Readers will doubtless have heard that usurers Wonga have been sending out fake legal letters to victims of their greedily high interest rates of up to 5,853% per annum, to scare them into paying up, and charging some for the deceit.

The letters were revealed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and were claimed to be from “Chainey, D’Amato and Shannon” or “Barker and Lowe Legal Recoveries”, neither of which exist. As a result the FCA has ordered them to pay a paltry £2.6 million in compensation to those deliberately misled by the firm.

The treatment of its vulnerable customers by Wonga, who claim in their advertising, marketing and PR to be a responsible, fair and compassionate lender of “straight-talking money”, has attracted the attention of the police, who are considering a criminal investigation.

One beneficiary of Wonga’s activities, and its dirty money, is Blackpool Football Club, which it sponsors.

“Cash for Access” seems to be the rule for lobbyists who want to buy influence with our Prime Minister and others ahead of the next election.

David Burnside of lobbyists New Century Media has boasted about his firm buying interviews with Cameron to secure the ministerial ear for whisperings about his high-profile Russian clients, including a Ukrainian billionaire, Dmitry Firtash, who has been indicted on bribery and corruption charges (denied) in the USA.

Burnside’s firm gave £85,000 to the Conservatives ahead of the 2010 election, according to Electoral Commission records. Don’t we have a right for our Davy to tell us what they got for it? And why his choice of friends is so flawed?

An EU court has agreed that companies benefitting by taking advantage of the artificially high prices caused by the illegal actions of a cartel – even if they were not involved in the running of it – may be legally sued by businesses that can prove they incurred loss as a result.

The ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) is expected to increase the likelihood of compensation payments to victims of cartels in member states and to improve competition.

Clever marketers who label foods stuffed with sugar and salt as “low fat” – implying that they are a healthy option – are being targeted by local councils concerned about the obesity crisis.

The Local Government Association (LGA) is calling for the EU to strengthen the rules on labelling so that shoppers are not misled into buying something they believe is healthy when in fact it is not.

Another firm that hasn’t done so well in the customer trust stakes is Coca-Cola GB, which is throwing £3 million into next month’s UK launch of its successful American Glaceau Smartwater brand of eau into the £1.4 billion bottled water market here.

For those recalling Coke’s humiliating 2004 marketing disaster with Dasani – it turned out to be 95 pence a bottle Sidcup tap water with a dash of carcinogenic bromate – the firm has promised that its new eau will really be The Real Thing and based on its Abbey Well spring water from Northumberland with an added dash of non-carcinogenic electrolytes, to give it a “clean and crisp” taste.

Coke suffered a gleeful kicking in the British press over Dasani with many pointing out that the episode bore comparison with an episode of the Only Fools and Horses TV sit-com where Peckham chancers Del Boy and Rodney bottled tap water and tried to sell it as “Peckham Spring”.

Could the current trend of companies begging for positive reviews on social media, and offering financial inducements for them be the (welcome?) death of it all any time soon?

After all anyone with more than one brain cell must realise that such bought recommendations are really not worth spit, like all those pathetic celebrity endorsements.

Or is there a huge and lucrative market of otherwise savvy followers out there that we don’t know about, who really believe stuff on social media, as well as in Santa Claus? Do tell.

Let’s hope that some of the extra staff that German discounter Lidl say they will be taking on as part of their expansion plans will be charged with making sure that offers made to attract customers to the store are actually honoured when the customers turn up.

At our local Bedford Lidl a recent offer of their award-winning Italian Parmagiano Reggiano DOP cheese for £7.45 a kilo was made as part of their popular Half Price Weekend promotion. However customers arriving on the Saturday morning and unable to find it on the shelves were told by staff that “it hasn’t been delivered” and “Sorry, it must have been dropped off somewhere else”.

Wonder if this is managerial incompetence, or if it’s a deliberate con……….?

Practitioners of public relations (PR) can’t be pleased to read about the imprisonment of one of their number, that nice Max Clifford, any more than they, and David Cameron, are about the activities of one A. Coulson, just given 18 months for conspiracy to hack phones, something he says his talented News of the World legal team never told him was illegal.

Let’s hope Max and Andy get a chance to meet up in jail and have some constructive conversations about how to prevent PR people from getting such a Bad Press, and being trusted less than politicians. Perhaps that nice and innocent Rebeckah Brooks and her blameless pal Rupert will visit the two and float some ideas……….?