Free Gym Membership?!?

[pips1]

Has anyone else on here been taken in by this supposedly free gym membership scam? You receive a congratulations slip through the post with a telephone number to ring for a prize donated by a local firm. When you ring up you are told you are one of the lucky winners and have won a 3 year membership with a local gym absolutely free. However, it is not all it seems (surprise surprise!) and a lot of people have been taken in by it, including, to my horror, me!! I am normally very sceptical about things like this, but they are very clever. I have now found a website which includes lots of letters from others who have been conned and Trading Standards, Watchdog and the OFT are all involved. Just wondered if anyone on here had heard of this.

[Hymie]

So where�s the scam � you haven�t given them your credit card or bank details and have given them no money?

[Whickerman]

so you're told you're a winner - what happens next to make it a con? Just curious! You didn't mention

[johnny37]

Ditto. How have they conned you?

[buildersmate]

Here's one example.
http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/council_gov_de mocracy/news/30725.asp

[Hymie]

I still don't understand - why would I enter into a credit agreement for something I've won?

Pips, me thinks you are more gullible than you make out.

[buildersmate]

It'll be a variation on 'you've won a shed-load but we just need a small sum upfront to pay the postage / admin fee / whatever ' before the cheque is speeding it's way to you'.

[Hymie]

I still don�t understand � I�ve won a shed-load of money, but have to pay an up front fee for postage/admin/whatever.

Deduct the fee from my winnings; I am clearly still missing something here.

[johnny37]

Just read the Hereford report. The report is unclear. I still dont understand why you should sign a credit agreement for �427 if you have won free gym memberrship. Is it one of the scams where you get free membership for a month and sign an agreement that activates automatically after 30 days ubnless you cancel it? If you forget to cancel you are stuffed. I wont even phone an 0900 number which charges you �1.50 per minute for 7 minuteso find out what useless prize I have won.

[pips1]

I agree with all of you - I was gullible, but it all happened so quick I admit I was took in! I was lead to believe the gym membership fee was quite high and that was the prize. The small amount of �4 a week was, I was told, for maintenance charges. It all happened so quick, and the guy was so persuasive, I was fooled into signing up for this maintenance charge for 2 yrs. I tried to read the small print, of which there wasn't a lot, but did not realise at any point it was a non-cancellable agreement. It has since transpired that many people were conned in the same way and there are lots of letters online about it all. I will never ever be this silly again, I have cancelled the DD at my bank but am now receiving debt collection letters which I have been told by Trading Standsards to ignore. What a mess!