Scheme is stuff . . . and nonsense
Probes a world of scams and scandals
A.N. writes: I sent for details of a scheme about working from home. I received a reply from Mr G.J. Trott of Top Mailshare in London, offering work stuffing leaflets into envelopes for £1.10p a time or £6 to £8 per page for typing. I sent £35 to join the scheme but was sent no work and when I asked for a refund I received nothing. AS SOON as I saw your letter, the details sounded horribly familiar. From about 2000 until 2009, I received regular complaints about a conman named Ibrahim Shevket who ran a scheme called Top Star Mailshare.
He advertised that people could work from home, stuffing envelopes for £1.10p a time or typing for £6 or more per page. But ‘to discourage timewasters’, he had to ask for a registration fee.
Anyone who paid would receive a letter from Shevket saying: ‘We will be writing to you as soon as work is available in your area.’ Of course, it never was.
In the end, Shevket was halted by Trading Standards investigators from the London Borough of Haringey where he was based. In the first case of its kind anywhere in the country against a homeworking scam, they used the Enterprise Act 2002 to order Shevket to stop breaching customers’ rights by usi ng misleading advertisi ng claims. The order was legally bind- ing so if Shevket carried on conning he could be hauled before a judge for contempt of court.
So, what does all this have to do with Top Mailshare and your missing £35? Well, the offer you received was almost a word-for-word copy of the false mailshots issued by Ibrahim Shevket. It promised to deliver hundreds of leaflets and envelopes to your door. All you had to do was stuff the leaflets into envelopes and address them from a list provided and a driver would collect them and pay you in cash.
The whole scheme was run from an address in Haringey in North London – Ibrahim Shevket’s old patch.
But this is where things get murky. Shevket moved away years ago, so for the past several weeks I have been working with the local Trading Standards Department to investigate this copycat scam.
At the address in Haringey, Geoffrey Trott denied all knowledge of mailshots sent out in his name. He told me: ‘Someone must be copying leaflets and sending them out with my name on them. I have done a bit of mail order, but that was 16 years ago. I have retired now and am on a pension.’
So what happened to the cash you sent? Trott explained that he lives in a house split into rented rooms and flats. He said: ‘If he sent me any money I have never received it. The place where I live has got thieves living in it. Letters get stolen.’
There is no way to prove who pocketed your payment, but I hope that publishing this story will serve as a warning that nobody should trust Top Mailshare’s lies, let alone send money.
A Haringey Council spokeswoman said: ‘Our Trading Standards team have been working with The Mail on Sunday to investigate this complaint. We encourage anyone with information to contact Citizens Advice.’ If there are already other victims, or if Top Mailshare has switched to a new address elsewhere, we must stop it before it takes root.