Association's Message
Our goal is to find small business victims, assist as many as possible & lead the fight against unscrupulous Telco's & Finance Companies.
A few months ago, via a forum site that many victims were posting to regarding the telco collapses, a few of us made a collective decision to find victims with the aim of providing them with information and attempt to move everyone in one common direction, to gain power over the Finance Companies and avoid small splintered groups of small business having to settle their cases because they could not afford the costs involved in a legal battle in our court system. At the present time there are around 2,000 of these cases clogging up the Sydney Downing Street Court. We estimate that there are as many as 40,000 small businesses affected by this scam across Australia that could be worth as much as $800 million dollars collectively.
The only body that have the exact numbers are the Finance Companies. The telco's that are involved are not being pursued by Police, ASIC or the Finance Companies. The ACCC are prosecuting some of the telco's and Finance Companies involved but an outcome of their case is many months away.
This website was born from the fruits of our collective efforts to date and we invite you to register your details with us. Every person that has worked on this project is a victim of a telco scam themselves. By registering you will assist us in gaining an idea of just how many small businesses are affected across the country.
One of the ways we can take matters into our own hands and be part of a solution is to fund a Federal Court case. Another is to launch private investigations into Directors of these companies so that criminal charges can be laid. One such victim, Pam Ashcroft has agreed to be the test case for the Federal Court action. The legal fees associated with fighting the case are expensive (approximately $150,000) and way too high for any individual to pay. That is why small businesses were the target in the first place as they have a limited financial capacity to fight the Finance Companies within our legal system.
It makes good commercial sense to back one test case financially rather than attempt to fight the Finance Companies individually, and our test case has positive Senior Counsel advice in support, and a trial date set for the beginning of May 2010. A win with this case in the Federal Court can set a precedent and may assist you with your case in all levels of Court, as it can be used as leverage to settle out of court for a reasonable amount. It is imperative for everyone that this case goes ahead. Pam feels that although she has only actually met a small number of victims, this is the only way to help as many of us as possible, by getting a ruling from the Federal Court. A positive ruling here will carry weight in the local court system. Pam has already outlayed what her claim is worth in an effort to get a Federal Court ruling to assist the cause.
In order to achieve this we ask that you join us and support the cause financially by paying a Membership Fee. There is a range available and are minimal amounts when compared to paying massive Legal Fees on your own. Our website is "work in progress" and the Telco Finance Scam Fighting Fund Association hopes it will assist all victims and that they become paying Members of our Association. Paying Members will have access to a variety of information and resources like our Forums where you can find others with the same Telco-Finance coupling, share information, strategies and the like. There is a General Discussion area as well as a My Story section that will be important for everyone to get to know each other.
The Telco Finance Scam Fighting Fund Association is non-profit organisation and run by victims of these scams. Moving in the same direction we can win, and now is the time to make a difference, but divided and splintered we will lose against the Finance Companies. Perhaps our efforts will also rattle our government enough to get much needed changes to our Laws.
Telco Finance Scams Fighting Fund Association