Be careful, scam! Traders in Pentling alarmed about false advertising

Be careful, scam! Traders in Pentling alarmed about false advertising

In recent days, business owners in the Pentling township area have been increasingly contacted by an advertising agency that has been engaging in aggressive sales practices. This agency offers a ready-made publication proposal in which the publication of advertisements in an alleged citizen information brochure is offered. But as the municipality of Pentling makes clear, the company Graphic Media design, LLC from Wilmington, USA, was in no way commissioned by the municipality. According to Pentling, there will also be a future citizens' brochure in which the media agency must identify itself with a letter of identification from the mayor.

The situation is by no means unique, as similar fraud attempts were also observed in Heßdorf. Traders there receive contracts from a supposed marketing company that claims to be acting on behalf of the municipality of Heßdorf. This information was clarified by the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Heßdorf. Those affected receive fax messages from the so-called “advertising agency WMI”, which contain an order for advertisements in an alleged new edition of the “citizen information folder”. Although the administrative community is actually working on a new edition, the offers are not from them and strongly suggest that this is a fraudulent undertaking.

Conspicuous practices and risks

The fraudulent schemes follow the same pattern: The fax messages contain a chargeable order, the signature of which can lead to a contractual commitment that lasts for more than a year. This risk is particularly serious since there is no guarantee that the citizen information brochure will ever appear. The administrative community recommends ignoring the fax messages and not signing anything, as similar sales attempts could also be made via email, post or door-to-door sales.

This case is part of a larger problem in the field of advertising that is repeatedly addressed by the courts. For example, the Düsseldorf Regional Court banned advertising with misleading information, similar to the website “warentest-deutschland.de”, which gave the impression of independent product reviews and thus deceived consumers. Such examples illustrate how important transparent and truthful communication in advertising is in order to avoid legal consequences, as Simon Gräser explains in detail.

The incidents in Pentling and Heßdorf should serve as a warning for all traders. It is advisable to always be careful with offers that advertise official documents or prestigious names and, if in doubt, to contact the relevant municipalities to verify the authenticity of the information.