Business Directory Renewal Scam

By : Administrator
Published 13th October 2011 |
Read latest comment - 30th July 2014

In the ongoing murky world of cybercrime, the next thing you need to watch out for are bogus directory renewals.

Most businesses sign up with multiple business directories, and a lot of businesses will forget who they have signed up with, which makes this scam even more plausible.

Recent versions of this scam are calls from "The UK Business Directory", asking you to renew your advertising via credit card. There is a reputable directory of the same name that has put up an advisory notice.

Today we have had one of our customers being asked to renew, with a scumbag claiming to represent us

Luckily, the business in question was switched on, as she had taken out a Lifetime Listing with us, which doesn't need to be renewed, so was immediately suspicious.

If anyone else is approached, please let me know, and if you can grab any contact details or information, the Police would love to have them, as this is 100% illegal cyber crime.

It seems numerous directories are being targeted, so be aware. If you have an annual subscription with a directory, make sure they are who they say they are before handing over any money! Quickest way to check is to ask for the website address, and then telephone the number on the actual website.

If you don't recognize the website, or have no previous invoices then run away.

If you do fall prey to this type of scam, contact your credit company immediately and report a fraudulent transaction.

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn
Comments
They were regularly going through my directory and calling people saying their listing had expired and was up for renewal.

First I knew about it was when someone phoned me wanting to know what happens next.

They had paid this other lot

Thanks,
UKSBD

Good feedback, haven't had any honeypot listings tripped by these yet, so was new to us when a customer told us about it

Our honeypot ones seem to catch the scouse and mancunian based emergency services scams, though, that's been quiet for a while.

Deffo interested in any URL you have, can you PM me? Though think trading standards are bored of us by now

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn

forum avatarRoyalOwl
15th November 2011 4:12 PM
I just signed up to the forums so that I could post a reply to this thread.

I work as a receptionist/apprentice in a tattoo shop in Cheshire - Royal Owl Tattoo Studio. We literally recieved a phone call a few minutes ago from someone claiming to work for buisness directory enquiries & I thought that you'd want to hear what happened.

He asked me if I was in charge of advertising for the company, & told him that no, I wasn't the buisness owner, but I should beable to help him. He then said that in order to continue the call he would have to talk with someone authorised to make a payment. This immediately struck me as odd, so I asked him again where he was calling from.

My boss & the owner of the buisness then asked me to pass the phone to him & he continued with the call. We both automatically assumed it was some sort of a scam & as soon as the person on the other end realised he wasn't going to get anywhere with us he abruptly hung up the call.

All my boss managed to get out of him was that he was calling from UK Buisness Directories, he was asking for a payment of

Thanks Bex, and welcome.

Yep, you just evaded a scam, well done

You did all the right things, and as expected, these conmen can soon tell when someones a bit savvy and you get the phone slammed down

It's good to see the forum thread and message is getting out there!

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn

I had a call from them today asking me to renew for only

BLACKBERRY FARM

I get a lot of spam phone calls, when I asked about ad words in the forum I got three phone calls the next day, and these scumbags are so pushy that I can see people falling for it.

Maybe you should email all the members and warn them about it because I am sure that many people will pay for it.

Jerry

Amazing Gift Boxes

I think I may have found who some of these guys are. Scam is identical to what was listed above and they have listed me on their website:

xxxxxxxxxx-finder.com (10 post limit means I can't post the actual url, but fill in the rest yourselves)

I will be contacting NatWest to raise a dispute and have already reported them to Trading Standards. This Preston based 'business' are already cropping up in similar cases and fit the bill perfectly (WorldPay a/c, googlemail email a/c, bogus directory renewals).

Hope this helps other honest people and businesses out there.

Thanks

neilho

Hope this helps other honest people and businesses out there.

Thanks

Hi Neilho

Thanks for the input. We have to be careful about naming and shaming, as we end up with yet another legal letter for our notice board

The directory in question may or may not be a scam, but this particular scam is very easy to avoid. Never agree to anything from a cold call and never pay for anything you are unsure about.

Do 5 minutes of research.

In this case, they want

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn

I know; hindsight is a wonderful thing.

However, the technique they use is mimicking the services you have signed up for before. A lot of genuine business directories have a similar name and the amount I had previously paid to them was identical. They use clever confidence tricks.

I had done my due diligence on the initial company, which were great. I treated this call as coming from the same people.

OK, I was a bit stupid to commit the money without sitting down and focusing on the details, but I was extremely busy at the time.

Yes, they will keep going because a) people like me fall for the trick, b)Trading Standards deem it too small a problem to bother with, 3) legal issues prevent them being named and shamed.

Can somebody send a bit of sympathy my way, please. I've just lost

neilho

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