Bogus Mobile Phone Cashbacks        

Cashback is a widely used customer incentive in mobile phone industry. Offers of up to £1,000 cashback are used to lure customers into signing mobile phone contracts. All too frequently these deals are too good to be true! Many consumers complain that they don't get their cash and are left tied into high-cost contracts with the networks.

Last year, several mobile retailers went out of business owing 60,000+ customers an estimated £12m in cashback deals. The lesson for customers really is one of awareness. If you're thinking of opting for a cheap mobile phone deal, do some research and try to find a reputable company. There are lots of review sites on the internet, and many other customers will have posted their experiences of these retailers' customer service and ease of use.

That should hopefully give you some idea of how likely it will be that the company will honour their side of the deal. And do the maths - remember that for a company to be viable in the long term they have to make some money too - if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is!

If you believe that a phone company is offering a deal that isn't genuine ...

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