I noticed this morning that yesterday someone had left comments on a number of posts on this blog, all regarding directory scams (both the Who’s Who In Australia and the World Business Guide scams).

In the space of five minutes yesterday Hector Schmidt left four comments either supporting these scams or putting down other commenters.

At 12.58 on More Fax Spam…

Not one person mentions the countless positive pages online. Just a bunch of individuals that are complaining about receiving an advertisment. No one who actually has a problem with the service, just problems with receiving a fax. This product has worked wonders for me. This site is a bunch of bloody rubbish.

then 1pm on the same post…

And why is it a hoax…. Because lots of people received it? Makes no sense what you folks say. You all sound like a bunch of whining teenagers. Grow up. If you don’t want the service, don’t respond.

then 1.02pm on World Business Guide – another fax spam directory scam…

And why is this a scam?????

and finally at 1.03om on More on the Who’s Who fax spam

YOu souns like a rocket scientist michele.

(Michele had offered the opinion that these types of organisations were trying to trick people into paying for information that’s already freely available, that these people often use fake names and that trying to opt-out may put you on another list).

All good – I want your views

Which is great – I encourage the sharing of opinions on this site. And given the number of people who’ve been vocal in their condemnation of  these types of ‘offers’ it’s good to see some different perspectives.

In fact at the end of last year I spent quite a bit of time following up with Shane Mundy who’d signed up for one of these deals to present his side of this debate.

I can’t help wondering though

What made me curious about the recent dash of comments were the similarities between Hector and Brian Green, who was a regular commenter on this site over the course of a week in late December 2010 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), commenting on most of the same posts with similar opinions and tone.

A quick lookup of the IP addresses from which the comments were left shows them both to be from the same Internet Service Provider. Now I know that this ISP probably has thousands of customers but still, I can’t help wondering if Brian and Hector work from the same location/for the same organisation or are indeed the same person?

Again, I’d love to hear comments on this from readers, particularly Hector or Brian.

Another great directory spam came through on the fax today, this time from World Business Guide.

Always read the fine print

This one is even more blatant than similar fax spam (more), in that although they note at the top nice and clearly

To update your company profile please print, complete and return this form (UPDATING IS FREE OF CHARGE).

you need to read between the lines a little. Updating may be free of charge, but placing the listing is going to cost you €2985 – around $AUD4300! Buried at the bottom in the fine print, in all capital letters to make it hard to read, is

THE VALIDATION TIME OF THE CONTRACT IS THREE YEARS AND STARTS ON THE EIGHTH DAY AFTER SIGNING THE CONTRACT. THE INSERTION IS GRANTED AFTER SIGNING AND RECEIVING THIS DOCUMENT BY THE SERVICE PROVIDER. I HEREBY ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION WITH SERVICE PROVIDER INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORIES LTD “WORLD BUSINESS GUIDE”. I WILL HAVE AN INSERTION INTO ITS DATA BASE FOR THREE YEARS. THE PRICE PER YEAR IS EURO 995

I’ve bolded and underline what I’d have to describe as the ‘key points’.

(Fine print, click to zoom in)

Oh, but hang on – they’re not totally mercenary. After being hit with your first bill you do get the chance to cancel

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.

So if you fill in the form based on what you’ve read at the top and miss the fine print it’s really only going to cost you around €995/$AUD1500. Nice.

Here’s the full World Business Guide fax (pdf, 78 kb).

Who is behind the World Business Guide?

The fax lists their address as P.O. Box 3079, 3502 GB, Utrecht, The Netherlands but their website suggests otherwise.

The World Business Guide online is product of International Directories, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of BVI.

BVI is tax haven the British Virgin Islands. Like Jack and Meg said, I think I smell a rat.

“Realistically, this figure is likely to be the tip of the iceberg – given people can be embarrassed about reporting that they have fallen victim to scams and lost money in the process” said ACCC deputy chair Peter Kell.

‘False billing (advertising, directories, domain names)’ came in as the 5th most compained about type of scam for 2009, with the report noting

Scammers continued to target small businesses in an attempt to trick them into paying for a listing or advertisement in a magazine, journal or business register/directory. A common example is where a small business is sent a subscription form disguised as an outstanding invoice. This is an attempt to trick the recipient into signing up for unwanted advertising services.

It’s interesting to note that the ACCC have initiated legal proceedings against one such organisation, the European City Guide.

Although Australia has a  and a Spam Act which regulates unsolicited email and sms messages and a Do Not Call Register to which (private) fixed and mobile numbers can be added there is no legislation which covers unsolicited faxes at this stage.

At the time of writing, according to The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s website

The Government has recently announced its intention to expand the Do Not Call Register, to cover both business numbers and fax numbers. When this is implemented, it may reduce these types of calls being made where people register their numbers.

Again!

And I thought that these guys were narky with me! Back in December after I received and wrote about my first Who’s Who in Australia fax (and followed up with more information) Brian Green – who claimed to be behind the mystery organisation that sends these faxes – left several messages on this website, which ranged from

We are asking you, business man to business man to please remove this site. It may be exciting to you because of all of the hits your getting from our marketing efforts but it is truly huring us and our over 50 employees that count on our great company to make a living. It also makes our happy customers question our credibility. So we ask you to please remove the negative press as We are clearly not a scam, just agggressive good marketers that provide a great service. Thank you in advance for you cooperation. We can help you get major traffic to your site with out hurting our company if you like. Please.
(Dec 11 2009)

to

These comments are from non-customers and a bunch of Rubbish. I don’t see any paid customers complaining! Just Non responders that don’t like our marketing letters. No Scam at all here, just a great service that puts peoples businesses on the map in search engines and generates business for them. But all of you have a nice day. Maybe you’ll come around someday. Good Day Mates :)
(December 16, 2009)

and

We have great products and tens of thousands of happy customers. This site is a compilation of a bunch of synical non-customers so here is what we are willing to do to change that. THE FIRST 10 PEOPLE That leave their contact details on here, we will provide them with free services for 1 year to prove the validity of our product. That is only if they come back and publish the great things that our services do for ther business.
(December 17, 2009)

I guess despite all my negative press ‘the Director’ still thinks I might make ‘an interesting biographical subject’. After all ‘achievement is what Who’s Who is all about’.

An open letter to Brian

As you’re still so keen to keep in contact with me Brian I have a few questions I’d love to ask you. As in the past I’d welcome the opportunity for you to have your say and will be happy to publish your responses in full.

1. If you are, as you claim, a legitimate organisation, why don’t you supply your real business name, ABN, phone number, email or street address on your marketing material?
2. Why don’t you provide an opt-out mechanism for people who don’t want to receive your faxes?
3. Does Jennifer Crowley really exist?

I was curious when Bob noted that a business in Hobart was advertising their listing on their site (looks like this has since been removed) so I contacted owner Shane Mundy to find out more. Shane joined up and paid his money and has a slightly different take on the situation so I asked him if he’d mind sharing his experience which he was happy to do. Here’s what he had to say (unedited)

I suppose you can look at it a couple of ways, yes it is defiantly marketing , you are led to believe you are a special person to be asked to be a member, but at the end of the day you have joined a networking organisation, that’s what it is a membership that you pay 500 dollars to be a member, I did a google and when I told the SALES PERSON I saw lots of google results as a scam. It could be classed as a scam if you look it at it that way, there are 2 membership options platinum or 5 year, I at first said I was not interested but as any sales person he offered me the benefits of platinum for the cheaper 5 year option, in that I received 2 airline tickets to a list of destinations across the globe, there is a little catch though, you have to stay in their Ritzy hotels they are networked with for a number of nights, that was fine with us because we wanted to treat our self to some nice accommodation when we go back to new york after Boston, my wife is not here to ask what airline but I am pretty sure its Continental, so in all Steve it suited me this time around but if I wasn’t flying OS it would be hardly worth joining for the glory of having your name in a black book. They do send a black book as part of package with all the other members names and profiles.

Make of this what you will…

Further to my earlier post on fax spam I got an even better one today, purporting to be from Jennifer Collins, Editor of Who’s Who Among Executives, Professionals, and Entrepreneurs in Australia.

We are pleased to inform you that you and your business have been selected to be included in the 2009/2010 Edition of Who’s Who Among Executives, Professionals, and Entrepreneurs in Australia.

…

The director thinks you may make an interesting biographical subject as achievement is what Who’s Who is all about.

Well, doesn’t that make me feel important? Although hang on, if I’m so interesting why don’t they know my name and details already? They’re freely available.

It’s a scam of course (not related to the real Who’s Who publications). A quick Google finds lots of others have got this or a variant of it. Apparently if you get back to them you can get a ‘gold’ or ‘platinum’ listing for only $500 or so. Or at the least your details on a list for distribution to more spammers.

Full scan of fax is included below.