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BBC investigative journalism show Inside Out has uncovered a scam whereby consumers are being charged over £80 a month for access to all of Sky TV’s premium channels.
After reports of consumer rip-offs, the BBC found that a vast criminal empire overseen by an Australian megalomaniac had been charging millions of consumers vast amounts for access to television entertainment.
The criminal enterprise’s lower ranked members have been secretly filmed in supermarkets and shopping malls offering ‘free trials’ in order to lure unwitting consumers into extortionate – yet legally binding – contracts.
As one victim who preferred to remain hidden explained, “I was doing my weekly shop when this nice man asked me if I was interested in having Sky television – of course I wasn’t, but then he said I could have it for free for a few months to see if I liked it.”
“Well, here I am, 12 months later paying £80 a month for a load of rubbish including a few football matches and some films.”
“I really don’t know how it happened. I feel so stupid – but how has the law of the land made this possible?”
Sky TV rip-off
Consumer rights experts have said this ‘Sky’ organisation preys in the public’s weakness for anything shiny and new.
Psychologist Simon Williams told us, “This type of scam is on the rise, and people are willingly falling for it.”
“A game of football is the same as it was twenty years ago, whether or not you add computer graphics and Gary Neville talking at you.”
“The fact that people are paying about twenty times as much to watch it is more a sad indictment of today’s consumer, than it is of the business selling it.”
“Sky TV might well be an evil empire, but frankly I just want to give their customers a bloody good shake.”
