Mock-Auctions or 'One day Sales'...

are usually held at village halls or local hotels. Typically, leaflets, which are distributed immediately before the event, advertise clearance sales or stock liquidation. Normally the goods are shoddy or counterfeit and not the quality you are led to believe during the sales pitch or as advertised.

The organisers will also try to get the audience into 'buying frenzy' to make them purchase over priced goods in the belief that they are bargains.

A salesman standing on a platform usually offers the goods and payment is collected by assistants in the audience. Assistants also appear to pose as customers in order to lead the crowd on. At the end of some sales unscrupulous traders have been known to run off with the money leaving behind a very angry crowd and an abandoned, unsecured village hall.

If you have been conned at a 'Mock-auction' or 'one day sale'

Tell your local Trading Standards Service and tell us - it may help us to stop them and protect other people.