Highland Titles An Opinion By Val McDermid Famous Scottish Crime Writer

Earlier in October, a puff piece appeared on a website lovemoney.com extolling the virtues of Highland Titles. Reading it and seeing the style of the guff and nonsense presented, you'd be forgiven for thinking Highland Titles might have written it themselves. Of course being 'editorial content', the misleading bits, and they are many, are outside of the Advertising Standards Authority remit.

Anyway, one of the comments on that piece praising the HT conservation effort to the gods was supposedly posted by a Val McDermid, an extremely uncommon name. Who is Val McDermid? She is a very well know Scottish author, famous for her crime works. The trouble is, it wasn't actually Val who posted the comment.

The Comment

Stevie G pointed the comment out to the real Val McDermid on twitter. Val immediately identified the comment author as a sock puppet, https://twitter.com/valmcdermid/status/656081402639839232

Val Identifies Comment Author As a Sock Puppet

Stevie G then asked Val via twitter if she was promoting Highland Titles or not. As we can see below, she's didn't mince her words!

Val McDermid Gives Her Opinion On Highland Titles

Val's Twitter post archived here for posterity http://archive.is/fK33J

So in the words of Val McDermid, one of the biggest names in crime writing, in her opinion Highland Titles are, "Charlatans and scammers". We agree wholeheartedly Val. Oh Val, should Highland Titles threaten any legal action, we have a boat load of very solid evidence which would certainly more than adequately back up your statement.

Some people may be inclined towards an opinion that Highland Titles might possibly have posted that comment (or indeed several comments) themselves. Our legal advice is that it might not be advisable to say that without 'no reasonable doubt' evidence, so we'll leave it at that. What we do know and are entirely happy to say, is that Highland Titles have used fake newspaper articles in their marketing materials in the past, with fake quotations from Rob Gibson MSP.

We'd advise that taking much notice of comments made by a sock puppet using the name of a well known figure, might not be the best idea ever. We'd also advise taking glowing comments made about Highland Titles in such places with a serious amount of skepticism about both their origin and accuracy.

Highland Titles Continue Misleading Advertising After ASA Ruling

Back in July 22nd this year Highland Titles were found by the Advertising Standards Authority to be misleading consumers by advertising land for sale in Glencoe, when the plots are not actually in Glencoe but some miles away on Keil Hill in Duror, with no connection to Glencoe at all.

So after the July ruling , they'll have stopped running the adverts then? Well in true Highland Titles tradition of sticking two finger up at the ASA, sadly no.

We archived this Google search result advert on 10 September 2015, which read "Buy a Piece of Glencoe - highlandtitles.com‎".

Google search advert from 10 September 2015

We were reminded of this when recently looking through the Glencoe Community Council meeting minutes where we find a local resident informed the Glencoe Community Council that Highland Titles were continuing to run these misleading adverts well after the ASA ruling.

http://s3.spanglefish.com/s/7906/documents/council%20minutes%202015/2015-08(aug)minutes.pdf

"The CC received an email from a resident relating to the BBC news item ‘Buy land in Glencoe adverts confusing, says ASA’. The resident complained that the ‘Glencoe’ advertising that the ASA had ruled misleading had only been withdrawn from the UK and was still running in other countries."

Why didn't we report this to the ASA then? No point. As mentioned by the resident, the adverts were withdrawn from the UK, but continued to be displayed in other countries. The ASA have no remit to do anything about non UK targeted advertising, so they can do nothing about it, even though they have already judged the adverts misleading.

So in order to comply with the ASA ruling, Highland Titles merely withdrew the misleading adverts from UK consumers, but continued to run them in foreign markets, secure in the knowledge that the ASA are powerless to do anything about it.

The BBC ran a story on the ASA ruling at the time and reported that "Highland Titles Ltd said it had not intended to mislead customers". Their continued use of the advert targeting overseas customers seems to contradict that. If continuing to run these adverts isn't clearly an intention to mislead, perhaps Highland Titles would care to comment on what the intention actually is?

Would a reputable organisation with any moral standards continue to run adverts they know are misleading, and have been independently judged to be misleading to anybody at all?
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We don't think so either, but that's the traditional Highland Titles way of conning people out of their money.

One wonders what other guff and nonsense Highlamd Titles might be serving up to overseas consumers knowing that there is little that can realistically be done about it. Honesty and integrity were never Highland Titles strong points.

Highland Titles Scam And The Wildcat Haven Connection

Recently Andy Wightman highlighted a connection between Highland Titles and a community interest company Wildcat Haven, who we are informed have some kind of Scottish wildcat preservation scheme going. Andy was less than impressed with Wildcat Haven.

You can read Andy's blog post here - http://www.andywightman.com/archives/4328

It appears that Highland Titles have donated land to Wildcat Haven which they are selling square foot plots of to raise funds. It also transpires that Douglas Wilson a director of Highland Titles, is also a director of Wildcat Haven Enterprises C.I.C with a 50% share in the company. Where have we come across Douglas Wilson before apart from Highland Titles? That's right, he was implicated in the somewhat ethically questionable website applyehic.org (now defunct), a website which charged "form checking" fees for otherwise free European Heath Insurance Cards.

You can read about Douglas Wilson's involvement in applyehic.org here - https://theanatomyofascam.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/applyehic-org/

We won't cover the story in any detail as Andy has already done that, and we're a bit short of time. What does concern us is that Andy asked Wildcat Haven the question of how much money from the plot sales goes to the cause, to which as far as I am aware he has not received an answer. On the Wildcat Haven website there is no indication of this either.

It is a worry therefore that like Highland Titles, only a tiny fraction of gross funds raised might actually go towards the cause. The direct involvement of Douglas Wilson in the company only serves to raise our concerns on this issue even more. Wildcat Haven is not a charity but a community interest company, and as such, lacks transparency when it comes to finding out where the money goes.

In an article we wrote in December last year, we found that according to Highland Titles own figures, at that time only around £1 in every £30 received was being applied to their apparent conservation efforts. We currently have no reason to believe that Wildcat Haven are any different. Their silence on the matter and close association with Highland Titles is not helping us to think differently.

It is interesting that Highland Titles have had a close association with Wildcat Haven for some time, to the point of now having a shared director. They are therefore surely very aware it is not a charity, yet back in June on their Facebook page, described it as exactly that.

From the Highland Titles Facebook page 20th June 2015, "Highland Titles are proud to have The Wildcat Haven as one of the key charities we support financially"

Archived 7 Oct 2015 20:51:19 UTC - https://archive.is/uEpz0

Oh dear Highland Titles, don't you think describing an organization as a charity which you know perfectly well is not a charity is just a little bit naughty?