Martin P Wilson Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I have just received a letter saying that there was a problem lodging the instruction with my bank for a subscription to British Journal of Photography. An order I never placed; have never even considered in last 10+ years. The letter was dated 6 August so took 3+ weeks to get to me. The Direct Debit instruction is in favour of BuckPill Ltd and the name and address on the letter is Incisive Financial Media and Buckpill are registered at the same address. The envelope has return address of Dovetail Service in Sittingbourne. It feels extremely dodgy to me and I will be raising it with BJP through their web site not the email address on the letter. Anybody else? Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 No but thanks for the warning. The shysters will try anything these days. Could be a genuine error though. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanGibson Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 You a right to be suspicious, IMO. Dovetail Services is a genuine subscription company, I think, but I am not sure of their relationship with BJP. It may just be an honest mistake. You are taking the correct action, by not responding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 I am extremely cautious about what I respond to online, even in print or on the telephone. The more I investigate the companies, addresses, telephone number and email addresses seem genbeuine and I haven't found any explicit red flags searching online.I just wonder how such an error could happen. I have emailed BJP and will not be responding to the letter. I was once a subscriber but that was more than 10 years ago and probably a different, business address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Allison J Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I have just received a letter saying that there was a problem lodging the instruction with my bank for a subscription to British Journal of Photography. An order I never placed; have never even considered in last 10+ years. The letter was dated 6 August so took 3+ weeks to get to me. The Direct Debit instruction is in favour of BuckPill Ltd and the name and address on the letter is Incisive Financial Media and Buckpill are registered at the same address. The envelope has return address of Dovetail Service in Sittingbourne. It feels extremely dodgy to me and I will be raising it with BJP through their web site not the email address on the letter. Anybody else? Martin I do subsscribe Martin The last email from them was from <<no-reply@apptitudemedia.co.uk>> on August 13 butt looks like Apptitude Media is the company that publish iPad and iPhone versions http://www.apptitudemedia.co.uk/ I had a june 2014 issue to hand and the editorial page seems to confirm Apptitude Media for the print version I hope that's some help Regards John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 I have just received a letter saying that there was a problem lodging the instruction with my bank for a subscription to British Journal of Photography. An order I never placed; have never even considered in last 10+ years. The letter was dated 6 August so took 3+ weeks to get to me. The Direct Debit instruction is in favour of BuckPill Ltd and the name and address on the letter is Incisive Financial Media and Buckpill are registered at the same address. The envelope has return address of Dovetail Service in Sittingbourne. It feels extremely dodgy to me and I will be raising it with BJP through their web site not the email address on the letter. Anybody else? Martin I do subsscribe Martin The last email from them was from <<no-reply@apptitudemedia.co.uk>> on August 13 butt looks like Apptitude Media is the company that publish iPad and iPhone versions http://www.apptitudemedia.co.uk/ I had a june 2014 issue to hand and the editorial page seems to confirm Apptitude Media for the print version I hope that's some help Regards John Thanks John, Dovetail and Incisive seem to be subscription services but not the one you get to from BJP web site. The letter did not mention Apptitude. From the BJP web site Apptitude seem to be BJP publisher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Thanks for the heads-up, Martin. It made me realize that I need to have a talk with my tech-savy nephew about the newest dangers of the Internet. And now I'm wondering about clicking on links in this or any forum??? I still get the occasional "Spanish Prisoner" email. Under the circumstances, I won't put a link here, but if you're unfamiliar with this ages-old con, look it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 Ed Thanks for the heads-up, Martin. It made me realize that I need to have a talk with my tech-savy nephew about the newest dangers of the Internet. And now I'm wondering about clicking on links in this or any forum??? I still get the occasional "Spanish Prisoner" email. Under the circumstances, I won't put a link here, but if you're unfamiliar with this ages-old con, look it up. Ed, I was concerned that this was an old fashioned scam using snail mail, rather like the old directory invoice scam (had one of those not too long ago). Scams are not new, just that the fraudsters keep on top of technology, often better than us honest folk (and especially the authorities). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Allison J Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I have just received a letter saying that there was a problem lodging the instruction with my bank for a subscription to British Journal of Photography. An order I never placed; have never even considered in last 10+ years. The letter was dated 6 August so took 3+ weeks to get to me. The Direct Debit instruction is in favour of BuckPill Ltd and the name and address on the letter is Incisive Financial Media and Buckpill are registered at the same address. The envelope has return address of Dovetail Service in Sittingbourne. It feels extremely dodgy to me and I will be raising it with BJP through their web site not the email address on the letter. Anybody else? Martin I do subsscribe Martin The last email from them was from <<no-reply@apptitudemedia.co.uk>> on August 13 butt looks like Apptitude Media is the company that publish iPad and iPhone versions http://www.apptitudemedia.co.uk/ I had a june 2014 issue to hand and the editorial page seems to confirm Apptitude Media for the print version I hope that's some help Regards John Thanks John, Dovetail and Incisive seem to be subscription services but not the one you get to from BJP web site. The letter did not mention Apptitude. From the BJP web site Apptitude seem to be BJP publisher. it does look like a scam Martin but some of these specialist mags seem to change hands from time to time Nothing to be lost by ignoring the letter or even reporting it to police fraud dept Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milouvision Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Sounds like crossed wires somewhere. "Incisive Media becomes the latest publishing beast to sell some non-core assets. It is spinning out the British Journal of Photography (BJP) via a management buyout led by new app-focused publishing company Apptitude Media, led by the BJP team including MD Marc Hartog." Source: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/bjp My BJP direct debit has changed from Incisive Media to Appitude Media as expected. I recall it used to be Buckpill at some stage (a quick search shows that Buckpill is/was part of Incisive Media and that Dovetail has Incisive Media as a client). Of course any new DDs should be via Appitude unless it has a client relationship with Dovetail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted August 24, 2014 Author Share Posted August 24, 2014 Sounds like crossed wires somewhere. "Incisive Media becomes the latest publishing beast to sell some non-core assets. It is spinning out the British Journal of Photography (BJP) via a management buyout led by new app-focused publishing company Apptitude Media, led by the BJP team including MD Marc Hartog." Source: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/bjp My BJP direct debit has changed from Incisive Media to Appitude Media as expected. I recall it used to be Buckpill at some stage (a quick search shows that Buckpill is/was part of Incisive Media and that Dovetail has Incisive Media as a client). Of course any new DDs should be via Appitude unless it has a client relationship with Dovetail. Sounds like the connection - so why was Incisive writing to me this month? But it does sound like crossed wires as you say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Allison J Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 " Sounds like crossed wires somewhere" Thanks - that provides the link so it's probably just an error Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidhu Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Martin, If the BJP say it is genuine and you want to be awkward, you could say to them you consider them to be in breach of the Data Protection Act, in particular the bit that says personal information should not be kept for longer than is necessary. I think they would be hard pressed to come up with a legitimate reason for holding your data 10 years after you have ceased to be a subscriber. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted August 24, 2014 Author Share Posted August 24, 2014 Martin, If the BJP say it is genuine and you want to be awkward, you could say to them you consider them to be in breach of the Data Protection Act, in particular the bit that says personal information should not be kept for longer than is necessary. I think they would be hard pressed to come up with a legitimate reason for holding your data 10 years after you have ceased to be a subscriber. Dave Dave, that's true but I probably won't bother, life is too short to make a fuss every time someone makes a mistake - even I have been known to do so on rare occasions I am not losing any sleep over it especially as it, whether error or scam, does not seem to be widespread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidhu Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Fair point Martin. It's just a useful tool to have when firms irritate the hell out of you and you want to get your own back!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted August 25, 2014 Author Share Posted August 25, 2014 Just to close this off. I have heard from BJP. Apparently I stopped the direct debit, directly with the bank, for the magazine some (actually I reckon 10+) years ago but did not notify BJP so they wrote, rather late, to see if I really wanted to discontinue my subscription! I suspect it was a clumsy attempt to encourage me to resubscribe, or an error, perhaps as part of the change of ownership. No scam then, but strange all the same! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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