Directory scam: Registration of the World Business Directory 2010/2011
March 9, 2010 15 Comments
MX Lab reported in 2009 about the misleading marketing trick that the World Business Directory uses. Guess what, they are back!
MX Lab received a new registration form from the World Business Directory and again, we want to point out a few things before you sign their contract.
The email comes from info@companyworld2010.com, with the subject “Registration of the World Business Directory 2010/2011″ and this is the email content:
Dear Madam/Sir,
In order to have your company registered in the World Business
Directory for 2010/2011, please print, complete and return the
enclosed form (PDF file) to the following address:World Business Directory
Suite 149 – Rosden House – 372 Old Street
EC1V 9AU / London – United Kingdom
E-mail: office@companyworld2010.com
Fax: +44 207 806 8157Updating is free of charge!
To unsubscribe, please send an email to
unsubscribe@companyworld2010.com
Attached is a PDF file named world-businessdirectory.pdf.
The 1st point that needs your attention is the text block 1:
To update your company profile, please print, complete and return
this form (Updating is free of charge). Only sign if you want to
place an insertion.
As you can read, updating is free of charge but if you want your company get listed in this directory you will need to sign and have to pay.
What is the price of this directory you may ask yourself? Well, you have to go to text block 2 with the very small letters and this includes:
I WILL HAVE AN INSERTION INTO ITS DATA BASE FOR THREE YEARS. THE PRICE PER YEAR IS GBP 980.
And there you have it, this contract will cost your business a total amount of GBP 2940 over 3 years. After the 3 years subscription you can stop your contract if you inform them on time:
THE SUBSCRIPTION WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY EXTENDED EVERY YEAR FOR ANOTHER YEAR, UNLESS SPECIFIC WRITTEN NOTICE IS RECEIVED BY THE SERVICE PROVIDER OR THE SUBSCRIBER TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE EXPIRATION OF THE SUBSCRIPTION.
A few arguments from our side that this is a scam:
The from email address contains the domain companyworld2010.com and when trying to see if there is a site online we got the notification “This account has been suspended”. We might see new emails from the World Business Directory appear with other domains.
When getting some WHOIS information on the domain we got the following:
Registrant:
international group c/o Free Private Reg
P.O. Box 81024
Burnaby, BC V5H 4K2
CA
Domain name: COMPANYWORLD2010.COM
Administrative Contact:
boot, cornelis companyworld2010.com@freeprivateregistration.com
P.O. Box 81024
Burnaby, BC V5H 4K2
CA
852-3594-1708
Technical Contact:
Hostmaster, Domain hostmaster@doteasy.com
Suite 210 - 3602 Gilmore Way
Burnaby, BC V5G 4W9
CA
(604) 434-4307 Fax: (604) 608-6832
Registrar of Record: In2net Network Inc.
Record last updated on 05-Mar-2010.
Record expires on 05-Mar-2011.
Record created on 05-Mar-2010.
Domain servers in listed order:
DNS8.DOTEASY.COM 65.61.199.14
DNS7.DOTEASY.COM 65.61.198.14
Domain status: clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited
|
||||
The registrant information is rather vague and points to a PO Box and the administrative contact has the same address. The domain freeprivateregistration.com in the email address of the administrative contact is just a domain alias from doteasy.com. These details must be fake.
In 2009, the PDF document needed to be returned to an address in The Netherlands, in this 2010/2011 edition it needs to be returned to an address in London, UK.
When visiting their site at http://www.world-businessdirectory.com/ on the ‘About us’ page we found the following text:
The World Business Directory online is product of EU Business Services Ltd, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of Nevis, West Indies.
We also found the UK address on the ‘Contact us’ page.
Our recommendation is: don’t sign the document and don’t do business with this company.
Follow these guidelines if you are a victim of this directory scam:
- Do not pay, even if they imply to take your case to court.
- If you have paid a certain amount, stop the next payments. Expect that you won’t get a refund either.
- Send them a letter informing them you have been misled and telling them to cancel the contract.
- If possible, report to (local) authorities.
Additional information:
Stop EU Business Services Ltd Trading As World Business Directory
Stop world-businessdirectory.com
On the web site of Richard Corbett you can find some background information about directory scams and what to do when you are a victim of such a scam.
Pingback: London Business Directory
Phony directories or yellow page scams usually target small to medium sized businesses. The scam manifests itself in the form of solicitors calling businesses and seeking to verify the company’s name and physical location, and allegedly calling to “renew” or “re-enroll” an existent yellow pages listing or advertisement. Many companies or their employees are misled into accepting the alleged “renewals.” The illegitimate directory provider immediately sends an invoice for this service, usually in the amount of hundreds of dollars, and threatens businesses with collections or credit report damage should they dispute the charges or decline to pay.
Harassing calls, threats and use of obscene language can pressurize you to the edge and moreover, a collector may embarrass you by contacting your employer or even be pursued to disburse for a debt that is not rightfully yours.
There are limits on how far telemarketers can go, that is why we provide information on how to put an end to telemarketer calls and more efficiently, how to correspond with them about your account and/or to dispute a collection action and can teach you what are your rights in terms of privacy.
You can find out more information on our website: http://www.spgconsultants.com
By informing each other, we protect each other
Hello! I also got such an E-Mail: Betreff: Business Registration 2010/2011
Ladies and Gentlemen.
In order to have your company inserted in the registry of World Businesses for 2010/2011 edition, please print, complete and submit the enclosed form (PDF file) to the following address:
WORLD COMPANY REGISTER
P.O. BOX 3079
3502 GB, UTRECHT
THE NETHERLANDS
email: register@wcr2010now.com
FAX: +31 20 203 1129
Updating is free of charge!
TAKE CARE because this you can read under “ORDER”: “…. I WILL HAVE AN INSERTION INTO ITS DATABASE FOR THREE YEARS. THRE PRICE PER YEAR IS EURO 995. …”.
This scam arrived to New Zealand too. Today I received an email from donotreply@gregsite.com with the same request. As a rule of thumb I never open PDFs from unknown or unexpected sources. I entered the domain name on my browser- it went to Google and nothing came up. Then I scrolled down the text of their email to check on http://www.wcr2010.com . This is how google revealed your much appreciated informative site. These low life crooks are preying on busy executives who pass on the email to a junior clerk ending up with false invoicing.
Keep up the good work
Cheers
Martin , Auckland, New Zealand
I have recently taken over an existing business and recieved the World Company Register e-mail asking me to complete the form, needing to inform existing advertisers of the changes I continued on, having take “FREE” I admit having been slap happy in signing. I now have realised the scam, legal or not its totally imoral taking advantage of people and their good will. Having visted the site I can’t even find my information on there, so I assum It is fare not to pay for a product that isn’t being provided?
I received( Poland) the same message about two weeks ago from WORLD REGISTER COMPANY
P.O. BOX 3079
3502 GB UTRECHT
THE NETHERLANDS
Unfortunately, I signed and sent the form. In response to the account I sent the resignation and the information that the technique used by the company mislead-misledaing informations (free of charge). product, service and operation of the company appears to be suspicious. In response, I received phone calls, e-mails and a letter (so far) but I do not intend to pay. The company is a fraud and I will do my best, bu its activities were limited. It deals with the European Commission, Ms Kuner Rue de la Loi 200 B-1049 Brussels. Iwill also write to the Polish representatives of the European Parliament on the matter and report to local authorities. I know one thing, this practice should be cut down.
Szanowna Pani Agnieszko,
Również nierozważnie podpisałem “zamówienie” od firmy World Business Directory. Fakturę i CD odesłałem i nie zapłaciłem. Teraz otrzymuję ponaglenia na coraz większe kwoty. Ostatnia wiadomość od WBD zawiera informację o zamiarze skierowania sprawy do sądu. Czy otrzymała Pani odpowiedź od polskich władz i czy ma Pani informacje o innych polskich firmach nabranych przez WRC lub WBD?
Pozdrawiam
I had to add my comments to this article it is such a shame that companies like Business World Directory can do business in this way. It gives companies like myself a bad name in the industry. I our team work very hard to offer quality business listings in our directory. I have also come across another company who charge huge amounts of money to be listed in their online directory.
Here is a free tip for all potential businesses who want to list on a online directory do your home work look at what page rank they have also look at what type of companies are listed within the directory also go to Alexa and get more detailed information before you part with your cash. Another question you should be asking yourself what am I going to get for my money and what are they going to do to help me gain more quality traffic.
So my final thoughts on this be careful if it sounds too good then it will not be click away.
Business1Directory.com
Different Approach to Advertising Your Business
The problem with this perticular approach was that I had no idea I would have to part with money. Now I’m wiser and understand how foolish I was but any professional company would realise the mistake and happily take me off the register. (Which actually has no knowlage of me when I look) My advice is just ignore their attempts to contact you, they seem to enjoy sending you LONG e-mails in return full of more misleading terms and conditions to confuse even the brightest of people. I’m sure if they take anyone to court we can all group together in support, it just wouldn’t happen>
Just received the email. It’s so funny, they mention that updating is “free of charge”. The Internet is full of scammers. They’re shooting pretty high with around $4500. Wow.
Anyways, directories are now a dead business, Google doesn’t index them anymore, people don’t go to them anymore, and advertisers don’t buy spots there anymore.
I have just received a phone call from this company to tell me that their dept collecting company will be dealing with us from now on.
I have explained to her that I will be forwarding the phone calls on to our solicitors as I have found at least 8 other companies, through forums on the internet, who are currently dealing with their harrassment and are happy to join forces.
I have a feeling it will be a long year of abusive phone calls now.
SPG Consultants is a SCAM. SPG Consultants promised me that if I paid them they would cancel all my existing invoices from telemarketing companies that sell advertising. I had a total of five outstanding invoices, all for directory advertising. I received a letter from only one company stating that they would cancel the invoice. Another company told me that SPG Consultants was actually affiliated with some of these scam telemarketing companies based out of Montreal, Canada. I looked them up on their website and I noticed that they were based out of Montreal. I tried calling them using the phone number listed on their website and I would always get a voice mail and then I would get a call back. After doing some research I found out that the phone number listed on their website is actually a cellular phone with Telus Mobility. I Have reported SPG Consultant to the RCMP and they have told be they are currently in the process of investigating this company. They have advised me not to pay any invoices and to not accept any calls from SPG Consultants.
I received an email from them with the same attached form and printed out the form and filled it in,signed it and posted it to them in the Netherlands to see what happens next!
I too sent the form (#1 mistake) to Utrect (#2 mistake) – who requests forms by mail ONLY nowadays?
When I realized they wanted 995 euros per year I trashed the form, thinking, hmmm, they never asked me for funds at the outset (mistake #3 – I didn’t read the online website terms, only read the note at the bottom of the form, and ever so briefly).
I have just received a fax with the 1st request for funds TODAY – 2 weeks after 1st invoice from Utrecht (if I delay there will only be slight penalties of 125 euros for administration) from a fax number in Dallas Texas.972-729-0000. – strangely enough the terms were actually enclosed witrh the invoice, but not attached with original application form.
After reading through the terms (albeit a bit late), I had a chocie to email this lady: julia@internationaldirectoriesgroup.com to advise we are not interested. T & C states, ” subscriber accepts these terms unless he/she sends a cancellation within a period of seven days after the date pf teh signing/stamping of the order note, after which teh contract will come into force.” Amusing that they only return the form after the alotted deadline has been sure to be passed.
Realizing some things didn’t ‘jive’ (why won’t they take my credit card for payment, only will receive wire transfer), I checked into this company, World Company Register and am now unfortunately reading this is/may be a scam.
I will be sending these documents off to my solictor today for his advice
Here I am too – one more victim of this scam. I was sure that this “free update” would never cause any problems. And I missed those small letters about the money and now I am receiving all those warnings and numerous emails and faxes from them, from Utrecht. Right now i have received one more mail from them that I will have to take from our main post office….