Tuesday 31 July 2012

charterhouselaw.com is not legit

charterhouselaw.com is not a legitimate entity, if you have received threatening calls or sms text messages from "Micheal Bond" (Doubtful that is his real name, see here) then you best course of action is to ignore them, or better still waste their time by getting them to send you ridiculous threatening emails, and I will publish it here.

You see the beauty of their dodgy operation is they have to send you letters and write stuff to harass you. It all makes for good unique content for google to pick up on, so they are doing all the hard work and making it easy for us to expose their fraudulent operation all you have to do is send us the letters.

Chaterhouse Law is not a legitmate company, let look at the facts:

Their webdomin is pretty young and only registered for the minimum 2 years. Who would register their brand and trad mark for 2 years? Answer - a fake organisation that changes names alot.

Domain Name: CHARTERHOUSELAW.COM
Registrar: WEBFUSION LTD.
Whois Server: whois.123-reg.co.uk
Referral URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk
Name Server: NS.123-REG.CO.UK
Name Server: NS2.123-REG.CO.UK
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 20-dec-2011
Creation Date: 20-dec-2011
Expiration Date: 20-dec-2013

Just as the following company has from south africa who aslo got hit my the facebook global dodgy.


Email from a company being threatened by Charterhouse Law


"Just an update, we have been ignoring calls from a private number. The first call we did answer and when Clinton heard the guy introduce himself as "Michael Bond", he put the phone down.

The phone rang again and again  - three times - and we ditched the call each time. He then received a couple of smsses, each time from a different number, all threatening legal action in the next 24 hours. The number we are supposed to call is: 00 44 203 02 69 408.

We won't call, but this is pretty unsettling stuff.

Kind regards

****
On 31 July 2012 08:35, ****** Bookings <bookings@*******co.za> wrote:
Hi Oliver

Thank you for your response.

You are more than welcome to publish my mail, provided that neither my boss' name nor our companies' names are included. Because FGB have defrauded us out of more than R20 000 (we are based in South Africa), we are keen to do what we can to get our money back. I did call the bank they have an account with and was advised to open a police docket - which we will do.

I'll let you know how that pans out.

Thanks again for your help

Kind regards

*******

On 30 July 2012 16:41, Oliver Bray  wrote:
Hi Jen,

Just ignore them they're a bunch of idiots, and they have no legal recourse as what they're doing is clearly not legal. If you will allow me to publish what you have written below (I will of course take off e-mail addresses) this helps the blog grow and also educate others that this is in fact a dodgy perpetrated by charter house law and Face Book Global sorry to hear you have been done by these clowns as well. Best wishes Oliver

From: J+++++
Sent: lunes, 30 de julio de 2012 12:50
To:
Subject: Facebook 

Hi Oliver

I have no Google ID so I didn't post a comment on your page.

We have also been done. My boss, owns ***** (a special effects studio) and ***** (a make-up shop) -two separate companies. We wanted to advertise on FaceBook, and if we had a good response we would have opened an advert for ****** as well.

Since my boss wised-up and stopped payment, we have received two poorly-worded threatening mails (both attached). I thought it sounded dodgy after they told us that we don't need to see the advert on FaceBook.

I see that they have an account with Standard Bank in South Africa. Do you think it would make a difference if we contacted their branch? Would the bank even care that one of their clients is running a dodgy operation?
We are reluctant to involve a lawyer but will do so if we need to. I see on your blog it is advised that we just ignore them. What do you suggest?

We are keen to help expose these guys in any way possible, so please let me know if we can assist.

Thanks for your blog and the information you post on it.

Kind regards

*******


From: "Legal Charter House Law" <legal@charterhouselaw.com>
Subject: Charter House Law / The Technical Guys - FAO Clinton Smith - legal action will commence in 24 hours
Date: 30 July 2012 11:50:08 GMT+02:00
To:******

Dear

Client: The Technical Guys Facebook Global
Our Ref: NA 15687 / 78459
Outstanding Payment: R4446
Subject: Facebook Advertising – Payment outstanding

We have not received any response or payment from you and therefore we must now take further action to resolve this dispute if payment is not received within 24 hours.

Legal Action

Additional charges will be applied to your debt and an application will be made to register the debt with Trans Union Africa.
Summons will be served to resolved this dispute through the courts and if my client is successful in their claim you will be held liable for all legal fees incurred.

Regards

Michael Bond
Debt Enforcement Office
Charter House Law
Tel: 0044 2030269408
Error! Filename not specified.

From: "Legal Charter House Law" <legal@charterhouselaw.com>
Subject: Charter House Law / The Technical Guys -
Date: 26 July 2012 10:57:15 GMT+02:00


Dear

Client: The Technical Guys Facebook Global
Our Ref: NA 15687 / 78459
Outstanding Payment: R4446
Subject: Facebook Advertising – Payment outstanding

Charter House Law has been instructed to contact you regarding an overdue payment of R4446 with The Technical Guys.

You entered into a legal agreement with my client on the 14th October 2010 to advertise Masque Make Up FX Warehouse on Facebook.

My client received your written cancellation request on the 05th July 2012 and your final payment for your notice period was due on the 06th July 2012.

Payment is required immediately to settle your outstanding payment.

Payment should be made directly to The Technical Guys by EFT bank Transfer

Standard Bank in Constantia
422288845
025309
Reference: Masque Make Up / CHL

Proof of payment must be sent to legal@charterhosuelaw.com

Failure to settle your outstanding debt will result in the following action.

Legal Action

Additional charges will be applied to your debt and an application will be made to register the debt with Trans Union Africa.
Summons will be served to resolved this dispute through the courts and if my client is successful in their claim you will be held liable for all legal fees incurred.

Regards

Michael Bond
Debt Enforcement Office
Charter House Law
Tel: 0044 2030269408
Error! Filename not specified.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

New Name Same Scam FBG Internet trading as socialnetworkingdepartment.com

Any one reading this blog, most likely after contact with FBG Internet should have drawn the conclusion that this is a scam out fit. If you are considering using  FBG now know as socialnetworkingdepartment.com please think twice. They change their website over and over, but the scam remains the same and sadly people do fall for it.

The NEW face of FBG Internet is:  www.socialnetworkingdepartment.com

Avoid them. In fact Avoid any business linking to www.the-technical-guys.com

They change the scam page often, but www.the-technical-guys.com is always their modus operandi. Much better for them to hide between a ticket system so their "customers" can´t speak to them.

The following was a message by yet another scammed customer from South Africa:  Read from the bottom up;





Thanks Oliver,

They have done a charge back only on this last payment –which is where all the drama started- but I don’t think I will be able to recover the last three months and the marketing setup page costs, anyway thanks for your feedback once again.



From: Oliver Bray
Sent: 29 May 2012 12:46 PM
To: 'Claudette Rosen'
Subject: RE: Charter House Law - FBG Facebook Global

Hi Claudette,

Sorry to hear about your experiences, my best advice is to request a chargeback on your credit card, ignore all of their threatening letters because they do not amount to anything of substance, would they pursue you legally? Absolutely not they would not be able to win in court.

Don't be bullied by them. Have reported them to trading standards authorities, sadly no one really seems to be interested. I managed to SEO their site out of business, they just set up a new one new name same scam.



From: Claudette Rosen
Sent: 29 May 2012 12:35
Subject: FW: Charter House Law - FBG Facebook Global

Hi Oliver,
I  too have  been scammed- I unfortunately did a search after the fact.
I have forwarded this to my sister (email below) who is an attorney in the UK – there must be some recourse- if not to get ones money back certainly to have them stopped, prosecuted or something?
There is a site to report scams originating in the UK as well as a division of the FBI that specialises in Internet fraud, the UK details though bounced back  have you forwarded your grievances to anyone that can indict these characters?

Your feedback would be appreciated.


WARM REGARDS

CLAUDETTE ROSEN







From: Legal Charter House Law [mailto:legal@charterhouselaw.com]
Sent: 29 May 2012 10:42 AM
Subject: Charter House Law - FBG Facebook Global

Claudette Rosen,

Client: FBG Facebook Global
Our Ref: FBG 15687 / 78459
Outstanding Payment: R2166
Subject: Facebook Advertising – Payment Dispute

Charter House Law represents FBG in all legal matters in South Africa.

We have been instructed to contact you regarding your chargeback request for the final payment of R2166 taken by my client on the 26th April 2012.

Your chargeback request is not valid and you are requested to cancel this request or the following legal action will be taken immediately against Spin Interiors.

Legal Action

Additional charges will be applied to the debt and the full outstanding debt will be registered with Trans Union Africa.
Summons will be issued to resolve this dispute through the courts and you will be liable for all legal fees incurred.

A Quick Note About this, the "legal Department" is the same office, not legitimate see more here. -

Regards

Michael Bond - Fake Name
Debt Enforcement Office
Charter House Law
Tel: 0311002350



From: Claudette Rosen
To: 'Directors'
Cc: scams@oft.gsi.gov.uk
Subject: FBGSA-SCAM

To Andrew Armstrong:

I have reported you to the necessary authority’s in the UK, for internet fraud as I have suspected for some time that your organisation is unscrupulous, having done some further research I am now convinced, particularly since there are a host of people you have defrauded-see sites attached.

I was never able to view my so called campaign- nor were my friends or associates, in this itself you are in breach of our contract –nor did I ever receive one phone call from anyone that had seen the campaign.

Please refrain from contacting me.

CLAUDETTE ROSEN


 

Monday 19 December 2011

Law Services Department. Their threats are worthless.

If you are being hounded by FBG Internet and Law Services Department you might want to check the following information at the bottom of the post:

This is the registration data for their domain.

In particular: this

Creation Date: 02-jun-2011
Expiration Date: 02-jun-2012


This shows they set up their website on the 2nd of June 2011 and only registered the domain for the minimum of one year. Saving themselves about £5 to not register for the next year.

What legitimate company would do this?

None. Their website, consiting of 3 poorly writen pages serves its purpose as a cover. A cover for nothing.

They are not a registered company and they do not even own their domain name for longer than a year.

Still they saved themselves £5 by planning on being out of business after 12 months.

Now with this in mind do you think they will persue you in court (at a significant cost) for your unpaid debt? Debt that you can prove came about through miss selling and fraud?

Nope, they are a scam. Their their threats are completely hollow and they are just laughable individuals.

If they are attempting to extort you, write into us and we will expose it. 




WHOIS information for lawservicesdept.com :

[Querying whois.verisign-grs.com]
[whois.verisign-grs.com]

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

   Domain Name: LAWSERVICESDEPT.COM
   Registrar: WEBFUSION LTD.
   Whois Server: whois.123-reg.co.uk
   Referral URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk
   Name Server: NS1.LINCWEBHOSTING.CO.UK
   Name Server: NS2.LINCWEBHOSTING.CO.UK
   Status: ok
   Updated Date: 02-jun-2011
   Creation Date: 02-jun-2011
   Expiration Date: 02-jun-2012

Another Scammed Customer Fires Back at FBG Internet and Legal services Department.


Thats it Jodie! Stand up to these fools, you are 100% correct.
Jodie´s email to law services department is seen below. Law services Department act on behalf of FBG Internet. An Scaming operation selling rip off face book advertising campaigns from an office in Altringham (in the UK) they are targeting the UK, Netherlands and South Africa small businesses and ripping them off.

this blog is dedicated to exposing their true business practices.



Hello Robert!

Your telephone number on the bottom of the page does not exist, the address on your website merely lists Auckland Park and is in fact not a proper physical address. Under the CPA legislation I am entitled to a copy of my contract which I have requested a number of times. I gave you the telephone number of our legal counsel you did not phone him (perhaps you are concerned that a real lawyer will see straight through you) , he has also attempted to contact you but your telephone number listed below and on your website does not exist. FBG and Law Services are not registered entities in South Africa despite your claims, there are also no company registrations for both entities in the UK. The fact that you will not provide me with your registration numbers as requested only confirms that this is a bogus operation.

I refuse to be blackmailed, scammed out of any more money or intimidated. Should you wish to proceed, we will proceed with a charge of Fraud for Legal Services and FBG Internet and will sue for damages as we have black and white evidence of breach of contract and illegal business practices.

Please go ahead with Trans Union if you so wish, however you will require a valid business registration number to do this, secondly I have all the evidence to dispute this claim and have your listing removed. This will then give me more ammunition and information to sue for damages.


Have a great day further!

Regards
Jodie


From: Law Services Dept [mailto:legal@lawservicesdept.com]
Sent: 19 December 2011 06:08 PM
To: Removed
Subject: FBG Internet - Immediate Legal Action has commenced

Dear Jodie Cunningham

Reference: Gap Factor Chargeback Request
Our Client: FBG Internet
Outstanding Debt: R4332
LSD Reference: FBG 4589 /457

You have not made payment to resolve your debt.

Additional charges will now be applied to your debt by Law Services Dept and We have now applied to register the full outstanding debt with Trans Union Africa

All information has now been sent to our attorneys who have been instructed to prepare and issue summons to resolve in court.

All requested information will be provided in the litigation process once summons has been issued.

Regards

Robert Howells 
Law Services Dept

Tel: 0105008982





From: Gap Factor 
Sent: 16 December 2011 14:39
To: Law Services Dept
Subject: Re: FBG Internet - Immediate Legal Action is due to be taken

Please be so kind as to furnish us with a copy of the contract, the voice recordings and all your company information including registration number so we can respond accordingly.

Regards
Jodie

Sent from my iPhone

Friday 16 December 2011

FBG INTERNET and LEGAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT.

FBG INTERNET and LEGAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT.

Still up to their dirty tricks. Received an email from Jodie today, receiving the same threats from FBG internet, that they no doubt send out to all their scammed customers. They are scammed because they are sold facebook packages for €350 but worth €33.

If you are approached by FBG Internet please do not buy into what they promise. It is a scam.

If you have been scammed by FBG or threatened by Legal services department send it in, and i´ll publish so others do not fall for their highly unethical practices.

Email from Jodie: Where the text is highlighted in Red I have edited in my responses and comments to her questions.

Hi Oliver

I too have been a victim of the FBG scam and when I discovered that it was a scam I requested my bank to block any withdrawls from FBG from my account. I live in South Africa and received a phone call today from Chris requesting why I had cancelled the debit order with the bank. When I told him that I had no intention of being scammed out of any more money he told me that Legal services will be contacting me (see mail below).

There were a couple of things that first made me nervous about them, too late albeit to get back my original confirmation fee:

· Strange debit on my account in April from Internet Marketing Altrichem (the first debit was referenced as Face Book Global)

(Edit: The company you are referring to is the original company new approach marketing that have been scamming people for years. They started doing this with google ads, when they got to much negative publicity making it harder to sell their scam they changed names to FBGinternet and previously Facebook global.)

· When I tried to understand why I could not personally see my ad on the site or why none of the friends on my page could I was fobbed off (will send email in separate mail)

(Well this might be true in fairness, I have no doubt they did run a campaign for you, but certainly not to the value of what you should have received)

· They have no telephone number but they did when I initiLinkally looked at the site

· When I asked for live statistics I got a static pdf version (will also send this in separate mail)

Even stranger is that I got a phone call today which is a public holiday and Chris even apologised for phoning on what he referred to as a bank holiday.

I have googled legal services and again they do not list an actual physical address but merely an area – Auckland Park in Johannesburg. Robert Howell from legal services also phoned today and claimed he was phoning from Johannesburg – surely they are not in the office on a public holiday.

(It is the same company, probably the same person who sent you the stats. See the previous post about their tactics from a whistle blower who worked for FBG internet) Legal services Department´s website is hosted on the same server as FBG internet.

They are 100% not legitimate legal practitioners and their tactics will be to pass you onto a debt collection company if you do not pay, but they will also harass the shit out of you. However there are grounds for disputing the debt and they will certainly not take you to court for it. If they did, they would clearly loose.

This blog has also amassed considerable evidence of illegal slander activities carried out by FBG employees

so will all the evidence in the public domain no judge in any country would even consider their case.

He also seemed to battle with remembering which surname he was going to use as he stammered a bit when I ask him his full name. His telephone number on the bottom of the page also does not work and does not look like any South African number I have ever seen.

I have also read reports on a website of our called Hello Peter, a few reports for FBG and 2 for legal services. The legal services post look very odd as they are one positive, 1 negative posted on the same day by the same person and totally contradict each other. Very clever if this is another one of their intimidation ploys, post as follows

I owed over R7500 to company called fbg internet who gave me advertising on facebook. I thought i could get away without having to pay the final bill to them, how wrong was I. After I told them to get lost Law Services Dept called me and told me exactly what would happen if I did not pay their client. I didnt believe them but a week later they had blacklisted me all over south africa and Im now due in court in two weeks. ive learnt my lesson and next time im just goign to pay. my advice to any one out there is dont mess with these guys as they really do follow their threats through - anders van westhuisen” ( I also question this name as traditionally in SA it would be Andre Van Der Westhuizen

My response to the mail from Legal Services was that according to our Consumer Protection Act I was entitled to a copy of my contract as well as the telephone voice recordings and they were please to forward them onto me and include their company details and registration number of FBG so that we could decide how we wish to proceed. I await a response!

I would like to find out from you, have they followed through on their threats of blacklisting and laying a charge? I am obviously nervous as I really do not want to have to go through the motions of having to dispute this claim with Transunion as in SA it is really easy to blacklist someone even if they are not at fault?

They will pass you onto a debt collection company, it will be up to you to fight your case, personally I would laugh at their responses and tell them where to go. Check this website for responses to any threats they send you. Do´n´t let them get away with it and certainly do not give them any more money.

Each response they send you send it in here and we will post it.

Thank you for your blog and please let me know if there is any way I can assist in bringing these guys to book and shutting them down for good! I have obviously reported this to the fraud department at our bank. Not sure what else I can do as reporting it to our local police station will go nowhere as they have far more serious crimes to concentrate on!

Kind Regards

Jodie



From: Law Services Dept [mailto:legal@lawservicesdept.com]
Sent: 16 December 2011 02:39 PM
To:
Subject: FBG Internet - Immediate Legal Action is due to be taken


Reference: Chargeback Request

Our Client: FBG Internet

Outstanding Debt: R4332

LSD Reference: FBG 4589 /457

Law Services Dept represents FBG Internet in South Africa for all legal matters.

We have been instructed to contact you regarding your chargeback request on payment taken by FBG Internet on your credit card for your Facebook Advertisng.

I have also listened to the recording of my client’s telephone call to you earlier today and have heard your personal threats made to my client.

The agreement was made with my client on the 18th April 2011 and your advertising was launched as requested on the 18th October 2011.

When you enter into a Direct Telesales Marketing Agreement it is a requirement by Law to carry out a confirmation call in which all terms and conditions are agreed and accepted.

The confirmation call recorded as per legal requirements and clearly shows you were aware of the following cancellation process.

You must cancel in writing 3 days before the end of the first advertised month or it will continue on a monthly basis at which time 30 days notice in writing is required.

History of your account:

18/04/11 – Agreement made between both parties and payment received

18/10/11 – Advertising launched as requested.

18/11/11 – Payment received R2166 – CHARGEBACK REQUESTED

18/12/11 – Final months 30 days required notice period – R2166

You have not requested to cancel your account and my client has only followed the agreed terms and conditions.

Your chargeback request is an accusation of fraud and this is not acceptable.

Your personal threats made today are also not acceptable and will be reported to the Police if this matter is not resolved.

You are required to contact me immediately to resolve this matter today or the following action will be taken.

The recording of you making personal threats will be taken to the Police and will be reported.

Law Services Dept will apply additional charges to the debt and the full outstanding debt will be registered with Trans Union Africa and our attorneys will issue summons to resolve this matter in court.

If you are prepared to cancel your chargeback request my client is prepared to settle and cancel your account with immediate effect.

Robert Howells

Law Services Dept

www.lawservicesdept.com

Debt Recovery Specialist

Tel: 0105008982