Mastercash PS3 ads probed by Icstis

There’s some unsavory PS3-selling types out there in Europe that deserve a good whacking with the almighty book of the law. Thankfully, yet another European agency is looking into these fellows, so European scammers and importers beware.

If you remember our earlier piece on Mastercash, we mentioned how they had an advertisement in plain view with a number to call if people wanted a PS3 by Christmas. Since Sony isn’t shelling out PS3s in Europe till 2007, you can be sure that something is amiss with that ad and that company.

The Trading Standards Institute began looking into the company as a result of information from Sony, and another group is now investigating the telecommunications side of the Mastercash debacle.

Icstis, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of the Telephone Information Services, is probing into the services provided by Mastercash. They want to find out the deal behind the adverts and whether these PS3 sellers are scammers.

A spokeswoman for Icstis discussed the investigation into Mastercash, saying,

It’s too early for us to say whether this is a scam or not. However, we are working closely with Trading Standards and gathering information. But it’s obvious that PS3s are not available in the UK until March 2007 – so people should be aware that they are not getting a UK product.

Good for them! Better to inform the public about the weirdness behind Mastercash and their ads than risk some overzealous kid gamer driving his parents into a PS3 scam. Besides, any gamer worth his salt would notice the Boomerang controller in their ad and know something wasn’t right, right?

There’s some unsavory PS3-selling types out there in Europe that deserve a good whacking with the almighty book of the law. Thankfully, yet another European agency is looking into these fellows, so European scammers and importers beware.

If you remember our earlier piece on Mastercash, we mentioned how they had an advertisement in plain view with a number to call if people wanted a PS3 by Christmas. Since Sony isn’t shelling out PS3s in Europe till 2007, you can be sure that something is amiss with that ad and that company.

The Trading Standards Institute began looking into the company as a result of information from Sony, and another group is now investigating the telecommunications side of the Mastercash debacle.

Icstis, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of the Telephone Information Services, is probing into the services provided by Mastercash. They want to find out the deal behind the adverts and whether these PS3 sellers are scammers.

A spokeswoman for Icstis discussed the investigation into Mastercash, saying,

It’s too early for us to say whether this is a scam or not. However, we are working closely with Trading Standards and gathering information. But it’s obvious that PS3s are not available in the UK until March 2007 – so people should be aware that they are not getting a UK product.

Good for them! Better to inform the public about the weirdness behind Mastercash and their ads than risk some overzealous kid gamer driving his parents into a PS3 scam. Besides, any gamer worth his salt would notice the Boomerang controller in their ad and know something wasn’t right, right?