Is the company behind this ad trustworthy?  You decide…but, as usual, we’ll help you.

It’s a recession and people are struggling with debt.  Perfect time to offer help, right?  I spotted this ad today and, being the grumpy online policeman I am, couldn’t resist poking it a bit.

The ad links to http://bankruptcy.friendlydebtadvice.co.uk, a page that’s neither reassuring or professional looking.  Nothing to identify the company on the home page.  A bit unusual, hmm?  [NOTE:  This site has since been removed] The contact page reveals the company behind this site as ‘Churchwood Financial’.

A web search shows page after page of neutral results for this company.  My sensors were tripped straight away. You see, I know when a company has pre-flooded the top pages of Google with neutral, nondescript directory entries.  It smells like a smoke-screen to me.

A smoke-screen to hide what, you might ask?

Perhaps to hide this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or this.   (Tip: if you want to find out bad stuff about any company, just add words like ‘scam’ and ‘ripoff’ and ‘complain’ at the end of your search phrases. There’s nothing they can do about it).

Whether you think that this company is trying to hide a very bad smell or not, one thing’s for sure: they will sell on your email address to other companies if you’re silly enough to fill in their online form.  How do I know?  Because they themselves say they will:

Personal Information
In making an enquiry on this website, you are accepting our need to share your information. We may need to contact other companies within our Group or we may need to share your information to our finance suppliers, agents and/or other third parties in order to answer your enquiry.

You can make up your own mind up about Churchwood Financial.

While you’re at it, you can also make your mind up about Facebook’s continuing indifference about where its revenues come from.