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 8157

Updating 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.

The form seduces you to submit not only your credit card details but also your email and PayPal password. This could directly lead to the hacking and abuse of your PayPal account.

The form sends the filled in details to the host hxxp://www.swisstools.net/mailform.asp and when processed it will redirect you to the Italian PayPal web site. When we tested this we got a Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Driver error as a result.

The messages is from “World Business Register” with different email addresses in use:

info@easyhomecorporation.com
info@easycitycorporation.com
info@bigorganization4you.com
www@companyregpro.net
www@companyregstore.net
www@easycompregonline.com
www@bestcompregpro.com

The subject is “Business Registration 2009/2010″. The body of the email:

Ladies and Gentlemen.

In order to have your company inserted in the registry of World Businesses
for 2009/2010 edition, please print, complete and submit the enclosed
form (PDF file) to the following address:

WORLD BUSINESS GUIDE
P.O. Box 2021
3500 GA Utrecht
The Netherlands

email: register@wbgtoday.net
FAX: +31 20 524 8107

Updating is free of charge!

If you are not the intended recipient, please submit an email to
unsubscribe@wbgtoday.net
Your request shall be dealt with accordingly.

Attached is a PDF document that needs to be printed, filled in and sent to an PO Box address in The Netherlands.

When reading the PDF document carefully you can find the following:

I WILL HAVE AN INSERTION INTO ITS DATA BASE FOR THREE YEARS. THE PRICE PER YEAR IS EURO 995.

While the email itself states “Updating is free of charge!” you will have to pay € 995 each year with a minimum 3 year period by signing the document. This is quite misleading if you ask me.

A few more observations that should warn you about a possible scam:

• the email is sent from easyhomecorporation.com while there is no web site on this place so the registration of this domain is purely for spoofine the real origin.
• and more important, the document needs to be sent to a PO Box in The Netherlands while the company is International Directories Group Ltd  located in Spain according to the document.

In the past we have received similar letters by regular post here in Belgium and some organisations like Unizo have instructions (in Dutch) on how to report the illegal and deceptive practices to the authorities.

If you have received such a email, or regular mail, don’t sign the document, sent it to the trash or report to your local authorities.

[Update March, 9th 2010] MX Lab received a new registration PDF from the World Business Directory. Read the article.

In the Nigerian spam emails they claimed to have a fund in Ghana where a substantional amount of money was blocked after a woman died in a car accident. The small fortune of 35 million Euro could be released with the help and a contribution of the addressee.

The police could arrest the gang after a tip and a thorough investigation of mobile phone conversations.