Victims left baffled by ‘ links to satellite giant’
CLAIMS PIE IN THE SKY
FOR reasons that we can’t fathom, there’s a pleasant strip of the Sussex coast that’s home to one of the most prevalent scams we’ve encountered.
It begins with a coldcall that might leave you thinking it’s from Sky and you need to renew the warranty on your satellite gear.
Barry Lee f rom Southampton tells us that he’s been called by “a woman purporting to represent Sky insurance”.
“She said that as I hadn’t called them out in the previous 12 months I was entitled to a 35% discount for the coming year,” he said.
“She asked for my debit card details, which I wouldn’t give, as the new debit was for a different amount.
“Then she suggested that I give my account number and sort code, which she would put on a direct debit form and send to me, which I agreed to.
“A few days later I received a letter which said that a direct debit had been set up for £ 60, which obviously had nothing to do with Sky.
“I phoned my bank immediately and cancelled it.”
The letter came from a finance processing firm called Interbacs Limited on instructions from L& C Support of – we could have guessed – Bognor Regis i n West Sussex.
Trading as Aerial Support, L& C Support was named after its directors, 31- year- old Liam Greenfield and Christopher Williams, 29.
The firm has just been put into c o m p u l s o r y liquidation in the High Court by HM Revenue & Customs oms over an unpaid £ 18,000 tax bill.
So why was it drumming up new ew customers just before it was about to be shut down?
“At the time we didn’t know that it was going into liquidation,” Liam Greenfield eld told us, explaining that an offer to repay pay overdue VAT in stages was rejected by the taxman. And what about all the online ine comments from people who say they were ere coldcalled by L& C Support and got the impression it was a call from Sky? ky? “What is so frustrating about out the whole set up, as you’re u’re probably aware yourself, , is that there are about 30 companies in this area ea who deal in this,” said id Mr Greenfield.
“You do get some me other companies who take ke the absolute whatsit, t, they are quite happy to lie ie to the customer, saying ‘ Yeah, h, we are Sky TV’.
“We say we are ringing up regarding Sky TV and obviously some people do sometimes think we are Sky but our r paperwork clearly states we are e nothing to do with Sky.”
He said that a company called d Aerialtek has been formed to take over r the work of L& C Support because: “We didn’t want to leave our customers in the lurch”.
This is run by 55- year- old Eleanor Greenfield – Liam’s mother. D o e s she have the experience or time to run what claims to be a national repair and warranty firm? S h e ’ s never before been a company director tor and according to her Facebook page, is a support worker.
“She’s only parttime,” assured Liam. “Aerialtek will pretty much run itself.” A Sky spokesperson said: “We continue to actively monitor and investigate companies selling repair plans or insurance for digital satellite equipment that we receive complaints about, and where there’s evidence of companies wrongly claiming that they are endorsed by Sky, we take the appropriate legal action in order to protect our customers.”