Government and police disposal sales
190 Fax Back
NSW company Consumer First Pty Ltd sends out faxes under the heading “Government & Police Disposal Sales”.
It promises to provide a “fully up to date list of places the Government and Police use to sell off recovered and seized goods”.
Items promoted include:
- Recovered vehicles
- Government vehicles
- Recovered mobile phones
- Seized and recovered jewellery
- Seized and recovered Hi-Fi equipment, digital cameras
- Wide screen TV’s, home theatre systems and video camcorders
- Recovered lap tops
- Power tools
- Recovered mountain bikes
- Office equipment.
The fax says: “Find out how to take part in these highly profitable, little publicised sales. Goods are sold to the highest bidder on the day. Serious bargains for resale or personal use can be obtained for literally cents on the dollar! We’ve done the research for you in this immediately available guide.”
Be aware that call costs are $5.50 per minute and it can take 6 to 9 minutes to receive the 14-page guide.
Similar offers in the past have been found to be of little value and can land those who call the premium fax numbers with huge telephone bills.
We suggest you save your money and keep an eye out for newspaper advertisements from auction houses who regularly dispose of goods on behalf of police and government departments. Or you can contact auction houses direct and ask to be put on their mailing list.
In this recent fax, it advises that consumers can have their name removed from the list by calling a 1300 local call cost number.
WA ScamNet encourages anyone receiving these faxes to fight back by calling Consumer First Pty Ltd on 1300 555 249 and selecting the option to remove their details from Consumer First’s data base. If after this, people continue to receive unsolicited faxes, they should lodge a complaint with Consumer Protection.
Consumer Protection is working closely with authorities in NSW where this operator is based, to impede the flow of worthless fax offers that carry premium price tags, and to ensure people who want to get off these lists can.
Scams of a similar type include:
For more scams of this type and others, visit the full list of scams by type page.
