Scams

LAPADA have set up an email alert system to warn members about fraudsters after an indepth investigation by the association led to a serial offender being caught and jailed. John Alderson of Seattle was convicted in the USA and has just been sentenced to 41 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He must also pay restitution of $146,000 to victims.

It has only been a matter of weeks since the Antiques Trade Gazette’s last warning concerning scam letters targeting small businesses over the Data Protection Act. Despite the alert, however, dealers continue to be at risk and the complaints we have received about one firm in particular have, if anything, increased.

Scam letters targeting small businesses continue to fall through the letterboxes of Britain’s antiques dealers.The Antiques Trade Gazette has warned in the past of the dubious practices of firms with official-sounding names who ‘offer’ to register dealers under the Data Protection Act for £95.

A man has pleaded guilty to deception charges in an Essex court after conning more than a dozen auction houses across the South East with dud cheques. The extent of Robin Moss’s spree only came to light after auctioneers contacted the Antiques Trade Gazette following a warning in a recent issue and the paper liaised with several police forces across the region.

Police are warning auctioneers in the South East of England to be on the alert after a string of firms have fallen foul of a man signing dud cheques. In the space of a month at least nine auctioneers have been hit by the deception – parting with antiques with a total value running into tens of thousands of pounds.

FIRMS condemned by the Information Commissioner for trying to scare businesses into paying unnecessary fees for a straightforward service have stepped up their campaign to mislead. The Antiques Trade Gazette has warned of the dubious practices of a number of firms in trying to force the trade to use their services to register under the Data Protection Act.

NEW Money Laundering Regulations, affecting dealers and auctioneers, are due to be published in the middle of June with the new code enforceable after a grace period of three months.

A company condemned by the Information Commissioner for misleading businesses into paying unnecessary fees for registering under the Data Protection Act is still targeting antique dealers across the country.

European Union rules to combat money laundering due to come into force in June will oblige businesses accepting cash payments of more than €15,000 (£9400) to adopt a raft of new procedures.

AFTER what seems an unending number of complaints about unscrupulous online fair guides charging for unwanted advertising, the Antiques Trade Gazette has now heard about what appears to be a new scam.

DESPITE warning after warning – the latest on the front page of last week’s Antiques Trade Gazette – dealers are still falling foul of Fairguide, the Vienna-based firm who have been misleading the trade into ordering unwanted advertising for years.

UK: A man calling himself Terence Lucas has disappeared without paying for antiques hired in antique centres to use as props in a film. Mr Lucas, who is described as white, around 40-45, 6ft tall, slim and with very short grey hair, visited three dealers in Antiquarius on the Kings Road, London on October 2, claiming to work for a company called Fine Art Research.

Auctioneers and dealers are asked to be on their guard against a man of Middle-Eastern origin signing cheques in the name of David Gedaneean on a closed account from Royal Bank of Scotland.

DEALERS across the country need to beware of a new campaign to con the trade into paying unnecessary fees for registering under the Data Protection Act.

JUST as the Office of Fair Trading seemed to be making progress over the misleading marketing tactics of the Barcelona-based European City Guide, another similar operation has struck again.

THE spectre of misleading fair guides landing dealers with bills for hundreds of pounds for unwanted advertising has risen yet again.

A FORMER Cambridge University student who plundered priceless historical book collections, stealing works valued at over £1m, has been jailed for four years.

UK: THE Government have issued a warning to the trade about agencies attempting to cash in on the 1998 Data Protection Act at dealers’ expense.

A number of dealers have contacted the Antiques Trade Gazette concerning a couple passing false cheques in antique shops across Dorset, Devon, Oxfordshire and Berkshire.