Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-12-03 20:45:54 - Graham Ellis
"We're with the FSB, and would like to update you about forthcoming changes to the law". So said a caller on the phone to one of our team, and I got the message to call back. Which I duly did.
It seemed a bit odd to the person who took the call that the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses), who have never called nationally before, and are pretty inactive locally at the moment, would be calling. Perhaps a random survey? Anyway - despite the yellow "caution" flag I called back ...
It seems that the company calling are "with" the FSB like we are - they are paid up members of the FSB, but probably no more than that ... and they are visiting pages like the FSB Network page where members can be listed to help sell their services to fellow members, so that they can get in touch and make what is - I believe - a misleading approach.
We're very used to calls like this claiming to be BT and Pitney Bowes ... but the FSB is a new one on me. Clever - but very misleading. It turned out that the caller was really looking to get us to change our energy supplier!