Office of Fair Trading publish league table of top five direct marketing scams.
Deceptive sweepstakes
Misleading prize draws
Fake clairvoyant / psychics
Bogus foreign lotteries
“Miracle” health cures
Published by OFT earlier this year following its “scamnesty” campaign. If unsure contact Arden who will take any concerns up with the DMA legal team.
Those hoping to bask in the marketing benefits and join in the promised increased business that the Olympics in 2012 are promised to bring to us – STOP!!
You may be surprised at how restrictive the provisions of the Olympics Act are.
Combining various words in any future promotions could result in a £25,000 Fine!
Listed Words: two or more words in List A, or any word in list A with one or more of the words in list B
List A: Games, Two thousand and twelve, 2012, Twenty-Twelve
List B: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Medals, Sponsor/s, London, Summer
See the Charterered Institute of Marketing’s document for details.
On 2 May 2008, Ofcom published two consultations as part of its ongoing review of 087 numbers. This notification gives an update on the proposed timing of any changes to the rules on 087 numbers.
0870 numbers
In May, Ofcom consulted on proposals on charges for calls to 0870 numbers. These included the proposal that all calls to 0870 numbers should cost no more than calls to geographic numbers (01 or 02 numbers) unless communications providers comply with rules on publicising higher prices. At the time, Ofcom aimed to announce its conclusions on this by autumn 2008.
However, Ofcom’s work on this consultation needs to take place alongside an ongoing dispute on wholesale termination rates, the rates that operators charge each other to end 0870 calls on each others’ networks. Work on this had been suspended pending the recent judgement of the Competition Appeals Tribunal on mobile termination rate disputes which was published recently, and as a result this work has now restarted.
Ofcom continues to assess the proposals in its May 2008 consultation and the responses to that document in light of these developments. Ofcom aims to publish a further statement on implementing any changes to 0870 policy by the end of the year.
087 numbers
Ofcom aims to publish a statement on its proposal to bring the most expensive 087 numbers(including 0871, 0872 and 0873 numbers) within the remit of PhonepayPlus, in the autumn.
From Royal Mail: -
Further to changes announced on the 19th of June 2008, we have listened to feedback from our customers and trade bodies.
As a result, we have decided to extend the period of time when we will not surcharge customers for the incorrect use of punctuation for OCR products for a further 3 months until the 19th of December 2008.
This extension applies to the following Royal Mail products
Customers are reminded that this clarified and formally relaxed Royal Mail’s previous position where no punctuation was permitted and followed a period of time where use of punctuation was not surcharged. All other changes announced on the 19th of June 2008 remain the same, with the same timeframes for introduction.
Royal Mail would like to make it clear that the extended timeframe in this instance is made completely without prejudice, and will not necessarily apply to any future specification changes we may introduce.
For further information, please contact your Royal Mail Account Handler or Customer Operations Manager.
Or contact us at Arden Direct Marketing of course! Use Contact Us link in the link list on the right.