Leisure International

[chamois]

My wife received an unsolicited phone call earlier today from a company called Leisure International. They claimed they were working in conjunction with her credit card company, Barclaycard.

The person on the other end of the phone invited her participate in a scheme where they would send a "membership pack" containing money-off vouchers to a number of different organisations. After the initial free membership pack was received, they would send her further scheme vouchers and offers for about �5 per month, with each payment being debited to her Barclaycard.

Now, my wife has never signed up for anything to do with this company knowingly, yet they knew she had a Barclaycard, phoned us on our right ex-directory number and more importantly, asked for her by name as printed on the Barclaycard. Her name is just a one letter initial and a surname yet they knew she was female. Curiously, they asked her for her address and postcode.

The chap did NOT ask for her Barclaycard account number or any security codes, expiry dates etc. Thus it seemed that had that information already in order to charge her when the time came. The man did say that if she did not want to continue with the scheme, she should phone them and say she wished to cancel. Her credit card would not then be debited.

This has puzzled us both this evening. I've often read of these scams in circulation, but it seemed genuine as they had her name and phone number. The fact that they did not want or need her credit card number seems to point to it being harmless, but why did they need her address?

I'd be grateful for any thoughts.

Thank you.

[BenDToy]

Often companies you are associated with will share your information with "carefully selected organisations" so they can tell you about "offers which may interest you". It could be one of these. They cannot use your credit card without specific authorisation, so the fact they didn't ask for details means they cannot legally use it (not that they can't use it).
However some words of caution - I hope you didn't give them your address or postcode. Never give that infomation to people who call you, or more importantly, more confidential information. I have "had words" with companies who call and then start asking for my date of birth or mother's maiden name. They are told where to go. BTW This is why many companies now ask for selected bits of information eg the 3rd and 5th character in your password.
If you are unhappy (and it sounds like you are) call Barclaycard and check them out. Then I would recommend telling Barclaycard that you want them to take your name off the list of people who can be contacted like this - they are obliged to do this. Good luck. And as general advice - never buy anything from someone who calls you.

[Reverandfunk]

I agree with Bendy

I placed a tiny free ad in the yellow pages and got bucket loads of calls offering me absoultely everything.

After trying the polite approach to no avail if someone calls me unsolicited i tell them to ***k off. Drastic but it works