Investigations

Online crooks recruit jobhunters as money mules

2009-11-19T08:15:29Z

Being scammed after losing your job is a double kick where it hurts.

Thousands of jobseekers are duped by online banking fraudsters into acting as "money mules" laundering millions every week.

Worse, the mules, who think they have a genuine job with a foreign company, end up out of pocket and branded criminals.

John is typical. When he was laid-off, he looked online for home-based work.

"Most were scams," he told bobbear.co.uk. "But one email from a company called Cronos invited me to be a 'regional rep' for their firm.

"Money would be transferred to my account, then I'd pass it via Western Union to their reps in Poland." After a first payment of £2,115 cleared, John kept his agreed 10% cut and wired on the rest.

Following a second transfer of £3,882, a cashpoint machine kept John's card. When he rang his bank, he was put through to the fraud centre. His account had been frozen and he now owes nearly two grand.

And John - not his real name - is far from alone.

Experts believe there may be up to 5,000 active money mules in the UK at any one time.
Just as drug mules are used to traffic drugs across borders, so money mules are used to launder cash overseas.

In the first six months of this year, online-banking fraud soared 55% to £39million, with every penny passing through money mules.

We visited the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) to watch the fraudsters at work.
A SOCA officer showed us websites where organised gangs meet online to trade stolen goods and criminal services.

Some specialise in getting online banking details - by tricking people into giving account passwords or by infecting unprotected computers with malicious software.

But hacking into a bank account is half of the job. The fraudsters - mostly based in Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic States - can't just transfer the money abroad.

That's where the money mules come in.

SOCA's specialist showed us adverts from criminals offering "drops" - slang for money mules - in the UK.

"An army of UK drops await your transfers, people in all banks, including Cooperative, Alliance, Yorkshire and others. Commission 40 - 50%," said one.

Some will be willing mules. Foreign nationals shipped in to open bank accounts and leave. But these accounts are closely monitored. Well-established account holders make better mules.

"I can offer you drops in the UK for any UK bank login," said another ad. "We can get businss drops and even old drops that are with certain banks for years. We have a very good success rate."

Mule recruiters trawl job sites for potential targets. Nine in 10 UK internet users have never heard of money mules, making recruitment easier.

Mules are often approached directly by name, shown flashy websites and asked to email their CVs to work as "financial managers" or "money-transfer agents". Some are given employment contracts.

"They are making you jump through hoops so you think it is genuine," said Tony Neate, head of Get Safe Online.

"If you are struggling financially, this can seem the ideal opportunity. The economic downturn has made it easier to recruit mules.

"But you have still committed a crime. You have received stolen goods. You have laundered the money. Some banks will prosecute.

"If it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

The spam emails

Here's a typical first approach from a mule recruiter:

From: Steven Brooks Subject: TotalJobs Employment Offer Date: Friday, 23 October, 2009
Zoom Financial Services
275 Burwood Rd, Burwood,
NSW, 2134, Australia.

Hello,
my name is Steven Brooks and I am Zoom Financial Services Hiring manager. We have found your CV at TotalJobs jobs board and decided to offer this job to you.

Our services
When buying-selling operations via the Internet are concerned, the buyer and the seller don't know each other (they may be placed in different corners of the world) - it is very important both to the buyer and the seller for their deal to be made safe. Payment Protection means receiving money, documents, goods (it might be both the seller's and the buyer's) concerning the transaction to a reliable, experienced, impartial person - our Payment Protection agent. The agent will hold all the documents and money until all the terms of the deal are satisfied and only then release them to the intended receiver. Please, visit our web-site for more information. (http://www.zoomfinancialservices.com/)

Why we need Payment Protection agents
Having a Payment Protection agent in every country we can quickly transfer funds inside a country without wasting time on the international bank transfers, and continue our rapid growth rather than overwhelming our own bank account with inbound and outbound transactions leading to severe hold times and possible service interruption. It is time that is of significant importance to our clients.

Career and Benefits
Your main task will be receiving money transactions to any bank account you would like to use for the purposes of this job; and then forwarding these transactions to the next party of the Payment Protection process according to our instructions. You will benefit from the commissions, which are 5-7% of each transaction and depend on the quantity of the completed transactions and the speed of your work. Besides, you will be paid a basic salary of 1500 GBP per month.

For your convenience there will be no paychecks, your commission will remain in your account after every successfully completed transaction. The money transfer fee is not included in your commission, meaning that you will deduct it from the received amount, not from your commission. Also you receive 5-7% of the transaction amount. Normally the amounts that we process vary from 2,000 GBP to 10,000 GBP, but can go higher on special occasions.

Job details
As the financial activity in your area is not too high, a Payment Protection agent will be processing approximately 1-2 transactions per week. Each transaction requires approximately 4-5 hours of the agent work. Our manager always calls the agent beforehand to provide all the instructions. Therefore, with the due time management, the agent is able to combine this job with other activities (e.g. primary job or studies).

If you are ready to proceed, please provide your AVAILABLE phone number to our hiring manager (Alexander Allen) at hiring@zoomfinancialservices.com

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need more information.

Yours Sincerely,
Steven Brooks,
Zoom Financial Services
http://zoomfinancialservices.org/

The recruiters will go out of their way to make the job look as legitimate as possible.

Some mules are phoned by the "HR department" of the fake company. John received a call from a UK mobile as he signed up.

The scam jobs may have different labels - "financial agent" or "shipping manager", for example - but they all boil down to the same thing: receiving money into your bank account and wiring it abroad by Western Union, MoneyGram or similar international wire transfer. Fraudsters use these services as the money can't be traced.

Also, watch out for a variant of the scam, where victims are asked to work as a "mystery shopper" testing customer service at a UK bank.

The fake job sites

This is the website for the Cronos Group Inc that snared John:

These websites can be very convicing and are often copies of genuine sites belonging to financial institutions.

They may give physical addresses, but these are fake. They may have contact numbers that go through to a call centre but these too are set up by the fraudsters.

Do your research. Look up the company on Google and sites like bobbear.co.uk.

The Cronos website claims: "The company was set up in 1990 in New York, the USA by three enthusiasts who have financial education."

But the website was only registered in September and just for one year - hardly the act of a 20-year-old US institution with 3,000 staff and offices in 100 countries.

Google "Cronos Group Inc" (the quote marks will narrow your search to these exact words in order) and you get just two pages of results - again not what you would expect from a company of "international standing".

For more advice visit www.getsafeonline.org.

Still waiting for furniture from Darragh MacAnthony's MRI

2009-11-19T00:00:11Z

Best known as the chairman of Championship strugglers Peterborough United, Darragh MacAnthony also owns a furniture business.

But now a string of customers are wishing they'd never come across MacAnthony Realty International, or MRI.

Based in Spain, it specialises in furnishing overseas apartments, such as the one that Pat and Mervyn Bloom of Wisbech, Cambs, bought in Cape Verde in October 2008.

When they asked where their £16,000 worth of furniture was, they were told they'd have to wait until it was worthwhile for MRI to deliver a batch to them and other customers.

Another customer, who wants to remain anonymous, also paid £16,000 and when she asked for a delivery date says she was told "insufficient properties have been completed to justify sending a container to Cape Verde".

Catherine and John from Londonderry paid £21,000 to furnish their Cape Verde apartment and said: "MRI now appear uncontactable".

"It does not accept telephone calls and when we emailed the furniture department as directed by a recorded telephone message we received an automated response informing us that we will be contacted; this has not happened. We have no information about our furniture."

Even though MacAnthony (pictured above) is the chairman of MRI, our questions were answered by chief executive Dominic Pickering.

He said of the Blooms: "They should have completed in mid 2008. For one reason or another (and possibly not their fault) they did not complete until mid 2009. Their Aftersales membership expired in mid 2009 so even though they received regular updates about the construction of the property during their membership, by the time they completed, the membership had run out. Despite that, we have kept in touch with them and are committed to installing their furniture."

In Jackie's case, he said: "Some clients took a long time to complete on their property, in the meantime some of the furniture suppliers went out of business.

"However, we have made it clear to all clients that we intend to supply a furniture pack to everyone who qualifies."

And John and Catherine "will get their furniture and we'll be in touch".

To adapt a chant sung by Posh fans (to the tune of Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay): "We've got MacAnthony, you've not got your settee..."

We also asked Dominic Picketing about MRI Overseas Property Limited, a UK company that has just gone into voluntary liquidation. Is this the same MRI Overseas Property that we're talking about?

"Completely separate company," he replied. "The company we are talking about is a Spanish company. We had a subsidiary in the UK that we never used. As such we closed it a couple of weeks ago. It had never traded, and so it was no big deal."

Also in liquidation is MRI Media, formally called MacAnthony Realty International UK Limited. This is a big deal - it owes around £560,000 that it cannot pay.

Finally, MRI TV Limited is in liquidation owing more than £300,000.

Dervis Sammali and Tahsin Gerceker of car scammers Profinder banned from being directors

2009-11-19T00:00:11Z

More well-deserved grief for the cheats behind one of the worst of the "car-matching" frauds.

These scams prey on motorists who advertise a car for sale, telling sellers that their company has buyers lined up.

But after you pay for their selling "service" the so-called buyers vanish.

Pro Ads Limited, which traded as Profinder, charged £99 to £129 and notched up an astonishing 900 complaints - and that's just counting the ones in writing.

Hertfordshire Trading Standards moved in and last year Dervis Sammali, 24, and Tahsin Gerceker, 33, were given 10-month and six-month jail sentences respectively after being prosecuted for 150 Trade Descriptions offences.

Judge John Plumstead branded the scam "cold-blooded personal cheating".

The parasitic pair are out now but won't be running any more firms for some time.

Sammali has just been banned from being a director for 10 years and Gerceker for five.

Debt problems? Debtmanuk.co.uk know the feeling...

2009-11-19T00:00:11Z

Struggling with mounting debts? Let Debtman UK ease your burden.

So boasts the debtmanuk.co.uk website and we can't deny they know a thing or two about struggling to pay bills.

The company secretary is Caroline Bain of Livingston, West Lothian, and the consumer credit licence number given on the website is registered in her name.

But perhaps not for much longer. This summer, Caroline was made bankrupt and her estate sequestered by Linlithgow Sheriff Court.

Maybe not the ideal person for dealing with your money worries after all.

Booking a holiday cottage? Make sure you pay the person who actually owns it...

2009-11-19T00:00:11Z

Here's a warning about paying strangers when booking holidays.

When Yvette Tamara reached the apartment she had rented for £850 in Monte Carlo, the owner knew nothing about her or her booking.

Yvette, from Maidstone, Kent, had to check into a nearby hotel where she says staff told her that five other people had booked in the previous week after falling for the scam as well.

She had booked the apartment though self-catering-breaks.com, paying someone using the name Jose Nieto.

Helen Young of self-catering-breaks said that the site was only "an advertising portal" and not responsible for holiday bookings.

Jose Nieto, perhaps not surprisingly, cannot be traced.

Another reason to avoid the online teeth-whitening offer

2009-11-19T00:00:00Z

Extreme White is a scam - official.

Since exposing the "free" online offer for this supposed teeth whitening product (original story here), we've heard from scores of people who say they've been ripped off by this outfit.

The snare comes after you give your credit card details to cover postage, only to find £59.99 deducted.

Extreme White is part of American company MP Innovations, run by New York "entrepreneur" Shawn Partain.

A previous gem of his was the "Body and Sole Patch" which claimed to detox your system with wood vinegar if you stuck it to the sole of your foot.

Now the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled his Extreme White promotion misleading and said that it must not be used again.

The company insisted that the complaints were the result of "misunderstanding on the part of consumers".

Presumably that must mean misunderstanding the word "free" to mean not paying anything.

Winning the war against mobile phone scams

2009-11-17T13:17:56Z

Complaints about premium rate phoneline services aimed at mobile phones have plummeted.

Figures released by PhonepayPlus show a 62 per cent decrease in complaints last month, compared to July 2008. (Don't know why they're not comparing October 2009 with October 2008).

The watchdog puts the improvement down to changes introduced at the start of the year, including "active confirmation".

This means that anyone joining a service costing more than £4.50 per week cannot be charged until replying to a free text confirming that they agree to the subscription costs and conditions.

More details from Phonepayplus.

Meanwhile the European Union has announced that 70 per cent of websites investigated for mis-selling ringtones, wallpaper and the like have been corrected or closed.

EU Consumer Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva said: "This EU wide investigation was a direct response to hundreds of complaints coming in from parents and consumers from many different EU countries.

"Young people should not have to fall victim to scams like misleading advertising that lure them into ringtone subscriptions they thought were free. And parents should not find nasty surprises in their phone bill, when their children by accident have signed up to more than they have bargained for.

"These results show that EU wide enforcement co-operation can make a huge difference in cleaning up a market for consumers. This kind of joint enforcement action is where EU consumer policy will focus a lot of efforts in the future."

Essex Trading Standards clean up fake towels

2009-11-12T08:52:28Z

Here's a lovely example of joined-up thinking.

When counterfeit goods are seized by Trading Standards they're normally destroyed, which make sense in the case of, say, moody vodka or batteries, which could be dangerous.

But what about fake towels? They might not be the top brand names claimed on the label, but surely they're not going to hurt anyone.

Which is why Essex County Council Trading Standards officers have donated 2000 towels to various animal charities across the county. The counterfeits, seized from market traders, had names such as Ralph Lauren, Next, Chanel and Versace.

Trading Standards officer Peter Coates arranged an evening of de-branding, where colleagues gave up their own time to cut the trade marks out of the towels.

County councillor Tracey Chapman, cabinet member for waste and recycling said: "This was a very thoughtful thing to do and the towels will come in very handy for lots of animal charities with winter around the corner. I would like to thank Trading Standards officers for their hard work in finding the counterfeit towels and then distributing to deserving charities."

Lovely.

Victory - Government bans upfront acting and model agency fees for most vulnerable victims

2009-11-12T00:00:04Z

They're the shameless charlatans who prey on showbiz hopefuls with promises of a glamourous career.

But finally it could be curtains for the rogue agencies we've been exposing for years, because today the Government will announce a clampdown on this scourge that has fleeced countless wannabes.

This will be bad news for the likes of Erik Chandler, one of the most persistent parasites.

We exposed his Hidden Faces agency for conning hopefuls into paying upfront fees with lies about earnings of £1,000 per job and links to shows such as EastEnders.

Today's key change is a ban on agencies taking upfront fees from the most vulnerable sections of the profession - fashion and photographic models and extras.

It will still be legal for agencies to refer clients to a second company, which will be allowed to charge for photographs - these will be covered by a 30 day cooling off period.

Change can't come too soon for this running sore.

We recently heard from unemployed Craig Smyth, who paid agency BlueXtras £350 to be on its books.

"After a week they called to say they had a photoshoot for a calender which would earn me £9,600 but said I would have to pay £1,000 to secure a studio and photographer," the 21-year-old told us. So Craig paid - and is still waiting for the calender job or any other work.

BlueXtras told us Craig's £350 was for his profile to go on its website, adding: "We at no time guarantee work to anyone choosing to advertise on our website."

We're not surprised, considering that the latest three monthly figures show that this site got - and you're reading this right - just 0.000008% of global internet traffic.

Since we stepped in BlueXtras says the issue has been "amicably resolved" - but will only refund Craig for the photoshoot.

Announcing the new rules, Business Minister Pat McFadden said: "There are some rogue agencies that prey on models and entertainers who have stars in their eyes.

"Last year we introduced a cooling off period for upfront fees, but we are still receiving reports that people are being exploited. So now we are going even further by banning them outright."

The rules are due to come into effect by October next year and will be enforced by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate.

Agencies that break the law could face unlimited fines and be banned from operating for up to 10 years.

Martin Kenny, from Equity welcomed the announcement, saying: "We fully support these changes and hope that they will further strengthen the rights of workers across all industry offering greater protection against the acts of unscrupulous agents.

"Equity has worked closely with BIS throughout this consultation process and will continue to do so. We look forward to the implementation of the regulations in 2010 and we are confident that they will provide a better framework to bring successful prosecutions".

Spencer MacDonald of BECTU (Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union) said: "BECTU has always condemned and opposed upfront fees taken by agents for background artistes. For that reason BECTU welcomes this bold move to ban fees being taken from extras and walk-ons. This could now spell the end of the worst abusive practices that have plagued agency workers in the entertainment sector".

But there was a warning from Clive Hurst, of Equity, who has long campaigned against these scams who is alarmed that fees can still be charged for taking photographs of hopefuls.

He also pointed out that Employment Agency Standards has never prosecuted a showbiz agency for breaking previous regulations.

"This changes will mean nothing if they are not enforced," he warned.

Record low workplace deaths - but it's still 180-a-year too many

2009-11-12T00:00:03Z

Last year was the safest in history for British workers. There were 180 workplace deaths in 2008/9, the lowest ever recorded.

That's still 180 too many, in our opinion, and there's a risk standards might slip.

Heath and Safety Executive chairwoman Judith Hackitt said: "History suggests that when we move back into economic growth the rate of work-related injuries will tend to increase."

So here's three reminders why "elf'n'safety" matters.

1. Britain's biggest construction firm's blunder cost a man his life.

Laing O'Rourke was warned in 2003 that a batch of "threaded shoring adaptors" - used as temporary supports - was faulty.

Two years later, the same TSAs used to support a concrete slab in the construction of Heathrow's Terminal 5 failed.

Carpenter Matthew Gilbert, 27, from Plymouth, fell 50 feet to his death. A colleague had life-changing injuries.

Laing O'Rourke and supplier SGB Services Ltd admitted health and safety offences and were fined £105,000.

2. A £15 padlock could have prevented a worker's agonising death.

When Balwinder Singh Aulkh climbed into a rice silo at the Veetee Rice factory in Rochester, Kent, his foot was caught by a screw conveyor. He died of his horrific injuries.

Veetee Rice admitted breaking health and safety regulations over access to dangerous machinery. It was fined £140,0000 with £25,000 costs.

3. John O'Connor, 38, from Rugby, was crushed to death when he freed a jammed pallet blocking the production line at a pet food factory.

John went through a gap in fencing that should have been closed off.

Butcher's Pet Care, of Crick, Northants, pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches and were fined £100,000.

Premium rate firm mBlox appeals fine - and fails

2009-11-12T00:00:01Z

The firm with the worst track record for facilitating premium-rate scams considered fines an "occupational hazard"... until it had to start paying them, a tribunal has been told.

It's an astonishing claim - but comes as no surprise.

Andrew Bud, boss of mBlox, provider of premium-rate lines, told us in 2007 that fines were passed on to the conmen responsible.

He defended his firm's record of £79,500 fines for its lines in 2006 "in proportion to the sheer scale" of the £29m-a-year business but admitted he would like to see them
"lower". As if.

Fines involving mBlox lines rose past £100,000 in 2007 to £372,000 in 2008 and on to an eye-watering £866,000 so far this year.

When dodgy clients began to disappear, mBlox ended up carrying the can.

Bud sat on the board of PhonepayPlus for four years and helped draw up the very code of practice that's being used against his firm. So he can't complain, can he?

Appealing against one recent £150,000 fine, mBlox bleated about its "human rights" and being punished for the "sins of others".

But the PhonepayPlus tribunal said mBlox's checks were "plainly inadequate" and that it had an "exceptionally poor record".

Bud insists that things are much better since mBlox spent £500,000 on scam detection - and the "occupational hazard" bit was a slip by a lawyer, apparently.

Lewisses of Rail Recruit banned

2009-11-12T00:00:00Z

The lying Lewisses have finally 'fessed up.

While cheques worth £34,000 from Rail Recruit bounced and workers were owed thousands in unpaid wages, director Christine Lewiss managed to pay £37,000 to her husband David.

He's finally admitted to the Insolvency Service that he did "no such work for the company requiring payment" and has been banned from being a company director for two-and-a-half years.

Slippery Christine, from Cromer, Norfolk, has been banned for six years.

eBay pair in court for selling fakes

2009-11-06T09:02:20Z

A huband and wife team have been sentenced for flogging counterfeit printer cartridges on eBay and Amazon.

Andrew Budgen and his wife Ying pleaded guilty at Guildford Magistrates Court in Surrey to selling the fakes but sentencing took place at Guildford Crown Court so the prosecution could pursue them under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The pair had for more than two years been buying "Epson" and "Hewlett Packard" ink cartridges and "Braun" electric toothbrush heads from China, which they then advertised online.

All the goods were cheap copies of genuine products. When their house in Cranleigh, Surrey, was searched more than 900 ink cartridges and 17 boxes of toothbrush heads were seized.

Surrey Trading Standards described the operation "large and well-organised", adding that the defendants knew they were selling fakes because they were sourced so cheaply and because of the number of customer complaints.

They were each sentenced to four months in prison suspended for two years and given Community Orders to carry out 200 hours unpaid work.

The judge Mr Recorder Oliver ruled that Andrew Budgen had benefited from the crime in the sum of £111,364 and had £4837 of realisable assets, which he ordered confiscated. Ying Budgen was judged to have benefited from her criminal lifestyle in the sum of £108,700 and had £16,338 of realisable assets, which was ordered to be confiscated.

They've got three months to pay or face a year in jail.

The judge ordered the destruction of all the seized goods.

Those Beckham micro-pigs - what will bacon of them?

2009-11-05T11:06:44Z

The Mirror ran a story this week about David and Victoria Beckham buying so-called micro-pigs, which apparently will only be 14 inches tall when fully grown.

Now we've heard from pig breeder Tony York. Before you rush out and buy some of the pigs for Christmas, it might be worth reading what he says:

Having been involved in the breeding of pigs for nearly 40 years, having run specialist courses on 'Rare Breed Pigkeeping' since 1991 and having written many books on the subject I think that you should be aware of the current situation as far as the trend towards 'Micro - Tea-cup and miniature pigs' are concerned.

Currently some breeders are sell pigs that they claim are going to remain around 12" tall with many demanding hundreds of pounds for these incredibly small pigs. They accompany their claims with pictures of piglets taken when they are only a few weeks old and we think that the public should know the truth.

We have heard from many people who have bought these pigs expecting them to remain small as their names suggest only to find that they grow far bigger than they could ever have imagined. Some growing well above knee high and some even growing to waist high!! Not only are they taller than expected but they are also bigger and fatter in every way than they were led to believe. Why is this?

1. There is no such genuine 'breed' as a 'tea-cup' pig, a 'micro' pig or a 'handbag' pig..... these are just names invented by breeders to cash in on the demand for very small pigs.
2. The pigs being sold as remaining very small for life are cross breeds often using the 'runt' of a litter in the hope that they will remain small but genetics does not allow this to happen.
3. Some breeders are claiming to have crossed genuine 'pet' pigs with 'Tamworths' and 'Gloucestershire Old Spots' - just look at how big they grow!! Anyone thinking of falling into the 'pay a fortune for a 12" pig' should seriously follow the advice given to be by my father when I once took home an extremely beautiful girlfriend. When I asked for his opinion he looked at her and said quite simply....."Go and take a look at her mother!".....How right he was!!
4. It is no good buying pigs just from seeing pictures of piglets or from just seeing them when they are a few weeks old. People should always ask to see the mother and if possible the father. If they are 3' tall or more and equally long then they will know how big their 'cute little 6 week old piglet' is going to be in a few months or years time.
5. Some breeders will not even be able to show mother and father because they do not have them!!! They buy in small piglets or runts of a litter and then claim to have bred them even if they haven't - they have no provenance at all.
6. Why are they charging such exorbitant prices well into hundreds of pound and very often in excess of £700? Quite simply because they know that they have to 'make hay while the sun shines' ....in a year or two their '12" piglets' will have grown to a size much larger than expected and the 'Cat will be out of the bag'. An expression that comes from the days when traders would sell 'a pig in a poke' . They would put piglets in a sack ('poke') and hang it on the side of their stalls. Buyers would feel the piglets through the bag and then weigh them before buying but unscrupulous dealers would include a couple of kittens in the sack and it wasn't until they got their purchase home that they realised they had been mislead because 'The cat was out of the bag'!!! These current day breeders are being just as unscrupulous.
7. We understand that some breeders are now injecting the piglets to stop their pituitary gland working correctly so the poor purchaser is buying a big that will never be 100% ....cruel to the piglet and again misleading the buyer

We understand that David and Victoria Beckham have just bought one for £700 or more ......how are they going to feel when the piglets really start growing possibly ending up taller than their children?

If you have any doubts at all just take a look at our website www.pigparadise.com and look at the pictures and read some of the comments that ex course members have made because our reputation as pig experts goes before us. If you still have any doubts at all about what I am saying then come and visit us with a photographer and take some real pictures of a 'Micro' pig. One that has grown properly and is now well above the knee, approaching the waist and is so big four people couldn't pick it up let alone one! We have this pig so that we can show everyone who comes on our 'One Day Pigkeeping Course' the truth about so called 'Micro' pigs.

A pig is not a 'house pet' and as we approach Christmas a pig is certainly 'not just for Christmas' although from everything that appears to be happening lately there are going to be a lot of piglets that will become 'Miniature Christmas Presents'........but not for long!!

A pig is a wonderfully intelligent animals and we should do everything to encourage people to recognise this and do something to save our endangered Rare Breed pigs but they need to know what they are doing and how they should keep them.

We have many people from all walks of life (Doctors, Judges, TV personalities, Clergymen, Nurses, Shopkeepers, Acccountants plus 'Uncle Tom Cobley and all') who attend our courses and since the 'Credit Crunch' many are rearing a very pigs for their own consumption whilst also ensuring they know what they have been fed and how they have been treated - very good. Some have a desire to enjoy the 'Good Life' and want to breed Rare Breed pigs in order to help save the endangered breed lines - equally good. Some even keep pigs as a form of relaxation because of the day to day pressures of their day job thus becoming 'part time' Rare breed pigkeepers - An excellent way of relaxing...BUT if anyone is selling piglets to the unsuspecting public claiming they will remain 12" tall and able to live happily on the sofa with them - they are wrong in the extreme!!

Attached is a picture of Carron holding a cute 'pet' pig in the same manner that unscrupulous breeders display their piglets but the second picture portraits the truth...just look how big mother is! (pictures are our copywrite)

Tony York

PS - there's absolutely no suggestion that the breeder who sold the pigs to the Beckhams has done anything wrong, but if there's any doubt about the future of so-called micro-pigs in general it seems in the public interest and the interests of fair debate to air those doubts.

Prize scammer UK Incentives & Promotions told: stop or face jail

2009-11-05T07:32:42Z

This smug charlatan is living proof that if a letter begins with the word "Congratulations", bin it.

Julian Mills was behind UK Incentives & Promotions, which we exposed in 2007 for using mass mailshots to con victims into handing over £20 for a promised £500,000 jackpot.

This lot is a close relative of European Vacations, also exposed by us for touting holidays for, strangely, £20.

Now Mills has been warned he faces jail if he sends any more dodgy letters like the one saying you were the "sole recipient" of the prize fund "guaranteed to receive cheques totalling £500,000" but first you had to send a delivery fee of £20.

Around 136,000 of these letters were churned out last year. The "official notice" also stated that you were entitled to a genuine diamond watch.

This rubbish produced dozens of complaints to us. John Dakin wrote: "£20 lighter: no prize. My wife said I would be an idiot to send the £20 but I live in hope!"

Rob Northcott didn't fall for it, saying: "I'm going to send back the envelope with no stamp and a few choice words scrawled over the form."

Trading Standards in East Sussex investigated after a complaint from one victim, and found that around 700 complaints had been made to Consumer Direct.

Solicitor Richard Grout told Eastbourne County Court this week that the council took legal action after Mills refused to sign undertakings to end the scam.

Judge Simon Coltart slapped Mills with a 12-month order not to send misleading mail, warning: "If you breach the order you could be punished, including being sent to prison."

After the case an unrepentant Mills, 39, from Stockport, Cheshire, still didn't accept any wrongdoing.

Indeed his lawyer Philip Circus said: "We did not believe that if this had gone to a contested trial, the council would have been successful.

"However Mr Mills is now in a totally different field of activity and is no longer involved in sweepstake mailings or prize funds therefore it was not worth contesting."

UK Incentives and Promotions, which was based in Twyford Berks, went bust earlier this year with debts of £277,000.

Canadian director Allan Diamond, who was not in court, is also the sole director of European Vacations.

Last year, we revealed that this lot was offering a holiday to Turkey for £20, but customers had to pay for extras.

One commenter on our blog, Myra Johnson, was a victim of both operations, getting a £25 voucher to use on an internet jewellery site in return for her £20 UK Incentives fee.

As for the "bargain" holiday, she warned that after paying for extras including food: "It cost me quite a bit."