Criminal behaviour (13 March 2004)
Sometimes you read in the newspapers about people who terrorize children to satisfy their lusts. Do you also feel disgust when you read about such creeps?
But what to think about creeps who terrorize children just to get money out of them?
* * *
On the Internet and in magazines you find advertisements that invite you to fill in your name and address to order something to be sent to you - completely free.
Needless to say this appeals to children. Who can blame them when they order something that is offered for free?
There are, however, some firms that take advantage of this. They place an ad that suggests they will send something free of any charge. But very well hidden is the message that you actually have to pay for it.
One such firm is Front International. They offer to send underwear, they suggest it is free, and before you realize what's happening you are sent underwear you don't really want. And since you also have to pay for shipping, you are charged a sum you would never pay for such cheap underwear when you saw it at a shop.
It is only when the parcel arrives that things appear less free than the ad suggested. But Front International has included a piece of paper on which you can indicate if you don't want any more underwear sent.
* * *
Well, this happened to my daughter, who filled in on the paper just mentioned that she didn't want any more underwear. Since there were many reports on the Internet that children received underwear they didn't really want, she added that payment would follow as soon as Front International confirmed that they would not send any more underwear.
And did Front International confirm that? No, you guessed correctly: Front International just sent a second parcel. Since she had requested not to receive this, we did not pay for this unwanted parcel, but were so polite to send it back by registered mail with a second request to stop sending things. And we paid for the very first parcel and thought we had seen the last of this nasty firm.
After a while we received a third parcel. Since we had explicitly asked not to be sent anything, we felt no need to send it back. And what did we receive after a while? A bill for 68 euros. They had added fifty euros for all imaginable kinds of costs.
* * *
To collect these outrageos claims, Front International makes use of a creepy agency that bears the intimidating name of Intrum Justitia.
I wrote this agency that I would not pay for things that I had explicitly asked not to receive.
Within a few weeks I was phoned - could I please send proof that I had paid?
Although it is outrageous that I should send copies of my private bank statements, I was stupid enough to do so.
Nothing was heard from them for more than two months. But this week the creeps of Intrum Justitia sent my daughter a letter that they had ordered a bailiff to issue a writ for a lawsuit that would add more than 400 euros to the bill. My daughter could only avoid this by paying their original bill.
* * *
Can you imagine the panic that strikes when a child is threatened to pay such a huge sum in spite of her explicit wish not to receive anything?
Can you think of a name for such behaviour?
I don't know what names you come up with. But I can only think of words like creepy, crude, cretinous, crooked and criminal.
