Falcon Telecom/Bank Prize?

Saruman

Got one of the usual crappy "call and see what you won" things. This one seems a little different though... on one hand it seems more like i have won money as opposed to some holiday voucher that is full of conditions.. On the other it seems so dodgy i doubt i will call it!

Anyway i have 2 cheque type things... im told i am guaranteed to have one of them at least with a cash award. Well i have 2. One says i won 50k and the other says i won 25K. The min ammt in the very vague T&C says min €200. Oh there is no chanc, it has all be pre-selected so its not a game of chance. My brother pointed out if the min is €200 why do they list past winers as having €150? The max on the prize winners was 5K.

Anyway The address is down as Falcon Telecom Limited, PO Box 9342, Dublin 2. Probs etc call 0818 210 020 (dont like the smell of that, looks like it might be a British number i get charged for).
Also mentions Falcon bank around. Each cheque has a different claim number to call (1580). They even have a logo of a Falcon But it does not smell right... For one thing they got my address wrong.. Says i live in Lucan but i dont im Palmerstown.. still it got to me... and no there is no chance someone of my name lives at the same address as me in Lucan.. for one thing there is no area of the name i live in, in Lucan

Anyway i did a Google and a Yahoo and found nothing on this group or the promotion. So anyone else get one? Anyone heard anything or what? I dont want to give them the satisfaction of me calling them and them getting money... even if i was to call from work i still would not feel right.. the T&C's are just too vague... others tell you the catch.. this one seems to say there is no catch and almost says i have won what it says i have won! I would have thrown it out only for that...

Anyone know how to track down a PO box (dont think its possible)? Or with better google skills than me?

Gordon

Smells fishy. Anything that says "call to see what you have won" and gives a premium rate number is something to be steered clear of.

About the Dublin 2 thing - there is a shop/office on Rathmines road that may be Dublin 2 and it provides PO box numbers. I think it is called Mailbox inc or something similar. I'll find out for you if no-one else knows of it.

Steer clear mate.

Calibos

My mum got one of those today aswell!! Exactly the same ie Falcon €50,000 & €25,000 etc etc. We had a big discussion over breakfast this morning about whether to just bin it but like you said its worded differently to the normal ones so instead its sitting beside this very keyboard. A stay of execution for it so to speak:D

Mum wanted to bin it but I told her to hold on till I checked a few things out. Like you, I googled Falcon LTD etc and came up with nothing. I was going to post a thread identical to this in the morning!! ie What dya reckon lads:D Looks like we have our answer. Everyone wins 50 grand....yeah right.

I guarantee it goes something like this. The call costs €1.90 a minute, a slow voice drones on for 15 minutes listing the rules and then the serial number for your claim is read out at 1000mph like a demented chipmunk, **** you missed most of the digits, oh dear I'll ring them again, listen to the same 10 minutes of ****e and.......oh missed the last 3 digits again, ring again..............

Then you find out the wording only made it sound like you'd won 50 grand when in fact if you were lucky enough to have an English professor beside you, he could have diciphered the semantics and told you that you had actually only won 150, in which case you wouldn't have bothered wasting 160 on the 4 phone calls it took to get the whole bloody serial number in the first place..........................

or something like that anyway!!:D

Worded differently but just like those scratch cards that fall out of magazines and newspapers. I have yet to fail to win top prizes on any card I have ever scratched. Theres always a holiday amongst your possible prizes and thats what you always win. A customer in our shop won a holiday to Greece on one. 1 month on a Greek Island in February with a non exchangable return ticket. ie you have to be able to take a month off work, have spending money for a month or if you dont want to stay the whole month, you'd have to buy a one way return ticket home at full price. Needless to say this doesn't suit 99.9% of people so they don't take the holiday and the scratch card company have just made €15-€20 on the phone call without having to pay anything out. It suited him though so fair play to him I suppose.

Mossy Monk

try ringing the number from work, if you have a nice boss

Borzoi

Originally posted by Mossy Monk
try ringing the number from work, if you have a nice boss

Or if you hate your boss! (Try to use his extension)


but I'd be using that card as landfill

de5p0i1er

I never trust those things, nothings for free in this life, they're not worth following up as most of them are just crap prizes and you spend a fortune trying to find out what you won, my advice, bin it and forget you ever got it.

Sleipnir

most certainly this is bogus. Did you enter a competition at all?
Companies don't enter entire swathes of the country into a competition wichout telling them.
And a P.O. box? Come on, any company with only a PO box number doesn't want you to know where they are. And probably for very good reason!
They might give out a few hundred here and there but you'd have a better chance at winning the lotto (and even then, you have to 'enter' to win!)
Put it in the bin and out of your mind.

Victor

Sounds like one of those scams where you end up paying a fortune in charges to get a dodgy holiday voucher you can't use.

From www.cro.ie

Company Details
Type: Company
Company Number: 371344
Company Name: FALCON TELECOM LIMITED
Address: 17 BLOCK 7, CLARION QUAY, I.F.S.C., DUBLIN 1 <<<<<<<< likely an apartment - very dodgy
Registered: 21/05/2003 <<<<<<<< new company - very dodgy
Status: Normal

the fnj

This reminds me of a Simpson’s episode

Bart- Dad we didn't enter a police raffle

Homer- The important thing is we won.

I’m very cynical towards these sort of things, don’t waste your time with it.

jammy_dodger

My mother got the same thing too.

She's gonna ring it today, (im gonna record the phone call)
Ill tell you how we get on.

Space Coyote

Probs etc call 0818 210 020 (dont like the smell of that, looks like it might be a British number i get charged for).

That 0818 number could be normal ... the Ryanair hotline number in Ireland starts with 0818 etc.

Tyrrial

if i were you, but i'm not... but i was, i'd be happy right now about the state of your phone bill and dump the junk mail. it'll only make baby jesus cry.

Victor

Jsut mark the envelope "Gone Away - Return to Sender" or "Deceased - Return to Sender".

elexes

got them a while ago myself . i handed it to my mom told her to bin it and she rang the number ... i dont have a clue why she done that but i asked her how stupid exactly she is ?

no way any of these things pay out the prises imo but i guess they have to give some to somone somtime in order to be allowed to stay open

Saruman

You know the way payphones you put in number, and when someone answers you have to put in money before they can hear you.. but you can still hear them for a while.. anyway ever try that with one of these things? Wonder will it work.. hmmm

Gordon

There are some call shops like that apparently.

sound_wave

down here in cork the morning chat show had this exact subject as one of its topics! to cut a long story short the presenter rang up the number saying he would like to receive his 50k and was given the answer he would have to send away his "cheque" to the address and they would check the claim number and see what you have won! the call cost 1.90 per min and u will be on for 5-7 mins so the least it will cost you is 10 eurons! rip off!!!!!

gonker

i know this is resurecting an old thread but has anyone an update on this. The reason I am asking is that a friend of mine (a very old farmer) came down to me all excited that he got a cheque for 50,000 made out to him. He cannot read only his name and basic words. I think this is so cruel the poor man when i told him it was a hoax he has no income really just lives by bartering etc. just wondering anyway?

gonk

Moriarty

Just a small update on this, the addresses they are using are addresses that are on the electoral register. I just recieved one of these this morning in the post. What id like to know is how rip-off merchants like this can get the entire electoral register. Surely it cant be legal.

sceptre

MBNA also use the electoral register quite a bit. I used to receive stuff addressed to "No 9, <country address>, Mallow"

The only two organisations who seem to use the numbered addresses for country addresses are the land registry and the voting register. Hence they pulled the address from one of these. Voting register seems more likely.

Since then of course I've received /piles/ of stuff from them addressed to two Mallow addresses where I moved my vote to in turn. Oddly enough I've never received anything from MBNA to the Limerick address though my girlfriend ha.

I'm not calling MBNA scam artists (I'm not a customer so I can't comment) but they are certainly junk mail whores (which means I'll never be a customer)

Anyway, I was making the post to agree with Moriarty on the electoral register thing, not to whinge about MBNA.

Winters

Recieved a second one today. First one arrived at my house on Friday. Dod nothing with it [was addressed to my brother not I]. Today a second one came addressed to "James". Funny thing is no James actucully lives in this house, or ever has.

Also they have the address wrong. Amazed it even gets here.

Is there not a law against unsolicited [sp?] post in this country?

Calibos

Did anyone see the full page falcon newspaper ad this weekend? Cant remember what paper it was or whether it was sat,sun or mondays for that matter but anyway......it listed a load of winners. Are they taking out full page ads to push the 'scam' or is it a legistlative requirement for them to publish lists of winners in the media?

Paddyo

Hi All

Got my second one of these this morning.

There is a website address on the little booklet.

http://www.falcontelecomgroup.com

Regards
Paul

oneweb

I got one today :mad: Mum got hers months ago. The address on it is different to what I use. From what I remember, Reader's Digest sent out something to its customers not unlike this - a cheque lookalike, years ago. It ended up there was a court action taken against them.

Victor

I ran a few of the names through the phone book and none of them seem to exist ....

gurramok

I got one in post yesterday. My mam got one last month and rang up against my advice !

Anyway the prize in the end was 100 euro, she is waiting for it to come.
However a few months back the one they sent out about the holiday vouchers seems genuine as we did get the vouchers in the post.

Calibos

The holiday vouchers is the scam part. Even if the calls cost €20 you won't mind if you win a cash prize. Unfortunately 99% of the time its the vouchers that people win with certain stipulations attached as to when, where and how you use them, which means most people don't use them.....which means they get your €20 premium rate phone call money and dont have to re-imburse the holiday company for the vouchers.

Space Coyote

I got mine today, thank feck, i was feeling left out ! Me bro got one t'other day. Is it just me or do the pics of the 'winners' look liek contestants off Winning Streak ! :eek:

oneweb

Originally posted by Space_Coyote
I got mine today, thank feck, i was feeling left out ! Me bro got one t'other day. Is it just me or do the pics of the 'winners' look liek contestants off Winning Streak ! :eek:

No, but they do all look like they work together (ie, in Falcon Telecom). Also, the website lists some 'winnars', but not when they won...