4 Wise Monkeys

ers from “Clarion Marketing”, Moviestar”, “Global Billing”, “Prime Media”, “Promocom Ireland”, “Falcon Telecom”, “Puppy Promotions”, “Promotion Payments”, “Value Group”, “Parcel Plus” and all the other aliases they “work” under. 

We were contacted by their Australian Lawyers, “Axis Legal Pty Ltd”, bragging about “Defamation” of the Irish “businessmen” Iain and Gavin McConnon on our blog, and demanding to pull the post about their Scratchcard “promotions” in Australia. 

Allegedly, our following statements are “false and baseless” – namely that their “clients” are: 

1. running an “unwinnable scratch-card scam”
2. “behind possibly the most egregious scam-scratch card campaigns”
3. responsible for the Star Promotions Club Scratch cards; and
4. breaching the Trade Practices Act 1974

Well, after thinking about all this, we decided that we really don’t need to publish any “defamatory statements” about the brothers.

Instead, we thought we provide you with a few other articles we found about the poor guys who are suffering so much from our false and baseless statements. 

The following “work related” articles give more insight into the network of aliases and companies run by Gavin Mc Connon and Iain Mc Connon and the sort of “promotions” these companies run: 

Premium rate scam from Promocom

Read full article here: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2005/04/premium-rate-scam-from-promoco.html

FILTHY rich and at the wheel of a £105,000 Ferrari - this is phone creep Gavin McConnon. With his brother Iain he’s behind those nasty letters sent to tens of thousands of British homes. 

The envelope contains “cheques” written out to the recipient for up to £75,000 and the letter, headed Value Group, says, “with these cheques you are guaranteed to receive cash”.

It explains that to claim you have to make four calls, one for each “cheque”. And hidden away at the bottom of the letter it explains that the calls will cost £1.50 a minute.

So if you call all four claim lines - which each waffle on for seven minutes - you’ll spend £42.

Despite the “guarantee” most don’t win cash - but end up with hefty phone bills. A small number will win money and prizes, but most get holiday vouchers with a string of conditions attached. (…) 
 

Irish premium line companies banned in Britain

Read full article here: http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/04/16/story13461.asp

An Irish company that was fined €72,000 on St Patrick’s Day for running a premium-rate phone line promotion in Britain was fined and banned three times last year, a Sunday Business Post investigation can reveal (…).

The brothers’ (McConnon) companies have been the subject of a number of media probes in Britain.

BBC’s Inside Out team investigated a scratch card promotion where recipients were told they had won stg£50,000, a car or other valuable prizes.

After ringing a premium rate number at stg£1.50 a minute, the Inside Out team discovered it had actually won a DVD and holiday vouchers.

The Guardian also carried out an investigation. Reporter Miles Brignall said hundreds of thousands of British households last year received personalised letters, including four ‘‘prize cheques’’, from the McConnons’ Value Group.

Readers were led to believe that they had won up to stg£75,000 (…).

Dublin brothers reported for renting out retail DVDs

Read full article here: http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/09/10/story17108.asp

Two Dublin brothers who set up a DVD-rental business have been reported to film companies for breaching copyright by renting out retail DVDs.

Gavin and Iain McConnon launched their online DVD rental service, Moviestar.ie, last month. However, the company has been unable to obtain sufficient copies of rental DVDs from film companies and has been buying DVDs from shops and renting these out instead (…).

McConnon brothers fined GBP 70k over mock-cheque scam

Read full article here: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2005/08/mcconnon-brothers-fined-70k-ov.html


THE companies behind a “mock cheques” scam that we exposed earlier this year have been fined a total of £70,000.

In April we told how the Ferrari-driving McConnon brothers of Dublin were making a fortune from a string of phone cons which promised callers up to £75,000 in prizes.

Under names including Falcon Telecom and Value Group they sent thousands of people what looked like cheques.

To claim the supposed winnings you had to call a series of expensive phone lines which made money for Iain and Gavin McConnon via their business Promocom Ireland Ltd.

Now the Falcon Telecom brand and three companies that assisted the McConnons have been fined.

The premium-rate phone watchdog ICSTIS has ruled against two “prize draws” which breached regulations on no fewer than 14 grounds.

More articles here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series8/week_eight.shtml (you have to scroll down a little to read about their “Scratch card promotions”

http://www.consumerdirect-yorkshireandthehumber.gov.uk/news/press/2006/125-06

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/892995.html 

Clarion’s lawyers’ letter states further that “their clients have suffered damage as a result of the publication of the statements (on 4wisemonkeys), including to business reputation, which gives rise to causes of action including defamation and the tort of injurious falsehood”. 

Well guys, sorry – if you do not want to be called scammers, then simply do not scam people. It appears that your network of companies is like cancer all over the world.

We say – McConnon brothers, leave Australia alone!

If any of you out there want to apologise for the “numerous phone calls and emails” the brothers received as a result of our statements, here are their contact details AGAIN. And NO, scammers – we will NOT remove these, no matter what you threaten next.

Iain Mc Connon

c/- Promocom, Suite 322, The Capel Building, Marys Abbey, Dublin 7, Ireland

ph +353 1 889 8600
 fax +3531 889 8601 
mobile +353 86 811 7071 Email iain@promocom.ie 

Gavin Mc Connon

c/- Moviestar Entertainment Ltd, Suite 322, The Capel Building, Marys Abbey, Dublin 7, Ireland

ph +353 86 811 6690 
Email gavin@moviestar.ie