Bogus escort agencies

The number of complaints received relating to bogus escort agency work is increasing rapidly.

These scam agencies, who typically advertise through search engines, classified advertisements and selected mailshots, promise that they already have clients wanting your services but ask that you either pay a fee to join or that you pay upfront for insurance or CRB checks.

They also claim that they have clients in the Cardiff area that will pay high rates for non-sexual services, for example, a dinner date.

Before agreeing to anything, we recommend making the following checks:

-          Read the terms and conditions carefully

-          Use a search engine to find information and complaints about the company

-          Get a physical address for the company and arrange a face-to-face meeting - you should not pay an upfront fee to anyone unless you know who they are and where they are located

-          Review the contract. You should be given written confirmation on what services they are providing for the fee.  Make sure that you get this in writing.

-          Remember that some of the telephone numbers may be premium rate numbers. To check if a number is a premium rate number, use the number checker on the PhonePayPlus website – http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/

Simon Wilkinson, principal trading standards officer, said: “This scam may be more prevalent at this time when the promise of earning some extra money may tempt people into signing up with escort agencies – if you are interested in this type of work, proceed very cautiously and ask lots of questions.”

For more advice please contact Consumer Direct on 08081 566761