Advertisers slam "scam" tactics

Forres High Street

“I THINK I was had” was the view of one local business person, who claimed she was conned into advertising in a publication, by a telephone salesman, who let her think she was speaking with the ‘Forres Gazette’.

In fact, the man was working for another publication, whose website ‘Gazette Scotland’ is created by a group working south of the border, who have been particularly targeting advertisers in the Forres and Elgin areas, with some people accusing them of misleading sales techniques.

Reports have come into the Forres Gazette office that the bulk of people who advertise with them, don’t see their advert unless they ask for a copy of the paper.

Furthermore, a search on Forres High Street this week couldn’t produce one single copy of the elusive publication called ‘the gazette’ with two out of three available newsagents, saying they had never even heard of it.

Meantime, Christine Morrison, director of Macdonald and Munro based in Elgin, who advertise regulary with ‘Scottish Provincial Press’ (SPP) which is the ‘Forres Gazette’s’ parent company, took out a £90 advert with the ‘Gazette’ which she said she thought was the Forres paper, and wouldn’t have advertised if she had known otherwise.

She said she was horrified when she realised it wasn’t the ‘Fores Gazette’ but a publication she had never heard of.

“The saleman was very clever,” she said. “He told me he had seen my advert in the Midweek Extra (the Gazette’s sister paper) and they could put it in the ‘Gazette’ at a reasonble rate.”

Christine said she naturally assumed that it was the ‘Forres Gazette’ and he didn’t correct her misunderstanding, and she still didn’t click when they sent her a confirmation email for the advert, which revealed that the company was the Caledonian Gazette, which is based in Gloucester and has nothing to do with SPP.

“I keep thinking maybe it was me and they caught me on a bad day,” she said. “But I am really careful about advertising as I was scammed once before.”

Unable to find the publication locally, Christine asked for copies of the paper and said she was horrified at the quality of an advert. She also phoned other local companies whose advert appeared to find out if they realised who they had advertised with, including a local flooring company.

“His advert was really bad, you couldn’t even see his phone number, she said. “He told me he had thought he was advertising in Forres and suspected something was wrong as he had asked for a proof of his advert but never seen one. He was very unhappy.”

Meantime, another ‘Forres Gazette’ advertiser, Alan Duncan from Seaforth Windows said that the company have made his life a misery phoning him upteen times a day and often six or seven times in half an hour or less.

“They phoned me last Thursday over and over again,” he said. “They have phoned me lots of times before, it is always the same story, but different people. This time they were driving me mad as I was trying to do something else and the phone kept ringing. I just got really angry and phoned them back to ask them to stop.”

Alan said that he was horrified when the man on the other end of the phone tried to tell him he was part of the Northern Scot group, which Alan knew was a fabrication, and told him so.

“As far as I’m concerned this is a scam,” he said. “I’m not stupid and I would never advertise with someone I don’t know, unless I see something first. I know who I advertise with and I would urge everyone to be careful.”

Meanwhile, Polly Lochore from Burgie House near Forres did advertise with the company because they told her that they put newspapers all over the south of England which she said was a market she wanted to target.

However, she said that the company have mad eher life a misery and have plagued her with phone calls ever since. They have even deducted payments for advertising from her credit card, which she has subsequently cancelled.

“They just kept getting different people to phone me, supposedly from different papers down south,” she said, “but it is always the same pitch. I suspect they just employ a string of young people who have a target list which they repeatedly phone.”

No-one was available when the ‘Forres Gazette’ attempted to contact the ‘Gazette’ offices on Monday.

If someone phones you purporting to be the Forres Gazette and offering advertising phone us no 01309 672615 to check if you are worried or email admin@forres-gazette.co.uk.