you again is there's a number -- 7726, which on your phone keypad, it spells spam.
If you're on one of the networks, it's 37726, but if you forward the spam message and the number it came on from to this, then the networks will do their best to try and stop it.
- Oh, right.
OK.
- They say that they stop around 50,000 spammers per month, so it's definitely worth doing that.
- That's huge! - That is massive, yeah.
But what about spam phone calls? Spam phone calls -- we get them on the home phone.
The trouble is, I mean, we always say put the phone down, but if you do that, David, it means that they've still got the number, they may call back again.
How do you stop them doing it? Exactly.
Well, I mean, there's the official routes, things like the Telephone Preference Service, so you can put your telephone number on that register.
In theory, companies that abide by the law, at least, - cannot continue to call you.
- So you found all that helpful? - That is all helpful, yeah.
- And you've remembered the number? - 7726.
- Well done.
And it spells "spam" on your keyboard, there you go.
- Spam on your keyboard.
No more spam.
- No more spam.
It wasn't so long ago that the term "chugging" was first coined to describe those people who approach passersby to ask for charity donations.
Well, now there is another word that you can get your head around, that is "sugging".
Don't worry because it's one that we've never heard of before either, but it refers to those people or companies that pretend to be market researchers conducting surveys, when in reality all that they're actually trying to do is generate sales leads that will result in someone trying to sell you something.
The chances are that any information that you hand over is going to end up on some database that's then shared with other businesses, leading to even more calls from people trying to sell you even more stuff that you've probably never heard of and certainly don't need.
But the surveys that draw you in can sound very appealing, with the promise of vouchers or extra cash just for taking part.
That was what drew in the couple in our next film.
Now, at first, they were very happy to answer questionnaires on their lifestyle habits, but what happened next was definitely not what they thought they'd signed up for.
It's easy to see why grandparents Robert and Anne Williams from Denbigh in North Wales thought that the surveys and questionnaires they took part in were worth a few minutes of their time.
In return for answering lifestyle questions online or over the phone, they could earn themselves money-off vouchers or gift cards for high street stores.
But while that seemed to be a perfect way to top up their income, they began to wonder if some of those surveys came with an unexpected catch because, soon after they started doing them, they noticed that they were receiving more and more cold calls.
This week and last week were the worst weeks and days we've ever had with constant calls asking the same particular questions, refusing to accept that we don't want them, even when we've requested politely, so we're just getting fed up with it.
Now, the sudden rise in their cold calls could just be a coincidence, but Robert and Anne firmly believe that, somewhere along the line, the personal details they submitted with their various survey answers have ended up being made available to other companies and businesses.
I thought they were genuinely doing research.
That's why I completed went along with them.
Now I've realised they're doing a survey so they can sell that information on to people, so now we can be pestered not from one but by 100 different organisations and groups because, I assume, it's valuable information that can be sold on the general market.
One unexpected call came from a company called Sapphire based in Cardiff, not to be confused with other companies of a similar name.
The sales representative told the couple about a fantastic offer which could bag them up to £210 in cashback vouchers.
All they needed to do was subscribe to the company's lifestyle magazine for a year.
They were offering cash-back vouchers for fuel, travel, leisure activities, restaurants, but that it would cost 79.
99, which I declined.
Robert and Anne weren't interested in paying 79.
99, but then the person on the phone made them a better offer.
If they accepted a free trial of Sapphire's lifestyle magazine, they would no only still receive £10 in fuel vouchers, but they could cancel the subscription without any cost within 14 days.
All they needed to do was pay £1 for postage, which they could do by credit or debit card over the phone.
I was promised that if I cancelled within 14 days, that no further money would be withdrawn from our account.
It was the fuel vouchers, really, that we were interested in, - wasn't it? - Yeah.
- She promised, "Oh, yes, there'll be no problem.
So, thinking they had nothing to lose, Robert and Anne handed over their credit card details to the caller from Sapphire and thought little more of it.
The magazine and, most importantly for the couple, the £10 fuel voucher arrived a few days later.
Not interested in the magazine, Robert followed the instructions on how to cancel the subscription before the 79.
99 fee was taken away from them.
I put in a phone call.
I also sent e-mails.
When I read the little letter, it did say specifically you had to cancel within the given period of 14 days.
Satisfied that he had cancelled in time, Robert was then shocked to discover that, a week later, 79.
99 was taken from his account anyway.
I couldn't believe it, they've actually taken it out.
They haven't listened to what I said to them on the phone, they haven't reacted to the actual advice they give in their own letter to cancel it.
Robert immediately contacted Sapphire to find out why they had taken the money and when it would be returned.
The question I had then to ask was -- how do get it back? Try as I may, I couldn't.
Despite further phone calls and e-mails, the company refused to budge, insisting that Robert had not cancelled within the 14 days.
You know, some people can't afford to lose that much money, can they? £80 is an awful lot of money.
It doesn't grow on trees.
Well, we've heard from a number of people who've had similar experiences.
And while Sapphire themselves dispute the facts in some of the cases, there are at least two details that are common to everyone to whom we've spoken.
The first is that they got that call from Sapphire completely out of the blue.
The second is that, rather like Robert and Anne, they all agree that the call from Sapphire started to come in the middle of a number of other calls that they got after they had filled out a number of questionnaires and surveys.
As far as they're concerned, that has to be more than just a coincidence.
Sharon Bunn from Banffshire in Scotland and Susan Martin from Hemel Hempstead are also among those who have contacted us on this subject.
While they can't prove any link between Sapphire and those surveys, they too are adamant that they didn't have the same number of unwanted calls until they started doing them.
So, at the very least, they'd like to know how it was that the company got their details.
Meanwhile, Sapphire has also attracted the attention of Trading Standards in Cardiff, which has received around 100 complaints about Promotional Media Services, the company that ran it until January of this year.
The company which ran Sapphire -- Promotional Media Services Ltd -- is now in liquidation.
When we contacted the company, it didn't confirm whether it had got hold of the details of people like Robert and Anne through some sort of survey, but nor did it say it hadn't.
Instead, the company insisted it preferred not to get hold of people's details that way "due to areas of compliance" it had found "difficult to control", as well as "inaccuracy in information.
" It stressed it didn't itself "carry out any survey calls" to sell its products and said any telemarketing companies it did use had "to go through a due diligence process to prove "they have control of the call centres used to generate data".
But there was good news too.
The company told us it had made "a complete administration mistake" in regard to the money that it charged Robert and Anne and promised that it would be communicating with all of the unhappy customers we've spoken to "to ensure that any issues are fully resolved.
" Even so, those customers remain convinced that there must definitely be a link between the surveys that they did and the call they got from Sapphire.
And whether or not they're right, it's undoubtedly the case that some surveys you may be tempted to take part in are not proper surveys at all.
Instead, as Robert and Anne suspect, they're simply a clever way to generate sales leads.
The Market Research Society, who are tackling the problem of personal details being passed between companies, has seen a big rise in complaints about this one issue.
In the last year for which we have the full data, we've got about 1,200 complaints about data-related issues.
This is growing.
Increasingly, they're questions about people's data being used for selling.
Ring us or e-mail us and we will investigate any complaint.
The Market Research Society has a strict code of conduct for its members to follow and, in particular, it warns that you should never hand over financial information to anyone claiming to be conducting market research.
If anyone ever asks you for your bank details, that should be a huge red flag.
Don't do it.
With proper market research, you're looking for an accredited company member.
If you get called up, if they don't say they're an accredited MRS company, just put the phone down.
But it isn't always easy to tell what's genuine market research and what isn't.
But, in future, Robert and Anne will be much more wary if anyone asks them to take part in a survey or questionnaire.
If friends of ours actually received a similar phone call, I would say to them, "Don't ever start it", because your phone will never stop from phone calls asking you to complete surveys.
So the thing is, say no and have a peaceful life.
Now, all through today's programme, we've heard about what's been described as a modern-day plague -- those nuisance calls.
With over a billion of them made to home owners right across the UK every year, people across the country are turning to a new technology.
But are boxes like these really the key to ending unwanted calls? Rita and Keith from Yorkshire are both retired.
Rita used to work as a receptionist, so she's no stranger to talking on the phone, but she wasn't expecting to answer so many unsolicited calls at home once she stopped working.
There has been a gradual build-up of calls over the years, from originally two or three up to The maximum has been seven in one day.
The calls can disrupt home life at all times of the day and night, much to the couple's annoyance.
Hello.
Goodbye.
It's just annoying that my space is being verbally invaded by something that's unwanted.
Rita thinks that her phone number may have been sold or passed on by a company she's previously contacted and she's probably right.
Maybe I've bought something over the internet, or bought something through a magazine, and then they've passed my details on to somebody else, on to a third party, which is wrong because I don't want that.
Bye.
So, in an attempt to stop the calls coming, Rita signed up to the Telephone Preference Service, the free service where you opt not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls.
It's a legal requirement that if a number is registered under TPS, stating they don't want to receive cold calls, companies are simply not allowed to call it, but Rita says this has not stopped the calls getting through.
Hello.
It's annoying that they are somehow deviously finding a way round them.
This service was set up to stop these calls, to stop unwanted calls.
Pensioner John Downes has also grown frustrated with all the unwanted calls he's been receiving.
John acts as a carer for his wife Wendy, who suffers from dementia, and life at home has been made even more difficult by the sheer number of cold calls.
It was getting more and more and more intrusive into my life.
When you've somebody that's ill and you've hospital appointments and things like that, you have to answer every call.
When every other one is trying to sell you something then it does get distressing, yes, it does.
Things got so bad that, at one point, John was receiving up to 14 unwanted calls a day.
I look after my wife and the telephone was ringing, and I was going back to answer the phone.
Of course, my wife's not well, so things were happening and it sort of built up over that, and got more and more annoying that the telephone was intruding into my life, and taking part of my life away, really.
It sounds extreme, but it was.
In 2014, the Information Commissioner's Office received over 175,000 complaints relating to nuisance calls and texts and, from April 2015, they've had new powers making it easier for them to fine the people behind them.
Previously, if you'd signed up to the Telephone Preference Service but were still getting calls, action could only be taken if you could prove that these unwanted calls had caused you distress, but not any more.
Now if a company contacts anyone who's on the list, they have committed a serious breach of the law.
But this law doesn't seem to have deterred the unwanted callers pestering 87-year-old Catherine.
Earlier in the programme, we heard how Catherine, who has dementia, has been bombarded with nuisance calls despite being signed up to the Telephone Preference Service.
To try and finally stop the calls, her daughter-in-law Jenny got in touch with her local council's Trading Standards team, who were able to come up with a solution.
They offered to install a nifty little box that works as a call blocking device in Catherine's home.
Steve Smith, the man who invented it, is going to fit it in person.
- This is Cath, my mother-in-law.
This is Steve.
- Hello, there, Cath.
- Hi, Steve, nice to meet you.
- Very nice to meet you too.
If you'd like to go back through the doorway Once the box is fitted, you load it up with friends and family phone numbers and it lets them straight through.
Everyone else is blocked with a message asking them to ring their carer if the call is important.
There are other similar boxes available to buy, although, as we've reported before, watch out.
Some are a lot more effective than others.
This device, however, is the one that around 100 councils right across the country are now loaning out free of charge to those worst affected by persistent unwanted calls.
OK, what I'm going to do is install the equipment.
We simply unplug the telephone from the phone line and plug it into the back of the unit here.
Then we plug the unit back into the telephone line.
Then we plug the power into the unit.
OK, we're all ready and set.
For Jenny, the idea that her mother-in-law may no longer be bothered and confused by nuisance calls is an enormous weight off her mind.
She knows if she picks the phone up it's going to be someone she wants to speak to rather than somebody that she's scared of speaking to, or somebody that's going to prey on her.
We're just trying to give as much support and help as possible to make her life more comfortable and less stressful, basically.
So has it done the trick? Well, Jenny's reported that the nuisance calls have now stopped altogether, which is a huge relief.
That's also the verdict of Rita and Keith, and of John, all of whom, thanks to their local Trading Standards, have had call blockers fitted.
It's just been like being in heaven.
It just doesn't It just doesn't ring apart from the odd one the odd one, and I can cope with that.
One call I can cope with, but it's when it's multiple calls going on and on and on I think these companies should be stopped from doing this.
It's annoying to me, it's more annoying, probably, to a lot of people.
It should be stopped.
It just shouldn't happen.
So if you or a relative is having real problems with nuisance calls, it is worth seeing if your local Trading Standards office does have something similar.
You'll find more information about how to handle nuisance calls on our website.
It's Here at Rip-Off Britain, we're always ready to investigate more of your stories.
Confused over your bills or feel you're paying well over the odds? It's far too small and it's done on purpose so that you can't actually read it.
People'll look at it and they'll say, "I can't be bothered reading that.
" Are you unsure what to do when you discover you've lost out and that so-called great deal has ended up costing you money? People are buying into this, I did.
Are they going to be as awkward with them as they were with me? You might have a cautionary tale of your own and want to share your story with us, so that other people don't do the same thing.
Just fobbed off completely and very disappointed.
Well, you can write to us at Or you can send us an e-mail to The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.
Now, I'm quite sure you'll agree that we've heard some really shocking stuff today when it comes to how we can all be targeted.
But, of course, we may unfortunately and without fully appreciating it have given these businesses the in to repeatedly get in touch, so you really do need to be very careful about what you're signing yourself up to.
Absolutely.
If you don't want your details sold on to a third party, or indeed used at all, then make sure you tick the right box when filling out any kind of form.
You need your wits about you because sometimes the wording is such that ticking the box you think is stopping your details being passed on is actually giving permission for it to happen.
That could mean those calls and letters just keep on coming.
And although as we've seen there are now some very effective ways to stop all of that unwanted communication, if you don't want to be contacted out of the blue in the first place, then it is really much better to prevent it happening at the beginning rather than trying to sort it out at a later date.
But I'm afraid that that is all that we have time for today and it's where we have to leave you, but we will be back very soon to investigate more of your stories.
- Until then, from all of us on the team, bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.