Are you being harrassed for money by Expo-guide?
Welcome! You’re probably here because you signed a form thinking you were going to get a free entry in a business guide that suddenly turned into a demand for a lot of money. Well, you’re not alone. If you scroll down to the comments at the bottom of this page, you meet hundreds of other people like you.
The good news is that you don’t have to worry. Expo Guide is a scam – and there’s nothing they can do to make you pay, except bully and threaten in the hope that you’re so afraid or ashamed that you’ll pay to get them off your back. It’s THAT simple.
Once you’ve read the following post and you’ve reassured yourself that you don’t need to pay or worry any more, then please consider joining our LinkedIn ‘Stop Expo Guide’ group. We need your help (and the help of your networks) to raise awareness about this scam to stop people like you getting caught up in it in the first place.
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Original post:
Like World Business Directory, World Business Register and a surprisingly long list of similar scams, Expo-Guide sends out a form designed to deliberately fool you into signing a minimum 3 year contract for an entry in their directory (at a cost of around £1000 a year) when you’re under the impression you’re signing for a free listing in their business directory. Wrong.
Click on the thumbnails (left and below) to see the whole misleading form and a summary of the vital ‘small print’ that you’re supposed not to notice. (And, yes, Expo-Guide, I have edited the close-up version of your small print so people can see what they’re missing. For the full text, use the full version of the document).
This scam was raised in the European Parliament in 2006 (see the Busutill report_on_the ‘European City Guide’ ) but despite that, it’s still out there and it’s still big business.
It’s taken until now (9 or more years) for one of the companies behind one of the earliest versions of this scam (European City Guide) to be ruled against in the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.
That’s good news, but not good enough. These people just move their base, change the directory name and carry on.
If you’re one of the many people who have made that mistake of returning a signed form, the first you’ll know about it is when you receive the demand for payment, followed swiftly by letters from collections agencies piling on the ‘costs’ day by day.
It’s clear that the modus-operandi of the organisation behind these scams is to trick you into signing for 3 years contract, threaten you relentlessly until you pay the full amount or they ‘generously’ let you off with just having to pay 1 yr or it. The success of this scam depends entirely on you being frightened enough to get into communication with them.
Why? Because people contacting them is their way of ‘qualifying’ prospects for their scam. When you contact them, they know you’re frightened / ashamed enough to want a way out – and then they’ve got you.
Jules Woodell estimates that some 80% of the estimated 250,000 businesses that signed the European City Guide (just one of the many variants of this form) didn’t / won’t pay. That leaves 20% presumably who will. But even if only 1% of that 250,000 paid just 1 year of the 3 years fee, we’re still talking around about £250,000 extorted from small businesses. This is a very big scam – and all it takes is the ability to email huge lists and employ ‘debt collectors’ to chase.
A quick Google search for ‘Expo Guide’ turns up plenty of evidence against these scammers. The same applies to World Business Directory – although they’ve been a bit cleverer and made sure they flooded the first couple of pages of Google with their own innocuous references. This search will show you what you really need to know.
If you want more detail, then this scam and a range of variants are fully documented on Jules Woodell’s excellent http://stopecg.org/ – an absolute must-read if you’ve been affected and a pretty good history of these scams. However, Jules and I disagree on one fundamental point: I do NOT recommend you write or engage in ANY dialogue at all with these scammers. Please read my numerous responses to victims in the comments (below) to see why. To put it simply: the only people who would communicate with criminals are scared people – and that is exactly the kind of people the scammers want to select for further bullying.
Sadly it seems we can expect more and more of these scams – particularly while banks seem completely indifferent to the nature of their clients’ activities in this field and so long as certain web hosting providers continue to turn a blind eye as well.
PS – if we’ve saved you €980 or helped end your worries, please support our work by clicking through to our sponsor sites (under our picture on the right there –>). Thank you!
Thanks for your review, you have saved us loads of money, I was going to sign up but thought I’d better do a google search, Thank od I did, what b…. who prey on small businesses., All the best Malc
Glad to have been able to help, Malcolm – I’ll continue to use the Google-power of this site to draw attention to such scams and rip-offs whenever I can.
If you come across something dodgy like this and want me to look into it (and publicise it) let me know!
Hello Sam!
Thank you for your review, I just want to share my shame with everybody who had similar “experience” with Expo Guide! I have signed on the dotted lines and I’m receiving emails and letters asking me for payment which I don’t have, my company went bust a couple of years ago and I want to put an end to these nasty emails from Expo Guide asking for “easy money”! How can I do that please? Kind regards.
Mo
Hey, Mo.
Let them try to take you to a court (judging by everything I’ve read they won’t). Even if they did, they’d lose because this is a well-known rip off.
Read everything here http://stopecg.blogspot.com/2008/06/open-letter-to-owners-of-expo-guide.html and you’ll see you’re not alone.
Hi
It seems that I am not the only one here. I received an invoice last week from Expo-Guide Mexico asking for payment of € 1, 181. I was so shocked. I have received forms for about a year, always ignored them then one day in June I signed it thinking they just wanted to be certain that my details are correct, after all it is FREE….or so I thought! God I was furious, immediately send them an email asking for my details to be removed last Friday. Heard nothing, wrote again on Monday. Nothing until the next day I received an email advising that I was too late to cancel within 10 days of signing the form! It was signed on 5th June 2009. A little over a month later I receive an invoice with an enclosed photocopy of my contract that I signed…that was when I read the tiny letters with the € 1, 181 and to my shock it is per year over a three year contract. Totally absurd.
I am obviously anxious that I would get demands after the payment is due on 25th July 2009. Help!
Birthe, take the time to slowly read everything here and especially the ‘stopecg’ site. That should help to calm you down a bit.
Thank you Sam. I have read everything and send a letter of complaint to Expo. Dont think they will accept it.
One thing though I have signed up with the group via yahoo but cannot seem to get any interaction with the people. I dont know how to do it. Do you or anybody know?
Thanks
Hi everybody ,
I’m also another victim of signing the document by mistake a “contract” by “expo-Guide”. I have received two legal notices threatening me to pay pay $ 1571 with interst of $ 178 . I have writen them to send me a hard copy of the documentary evidence proving their claim that they have advertised in Expo Guide as per Foreign Exchange Regulation Act & RBI guidelines for remitting Foreign Exchange .
Now waiting for their response . Meanwhile , I will be obliged , if some one could suggest the action I should take to avoid legal procedure .
Regards .
CR
FYI, I went onto the stoecg website & I am currently filing a complaint to the Mexican authorities as they suggest.
I have received already what they call in French the “last sommation to pay”.
It is very interesting, as obviously, it pushes on the “fear factor”. However, there is no way I will let a dime to these dishonest people & I have faith in justice.
As well, please note that on the stopecg website, they do mention that nobody has yet been served. We currently only all got stressful reminders & reminders.
don’t give up !!! We are still in a country with laws & justice proving often the common sense. We need to build up cases against them & I WOULD STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU ALL START FILING A COMPLAINT AT THE MEXICAN AUTHORITIES. It’s time consuming, it’s stressful, but worth it. I would very much appreciate seeing them having to ruin themselves paying back the victims who already paid !!
CR & CB – Thank you for your comments. I hope you don’t get bullied into paying these people. They use a form that is designed specifically to trick you into signing for their ridiculously expensive ‘service’. How can you be sure it’s a trick? Because it’s the same format that has been used many times over to rip other people off under different company names.
What an absolute disgrace that our laws permit fraudsters to threaten innocent people!
Hello from Hong Kong. We have the scourge of Expo-Guide too. My wife has been caught by them and has got to “the pay us in 7 days or we will take you to court in Hong Kong” letter. HK law is based on British law still so this is still a scam here. But me and all the people in StopCG telling my wife not to pay, does not reduce her anxiety. She is very scared. Funny how the “pay us in 7 days” letter took 31 days to reach us.
We have written to them and pointed out that this was a trick by them and they should go away. I have contacted the Mexican trade mission, the Spanish government (as they want to be paid in Spain), the HK Government and The Austrian Trade Mission. Those who have read the StopCG site will know this all bears a strong resemblance to Construct Data, and Austrian outfit, that the Austrian Government have done battle with and won. I also wrote to the bank in Spain pointing out that they were getting money from a scam and may be liable. Shortly after this the bank we were asked to send the payment to changed. So I am trying the new bank too. So that line of action may have some effect. Real problem is that governments (Except Austria) will not act against them. Switzerland and the Czech Republic have raided parts of the empire, but it remains to be seen if that stops those parts of the operation.
Then you think, Spain, Mexico, No chance. Not the most active law enforcing counties you could name.
But has anyone had anything happen after the legal threats, and how many are there? We have one. Do we get a second or a third, how long before they go away?
Where is Roger Cook when you need him?
Tony, by a strange co-incidence, I’m replying to this from the transfer lounge in Hong Kong airport.. Sorry to hear you wife has such anxiety about it. Look at it this way, don’t pay and the worst they can do is take you to court. All evidence shows they’ve never taken anyone to court. So that’s 100% likely nothing would happen. Even if they did, then the worst that would happen is you’d have to pay what your wife is considering paying already.
Verdict? Just don’t pay
then come back and tell other people that nothing happened.
Best of luck,
Sam
Hi, I am another victim of this fraud called Expo Guide. We’ve signed the letter couple of months ago, and now they’re charging us “delay fees”. I’ve contacted the company and the Mexican authority mentioned at stopecg website. And I will NEVER pay them. If they want, They’ll need to hire an international lawyer, which for sure will cost them more than USD1571,00.
Rod
Sao Paulo – Brazil
Hi!
I´ve also signin´that “order” s.t.s! For five years I´ve got letters from Expo-guide, but in april I signed – ant thougt that I was updating my details. In this letter was also the fairs namne whitch I´ve have had my exhibition – very misleading.
I also complained when I got the invoice, ( 2 months later) but it was of course too late – what else!????
Well, this is absurd, and I´ve got invoices, remenders, and letters. BUT I´M NOT GOING TO PAY! So, DON´T PAY!!!! Just ignore them!
Thank´s and goog luck to us all wictims!!!!
Good for you Rod and Liisa!!!!!
Let’s hope other people visiting this thread will gain confidence from your experience.
Expo-guide have moved east. I hope due to getting in touch with the Spanish Authorities and Banks. They now request payment to go to Hungary, instead of Spain.
We have also spoken to the Spanish Trade mission in Hong Kong and the Spanish internet fraud police in recent days. You should contact your local Spanish trade mission too, as they need a Spanish company to have a Spanish bank account.
I am now contacting the Hungarian Trade missing to start complaining to them in the hope of getting then chased in Hungary.
I have also spoken to a Mexican Lawyer here in Hong Kong. He look one look and said, this is a scam and would not stand up in a Mexican court. They would have to raise a case in a Mexican court and get it approved. Then the case would go to the Mexican Justice ministry, who would have to approve it. Then it would have to go to your own government in order to get the case into your local court. None of which will happen he feels. Especially as most governments agree this is a scam. The form is not correctly made up and is not legal in Mexico. So their threats of taking you to court are very unlikely to get through all the hoops, even if they tried, which they are unlikely to do.
Good to hear, and thanks for the additional information Tony.
So – if anyone is reading this after being bullied by Expo Guide (or any of the other rip off ‘directories’ that use the same deliberately misleading forms) please take heart from the fact that you’re not alone. And also from the fact that these people wouldn’t stand up in court anywhere.
Why don’t they take it to court? Not just because they’ll lose but because it would create wider awareness of what they’re doing – and that’s the only thing that will put them out of business.
From Thailand
My sister is also a victim. I write this letter to announce that the expo-guide’s devil coming to Thailand. I try to syop that order which came from their mislead letter. But they said ‘cannot cancel’ and have to pay immedeadly. Now I wrote a letter told them to cancel the mistaken order again. But I think they will still sending their invoice. So What can we do. Unfortunly we are not strong write and rread in English.
thank again. KK
I’m a victim of Expo Guide too. I had just plucked up enough courage to spill the beans about my mistake to my boss. Thankfully he is understanding and bold enough to ask him to ignore Expo Guide. I will write in to them to cancel this and we shall see where that leads to.
Good for you Pei Lin – point your boss at these posts and the ‘stopECG’ site for reassurance that these people are scammers and don’t have a legal leg to stand on. Best wishes
I have contacted the Hungarian trade mission in Hong Kong. They say that unlike in Spain, you do not to have a company registered in hungary to have a company bank account there. But they are still thinking what do to.
I have also conatcted the bank they are now using in Hungary to warn them they may be money laundering.
Go TONY, go!!
Expo-guide and World Business Directory (et al) would make such a great TV expose about how legislators fail totally to grasp the implications of online fraud.
Anyone know anyone in the documentary business? Thanks again, Tony – keep us in the loop. If you want to write a piece that I could publish as a single post, then please send it through and I’d be happy to do that (with a nice Google-friendly title of course)
Now that Roget Cook had retired into academia and ITV only want to do phone in competitions the choices are limited.
Well I was going to have a go at a Radio5live programme – the Investigators – having already hit File on Four. The investigators returns in September, on that’s tomorrow. After that is BBC World Service – Assignment. They seem to be into this sort of thing.
Don’t know anyone at CNN these days. Swiss Radio International has all but closed down, but that is one country that has done something. I am loathed to go near any programme with Nicky Campbell in it, but then there is Watch Dog. If someone does a “news” type piece about this then you might get a C4 commissioning editor interested.
Oh I do know someone at Radio Nederland – That is Hilversum – to those of you old enough to have had a radio with place names on it. So I will pitch the story to them.
I did write to Watchdog suggesting that (for the reasons above) this might make an interesting investigation… but no reply. That may have something to do with their rubbish online ‘idea submission’ form.
I DO remember ‘Hilversum’! Spent my childhood exploring that mysterious, dark world of analogue radio stations. Remember listening to the cold war propaganda from Radio Moscow?
Hi Guys,
I’m also from Hong Kong and got hit by this scam. They sent me the form 2 or 3 times and I filled it out and sent it back to them. Of course I received an invoice a month or so later (I can’t remember exact length of time). I did find it a bit strange though because they even sent a copy of the form I filled out which is unusual. I ignored it because I didn’t want to fork out the money and also because I had a feeling something was up. Seeing that it was from Mexico, I decided to ignore it because I didn’t think they could do anything. Then I got letters quite often and just recently a letter from the “legal department”. After I received that I googled and found a number of sites discussing this scam. I’m glad I found it because I was getting a bit worried that they could affect my company reputation by taking me to court. I also talked to a friend of mine who has a law background and was informed that if they really had procedures setup in Hong Kong, I would’ve heard from a Hong Kong court already. Anyways, I haven’t even made contact with expo-guide yet. I tried calling them just now but no answer. Tony, since you’re from Hong Kong, if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.
Thanks for commenting Suraj and good to hear that you feel confident about NOT paying these people. It’s very rewarding to find people who have been helped or reassured by these posts and all the comments building up over time.
Good luck to you and to anyone else who has fallen foul of Expo Guide or World Business Directory et al.
Keep those comments coming!
Suraj – welcome to the club. You might like to join the Stopecg.org mailing list. You can contact me via that or ask Sam to pass you my email address. [will do - Sam]
The autumn Fair season is about to start in Hong Kong so watch for another flood of letters and worried people.
Yes, I’m definitely planning on sending them a letter using the format given on Stopecg.org. It’s a great website. I’ve also continuously tried to call them but with the time difference I am never able to get through to someone. Anyways, I’m definitely not paying and now that I’ve confirmed it’s a scam I’m looking forward to having some fun with these guys if possible. I recently rcvd an email from “Euro Business Guide” with an attached form similar to the Expo-Guide one. I “unsubscribed” to their email list and included a few lines saying that I know they are a scam and that I have already notified HKTDC about them already. I doubt it will stop them from sending out more emails, so watch out for that one. Anyways, I would love to have them take me to court, it would be fun to take them down that way… but I’m sure they wouldn’t waste the time or money! All the best everyone!
Thanks, Suraj! I managed to leave my MacBook power supply at work this weekend, but next week I’m going to pull together a pile more links about this scam into one place (and make a few new posts).
People who have enough online ‘savvy’ to do a Google search will pretty quickly find people like us saying what a scam this is. The problem is getting this out into the ‘hardcopy’ small business world. In the UK, there are a huge number of business networking groups meeting every day of the week and that’s the place to raise awareness. Suggests to me some kind of ‘link up’ with the organisers of those.
Typically, in a room of 30 breakfast networkers (of the kind I used to go to) I’d say at least 75% were ripe for this kind of thing: i.e. they used email and had a website but practically no understanding of a) how the web *really* works and therefore b) the kinds of dangers out there.
It’s these people who need warning off – but it would have to be old-fashioned mainstream media or word-of-mouth on the ground.
Got my legal notice today from Expo Guide warning me that I have got 7 days to remit and that my claim had already been scheduled for court recovery procedure in the uk.
Letter dated 26/08, received 17/09. I figure I am already over the 7 days so I might as well ignore it.
For information they are now asking that payment is made to a bank in Slovakia so they are moving about a bit.
My letter is now going to hit the bin. Best advice to everyone is shred and ignore. What an absolute p*** take. As if the world of business wasnt hard enough already!!
Another request for payment arrived. This time asking for the money to be sent to Italy. Now there is an image. So I have emailed Barclays, Italy. Barclays is one of the very few British banks not owned by the Her Majesty’s Government these days, pity. But I did copy in their press people and asked for a comment.
I also contacted the Italian Trade mission in Hong Kong, who refused to do anything. “Unfortunately, I must inform you that also from our side, there is nothing else we can do.” was their reply.
Today I have received the letter from Expo-Guide’s legal dept too. With the letter dated 02.09.2009, we were told to pay by 13.09.2009. But the letter arrived in the mail only yesterday. I will have to notify my boss of this and see how he wants to handle it. I will keep you guys posted in a while.
Hi,
I am in the same boat – signed the contract, and have received one invoice. I emailed and called with letters/messages that it was a mistake – and told them the letter was misleading. After weeks of email and calls I got an email saying that I could not cancel. By the way, sounds like the calls go to a home answering machine. And, the line is always has a lot of static…interesting to say the least!!
My question is – has anyone out there been a victim of this scam in the US? I don’t see any above but maybe I missed it. I am in the States…so where should I go to report them? And, what if any rules apply in the US to scams such as this?
I plan on ignoring all harassing correspondences for payments. My company is a world-wide business with more legal backing than they would want to contend with. If they try to take us to court , boy do they have another thing coming!!
Please advise on US victim situations if you can?! Thank you!!!
Hi Brooks, thanks for the comment. A quick bit of research with Google turns up evidence that Expo-Guide seems to have been in the US for a while. I wonder just how many people have been bullied into paying? What’s infuriating is that when there’s no official governmental agency working on the case, then there will be no statistics about just how many people have been scammed.
According to Jules Woodell’s excellent ‘stopecg.org’ site (http://www.stopecg.org) you could contact:
Federal Trade Commission
Office of Business Fraud
600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20580
Tel: 1-202-326-2800
Fax: 1-202-326-2034
Email: OIG@ftg.gov
He also suggest that if you received the form in the post you could also file a mail fraud complaint with the US Postal Service. The URL he gives for this form is wrong, so I have tracked down the right page for you:
http://www.usps.com/forms/miscforms.htm (see last form on the list “PS Form 8165 – Mail Fraud Report”)
Finally try Econsumer.gov, though this is mainly for personal consumers http://www.econsumer.gov”
Hope that helps and just remember that no-one I’ve heard from so far has ever, repeat ever, been taken to court by those scammers.
Do let us know how you get on!
Wow, thank you so much. You don’t know how much your research and this site has helped me. I felt so ashamed that I was “conned” by these people but it really helps to know that I am not alone and that their operation is WRONG!
I have contacted the Fed Trade Commission and next step is the Post Office. I will continue to keep you posted on my progress. Oh, by the way, I also contacted the ABC news show “investigations” (I am in the PR industry). I will continue to spread the word to the press because this might be the only way we can really bring these people to light.
Glad to have been able to help. If you can find a way to get somebody in the US to make this mainstream, you’ll be doing the business world a huge favour. These people only succeed because their victims operate in relative isolation and because the governments and bodies supposed to protect them are 10 years behind the technological curve.
Let me know how far you get. There must be a LOT of people hit by this in the US… and at least some will have paid out of fear.
Good luck!
Hi Sam,
I have another question for you all…has anyone mentioned anything about the “fine print” missing from their original form?
I found a facebook group to “stop ECG” and a few people mentioned that they didn’t believe their original forms had the “fine print” on it, or that it was very faint to read thus why they signed the form.
I am looking at the “copy” of my signed form they sent back to me with the invoice and it looks like a good cut and paste job if you ask me! I am starting to wonder if that fine print was originally missing from the form that I signed…I always read fine print so it has been bothering me why I wouldn’t read theirs?
Perhaps it was missing or illegible?
Just thought I would bring that up and see if anyone thought or experienced the same thing.
Thanks!!
Hi,
I signed there misleading form in may and have got my second overdue payment reminder. I am stationed in Sweden so Expoguide made it all the way over here. I’m trying to be strong and not pay, but please IF anyone would to be dragged to court please list this on the website so t´hat we know.
Have anyone heard anything from Swedish companies?
I hope this discussion continues until Expo guide stop.
Thanks!
Carolina Lindahl
Stockholm Sweden
I have found out that their website (Expo-Guide.com) is hosted by Network Solutions. I have sent an email to abuse@networksolutions.com advising them of the scam and pleading with them to investigate taking their site down. I know another victim who also did the same thing.
If they have no website, they have no way to cover up this tawdry operation.
I advise ALL of you to please send emails to Network Solutions with your story in hopes that the more letters they receive the more they will be inclined to investigate and take them down!!!
Thank you.
Today I receive the second and arguably the last Legal notice with the interest piling up.
And last week I got a reply to my letter pointing out that they were misleading by associating themselves with the trade shows. They replied saying they consider their cover letter for the listing is entirely comprehensible once read and that the form was returned duly signed in the space reserved for a legally binding signature to confirm the contractual terms, which are located directly above the signature space. In short, they brush it off as error on my side for not reading through the terms and they want payment settled.
I will have to bring this up to my boss again.
Brooks, it will be great if you can put them to shame on International news!
Jamie, I got my legal notice two days ago too, and my case is also, apparently, scheduled for UK court recovery………
Hi everyone,
I’ve just been reading all of your comments and a) I’m so glad it wasn’t just me duped into signing the scam form and b) that you’re all refusing to pay! Please, please continue to do so!
Since I received my first invoice a few months ago, I immediately sent a cancellation letter as per the Stop ECG website and received similar replies to all of you. I wrote a further letter crafted by a lawyer and they still refused to budge. I wrote one last letter to state my position which was that I refuse to pay for such a ridiculous scam (I’m not even sure what the service is that they’re offering?!).
I’ve informed my local Trading Standards in the UK and they are ready to help if necessary.. The very worst Expo Guide can do here is take their ‘grievance’ to a small claims court and I’d like to think that with all the evidence, blogs, past precedents (Fairguide)etc it will be laughed out.
My advice is to get in touch with your country’s Trading Standards or Fair Trade organisation and make them aware. Also, re media – I’m aware that at least one UK paper published the case with Fairguide before it went to court.
Hello from, BULGARIA!
And we have a “contract” and we have received a invoice for 1180 euro!! WOW!
Now we will send a letter for “…Since the error was caused by you and was material in leading to conclusion of the contract, we contest the contract – in so far as a contract indeed even came into being….” and letter to Minister of Economy and Work Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Arbeit (BMWA) Austria; Department for Competition BMWA Austria and Osterreichischer Werberat (OWR),c/o Wirtschaftskammer Wien .
Hope this will be enough! I’m checking every day here for news.
We will pay for nothing!
Regards!
Thanks, everyone for posting. Makes useful reading for anyone else caught out by this. Marie, thanks for that info – I’ve just Tweeted it so maybe networksolutions.com will pick it up.
BK, good to hear you’ll pay nothing.
Still waiting to hear of anyone who was take to court by Expo Guide (with evidence to back it up, of course – so don’t bother with fake posts, Expo Guide lols)
Yes, we don’t’ want pay. But I worry a little big…Expo-Guide is scram…but we still have a contract and invoice…pffff.
I didn’t see somebody else form Bulgaria with this problem. Hope it’s only with our firm.
Hope Expo-guide dies soon.
Regards,
Boriana K
I seek some advice from a friend who is a counsel. Apparently Expo Guide can take legal action on us in Mexico without us knowing. And I wonder how things will play out in that kind of situation.
So, let’s hear from someone – anyone – who has been sued via Mexico then. I’ll bet you no one has.
In all the research I’ve done so far, I’ve not heard from a single person or organisation who have been taken to court by any of these scammers. If they make money at all it is by intimidating people who feel scared – Or ashamed – enough to pay the 1 year that Expo Guide / World Business Directory ‘generously’ settle on.
Liisa from Stockholm again!
Hello!
(I´m the same Liisa från the 21 august)
Today I recieved my 3rd and “final overdue payment reminder” dated 1.10.2009, they ask for payment no later than 12.10.2009 !!!! After deadline of 14 days they will “take legal steps”!
Of course I will NOT pay!!!
To Carolina Lindahl – contact Swedish Trade Federation, they have advices for you!
I have not read about anyone who has been in to court yet. I say as many of you – what can they do?
It´s so hopeful to read all those comments from you, thank´s to Sam Deeks!
Liisa fron Stockholm
Sweden
I have received many invoices and threads from Expo Guide.
Now, listening your comments, I am only ignoring them.
Elton
Brazil
Good for you, Elton. Remember to post back here if Expo Guide EVER actually take you to court
Good luck!
Hi Liisa. I suspect what happens is that they start off by demanding 3 yrs worth of money which scares a fraction of the people they’ve emailed their dodgy form to.
Once they’ve got those people in communication with them, they then appear to ‘back down’ and agree to ‘settle’ with just one year’s payment. At about 900 Euro, that means if just 1 in 1000 people go for it, Expo Guide are making serious money.
F**k ‘em.
Hello,
I am also another victim of Expo-guide.
My suggestion to all: DO NOT PAY any penny. What they can do?? Nothing!
Regards from Croatia
Hello agan from Sweden!
Today I recieved the next thret, and the top of this “Demand for Payment” has a red colour now and the headline is: “Legal Department!” I don´t know which legal department – the adress is still the same to “Expo guide” in Mexico! Have they their own Legal Department maybe?
Now they say:
” The accounts dept has transferred handling of your unsettled account to our dept.You have signed a legally binding contract for a payable insertion and now the contractually set deadline for payment has long expired. To aviod a court recovery procedure, we urge you to remit the pending amount outlined below:”
And then there´s a new invoice and the same sum as earlier!
So they still think that it was a “contract” they have sent me – I must laugh!!!
So what can I do, what can I say? Has any of you get severel from this “Legal Department” – letters? How many?
Liisa
Hi Liisa
To be more accurate their wording should read: “to avoid us being exposed and ridiculed in any court we might be stupid enough to try to bring charges in, please will you just be scared enough to pay up?”.
In all my research (including all the comments here and on other blogs) I have not yet found anyone who has been taken to court – out of the thousands who have been threatened.
I repeat, the modus-operandi of this organisation is to trick you into signing for 3 years contract, threaten you relentlessly and eventually ‘generously’ let you off with just having to pay 1 yr. For that to happen, they need you to get into communication with them.
If you don’t believe it, test it. I’ll bet you €10 that if you make contact with them and tell them you’re not willing to pay the full amount because you feel their contract was misleading, they will eventually (miraculously!) offer to let you off for just 1 year (approx €900 – leaving them €900 richer.
Like ALL scammers, the scam depends on you making contact with them. Why? Because if you do, they know you’re worried and that they’ve got you hooked, and are likely to feel so stupid / naiive that you’ll actually pay €900 to not have to tell your boss what a fool you’ve been etc. People contacting them is their way of ‘qualifying’ prospects for their scam.
If only 1 in a 1000 contact them, they’re still going to be making a lot of money – for doing nothing but emailing out pdfs.
Hi Liisa,
I recieved the same letter as you on the 4th of novemeber from the legal department. I have to admit that I’m feel alittle sick when thinking about what happens if they actually does something instead of threatning. So i would also like to know, what happens after this threat from the legal department?
Liisa, it seems interesting how they send the letters to Sweden at the same time. Are you also based in Stockholm?
BR Carolina
Hi Carolina, thanks for commenting.
I don’t think *anyone* has been taken to court. The problem is that people comment here when they’re scared and then disappear.
If you – or anyone else here – actually progressed to court wouldn’t you be back here shouting, warning and informing people?
What I’m saying is this: the fact that people ‘disappear’ after posting here continues to suggest that *nothing* ends up happening (unless they cave in and pay – see above explanation of how this works).
Please, for the sake of all the future people who come here scare, we need YOU to keep posting to create a story of what happens next.
If you want, I’ll happily turn whatever happens next into posts on this blog – so that other people don’t have to go through the (unnecessary) fear and stress you have?
Thank you Sam for your answer!
Carolina!
Yes, I am based in Stockholm too!
Liisa
Hi all,
I have seen the question “what will be their next step?” on the sites concerning Expo Guide fraud. Maybe I have an answere? Two days ago we got a mail to our “info-mailbox” from a company in Cyprus. The mail had some attachments with copies from fomer letters and invoices from Expo Guide. The mail was formal and contained the following sentences:
…..
Our client’s order form was received with a cover letter as an attachment. You will certainly agree that this covering letter is not made up to confuse the addressed party, as to the contrary it explains the possibilities in black and white, i.e. any corrections of the existing data to be done solely online and to use the enclosed order form only for a ‘payable insertion’. These instructions do not leave any room for any kind of misunderstandings, it is crystal clear.
Despite the afore mentioned facts our client is still willing to settle this matter amicably and therefore authorise us to deal with this matter.
…..
Yours faithfully,
Lisa Branson
Senior Credit Manager
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT MANAGEMENT
by Fobble Services Ltd.
Tsacon Court, 4th Floor,
187A Leontiou Str.
3020 Limassol, Cyprus
P.O. Box 53397
3302 Limassol, Cyprus
Tel : +357 25 27 06 00, Fax: +357 25 27 08 89
email: lb@fobbleservices.com
Though I did send the letter about “misstake signing….” they have continued sending invoices and threading with legal actions. I have, as many of you, waited for their next step. The day after the mail I was called on the phone and surprisingly I had Lisa on the line. I told her that now when I have a name, a phone No and an address in Europe I intend to make this a police matter. I also told her that I look forward seeing them at court in my country.
Lisa promissed to go back to her client and tell my complaints. Her client is probably not far away?
Jan
I thought I was the only one who has made such stupid thing.
Actually I have received the same letter few times, I had ignored them, but somehow one letter came to My boss’ desk, and he asked me to fill in the letter and post it,
And unfortunately I was in opinion it was just requesting confirmation data of our company relating with the exhibition we participated.
Really I overlooked the trapped sentences & very tiny letters & amount, it’s really A NASTY TRAP.
I was under deep stress and very fear a legal case may appear to my boss, until I found letters from you guys.
Even I know my boss understood me, when I told him this case, but it was still effect very badly to me, BUT NOW I REALLY have courage and feel relieve now, IT’S BECAUSE OF YOUR LETTERS.
Let’s spread this news, in order no other people experience stressfull life for their tricky trap.
Thanks for the comment, Lian. Remember – come back and let us know if they go through with Legal Action. (99.9999999% sure they won’t)
Nice one, Jan! Heh heh.
Everybody, please note this line: “our client is still willing to settle this matter amicably “ This is means “now you have contacted us (and we know you’re worried) we will let you pay us just 1 year – €900 + – to settle. Nice, aren’t we?”
DEAR FRIENDS WHO HAS BEEN TRAPPED BY EXPO GUIDE
ONLY ONE WAY WE CAN FIGHT WITH THEM
JUST IGNORE THEM AND DON’T PAY EVEN A PENNY
ALL OF US MUST DO THAT, IF THEY WANT SUE US, THEY SUE ALL OF US, THEN EVERY ONE SHOULD REPORT TO THIS BLOG, WE WILL STRIVE TOGETHER, DON’T SCARE, THEY WANT US TO BE FULL OF SCARE ; INTIMIDATE US WITH LEGAL BINDING, DON’T LET THEM WIN, PLEASE FRIENDS BE STRONG, WE ARE WITH YOU.
FAIL THEIR AIM.
THANK YOU FOR ALL WHO ARE ALREADY CONCERNED WITH THIS CASE, AND INITIATE TO MAKE BLOGS TO UNITE US AND SHARE OUR PROBLEM AND SOLVE IT WITH CONFIDENCE.
You’re welcome. If posting here saves one person a bit of worry, then it’s worth it.
Hello again from Bulgaria. My first comment here was on October 20th, 2009 5:14 pm.
We send letters to Minister of Economy and Work Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Arbeit (BMWA) Austria; Department for Competition BMWA Austria and Osterreichischer Werberat (OWR),c/o Wirtschaftskammer Wien and to EXPO GUIDE.
Now we have 2 e-mails:
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Dear Sirs,
we refer to your letter from 2. November 2009, in which you mentioned your
dispute with the company Expo Guide S de RL de CV.
As far as we are informed this company is located in Mexico (EXPO GUIDE S de
RL de CV, Ave Horacio 340 – 3 Col. Chapultepec Morales, México D.F. 11570,
México, RFC: EGU0705223M8).
Therefore Austrian law cannot be applied. Concerning your problems with Expo
Guide`s business practices please contact the competent Mexican authorities!
For instance:
• CFC: Comision Federal de Competencia Mexico, Av. Santa Fe 505 Col.
Cruz Manca; Del Cuajimalpa, C.P. 05349 Mexico D.F.
Internet: http://www.cfc.gob.mx/
• PROFECO: Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor, Av. Jose Vasconcelos
208 Col. Condesa, Del Cuauhtemoc, Mexico D.F.
Internet: http://www.profeco.gob.mx/
• Secretaria de Economia, Alfonso Reyes No.30 Col. Hipodromo CondesanC.
P. 06140 Del Cuauhtemoc, Mexico D.F.
Internet: http://www.economia.gob.mx/
Best regards
Vienna, 04.11.2009
For the Federal Minister:
MMag. Erika Ummenberger-Zierler
One day later e received and e-mail form Expo guide
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Dear Sir / Madam,
We refer to your communication received on 05.11.2009.
Our offer contained two possibilities, to update your free address listed, online, or to upgrade to a full sized payable advertisement, by signing and returning the order form.
The cover letter introduced the offer with the specific indication to, “place an order for a payable insertion [by using] the attached order form”. As the order form contained order terms and conditions with specific price details directly above the space entitled “legally binding signature” for their subsequent activation, there is absolutely nothing inaccurate in the commercial document you chose to respond to.
The “error”, if you wish to call it that, is due to several factors. If the contractual terms and further information provided was not read, then the “error” cannot be considered as such. In this case the error is due to negligence.
We trust this explanation clarifies the situation, and ask you to remit payment of the outstanding amount as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully,
Customer Services
Expo-Guide
Expo-Guide is a product of
Expo Guide S. de R.L. de C.V.
Apartado Postal N° 39-064
México D.F. 15621, Mexico
info@expo-guide.com
http://www.expo-guide.com
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Regards,
Boriana K
About this comment: Jan on November 7th, 2009 1:00 am
I think this is very interesting situation. I’m waiting information form Jan about the next step
Boriana K for BG
HI Boriana, thanks for commenting again. Don’t be surprised at their reply; it’s their way of intimidating you. Please review all these comments and all the other information online about Expo Guide. If you hear of ONE case of them taking ANYONE to court, please come back here and tell us.
Hi
I live in Cyprus
and few days ago I had an interview for Fobble Services!!! They wanted me to call companies didnt pay Expo-Guide invoices and pushed them to pay !!! I realized it stink bad and so I didnt accept. What shall i do now ? Report cypriot police or what else ?
HI Jo
Can you imagine it? Knowing you’re extorting money out of people who genuinely thought they were getting a free directory listing, NOT a £900 a year rip off.
Mmmm Interesting! Congratulations on NOT getting a job working for these people!
Can you give us any more information about the company that you interviewed for? Note Jan’s comment (above) with all the contact details for the company. Interestingly, their website is ‘under construction’ lols. I’ll bet that something about Fobble Services Ltd isn’t quite right somewhere. There’s not a single reference to them online, not even through companies search. ‘Fobble Services Ltd’ are not listed at Companies House.
The closest match is ‘Fobble Ltd’ – which was dissolved 12.05.2009
As for the domain http://www.fobbleservices.com see domain details below:
Registrant:
Vakis Demetriou
Theofilou 20a Santhemis 7
1st Floor Flat 103
Limassol, Limassol 3075
Cyprus
Registered through: DomainZoo.com
Domain Name: FOBBLESERVICES.COM
Created on: 08-Sep-09
Expires on: 08-Sep-10
Last Updated on: 08-Sep-09
Administrative Contact:
Demetriou, Vakis vakis@postcy.com
Theofilou 20a Santhemis 7
1st Floor Flat 103
Limassol, Limassol 3075
Cyprus
99435145
Technical Contact:
Demetriou, Vakis vakis@postcy.com
Theofilou 20a Santhemis 7
1st Floor Flat 103
Limassol, Limassol 3075
Cyprus
99435145
Note that date of registration for the domain. BTW – this is all publicly available data.
Why not have a word with the police in Cyprus? Ask them which government agency you might report this company to. A company that’s not registered in UK at Companies House and one acting for a well-documented and controversial online scam operation.
I know Jules Woodell at http://www.stopecg.org (a guy who campaigns against Expo Guide and all the other versions of this scam) would be interested in hearing from people who have worked for / nearly worked for these people. Why not email him at stopscamguides@yahoo.co.uk
Thanks for commenting
Sam
I e-mailed stopscamguides@yahoo.co.uk
So far no answer
About their location:
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT MANAGEMENT
by Fobble Services Ltd.
Tsacon Court, 4th Floor,
187A Leontiou Str.
3020 Limassol, Cyprus
P.O. Box 53397
3302 Limassol, Cyprus
I spoke to xxxx x x x xxxxx [Ed: I removed this person's name since they contacted me and explained how they got involved in this and how they left when they realised it was a scam]
and I also met THE BOSS, dont remember his name, but he looks like german, austrian…
They told me they open less than 2 months ago
and they are recruiting people, mostly foreigners.
I saw few people, young guys and girls
Great Jo.
I’ve been having fun with Google based on the information you’ve given me. The evidence points towards a husband and wife team with the wife having a track record in the Swiss financial industry – specialising in liquidation. Since Switzerland recently outlawed these scams and the ‘debt-collection’ companies operating on their behalf (read the home page here: http://stopecg.org/ ) it seems only logical that they’d ‘re-locate’ to somewhere they can continue their dodgy practice.
From what I know (thanks mostly to Jules Woodell) the top guy is German – featured in this article in the Daily Mirror in 2006
I also have some nice pictures (thanks to Flickr and Facebook. And remember, dropping someone from your FB friends list in a hurry doesn’t stop them showing up in the Google index and connecting you to them
hi all. i’m a little relieved to read everyones experiences. I am another victim of this scam, I aparantly ‘signed up’ with them over a year agao now. I got very worried about the letters I was getting, as I am a sole trader. So I did pay them for a year and included a letter saying that I did not want to hear from them again and I was cancelling my contract etc. Today I received another letter asking for payment and I phoned them straight away. Some girl on the phone just kept saying you signed a contract etc. I got very annoyed with her and said I will not be making any futher payments and I will be seeking legal advice etc. so she hung up the phone on me!!
Anyway I have a bit more confidence now that I’ve read these posts and will not be intimidated by them.
Thanks Sarah
p.s. I just noticed now they have moved their bank account to : Berliner Volksbank Eg, Germany. So Tony, looks like your plan of writing to the bank is working
Yeowwww, Sarah – so sorry to hear you paid a year already. See, folks? That’s how these people actually DO make money. I’m glad to hear you’ve taken a stand – but be warned, since you’ve paid once (and shown them you were worried enough for them to be able to bully you), they’re likely to push even harder. Be strong, hope you keep checking back here and find strength from other peoples’ stories.
Hello all friends that also took the bait,
Over here in Canada, same Expo-Guide scam. Just got the “Legal Department” letter, which is obviously sent from Expo-Guide, and not from an official Legal firm – Would cost too much money to get real lawyers involved… assuming real lawyers would get anywhere near that kind of Scam.
After being suckerred-in, my approach was this:
1- Send them the letter StopECG recommends (and keep a printed, dated copy), by registerred mail stating you signed in error and that you wish to cancel immediately.
2- Upon receiving their reply – KEEP IT. It confirms they indeed received your cancellation notice. Just in case.
3- Then, as I do, COMPLETELY IGNORE THEM, AND GO ABOUT RUNNING YOUR REAL BUSINESS.
I will post here further developments.
Do not worry folks, this scam is going nowhere fast as long as people know the facts, and trade fair organizers warn their exhibitors about these scammers.
Hang-on!!
Mike
Well the latest news is that Expo-Guide now takes credit card payments. I know that in the UK the credit card company has a problem if you pay using a CC. You can ask for the money back if you do not get service, and this will damage their ability to take CC money in future. I AM NOT SAYING PAY THEM SO YOU CAN ASK FOR THE MONEY BACK. That is a risk. Just that, if you have, then ask Visa for your money back. Also making a payment does mean that you have accepted the “contract”, so just do not pay them anything.
Good to see their bank accounts seem to be moving every month. We have not had a demand since August when we got the “We will start proceedings in your local court” letter. This, as we knew, has come to nothing. So now they have nowhere to go. This means I am not seeing where the accounts are moving to.
I have however never got a reply from any of the banks. I get the feeling I should call the press office of the Barclay’s bank that was used. Force them into saying something.
Jules at stopecg.org sent out a letter to members of the email group last week asking us to post a warning into all the groups/boards/blogs we are members of. This too, will spread the word to new and potential victims. We have just had the autumn round of Fairs in Hong Kong, including the new Wine Fair, so the letters should be flooding out soon to the new crop of targets, based on the new list of exhibitors.
Hi Tony, Mike – excellent posts, thank you!
Tony why not call Barclays’ press office? Ask them what they plan to do so you, the customer, can be confident that they aren’t profiteering from obvious and known scams. Would love to reprint their response
Good, pro-active move from Jules there. It’s great to see a bunch of people swinging together to do what governments and legislator’s can’t seem to do. Careful, I’m starting to sound like I believe in social media… can’t be having that…
I received one of these emails today asking me to sign up for a directory called World Company Directory. I don’t know if is the same people but the “order form” looks similar to others I have seen on stopecg.org. I went to have a look at their website, and did a bit of investigating. The website appears to be being hosted in Taiwan by a company called Seednet, but all the links on the menu on the website point to a German hosting company PlusServer AG. I wrote the following email to the abuse department at PlusServer AG
“Dear Sirs
I would like to point out that one of your IP addresses 85.25.241.242 is being used by an organisation scamming money from companies all over the world. The company, currently trading as World Company Directory (previously they have used World Business Directory, Expo Guide, European Company Directory amongst various other guises) tricks people into registering for free for their online database, then sending them invoices for about Euro3000 (see here for more information about the scam http://www.mukaumedia.co.uk/expoguide-scam-decide-yawn/)
The website for this scam company http://www.worldcompanydirectory.com/ appears to be hosted on a server in Taiwan, but all the links from the menu bar point to web pages with your IP Address 85.25.241.242 in the URL. By hosting these pages you are helping to facilitate this scam.”
Richard
Hi,
my company has also received the letter from Expo-guide, but we didn’t sign it. Is there any way to completely remove my company’s listing from their site? If I email them about this, will they comply, or will it be just a waste of my time? Has anyone ever had success with this? Any help will be appreciated
Hi people,
Romania is joining your”club”
In fact, one of our former employees had signed and stamped the document sent by Expo-Guide. When we got the first invoice, nobody knew what’s about. I contacted their office, and a lady speaking French sent us the document by fax.
What a terror! Since then, plenty of invoices/reminders so on.
We never wanted to pay anything and, a few days ago, a Romanian called from Cyprus, asking for money…
He even sent an email, with attaches.
Today, a Greek named Taribis, from the same company in Cyprys, called me – I wasn’t in the office. His secretary called back in about 10 minutes, put me on hold for some minutes, then informed me that the Boss was online, so she would call back. I just told her that it wasn’t a way in making business, that it was impolite. Then, Taribis called back and threatened us with his Romanian lawyers.
End of story.
I have a question: as there are many companies members of the EU, would it be impossible making putting some pressure on the EU Parliament, in order to settle up in the European Court of Justice this scam? I am not sure it would work with our Romanians members of the EU Parliament (I am not dreaming…), but I am sure there are other EU countries where it would work.
I am back again.
I found on one blog EU’s position
Here is the link:
http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/blog/labels/ecg.html
Poor Ms; Kuneva, sh’s going to get lot of complaints…
I suspect that if you email them, they will harass you for money. Their scam depends on you reacting to their threats and contacting them. If you contact them (even to remove your company from their database) they:-
a) know you’re alive
b) know you’ve got their letter
c) know you’re worried
They are then half way to getting money out of you.
Don’t give them anything to get started on! They will go for the people who respond.
Take note, everyone. Andrei’s comment shows exactly what happens when you contact Expo Guide about their letters:
Don’t do it, folks! Don’t contact them!
Hi again
I have just received the following email from the ‘Scammers’, you were right about them making a deal. Do you suggest I send the letter from stopecg, or just ignore them so more? :
Dear Madam,
With reference to your call of November 18, 2009 please find attached a copy of your signed order.
You placed an order with us for the publication of your company’s data as an individual advertisement in three yearly editions of Expo-Guide.
The current invoice 261587 refers to the second publication period on three ordered.
Your insertion is verifiable at the direct link:
http://www.expo-guide.com/*********
You may amplify or correct your insertion with texts, pictures, key-words if necessary.
According to the order conditions the cancellation of your order is possible only at the end of the third publication period.
We confirm herewith the cancellation of your order at its contractual end.
Nevertheless willing to get the matter resolves amicably our management offers you, exceptionally and without prejudice, the third publication period for free. If you accept this special offer after your settlement of our invoice 261587 you will have no liabilities with regard to the order 319759. No further invoices will be issued with regard to this and your order will be cancelled automatically on October 31, 2011.
We maintain this special offer for you until November 30, 2009.
Yours faithfully,
Customer Services
Expo-Guide
**********************************
Expo-Guide is a product of
Expo Guide S. de R.L. de C.V.
Apartado Postal N° 39-064
México D.F. 15621, Mexico
Oooo-eeee! With a special offer like that, how can you resist? It’s a harder bargain than I thought – they’re willing to let you off 1 payment if you pay 2. Sarah, I can’t advise you what to do in part since I’ve not been in your situation and also because I’m not a lawyer.
All I can remind you of is the facts as you know them.
1) Expo Guide is considered internationally as a scam. Your gut instinct tells you they’re a scam.
2) They intimidate all those who send back their forms signed in the hope you’ll contact them in fear
3) If you contact them, they bully harder – and eventually offer to ‘settle’
4) No-one has EVER come back here (or any of the other dozens of sites I’ve seen) and reported having been subsequently taken to court by any of these scammers. Why is that?
Hang in there. If you choose to ignore them from this point onwards, why not keep us posted as you already have done? Let other people see what will (i.e. won’t) happen when you ignore these criminals.
All the best – Sam
Hello from Paris.
It is our turn to be a victim of Expo Guide.
At least all these witnesses should help us all if we had to go on trial.
All the best to everyone
Why EXPO GUIDE ARE NOT SHY DOING THE SCAM ?
IT’S SO FUNNY WRITING A TRICKY LETTER HOPING SOMEONE NOT AWARE THEN WRITING TERMS & LEGAL BINDING IN A VERY TINY LETTERS.
IT’S CLEARLY A TRAP TO TAKE OUT OUR ENERGY OF FEAR AND HOPE WE PAY THEM IN ORDER WE WILL NOT BE DISTURBED WITH FEAR & EMBARRASE FEELING
THEY HAVE STARTED IN “NOT HONEST” WAY, SHOULD WE LET SUCH ORGANIZATION LIFE, LET SEE EG DIE !!!
Shout it out! You’re dead right
Hi all,
My second post here. I just got the call from a nice lady from Expo-Guide (she had a UK accent) politely asking me to discuss with her so as to find a way to come to an mutual agreement regarding the oustanding balance of our Expo-Guide contract.
I explained that I cancelled this contract with a registerred letter after finding out about the details. She replied that even so, there is a legally binding contract and that…. ***I interrupted (They are experts at arguing, so best not to drag the conversation) stating that we completely contest the vaidity of this contract and that our legal department would handle any claims.
I asked her to call my lawyer, which she promptly refused to do. But, she then asked to have her name given to my lawyer, which I refused to do since, as I explained to her: “we are aware of Expo-Guide’s marketing ploys and that in our minds this issue is not worthy of any further discussions”
She concluded the call by saying that “Well, it seems your mind is made up, thank you”.
The call lasted about 60 seconds
So, there you have it. Seems my file has advanced to the phone call stage and others who are in the same boat as me can expect this kind of harrasment in the near future.
The phone number was hidden. I assume it’s a long distance call from overseas, so it must cost them $$$ to call all their “customers”. No wonder she ended the call quickly when it was obvious I was on to their scam.
Mike
Great update, Mike! Thanks for that. I expect the call came from Cyprus (judging by earlier comments).
Here’s Mike’s first post (so you can work out the pattern).
It’s worth noting that these steps resulted in Expo Guide’s bogus ‘debt collectors’ calling Mike. I’m of the view that sending a letter requesting cancellation (as suggested by Jules in his excellent http://www.stopecg.org site) is actually what tells Expo Guide that you’re a ‘live’ prospect and therefore worth harrassing.
What happens to those people who receive the paper demands and simply ignore Expo Guide altogether? Let’s hear from you please.
We got scammed…. and are getting contacted by Expo Guide’s “Legal representation”, of course located in a another country. This is rediculous, as I told their rep. An unauthorized employee unknowingly signed for a “Free Listing” over a year ago and now they want us to pay up.
This is a terrible and unneccesary situation to be in and these people need to be stopped. Why should they be able to go around taking advantage of legit business just trying to make it in this economy? It shouldn’t be. If anyone has actual legal advice or experience with these scammers, let me know. Thanks a lot.
Hey Ashley, glad you made it here. I’m not a lawyer (nor is Jules over at http://www.stopecg.org or any of the other people blogging about this) but if you keep looking through all this material, you’ll notice there’s not one single post here that says “they took me to court and I was forced to pay”.
That’s all I can say – but from where I stand, it’s pretty convincing evidence. Hang in there. Would I pay? Not a f****g chance.
IM NOT ALONE!!!!
GREAT!
These guys were nailing me with legal emails!
No, you’re certainly not alone
Hope you find useful information and some reassurance here.
Hi everybody!
Today (7/12-09)I recieved my 2nd and “last legal notice” from Expo Guide, still from “Legal Department”, and the same postal adress i Mexico!!!!
The letter says:
“Dear Sir or Madam,
This is your last notice. You have a final deadline of seven (7) days to remit the outstanding amount below.
Your customer account has already been scheduled for a court recovery procedure in Sweden.”
And then there is a “credig card payment form”.
I have to pay before 04.12.2009, and it´s always like this, no one can ever follow their “rules”!!
Now it´s a differnt bank: UniCredit Banca, Italy
In the last letter from (4/11-09) it was Berliner Volksbank Eg, Germany!!! Strange!
I just wonder whitch court in Sweden they meen!
Should I laugh or cry?!!:)
…and now I´m waiting for the court?! Hmmm!!!
Sometimes I think that this must be just a yoke.
Of course – I´m NOT going to pay!!!
Liisa from Stockholm, Sweden
Thanks for coming back, Liisa – great to follow your story. So, everyone else, keep an eye on Liisa. She’s going to be in a court somewhere in Sweden in the next 7 days….NOT!!!!
Hi again, and thank´s to you Sam!
I would like to have contact with other victims in Sweden!
How is that possible?
Can I leave my e-mail to you Sam or how shall I manage?
Liisa from Stockholm, Sweden
Hi all – thanks for all the info and support. They are now in Singapore as well.
Expo Guide apparently picked information from last years inaugural ITB Asia official register (a Trade fair hosted by Messe Berlin in Singapore), and sent me the same type of “update” letter apparently targeting this year’s ITB Asia register. I don’t know if they sent this to other companies, as I have not yet seen any other posts from Singapore on any sites so far. I received the “invoice” from expo guide a week back, dated November 11.
I have the same suspicion as an earlier post, as I usually read the fine print, that the small print visible on the photocopy sent as verification, is a cut and paste job, as I have no recollection of seeing that. It would be interesting to hear if any others have this experience.
I intend to ignore the letter, and keep you posted on any further communication from them.
To add to my post:
the bank payment details an account with Barclays, Italy.
I seriously doubt that a bank like Barclays want anything to do with this scheme.
The exact details are:
Account Holder: Expo Guide S de RL de CV, Mexico D.F., Mexico
Bank: Barclays, Italy
Account number: 000078200046
Swift code: BARCITMMBKO
They give their customer service number as: +353 (1) 486 1273.
I have not tried calling or emailing them,
hope this helps
Hi Kristina, thanks for your comment! My advice would be to NOT call or email them unless you want to be ‘hooked’ on their fishing line
I think it will soon be time to have a conversation with Barclays about their customer’s account, don’t you think? When I do, I’ll record it and see what they say. I’ll start with a Tweet about it this morning, see if Barclays press office picks it up and replies…
Sure, no worries, Liisa. I’m sending you an email.
Hi everybody,
I’m also a victim of that scam, but for a double letters inviting me to check the accuracy of my contact information that they got from a trade fair I attended.
I’ve experienced all you’ve shared in this blog. I followed Jules advice, and didn’t pay anymore after my first payment (It’s terrible for me to know stopecg too late after the payment). Then I got the Legal notice last June, still ignored it.
Nothing happened after that, then by chance I know this blog and learnt more how to deal with them. Last month, they called me every morning before 9 am asking me whether I remember that I haven’t paid. I recognized the lady voice – her name is Sheena O’Hara – and didn’t give them chance to contact me. They sent again invoices along with credit card payment, and threatened me that : A renewed non-payment would draw to legal consequences in the future.
They have changed their company name, their addresses and their banks.
From : Expo-Guide is a protected trademark product of Commercial Online Manuals S de RL de CV. Mariano Escobedo #752-9, Col. Nueva Anzures, Mexico D.F. 11590, Mexico, info@expo-guide.com, RFC : IAC070522AM6
To : Expo-Guide is a protected trademark product of Expo Guide S de RL de CV., Mariano Escobedo #752-9, Col. Nueva Anzures, Mexico D.F. 11590, Mexico, info@expo-guide.com, RFC : EGU0705223M8.
From Berliner Volksbank Eg, Germany to UnCredit Bank, Italy.
They ask me to fill the credit card payment and return it via fax to : +52 (55) 26 24 26 97 or via airmail/priority mail to : EXPO GUIDE, S de R.L de C.V, Ave Horacio #340-3, Col. Chapultepec Morales, C.P. 11570 Mexico D.F. – Mexico
This time they keep their VAT number : RFC : EGU0705223M8.
They have made some tapes hiding their logo EXPO-Guide in pink colour on the envelope. And they used the Mail World Box 55 935, 102 16 Stockholm -to send some more letters to trap us.
I hope I can share some experiences of mine from this scam and learn others from all of you.
Thank you, Sam and everybody.
Lucy, many thanks for commenting. Sorry to hear you paid them the first payment, that’s guaranteed to get them hounding you day after day. It’s like a ‘green light’ for them. They know that you’re scared enough to pay so of course, they’re going to try to scare you some more.
I wish we could somehow get this out to people *before* they sign the damn forms; and if not that, then certainly before they’re bullied into paying or even calling these people on the phone. That’s the challenge. The problem is that like so many other things in life, the majority of people aren’t really interested until it happens to them.
Hi all,
I think there is now another ‘similar’ scam out there. Not sure if they are linked to the Expo Guide operators but I recently received an invoice from “Strategic Business Communications” for $2500 for a full page directory advert that they say we ordered. We ordered no such thing.
This letter is mailed from the US, and the company has a New York address. When you call, you get a recording and there is no way to speak to anyone. The invoice asks you to send a check or conduct a wire transfer.
I just wanted to make you all aware that there is possibly another directory scam going on out there and to beware.
As for Expo Guide, I am on the 3rd letter demanding payment. I don’t even open them..they go right into a file folder. I will continue to ignore.
Hello, Boryana is not alone in Bulgaria. I have the same problem. Our contract with Expo-guide is dated 29.07.2008. Up this moment I have paid nothing. After receiving the first invoice I sent letter to Expo-guide and tried to refuse they “service” (what kind service – ??). It was not enough. I received the invoice for the next year and etc. The bank details are every time different.
Two days ago an officer from Fobble –
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT MANAGEMENT – (Cyprus), called me and sent by e-mail official document. They offer me “amicable fashion” to resolve the problem – I must pay the half due amount 1181 Euro. I nave not possibility to pay and I won’t do that. I am worried because they will “take further proceedings to the company” – Is it real?
I ask you to send my e-mail – Boryana (if it is o’k).
HI Irina, I’ve emailed Boriana with your email address and copied you so you can make contact. My advice? Don’t pay and don’t be afraid. They won’t (can’t!) do anything. Keep in touch! Sam
Hi Irina! Yes, you can write me an e-mails. I’ll be happy! I’m reading the news here every day!
Hi, so pleased to have found this website!! This scam has reached South Africa. The details mirror stories above exactly. An unknown employee signed the order form etc… I have just received a phone call from a man with a British accent – company located in Cyrpus. Please advise.
I replied to the “debt collector” who contacted me informing him that I had found others who were suffering from this same annoying scheme. I thought his reply would be of interest….
Our client is well aware of this web-site and others, these could be the work of a un-happy ex-employee or someone with a grudge against the company, it only states a personal opinion of a person not even trained in legal matters. It is called a ‘blog’ entry, any-one can express their negative, or positive, opinions on these sites.
We need to inform you that our company has no knowledge of any negative court decisions against our client. As they call our client’s media project a scam or corrupt, they have certainly a copy of such a decision .
As a B2B contract, your order was received by our client, who carried out the instructions requested. The signature was inserted in the ‘legally binding’ section of the order, if members of your staff are signing such documents that is an internal matter for your management to address.
Our client is in receipt of a 3 year on-going contract and has made a very fair offer of cancelling the agreement early so long as the first and only invoice is paid.
We are trying to find a solution to this matter without any further expenses incurred by yourselves or our client.
We remain,
Yours faithfully,
Barry Walter
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT MANAGEMENT
by Fobble Services Ltd.
Tsacon Court, 4th Floor,
187A Leontiou Str.
3020 Limassol, Cyprus
P.O. Box 53397
3302 Limassol, Cyprus
Tel : +357 25 27 06 00, Fax: +357 25 27 08 89
email: bw@fobbleservices.com
HI Stephanie
Of course they’re aware of this website – my post is pretty much the only reference to Fobble International Credit Services anywhere online. Not bad for a reputable company, eh, Fobble?
Remember, this site is only one of many with long, angry lists of comments from people who feel they’ve been ripped off by them. Did I say that? Nope. They did.
To the people behind ‘Fobble’ and Expo Guide: I’m neither disgruntled, a victim or an ex-employee. Bad luck. I’m just an ordinary person who hates to see people ripping other people off. Feel free to call all the people posting comments here liars if you like, although whether that will make more of them pay you or not, who knows?
And so you see how this all works, folks? Because their ‘client’ hasn’t been caught and prosecuted it makes it alright. Sadly, I expect Barclays (and any of the other banks who’ve made money from these people) to take the same line. That’s Capitalism at it’s best, lols.
It’s so frustrating. Kudos to you for informing people Sam. As for Barry’s email – what a load of nonsense!! \A disgruntled ex-employee or person with a grudge against the company\ – if not a scam then Expo-Guide must be without doubt the worst company to work for globally – countless disgruntled ex-employees on 4 continents… Nonsense!
No worries
Expo Guide must be kicking themselves that they failed to ‘prepare’ their online presence fully. If they had, they may have been able to keep people like me and Jules and others out of the first couple of pages of Google results.
You’ve got to think of the order of things here. The sceptics (like me) will research EG thoroughly before thinking about signing something. I’ll find the truth about them no matter what they do to prepare. Then there are people who weren’t sceptical enough to start with and find themselves getting a demand letter. They hit the web searching for ‘Expo Guide’ and find this site and others because EG hasn’t muscled us out of the way.
Even if EG had done that (and World Business Guide did a more thorough job of it – go Google ‘World Business Guide’ and see) the next level of sceptic will know to add the word ‘scam’ or ‘rip off’ to their search: ‘Expo Guide scam’ or ‘Expo Guide ripoff’. This will usually start to surface the dirt. That, by the way, is why I always title my posts on these subjects ‘Expo Guide: Scam or not?….’. Notice the first three words in the title?
So my posting WILL be costing Expo Guide some money, for sure. One or two people arrive here who haven’t paid anything but were about to and find courage not to. Some have already paid something but feel encouraged by what they read and take a stand. Either way, it costs Expo Guide.
So expect them to get nasty when they think it’s costing them too much. They did with Jules Woodell (spent a couple of years issuing writs against his ISP to get his site shut down etc) but as you can see, he’s managed to keep it up and running.
Oh, and Expo Guide, I promise you that as soon as I get a single positive comment about your £1,000 a year (minimum 3 yrs) ‘service’ that people universally say they never ordered and don’t want, I’ll post it here.
Hi,
I have as Liisa got my 2nd leagl notice and it stood the exact thing as liisa letter.
“Dear Sir or Madam,
This is your last notice. You have a final deadline of seven (7) days to remit the outstanding amount below.
Your customer account has already been scheduled for a court recovery procedure in Sweden.”
And then there is a “credig card payment form”.
Liisa, I think they send them at the same time to us.
I still haven’t paid!
Sam can you give my email to Liisa so we can talk? I’m also from Stockholm!
Hi Carolina, I sent Liisa your email address. Let us know about your next “7 days”! Have a good Christmas but remember not to overdo it with your ‘credig card’
Thanks Sam,
Merry christmas to you to! Don’t let these people prevent you from enjoying the holidays!
Hi,
Thank you Sam. cam you explain the fact they change very often their name, address, bank, even their VAT number? Now they hide their trademark Expo-Guide on the envelope. I understand that some banks refuse to do the money transfer to them, so they use the credit card payment. But with credit card payment, people can ak tjheir money back from the bank if people can show to the bank the warnings at all websites of the trade fairs they got data to do scam.
Since August 2009 Svensk Handel has added their name in the warning lists as well how to react to these false invoices.
Sam, why we don’t contact their embassies in many countries to ask them what kind of business they do? They have given them the right to transfer thier clients – their victims to other company using their trademark Expo-Guide in their fine prints … like buses and trains.
Merry Christmas to all of you.
Hi Lucy
It’s clear they’re desperate people trying to suck money out of this scam before it gets so widely known that no-one will touch it; potential victims and eventually banks too. Whatever they have to do to keep the money rolling in, they’ll do – including switching to credit card payments, if that’s what’s happening. They don’t give a damn whether or not you’ll get the money back from your credit card company if/when the credit card company realises Expo Guide is a scam because they’ll STILL have the money you paid them.
Like all scams, their time is limited – the shorter we can help to make it with blogs, networking and social media the better, eh?
Merry Christmas to all of you – and even to those poor young people sitting in Cyprus ‘working’ for Expo Guide, calling people and abusing them to extort money from them. You deserve better… you just don’t know it.
(I know you’re bright enough to Google ‘Expo Guide’ on a regular basis – even though your bosses aren’t, so that little message was just for you)
Peace to everyone in 2010
We just received the Expo-Guide contact request letter. Fortunately, the letter was in English so it got passed around for a bit and gave me a chance to find this site before we sent it off.
Thanks from Kyrgyzstan!
MM, glad you found these comments – hope they helped save you some money & worry
Happy Scam-Free New Year
Hi,
I feel so much better after reading all these comments. You guess, I received their invoice today and was shocked. This time receiving bank is Barclays bank in Italy.It was good I checked Google before contacting them.
Best wishess from Norway
Hi S, glad you found us & all the comments from other people here. Personally, I would not contact them (please read my comments about how they ‘hook’ the people who respond to their threats) but you have to make up your own mind. Good luck & let us know how things go – especially if/when nothing bad happens to you
Hi All
This web page is a very good idea and we really appreciate the initiative behind.
Hopefully it will cost these “nut cases” a lot of money by preventing innocent companies from paying Expo-guides absurdly invoices.
We are in the exact same situation with Expo-guide and today we reached the point where they change tactics and “Barry Walter” from Fobble joins the party.
We are looking forward to see how much time and money they want to spend/loose before they give up, because we are not going to pay unless we lose in court, so lets see how far they want to go.
Regards
Kaare
Denmark
Hi, our company was also a victim of this Expo Guide. Last week, I received a letter from the ‘Legal Department’ demand for payment saying ‘To avoid a court recovery procedure, we urge you to remit the pending amount outlined below’. A credit card payment form is attached. Prior to that we also received an earlier letter saying that they will submit a court recovery procedure here in Thailand where our company is based.
Last year, we sent a cancellation letter to them and just yesterday got an answer saying:
‘We received your communication on 11/09/09 and we apologize for the belated reply.
The order conditions stipulating basic order duration, price, cancellation and revocation terms are clearly indicated on the order form and they directly precede the line requesting legally binding signature.’
The letterhead for both the demand for payment letter and the response to our cancellation is Expo Guide in Mexico. However, the Expo Guide logo of 1 envelope was covered with a ‘Priority Post P.O. Box 437 Emigsville PA 17318-0437 USA’ sticker. Both letters were also mailed from Manchester PA.
We’re not going to pay but am keeping these letters to compare their addresses and bank remittance because the same letter we received for our sister company is from France.
Your thoughts, please!
Hi Sheila, thanks for your comment. As you can see from all the comments before yours, what’s happening to you is standard procedure for Expo Guide. They will threaten court action in your country because this scam makes its money from those who are scared enough to pay. There is no evidence here or on any other site dealing with these scams that *anyone* has ever been taken to court.
The simplest explanation for the absence of that evidence is because it simply doesn’t happen – scammers don’t take people to court.
Hope you stay strong and don’t pay. Like many others, you’ve already made the first two mistakes: 1) you signed the form and sent it back and 2) you contacted them with a cancellation letter.
Please don’t make the third mistake of getting into direct communication with them (phone). When you do that, they naturally increase the bullying and the pressure because they know that you’re worried – therefore, in their eyes, one step closer to paying.
Kaare, go for it. How nice it would be for you to come face to face in court with the mysterious ‘Mr. Barry Walter’ from the slightly non-existent ‘debt collection’ company Fobble International whatever.
Now you *must* promise us: if you go to court and if you lose and ifyou have to pay Expo Guide a single penny, you must come back here and tell us, ok? Then I will revise all my previous advice (and eat my hat). Thanks!
Hi Kristina and all,
I also fell into the scam in 2008. Just received a call, a “legal repesentative” for Expo Guide to negotiate for me to pay 1 year to waive the other 2 years. I have requested her to send me the email as I would like to take a look what their next threat be. Is there anyone been contact via phone?
Hi Jacob, read all these comments. Loads of people have been contacted by phone. What happens is you get bullied and threatened with the intention of getting you to agree to their ‘generous’ offer of just paying one year.
Don’t pay but most importantly don’t take their calls. Nobody in these comments or on any other site with comments like these has ever reported being taken to court.
I keep saying it like a broken record, but you contacting them or responding in anyway is like you taking their bait. When you respond, you give them the green light to put their (limited) resources into bullying you, because you’re more likely to end up paying that someone who ignores them.
It’s basic, common-sense psychology applied to the business of scamming.
I too have been a victim of Expo Guide’s misleading form. I have written them five letters so far telling them that I only intended to verify my details, and requesting that they remove my name from their database, but they are not accepting that. The last communication was from their legal department threatening to take action. I have been having sleepless nights about this, and was beginning to wonder if it was my fault for being stupid enough not to read the small print before I signed the form, but it seems that a lot of other people have been duped by this.
I had resigned myself to paying them the first year’s installment, but I certainly won’t be doing so now, having read your comments.
How cool is that, Juliet – great to hear these comments have raised your spirits. Makes it all worthwhile! Remember, being scammed wasn’t your fault – hold your head up high
Hi all !
FYI, after their first letters until they threatened to bring me to court last September 2009, I now get a friendlier one in January 2010 proposing to only pay half of the full price to settle.
NO WAY !!
)
I like the idea of Marie to complaint to the host of their website via the abuse@networksolutions.com email, and I will do so anyhow, despites the fact that the info on their website in the WHOIS directory shows that they are already in trouble with network solutions for not being in line with their policies…
http://www.whois.net/whois/expo-guide.com
as it’s now getting further on my nerves, I will speak shortly with our anti-counterfeting specialist here & see how we can go after them for good !
Hi all!
Our company is bombed by correspondence from Expo-guide etc. too but nobody signed some agreement – Expo Guide simply copied our stamp and sign from agreement with another subject – BVV Brno (Fair company). Probably Expo the cooperation of persons or contacts stealing data there.
In the Czech republic Expo Guide is being prosecuted by Policie Czech Rep. Praha IV, Durychova 671/40, 142 00 Praha 4, DCI Cerny, fax: 00420 974 854 728, Act.Nr. ORIV-28153/cj-2009-001411.
If you wish to help find the real people behind the Expo… and you received email from Expo…, please don’t delete it but contact DCI Cermak – division of cybercriminality tel.: 00420 974 854 907, email:praha4skpvsik@mvcr.cz
Help us – we´ll get them!
Hello again- just a further update on my dealings with Euro Guide that may be of interest to anyone in the UK who , like me has fallen for this scam.
I arranged for a free twenty minute consultation with a solicitor today arranged by the local Citizen’s Advice Bureau. She had researched Euro Guide before I saw her, and her advice was to write them a two line letter saying that I had taken legal advice, was aware that they were operating a scam, and that any future correspondence from them or any third party acting on their behalf would be ignored in the future. Nothing more is needed. If they telephone, then refuse to take the call. Ignore all letters/threats etc.
Hold your nerve and don’t be bullied, and they will eventually go away.
I hope you find this helpful
Hi Juliet – thanks for your comment (was it you I spoke with on the phone the other day?)
Good advice. I’d be interested to know what happens when you (anyone) write them that two line letter saying you know it’s a scam. Does it actually get them off your back? Or does the fact you contacted them make them try harder? If anyone goes down that path, please report back so others can see which is best.
Personally, if you’re reassured by what you’ve read here (and assuming you haven’t already entered into some kind of correspondence with them) I wouldn’t make contact.
But I agree – hold your nerve and they WILL go away
Hi again!
In an early phase, when I´ve just got my first reminder, I followed the advice from Swedish Trade Federation – I crossed the copy of the “contract” with a line and wrote: “Reject payment due to misleading information! Swedish Trade Federation has been contacted. Complaint will be filed with the police”. Since then I´ve got new reminders every month since june.
My last letter was threatening with court if I didn´t pay, and this was in 7th of December (read my comment of 7th December). I haven’t heard from them since that day (knock on wood!!!).
I promise to keep in touch here if I hear something more. I think Sam is right when he advice us NOT to notice them, just ignore them, and DON´T PAY!!!
…and again – lots of THANK´S to Sam for this site!!
Best greetings from
Liisa in Sweden
Hi Liisa, that’s good to hear – and thank you for coming back and posting another comment.
So you see that the advice from the Swedish Trade Federation to make contact led to Expo Guide increasing their demands, not stopping them? Either way, it doesn’t matter (the only difference is the amount of harrassment you endure) – it won’t go to court.
Keep us posted, Liisa, our correspondent from Sweden!
Hi All, For some reason I decided to Google this company, after just having answered a telephone call asking to speak to our MD. We’re in Holland, I have been rund by Fobble International, a certain Elizabeth Murphy. I have no idea what she is after but described the company as an “International Credit Control COmpany” and quoted the telephone number listed above. I don’t think that I will bother asking our MD to call back!
Hello again,
this is my second post here.
I just received my 1st reminder letter from Expo Guide a couple of weeks ago. The tone is still friendly, but I have not given them any response via email or phone since the first one they sent, nor do I intend to.
I check in here regularly to keep updated, and hope to find out if anyone has any first hand experience with the so often threatened “legal action”.
Cheers
Kristina form Singapore
Hi Kristina, thanks for that. Do keep everyone informed about how it goes.
I received an anonymous, veiled threat today from someone I can only assume is from World Business Directory (another scam like Expo Guide), so it’s clear that these kinds of comments that reassure other people not to pay are hurting the scammers.
Hello Sam
Thank’s for Your Site, first time I,ve been here
and we got really confidence of all advice and all Your encourage answers.
Are in the same position as all here on the site. Have also got the “Legal notice” after five reminders but will not pay.
Thank You all
Pratoom, Sweden
Hello again,
The same experience like yours. If we don't pay, after the invoice, the reminder, first overdue payment reminder, second overdue payment reminder, the third reminder is a letter threating of legal action with a red pink letter head, letter from legal department of Expo-Guide advising that you must pay – if not they would take you to court in your country, in all 6 letters in 6 months. Then they paused a little waiting for a revolving year round to repeat again the same steps, starting with phone calls in the early morning with a very fierce voice urging and reminding that you have signed the 'contract'. First the offer of not calculating the interest in 1 year if you paid in about 10 days. If you don't pay, again invoice, reminder, overdue payment reminder – but this time the amount is double.
Here I am now with the second time 'first overdue payment reminder'. But I still do not pay. So bomb of reminders will trouble me. God knows when it really stops their letters.
Cheers
Lucy from Sweden.
Hi Lucy.. just try to hang on to the fact that nobody knows anyone who has ever been taken to court. They'll stop their letters when they know you're not going to pay. If they're calling repeatedly, it will be because they think that you're scared enough to pay. Try just hanging up as soon as they call next time.
Hi All,
Just wanted to update you on my experience with these scum bags since June 2009. I have received 3 letters from Expo Guide, not opening or responding to any. We have gotten no phone calls.
All three letters had a U.S. post office mark stamp (somewhere in Pennsylvania) and the Expo Guide return address (Mexico) was covered with a big white label. The last letter I got was this week and this time they put a big white label over their Mexico address and typed in a U.S. post office address (again, in PA). They must have thought the previous letters with their return address covered up were not getting to me.
Now that I have a U.S. address I can finally contact the U.S. Post Office and report mail fraud. Yippie! I will be doing that this week. Not sure it will do anything to make it stop but if it brings more attention to their scam then I am happy.
Let's continue to be vigilant!!
Aha! Well done, M
Thanks for posting – particularly that first paragraph. That goes a long way to demonstrating my point that if you make no response to their various postal efforts, you effectively deselect yourself from further attention.
That makes sense even in legitimate businesses; if you've only got limited resources, you'll spend them on the best-looking prospects. As far as Expo-Guide are concerned, the best prospects are the ones who write letters, email or phone because they then know a) you're alive b) you're worried and c) they can bully you more directly.
Good idea with the US Post Office fraud idea. Let us know!
Marie and Sam,
Also have been dealing with this since August 2009. Spoke with the lead attorney from the trade show publication whose documents had been plagiarized and she told me that even some of their own employees signed the forms and that Expo Guide tried to get them to pay!! I have filed both a case with the FTC and the US Post Office. Also got a letter with the “new” sticker with the PO address. The US Postal Inspection Service is aware of them and is working on it. The more complaints they have, the better.
Sam is right. After trying a few e-mails to diffuse the situation, I have just stopped replying. Also have not received any calls but will not waste my time with them. Ironically, yesterday I got a solicitation from Fair Guide (needless to say, won't be responding to it this time!)
Good for you JD – and thanks for posting
My father (80) has been caught by this scam and is receiving letters threatening bailiffs etc – he's really frightened but he doesn't have the money even if he was willing to pay. Anyone else got this far down the line? We told him just to ignore all communication – does it stop eventually?
Fiona, have emailed you privately. Try not to worry. People behind scams don't tend to take people to court.
We fell for this 3 years ago with Construct Data and stupidly paid the first bill. When they sent a bill for year 2 we realised that we had missed the extremely small print about 3 years and have written and emailed several times refusing to pay as we saw all the blogs. We are now getting regular calls from ‘Giovanni’ chasing us and just ignore him.
Today I got a letter from Expo Guide asking us to check the copy for our FREE LISTING. Look carefully at the bottom of page 2 and lo and behold ’3 year duration Eu1181 per year’
We received continuing bill from EXPOGUIDE, the last bill / letter mentioning within 14 days they will take legal action.
Are they able do it ? if they use bad local lawyer to sue us , what action should we take ?
Please help.
Hi Lian – all the evidence says no, they won’t – and can’t – take legal action against you.
Please take the time to read all these comments, view http://www.stopecg.org and read the history of this (and similar) scams. If you take the time to read all that evidence and history, and keep searching the web, you won’t find anyone who has been sued by Expo Guide They make money from people’s fear. It’s that simple.
Hi!
Just for information to all of you:
Since the 7th of december, I haven´t got any more of those scam-letters fron Expo-Guide! In the last letter they told me about their legal treatment in court, if I didn´t pay in 7 days!
I did´t, and I did of course NOT answer them! (See my comment from dec.7th)
I haven´t heard from them since then. I have since june-09 got those scam-letters every month until december -09!
I promise to tell you if someting more happends.
So keep up!
Liisa from Sweden
Way to go, Liisa. As soon as they know you’re not going to pay, they move on to someone who is more likely to. Easy money is what they’re looking for (of course). So, new people – if you’re reading this Lisa’s story shows that THEY CAN’T AND DON’T TAKE YOU TO COURT WHEN YOU IGNORE THEIR LETTERS.
Dear All
I have also been sucked into this scam. They used our local exibitors name as a reference saying that we have published with them for free. This is true however like many others I did not read the fine print. The local exibitor has also advised not to pay and that they are aware of the scam.
I have received my legal notice.
Please keep posting as we need as much info as possible.
Thanks
Velicia
Western Australia
We participated at Ambiente Fair, Germany in 2007, and subsequent to that have been receiving correspondence from http://www.expo-guide.com.
I received another update form in 2009 and in October, I decided to fill it out, thinking that it was just to update our details for Ambiente.I was totally unaware that there were going to be any charges, and so I signed the form and posted it off. In January I recieved an invoice, which was a total surprise.
Since I am an honest person, I felt I should contact them and I informed them that I thought it was to update details for Ambiente Show directory and that I was unaware of any charges. They have replied to me, and in a second email to them I informed them again that I was not aware of any charges when I signed the form and that I could not afford to pay the amount of $1571 per year. They replied with an offer to either give me a discount of 30% or reduce term to 2 years at $1571 per year. I replied that I would take this into consideration and get back to them. I also asked without committing myself, whether they would consider reducing contract term further. To which they have agreed, if I pay the amount by a certain date.
After reading through a number of internet articles, I now see that this is a scam, and intend to ignore them.
Thanks for the update
I used to get phone calls untill I tried the following proven method to stop unwanted callers.
” You get a very loud whisle and when the call you burst there ear drums (or nearly) they NEVER ring back.
Marie and Sam,
This morning I received a letter from Expo Guide. The Orange Expo guide logo is covered by a blank sheet, with the return box address on it. This time it is :
Expo Guide
PO Box 466
Emigsville PA 17318
And the stamp is :
INT’L SURFACE
AIR LIFT
US Postage Paid
Permit 00700
Manchester PA
and by side of the stamp there is some barcode.
Lucy.
Hello Everyone,
I have posted earlier and after a long time of not receiving any letters from them, I thought they gave up on me. Recently I have received another letter that reads
This is followed by a one page invoice and another page which is a credit card payment form. They have threatened to take me to court here in Hong Kong already but nothing has happened. Touch wood I have not received any phone calls but if that ever happens I like the idea of taking a whistle idea that was posted! Hahaha!
Well of course I will continue to not pay and I have talked to a friend of mine who is a lawyer and she said they def cannot do anything legally. So everyone out there, DO NOT PAY!
I am also planning to join the Facebook group “Stop Expo-Guide Group”. Best of luck to everyone. Oh yeah, the payment account they have printed on the invoice is based in Slovakia. Take care everyone.
After 6 months of silence we have got an invoice for the second year from Expo Guide. 6 months ago they threatened court action, which, of course, came to nothing. Things then went quiet. Now they are trying to get 2 years worth of money.
Now the bank is in Slovakia, next to the Czech Republic where they were raided by guys in black carrying machine guns. I have written to the bank.
Regards
Tony
Welcome back, Suraj. They WILL give up eventually lols. Hope everything else (everything other than Expo Guide) is going well
Hello again, Tony. Thanks for the comment. Folks – Tony and Suraj have posted here before. Neither of them have been taken to any court, despite the threats. They’re living, breathing proof that these people have no legitimacy (and therefore no power) to take anyone to court. The crooks behind this are just moving their operations time and time again to keep up their demands and their – sadly, still profitable – business of bullying and extortion.
Hello all!
The scammers must be hard up for money now because while I am still receiving “invoices” from Expo Guide, I received another phony directory form from Fair Guide/Construct Data. (Which actually helps prove that the original forms I received from Expo Guide did NOT include anything other than content regarding a “free listing”). As for Fair Guide’s new mailing, I immediately notified the actual conference that they used in the letter. I still have not responded to any of their letters however they are getting more persistent with the mailings…but, they have yet to call me, so I suppose that is a good sign. As far as I am concerned they are just wasting money on postage.
Lastly, I wanted to send over the link to submit a fraud report to the US Postal Inspection Service – https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/MailFraudComplaint.aspx.
Please, please, please take a moment to do this. The USPS already has wind of it but we need them to go the extra length and help put a stop to it and find out who exactly is behind this post office box.
Hi Sam,
We are based in Hong Kong (like Surag) and and around two years received demanding letters and eventually a phone call from a “debt collector”. I told him in no uncertain terms, that their operation was a scam and that I would sue them if they persisted in sending demand notes and threatening phone calls – we have never had any futher correspondence or phone calls from them. So anybody being threatened with legal action -relax and forget it
Agreed Bernard! They – like all smart sales people – give up the minute they sense you’re not going to ‘buy’
Well done for setting up this page and blog. I stupidly signed the form thinking it was a free listing. It’s neatly laid out with trendy typeface so it looks genuine. Then of course the invoice comes weeks after the ‘cancellation period’ has elapsed. I immediately googled them and found the http://stopecg.org/ site. I emailed expo-guide and asked them to remove me from their site. I explained the form was deliberately misleading and that I had signed in error. I then used the letter of complaint from the http://stopecg.org/ site. All of which has been dismissed by Expo Guide. They have sent numerous reminders and today a legal threat from their legal department. I am ignoring it. I won’t pay them and in the highly unlikely instance that this goes to court will gladly stand up and contest it.
Way to go, Joe. I think rule #1 is ‘don’t make any contact with them at all’. You will have to ride out the threats, but they will eventually stop because they know they aren’t going to be successful in bullying you into paying.
I wish we could get that one piece of advice out there BEFORE people start writing letters back, emailing, phoning or whatever.
As soon as you make contact, you qualify yourself for further attention.
Thanks for posting, and drop by and tell us what doesn’t happen next
Good morning,
I’m a victim too.I fooly signed last year their paper that I thought it was free of charge.The worst thing is that when I received their invoice and told my boss that I made the mistake by signing a fake paper, I had to pay them from my salary. I so I did…I’m so sad and so disapointed from all this situation..I asked for cancelation and I received an email response saying that we can not make a cancelation after signing…I now understand that all this is a fraud but if they continue…???I don’t want to pay again.Somebody should stop them..Did anyone inform interpol?
Mary, I’m so sorry to hear you paid these people with your own money.
That, folks, is why I post about Expo Guide and other scams on this site.
Mary, because you’ve paid once you are now TOP of their bullying list. Please, please read all of the comments here and follow all the links to reassure yourself that you must not pay any more – and that these people CANNOT take you to court because they are not operating legally.
Thank you very much Sam,
I’m not going to pay anymore!!And if they continue to bother my company, I will just ignore them.I hope one day they will wind up in jail..They deserve it!
I emailed them this in response to my latest ‘deadline has passed we’ll now take you to court’ letter from them. May they burn for all eternity for their vile attempts to deceive innocent people.
Dear Sir,
I am in reciept of your invoice 261860 dated 04/11/09 and I must apolgise for the late payment of this invoice.
We have been so busy with orders, no doubt generated by the advertising in your excellent publication!
As a result of this success I’d like to pay you double, no cancel that, treble the amount that you have invoiced me for if that’s okay?
Can you send me BACS details urgently so that I can send you all of the money in my account at once. I’d like to clear my savings account aswell and send that to you.
The money in my kids money boxes is mainly lose change, but I’m sure you’ll be happy to accept that aswell won’t you? I’ll bag it up and send it over asap.
Thinking about it, I also have a considerable quantity of real estate in the UK and Europe, perhaps I can send you the deeds for some of that aswell?
You guys have been so great, it’s the least that I can do.
Alternatively, perhaps you’d like to stick your head up your mother’s arsehole and fuck off?
All the best
James
Lols – James, I just checked with our legal department and it seems that your offer to pay three times the amount constitutes a legally binding contract. Hah hahh hahah just joking.
I’m sure they will appreciate your offers. I note, however, you stopped short of offering your wife and children. Are you sure you’re not holding back?
In questo momento mi è arrivato via e-mail (con conferma di lettura che non ho inviato) il primo sollecito di pagamento che dice:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to you in reference to your outstanding invoice.
I have to inform you that W.C.D World Company Directory Ltd.
can not and will not cancel your contract.
Due to your s…ignature on the contract, you verified our Terms and
Conditions, therefore your are obligated to pay the outstanding invoice.
This will be the final notice before your file will be send to our legal
department, who will then submit your file to the Arbitration Court of
the Czech Republik.
By signing the contract, you agreed to this legal procedure!
This legal procedure will add more legal fees to your account.
It would be in your best interest to pay your outstanding invoice
immediately.
Please submit your payment within 3 days.
Thank you,
Best regards
Susanna Corazon
Account Manager
World Company Directory
Angelo
Volevo chiedere, se qualcuno lo sa, qual’è il passo che faranno dopo. Io sono stato frecato il 29 gennaio 2010, è arrivata alla mia e-mail la loro truffa e da cretino ho firmato con il nome di mia moglie (lei è la titolare) e rispedita, dopo 8 giorni è arrivata una loro e-mail con fattura e oggi il sollecito.
Saluti dall’Italia, Angelo
Hi Angelo – Google translates your comment as:
“I wanted to ask if anyone knows, what is the step that will later. I was frec January 29, 2010, came to my e-mail their scam and stupid I signed with the name of my wife (she is the owner) and returned after 8 days to arrive with their e-mail bill and now the reminder”
The answer is NOTHING will happen. They will just keep sending you letters or phoning. But they have never taken anyone here to court.
Good luck
La risposta è: non succederà nulla. Essi è sufficiente inviare lettere o telefonando voi. Ma non hanno mai preso nessuno qui in tribunale.
Buona fortuna
(dice Google)
Expo guide are a part of a much bigger outfit dedicated to these scams in all sorts of forms. Today we had 2 emails about guides
WORLD COMPANY REGISTER
P.O. BOX 3079
3502 GB, UTRECHT
THE NETHERLANDS
email: register@wcr2010now.com
FAX: +31 20 203 1129
They are part of the same group and have the same confusing form.
World Business Directory
Suite 149 · Rosden House · 372 Old Street
EC1V 9AU / London · UNITED KINGDOM
“To update your company profile, please print, complete and return
this form (Updating is free of charge).”
“I WILL HAVE AN INSERTION INTO ITS DATA BASE FOR
THREE YEARS. THE PRICE PER YEAR IS GBP 980. 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.”
Now where have I read that before.
SO….
be on the look out and don’t just think Expo Guide.
Tony
Thanks Tony – oh, yes, they sure do come in all shapes and sizes… World Business Directory, World Company Register, World Business Guide, European City Guide, Expo Guide, Fair Guide, The European Medical Directory are JUST A FEW. There are plenty more and probably all come back to the same few people who know the game inside out.
Hi, same as all the others we signed up and started getting the invoices. I have mailed them to say that I have taken legal advice which strongly advices that no contract exists under the Misrepresentation Act 1967 and that I will not reply to any further communication. If they wish to recover the sum they should take me to court.
They’ve mailed to say that Mexican law applies as stated in the contract and that money is owing.
I will not be replying to any further communication although, quite frankly, I won’t mind if they call me as I would like the opportunity to let them know what i think of them in person.
Gareth
These guys (or criminals) have landed into India as well.
I guess I am the latest victim.
Just received a letter from their legal department saying my customer account is already been scheduled for a court recovery procedure in India.
I was quite worried and sent them an email asking for settlement. Simultaneously started surfing net to understand court recovery procedure in India.
Somehow I just started to surf about this company Expo-Guide and got all these articles from fellow victims.
I am immensely thankful to all those who have contributed in this forum. I am feeling immensely relieved now and am just not going to make them richer by another USD 1691.66 (1571 [service charges] + 120.66 [interest]). Just had a narrow escape.
Meanwhile, any suggestions for me???
Hi Asheesh – good for you! The only suggestion I have is keep on NOT paying
Good luck. Nobody here so far has reported being taken to court by Expo Guide. That means one thing to me: that they can’t and won’t take you to court.
Hello everyone,
I got a second letter this year (I posted on March 18th that I got my first letter of the year after not receiving any for some time). The letter I received a day or two ago is the same as the last one. What’s interesting is that last year they also added interest and fees for delay but in this new invoice there is no interest or fees. So they clearly don’t have a professional accountant on board!
I tried to join the “Stop Expo-Guide Group” but it does not seem to be on Facebook anymore.
Best of luck to everyone and I will keep posting when I receive letters. I think I’m going to put pressure on the Mexican consulate here in Hong Kong to do something.
Take care,
Suraj
Hi Suraj. It’s funny ain’t it – you can get Facebook to take down a group like that but you can’t stop them profiting from exploitative scam advertising targeting vulnerable, uncritical young people… wonder why?
Thanks for commenting. Clearly, the economics of bullying pays for stamps, envelopes and nasty phone calls.
Dear Sirs from Japan,
I have problem with the Expo guide since 2008. However, fortunately, with UFI Information, I realized that this is scam and do not pay any money at all at the moment.
But today, it seems that they move to the next stage.
I receive below e-mail today.
could you please advice me whether I should reply the e-mail or not?
**********************************************
Dear Yuko,
I refer to my e-mail dated 06.04..2010 and the documentation regarding your order for advertising with our client Expo Guide.
Kindly be informed that as long as your company’s case file is with us our client supports increasing costs day by day and they can ask us to send them back the file at any time. While the file is still with us you have the possibility to cancel the order if you wish so.
Please let me know if you would like to continue your advertising into the next year or you would like to cancel the contract.
Given your position in a respectable company like “MY COMPANY NAME was here “, I would like to believe that I will receive an answer from your side.
Yours sincerely,
Damian MoldovanSenior Credit ManagerINTERNATIONAL CREDIT ASSESSMENT AGENCY
by ICAA Ltd.
Tsacon Court, 4th Floor,
187A Leontiou Str.
3020 Limassol, Cyprus
P.O. Box 53397
3302 Limassol, Cyprus
Tel : +357 25 27 06 66, Fax: +357 25 27 07 77
email: dm@icaacy.com
******************************************************
Before receiving this e-mail, I received the warning e-mail that I need to pay to Expo guide.
I think the above e-mail is threating me..
I think I should not reply this e-mail though, I would like to hear your advice.
Thank you
Hi everyone,
Like Tony Harding above, we’ve heard nothing for a few months and out of the blue, out pops an invoice for the second year(!). This is getting very boring but I guess we’ll just have a repeat of last year ending in letters threatening legal action! YAWN……..
Yuko, you’re right – the above email is threatening. That’s how they make money.
There is no evidence than anyone has ever been take to any court by these people so on that basis, my advice would be to completely ignore them from now on. They’ve changed the name of their fake ‘collections agency’ from ‘Fobble International’ to ‘International Credit Assessment Agency’ to stop people Googling ‘Fobble’ and finding posts like this. Too bad, they’ll now find these comments
Look at it this way; if a legal company WAS owed money by so many people, we would find evidence of a) the existence of that legal company and b) evidence of judgments in courts around the world in their favour. There is no such evidence.
I can’t offer you legal advice and, since I haven’t made the mistake of signing this kind of form, I also don’t know what it’s like to be in your position. All I can say is read all the comments here carefully, follow the links for more information – and keep looking on Google.
Janna – I do believe you’ve spotted the pattern YAWWWWWNNNN..
Hi Kristina,
I’m glad I found your post because I’m a victim from Singapore as well. Up till now, I’ve received the various mails demanding payment including a letter from their legal department stating that “my customer account is already been scheduled for a court recovery procedure in Singapore”.
I haven’t paid a cent but shortly after receiving their first invoice I sent them an email clarifying that the reply to them was done in error. They replied this mail with the usual legally binding blah blah.
Would be great if we could talk and share experiences. Have you received any calls or had further contact with them?
Rachel from Singapore
Hi Guys,
Great to find another active bunch. The Stop EU Business Services/International Directories facebook group is still running.
They manage the World Businessdirectory and World Business Guide Scams but the info/experiences are very similar. It is owned by Jules and managed by myself
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=55011156703
Knowledge is power. The more people that are aware of these scams, the less people will fall for it. I’ve posted a back link on the group.
Hi Grant – thanks for the comment. I’m not on Facebook (hate it!) but trust that people will go there and make contact with you. Keep up the good work
Hallo, we have the same problem in Sweden. My ungeraged son sign their “contract” and now they are sending us a Legal notice with a warning about court i Sweden. It is so sad and take so much energy to convince Expo-Guide to stop this.
Anita Setterberg!
I´m also a victim in Sweden, and I have posted several times here about it.
I think you can contact me through Sam here, if you want to.
Liisa in Stockholm (haven´t still heard about them since 7th of december 2009).
Hi all of you,
Does anyone know what comes next after they send the “Legal notice” from their Legal department saying “Your customer account has already been scheduled for a court recovery procedure in COUNTRY ABC”?
I received this “last notice” from them on 05.03 and did not pay and am wondering what’s going to come up next.
Looking forward to hear from anyone with experience to share.
Rachel from Singapore
Hi Rachel. As far as I know, nothing happens when you don’t pay – apart from maybe some more threatening letters and/or calls. In all the time that people have been commenting here and other sites, I’ve never heard of anyone who has received a ‘court recovery in your country’ letter and actually gone to court in their own (or anybody elses’) country.
The overwhelming evidence is that NOTHING HAPPENS because this is a criminal scam. I understand a bit of you is scared – that, by the way, is exactly how the scam works: it preys on that part of you that is scared. But please consider the evidence carefully.
I keep saying: if someone – just ONE – person has evidence of actually being taken to court by these people, PLEASE comment here.
The fact that no-one does continues to demonstrate to me that Expo Guide and all these scams don’t take people to court because they simply can’t because they’re committing fraud and a court would prosecute THEM, not you!
after ignoring the listing letters , i finally filled one and posted in with the stamp-free envelop.
i’m receiving now invoice reminder letters and have a feeling it’s a scam.
by going through the websites, it’s certain that EXPO-GUIDE is playing psychological game.
i will go on throwing their letters into the recycling bins and enjoy sun, sea, sand and s…
big hugs from Hong Kong
Good for you stingray
Don’t forget to come back and tell us all about when they take you to court (as if)
Greetings from Amsterdam…and yes I received a letter from Expo Guide as well today. Luckily we were already aware of the fact that these people are scammers, so no problems here.
However, I would like to tell everybody who did fall for it: hang in there! Don’t pay them!!
Hello Sam,
Thanks a lot for what you do about this problem, you’re right,we have to talk about this stupid way of proceed, all around us, communication is a good weapon!
We received the same in France !! My Head didn’t sign the paper…. but he wants me to update and fullfill our datas on the Expo-Guide’s web-site as he red that is free… do you think it’s a bad thing ? I fear the ony result could be spammed more and more… but I don’t wan’t to disobey my Boss, allthough he don’t understand very well the Web or how do the e-mails work.. He thinks that could be great.. but I’m a little bit affraid of the consequencies of a datas’ update on the Expo-guide’s line.
(In France, we have the D.G.C.C.R.F.(General Directorate for Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control), who explain what to do and refuse, with legal texts, when someone had unfortunetly sign this kind of “poisonned-offers” there : http://www.dgccrf.bercy.gouv.fr/profil_entreprises/annuaires_prof.htm )
Tell your boss “No!”
You are right, the only result will be more threatening letters. But on the positive side, even if you get those letters, Expo Guide won’t ever take you to court so there’s nothing to worry about. Good luck convincing your boss not to sign the ‘insertion form’!
Dear All,
My sister has also been sucked into this scam. We have absolutely no intention of paying. Thank you all for support,
Regards,
Robert, Slovenia
I also had make the mistake to sign the form. It was together with the exposition we participated and we tought it was a paper from them.
so far I never paid and did not make any response what so ever.
I have received no the legal threat.
I’m doubting to send over any letter because then they see you’re alive.
Can you advise wehter I should send the letter to protest the contract or not?
Hi Veronique,
I’m at the ‘Demand for payment from Legal Department stage’ now. As most otehrs have said really the best thing to do is just ignore, ignore and ignore again. Eventually they should give up, it costs them for every letter they send you.
Remember no-one has ever heard of a legal action being brought (let alone a sucessful one).
Gareth
Hi All, Many thanks for starting this thread and relieving a lot of worried people, myself included, I was thinking of looking for a cheap pay off deal with them to get them off my back. Now I am completely happy just to bin their threats and never worry about it again!
Tom, UK
Good to hear Tom
don’t forget to share your experiences of what happens (or more to the point, doesn’t happen) next to reassure others who come here in the same situation as you. Good luck and look forward to hearing from you.
Well put, thanks for your comment Gareth
We get these all the time in work – they truely are relentless. I keep highlighting the cost (€1181) and the duration of payments (3 years) pop it back in the pre- paid envelope and send it back to them. It didn’t cost me anything but it cost them twice on post!
Mary
Hi All, I also had make the mistake to sign the form on behalf of my company. On may 18th i’ve received demand for payment from the expo guide legal department.I’am very scared to tell my boss about this matter. Could somebody explain to me what will hapen next? I am very scared right now.
Hi Nora. Welcome! First thing you’ll notice is that you’re not alone here – hundreds of other people have been tricked just as you have. These scammers depend on the fear and shame that you’re now feeling and your worry about what your boss will think of you – so that you’ll pay them out of your own money.
Don’t do it! Sit down with your boss with a computer and show him this post and Jules Woodell’s site at http://www.stopecg.org (which deals with this and similar scams). Get him to read carefully to see that nothing will happen by not paying.
You signed the form thinking you were helping to market your business, right? I’m sure your boss will understand that. Bringing this to your boss’s attention might be uncomfortable for a moment, but being honest with him and getting his support in ignoring these criminals is the single most important thing you can do to help put them out of business.
If I helps, your boss is welcome to email me. Good luck.
Dear Nora,
I can tell you what will happen after that, as I had such experience.
They will threaten us with alot of things that so-called legal action, legal department notice, but they prefer to receive money rather than pay for legal procedures through their victims.
After the final notice, they will wait for the next year to claim again the payment of the 2nd, 3rd year.
Be calm. Read carefully other comments and you will stand again on your feet. Ignore them, it’s the best thing I can share with you, it’s also what I have extracted from comments of this blog. Thank you Sam and all.
Lucy.
Great news, Lucy – and good to hear from you again. There you go, folks. Hard evidence that NOTHING HAPPENS when you don’t pay.
But, as the evidence in these comments already shows, some people are ashamed or afraid enough to pay. And that’s what these criminals trade on.
I did a check the other day: I went to the top dozen Government, private and public sector fraud prevention / consumer protection bodies and searched for ‘Expo Guide’ and ‘World Business Directory’ – just 2 of the many variants of this scam.
Not a single one came back with any information. How can this be?
Lucy, your evidence will help save many people from losing money and sleep over this, thank you.
Hello Everyone,
Just got another letter today titled “Second overdue payment reminder”. I’m being charged for by first and second year false “subsciption” plus interest. The total amount is USD 3,243.77.
I love the idea of mailing it back to them with their postage paid envelope, but I didn’t get a postage paid envelope with mine. All I got was the reminder invoice and a form. I would love to mail them back some of my thoughts free of charge!
I am based in Hong Kong and just writing to let everyone know that I’m not being a cent to these people!
Best of luck to everyone,
Suraj
Hi Suraj, good to hear from you again. Great that you’re not paying. Do let us know what (DOESN’T) happen next
I received the letter and signed it. Stupid me. I have already received the invoice. Send them back and asked for determination of contract, they send me back that is was too late. What’s next?
I’m not very scared, but still…
Hi,
I have just recieved an invoice from Expo Guide for £1181 euros payable to a bank in Slovakia for Expo Guide in Mexico.
I thought it was a free entry in Grand Desighns Live listings (which we attended); I altered the mistakes to our details and sighned it at the bottom where the date should be not where the legally binding signature should be, I thought it was from Media 10 updating their listings.
I have phoned Buisness Debt line who told me it is a scam and directed me to your blog.
I intend to reply to nothing they send and will not pay them anything, they cant scare me, perhaps they would like to apply to have me extridited to Mexico so I could spend a few days on the beach.
I’m with Janice. I could use a few days at the beach myself! I’ve been receiving invoices from these “people” for over two years now. I responded to the first telling them it was an error and to please reverse the charges. Of course they didn’t. I spoke to our accounts payable department who advised me to ignore them and that’s what I’ve done.
When I received their “legal action” threat letter today (dated 5/21/10, demanding payment by 6/1/10 and today’s date is 6/7/10) I decided to look them up on the internet. Glad I did. I will continue to ignore them till they go away.
I hope they do call me. I’d love to “have a chat” with these folks!
My bill is now $3,280.20 USD!
Hi
Ditto to all the above – what a prat i am! (Expo scam)
Apart from ignoring them COMPLETELY maybe we should start a campaign to email the organisations/shows that we all attend to get them to include a letter of warning with their contracts?? It might help to prevent people from signing in the first place!
Thank you to you all for all the advice – i WAS very worried and now feel very relieved.
x
I too made the mistake of signing the form, got the invoice and emailed the company (Mexico) and told them I wasnt interested. I received a letter from them stating that I could not cancel the contract that was back in 2008. Today I actually got a phone call from a British sounding women (didnt get her name) and she said she was a Mediator for Expo Guide and wants to know how they can help to stop the letters coming from them. She said they were a ligitimate company (after I told her to google the company as they were a scam) and I told her to stick the invoice up her ass. So has anybody else received a phone call like that one? Please advise.
Hi – ‘mediator for Expo Guide?’ – that’s a nice twist. What lengths these people will go to, eh? Still – if she can ‘persuade’ just one person to cough up 1100 euros in a single day, then she’ll have earned her keep. They’ll do anything to increase the percentage of people who pay. No surprise.
I like your response!
Thanks Sam very very much!!!!
Keep up the amazing work by having this site!!!!
I have refused (in writing via registered post) to pay the expo guide for the past 2 years and at the same time requested cancellation because the guide is not fulfilling any useful purpose. Threats of legal action go away and new invoices appear followed by overdue notices. I have previously responded, but having read this site have decided not to respond at all. Thanks for everyone’s useful info.
Claire
UK
ALLELLUIA!!!!
people…i m so glad i run into this site
i m only sorry i didnt made any googling when i signed up the famouse form of expo-guide in 2008:(
now i m in the fase of receiving phone calls (in june 2010) from an “international credit assesment agency” located in cyprus. they told me their client would generously cancel my “contract” if i just pay for a 1 year submission (1181€!!!!!…for just writing my name in a web site!!!!!). i was actually going to do so…then..i read carfully again the cancelation agreement they send me (via email and fax) and guess what…another fraud
they write “upon receipt of payment the order with number 317460 shall be cancelled immediatly and mr…. will receive no fyrther invoices or reminders in connection with the said order etc etc”
only that the so called order number is not even the same with the contract number they claim i have signed for back in 2008!!!!!
oooo…how i wish they take me to court!!!!
people…dont give up!!!!
after reading more in here…i got one conclusion…NO PAY SCAMS!!!
thanks everybody!!!!
Hi,
I’m also a victim of Expo Guide, I’d reported my case to our trade association.
I´m not forgotten!
Todag i recieved att new invoice with a new sum: EUR 2.362!
I have´nt heard anything since 7th of december 2009, when they thret me with court if I didn´t pay.
With this invoice today, is also a letter:
“A renewed non-payment would draw to legal consequenses in the future.”
And then they say:
“Should there be changes in your company data in the meantime, kindly inform our Customer Services accordingly, using the stated contact details in our letterhead. Eventual changes will be undertaken on our side without any cost.”
Splendid!!!!
They want me to pay no later than 23.06.10 and there is also a new bank in Italy this time: UniCredit Banca, Italy!
OF COURSE I WILL NOT PAY!
Blessings from Liisa in Stockholm
Liiiiiiiiiii-iiiiisa!
Good for you, keep on collecting those ‘legal consequences’ – and thanks for visiting again.
Good to hear from you! Wow. More legal consequences upon consequences. Sounds terrible
S
Hi,
I received this and read the fine print first. Upon my web search I found this forum. I will happily return the envelope – empty. They get to pay the postage. Maybe that should be what everyone does.
Pwalker
Hi P
Fact: when they just send to you, they don’t know if a) you’re alive b) still at the same address
Fact: when you send back empty envelope (or anything including letter saying “No, I’m not going to pay etc”) a) they know you’re alive b) they know you got their demand
Now, if you’re them, who are you going to spend your energy bullying: the person who replies or the person who is silent?
Think about it
That’s why I advise making no reply whatsoever.
Hi,
The great part about sending the envelope back empty, is that their is no unique, identifiable information about the replier on the return envelope.
The most they will know is the country, if it is stamped at the post office. They get to pay the return postage and I can tell you that international business reply mail won’t be cheap for them from any country outside of Germany.
Pwalker
I’m about to have my bathroom redecorated… what does this have to do with Expo Guide?
Well, I couldn’t decide which colour tiles to use, so using the free post envelope they kindly provided I wrote back to them explaining that funds were a little tight right now but I would truly value their opinion as to which tile sample (enclosed) they prefer.
Being a creature of a rather indecisive nature I feel it may take quite some time until I reach my decision, which unfortunately for Expo Guide they will just have to endure with good grace
Stephen, that’s a good idea. I like it – especially since the last poster pointed out the envelopes have no unique identifier on them.
Outrageous that the PostOffice even deals with ExpoGuide, let alone Barclays Bank (or whoever they currently use to launder their proceeds).
Now, you got me thinking: what’s the ideal flat, heavy (and preferably perishable) ‘thing’ that everyone has in their home or office they can use to send back to Expo Guide?
Maybe someone out there should manufacture something for this very purpose.
Haha the Expo-Guide, right? Guess what, I am a foreigner currently living in Mexico City and I remember that six months ago this company was searching for trilingual custom service agents through an outsourcing company here in Mexico City. I remember they had searched these before also though a newspaper ad and I almost fell for their temptating offer about a year ago or so, as the job vacant stated a juicy montly salary of 17,000 pesos which translates into 1000 Euros! That’s a huge salary in Mexico so I wouldn’t be surprised if foreigners living here fell for this offer. Of course you need to have a full command of three languages (English, French, Italian or German) and have good telephone and translation skills (or something like that…I wonder why).
Luckily I googled the company early 2010 and found many sites telling about the Expo-Guide scam. It has been a while without their tempting vacancies on Mexican job search boards but who knows when they appear again…so expats in Mexico City, if you see a job vacancy that looks a bit like the one I described above, just ignore it. I would not want to work for scammers even if they can get away with it easily in a country like Mexico! I must have come as a big surprise for the people who have signed a contract with them when they find out that their task is to threat people by phone in three languages and translate European magazines for possible new targets! Come on, you deserve better than this! If they start posting their vacancies again, I just might advise the outsourcing company that these are nasty scam artists and send them all the links I have found!
And yes, please do not pay them a penny, I’m sure they cannot do anything here or there! And they are not worth any of your attention.
Best regards from Mexico City!
Thank you, Susan – great comment.
That’s how it works, folks. 1000 Euro a month to bully people thousands of miles away by phone. Anyone who does that work should be ashamed of themselves. And they only have to get 1 payment out of a business per month to pay for their own wages, the rest is profit for Expo Guide.
Susan please tell us who the outsourcinng company is!
That’s correct, one customer service agent needs to get at least one paying victim per month and anything that comes after that is pure profit. I found some figures telling that 80% of the targets do not pay so that leaves 20% that pay because they are scared or simply fed up with their threats so of course they will continue with the scam!
This is how I found about Expo-Guide in the first place:
Two years ago, I remember it was August 2008, I bought a sunday number of a local newspaper to see the job vacancies. And there it was, a vacant by Expo-Guide where they were looking for customer service agents and advertisement inserters. The requirements were 3 years of experience in office work and full command of three languages. I cut the vacant because it looked so interesting (I do speak three languages) but I didn’t apply because I was already working at that time. Unfortunately, I do not have the piece of vacant any longer, if I had it, I’d post it somewhere so you could see it.
Then, a couple of months later they started seeking people online through two outsourcing companies so they did not put their name on the vacants but these were so similar to what they had published in the newspaper and the job location matched. Even when their requirements changed over the time, I recognized Expo-Guide behind it but still didn’t want to apply although it looked perfect, finally I could use all the languages I’ve learnt for a nice pay. Then they started looking for people with perfect German and then British or American people beacuse of their English accent. Since I’am not German, British or American neither am I native in French or Italian, I decided not to apply. The last time I saw their vacants was in late 2009 or early 2010. So all the time I knew the people behind them but I hadn’t done any research with Google so I decided to find out more about them and what did I found: Expo-Guide is a major scam all over the world! I found dozens of posts by people that had been duped into paying a big buck for nothing! I felt sorry for them as too many were scared that they actually could do something! I am not a lawyer but I do live in Mexico and I think there’s nothing these people can do. They would need to take hundreds of people to the court and it would cost them a fortune. Also, you should know that the Mexican law enforcement is full of bureaucracy and very slow. And I almost fell for Expo-Guide’s offer, I’m so happy I didn’t!
The two outsourcing companies that were involved in this are: Staff Selection (this is a local company and their website is in Spanish only) and Global Transferee (I am not sure whether they operate only in Mexico but they do have English website: http://www.globaltransferee.com/engSite/inicio.php )
So there you have it! Be on the lookout and all those who have been tricked into this: just ignore them completely, don’t send them any mails or letters. Don’t call them and if they call you, just use a loud whistle or vuvuzela if you have one!
Regards
Thanks again, Susan. 20% success rate out of those who fill in the forms and send back? That’s represents a huge amount of money. Great comment.
My business is in Hawaii and have been sucked into the scam. I thought it was from an expo we did every year in Colorado. I did finally responded to there email today after 2 years of not responding and now I am reading the posts here that say not to respond. I wish I would have googled this first. Oh well I will be sure not to respond any further.
I am so happy to read others input. Thanks for the info!!!
Regards,
Maria, sorry we didn’t get to you before you emailed – but glad you found this thread anyway. In one sense, it ultimately doesn’t matter whether you do or you don’t respond – since there’s NOTHING that Expo Guide can do to you legally in the real world. Just bear in mind how it works: the more afraid they judge you to be, the more ‘attention’ they will lavish on you
It would be interesting to see the email you sent them today (don’t post it if you’re not comfortable, though).
Re-read it and ask yourself how the nasty tri-lingual piece-of-work sitting in Expo Guide’s ‘offices’ will interpret your level of ‘bully-ability’. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much effort would you expend on you? They’re reading between the lines to find the vulnerable, scared people. Scared AND ashamed is even better. Those of you who feel SO stupid that you put your company in this mess, scared what will happen if the boss finds out you were so gullible… you guys are the ones really worth bullying. They’re like dogs: if they pick up that scent, you’ve had it!
Keep us informed how it goes, Maria – good luck and don’t give in!
It is simiiler case.I dont know how they got our email address or postal address.They started sending us their joining Form frequenly inviting us to send our details.However we thought it is a free listing like in many other guids. Since then they have been sending us letters/demand/ legal demand to pay their said invoice amount. But interestingly they never bothered to send us a copy of their so called guid to prove the point.Even I try to serch in our name in their guide.but failed.In fact they try to create fear in the mind of innocent victims.
thank you for giving us a forum to raise our voices.
HAS
Hi exactly the same update of free listing originally from the showmans show had invoice now had reminder they wont be receiving any monnies from me
hello,
i have trapped to world business guide scam last year,fisrt i was scared but after a short web serach i saw their real mission.
They have made a pause for a while then on the 2. year they started to send e-mail again.
they said that they will take us to court at the end of the 3 years of service.
really clever idea to continue threating.
just idiots,why anybody could find them?
Thanks for the informative forum. I am the CFO for a U.S. company that also fell for the scam in 2008. We were recently contacted by a collection agency located in Cyprus with “an exceptional offer for a full and final cancellation agreement for an [sic] reduced amount of USD $1,571.00, i.e. just 50% of the contractual value.”
I politely told them via e-mail we have no intention of honoring an agreement obtained through deception; however, as Sam mentioned, they are gauging my intimidation threshold & responded with a threatening e-mail with a 3-day deadline. I probably should have ignored it, but after reading these posts, I couldn’t resist telling them we refuse to participate in the Expo-Guide Scam.
Hello, I am from Hong Kong. I have the scourge of Expo-Guide too.
Thanks for Sam and everyone, after read all the coments.
I will take Sam’s advice NOT to notice them, just ignore ignore ignore ignore them, and DON´T PAY!!!
I recieved the frist invoice on 4 May 2010, and the reminder letter on 8 June 2010.
I will keep post and let everyone know my status.
Well done Tai. After all these comments, we know that Expo Guide is a global scam. For a long time, I’ve been trying to get an answer to these questions: 1) How many people a year globally return the form signed 2) What percentage of those returned forms turns into payment 3) What percentage of those who pay pay 1, 2 or more years’ fees?
If there’s someone who has worked inside this scam (as a tri-lingual caller in Mexico City for example) who can answer those three questions (even with an informed guess based on their own experience) we can have some idea of the kind of money Expo Guide have been stealing.
I have to say, simply in terms of its global scale, the length of time its been going on and what I’ve heard so far (about % of people who pay) I suspect the sums of money we’re talking about are surprisingly large.
But we need facts.
If you’ve worked for them, we’d like to hear from you.
Thanks, Tai for the amended Chinese translation which I’ve now added to the post (above). I used Google translate – so it was guaranteed to be wrong lols
Sam, Thanks, I hope a lot of chinese victims can get your advice.
NOT to notice them, just ignore them, and DON´T PAY!!!
Hello,
I used worked for expo guide for one month and it is so sad to see how this company is using Mexico to scam companies from other countries that I have a few things to say.
It is a total scam and eveybody should ignore any e-mails from this company.
They do not have a legal department, only a small group of people working as customer service reps that when it comes to scaming use an alias to say they are lawyers and that legal actions will be taken but the truth is that not one lawyer works for them, so trust me, the best thing to do is to ignore them since they just keep harassing people that seem to be scared about legal action taken agains them and they have so many people signing the form that it is still very profitable for them to keep doing this.
So once again please ignore them and understand that this is a european company, not a Mexican company, so as a Mexican want to make that clear and help honest people stop worrying about this scam, you will never see legal action taken agains your company if you just ignore them.
Hope this helps and have a good day!
Eduardo – thank you.
There you have it folks – confirmation that Expo Guide can do nothing to you.
Please publicise this to your real-world networks wherever possible
Dear Sam,
Today I got a letter from ICAA in Cyprus, a debt collector. I wonder whether Google knows that ICAA works for Expo-guide or not, since when I google international credit assessment agency, the name of debt collector for expo-guide came at first rank. This will enable people to think that it ‘s a serious matter and will pay after ICAA involvment, since people believe on selecting information through google search tools.
Can anyone tell me what happens after ICAA letter of asking money for expo-guide, what ‘s their action followed after this letter?
Hi Lucy, welcome back! I’m not sure what you mean re. the Google thing. When I Google “international credit assessment agency” I get a listing for ‘ICAA Cyprus Ltd’ half way down the page.
This listing comes up because Expo Guide people have put up a fake website for ‘ICAA Ltd’ to try to make people receiving these letters believe that such a debt collection company exists. It doesn’t.
The website, is – to my trained eye – a classic ‘dummy’. It has no depth, no credible content and no real people behind it. It only exists as a device to try to convince Expo Guide’s victims that a debt-collector will chase them. There is no debt collector; no ICAA, no Fobble International. Just trilingual expatriot kids in Mexico (and possibly also Cyprus) being paid by Expo Guide to bully people over the phone.
In answer to your question, there is no real action following any of these threats. You may or may not get more letters, calls etc – but that depends on how much contact you have made with them and how worried they think you are.
Here’s what I’ll do to annoy them: I’ll write a post titled “ICAA Ltd Cyprus” pointing people to this thread. Then, after a couple of days, when Google has indexed that page, it will appear next to ICAA’s ‘fake’ Google listing in the search results when an Expo Guide victim searches for ‘ICAA Ltd Cyprus’. That means that the worried victim will come to our thread and hopefully find reassurance.
Oh the power of the web.
I also signed the document on 20 May, 2008, thinking it was a free listing and I have received many threatening letters since. The last one was dated 14 January, 2010 for the amount of US$3,345.81 The letter said the final deadline was 7 days and the debt was already scheduled for a local court hearing Australia. I have heard nothing since.
Jeanette Martin
Hi Jeanette – good to hear, but no surprise to me. Hope everyone else takes note of your comment
BTW – nice looking website but whoever built it for you really let you down on even the most basic, 10-minute search engine optimisation!
Each of your pages needs a search-engine friendly title containing keywords relevant for that page (with copy text containing those keywords and other relevant words) else you’re not going to be found in Google.
It really annoys me how anyone can charge for web design and fail to provide that most basic and fundamental of services. If your site isn’t findable in Google for the kinds of keywords that would bring prospects to your business… then it’s little more than an online brochure for people who already know about you.
Grrr. Yet another example of ‘legal’ businesses capitalising on other peoples’ lack of knowledge.
Today I recieved a reminder – a 2nd invoice in a 2nd round with Expo Guide!
I signed in april 2009 and they have been quiet half a year since december -09 when they threatened me with court.
Nothing happened, of course!
And here we go again!
“Request payment by no later than 09.07.10″!
A small detail – the envelope wasn´t closed!!
Of course I will NOT PAY!!!
Liisa in Stockholm
Thank you SAM for this site!!!
Hi Liisa, glad hear that you’re well – and STILL not getting the chance to meet Expo Guide in court in Stockholm.
Interesting to hear they’ve stopped the pre-paid envelope – maybe a result of reading something here where people suggested sending it back to them full of useless, heavy junk? Let’s hope so.
Keep up the good work – and don’t forget to speak to your business associates in the real world about this so they can spread the word. The only protection against this scam is the free flow of information.
Hi Sam,
One more on the list
Question: the recommended http://stopecg.org/ website advises to send a letter of cancelation but in one of your comments (March 25, 2010) you advise not to contact them at all?
Frank
Hi Frank – thanks for your comment
I think that Jules’ advice on stopecg.org was probably good at the time (when he & everyone else wasn’t sure whether Expo Guide could actually do anything to anyone or not) – but I think that my analysis of how your responses ‘qualify’ you for more bullying probably overrides that. My advice is based on logic (scammers are criminals therefore can’t take people to court, plus their debt-collection agencies don’t actually exist etc), simple psychology of the scam (as I’ve outlined here many times) – plus of course the benefit of being able to observe all the comments on my site and everywhere else over time.
Whether you do or whether you don’t send them a letter, all the evidence shows that they STILL can’t do anything to you. However, my observations are that contacting them in ANY way – i.e. even sending them a letter – seems to automatically qualify you for further bullying.
My advice is this: 1) decide that you won’t pay and take some reassurance from the total lack of evidence anywhere of anyone being made to pay 2) do whatever you like after that – so long as you stick to 1)
Thanks, will keep everyone posted
Dear Sam,
I ‘ve tried to google in 2 different ways about the debt collector : ICAA Ltd., and International credit assessment agency and found out that there are different google listings, but most of all at these 2 ways, ICAA Ltd. Cyprus comes at top. Only when we search with ICAA Ltd., it comes to your warning posting.
Sam, can you do something, for the sake of all these people who have ‘ nt yet arrived to the step of being pursued by debt coolector, to help them stop thinking that they are serious company solving credit problems.
Cheers.
Hi Lucy
You’re right there are a few ways people might search. I checked tonight and found that my post is coming up on P1 for searches on the following keyphrases:
“ICAA Ltd”, “ICAA Ltd Cyprus”, “ICAA Cyprus” and “ICAA Cyprus Ltd”. That’s ok but I’ve also taken your advice and created another post with “international credit assessment agency” in the title which should show up in searches in a day or so.
[Next day: Yep, there it is in Google - above Expo Guide's fake 'ICAA' website]
I can’t do much more than that to reassure people but what I think really DOES reassure people is to read all the comments and stories from other folks who have been caught out by this scam – especially when they find that nobody ever had any legal action taken against them.
Fear is such a corrosive thing. It makes people doubt themselves; makes them half-expect a legal summons even when they know it’s a scam; when they know it’s criminal. People caught up in this can’t ever quite free themselves from a worry that somehow, these people could … get them.
The reason I keep posting about the psychology behind this is to hammer home the simplest of ideas – until people really ‘get it’.
This scam was designed never to take action against anyone. It doesn’t need to (and, of course, they couldn’t even if they wanted to). It is designed to pay a good return purely on the percentage of people who are frightened or ashamed enough to pay. Nobody at Expo Guide has ever set up to do anything more than print forms, send letters, make phone calls – because that’s all it takes. All they have to do is mail out, collect back in, send letters, wait for responses, make threatening calls, send ‘debt collection’ letters, make more calls and money appears. Simple.
A part of the psychology behind this scam is that they understand that decent, hardworking people can’t quite let go of the idea that normal rules apply – even when it’s clear that they’re being scammed by criminals. Expo Guide has no power. There is no contract. There are no debt-collectors. There are no court actions ‘in your country’. There is no ‘interest fee’ building up. There is no ‘settlement’ of one year for them to generously give you….Everything is an illusion that the scammer made up.
And of course, the final part of the psychology of this scam depends on the wider world being too afraid to point the finger at Expo Guide and say outright ‘you are scammers’. Governments won’t do it; fraud agencies won’t do it; police and trading bodies won’t do it. All that’s left is people like you and me. What Expo Guide hasn’t appreciated is the power that people (with a bit of courage and some understanding of Google and keywords) have. With a bit of thought, we’re able to put the voice of ordinary business people who have been ripped off out there for others to find and learn from. And if that saves someone some money or some worry, then it’s worth every minute spent doing it.
Dear members,
I am a victim of the Expo-Guide. We had a stand in the last year’s Book Fair in Istanbul (Turkey) as the discussion platform of the volunteer book readers (Ekin Yazin Dostlari). I explained all steps that I faced in my blog in Turkish.
I warned the director of the book fair for the next fairs. I filed Expo-Guide before the Office of the Attorney General in Istanbul for the Organized Fraud initiative.
My blog about the Expo-Guide: (in Turkish)
http://expo-guide.blogspot.com/
Regards,
Aydin Ergil
Hi Aydin, thanks for commenting. I saw your link in to this site, so have visited your blog already. Keep up the good work!
Thank you Sam. The 3. link in the right side is this site. I think this site site is very useful for the victims of those companies. Let’s continue to support other victims and to warn the potential victims. I read all postings in this site.
Thank you and good luck in our battle.
Oh yes, we got that self-addressed envelope from Germany as Expo-Guide wanted us to send our payment pronto ! We inserted a broken bathroom fixture into the envelope, with plenty of tape on the envelope to hold it in. The fixture was about 16 ounces in weight.Betcha that cost them $ in postage…..
Now, if Expo-Guide would send me a whole box prepaid postage- I could then send back a broken toilet….so they can flush all the shit they send. LOL.
Hi,
As an event organiser in the UK, I have just received an e-mail from one of our valued clients who received this “SCAM” letter.
I just want to confirm, that in no way is Expo Guide related to any of the BBC Good Food Shows, MasterChef Live or The Wine Show, so please do not sign any correspondence they send you which mentions the our show details, and we stronly advise you NOT to pay over any money in relation to our events.
Together, lets try and prevent them from “scamming” another victim!.
Angie
Angie, thanks for your comment.
The best thing you could do would be to find a way to get this some air time / coverage in the mass media.
People need to know about this BEFORE they get stung and come to Google looking to see what’s happened. In my experience the main anti-fraud / consumer rights etc bodies are completely in the dark about this huge scam and don’t seem to want to know.
It needs mainstream media attention!
*sigh* I just got caught by this one. My company did two trade shows this year, and like so many others, the boss dropped the form on my desk and asked me to bung it off. Signed it without a second thought. That’ll teach me.
Still, many thanks for maintaining this thread Sam, I’m sure you have rapidly lowered the blood pressure of countless thousands. Rest assured that I will be on here keeping you posted if this actually goes anywhere nasty.
Guess I shall go and put a call into the OFT for the sake of completeness now. Must be some way to get this out in the open.
Ta.
Peter
Thanks, Peter. Don’t panic – there’s NOTHING bad going to happen to you. My advice? Read everything here and on other sites like it, then ignore it for the rest of your natural life.
Best wishes – and do drop back here to let people who come here after you know just exactly what happens next
I have just opened my letter from ExpoGuide. It was terrifying as I was just relaxing before going to bed. It is really encouraging to hear that I am not the only person who sent back the signed form thinking they were just updating some listing info for a conference they went to last year.
However, that figure of €3543 is pretty terrifying, and I spent a good 15 minutes literally weeping and beating my chest and head.
Is anyone aware of people sending them money, or is the best known tactic to lay low and let them try it on?
I am inclined to ignore this letter completely but I don’t want anyone else in my house to find the bailiffs on the doorstep and have to deal with them while I’m out.
John, take the time to read through all these comments. If you do, you’ll be reassured that nobody, ever, got visited by anyone or taken to court.
The whole deal works on frightening you enough so you’ll contact them. They’ll read the level of your fear and ‘settle’ with a figure of whatever they think you’ll pay for peace of mind.
If they sense you’re really scared, they’ll bully you for the whole lot. If they think they’re likely to lose you, they might agree to ‘let you off’ with paying just 1/3 of it and hope you’ll jump at that.
Don’t pay them a penny! They can’t and won’t do anything to you or anyone else in your family. Their ‘debt collection’ agencies are fake and any calls you get from them are from Expo Guide.
Can you see that their success depends precisely on getting the kind of reaction out of people they’ve produced in you? They have nothing else to work with – but so long as people feel scared when they get the demands, the money will continue to roll in.
Dear Sam
Thank you for your site and all efforts for saving victims from scam.
I am a Korean and I was surprised that there are many victims of mislead of Expo Guide such a scam all over the world.
Of course I am one of victim. I have been ignored their notice including Legal notice(what they insist) as I can see their purpose.
Is there any victim who called from court in Europe?
Pilung
Hi Pilung, no, nobody ever reported going to court in Europe or anywhere else in the world.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, that we have so many people from so many parts of the world here. This is a global scam – and the profits must be in the tens of millions of dollars every year.
And all achieved without EVER having to do more than sending paper in the mail and following up with calls, letters and emails.
Don’t pay them, and do whatever you can to tell people in your business community in Korea to ignore Expo Guide too!
I´m also victim of Expo-guide scammers and after reading you, I´m absolutely calm..thanks for this site! 13.7. I got the last “Legal notice” from “legal department” and I´m looking forvard new letter
) I´m so sad they don´t send us prepaid envelope – I have so many things to fill it 
DD
Great site with lots of great information. The gal who did my job before I got hired apparently signed this form and I have been dealing with all the letters demanding payment. My boss knows that it is a scam, but now he is asking me to alert the Attorney General. Has anyone ever reported these guys to the AG? How would I go about doing that?
Thanks so much for your time!
Hi Cheryl, great idea. I’m in the UK so no idea of how to contact the US Attorney General. Don’t let that stop you trying! Anyone out there have any tips?
My latest demand (received this week) has a sticker placed over the Mexican address on the front of their envelope, with the address:
EXPO Guide, PO Box 466, Emigsville, PA 17318, and a US frank.
The paperwork inside still bears the Mexican address, and the bank is still the Slovakian one.
And I will continue to ignore, buoyed up by all you readers’ experiences!
Suzanne, glad to hear. Keep doing your part and letting anyone you know in business know about this so others can be saved the worry.
Happy to share all our experienced in here and great web site. Thanks to all..
Soi Hi! i this is erman from turkey. our company has received this letter and filled out the form. Luckily i have just come back from holiday and saw this envolope ready to be send away. ı grabbed it right away and wripped it off and informed all my co-ops about this fraud. since new year this is the 3rd time we have received.
Hey Sam
You are an absolute star. And indeed, my blood pressure is lowering by the minute – not from the stress, but the anger.
I’m not even sure how my involvement came about – we had someone from the company go to the Sonar expo in Barcelona and we were entered into a trade guide, so I thought it was to do with that. And when the forms came through about updating the listing, I filled it in and yada yada yada you know the rest.
I thought it was a scam and you have confirmed it. They don’t (and never did) have my bank details and they’re sending letters to the wrong address so screw ‘em. It’s just a shame I am going to have to put up with threats, letters and judging from other people here, potentially phone calls. But they ain’t getting dollar one.
I also happen to be a journalist, and following your comments about media awareness, I will take the story to some newspapers and see if I can drum up some interest.
All the best and let’s do whatever we can to bring these people out into the open and then bring them down.
Regards
Simon
Hi Simon – thanks for the comment. Very glad to hear that your blood pressure is going down
Count me in on any kind of piece to the media. We could get Jules Woodell to talk about the history of this scam and the names behind it, I could talk about the psychology behind it and the power of bloggers like me to cut into a bit of their profit.
I’ll drop you an email so we can discuss further
Hi All,
This is Gary from Hong Kong, quite some people from HK dropped into this scam yeah!
My boss has signed the free listing form back 2008. When we received the first invoice and asked for payment. I replied to them that supposed to be free listing only, and we were not going to pay and asked them to cancelled and deleted our listing. Then we received replied from them asking for money again, then I told them I replied to them already. It stopped emailed or invoicing us for couple years. Until few days ago, the guy from “Damian Moldovan, Senior Credit Manager, INTERNATIONAL CREDIT ASSESSMENT AGENCY ,by ICAA Ltd.” sent us email with attachment of our signed form, invoice and their so called “Without Prejudice ” letter.
Then I told my boss I will handle it and see what I can do. I might as well start to search the net see if something coming up and found that big “SCAM” stuff. I forward some info to my boss and told him that is SCAM no need to worry. Just today somebody called my boss cell phone and mentioned from Expo Guide. My boss and I are outside and he cannot take his call and asked him to call back. I have told my boss while not let me talking to them. I really love to talk to him and see what the trick is……” maybe I can just try to waste their long distance call as long as possible “.
Then when we got back, they sent fax to our HK office said we did not react to their previous notices concerning your long overdue account. bah. bah bah.. dead line by 13th August then further action might take by 8:43p.m… and email to me the fax by 8:47p.m. They REALLY try very hard to pursue your paying.
Then I decided to email that guy as below ( copy from the suggested email )
WELL OF COURSE NEVER INTENDED TO PAY THEM A BUCK
WELL LOOKING FORWARD TO HIS COSTLY PHONE CALL …..
Hi Sam and everyone else.
thanks very much for all the helpful stuff here.
I calmed down, took stock of the situation, read up on Expo Guide, listened to and read some good advice and then put this letter together, which I also ran past a lawyer, who said it was spot on.
Feel free to adapt and use as you need to
Dear Sirs
Invoice No. ___ dated ___
Order: ___
Customer No. ___
I have received a letter containing the above invoice from you demanding €1181 in respect of a listing for me in your internet publication EXPO GUIDE.
Upon scrutinising the photocopy of the form which I signed and which you have enclosed with the invoice, I have for the first time, seen that you have secreted in small print, a clause that seeks to tie the form’s signatory to a 3 year contract amounting to a total payment of €3543.
I did not sign this piece of paper with any understanding whatsoever that this was the case, in particular since the header of the form states that “This form is only for your correct listing as an individual advertisement entry”. Additionally, no covering letter or other information whatsoever was provided with the form to indicate to me that while, in its main body, the form purported to be concerned only with ensuring that my listing information was correct, much more importantly it also sought to contract me into an extremely expensive 3 year financial arrangement.
I was also led to believe, by its design, that the form was issued in a capacity that closely affiliated its issuer to ___, a reputable organisation with which I have had several satisfactory dealings.
I am advised that the contract you have attempted to make with me conflicts with important distance selling laws and laws of contract in the United Kingdom, and that since the design of the form which I signed was totally misleading, for the reasons I have stated above, I am not bound by its terms. I have also been in contact with ___ in respect of this communication from you and they have declared that you have no links with them and that they condemn wholeheartedly your use of their databases for the purposes to which you have sought to put them.
In this case, and since I have no desire make use of any service from EXPO GUIDE, I am notifying you that this alleged contract is invalid, null and void and that I will not be making any payments to you. Furthermore I require that you remove my listing from your website and database.
I request your acknowledgement that you will no longer be pursuing any payment from me in respect of the above invoice. I will enter into no further correspondence regarding this matter and I advise you that I will seek immediate legal representation should you again attempt to obtain payment from me.
Please also be advised that I will make your activities known to the UK Trading Standards Authorities, although I understand they are already aware of your practices.
Yours
Hi!
I will just inform you that I´ve got my third letter a “first overdue payment reminder”, since they threatend me with court in december 2009, and since they´ve been threatend me half a year with invoices and reminders since april -09!
Then they where quiet half a year, (januari – june this year) but here they go again!
Is it anybody here, who knows if they ever going to stop?
My bloodpress is low theese days, when I see thouse letters, thank´s to you Sam!
Of course I will not answer and I will NOT PAY them!
Liisa
in Stockholm, Sweden
Hey Liisa – why am I not surprise to hear you’re NOT in court being made to pay lols
Thanks for your comment. Do they ever stop? Who knows, who cares. Let them keep wasting their postage fees on you. At least you know it’s costing them some money with no hope of anything coming back from you. Hope all’s well with you – and thanks for coming back to visit.
Dear colleagues,
I am another victim of this Expo Guide fiefs. They send me invoices very often. Of course, I will not pay it. One time, I started to be really angry with this abusement so I send them by fax, a legal letter with accussation of abuse from their part, in my natal language (Czech language). But it didnt help and I still receive this stupid invoices.
THE BEST in this situation is, that I went to their website and MY COMPANY IS NOT LISTED THERE!
LET s try to discover who is owner of this nasty entreprise.
Dont pay them!
It’s the one year anniversary of when I mistakenly sent in my forms. Hadn’t received any letters or e-mails since March. Today a letter showed up. It will be ignored as this is the best advice anyone can provide. Have never received a phone call but for anyone who is worried, please relax. Don’t waste your time corresponding with them. Aside from the bullying, they probably send these letters hoping that someone in your company who pays the bills just sends a check as a matter of business.
We have had the same experience as everyone posted here. It is comforting to know that we are not alone as in the early stages of this I was genuinely worried about their demands. I did, like others, take some time to delve into their backgroud and practices and found this to be a scam. I have contacted them by registered letter to let them know that we will not be paying the invoice due to improper way they have acted and their misleading paperwork. I have also contacted the company they state they used to get our details to let them know that they are being used in this deception.
My advice to everyone is echoed above – dont worry and document everything. Respond in the ways suggested and keep your nerve. Business is hard enough at the moment without companies such as these using bullying techniques to steal significant amounts of money from reputable people.
Regards,
Marcus
We have recently been pulled into this scam. I have just had a large arguement with the woman on the phone saying to put us into court as te paperwork she has got has not actually been signed by the person they are stating it has. We have had this calls from july – November weekly for 3 years now…. Its ridiculous.
Just see what their next step is now I have told them I want them to take me to court
Hi Sam,
I’m back again.
I was wondering if we couldn’t send a petition to the DNS authority (I think that’s the name of the international authority managing all internet domain names) asking them to unregister the website name of Expoguide. Perhaps somebody in this forum could give us a more precise idea?
What if the Nigerian Scam would make a website for scamming people?
The Expoguide is more “intelectual” – you see what I mean – but it is still a SCAM. If they wouldn’t have the website name, all theso called contracts, including presenting on the web the co-ordinates of the companies should be void.
As I remember, in the contracts it was stipulated that the listing should be made on www;expo-guide.com. So, if domain name should be cancelled, the scamming company wouldn’t had fulfilled its contract engagement, as they wrote in the contract the name of the website where the so called free listings should appear.
All the best
Andrei
Andrei, that’s a good idea. If anyone out there can help this along, please do! While I don’t think people check http://www.expo-guide.com at the point of signing the form, I think that it the absence of a site at http://www.expo-guide.com when the demands start coming in perhaps would make some difference?
What’s really needed is offline awareness raising in mainstream business media – particularly aimed at people who don’t use the web that much and who don’t understand how Google works and the value (or otherwise) of listing with online directories.
Sam, it’s true, but they (EXPO) promise to publish the company who “signed the contract” on the web site; if the web site does not exist any more, that means they don’t respect the contract, do they?
Andrei
Hi again!
Today I´ve got the “Second overdue payment reminder” – the request payment no later than 11.09.2010!!!
As usual – rules that no one can follow!!
I´m in my second round whith this scammers, and they have allready thretend me with court – in december 2009 – nothing happend, just silence for half a year.
In june, this year they where back, and here we go again! They still call this worthless paper they sent in april – 09, for a “contract”!!!!!!!
I will just inform you all, and I will come back when I hear from them again.
Don´t contact them – and DONT´T PAY – just ignore them!
Thank´s to you Sam!
Liisa from Stockholm
Hello all, I am glad to find this page.
Well, I have got lots of letters with bills from Expo-Guide since 2007 until now, then I have ignored them but, I finally got a phone call from ICAA cyprus.
I talked that we did misleading, then he kindly answerd me to send documents that were the bill and “a form” we signed via Fax and email.
I sent an email to them using the exsample letter which Mr. John wrote in
August 16, 2010 at 11:36 pm on this page. well, I got a new mail from them of cource.
so I sent again telling my opinion, but they won’t stop to email me I think.
I am in far easten country and I don’t know what does VAT number mean in EU. I visited ICAA cyprus website and there is this number which is valid. Does also VAT number proof company existence officially or is there another mean?
If someone could tell me this, that would be really helpful.
Thank you.
Carnah
Carnah
I spoke on the phone with someone who worked for ‘ICAA’ who confirmed it wasn’t real; and that they left when they realised that Expo Guide was a scam. He confirmed what I suspected: that Expo Guide’s ‘debt collectors’ (of which he was one) had a success rate of about 3%.
In the 6 months he was with them, they handled 10,000 ‘cases’.
3% x 10,000 x €1000 = €300,000
They won’t stop emailing you – unless you write and complain to:
PROFECO: Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor, Av. Jose Vasconcelos
208 Col. Condesa, Del Cuauhtemoc, Mexico D.F.
Internet: http://www.profeco.gob.mx/
My contact told me that Expo Guide always dropped cases referred to this authority. Try it!
Meantime, remember, they’re scamming and they have NO power to take you to court anywhere. Good luck!
Hi!
My predecessor signed a “contract” with this company and tried to have everything deleted, but of course withour any luck.
I recived a phonecall from them explaining that we owe them money, and after checking it with the former CEO of tour company I responded to their mail with a friendly “f**k off!” which just made them send the same mail again.
After ignoring that I recived a envelope in the post today with all the papers concerning our “business” with them.
After reading this and other forums I will keep ignoring them and of course never pay them anything.
I would never think they could do anything legal to our company if we keep ignoring their threats so that will be our tactic.
Thanks for providing us with this page and enable companies to share warnings and tactict concerning these sorts of scams.
Best regards,
David Johansson
Hi Sam,
I’m from Italy but unfortunately it happened the same.
I’ve just received the first invoice and after my “surprise” I’ve started a research in web about Expo Guide and …you can imagine how many pages I found regarding this scam.
Anyway since I’m at early stage do you suggest to reply them with a polite letter or just ignore them and if they call me I’ll reply saying that every issues have to be discussed/sent by written communications?
Thanks in advance!
Cheers!
Ale
Status report:
2 months down the line, and no further contact barring the initial invoice.
I am rather curious to see if it is indeed the case that communicating with them in any way confirms you for further abuse. Will keep you posted as to how my ‘wall of silence’ plan goes.
Peter
We have recieved all the letters and now getting all the calls from Cyprus.
Luckily we know some serving squaddies based in Cyprus, so we have sent a few of them around to the serviced office where nobody is..
Wilfred.. We are looking for you now
Wilfred Brown
Senior Credit Manager
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT ASSESSMENT AGENCY
by ICAA Ltd.
Tsacon Court, 4th Floor,
187A Leontiou Str.
3020 Limassol, Cyprus
Tel : +357 25 27 06 66, Fax: +357 25 27 08 81
email: wb@icaacy.com
web-site: http://www.icaacy.com
I have just had a legal notice from them. Looking back at other comments I wondered why a sticker was over the original address but I can understand why now!!!!
Also in a separate envelope they sent another form to fill in for a further 3 years as this is now the third year. Needless to say I Will not be filling this in and sending it back
Hello all, I am really happy to know that I am not alone in the fight with expo-guide. I am from Bulgaria and would like to start comunication with the other victims from my country. So Boriana and Irena, please write to me. Thanks in advance.
Hi everybody!
I used to work for Expo Guide. I was part of the customer services and I have so many things to say. First, I agree with Eduardo (comment of July 17). It is sad how people with no qualms can succeed to get money out of such a dishonest thing, involving young (and usually well prepared) people to do the dirty work and stand up for them. Believe me, 99% of the correspondents are there just because it is very hard to find a job with that salary here in Mexico. In fact they are the ones who can really see what this shit is all about, beacuse they have direct contact with the clients. So, insults, threats and hearing people yell at them are part of their routine.
Personally, something I even hated the most was to see how they even send order forms to associations (such as Red Cross, Parkinson Association, Lymphoma Association, etc) and to independent artists, farmers or people who live in poor countries and who fall for that scam.
Surprisingly, directors of big companies (such as Renault, MGM, etc), who are supposed to be aware of those things (or who have access to internet, for sure) don’t even take 5 minutes to look up Expo Guide on Google before signing. Sometimes clients sign 2 or 3 contracts!! so, they have to pay twice or thrice!!
Anyways, I think the best way to stop this is by giving the information you know to your collegues, friends and family, specially if they have their own business/company. It doesn’t matter if it’s a huge factory of a small beauty parlor.
And for all of them who are very concerned about it, please don’t be afraid. No legal actions will be taken against any of the Expo Guide’s customers. Please, don’t waste your time and money trying to find a solution or an arrangement with them.
Finally, I’d like to apologize in case I was part of the annoying messages you received from the customer services.
Regards,
Silvia.
Silvia, thanks for your comment.
I hope everybody coming here will take notice of Silvia’s experience and pass the word to friends, colleagues, trade associations to make sure nobody else pays these scammers.
I have been hit with the same scam. If someone can email me more information on what to do.
Hi Victoria
Just read through this whole thread carefully AND all the comments and you will see what you have to do – i.e. nothing. These people can do nothing to you. The only way they make money is if you believe they CAN do something and give in and pay them. Please read ALL the comments. You will see that no-one has ever been taken to court by Expo Guide. It’s a scam. Ignore it. The worst that will happen is that you will get letters and / or calls. There’s not much you can do to stop that – it’s the price you pay for returning their form in the first place. That’s as bad as it gets – unless you reach for your credit card and pay them.
Good luck
It is gone so far as Belarus. My company is on the stage of the final overdue payment reminder. the bank is always the same and it is Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy. I googled it just now and I have also found an article about scams on our belarussian news website dated november 2009. In the comments people ask to add Expo Guide into the list of the scams. So unfortunately some others in my country got trapped as well. Hopefully, more people will be attentive and do some surveys before sending any filled forms in future. Great job, Sam, thank you for keeping this site!
Anna, you’re welcome. Thank you for commenting. I hope you can help to raise awareness of this scam in your country. Good luck!
Just end last month we have received another letter from their Legal Department. Seems like they do that every Sept. We will continue to ignore them.
More threats from Cyprus, this time with their stamp on the very very last final final letter before they take legal action…
We have now put a divert on their incoming call number to a premium rate number at £10 per minute where they get annoying music on hold, hope they keep calling…
Everybody should do this and I bet they wont call for long
Well done Pei Lin – glad to hear nothing else happens
Great idea John. I like it
Last week, we also got the collect letter(without prejudice) from
Wilfred Brown
Senior Credit Manager
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT ASSESSMENT AGENCY
by ICAA Ltd.
They asked us to pay Expo-guide within 7days, otherwise, will set a lawsuite against our company. And we’ve wrote our case to PROFECO in Mexico, suggested by our government. So, now we just wait and ignored ICAA and see any good news from Mexico Government. If any other would like to ask the help from Mexican Government, here are the e-mail addresses we report our case info.,
extranjeros@profeco.gob.mx
pruizv@profeco.gob.mx
Thanks, C.Y. good luck – let us know about PROFECO and how they respond
Hi everybody!
Just an information from Sweden – today I´ve got a “final overdue payment reminder”, and this is the second round with this scamers!
…”payment no later than 09.10.2010″ – but today it´s the 18.10.2010.
If I don´t pay the will take “legal steps”.
I´m goning to ignore them even this time, and of cours I won´t pay!
It makes me glad to hear from Silvia, and her comment here is just an evidence that they really are scammers (witch we already knew), but it´s so good to hear from their dirty inside. Thank´s to Silvia!
I know, that next time they will threat me with court…for the second time!
Best wishes
Liisa
Anybody else have similar problems with Temdi.com – VERY SIMILAR to Expo-guide
Any thoughts?
ManyThanks
Hi, everybody. We are a company in Japan.
Last week and this week, ICAA Ltd. called me in 4 times and sent me some e-mails for payment instead of Expo-Guide.
His name is Damian Moldvan, Senior Credit Manager of ICAA Ltd.
According to C.Y dated October 11, 2010, C.Y also received payment request from Wilfred Brown, Senior Credit Manager of ICAA Ltd.
ICAA has a lot of senior credit managers!!!! It is very strange. Next, who is senior credit manager???
Of course, we will not pay it.
Hi,
the last letter from them was “Legal notice” in July. Today we have call, but I didn´t understand who was it, when I told that manager isn´t here, she said she will call later and finished the call.
The number was only zeros and nines (like 000099999).
Does somebody know if this is number of Expo guide ?
THX for answers…
Barb, I don’t know about the numbers – but you can expect Expo Guide to call if they’ve already threatened you with legal notice. Remember, though, it’s all a scam – they can do NOTHING to you legally or otherwise. Let your manager know what’s happened and get your manager to visit this thread (and others via Google search for Expo Guide). When your manager gets that call and they say they’re from Expo Guide or ICAA collections, just hang up.
They’ll stop when they realise that you can’t & won’t be bullied into paying them anything. The sooner you communicate that to them (either in words or by ignoring them) the better.
Either way, do not be afraid. They are powerless over you.
Sam, thanks for your answer and also this website. My manager knows about my mistake and absolutely we will not pay.
Today I recieved a reminder – 4 invoice from Expo Guide!
And I will continue to ignore them and don’t open it.
Nothing happened!
Hi Sam and Mgood,
After sending the Expo-guide scam evidence and the ICAA collect mail(ask to pay within 7days) to Profeco dated Oct. 11. Till today, we got no call or any further threatening mail from ICAA. Hopefully, Profeco does help and have done something against Expo-guide and ICAA. I will keep watching and visit this website if any update to share. Again, thanks everyone here to share info. especially Sam.
C.Y.
After a year of pestering for payment, and a period of ‘quiet’,I thought that Expo Guide had given up on me. Not a chance, new letters are now arriving every month or so, demanding payment for two year’s outstanding invoices, plus interest etc. I saw a solicitor about this last year, and the advice is to ignore it completely, and not worry. I have done this so far, and shall continue to ignore them. Don’t worry if you’ve been caught in this scam, according to legal advice in the UK, they don’t have a leg to stand on.
Hi, we are also a victim of FairGuide fraud. I signed up the contract mistakenly but did not pay them a cent. I received a letter from their legal department stating that we have to pay the amount within 7 days. My question is how do i stop making them sending us letters? I already faxed and emailed them our cancellation letter but they will never reply via email. Can anyone tell me how to make them stop?
Agreed Juliet – good for you. Keep on ignoring them and have a great day
I’m not sure where Fairguide is operating from… But if it comes out of Mexico, use the Profeco organisation to complain. Either way, just ignore their letters. You will only stop getting them when they decide you’re REALLY not going to pay. Let them waste their paper and postage, I say
Hi Guys,
We have been hit by these scammers and have been threatened with legal action after we ignored invoices.
We have written to them and explained that we will not pay as their operation is fraudulent. Unfortunately they have written back stating that we signed ‘to their terms’, bad move as you then start up a dialogue, we will now ignore them totally. I have emailed Profeco to complain and now I await the circus of phone calls and threats…Bring it on!!!
P.S If I had the money I would love to take them to court!!
Nice one Jon. Even if you had the money, you wouldn’t get them anywhere NEAR a court
Let us know about the Profeco approach – my insider contact tells me that (for reasons he didn’t explain) it’s guaranteed to frighten Expo Guide off your case…
Hello everyone
I’ve been hit too. I was so angry with myself last week when the invoice arrived and couldn’t believe I had been so stupid. Then I found this website last night, read many of the comments and other people’s experiences and all the pressure evaporated – thank you to everyone and especially Sam who replies to everyone. Don’t cave in, stand firm and stick together.
Jon, if you want a donation, let me know …
Paul, I’m pleased to hear. That’s why I posted about this in the first place – I realised that I could use this platform to pull together a bunch of peoples’ experiences in a way that over time would serve to reassure others. To hear that it’s relieved all that worry for someone is a pretty good payoff
We also were hit by them two years ago. We decided to let our retained attorneys handle it. I hope Expo Guide people or ICAA people call me. I’ll practice my Spanish and Italian and French with them then hang up. Should be fun.
Just send back the empty envelope as this costs them each time.
Dear Sam,
Thank you so much about your site, my friend also expo guide victim she filled in the form when she had exibition in thailand and after one month they sent her invoice and she’s so scare, your site make us encourage to ignore the payment to them.
Thanks
First at all I would like to thankz ” Sam ” who are open discuss about ex-po guide topic,you make me feel good that i am not alone to do the mistake.Also thankz all of your comment too.as my understand is “no need to pay for them right??”
any suggestion please advise how to do next?
regard
Right cvo – no need to pay them. They can’t – and therefore won’t – take you to any court. Just throw the letters away and hang up on the calls. Also – complain to Profeco (see earlier in comments for details).
Just another letter from “legal department”, and another threat with court! The same as last year at this time.
Probably they will follow the wellknown pattern – one letter more from “legal department” with more court-threatening – then silence half a year, and then – more invoices…!!!
Of course I will not pay these scammers – just ignore them!
I just wonder WHEN will they stop?!!!
Greetings from
Stockholm, Sweden
We have just been contacted by Anna White of ICAA. We have ignored all previous correspondence and fully intend to ignore her too. This forum has been a great help. If we do respond to her emails it will be brief “see you in court then”.
Thank you Sam, you’ve reassured us massively! We too have fallen foul of this scam. We have our 3rd Invoice reminder from European City Guide. Can you please confirm that though this particullar thread doesn’t talk specifically about ECG the advice is the same? Google did link this site as well as stopecg on a search. I have to say that we subscribe to your thoughts that you should treat them with the contempt they deserve.
THANKS AGAIN, ALL YOUR COMMENTS ARE INVALUABLE
Hi to all.
As many of you, I’ve also been scammed to reply the “order”. The bank on the invoices now is UBI Banca, Italy.
I’ve been “a fool” to writte e-mail’s to them after every payment reminder telling them that their invoice has been declained.
Today we received the second overdue payment reminder. I will not respond to any further.
Once I’ve called them, but an answering machine said to call in therir working hours
will not be doing that…
i’ve opened a page on facebook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beware-EXPO-Guide/112153682185319
I would like you guys to send invitations to as many friends as possible, to get those bastards to stop.
thank you,
will be comming back with further info…
best wishes,
Robert
Hi Leigh – yes, as far as I know the advice is the same for ECG (which is an older version of the scam) – although I doubt the Profeco advice would be appropriate since ECG isn’t operating out of Mexico, whereas Expo Guide is. They’re both well-documented scams and worthy of contempt, like you said.
Hi again, forgot to write that I’m from Slovenia
Just to let you know that the scam has hit Australia. Their address is now Slovakia. I have received legal threats and have written to the Fair Trading Offices and Australian Consumer Assocation to advise them of this scam. I am planning to write a registred letter asking them to stop their demands. Just want to check with users whether this is effective or it may encourage them to continue. Appreciate any advice. Thanks.
From where I stand, writing back to them to tell them that you know they’re a con gives a contradictory signal: “I know you’re a con but I’m responding to you like you’re a decent business…” which tells them “I’m scared / bothered / worried”. The result is that they keep hassling you. If you don’t believe me, try it
Here I come back again with an e-mail from Expo-Guide…
“Dear Mr. *****,
in reply to your email received on 25.10.2010, we enclose our mail of 25.08.2010 and a copy of your order 354818 for your review. We also apologize for any inconvenience which was caused by our late response.
To clarify the matter please note that there were two possibilities equally displayed in our promotion, namely to:
• Correct any errors in your free address listing on our website
OR:
• Upgrade to a full sized payable advertisement using the attached order form.
Please note that the cover letter that introduced our offer explained that free and payable options are available, with the pertinent instructions to activate each: “Should you wish to place an order for a payable insertion please use the attached order form. Modifying data free of charge can only be done online.”
The document that was signed and returned serves only to place payable advertisement orders with us. Please review the information in the “order” section directly above the legally binding signature.
A cancellation or immediate termination of your contract is now no longer possible, since the expiration of the stipulated revocation period of ten days has already passed.
We are convinced that the reasons above mentioned clarify the issue extensively, and expect your settlement for the enacted service as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully,
Expo-Guide
Michael Braun
Customer Services
*********************************************
Expo-Guide is a product of
Expo Guide S.C.
Ave Horacio # 340 – 3, Col. Chapultepec Morales
México D.F. 11570, Mexico
info@expo-guide.com
http://www.expo-guide.com
*********************************************
”
hope you guys that only check that before returning that damn form see what wait’s for you if you return it
DON’T RETURN AND DON’T CONTACT THEM IN ANY WAY!!!
Best wishes
Robert
SLOVENIA
here is another one COPY PASTE SCAM : Europe Business Guide
today I got an form to update the data… it’s free of charge but in the real small print there is 990 € / year and the contract is for 3 years.
heh, eware of that folks…
best wishes
Robert
Hi all,
I am also the victims of Expo-guide, and I come from Vietnam.
Recently, I received the First overdue payment reminder from Expo-guide in which they plus the interest for delay payment. This time, the bank is in Slovakia. Of course, I ignore them.
I want to contact with other victims from Vietnam. Is there anyone in the same boat with me?
Almost 3 years ago I mistakenly filled in their form and have had “chasers” for payment regularly. They had stopped for about 6 mths and thenI got a call today from a Debt Collection Agency, demanding payment!
I am delighted to see that I am not alone, although I am concerned! Should I let them take me to court?
John
Yeah. They never will, rest assured.
Hi Sam,
Today I received the Final overdue payment reminder from Expo-guide and they said that they will “take the legal steps after 14 days”. As your suggestion, I ignore them. What will be their next step?
Hi DTH. No, they won’t (can’t) take any legal action against you. But they will pretend they can – and they’ll send you letters & calls from people pretending to be debt collectors who will repeatedly threaten you with court recovery action in your country… etc etc. It is ALL BLUFF to bully you into paying. It is successful in around 3 – 5% of the time – which means hundreds of thousands of euro profit for them for just writing letters, using the phone and threatening people like you.
Ignore!
We have experienced an interesting twist on this that takes it from scam to fraud. I just received a letter from the International Credit Agency demanding payment for the Expo Guide listing. However, the agreement was executed three months prior to my purchase of the magazine that was listed in Expo Guide. Since they must not have gotten any satisfaction from the original owner of the publication, they added my company name to the agreement and are now approaching me. The addition of our company name is clearly tampering with the original agreement. I’m not going to bother to address this as that would simply open the door to additional harassment by them.
I am from Hong Kong and same as the others I signed the contract (or Order Form) to Expo Guide mistakenly.
Yesterday, I got a phone call from ICAA and, believe or not, I talked to this Josef guy for 1.5 hour to explain to him what had happened. (BTW, I also got the company registration certificate of EXPO-GUIDE in Mexico!)
I find myself so stupid and I believe this is a good lesson for me to read all the small words before I sign up a contract.
Thank God, I was advised by my friend about this website and I am really relieved now.
I sent them an email with the cancellation letter and told them that I had file a case to stopecg.org.
Thank you Sam!
I am from Thailand. I am also a victim. It is not from the Expo guide but the Euco Data S.A., from Switzerland. I recevied a letter from them and saying somekind like to correct my company’s information with free listing in the directory. Afterward, I received the invoices by letters and by faxes since from 2005 until now. I’d never ever answered back at all. I think it is a fraud and I won’t pay for such a thing. And just now today I received a letter that saying they have legal proceeding against me!..
I think they both are the same group. I also received a letter from the Expo guide but I experienced it so I ignored it. I knew it right away that it is a fraud since I had received the invoice and there must be a huge of people were trapped! I wonder why The Switzerland government don’t do anything with this people!
Hi Mai – thanks for that. It seems that ‘Euco Data SA’ is another version of this scam – perhaps an older one than Expo Guide. There’s some information here http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/stopecg/petition.htm – you’re right they’re probably connected. Glad to hear you knew it was fraudulent – just throw it away and remember that your comment here will help someone else to NOT pay and NOT be bullied. Thank you!
Good to hear more people finding this information reassuring. Thanks to everyone who has take the time to comment and help others to realise they’re not alone, and that NOTHING BAD happens to them when they don’t pay these scammers. Spread the word.
Sam, is there anyway that we can spread this information worldwide?
Since I am in HK and I travel a lot to other Asian countries, such as China and India. As Asians, it is always shameful to tell the others about the mistake we made and we don’t have much experience in this kind of fraud. So it is difficult for us to seek the assistance from the others. In some cases (definitely more than Western countries), we just pay it. This definitely help the growth of such companies.
If the governments can’t stop this fraud, it is necessary for us to let the world know not to fall into the trap!
I’m absolutely godsmacked for the amount of posting with regards to expoguide.
We also fell victim to Expoguide and signed “in error”. we wrote to them a few times to say they were “misleading”. A few months later they said they never received our first letter and that it was clear it was not misleading and clearly indicately it is legally binded. I refuse to pay them but I’m also anxious. imagine someone chasing u over £1000 that worths nothing. this is robbery. but should we stop engaging with them? I do not want them to keep hassling me. We have been receiving regular letters (about once a month) from them since May 2010.
JH – that’s a really good point you’re making. I wonder what the scale of the problem is in China, India, Malaysia… I wish I could do more but getting these comments to the top of Google for a search on ‘Expo Guide’ is about as much as I can do. Of course, the problem with that is people only find these comments AFTER they’ve been scammed. What we really need is someone in mainstream business media (business newspapers, TV, radio) picking this up.
Anybody have any connections / ideas?
(Goes off to LinkedIn to see if there’s anyone out there who can help..)
Hi Angela – you’re going to just have to get used to them writing / phoning.
Don’t be anxious – they can’t do ANYTHING to you.
But also don’t expect them to stop harassing you because by writing to them, you qualified yourself for more pressure. It’s a simple psychology – but it works for something like 3% – 5% of people, and that’s a lot of money.
Hey everyone,
A little up-date on our situation, my last post was in July 21, 2010 shortly after receiving the first invoice. We have also been receiving the invoices each month, most recently labeled from the legal department. I’ve been following the most “ancient” posts, notably from Liisa in Stockholm and John Morton who are in the 3d year now, please do keep us posted on how things evolve!
We throw their enveloppes to the trash but it’s the calling I apprehend a little. The posts that mention phone calls seem to suggest that their calling strategy is less agressive than the mailing strategy (more expensive?), because there are much more posts about invoices than phone calls.
I sent 2 e-mails to PROFECO but the enveloppes are still coming in as of today
I’ll keep you guys posted
Frank
Hi I am from Hong Kong. I signed the scam “order” in 2008, and keep ignore the “warning” from them. until today, a so-called respresentative of expo-guide, icaay company email me, hope me to settle US$3477.31 immediately.
I still good, and no one arrest me, just keep receiving the distributing letter or email some often. Just ignore them, and relax.
As my boss said, if they really want to sue you, they should send you the warning letter to you by registered post, to make sure you receive it, not just send the email or general post.
I have no feeling now to this threatening, they are better to sue me, I will publish this incident to the mass media.
Don’t pay and ignore all email or post, that’s my choice!!!
Good choice, Timothy
Still no evidence that Expo Guide has ever taken anyone to court. I think we’ll be waiting a long, long time 
Hi Everyone,
I too get letters from Expo Guide, the most recent being a ‘Demand for Payment’ from their so called Legal department. The twist for me is that no employee in my company has signed the form (I know this is true becuase I am the only employee). The form was sent to our old premises where the address information was corrected and the form returned in good faith to Expo Guide by my ex-business partner, who is not a ‘legally binding signatory’ for my company as he is neither an employee, shareholder or Director.
So now I get to receive invoices and demands from these people who believe they have a ‘legally binding signature’ of a person authorised to make contractual committments on behalf of my company. The joke is that they do not have any contract that will stand up in any court in the UK or Europe.
I am looking forwarrd to receiving more letters from them and optimistically I will also get phone calls so that I can utilise my language skills and tell them to f**k off in multiple languages.
I have no intention of paying these scammers.
We are a relatively new victim in the US. Salesperson was contacted at a convention, received the standard mailing and sent it in. We’ve received our initial demand letter, responded (hadn’t found this website at the time), received a reply, responded with a final notice from our side, and today received their second reply.
They are using “Slovakian law” in their bid against us. I told them that under any law they did not have a valid contract with us since they obtained a non-legally binding signature. They come up with a child’s excuse as to why it is still a valid contract.
We pretty much nailed these guys to the wall with our final response, making sure that they understood that we were aware of our rights under Slovakian law and that they weren’t going to get anywhere. They are still pursuing it. I wanted to share that with everyone out there so people know that there is no magic answer that will convince them to go away. Even when you throw the foreign law garbage back at them, they will still claim that they have a valid contract. You can’t win by talking with them. The only thing you can do is ignore them. That is what we are doing from this point forward.
I will also try to return and provide updates as the months/years go by. I am interested to hear if anyone has eventually stopped hearing from them. I have some ideas on how to do this, and will report back if I feel any worked. Stay strong everyone.
Our company signed a form in May 2008. We exhibit at about 30 tradeshows per year and accustomed to having a continuous flow of free directory listings. This proves how deceptive these deviants are with their wording. In September 2008, I started receiving invoices, which lasted through March 2009. The invoices started again in September 2009 and ended in March 2010.
In July 2010, ICAA called, I told them I had no interest in paying. Surprisingly, the lady was pleasant. Also received a couple of emails from them. In September 2010, they contacted our COO, who then pulled me onto the red carpet to express his concern with my judgments, or general lacking of. Thankfully, this website exists, which I used to explain the details of the scam. He then was satisfied in how I was handling. In December 2010, a lady tried to call me several times, finally she just left a message, saying they would be willing to reduce the amount. She also sent an email saying the same. I could sense the frustration and general, “just going through the motions” in her voicemail. I ignored both communications.
At first, at Oct. 2008, I was scared, angry at them, mad at myself for my perceived stupidity, but after while, and especially after 2 1/2 years, I view them with no more regard than your run-of-the-mill telemarketers. Sam and mu:kaumedia thank you for your great service in keeping masses informed about these scammers. For those just now being introduced to this scam, feel good knowing that they’re wasting their time and resources in trying to contact you. Don’t worry and don’t pay. Together, we’ll defeat these scoundrels.
Tom, great to hear your story – many thanks for taking the time and going into detail. Your effort will benefit many others who will arrive here full of the same worries as you had. You guys commenting provide the reassurance; I provide the Google visibility so others can find your stories when they most need to – I.e when those bullying demands start arriving.
Great teamwork – thanks EVERYONE
Thanks Frank. Interested to hear if Profeco does anything. My ‘insider’ told me that the only cases he ever dropped were those that Profecco followed up. I don’t have any more information than that. In one sense it’s a bit irrelevant since the only weak point is you: this scam depends on you caving in and paying because you BELIEVE they have some power (which they don’t).
I can’t stress this point enough: you don’t need to waste time worrying about writing letters, reporting to authorities and so on because none of that us likely to stop them. All you need to do is ignore them as much as you can and get on with your lives.
Remember, since you filled in the form they WILL harass you. There’s no getting away from that. Apart from harass you and hope you give in, there’s absolutely nothing they can do. The problem is that this approach is clearly successful enough for them to keep on doing it.
Just got an email from my Italian friend. He had got an email on Dec 12 from “Europe Business Guide”!
It is same as the Expo Guide. With a form to lure you filling in and very small characters at the end of the form to tell you it is an order form!
They just change from one name to another. Be careful!
For sure, thanks, JH. I’ve posted about ‘Europe Business Guide’ too – so anyone searching for that should end up here too.
Thanks Sam for this website.
I have a french association and, being every year a part of the angouleme international Bandes dessinées festival, I received this lettre from expo-guide and took onlythis year the time to answer to correct my “entry”.
I received their first claim yesterday, talk on the phone to a guy, saying to him he can still hope I’ll pay him if he believes in miracle. I did not really worry but seing this page, I do not worry at all. I’ll speak about this to other people at the festival.
All mails and e-mails coming from expo-guide will now directly go where they belong:to the trash!
Happy new year to you
Year two, and yet more invoices are arriving on my desk every couple of months from ‘Expo Guide’. If you are someone who is worried about getting these, and having to pay large amounts of money, then please do as I do and bin the bills. Don’t respond after your initial letter, and don’t talk to them on the ‘phone. Just ignore the whole business, legally they can’t do anything! Most of all, DON”T WORRY, and don’t pay them a penny.
Received my first letter from Expo Guide today – a “first overdue payment reminder”. No one in my very small company recalls signing a form to list with EG, and we have acute memories for this sort of thing. Yet my company has a listing on their website with an entry to show we will be exhibiting at a 2011 show – a show that we attended once in the past, but had no intention of returning to. It’s a false listing.
I wanted to check out the http://stopecg.org website but it is down. Any news on this? Any further advice?
You’re right – it is down..
You can go to the blog http://stopecg.blogspot.com/
Based on the experiences of everyone posting in this and other threads, the advice has to be: DON’T PAY, DON’T RESPOND and most importantly, DON’T WORRY – they can’t and won’t do anything to make you pay.
Hear, hear! And HAppy New Year
….just to inform you, and just, as I thought – I´ve got a “Legal notice” from Expo Guide the 2nd of dec.
It it similar as in dec 2009 – Legal notice from their “Legal department”, and then silence half a year. I know there will be a new invoice in june 2011 and so on…!
I still haven´t got any phonecalls.
I whish you (and me) luck and don´t worry, and DON´T PAY!!!
Happy new year-greatings from
Liisa in Stockholm
Happy new year to you, Liisa – as always good to hear from you. What? Not in prison yet for refusing to pay Expo Guide???
Folks, follow Liisa’s example!
I received a Legal Notice today (18th January 2011) dated 27th December 2010. Apparently my customer account has been scheduled for a court recovery procedure in Great Britain. Great Britain is underlined. The letter tells me I have seven days to pay or we go to court. As the letter arrived fifteen days after the seven days was up, then I guess it’s time for court. Looking forward to it.
The letter doesn’t mention which court is hearing the case, so it’s a failure on the part of the scammers. Also Great Britain does not have one single court that covers its entirety. UK law is split into divisions (e.g English law and Scottish law), so there is no Great Britain law.
Maybe we should all invoice the scammers for timewasting and then really sue them for non-payment.
Hi Bob. Just put it aside, ignore and get on having a good life. That’s the way to win.
Hi there I just got the same letter as Bob above saying that My customer account has been scheduled for a Court recovery procedure in Great Britain…I have also decided to ignore this letter and all the letters. i sued to get really upset and worried when i got these letters i have had about 6 so far since May 2010 but i am not going to worry any more about it. Thanks for your website!
Hi Bob & Zakee
If you scroll back far enough you will see that I had the same problem in Hong Kong and spoke to a Mexican lawyer. For them to get a case to court in the UK (Scotland or England & Wales) they first have to get it through a Mexican court. They, despite the general view of Mexico we may have overseas, would not pass it, but if they did it then has to get past the Mexican government. They need to raise it with the British Government before it can get to a UK court, where laws like the Unfair Terms Act would come into play. And you get your right to say something. We also all know this would not get past a UK judge.
We are now getting phone calls from Cypress. They will be fun to deal with.
Hi Tony – hope you’re well, thanks for visiting again. As you can see, still no evidence of anyone having ever been taken to court… anywhere.
I can tell you it’s 100% prime scam – designed to bully people and cash in on their fear. But you and I both know that. Sadly, some of the bruised folk coming here still (understandably perhaps) hang on to the fear that somehow these people can actually DO something to them. They can’t. Good luck talking to Cyprus. Did you notice my insider source who said that 3-5% of ‘cases’ given to the ‘debt collectors’ (just people employed by the scammers) cave in and pay 1 yr just to be free of the bullying? That’s a f88888 of a lot of money when you consider the tens of millions of forms mailed worldwide and the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people hooked in to the first level of ‘qualification’ (as I call it).
We are also victims of this scam, what frustrates me most is the constant phone calls demanding payment. I wish we change our phone number just to get rid of this mennace.
Hi Jenny. This scam aims to make you feel worse and worse, to the point that you’re willing to pay them 1 year to make the bad feelings stop. It’s very simple. They don’t care what those bad feelings are, btw. Usually it’s fear (“what if they take me to court?”); quite often it’s shame or embarassment (“what if my boss finds out how stupid I’ve been?”). However, to them, frustration is good too (“I just need those calls, faxes and emails to STOP!”).
That’s how it works.
First rule of beating them is don’t let them dictate how you feel.
Read all the comments here. The fact that no-one has ever been taken to court should diminish your fear. The fact that it’s a deliberate scam and you’re like millions of other good people who have been deliberately misled should go some way to lessening your shame or embarassment.
Finally, acceptance that – since you filled in the form in the first place – there’s nothing you can do to stop their attempts. The reason they are calling is because they smell fear, shame or frustration / anger. To them, it’s the scent of blood.
Be strong!
In response to Expo Guide’s threats of pulling us to court, I sent the following letter to their bank in Slovakia (Privatbanka):
“Sir / Madam
Please be aware that one of your customers: Expo Guide, S.C. Mexico is involved in fraudulent activities by sending out false contracts and invoices with you as banking associate.
Please see enclosed example.
Assisting this activity might infringe EU regulations and should be carefully considered by you.
Best regards”
The result arrived to day, a letter from Expo Guide threatening to bring me to court if “they should feel the need to do so”
And that they have closed our file “as we are not interested in any further business relation with us”
Perhaps the bank has closed the connection to “Mexico”?
Dear all,
Expo Guide is also bothering us. I read that we needed to contact Procuraduria Federal Del Consumidor. And so we did. We send them an e-mail about 1,5 month ago.
But we didn’t get a reply, what to do?
Because we understood that we need to be sure first that we are listed by/represeted by Procuraduria Federal Del Consumidor before we can write this to Expo-Guide.
Maybe the answer is already somewhere above, sorry, in that case, but I overlooked.
Hope to hear from anyone. Thanks
Seems, there has been no comments on this topic for some time. I became a victim last summer, receiving invoice in fall for 1.181EUR. Stupidly I did not searched Google. I did not sign by full name and did not stamped either, just made a quick jut down. Moreover, the name listed is just a brand with no legal entity. Do I have to worry? What is a current stage of the legal process? Thanks. P.
hi, We also have a demand for payment and legal notice. I have contacted on several occasions and the sleepless nights don’t help as our company does not have this amount of money to spend so I will certainly not pay them, reading all the above has helped but does not help that they continue to send in letters. I have tried calling them to no avail. what should we do next
Hi Nicola. You’re right – all of the above won’t stop them sending letters, or even calling. That – I’m afraid – is the price for falling into their trap. What you can, and should do, is put out of your mind any fear. This is a scam; cannot, will not take you to any court. There. Forget that bit.
Now, you just have to choose to live without fear of their stupid letters and calls. Treat them with the contempt they deserve – but DO NOT engage in dialogue. That communicates one thing and one thing only: that you’re afraid. The fact that you say you’ve tried to call them tells me you’re still scared. They feed off that – it ‘qualifies’ you for increased bullying because they think they’re one step closer to extorting payment from you (they’re usually right in that assumption, btw).
Take heart. NOTHING HAPPENS TO PEOPLE WHO DON’T PAY!
Mmm. Patrick, there’s been ENDLESS comments about this recently.. .lols. All the advice is here in the comments – please take time to read some if you’re worried.
To summarise:
DON’T PAY / DON’T CONTACT / DON’T WORRY / ENJOY LIFE
Hi Anne.
The answer IS somewhere above (I’ve said it dozens of times in the comments). Maybe it’s time I write it at the top of the post?
Don’t make contact with Expo Guide. Don’t pay them. Don’t take calls and ignore letters. Don’t spend money on lawyers. You don’t need to. EG are scammers and have never taken anyone to court.
Thanks for putting this together Sam. For the last 15 years, I have been receiving these notices. Last year I mailed the envelope back with a “nice note”…I have yet to get one of their letters this year. : )
Maybe if they know you are going to cost them money, they will get you out of their mailing list.
Angel
Hello Sam,
Everytime I came here and read the update articles, and found how you’ve been patient to listen and write back the comments and encourage we victims. Indeed, I do sleep well now without fear on Expo Guide scam which had been the nightmare to me also in last 2 years(since I signed the stupid form back by Jan. 2009.) So, thanks again Sam.
To Anne(Feb. 2), just like Sam said, I think you shall not worry about the reply from Profeco, we’ve sent our case to them last mid. Oct. and we got nothing back yet also. And the good thing is nothing further threatening call or letter from ICAA and Expo-Guide. So you’ve done you should do, just keep ignoring expo-guide and enjoy your life.
C.Y.
Great advice CY
I did the stupid thing and got the e-mail from ICAA (EXPO-Guide),
after reading above, all of I have to do is nothing and enjoy my life, is it correct ?
Cathy, the #1 thing you have to do is to STOP FEELING STUPID. That’s half of the Expo Guide’s power over you to begin with. You were deceived by someone who deliberately set out to deceive you. That doesn’t make you stupid, it makes you at worst careless.
Once you’ve stopped feeling stupid, THEN yes, do nothing and enjoy your life
Thanks Sam and C.Y for your replies. As mentioned I send my case-details to Procuraduria Federal Del Consumidor and that’s it. Luckily I haven’t heard from EG either, so I won’t bother. Just wanted some reassurence I guess…
Cheers
Hang in there Anne. Nothing bad will happen – unless you send them your hard-earned money!
Has anyone put “187a Leontiou Street Limassol cyprus” into Google maps? It says this address is St Barnabas Anglican Church Archiepiskopou Leontiou A, Limassol, Cyprus, and is opposite the Limassol traffic police.
Thanks Sam for the sterling work.
We are now getting the phone calls, both to our office in Hong Kong and to the office in China. ICAA seem to be looking for the weak link, someone who will mistakenly pay them.
Also If you do go to the Expo-guide web site and try to use the FREE corection option, it seems VERY easy to change someone else’s data. I have not done this. But all you need is their customer number (one close to your own) and the email address of the company that comes up, which is continently displayed on the screen for you. ***BUT to actually enter the data and login as them is a criminal offence in most countries. In the UK, under the Computer Misuse Act, you are liable to a fine and 2 years in prison for logging on as someone you are not.*** So don’t try it!
But the lack of security seems another example of the scam’ers having no interest in protecting the data.
Another good move would to look at the header information of any emails to see just where they are comming from. Bet it is not Cyprus or Mexico.
We are about to send off a complaint to Mexico to see what happens.
Keep up the good work.
Tony
Hah hah. Now why oh why am I not surprised, Tony?
You’re absolutely right – ICAA are looking for the ‘weak link’ i.e. someone they can bully into paying them,
Tony, you could join my LinkedIn ‘Stop Expo Guide’ group if you’re on LI – and invite people in your network in HK to join too. Keep in touch!
Hello Sam,
I am so happy that finally I have search in Google and found you.
We are a company from Cyprus. Also we are receiving a lot of letters, and from legal department that we have to pay.
It says on the letter “demand for payment”
Why you suggest us to do? Shall we ignore them as we do for a year now?
Hi Georgia
Yes – ignore them. Expo Guide only make money by frightening people into paying something. Without your fear, they can achieve nothing. So ignore them – and wait for a real, legal court summons. The good news is you’ll be waiting a long, long time.
Hi Sam and all –
Like most, I am the most recent victim of this lovely fraud. I’m here in the US and just starting to receive their requests for payment and bullying. I’ve downloaded the information from stopecg.org and will start the letters.
One question though – is it really necessary to spend valuable time writing and sending all of these letters, or can I just completely ignore Expo Guide?
Thank you, sincerely, for having stayed on top of this for several years. You have no idea how nice it is to be able to read your feedback and help.
Sincerely,
frederique
I also signed the document. Sigh. Thanks for the article and everyone’s comments. Clearly, this is a dog that barks but doesn’t bite, so I will just ignore them!
I was suckered too. I can’t tell you how many threatening letters I have received from those assholes. I send one letter back to them with a big “Fuck Off” in black marker. That got them hopping mad and caused an even more vile and threatening letter to come afterwards so my advise is to ignore them… Don’t even open the envelopes.
Hi,
I signed the form last year and have received several letters and invoices and today the final demand. I have spoken to people who are 6 months ahead of me and although like all these comments so far noone has been taken to court.
My worry is I consulted our solicitor who is advising to pay, is this right?
HAS ANYONE BEEN TAKEN TO COURT??
Please advise,
Thanks.
Advice: No, nobody has ever been taken to court.
Reason: No court would hear a claim from a known scam organisation.
It’s quite simple.
Hi Fiona.
Anger is an emotional response which is a cover for fear. Fear is just what Expo Guide like to see because it tells them they’re one step closer to getting money off you. All you do is tell them you’re worth concentrating their bullying efforts on, sadly.
That’s why I recommend ignoring them completely.
Well after nearly a year of hearing nothing after being told that this was absolutely utterly and definitely my final chance to pay and that court action was being prepared that very moment they’ve started again.
They can’t count every well as they’re telling me this is my second reminder. It’s probably about the 10th but who cares. Every letter they send costs them and will be ignored just like all the others.
In a perverse sort of way I’m hoping they do phone as it will give me the chance to tell them in graphic detail where they can stick their attempts to scam the charity for disadvantaged children I work for.
Tanya, I’m a bit concerned your solicitor is suggesting you pay. I used to work as a solicitor (although as a criminal lawyer so no expert in this field) and researched a bit under the Misrepresentation Act 1967 and the relevant common law. I would be surprised if any lawyer looking into it thought that it was a legitimate contract
As has been said countless times there is no caselaw around Expo because they have not actually taken anyone to court. If they did and were (as I think is pretty likely) unsuccessful it would set a precedent that means anyone looking into it would have cast iron reasons not to pay them.
Oh and to anyone who feels stupid because they signed. I’m supposed to be a lawyer and i still signed! I promise you’re feeling way less stupid than me!
Gareth, I just approved a comment on my post about ICAA (the ‘debt collection’ front that Expo Guide uses to bully people from Cyprus)
http://www.mukaumedia.co.uk/international-credit-assessment-agency-icaa-cyprus/#comment-7484
That’s the kind of people you’re dealing with.
Dear Mr Deeks,
I thing that we are the most recent victims of this scam in Heraklion Grete,Greece.A week now my fiancέ can’t sleep (and blame himself)because of this letter that received from Expo-Guide.He run his business by himself and he can’t afford to pay the 1181 Euros that they ask.I told him to ignore this letter but he afraid that in some years from now they will ask him a fortune to pay.
From the first day i find your post (i am very glad that you exist and thank you for that)and i told him that thousand of people are trapped in the same scam.
Please tell us how to handle this very very bad situation.
I will appreciate to sent us your advice as soon as possible in order to have a peaceful sleep for the rest years!!!
Thank you very much for your time reading and replying to this post!!!
Hi Roula
Please take your time to read all of the comments on this post (there are a LOT!) – it’s worth it. You’ll see that NOBODY reports ever being taken to court EVER by any of these scams.
Tell your fiance not to worry
These people WILL continue to harass you. FACT. The will threaten and bully you. FACT. But there’s nothing they can do.
Sam
Dear Sam
As many others have said, ‘Thank you’ for this site [and all the others who have commented]. I too signed this back in early 2009 and then received the ‘Invoice’ and then felt the usual initial worry, shame etc. Then I found this post and just added myself to the many thousands who have also been caught – I’m a member of a few clubs but only one like this!
Yes, I get the letters – Final Demand, Debt Collectors, Court Action etc. – which always take longer to arrive than the deadline – quite amusing really [I sometimes open them just to see what bank they are using now!] then take great delight in watching it go through the shredder, actually makes quite good compost!
I have had a couple of phone calls [first one 4 months ago] sorry but cannot remember who he said he was from, was a London telephone number. I let them say their bit then very politely and calmly asked him to send any correspondence in writing. Never had any, surprise!
(Just for others information, our company, on occasions, has had to use Debt Collection services [we use a very reputable UK company] and they contact our clients within 2-3 days of notice by special delivery)
SO FOR ANYONE WORRIED….
A: Don’t be, as mentioned by Sam and many others it is a scam.
B: I have NEVER had any letters, emails following up on Legal/Court Action; it’s all just hot air.
C: Still get the odd letter or call, I still do exactly as I mention above.
D: IGNORE THEM, DON’T BOTHER WRITING. BIN THE LETTERS; BE POLITE IF YOU GET A CALL, DO NOT PAY, LET THEM WASTE THEIR MONEY ON POSTAGE.
………………. ENJOY LIFE AND SLEEP VERY WELL …………
One last point is that Expo has actually done me a favour in that I now READ everything fully – thanks for the lesson!
Amen to that, Andrew
I’m really glad I found you and that website ! I’s good that we can share expirience. We are form Poland and also cought by Expo-Guide in 2008. They wrote to us many letters, we keep all corespondence but we don’t reac at their threats. We have only send one letter, an example from stopecg.org site. Form Monday some lady from ICAA called and said that if we won’t pay they will take us to court. I found what ICAA is and I told her to go to hell. I also opened polish site about that bastard, stopscam.blox.pl and there I will put all information I get.
Greetings to you all
I have also received this invoice. Unfortunately i had also signed on the letter. Although i know that this is a scam but mu query is simple,
1) Should i write to them informing that thay have missold the info or just ignore them ?
Regards,
Ahmed
Think of it this way, Ahmed:
A: If you DO, they’ll know that you’re at the address they hold for you, they’ll know that you received their demand and they’ll know that you’re either worried or angry (both are good news for them). This means you can expect increased bullying.
B: If you DON’T, they’ll probably still continue writing to you and/or calling anyway.
I suspect that A is more likely to result in you paying them something than B, so I’d advise B every time.
I hope that helps.
encourage them to keep sending mail think of all the postal workers ithelps to keep employed if only they would use soft tissue we could their letters make good use off ??
SAM: Thanks for clearing my mind. Would definitely go for B now:)
Good move, Ahmed.
Hope all goes well
We too were conned by these muppets. I phoned them in Mexico and asked to speak to the owner of the company. They said they didnt know if he was in. I told them to turn around and look around as the office is only one room (according to the google map address). She felt very uncomfortable on the phone so I smelled a rat bigtime.
Our finance guy wrote to them and asked for a reduction if we settled immediately and they agreed immediately by reducing 50% of the bill. That was another signal to me that these guys are farting about. I am looking forward to seeing their legal letters and having a bit of fun with them. I will never pay these guys…..
If charged I would gladly go to court as they would be thrown out by any reasonable court. Judging by the look of their office they will not be hiring high class legal teams in Europe to try and get a few grand from me….
Good Work Sam. Delighted to see what you have done in EXPOsing EXPO GUIDE.
Joe
The Expo Giude wrote us and sent invoices since 2008. But we didn’t answer. Today I had a call with a “Senior Credit Manager” of ICAA. As I didn’t know what this man wants, he sent me all papers by fax. In the letter he offers me to pay only the half of 3543 Euros. It will be good for both sides.
He will phone me again tomorrow. I’ll say to him that the lawyer of our profession organisation is looking into the matter. Nothing more.
“It will be good for both side” lols. It will be good for them. That’s the game – bully you until you give in an ‘settle’. Tommy, just ignore them. They’ll get the message.
Joe – you’re welcome.
Folks, read Joe’s story – it confirms what I’ve been saying all along: the routine is that these people bully you until you either pay in full or they sense that you’re so distressed that you’d be relieved to “settle” for, oooh – let’s say “only” €1,000 of the €3,000.
Thanks for the new LinkedIn Group title, Joe (cheque’s in the post)
“EXPOse EXPO GUIDE!!”
…aaaand guess what, they are recruiting again here in Mexico, with a nice pay of course. No names or anything in the ad, just the approximate location (Polanco area) but I know it’s them, no doubt about it (same type of ad again, same languages English/French, more or less the same pay etc.)
I saw someone contacted Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor here in Mexico and got no response, let’s say I’m not surprised. Me thinks it’s won’t help at all and they’ll just ignore this company, I suppose someone here should file a complaint and demonstrate that there has been a fraud and if they’re not doing anything illegal here, Profeco won’t lift a finger.
I am even more confident that they cannot do anything.
Hi all,
Just to keep this ticking over and to help others who have not read all of the above comments.
A member of staff here signed this form back in Oct 10, of which I became aware a couple weeks back when they took a settlement notice (1 years fee’s) to me and asked me to pay it (they had written 10 or so times saying we didn’t want this service). Thankfully I had a quick google and found a few helpful sites.
I wrote them the letter detailed below (anyone feel free to use it as a template). While I know this is 100% scam and I could just ignore them, I wanted to write to them to fully outline my position. I suppose in a way, I also hope they will keep trying to get money for me, as they will only be wasting their time/money.
For anyone in the UK, i also contacted my local Trading Standards. They called back yesterday and, while they cannot advise us 100% what do to, they did say they believe it was a scam and not to pay.
And lastly, a big thumbs up to all who have contributed to this page, and to Sam especially. Hopefully we have helped stop the flow of money to these disgraceful people.
Re Invoice xxxxxx, Dated 04/10/2010
Thank you for the invoice that you sent me on the 04/10/2010 regarding my entry in your online catalogue at http://www.expo-guide.com.
As per all our earlier correspondence, after reviewing the paperwork, we believe that we have been mis-sold this directory subscription because of the way the introductory letter and sign-up forms were laid out and presented. On your introductory letter you clearly state “Upon receipt of these modifications, your free listing will be activated”. The sign up form also laid out in such a manner that it appears to be only for confirming company details rather than signing up to 3 years of paid advertising. The payment terms stating EUR 1181 per year is hidden away in very small print among a large paragraph of text, making it difficult to ascertain that we were signing up to a paid service which we did not want nor require. Due to these facts, we feel that the sign up form is at best misleading, and at worst fraud.
If you do wish to contest this further, I would also like to point out the following. On the sign up form, among the large paragraph of text you state “The first invoice is issued once your full sized insertion has been created and published on the website”. As we stated in one of our many letters to yourselves, this one dated 9th of Feb 2011, the link you provided to our ‘advertisement’ was not active, despite the fact we received your first invoice dated 4th Oct 2010. Hence, if you do not feel that the initial sign up form is misleading, you have clearly broken your own terms stated and therefore nullified any agreement you believe we have entered into.
In light of what I have detailed above, we have reported your activity to Trading Standards who are aware of your scam, and we will not be paying any invoices associated with this deception.
Should you wish to pursue this further, please do so for our legal records by written correspondence only to the above address.
Yours faithfully
Hi Callum, thanks for the comment.
These people (like all crooks and scammers) couldn’t give a flying —- for Trading Standards, Interpol or Good Lord Jesus Christ himself for that matter. Your reply only tells them one thing: that you’re bothered enough to write back to them. And THAT’s exactly what they want.
All I can say is just ignore them. Hang up their calls, throw out their letters and get on with your life
Best of luck
Does Profeco exists? They don’t answer my ask to stop the stupid Expo Guide to ask us money….I think they should give follow up requests to customers… they simple ignore customers…
I wrote to Profeco by January 2011, and tried to call them several times to try get answer…. NO WAY… IMPOSSIBLE…
Expo Guide would be legally excluded from internet and business world relation,,, by penalties, prison, I don’t know, but this lack of law is giving space to this,,,, Mexico Governament must have this like priority and honour…. This would be the way to stop expoguide, and others that could appear…. Law to they!!!!!!!!
Hi Sam,
While I cannot argue with that logic, as I know 100% I will never give them a penny, any time they spend wasted on me is time they could have spent on someone else who may unfortunately fall for their scam, which can be no bad thing
What a great afternoon I’ve had! My wife, also the company FD was getting increasing concerned about this demand looming over us. Then she sent me a link to this page. Ha! I’m not an isolated idiot after all. To be honest I don’t even remember doing it but then the letters started arriving and as soon as I saw Mexico as the office address I knew I’d been suckered. So my plan was to brazen it out, but the last thing anyone needs these days is a CCJ so my good lady was flapping big time.
This page is as good as a weekend in a spa hotel for easing away the tensions.
Nicely put AK! Comments like yours make my efforts worthwhile.
Greetings from Istanbul!
There are 2 popular dcam companies Construct Data ( Fairguide )from AUSTRIA (http://www.fairguide.com) and Expoguide from Mexico (http://www.expo-guide.com).
These companies send you emails during exhibition times, asking for update of your company details and most probably all of us correct and sign the document thinking that it is related to some connection related to the Exhibiton you attend or visited.
Later they send you invoices, reminders, legal notices, etc.. mostly on same paper with different subject names .
SOLUTION : Istanbul Center of Commerce announced for years that
1) DONOT REPLY THEM
2) DONOT PAY THEM
Expo Guide caught me up on September 2009 and their last letter arrived on March 2011.I didint reply, I didnot pay. I only applied to the Exhibition Organization to inform all applicants against expo guide.
IStanbul chamber of Commerce does the same towards its members at certain times and keeps on their website the same advise.
BE RELAXED. DO NOT PANIC. DO NOT REPLY or PAY.
Gul – excellent advice, not just for Turkey but for people everywhere. THose are just TWO of the many – but they’re all doing the same: deliberately setting out to con people.
We are in business 26 years but something like this never happened to us. We received the e mail from this company assuming the registration was free but within 6 days we discovered our error and wrote to them to cancel our subscription, (we were allowed 7 days to cancel). They claimed they haven’t received our e mail…
Yesterday I called the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce and was told that the Business Registration Number this company has on its invoices and the P.O.Box address in Holland DO NOT exist. They advised me NOT TO PAY & IGNORE THEM. Our Attorney also said we should just ignore them and this is what we did.
Hi Elisha, sorry to hear you got hooked into this but glad to hear you plan to ignore them from here on in.
Dear Sam,
How do you know so much about these criminals? When did you become involved in this? The problem is that they have numerous companies around the world. This is a scam of enormous proportion. I have the backing of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce and our corporate attorney.
Thank you for all you do.
Elisha.
Elisha – you’re right, this is a scam of enormous proportions.
I only know about them because a couple of years ago I received an email with the dodgy pdf attached. At the time I was blogging quite frequently about the lack of value offered by even the legitimate online directories (TouchLocal, The BestOf). I have a lot of experience in online research so tend not to be caught out by these kinds of scams.
I did some research into these scams and came across Jules Woodell’s excellent ‘StopECG.org’ site. I quickly worked out the scale of these scams (and the sums of money involved) as well as the simple psychology behind them. Then, it struck me that the scammers weren’t very good at using Google. This meant that with a minimum of effort, I could throw posts about ‘Expo Guide’ to the top of Google – where worried people could make up their own minds. And helping them to do that would be the growing list of comments from other ‘victims’ who had been scammed but refused to pay.
This scam depends on decent, law-abiding businesses generally being too afraid / cautious to treat these people as the scammers they are – which is why their bullying works so well (approx 5% of people pay).
After I posted, people started arriving and sharing their stories. Did anyone ever report being actually taken to any court by any of these scammers? No, of course not. Despite repeatedly asking for people to share that experience, no-one ever has – which, hopefully, reassures others in turn.
In over two years of publishing comments, I’ve had SO many people thanking me for putting this thread online and for saving them thousands of pounds / euros and – more importantly – for relieving the terrible worry these scams create. Call me a softy, but it feels good to be able to do that for people I’ve never met.
In the same period of time, only 2 (yes, two) people have objected to what I’ve done here. One appeared to be threatening my safety in broken English and the other, more recently, suggested that I must have some kind of dodgy agenda (i.e. be making money from doing this). His view seemed to be that people stupid enough not to read the small print should pay for their stupidity and people like me were the worst kind of ‘nanny state’ advocates. Ah well. The funny part was that he was posting on a thread about Expo Guide’s fake ‘debt collection’ company based in Cyprus. The fact that all his posts’ IP addresses resolve to Cyprus is hardly surprising.
That’s all I know about these people, Elisha. I’ve done what I can do (putting my head above the parapet and using blogs & Google). The fact that victims (whether receiving the initial demands from Expo Guide or later demands from ‘debt collectors’ ICAA Ltd Cyprus) immediately find this blog only proves that the scammers overlooked the power of social media to cost them money. Someone with a bit more web-smarts would have covered that base before starting to scam people, but there you go.
Dear Sam,
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my questions in detail. I by the way got to your Face Book via the web site of http://www.stopecg.org/eu_company_directory.htm. What is your web site? Are you located in the U.S.?
Since so many good people fell into this scam I came to the conclusion that these scammers are extremely sofisticated. Since they shift their operation from one country to the other it is almost impossible to take them to court.
You can count on my help whenever needed.
Best Regards, Elisha.
I’m in the UK, Elisha. These scams use simple psychology and are a numbers game. They know that a percentage of people will pay out of fear or shame (after enough bullying). Every couple of months, you send out 1 million forms worldwide. if only 1% (10,000 people) sign and return the form you’re in business. 5% of those will end up paying €1,000 to ‘settle’ after your ‘debt collectors’ harass them with calls and threats. That’s 500 x €1,000 or €500,000 to you and me.
To make that money, I’d guess you need a team of about 20 – 30 people. These will be mostly bilingual youngsters from around the world. You pay them a good commission to call people in their own languages (for added threat value).
You keep pumping the emails and pdf attachments out, sit back and wait.
The reason I recommend people don’t enter into communication is because communication with them qualifies you for further attention / bullying. And the more angry / indignant / afraid people are, the harder the scammers hit them. It’s just common sense. Communicating with them tells them they’ve hit the mark and you’re worth the effort.
These people do it because they can and no government or police force will stop them.
If there’s one thing that all the scams / ripoffs I’ve ever investigated have in common, it’s this: they are ALL designed to capitalise on peoples’ greed and their ignorance. By ‘greed’ I mean people wanting something for nothing. By ‘ignorance’ I mean lack of understanding about the way online directories work (or don’t) – and the inability to spot a scam.
Ultimately, the only thing we can do is to raise awareness – and share experiences in the hope that we can save a few other people from paying.
Dear Sam,
Just to let you know that today we received the first call from EU Business Guide. They threatened to take us to court. I wish they will becase it will be a great opportunity to unvail their real face. I do not reply nor answer their calls.
Best Regards, Elisha.
Sam,
This is an e mail we just received from these scammers:
From: EU Business Services/ Ms Denisse [mailto:denisse@euro-businessguide.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 10:37 AM
To: Elisha Ben-Yitzhak
Subject: FAO Mr Elisha from HEAVENLY INTERNATIONAL TOURS
Importance: High
Dear Mr Elisha,
We are expecting the payment.
Postponing the payment shall only increase your debt and not cancel it.
We have done nothing but honor your request for our services. I reiterate that it is not possible to cancel because this means that we should breach the Terms and conditions and we cannot do that.
Furthermore, what you are asking us to do is not legal and both of our companies may suffer legal consequences if we do that.
Please be kind and reply asap.
Best regards,
Ms Denisse Toutzec
Account Manager
EU Business Services Ltd
Tel: 0031 203 120 477
Fax: 0031 205 248 107
denisse@euro-businessguide.net
Hello from Hong Kong,
I have signed by mistake a “contract” by “expo-Guide” in 2009 . I really feel very frustrated. we have sent emails to cancel the order but they reply us that we cannot. We ignore it and they keep sending invoice to me.
Today, I have also just received a call from ICAA. they claimed that they are mediator on behalf of expo guide. they said if we can settle the final invoice , expo guide will cancel the contract immediately. otherwise, they will reserve the right to use legal action.
here is their email following the phone call:
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
27 April 2011
ref 340027
Dear Ms Chan,
Thank you for taking my call today.
May I remind you again the reason for my call.
Your company`s file has been passed on to us from our client Expo Guide.
This concern`s the matter of outstanding invoices your company has with our client
dating back to 2009.
As we are acting on behalf of our client we wish to reach an amicable agreement from
both parties as to resolve this matter OUT OF COURT as to agree on the settlement
figure in the Offer Letter (see attachment).
Please also view the (documents)attachment, scroll down and you will see the order
form signed on 07/09/2009.
Our legal team here at ICAA have checked the order form, this is a legally binding
document which will hold up in the court of law if this matter cannot be resolved by
the settlement payment required as stated in the Offer Letter.
We require in writing confirmation you will be making this settlement payment as
stated in the Offer Letter.
No Payment is to be made at this stage.
We can then prepare both your Final Invoice & Cancellation Agreement on your behalf.
Printed on both these documents are our clients FULL BANK DETAILS for payment.
Payment method can be made by T/T, Credit card or Cheque.
Yours Faithfully,
Helen Simpson
Senior Credit Manager
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT ASSESSMENT AGENCY
ICAA Ltd.
Tsacon Court
187A Leontiou Str. 4th Floor.
3020Limassol
Cyprus
P.O. Box 53397
3302 Limassol
Cyprus
Phone: +357 25 27 06 66
Fax: +357 25 27 07 77
E-mail: hs@icaacy.com
Website: [edited]
This is the email they sent from me. What should I do now? Can anyone advise me what to do? thanks a lot !
Hi Ivy – I’ve replied privately to you, but all the evidence shows there is nothing these scammers can do to you except bullying into thinking you need to pay. That’s how they make their money.
Looks like they are stepping up a notch. Presume its all Bull though. Has anyone checked out this Cypriot company yet? Website looks well dodgy
TO WHOMEVER IS CONCERNED
DO NOT PAY EVEN 1 CENT TO THIS OR THESE COMPANY/S. IT’S LIKE AN OCTIPUS THAT HAS MANY ARMS AND MANY FACES BUT THEY ARE ALL CONNECTED TO THE SAME BODY.
ELISHA.
We all know who that is.
Hi everybody, and hi Sam!
Today, I have just received my first call from ICAA. They claimed that they are mediator on behalf of expo guide. They said if we can settle the final invoice , expo guide will cancel the contract immediately, otherwise, they will reserve the right to use legal action.
I was signing in june 2009, so this is the 3rd year, and they seem to follow their wellknown pattern.
It was a very gentle and polite man, speaking english! He should send me an e-mail with “details”, and make a new phonecall tomorrow! (The number was “unknown” in my display)
It seems like “Ivy” here above!
I just wonder – is there anyone who has been taken to court after contact with ICAA?
Of course I will not pay and now I will not even answer the call!
“Elisha” – you´re so right!!!!!
Just to inform you all!
Best whishes
Liisa from Stockholm Sweden
Hi Liisa! Boy, you must be so BORED of these people by now!
How LUCKY you must feel to be allowed to ‘settle the final invoice’ with them. Has anyone ever been taken to court after contact with ICAA?? Not that I’ve heard. I’m still waiting to hear from that first person. Given that this scam must have hooked in tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people by now, you’d think we’d have heard something by now, don’t ya?
As always, Liisa, nice to hear from you and keep up the good work raising awareness about this scam.
Hi there !
I am impressed and thankful to see this blog here ..as today I received the first letter from EXPO with the invoice of 1181,00 Euro…
As a freelance Singer I visited WOMEX in 2009, from their portal somehow they got my adress…
Me too I was too quick and signed this form February 21st, 2011, believing that it is just to appear on another portal for free….
My question now:
Shall I at all write one complaint letter and after that don”t react anymore OR shall I not react at all ?
Thanks so much ! With Greetings from Berlin/Germany
Willa
Hi Willa
Odd though it may sound, I don’t think it matters either way. They will harass you whatever you do. I’ve not seen any evidence that telling them you know they’re scammers makes any difference. I’ve not seen any evidence that threatening them makes any difference.
If you’ve decided NOT to pay, then it comes down to what you’re comfortable with. Remember:
• You could string them along to waste their time and money
• You could rant and rave at them to vent your anger
• You could be polite to them because you like to be that way or
• You could ignore them altogether…
The only control you have over these people is the amount of fear / shame you feed them with. So my advice is to do whatever you want with the letters and calls so long as you don’t feed them any more fear / shame to give them the idea they can bully you into paying.
I have received an expo guide invoice which I trew away. Since I never signed up for anything, and did not return anything to them. But still they keep sending me reminders, first and second, and today a final notice. Should I just keep on going ignoring them?
Hello Sam !
Thanks so much for this…and thanks to everyone here who shared their experience.
It’s a clear thing…I won”t react at all and ignore them.
They are not worth spending one minute of my time…
All my Best, Willa
Hi Willa – you’re welcome. Nice music btw – I liked ‘Blue and Deep’ especially.
Hi Sam and Elisha and everybody,
Thanks so much for your sharing. I feel more comfortable because I think there must be no one taken to court.
I have received that ICAA call again after a few days I received their email. They ask me when I will pay for the invoice . I said I will not pay for it and please don’t call me anymore. She seems very surprised. And then she send me email again, saying that this is a final notice.
everybody please just ignore them. they cannot take any actions towards us. they can just keep sending invoice and calling people to pay.
wish everyone all the best!
Good for you Ivy – stay strong.
Hi, I’m one of you, I stupidly completed the form and sent World Business Guide(WBG) on 14th Jan. 2011. But fortunately didn’t pay for the insertion even though WBG is continuously chasing me… I was very angry when I received a message from WBG saying that our debt will be forwarded to Waldberg & Hirsch Global Collection Ltd. It was 5th May. So I researched about Waldberg & Hirsch and found this article and your messages… I was very lucky! I knew that WBG is a scam company, but they kept sending us demands of payment, so I can not help thinking that WBG could take this matter to the court someday… But I’m so sure that was my unnecessary anxiety…
I replied to WBG like following.
———————-
Christine, maybe even Christine is not your true name, have a careful look at the above linked pages. Stop sending us messages, do not cheat any people across the business world. Your action is prejudicial to Spain’s reputation. Be ashamed of yourself.
———————-
But, you know, they did not check messages I sent(I sent around 20 messages…), and today I received another message from WBG, its title is “Unpaid invoice no. …”, and content is the same as their previous one… My messages did not affect them at all…
I can’t believe how they keep doing this scam activities while many victims have been reported… why any European organization does not stop their doing this… And what should I do to be free from their messages… …
“Expo guide” is named in a press release of PROFECO, ranked second place in highest fines for misleading advertising! See http://www.profeco.gob.mx/prensa/prensa11/enero11/bol12.asp
Referring to this may help – Who knows…
I meant the second highest fine for misleading advertising in the year 2010 – $ 3,000,000!
Arjan,
Thank you for the information. I hope the web site you provided would have been in English. I really want to read it.
Best Regards, Elisha.
Ivy,
我2009都中招了，其後我把這家公司寄來的所有信都不拆也不理，棄置到一邉，結果，今年沒再收到了，我也安然無事，你一於扮時運高，聽唔到睇唔到！
Sam, I have not received any invoice from expo guide this year.
PLEASE BEWARE, The another dishonest company is coming up…
Company Name: FAIR GUIDE (www.fairguide.com)
Elisha, this should be it translated for you.
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.profeco.gob.mx%2Fprensa%2Fprensa11%2Fenero11%2Fbol12.asp
Regards,
Callum
Thanks Callum
Hi Tai, thanks for your comment. Thanks for the Fair Guide warning – that’s another, older version of this scam.
im one of the victim from Thailand, they send me to update accuracy and i think its all misunderstand, actually i dont think its misunderstanding, i think they did change and cheat us.
i got an invoice $1571 which i found it is very ridiculous..
i was so worry and think its all my mistake but after i do some research, i found they are totally scam, i did write them to say it is a mistake and remove me and I AM NOT GOING TO PAY, but now with all other people who experience liked me, for what this stupid expo thing created all anxious and worry , i will send them all link that show they are SCAM business which they cannot scared US !!!
Good for you.
Hi all!
I got this offer from Expo guide. But after i read this i desided to send an empty paper back to them. If we all did that they would have to spend a lot on postage.
Get my first e-mail from ICAA the 1st of june!
The threats keeps going, but I´ve got a generous offer: to pay €2.525,30 instead of 3 x €1181,00!! Is´nt that generous??!!:)
…otherwise I have to go to court!!
Of course I don´t pay, and of course I won´t get into court!
Best summerwishes
Liisa in Sweden
Hey ho, Liisa. How long has this been going on for you now?
Hey Sam!
Since april 2009!
Liisa
Hi All,
I’ve been following this thread for a while now and thought I’d post my company’s timeline of letters and demands from Expo..
DECEMBER 2009 – We signed the form for the *free advertising* in Expo-Guide after receiving a letter from ‘Oscar T. Guerrero’.
APRIL 2010 – Received first payment reminder, wrote to the company to explain we were not paying as it was in relation to free advertising and asked them to stop contacting us.
MAY 2010 – Received a second overdue payment reminder, with €47.62 added on to a years worth of invoice – totalling €1228.62. We wrote again to state we were not paying and we were aware it was a scam.
JUNE 2010 – Received a letter from the legal department at Expo Guide explaining the accounts department had tranferred our debt to them. They asked us to pay to avoid a court recovery procedure but did not state where or when. Interest now amounts to €81.64 making the invoice €1262.64. *At this point we stopped replying and began ignoring the letters*
JULY 2010 – Received a second ‘Legal Notice’ asking us to pay within 7 days or we would be scheduled for a court recovery procedure in GB. Interest is now €100.01, Invoice totals €1281.01.
MARCH 2011 – Received a payment reminder for €2362.00 with no interest on it – This appears to be a year’s worth of invoice plus last years invoice + interest. We also received a letter from ‘Eva Strauss’ informing us it was too late to cancel and a copy of our initial agreement to the free advertising.
APRIL 2011 – Received ‘First overdue payment reminder’ for the 2011 invoice. Interest of €50.99 added to total €2412.99
MAY 2011 – Received ‘Second overdue payment reminder’ with EUR80.23 interest added. Invoice now totals €2442.23
JUNE 2011 - Received a ‘Final Overdue Payment Reminder’ informing us we have ignored all payment reminders to date and that they are taking legal steps.
We have no intention of paying and would frankly laugh at them if they try to take us to court. Its been about 3 years now so if they were going to take us to court they would have done so long ago.
NEVER BACK DOWN!
Go Kim, GO!!!!
GReat timeline – thank you. Spot on post. In fact, I’m going to edit it to highlight the dates AND I’m going to post it on FB and LinkedIn
After you had signed did you get a letter back with proof of your signature and a really crappy mock up of an advert for the company???
I’m half sure and yet unsure that what i have is a scam or not and it certainly is getting me worried.
Hi EB – no, I didn’t but that’s because I didn’t get hooked into the scam. It sounds standard, thought.
Either way, let me assure you that what you have IS a scam. Don’t be worried, nobody has ever been taken to court by these people. They just bully people into paying. Read all the comments here and on other sites and see if you can see 1 person who has been taken to court by Expo Guide after not paying. You won’t find anyone, I promise.
Hi All,
today (5th of July 2011) we received a phone call from the woman which introduced her self as Miss Horvat, talking in serbo-croat language. She introduced herself as a lawyer of Expo Guide. She was offering us a settlement – Expo Guide is willing to cancel all the payment obligations if we pay immediately 2000€. The phone number is 0035725270666. The country of calling is Cyprus.
Robert (Slovenia)
Hi Robert
Ignore them! We have had a similar call, which we ignored. Nothing has come of it.
Peter
Hi all,
I’ve got phone calls too that they want to solve the problem and also a lot of reminders for payment.
Of course I don’t do anything and hang up immediately.
I made already a registration at a special agency for fraude in Holland but they still are going on…
Together we’re strong!!
Today we got call from hidden number – it was ICAA after the e-mail from Friday 15th July. I was really shocked that she spoke Czech !! It is after 2 years of getting reminders from ExpoGuide. I told her only ” Oh, this is that scam, please don´t call us anymore ” and hang up. WE WON´T PAY!
Hey,
Mine is with Ecodata and has been going on since 2005. Getting more frequent threats now for payment “or else” for over 5,000 CHF. I think they photocopied the signature section (bottom half) of the form unto the top section which has the charges, etc. We signed no document with charges, the one we signed was for a free insertion.
Anyway, I wish them luck in collecting. Let’s all stand up and drive these crooks out of business!
Good on ya, Barb. You won’t pay, but since they know you’re on the end of that phone #, expect more harassment. Recommend being playful. They can’t touch you – and it would drive them mad.
Ziggy – Ecodata? That’s a new one to me (or an old one I haven’t heard of). What’s weird is that I can’t find any reference to them online. Can you give us more information, please?
Hi all, yesterday we have recieved an invoice from expo guide demanding to pay 1181 EUR to them. We signed it several month ago. Of course, after reading this blog we won’t pay them at all. But I have one question, does anyone knows which employer in company except ,Managing Director of cource have authority to sign documents with “legally binding signature”. Thanks
Msf – good for you!
Let us know how you get on! Scroll up a few comments and find the Facebook group link for this scam.
Hi Sam!
Actually, we get hooked as most of victims – have signed this invoice while processing others from legal exhibition organisers.:-) Expo guide form was among others bunch of papers and employer signed it automatically. Of cource for our company 3000 EUR is not very big amount of money, but after reading your blog we won’t pay even one cent – that our pricniple,crime does not pay
I am not familiar with international laws but if the employer(actually he is an simple engineer) didn’t had power of attorney from Managing Director for signing any contract, is this contract valid?
P.S. Thank you for this blog, keep up a good work. We will definately join Facebook group.
Hi Msf, you’re welcome. Hope it’s been helpful.
this is really annoying so i am going to make expo-guides life a missery
this is the person responsible and this is his personal number which you wont find anywhere …..
Oscar Tienda
Contact Phone number: 00495678976
p.s if you look at his website it seems to be offline and it will be for as long as i keep knocking it offline !!!
Hello Everybody, Hello Sam !
Last time I was leaving a note here was May 4th or so…
Thank You Sam for leaving this nice note about my music !
I regularly receive those letters….I don’t even open them and feel very calm…THANKS to this BLOG!!!
As planned I don’t react at all….I just throw away what I get from them and somehow it doesn’t bother or worry me at all..
Just learnt my lesson….really read before signing something
Greetings from Berlin to Everybody ! Willa (Wiltrud Weber)
Hi Expo Guide Killer
The ‘Expo Guide’ website is still there… Good luck making their lives misery! Waste their time, I say. Wherever possible. Keep them running around for nothing.
Willa, thanks for the comment. Glad that this blog helped to keep you calm
Hello,
I have also been a victim for having signed the Expo guide form. thinking it was free only to be surprised with a invoice after 3 years.
I explained to ICFAA people who were calling me be debt collection that it was a trickery and for that asked me to pay for one year fee of 1571 USD. Some how to avoid legal issues, I decided to pay but to my luck found the SPAM info and this link. It gave me some relief to see I am not alone. Now I have told that I will not pay them at any cost and they are asking for proof to show that I was misled by Expo guide.
They say they will prepare to send the legal summons. Any suggestions
on what I could do? Appreciate your help.
Hi BK.
One piece of advice: IGNORE THEM from now on. They can do NOTHING to you. Read ALL the comments here and everywhere else online and please notice that NOBODY has ever reported being take to court anywhere. They can’t; it’s all just a bullying trick to pressure you into paying. Also – don’t bother telling them you’ve found proof or evidence that they’re a scam; they ALREADY KNOW they’re a scam!!
When you ignore them, they’re still going to harass you but you’re going to have to expect that. There’s nothing we’ve seen that will stop that. I’d suggest wasting their time pretending that you’re going to pay them, them letting them down eventually… (if you can be bothered)
For goodness sake, just pay these people. You signed the contract without reading it, that’s your problem. Either that or let them take you to court.
Hi Beth. Why would you advise these people to pay €990 to organisations who are known worldwide to be scammers?
I didn’t get caught out by these scammers myself. Like you, I expect, I’m too observant for that. Interestingly, the only people I’ve heard from on these posts who blame the victims for this scam are the scammers themselves – it’s part of the psychology that allows them to feel ok about doing this to unsuspecting and vulnerable small business owners.
Dear Sam,
It seems to me that “Beth” is actually part of the criminal organization. Remember that they are sophisticated and can easily invent a face book that looks innocent.
Surprize surprize! Look what I receive today with another PDF attachment which I don’t dare to open.
From: Anne – World Trade Register [mailto:info@eurbiz-wtr.net]
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 5:30 AM
To: info@heavenlytours.com
Subject: Business Registration 2011/2012
Dear Madam/Sir,
In order to have your company inserted in the World Trade Register’s 2011/2012 edition, please print, complete and return the enclosed form to the following address:
World Trade Register
P.O. Box 3079
3502 GB Utrecht
The Netherlands
Updating is free of charge!
To unsubscribe, please send an email to unsubscribe@worldtrade-register.com
Fax: +31 205 248 107
Best Regards, Elisha.
You might just be right, Elisha!
‘World Trade Register’ huh.. yet another variant of this filthy scam. No surprise.
Great how they keep on hitting on ya
I am so glad I found this site. I, like so many people, signed the form thinking it was a free listing. Today I received the first letter from the legal department, and thought that was it. I have been arguing over email with them for ages, and told them that we will not pay, but they didnt back down.
Having received the legal letter I was going to just bite the bullet, accept my error and pay it – until I did a quick google search to see if our listing was even on the site.
Thank you all.
Legal letter is now going to be ignored and filed!
Hi Sam,
a couple of years ago, we got a letter from expo-guide with the form attached for completion, the letter was referring to an exhibition we were going to be attending. Normally I’d fill out forms relating to any exhibitions our company are involve in. I was thankful I read the letter first – because it seemed to be a full page of business talk which ultimately meant nothing – it was total business jargon with a few “buzz words” thrown in – but it meant NOTHING at all.
With my suspicions “piqued”, I had a good look at the booking form and spotted that I was signing up for 3 years of nothingness at a cost of €1,181 per year.
I informed the organisers of the event who knew about the situation but didn’t think any action was possible. This morning i rec’d a very strong communication from the organiser of one of the events that Expo-guide exploit and it was detailing the methods of these scammers very clearly – hopefully it will save some people from making a totally understandable but expensive error.
Delighted someone is championing the cause against these gangsters -well done!
Heather, good for you!
Thanks, Tracey. I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing – that’s what’s wrong in our world today.
Dear. all
i am another victims of Expo-guide.
i have been reject their Invoice letter…for 8 months
and send them letter by fax and e-mail ” we don’t want anything your company, donot send me anything”
whatever i got e-mail on today…soundly
————————————————-
Dear Sir/Madam,
In reply to your emails, faxes and letter, we inform you that as long as the invoice 315**** remains unpaid, you will keep receiving payment reminders and accumulating overdue fees.
With your signature in the space reserved for a legally binding signature, below the paragraph that contains the contractual terms, and which is introduced by the word Order in bold letters, a legally binding contract came into effect. The data indicated on the order form was published as requested We invite you to verify the insertion at http://www.expo-guide.com/*************.
Awaiting the settlement of the outstanding invoice, we remain at your service.
Yours faithfully,
Expo-Guide
Fanny Salas
Customer Services
*********************************************
Expo-Guide is a product of
Expo Guide S.C.
Ave Horacio # 340 – 3, Col. Chapultepec Morales
México D.F. 11570, Mexico
info@expo-guide.com
http://www.expo-guide.com
*********************************************
————————————————-
Please help me
Please advice for me….
what can i do for them…. ?
how can i prepare next step???
thank you
Hi
I encounter the same problem. I am strongly believe what they (Expo guide) did is misleading and is not correct. They cannot stand in front of court. I refuse to pay and search and find you and other website. I know I am not alone!
Thanks for all your kindness. You really help a lot of Victim. Hope we can do something to stop them!!! They are wasting valuable human resources which can be done in more productive way.
Cheers!
Dora
Sam, Thanks for all your work on this. Last year our marketing person said it was her mistake that she signed us up for the “free” listing. Her supervisor signed off on it and we paid it. In the course of getting invoiced for this year I started doing some research and as you know there are volumes of comments.Even though we paid for the first year my strategy was still going to be to ignore them as it really seems to come down to whether they will actually take legal action. As has been mentioned their game is trickery and intimidation. Making everything look as though they will sue you. It would seem to be more worth their while to go on to find other victims. Any thoughts?
You’re welcome, Mark. I’m just sorry you paid the first year (not as sorry as you, I’ll bet, though!). They won’t and CAN’T take legal action. They’ve been doing this for years, to hundreds of thousands of people just like you – and not once have they gone anywhere near a court, for the most obvious of reasons: they’re scammers.
Hi Dora, you’re right – it is misleading and not correct. And it’d deliberately that way. Please just ignore them and play your part in raising awareness if you can!
Hi Chang
FACT: These people are scammers.
FACT: They are unable to do anything legal to you
FACT: They only make money by bullying a lot of people so that a small number pay
FACT: No evidence of any of the hundreds of thousands of victims ever being taken to court
Ignore them.
They will continue to harass you (especially if you’ve communicated with them before and if they think you’re scared) but there’s NOTHING they can do.
Learn to ignore them.
Best wishes
Sam
Just pay it. Stop moaning….
Thanks for your view Beth. Like I said before; its just you and ‘Vespasian’ taking that uncharitable line. 99.9% of the people scammed by Expo Guide and other ‘online directory scammers’ disagree with you.
Dear Sam
i am victim too but i do not even can remember the year that i have posted this misleading letter since 2 or 3 years now.
I thought that this was a letter from one of the fairs that company that i work , is participating and i should only update the details of the company(address, tel, fax, e.t.c)
My boss is receiving the invoices and the bulling letters .
i have explained to him the situation and he is bining the letters
I can confess that i am terrified and that i cannot sleep at nignts because i am thinking that i maybe loose my job.
I hope someone to stop them
Georgia
Also – not one single person ever has been taken to court by Expo Guide.
Tell your boss to read these threads – tell him to ignore them. Georgia’s boss: be kind to her please, she’s the victim of a global scammer who has being doing this kind of scam for 10 years.
DO NOT PAY JUST IGNORE THEM
@Beth – Are you MAD? They are criminals. You can be sure that their money will be reinvested in all sorts of dodgy activities. By paying you are making yourself part of their activities. If you have money to waste, send it to me!
@ Georgia. We got tricked like you. Embarassing, yes! But the contract is a contrick so I don’t consider we are bound by it. After an initial exchange rejecting their invoice we invited them to pursue their claim through the courts. After about 18 months they got bored and stopped sending the letters. So, throw them in the bin and get some sleep!
Hi Sam,
I am amazed at your dedication and patience in dealing with this scam!! I can’t thank you enough for starting this website and forum. It’s only after reading all these posts did I get some confidence back!!
I am from India and have been getting and ignoring these letters from the Expo-Guide people in Mexico. Today I recd a letter threatening a Court Recovery Procedure in India. As I have read above, people in Hong Kong, UK and US have received similar Court Recvery threats….I shall ignore it as the others hv done and hope that these are just empty threats.
As far as I understand, what their contract says is that all disputes are subject to Mexican jurisdiction…then how can they threaten Court Recovery Proceedings in other countries??!
Would appreciate your views on that Sam!
Once again greatly appreciate all your efforts in fighting this menace!!
Thanks,
Vimal
Pete, I think you’ll find that Beth is probably on the wrong end of the phone, if you know what I mean.
Vimal, you’re welcome – and thanks for the nice words!
This scam is very simple. They depend on bullying and your uncertainty.
The truth is that they cannot take you to court ANYWHERE because they are scammers. So, Vimal, just read all the comments here and look for one SINGLE person who has been taken to court by Expo Guide. Guess what? You won’t find anyone here, or anywhere else online.
This means simply that they only make money out of your uncertainty or fear that maybe, just maybe, they can do something to you… Please be reassured. They can’t.
hi , I have the same situation like ” Mai posted December 9, 2010 at 5:25 pm” since year 2004 till today , i wandering if anyone has get lawsuit from Eucodata ? today i received a letter from them , i’m kind of nervous , to make payment to them or not ….. any guidance please !
Don’t be nervous, Alex. They’re scammers and won’t do anything to you – because they can’t. It’s all just a trick to frighten you into paying (and it works enough of the time to make it worthwhile). No evidence anywhere ever of anyone being taken to any court by these people…
I just got the LEGAL NOTICE from EXPO GUIDE today added it to my pile of crap from them in the past 4 months – I take it they will eventually just give up?
I stupidly signed the original form as it seemed it was connected to a wedding show we were exhibiting at in Glasgow Scotland – then we got an email the very next day from the show organisers to be aware of this scam!
UPDATE
Hello all,
After my initial contact with ExpoGuide, over three years ago, I want to share an update with you, my fellow ‘Scammed’.
My story line:
2008
- Mistook the form for a free listing update, and sent it in, using the enclosed pre-paid return envelope (nice of them no?).
- Got the first payment request a few months later, ignored it, since I did not recall ever having purchased any marketing service from them. (Notice they waited a few months before sending the first invoice – am I the only one?).
2009
- Got the ‘you are late’ payment request. I then sent in a registered letter stating the error on our part, and requesting immediate removal from their ‘listing’.
- More letters from them asking payment. One of them had a copy of the signed form I sent in, to add pressure, and to place the blame on me, since it WAS written that submitting the form was a binding contract. I completely ignored it.
- Finally got the ‘we will take you to court if you do not pay’ letter. Also ignored.
2010
- Then, the call! A women phoned informing me of my ‘breach of contract’ and offered to settle for a one-year payment only. I flatly refused, and ended the call. Glad they called, it cost them some long distance fees. I thought that if they ever called back, I’d transfer them between ‘departments’, and put them on hold until they got fed up and hung up!!!
Since then, I never got another request for payment, no more calls, nor any form of lawsuit was ever initiated against my company.
And this is where is gets interesting. Since the call, I have received two more ‘update your free listing forms’ from Expoguide. But with a small difference: They do not include a pre-paid return envelope! Must have cost them a lot of $ paying to receive empty envelopes!
And, my company, as of writing this, is still on their webiste, logo and all!!!
So, as Sam says, their scam work well, because it is solely based on trapping its victims with a misleading form, and then pressuring us into paying, basing their claim that the fine print binds us to their bogus contract.
Do not pay;
DO NOT BE WORRIED AT ALL;
Ignore them, that’s it, that’s all.
Good luck!
Mike from Canada
Hear hear, Mike! An old friend of ours on this site, Liisa from Stockholm is into her 4th year of being periodically harassed with threats of imminent ‘court action in your country’.
Of course, it never happened, never happens, never will.
Yeah, they’ll eventually give up Allister – unless you give off any scent of fear, in which case, they’ll step up their bullying considerably until they can convince you to ‘settle’ for ‘just’ one year’s fee – around about €980.
Hi Sam,
My company based in UK, and I fell into the trap and they demand for the outstanding plus interest. I have wrote to them about I’m not paying them and their letter, company updated form are misleading, then I got a fax from them today saying that their term and condition has a clear layout and leaves no room for doubt. Finally they demand “ There is no doubt that a contract was legally entered into and we ask you to pay the outstanding invoice in the next few days.”
I think I am just going to ignored them, what do you think?
i’m not stress but just a bit concern…..
Hi All,
I received an email just a second ago which reminded me of this scam – Just to update we haven’t received anything since the timeline I posted back in July!!
Today I got an email from a company called ‘EU Business Register’ with the kind offer of a free of charge update for my business on their register… Upon reading the small print, this free updating service happens to come at a charge of €990 – a bargain!
Don’t get sucked in by this one either, everybody!!
Kimberley
Good on you Sam for reassuring the victims and providing moral support.
My company probably receives a mass-email every 2 weeks or so from EU Business Guide. We were stung the first time, but recognised that it was a scam and so ignored all the increasingly-threatening letters that we received. Eventually they stopped. As everyone says above, DON’T PAY THESE GUYS!!
Instead, what we have started doing now is completing each form we receive with increasing ridiculous ‘fake’ company details to be added to their directory. It is strangely satisfying now to receive the reminders from them addressed to non existent companies, and add up the money that they are spending on international postage sending them to us.
Only a minor victory admittedly, but it does make you feel better. And if more people started doing the same thing then it would cause them to waste considerable time and money!!
Now that, Dan, is an elegant solution.
No problems, Teresa. When I came across these scams, it made my blood boil and I realised I could do something about it – so I did.
Hi Kimberley – thanks for posting here and on LinkedIn. Notice what she’s saying, people? Nothing happens. Like we said. A million times
Don’t think, Yvonne – DO ignore them
They make money by tricking people like you who aren’t sure if Expo Guide have a right or not… they’ll bully you until you’re so afraid you’ll pay. That’s a vile way to treat people. But that’s exactly what they do. You need to know that THEY’RE the scammers; they have no rights or power over you or anyone else. Read all these comments here and everything else on the internet (type ‘Expo Guide scam’ into Google) and you will not find a single story of anyone ever being take to any court anywhere – out of several hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people they’ve snared with this scam.
That is the truth, not the lies they’re trying to bully you with.
Hi to all.
We recently exhibited at the “Saltex” exhibition. In with the paper work was a form for what appeared to be a “Free” entry in the exhibitors guide. The form turned out to be from “EXPO GUIDE” and was for a 3 year contract. This had been signed by an employee without realising it was not part of the paper work required for the exhibition. When the invoice arrived it was passed to me for verification. Having had previous experience of “cities Guide” and “city fairs” I knew it to be a scam and destroyed the invoice. Today a reminder has arrived demanding payment of Euro’s 1132.00. This also has gone in the bin. My experience is never pay. They will pester but never take court action. These are scams and should be stopped by law across europe. I would infact welcome one of them to take action so that publicity could be wide spread.
Jim Whie
Managing Director.
Just to add on everybody,
After receiving a few letters ‘urging’ me to update my free listing I did add some details and sent it back only to start receiving invoices after a few months.
Thinking that I was dealing with a reputable and law abiding company, I did try to answer back only to realise that they are asking me to sent a registered letter to cancel my subscription to a PO box.
The interesting thing is that the initial letter came from Paris- thinking it was from an exhibition that I had previously attended, the invoice is coming from Pennsylvania, USA, for a company that is registered in Mexico and a bank account currently in SLovakia.
I managed to call them only to wake someone called Andreas up- where I asked to speak to get their legal department talk to my solicitors which is a well known UK based firm with offices and affiliates worldwide.
Andreas told me they cannot talk to my solicitor as they are not authorised to talk on my behalf!!
I have made clear that there is no way I am paying them so waiting to see what will happen as I told them that anything else coming my way will be passed to my solicitors to deal with.
Will keep you posted if ever they take me to court!!
I now have my own tradeshow and have started emailing all the companies that participate to be aware that NOTHING is sent out from us.
Thanks Mr. Deeks for making the effort
Kind regards
Stamo
Hi Jim… well, they won’t take action (as we know) so you’ll never get that wonderful day in court, Lols! Thanks for your comment. Wow. YOu mean to say the Expo Guide form was actually IN the Exhibitor pack for the Saltex Exhibition???
Hi Stamo, you’re welcome. Keep on doing what you can to raise awareness to save other folks from a lot of worry, stress and sleepless nights they don’t deserve.
I think it is important to inform the banks that host Expo Guide accounts about their customer’s activities. Most reputable banks will close the account immediately. To reinforce the point made many times above, Expo Guide does not pose any real threat to anybody, but if you can make the scammers’ life a bit more complicated why deny yourself a pleasure?
Join http://www.facebook.com/groups/291170890894193/ group to oppose/ignore them united.
Despite all this nonsense about it being a scam, I have been taken to court by the company and LOST…. I have been told in no uncertain terms that I have to pay the full 3 years worth of outstanding + court costs + their legal fees!
In total I am around €6.000,00 in the hole now.
Wish I had just paid their one year offer ;-(
Well, its been a few months since I have heard from them, but they are back
It was back in March that I sent them a letter (you’ll find it above if you scroll up!) to which we have never had a proper reponse.
Today, we got a letter stating our fee’s are now 2,362 euros, a nice jump from our previous amounts! They state “we expect the punctual settlement of the account” apparently. Also, they will very kindly update our details “without any cost”. Now that sounds like a good deal………
Think i’ll ask them to provide evidence that we signed up to this – a few more £££ wasted on international postage on their side and perhaps keep them thinking they have a hope of getting me to pay!
Hi Roland. You’re the first ‘person’ ever to report having been taken to court by Expo Guide. Wow.
Would you like to take some time and tell the story (when, where, what court, what proceedings etc)?
Until you do that, you’ll just come across like someone from Expo Guide trying to persuade people that Expo Guide has the grounds to take someone to court. But congratulations anyway – you ARE the first. It’s only take 3 years for someone to try posting this.
Roland you spanner. This is obviously a plant. How incredible. I just received my 15th invoice in the post from Expo… The shredder has enjoyed it
Here’s a very good explanation of the whole scam. Please, read.
http://www.energygrid.com/watchdog/2008/11-expoguide.html
The scanned letter you will see is from 2006 (???). It’s been going on for that long?!
I have doubt about the “Ronald” dude. If you click on his name it takes you to Norton Finance page which is a UK based company dealing with loans and mortgages. Why this page and why is he talking in euros? I would think that 6000€ euros would not be enough for 3-years worth of debt to Expo-guide (3543€) + court costs + (international and your own) legal fees. Also the court process would probably take years. So “Ronald” when were you taken to court and how long did it take for the judges to reach the verdict?
Our company has received from them an invoice (which we rejected), then an email and a fax. None of their correspondence (including invoice) so far has been signed. No name, no signature. Isn’t that strange.
Hi Roland,
Please share all of the details with us. Where and when this case came to court. The name of the presiding magistrate. Case #. Any other details that we may study to learn more about your experience.
Please let us know asap or we will conclude that you are not what you say you are!
Watch out everyone. A new similar scam doing the rounds on unsolicited emails which I just received now. A Dutch based outfit called the European Trade Register allowing you to post your company details for free followed (in small print) by a three year contract at €990 per annum with an 8 day cancelation term from initiation. Stinks of Expo Guide to be honest. Check the website below…. Funily enough no telephone number and only a PO Box address. Careful now!
http://WWW.EUROPEAN-TRADEREGISTER.COM
Thanks for that Joe. No surprise really – probably operated by the same lot somewhere along the lines.
Hi Roland,
Honestly, I didn’t believe anything about your story. Why don’t you give us some details, as you have been asked for? (Katja did ask)
And why no reaction of your part after over 3 weeks since you have been asked for more details?
You are the ONLY ONE being in court. Anyway, we don’t intend paying anything for your SCAM.
What’s your salary at Expo Guide? You should be ashamed working in such a company (in case you really do).
I received this”Fair Guide” letter too. On the letter it says that “Modifying data free of charge can only be done online”. So I went online and updated my information. I never filled out or signed the actual form itself, which now that I look, has “The three years’ duration begins with the date of the first invoice. Costs per year amount to 1877 USD and become due each year upon issue of the invoice.” Even though they call it a “free listing”. Wow.
Also, my letter is from Bratislava. They move around quite a bit.
I never signed the form, but I did do something on their website. Do I need to be worried? Is there sneaky verbage in the web forms as well?
HI LIsa
No, you don’t need to worry – there’s nothing they can do to you. You need to understand that these scams prey on people’s uncertainty about that.
Hi Sam!
It was really “nice” to see that I’m not the only one person in this world who have been tticked by “Expo Guide”. Our company is in Athens, Greece
I was at summer vacation and when I came back at the office I found this letter from “expo guide” which gave our company the ‘change’ to enter for free at his cataloque. So I have signed and stamp it on end of August 2011 and send it by post. At the end of September we receiver a letter which incloude the invoice of the amount of 1271 Euro and a copy of the formular I signed. My boss get very angree and told me that I have to manage this matter or pay it by myself. I have to admit that I really get scarred and than I started to read the small letters. I have sending the e-mails and registerd letters that we don’t confirm and that we will not pay anything. They response by e-mail that we have to pay and that they can do only a favor for us to give us a discount of 50% for the 3 years. That will be a total amount of 1960,5 Euro instead of 3813 Euro. So I decide to call the embassy of Mexico here in Athens . I had in mind to ask them at first if this company is legal. The dialoque between me and the official in department of commercial affairs at the embassy of Nexico was as follow:
Me: – Hello I’m calling because we are a company here in Athens and we have a problem with a comany in Mexico
O: – I see… is this company may be “Expo Guide”?
It was really a surprise for me to hear the official in department of commercial affairs at the embassy to know about this matter. He told me that I have to bring all the papers I get from the EG and a formal letter describing the facts. All the above documents will be send to the Mexican Attorney General, which has opened a legal procedure against EXPO GUIDE.
This is my experiance and I hope that many people should go to the embassy Of Mexico all over the world. They will help them and of course DO NOT PAY ANYTHING
Hi Amalia
Thanks for your comment – great information
Thank alot.
Thailand
Thailand! You welcome!
Ha ha ha, I got the phone call from ICAA today, and than the email and fax is coming at the same time.
Keep ignore them.
Hi,
I have been a victim of expo guide just recently and wondered who do i contact to report them in the uk???
I have written a letter to them stating we won’t be paying and that we will communicate by written correspondence only but should we just ignore them and any demanding letters/calls etc????
Please advise as this is all quite complicated to me and whole ne experience, i would also like to be able to sort this myself so i don’t have to worry anybody unnecassarily?
Hi Michelle
Ok, first thing: stop worrying. You are the victim of a global scam, you are one of hundreds of thousands of people just like you. The scam has been going over 10 years with a whole range of different names. It is a scam; there’s nothing legal, moral or right about it.
Second: they have no power to do anything to you legally. The scam only works on your fear. If they frighten you enough, you pay. There’s no court cases, no real debt collectors, no solicitors. Just a bunch of people in a room calling, emailing and faxing people around the world. Why? Because enough pay to make it worth their while. It’s profitable, simple as that.
My advice is don’t communicate with them and certainly don’t pay them anything. You don’t have to sort anything out, because there’s nothing TO sort out. They’re trying to scam you, and that’s all there is to it.
However, while there is absolutely no way they can make you pay, there is also no way you can make them stop harassing you. Unfortunately, that’s just the price you have to pay for falling into their trap this time around. The quicker they get the idea that you really AREN’T worth their phone calls and time, however, the quicker they WILL eventually leave you alone and move on to someone else who they think is more likely to pay.
Stay strong!
We came across Expo Guide in an exhibition. As it is mentioned FREE, our company has signed. and after some days the invoice of amount USD 1571 was sent to us. We smelled fraud and not paid anything. During Nov 2011 we received a call from ICAA for outside court settlement. and a letter from attorney to pay amount of USD 4713.
How these misleading and cheating activities are done at international level? This is a big scammed company, let us unite and not to pay a single penny. I am approaching to our legal consultant for action against these cheaters.
Hi Sriroz – honestly, don’t waste your time and money. Unless you have a few spare million $$ and a revenge obsession, you’ll be wasting your time. You’ll also be giving the scammers a subtle but powerful psychological hint that you take them seriously – and are therefore, at another level, worried by them. That’s exactly what they depend on for this scam to work.
Hi,
do you have any information about limitation of rights in mexican law? For example law of Czech republic says, that if you don´t sue debter in limited time (in czech law 4 years) from beginning of debt, you can´t succed thereafter. It would be a very nice way of defense against EXPO GUIDE.
Hi Ondrej
No, no information about Mexican law.
Please get it into your consciousness: you don’t need a defense against EXPO GUIDE. They are scammers! Please don’t waste your time. You won’t stop them mailing or calling but they will never make you pay – unless you give in to their bullying. And that’s all it is!
I received numerous reminders and final demands for payment of several thousands of Euros from Expo Guide after signing one of their scam “agreements” for a trade show. After receiving advice from the offical show organisers who are not affiliated in any way with Expo Guide and who do not endorse their services in any way, I responded to these letters of demand and said we would not be paying.
I received further correspondence from Expo Guide acknowledging receipt of my letters and stating that I was liable for the payment (they calim that their “agreement” is a legally binding contract!), to which I replied saying we would and so forth. Eventually I stopped replying and everything went quiet for several months and I suspected that it was the last I would hear from Expo Guide.
I then received an email and a phonecall from a debt collector acting on their behalf. This worried me slightly and I consulted with my legal dept who advised not to take further action and to send any further correspondence to them to deal with. However, I suspect that the debt collector is just a scare tactic and something to intimidate people into paying as we havent heard anything from them since. I believe that the “debt collector” may be an Expo Guide employee posing as a collector. If they were a genuine collection agency, they would have sent the baillifs around by now!
I still receive correspondence from Expo Guide, however, these are not further demands for payment, but “agreements” for other trade shows. Naturally I will not be signing any more of these documents! My advice following about 4 years of dealing with Expo Guide is they do not take any action other than writing or emailing threatening letters. Do NOT pay them a penny, and do NOT be intimated by them! Simply return the postage paid envelope to them without anything inside, for they surely pay for the postage!
Hi Rob, welcome and thanks for your comment.
Yes, yes, yes and basically, yes to everything. It’s all fake, scam, sham.
However, my advice would be don’t EVEN return the paid envelopes – if you do, you’re telling them them you’re a) alive b) at that address and c) annoyed (read ‘bothered’). All 3 things are vital ‘qualifying’ pieces of information that will open you up for more attention.
I noticed your role – if there’s anything you can do to help publicise this off-line, please do consider it.
I am also a victim to this scam.
After receiving the first invoice, I replied to them them stating that I never applied for such service. They never replied to any of my emails or faxes. After more invoices (all sent from Mexico), I started to ignore them completely. Then months later, I received a nasty letter of legal action that will be taken against me if I do not submit payment immediately.
To be honest, I was pissed off. I was hoping they will sue me because their legal fees will be higher than the bill they are demanding me to pay. It’s a joke to me that they are threatening me with international claim over a thousand dollars and change. So I ignored those legal threatening summons as well.
After many more of those letters and approximately another year went by. A guy from NY, I forgot his name but he indicated he represent his clients in claiming what appears to be a contract that I have signed so many years ago. I told him that I have no recollection of such transaction and I have not received any services from this company….and I refuse to pay. Then he sent me an email containing the sign up form that brought everyone to this page containing my signature. I replied to him, I still do not have any recollection of this and I refuse to pay.
If they want to sue me then that is their choice. After my email reply itwas the end of the entire tired ordeal.
I hope my experience will help.
HI Cheng. Thanks for that comment, yes – your experiences will help.
I spend a lot of time trying to help people look past the detail (of course it’s hard to rise above the fears and the anger) and see what these people are doing to you and how. To do that, I sometimes come across as lacking sympathy, which isn’t the case. The point I try to make over and over again is that these scams depend on the victims tendency to get sucked into playing the role of victim and wanting to fight back with indignation, fear or anger. All of these emotions tell the scammer that you are properly hooked – and ripe for scamming.
The only way to beat the scammers is to rise above that reaction and see the bigger picture. When you realise that every reaction you have was predicted – and is being exploited – by the scammers, you’ll see how to hit them. To put it very simply, the weapon is to stop reacting altogether – but if you look back through all these comments (and on various support groups like that on FB and LinkedIn) you’ll see that scam victims ACTUALLY fight for their right to be the victims of these scammers.
Check your reaction to that – it doesn’t mean I’m not sympathetic. Haven’t I just spent the last 3 years of my own time saving people €1,000 a time for no payback?
I say that because until people can rise above their feelings about this, they won’t see what’s really going on – and they’ll continue to play into the scammers’ hands, sending them exactly the signals they need to know where to bully harder.
The #1 weapon is to disconnect completely. That starves the scammers. Please keep that in mind.
Hi Sam thanks for the advise.
Today once again we have received a threatening telephone call from lady called Helan and followed by email as a final warning to pay the dues or else be ready for legal action.
We are not panic nor frustrated but it disturbs the busy schedule of work. Let us make some action plan and approach some authorities to teach lesson to such fraudulent company.
We can be a part of it.
Thank you once again.
Hi
I am also one of the stupid people who signed the letter and have now received the first letter from the legal department Demading Payment. I have read all above-mentioned comments and know they are scammers. But I still think that on the letter they sent when I signed, it did say that free corrections were only to be done on their website and the form was for an advertisement which should be paid for.
Before I signed it I looked at their website, but I was very busy and did not find it. Therefore I used the form and thought it was only for corrections and did not fill in the payment details. I thought I was doing them a favour.
But still when I see that they have posted an “ad” for me with company details – then what? I must admit – I did not read the small print. I know I should have. And believe me I hate myself for having done this.
When they have posted an ad on their website and initially in fine print this was stated on the form – can I still with peace in mind just ignore all their demands for payment?
In the beginning I wrote them emails explaining that I only wanted to correct company details but just received the answer back that the 10 days had passed. And after talking to a legal advisor I was informed to stop corresponding with them and just to ignore it. But the fact is that I signed, they have posted an ad and I did not read the fine print. Can I with peace in mind ignore it? What I fear (eventhough you write that no one has been taken to court) is that this will happen and I will loose my job. I know this is what they want me to think.
I just need to hear from somebody that eventhough all the information was there fore me to read – had I just taken the time and effort. And now there is an ad… And I have until December 24th to pay.
I really hate myself for having put me into this situation. Please advise me how to proceed. Have you also been in the situation where an ad was posted on their website?
Thanks all of you guys for comments and help and especially to Sam for creating this forum. I am facinng completely the same issue and after reading a couple of posts here I am sure what to do – just send them simple letter refusing any payments and stating I was never binded by their form, even if I signed and sent it by mistake. Happy new year and keep sending empty envelopes
Dear Christine, don’t be scared. Yes you can ignore them, we’ve had a (useless and unwanted) ad published on their website as well and we did not pay.
We’ve just received our first “Legal Department”, demand for recovery… Obviously somewhat anxious about it, but hoping that the advice above helps us through – we’re continuing to ignore the letters…!
Hi Ian – don’t be nervous. You’ll be fine. Nervous is exactly what they aim to make you; next stop bullying to turn your nervousness into fear – and one step close to getting you to pay. Nasty shits.
Thanks Sam! We will persevere… It’s so frustrating that there are no real channels for trying to resolve these things – for all the people who refuse to pay, it’s scary to think how many must actually stump up the cash for fear of being harassed by these nasty shits.. (Great terminology by the way!).
I will endeavour to keep you all posted as to how things progress… All correspondence, gets put in a file, “just in case”… I look forward to never paying them! ha!
Hello Sam,
I have received the same documents from expo guide saying to pay them the annual fees and also have received calls from there legal advisor to my surprises the person calling from the following company is a Indian and have discussed with us in our local language.
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT ASSESSMENT AGENCY
by ICAA Ltd.
187A Leontiou Str., Tsacon Court, 4th Floor
3020 Limassol, Cyprus
P.O. Box 53397
3302 Limassol, Cyprus
Tel : +357 25 270 666, Fax: +357 25 270 777
Email: lk@icaacy.com
Website: http://www.icaacy.com
After reading all the posts we are tension free now, my father is asking one thing…. orders/decree passed by court of any other country can be executed as it is in INDIA or in any other country where the respondent party have not participated in the proceedings.
and again thank you for your advice
Ravi, don’t get fooled. It is just a scam. There are no legal advisers, no courts… They have NO POWER, legal or otherwise. Tell you father to relax.
Hi Sam thanks for the advise. Just received our first invoice 1271 Euro from EXPO GUIDE, Will keep quite and ignore them. Many Many Thanks!
You’re welcome, Ray
hi, i just had a fight with a guy of ICAA who tried to scare me to pay their ridiculous bill. i just told her to go to hell, i have talked to my lawyer and i am ready to fight:)
You won’t need to fight. I promise you, nothing will happen. Just hang up from now on and don’t engage with them.
I used to work for them and there’s many more of us out here who made a lucky escape.
Biggest most ridiculous scam run by a complete tosser.
The Country of so called ‘Due restriction is in Mexico’ and they aint never gonna bother taking any of you to court, all bullshit, don’t pay..
Hi
Our Marketing Manager was fooled by this scam back in 2008, at first we ‘engaged’ with the company ie: sent a letter from our legal department but after reading your website I decided to just ignore them – approx 2 years of letters….taking us to court…..adding on the second years fees…..negotiating for us to pay one year and then they would forget the full bill…..letter from dodgy looking legal company…..phone calls, all were ignored…. and guess what….nothing happened! and eventually the letters just stopped!!
Anyway a couple of weeks ago one of Sales Managers was fooled….AAARRRGGGHH!….Here we go again!! What worries me abit more about this one was that it was sent to his home address, where on earth did they get that info! This time I will ignore it from the start!!
Hi Sarah – glad to hear that YOU know the score here! If you can, let your Sales Manager know that it’s not ‘their fault’ – this scam is set up to fool anyone and everyone.
Hi Sunny – thanks for that. Hopefully scam victims will take notice of what you say.
HELLO SAM
yesterday i received the following email….
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
28 January 2012-
ref 335077
Attention of Mr J. Singh//CEO.
We feel we have tried our utmost in assisting you to resolve this matter with our client Expo Guide – OUT OF COURT.
You have failed to co-operate with us on behalf of our client.
You will now be receiving a Legal letter from our Lawyer/Legal department at ICAA on Monday 30 January 2012
You will have 3 banking days to respond / to make payment.
Payment by T/T or Credit Card (make sure you write your reference number on document)
Failing this, your file will be returned to our client on Thursday 02 February 2012 as an open/unpaid debt.
You will then be receiving in the near future a summons to appear , or to send a legal representative to represent you/your company in the court of law, as our client will proceed to redeem the full outstanding amount of USD 4,713.00 plus legal expenses,
All bullshit, Ravi, designed to scare you.
Sunny (who worked for these crooks) said a little earlier:
“I used to work for them…..and they aint never gonna bother taking any of you to court, all bullshit, don’t pay..”
Thanks Sam For Supporting all of us and i have read Sunny’s post also
Today i received a letter from some legal department from them through email, 1st they were asking for USD 4713 now they are asking for USD 3142, its kind of making their own fool.
Hi Ravi. Yes, they’re too busy bullying people over the phone to keep ACTUAL records, so the numbers change all the time. Funny isn’t it.
I also fell for this with Expo-Guide and signed the form thinking it was a free update of our company details. A month later, well after the cancellation period, I received the 1st invoice and sent a registered letter that day saying the form had been signed in error and we wished to cancel the order. Since then I have received another invoice with a late fee and have since been corresponding with them by e-mail trying to argue that their form says “you can revoke the order within 10 days of subscription” but they do not clarify a date of subscription so they cannot say that I did not cancel the order in time. They are not accepting this though.
My latest correspondance was today where they are starting the legal jargon:
I was starting to get worried until I googled them and all the information about it being a scam came to light aswell as this brilliant website.
I have one question though: I have read it several times that they have never actually brought someone to court as it would not hold up in UK, USA, etc but has anyone from Ireland any feedback on how they got on as this is where I am based. Also, how long does it take before they give up. I’ve a feeling this is just the start of a very long, annoying battle!
Hi Teda
You asked if anyone has ever been taken to court from Ireland? I can answer this quickly:
There is no evidence of anyone anywhere having been taken to court (Ireland included)
As to how long it takes to give up… well, it’s not an exact science but, as a rule, they’ll probably keep mailing out demands to you for years to come. You need to be prepared for that. There’s nothing you can do about it, unfortunately. To the scammers, it’s just the price of an A4 letter and a stamp but it’s worth it if they can hook you in and stand a chance of a €1,000 payoff). If you communicate with them, I promise you they will increase their bullying. Don’t bother with the angry “I know you’re scammers, you nasty people” letters – to them, this communicates that you’re afraid and invites them to increase the bullying some more.
Thanks for that Sam. Good to know. From now on its straight to the bin with these letters. Will try report back on how I am getting on with them.
I can’t believe these people are still at this.
A few years ago my business partner made the mistake of making contact with these people to tell them we weren’t interested… but that was all they needed… they now knew we existed and had a name.
He then started to get threatening calls and demands for money. Finally he told me what was going on.
I knew this was just rubbish so I took over taking the calls and basically told them to prove that we had signed anything… so they sent me a copy of ‘our’ form that we had signed. So they duly faxed me the form we had signed. Well it wasn’t a signature it was an ilegible squiggle which they had clearly done, but they said this was proof we owed them the money. I said it did nothing of the sort, the signature was of no-one within our organisation and unless they could prove who signed it they could forget it.
They got very heated at this point and said they didn’t have to prove anything, we owed them. I told them I would speak to the police and report this, which got them even more annoyed and angry.
I did actually speak to the police but there was nothing they could do.
From this point on I just refused the calls, ignored the letters and NOTHING ever happened.
So to this day when I get these letter, and I still do, I just throw them away.
They have no power other then fear, so don’t be afraid just ignore them and like the irritaging parasite they are they will stop hassling.
Absolutely Jonathan. Well put. Take heed folks.
Hi Sam,
I am also one of the victims in Hong Kong. I have mistakenly signed the contract in 2010 with Construct Data, currently located in Slovakia . At first I thought I was my own fault of overlooking the condition in small print, and therefore I paid for the 1st year at USD 1717. This is the 2nd year and they sent me another invoice requesting payment. I called in to speak with them, a person named Geoffrey McKay. He talked to me in a very rude manner that I should make my payment immediately. I felt strange enough that a customer service would talk to a customer like that and therefore I went online and search about this company. And there I was so surprised that so many of us have been fooled by this company!! After reading all these information, I decided that I should also ignore their demand of payment. I see that Ivy from Hong Kong also got trapped in this scam, Ivy, do you have any update of your situation? I really wonder how likely they can take this to court in HK?
Please advise.
Thx,
Pavy
Pavy, it’s proven already – it’s 0% likely they can take anyone to court anywhere in the world! Their only weapon is your fear and uncertainty – nothing else.
i received their letter in January and at our offices we thought , since it looked like a great marketing tool , i just took the letter , gave it to my boss to sign and none of us took the time to read it through , after a month they sent the first invoice and i wouldnt believe the amount they charged us USD 1,676. I BEGAN TO PANICK .
so i thought to myself let me do some more researtch about this company and i am so relived that i have found this forum,i was so sacred of what might happen and i was stressed out, i didnt even know what to tell my bosses at work.As this reflects badly on me as a marketing officer.
The company that i work operates in Botswana, Southern africa ,it is shocking that they can go as far as Botswana just to keep on scamming companies something has to be done to remove this company scam from existence.I am not going to pay them a penny.
i like to thank everyone on this forum
You’re welcome Rachel.
You said ‘it is shocking that they can go as far as Botswana’ – try to remember, this is a bunch of people sitting in a room in Cyprus or somewhere (anywhere, tbh) just mailing stuff out and making phone calls. From there they can go as far as… well, anywhere.
All they need is people who speaka the lingo and they’re away.
Re “Saltex” comment expo Guide
Sam
Not too sure if it was actually in the “Exhibitor Pack” but certainly arrived same day. Sunce writing in Oct I have had the debt collectors from Cyprus. I refused to take their call unless they would give a “Credit or Debit ” card number with a charge of £20/min. Needless to say I did not take the call. Today we have received a form from the “Industry and Commerce” regitry of business information. This is really European City Guides SL. THE COST
Euro 997.00. The form comes complete with return envelope. E.C.G, SL, c/MARTINEZ cUBELLS NO6,40,PTA 8, e-46002, valencia. Beware,
Regards
Jim
Hie Sam
thank you for your response and for the effort you doing, we all appreciate it.
it is true what you just said, these people seriously have nothing to do with all the time they have.However with that being said, global associations that deal with such huge scammers should take this seriously and get to the bottom of this.
thank you Sam
Thanks for that Jim
Hi!
Any advice here?
I have received a call from EXPO’s lawyer and received her documents which I have to reply in 14 days.
There are giving an out-of-court settlement.
Anyone with the same experience and what are the results?
Hi Danny
It’s very simple. EXPO is 100% scam – therefore you owe them nothing. The threats are all part of the game to make you think that an ‘out of court settlement offer’ (of around €1,000) is somehow attractive. It’s how they scam you into paying them. That’s a lot of money considering you actually owe them nothing (and they know this very well).
To answer your question directly: EVERYONE here has had EXACTLY the same experience and NO-ONE who didn’t pay has EVER been taken to court.
Just take a bit more time to research (i.e. read ALL these comments carefully) and you will find reassurance.
Just received a similar “offering” from European City Guide for the “Industry and Commerce – Register of Business Information” – at the bargain price of Euro 997 – and for just one year only so no three year commitment!
Identical format and it is based in Barcelona – WHY ISN’T THE EU CLOSING DOWN THESE SCAMMERS?
Hi,
I´ve been getting these letters to check my listing etc. for a few years now. I´ve known from the start that it was a scam so I´ve just thrown the letters away. This time I did however cut out my company details and returned the letter with a few nasty comments and some other nasty stuff… I think if everybody would sink to my level and return the letter with some “nice” greeting it would atleast increase Expo guides expences for their fraudulent operation since they are paying the postage. If you follow my example be shure to remove your company details. Boy it felt good to send them my regards…
Cheers,
Stefan
Hi Stefan and All,
Have been returning the letters to them for sometime -without any comments- but it does not seem to be working.
I have been threatened by them with legal action for not paying about a year ago where I called them and asked for their legal department but I just got a new invoice from the with my renewal of subscription for another year.
Added of course is last year’s invoice.
Initially have followed their directions on how to cancel but PO boxes do not get recorded delivery letter so it is impossible to cancel and there is no cancellation directions in the new invoice.
Do not plan to bother with the letter just letting everyone know that there might be a renewal of subscription for their services.
Kind regards
Stamo
Hi
I have been get scam by this expo guide, after read through the mail about this scam expo guide, i did follow the sample letter and wrote to them. but i received a reply by fax copy informed that we need to settle the amount owing. Is it from now onward, can I ignored what ever letter or invoice from them? could you let me know what to do? just ignored it?
Hi Sam
Just spent the last day or two catching up on all the comments…..
Here’s some info pertaining to how they caught me out (the usual making it look like an update, to the extent that they even call the pdf attachment an “update form”, cheeky sods)…..
The original email came from ‘Claudia’, of ‘World Trade Register’ in Utrecht, with a PO Box postal address and the email address info@worldguide2012.com
The invoice I received came from a Ms Joanna Terhus from the domain name EU Business Services (a google search of which led me to this blog and others), with a phone number 0031 205 248 107, which goes to a fax machine on which yuo can leave a message…..although 1st time I called it I spoke with Joanna).
Suffice to say that both the domain names relating to both the emails are blocked, I’ve sent them a “bring it on!” message, the phone number is blocked on our switch and we will mark any letters received as ‘return to sender’.
Utter scumbag thieving morons – this is what passes for ‘work’ for them? Get a life.
Sam – kudos on keeping all this going, you’ve helped a lot!
*wave*
I was scammed. It was my second day here and we were in the midst of preparing for a show. I corrected what I thought was the directory with my contact information and then 7 weeks later received an invoice for $1700. Of course I could have complained but you had 10 days to do it and they took 7 weeks to send me the invoice. Basically the time had run out.
I did know it was a scam until today. A few days ago I e-mailed them and got a very professional letter today saying I signed a contract and I’m obligated to pay. Thats when I thought something is odd here. Most companies would say they are sorry and would take us out of their system. I am not paying and I have filed complaints for the Federal Trade Commission and US Postal.
Next week I will tell my supervisor. I am embarrassed as I am usually not fooled like this.
Hi Deb – tell your supervisor to read all these posts and comments and to not to be annoyed with you. You are among tens (hundreds) of thousands of people who have been deliberately misled this way. Don’t feel bad. But don’t communicate with these people either; trust me – it just helps them to bully you.
Ha! Exactly as predicted in other comments, they wrote to our company today informing us that it’s “too late” to cancel the first year’s subscription but they’re generously offering to write off the other two years IF we pay up.
Needless to say, I won’t be replying to them……….
Good for you Jim!
One of my staff singed this form by mistake last July. I thought something was odd so did some Googling and discovered it was a scam. All post from them has gone straight in the bin. I advised them that we were well aware that they were a scam and that we would never, under any circumstances, pay them a single penny. They replied saying that rumours of them being a scam were “unofficial, anonymous and unverified opinions”. I then drew their attention to the fact that UK Trading Standards had issued a scam alert against them on the 27th of October 2011 (see link below) and asked them if they thought the UK government were expressing unofficial, anonymous and unverified opinions.
They went on to claim that they have never lost a court case and I replied saying that’s because they’ve never launched one because they know they would be laughed out of court. By this point is was all becoming a bit of a yawn so I started mocking them by asking if they could instigate legal proceedings against us seeing as I had made it absolutely clear we weren’t going to pay. I suggested that this could be their golden opportunity to secure a ruling and show the world they weren’t a scam
No reply.
Please, please, please don’t waste a single second of your time worrying about ExpoGuide.
http://www.chambernews.biz/news/wiltshire/trading-standards-issue-scam-alert
Surprise surprise they didn’t go for the showcase trial?? Lols. Thanks for the link Z
the company that I got scam from is Benjamin and Ryan Holding from hong kong they choose the contray and they hit your town how did they get your address from the post office then they will send you anything and everything just to make you believe them just remember this company Benjamin And Ryan Holding is a Scammer am one of the person that got scam from them they got my money almost 15.000.00 and don’t want to give it back all they said is sine am not a member go to hell
These people have been hounding me now for 4 years, today a woman with an English accent phoned me from a number 00 357 252 70600 saying she was from a credit agency intimating she was in England however 357 is the area code for Cyprus, I explained to her I had contacted the police re this scam and she terminated our conversation.
Hi Kate. Sounds like a good approach to me
Thanks for the phone number – Google loves details like that.
Dear all,
A new name came up. It is Tracey.
Further contact details are the same:
Tracey Vedamutu
Senior Credit Manager
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT ASSESSMENT AGENCY
ICAA Ltd.
Tsacon Court
187A Leontiou Str. 4th Floor.
3020Limassol
Cyprus
P.O. Box 53397
3302 Limassol
Cyprus
Phone: +357 25 27 06 66
Fax: +357 25 27 07 77
E-mail: tv@icaacy.com
Website: http://www.icaacy.com
Mail ended up in Junk > this is where it is supposed to be!
Hi Anne – don’t be surprised with the names, they’re all made up anyway.
Hi to all! My name is Oleg? i am from Kazakhstan. I already have box of letters and invoices from Expo Guide) I have a collection))
New letter for me after call tolking with some guy))) Enjoing))
EXPO-GUIDE VS SED L.L.P.
Without Prejudice
Ref.: Expo Guide order no. 357558,
Dear Mr. Ukrainsky
Further to our phone discussion with regards to the above subject, the International Credit Assessment Agency have been instructed to act on behalf of our client Expo Guide.
An order form and covering letter was sent by post to your company offering an advertisement on a website directory for businesses who attend Fairs and Exhibitions. A signed and stamped order form was received by our client from SED L.L.P. ( see attachments )
Upon receipt of the order form, your company’s data was entered on to the website directory as a full size insertion for the following 3 years, see direct link as follows:-
http://www.expo-guide.com/SED-KZ
Despite the fact that you have ignored all previous reminders, this issue has now become an urgent legal matter.
According to our client, your company failed to fulfill your contractual obligations to this date and is in serious breach of the terms and conditions of the contract. By the general terms and conditions of the contract you are obliged to pay USD 1,571.00 per year.
A detailed list below indicates the invoices and reminders that have been sent to you:-
Memo:
06.09.2010 1. Invoice USD 1571
11.10.2010 Reminder USD 0
16.11.2010 First overdue payment reminder USD 36.94
14.12.2010 Second overdue payment reminder USD 21.96
11.01.2011 Final overdue payment reminder USD 21.96
01.02.2011 Legal notice 1 USD 18.35
01.03.2011 Legal notice 2 USD 21.96
06.09.2011 2. Invoice USD 3142
06.09.2011 Acquisition expenses KR USD 121.17
11.10.2011 Reminder USD 0
15.11.2011 First overdue payment reminder USD 65.35
13.12.2011 Second overdue payment reminder USD 36.42
10.01.2012 Final overdue payment reminder USD 36.43
31.01.2012 Legal notice 1 USD 29.19
28.02.2012 Legal notice 2 USD 36.42
Outstanding amount: USD 3,466.98 – The third yearly invoice is still to be raised at USD 1,571.00
Please be informed that the case against SED L.L.P. is currently facing court.
Expo Guide is obliged by law to seek amicable settlement to the outstanding debt resulted from the order you have initiated.
Please take immediate action to settle the outstanding amount of USD 3,466.98 ( I have proposed to waive all additional interest and fees in this instance) Payment date : 24/04/2012
If you do not wish to continue with our client’s services for the third year of the order and in order to prevent further liabilities and legal repercussions, ICAA hereby propose a Cancellation Agreement upon settlement of this transaction, the contract is terminated, prior to the third yearly invoice being raised. This will bring an end to the contract and no further invoices or correspondence will be received.
Failure to settle the above amount amicably, will leave us with no alternative but to forward this case to our Legal Department for legal action to recover the full amount of the three year contract plus legal fees, expences with the possibility of adversely affecting your good company’s credit rating and reputation.
Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Attached to this e-mail are:
Copy of the Final Invoice
Copy of Expo terms and info
Copy of the Contract
Copy of the Cover letter
Copy of previous two expired invoices
We hope to have clarified the matter and thank you in advance for your prompt response.
Yours sincerely,
Rick Andreotti
Credit Manager
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT ASSESSMENT AGENCY
ICAA Ltd.
Tsacon Court
187A Leontiou Str. 4th Floor.
3020Limassol
Cyprus
P.O. Box 53397
3302 Limassol
Cyprus
Phone: +357 25 27 06 66
Fax: +357 25 27 07 77
E-mail: ra@icaacy.com
Website: http://www.icaacy.com
Good old non-existent ‘Rick Andreotti’
I been recived thouse on my email I just don’t care to look at it cause I know it just a big scam am not going to let it happen again I was a victim from this company Benjamin and Ryan Holding and Sands Tourism when they scam me they took my money and they never gave me my winning even I told them that am disable person all they said is we the company of Benjamin and Ryan Holding if you not a member in our company we don’t care what other people say cause they are not a member so please people stay away from thouse add and email there are not real it all fraud they just out to scam you and hart you don’t let them win right now am really harting for what they did to me just be were of them am going to keep fighting until my last breath in this world
Ok – Albina, thanks for this. I’ll look further into it..
http://getoutofdebt.org/42354/sands-tourism-benjamin-ryan-holdings-scam-documentation
I have to say that it’s unusual that almost everything bad online about these people comes back to you, Albina. According to the pictures on the above website, it sure looks scammy to me – i.e. anything that asks you to pay something to release a prize of any size is scammy and exploitative. And their website has *all* the hallmarks of a scam-front website. But I’d be interested to find any information about these people other than just your complaint….
I’ll keep looking.
Hi Sam,
I just want to thank you for this site. If I hadn’t of found it I would probably still be distraught at how stupid I had been to sign this thing!
I am off to my solicitors today to get a little piece of mind on the situation.
I am also geering up for the barage of phonecalls and emails/letters as I first contacted them by my company email to cancel which contains all my details including mobile number!!!!! Wish I had seen your sight first.
Ohy well what is done is done.
I will let you know what my solicitor says.
Once again thank you for helping me see I am not alone and so now do not feel quite as stupid!
Katie, you don’t need to visit your solicitor to get peace of mind. All the information you need is out there, just Google it and make sure to read the comments of all the other people that have visited this site too. To be honest, I’ve not heard many solicitors get off the fence about these scams – mainly because they often don’t know enough about them – and all too often, they recommend people to continue communicating with them – something which I don’t advise.
Anyway, relax, you’re not alone.
I being reporting makeing comment about this company Benjamin and Ryan Holding and Sands Tourism I don’t know what to do or were to go for someone to help me is there a way that you can help me or point me to the right person am not good on words and computer am disable person I cannot work I just want my children back my life back
Albina
The only thing I can find online is this from 2011 http://getoutofdebt.org/32969/sands-tourism-sent-me-two-scratch-off-tickets-and-say-im-a-winner-luena which suggests that the company might be one of those legal companies using what I would consider to be ‘exploitative’ means to persuade people to pay for the chance to collect a prize… which, of course, never turns out to be worth shit.
Your postings online (everywhere!) are very confused so it is impossible to ascertain what actually happened to you or what your complaint against these people is.
I suggest that if you’ve lost money in some kind of scheme, then the internet is not the place to try to get it back. If the company is legal, you need to complain to bodies with jurisdiction over them in your country or region. For example, for misleading ‘prize collection’ promotions in the UK it would be the Office Of Fair Trading (OFT) or Trading Standards. If the company isn’t legal then you stand virtually no chance of getting any redress – you simply have to accept you’ve been scammed.
Your own worst enemy is your lack of clarity about what you claim has happened / is happening to you. Posting a chaotic rant on every site you can will not help others to understand how they could possibly help you.
It just that this company putting there add again trying to scam other people again and no one is doing anything about it why are they god no am not going to stop I will make shere no one will came close to them again cause they were evil and a big SCAMMER bad people stay down they don’t stand
Hi Sam,
I understand what you are saying about Solicitors but I needed to go for my piece of mind but also to prove to my company that I was given some legal advice about it.
Good news anyway! Solicitor did not sit on the fence…He did advise me to ignore all contact, he said that it was very unlikely that Mexico would have any kind of juristiction over here to bring this to a court, which is the only way the company could get a judgement to collect any kind of debt. So yes all the debt and bailliff letters that I am sure I shall receive in the coming months will mean nothing unless backed with a UK court Judgement.
This does make me feel better, although I am not looking forward to the harrassment that many seem to get, but at least I will know not to get stressed or anxious about it.
many thanks again for making this site and heping so many people.
God Bless you!
Kate you’re welcome. “unless backed with a UK court Judgement”? It will never happen, I promise.
OK. Thanks – now you’ve had your say so I’m not going to approve any more comments on that subject (as it is also off topic). Good luck.
Sam
Great website thanks. We too are being’hounded’ for payment. Having looked at the STOP ECG website it suggets writing various letters and provides templates. Whats your advice – do we just leave it and ignore the threats or write the letters as suggetsed?
Thanks
Ed – I respect all that Jules Woodell has done in researching and fighting against these scammers, but I think he’s wrong about sending them letters. If you communicate with them, you are sending them one simple, clear signal – and that is a part of you fears them. If you knew 100% they were criminal scammers you wouldn’t waste your time replying to them, showing them your anger (and fear) or trying to tell them that you know they’re scammers. You’d just tear up their crap safe in the knowledge that, as criminals, there is nothing in the world they can do to you.
Responding just tells them 1) they’ve got the right address and 2) that you’re treating them with the respect that you’d give to a legal, decent company.
It’s up to you but like I’ve said many, many times before: these people will stop bullying you when they KNOW they are literally wasting their (limited) resources. So long as they have a connection with you and can read your fear/anger/outrage (they’re all the same to the scammers) in those exchanges then it’s worth continuing.
A good way to tell them that they won’t get money from you is to tell them once “Guess what, you’re never going to get any money from me” and then never answer their calls, mails or letters again. An even better way is to not even answer them in the first place.
Hi Sam,
I am Jay from Korea.
Unfortunately many koreans dont know about Expo guide and about this site too.
I was also misled by their letter and received the invoice already twice. I felt so bad at first, but as soon as I found here and read your advices to others I thought I can get through this. (all i can do is just ignoring them though…)
I am really wondering what happens after all to the victims who got trapped in this scam last 2009. Do they really bring people to court or just give up and find other victims? Or do they keep sending threatening letters to them?
If any of you read this, please share your story with me and other new victims. It would be really grateful for all of us! (just so sad the scam doesnt stop…)
Many thanks!
Great advice Sam thanks
Funnily enough about an hour i posted the message they called.
I told them pretty much exac tly that – they will not be getting any money out if us. When she (English Accent – Ruby somebody) tried to re-iterate i hung up on her.
Suffice to say they havent called back.
Jay, use Google and also read all the comments here – but I can tell you that in several years of research I have never seen a single case of these scams going to court. I know why this is, but you need to be convinced of it.
Good for you Ed – it’s very simple: the minute they KNOW you aren’t going to pay, they’ll move on to people who are more easily bullied.
Im so happy i decided to Google this because they haven’t responded to my emails since I got this invoice. I know that they will be a pain in my butt but I’m not going to pay. I’m sending a certified letter today and its within the time frame. I’m standing on that when they call.
ShaRonda – I don’t recommend you sending a certified letter because it communicates two things to the scammers: 1) that they’ve got you on their hook (i.e. you’re alive and at the address they think you are) and b) that you’re scared.
If you weren’t scared – if you knew (as I do) that these people are scammers and crooks – then you would simply ignore them and not even waste time worrying.
Please trust me on this.
Hey!
Since june 1st 2011, when I get an e-mail from ICAA, I haven´t heard from them at all!
Of course I didn´t answer that mail.
Maybe have the give up – I hope so!
Liisa
Welcome back Liisa and thanks for keeping us up to date! Glad to hear they’ve left you alone all this time
Folks – the key message here “Of course I didn’t answer that mail”
I think an employee of mine has signed us up to this and paid for it previously.
However I am now receiving the letters of the threats etc. etc. etc. Its actually laughable that they think I would pay this. The threatening letters cause me no concern or worry whatsoever. They will never in a million years take this to court.
I do however enjoy things like this and giving them false hope in thinking I will pay. At the moment though I don’t have enough time on my hands so ill just use the reminders/ threats for scrap paper.
Hi All,
We too (small start-up company) got hit with this scam. Got the first invoice today but I am glad to read here that we are not alone. We will not pay a single cent and we will just simply ignore them.
I am actually planning to travel to Mexico city this coming Christmas as my girlfriend is from there. I could pay a visit to these people while I am over there and I dunno confront them… but come to think about it, they possibly have links to Drug Cartels
wish me look….joking!!
Hi Dave. You’re not alone. Don’t go near these people; this is big money and I expect you’d be out of your league. Hit them hard by not paying. Period.
Best of luck .
Hello Everyone
I too signed their free entry form and ended up over a couple of years with invoices totalling around £4k, which was 2 years contract charges, plus interest. I sent the standard reply letter, but their threat letters just kept on coming, so I just sent the odd letter back reffering them to my earlier letter and all these sites.
At one point they offered me a chance to put this all behind me by paying a one off discounted rate of £2.5k, how kind.
Eventually I wrote to them begging them to take legal action against me, so I and every other victim they have harrassed and stolen money from could have our day in court…… evenually they just went away.
For all those decent people above worrying and panicing, just relax and take the advice above, just tear up every letter you get, dont read it, they cannot do a thing, under no circumstance pay them a penny, it just gives them funds to continue this fraud. N
Hello everybody,
Our company had same situation about Expo – guide. We had received a blank with wrong our company details(that was the hook), then we had replied with explanation that the information is wrong and with official letter asked about — “is it for free” (?).
The answer was: ” Please let us have your necessary changes to the address on record and
our Data Operators will make the modifications >> free of charge.”
So according to this we have sent filled form with all the company details. After all we received an invoice with payment details.
We tried to reply by proving that we dont want any services, but they still send us the invoices…
And today we had received a call, asking to pay.. we asked them to send theyr company registration details.
They have sent us the details, and some certifications, but we are not sure is it true, furthermore they had attached fax registry documents (received and sent dates fax report)
Does anyboy know what solution to choose, and what kind of institutions can help regarding this?
You can be sure it’s NOT TRUE – it’s just a scam. Don’t pay them and don’t communicate with them. Please read all the comments here plus my advice – the answers are all in there.
Dear Mukaumedia, Thanks ! I am so glad I saw your site. We are one of the early victims but probably the last to join this group. My story is the same as most of you above. Lately Expoguide started sending more legal looking letter and also appointed a company in Cyprus by name ICAA ( ( international credit assessment agency ) to claim their dues from us. ICAA sent us 6 tough looking mails and in the last one they have “advised” expoguide to take legal action against us. Basically I filled the form after being hounded with several follow ups. Later realized its a major scam when I got the first invoice as I was clearly under impression that it was our exhibition event management company’s rep trying to get updated information from us and we did not want to be left out. But then it turns out to be a devil in the name of expoguide who had conned us. I just deleted and dumped all their correspondence into waste bins. Lately I saw a warning notice on our exhibition website and started acting by writing to Mexican embassy, Cypriot embassy etc. Hope to get these hounds of our back soon.
Dear all
I am from Thailand, I was one of the victim of Expo-guide too, they sent the letter to my univeristy couple months ago to update the information, and i did signed the letter. One month later , i got the first billing from them it cost me about $1000 over which I try to contact them by email but nothing happen, And just got the second notice invoice from them again for late paying. I was so nervouse until i decided to search the web in google and find such a briilant website (yours). My worry is gone but I do belive they will keep sending the invoice and letter to our university again and again. What should I do?
Hi Passawan
Your belief is right – they WILL send you more invoices, letters, faxes and (if they think they can bully you that way) phone calls. You have to follow the #1 rule: do NOT communicate. They only way their scam works is for them to get you in communication. That’s IT. There’s nothing else to it. Keep strong, tear up the letters, hang up the phone. They can do nothing to you.
I am from Russia and yes, I am a victim too. Just 3 days ago got a call from some woman from Cyprus asking me to pay at least half of the sum. I asked her to take me to court or just stop bothering me. After that conversation she emailed me the bill again, too funny )
I am going to report the scammers to Mexican government, to Cyprus government and to all other organizations who can help to stop the scammers.
Excuse my english! And thank you for this website!
Hi Elena – good for you. Try NOT to communicate with them from here, it’s better for your blood pressure
Glad we could help to reassure you.
Thank you, Sam! I am so grateful to you!
Hi to Sam and all other individuals who have posted comments about Expo Guide. Two weeks ago I was horrified by an invoice received in the mail from Expo Guide for payment on a listing I stupidly signed without reading the fine print. I was completely freaked out because I know my boss will have a cow if he saw that I had signed in agreeing to pay for this without reading the fine print!! I decided today to do some google research on this and by God’s grace I was able to calm my nerves after reading about this scam.
I responded to them via email and phone call that my company was unable to pay and have been dealing with a John Taylor at Expo Guide in Mexico. I am still waiting on a response from them nervously, but you have now armed me with the right ammunition to deal with this scam and with your advice Sam, I will be ignoring any form of communication they send to me from now onwards.
Thank you so much for the information provided here and I will keep you posted on the outcome. PS, I am from a country in the Caribbean, to show you how far they have gone! Thanks again!
You’re welcome
Hey guys,
Just an update on the situation – so I received in the mail today a letter from their “Legal Department”. Stating that my balance is still outstanding and I until the end of November to settle or our company will be dealt with accordingly. LOL!! Simply laughing this off, I filed it in a special place and await their brutal dealings…smh.
Thanks for the update, Amie. File it under ‘ignore’ and enjoy your life. Nothing will happen.
My company too received the invoice asking us to pay the amount. Nevertheless we will just ignore it. Thanks for the comments and advices.
It seems that this scam is a nationwide global scam. They are sending the letter to all over the world.
Hi, we are in the UK and have been caught out too. We have emailed and sent them a recorded delivery letter telling them our intention is not to pay. Luckily today I have found this website! Do we now just ignore all further communications?
Hi Caroline – the simple answer is ‘Yes’
It’s the only way to beat their scam.
Hi, we just received the email with the cover letter ,signed order form and invoice in sum of USD 3431.59 and requested for the payment by Mr Peter Lansky,Legal Advisor-International Credit Assessment Agency ,ICAA Ltd
ask us to solve the payment and to avoid lawsuit. Can we just ignored the this message?
Yes you can and should ignore them. Please take time and read the comments here – the answer is here.
How to put an end to the ‘Expo – Guide’ scam
This company send out a postage paid envelopes to enable return the of the forms for the bogus listings which will cost them for every one they get back so next time you receive one of these don’t bin it, put it back in the post paid envelope, inscribed, if you so desire, with a suitable message and put in the mail. As they must be sending out 100,000s there will be a tipping point when their mail cost will out weight the gains from the scam at which point they will give up.
For this to work you lots of people need to do this so spread the word!
James
Dear Sam,
I am Thai people who have been threaten from Expo-Guide through this year. I just received e-mail from ICAA regarding on non-payment of invoices and breach of contract, it is very annoying us. I ignored and threw their letters away many times but it seems that they persistent efforts. They always try to remind me to pay.
Could you please suggest me to STOP an idiot letter from EXPO-GUIDE. I dont want to be sued from them.
Thanks.
Hi Thity
Don’t be afraid; Expo Guide and ICAA have NO LEGAL power at all. They can do nothing to you or your business. Their scam depends on your fear and uncertainty; beyond that they have nothing.
The good news is they can do nothing to you.
The bad news is that the ONLY way you can stop them writing / calling is to IGNORE their communication. In time, they *may* stop sending – but it is likely they will continue to try.
You just need to ignore them and put them out of your mind.
I’d like to reiterate – Do NOT Pay. They will do nothing but harass you with letters. I actually did not realize it was a scam until I tried calling them to plead that I had mistakenly signed the letter. I could tell it was some kind of scam just by the way the phone line was (bad reception, muffled tone to the persons voice etc.). But, yet I was still scared, so I started Googling it and came across the various websites such as this one.
I literally could not sleep for weeks and I almost paid it out of my pocket out of fear that my boss would find out and get upset. But, thank goodness for these sites and blogs around the web. I never paid. I still actually continue to get the original scamming letters! Now, I send it back with a big note that says “I Know Who You Are!” lol.
It’s a game we play at this point.
So, please anyone out there who is afraid they might get in trouble with a boss, or who feels threatened into paying – DO NOT!!! They will never do anything except for send the threatening letters. Just trash them or send back with fun little notes like I do
.
Hey M – thanks for posting this here as well
I hope it helps with people who are still nervous and think they really have something to lose by not paying these scammers.
Dear Sam Deeks and everyone,
Thank you very much for your support. i m a bit feel good and i will try to stop by ignoring but ICAA and Expo guide seems to buff and pressure every 2 days. How should i do? I’m quite bored with this scam !!!
My publishing company received an interesting set of letters and emails from ICAA recently.
After doing a little bit of homework, I discovered your site. So for fun and pleasure, I am responding to ICAA and publishing the emails/letters on my blog http://www.beahappymillionaire.com. I thought your readers may be interested to read about the ‘adventure’.
I would also like to thank you for the information which has no doubt helped thousands. God bless.
Azizi Ali
Hi Azizi
Thanks for your comments. It was my intention to create a body of ‘testimony’ from scam victims to help reassure other victims and I’ve been able to do that. It probably has helped thousands over the last four years or so that people have been arriving here and reading these threads. I do recommend, however, that the best course of action is to stop communicating with these people – unless there is some specific pay-off for you that you’re very clear about and which is worth exchanging your precious time and life-energy for. The most effective action you can take against them is to add your voice to helping to reassure those who have been hooked not to pay and to use whatever influence you have in your own networks to stop others from getting hooked in the first place.
Wishing you all the best,
Sam
Thanks for this website!
Hi Guys,
I have had an invoice from this scamming company issued on 24.01.2013 (very recent) for 1,271 Euro’s.
This is Expo Guide S.C. Mexico!
Account Holder: Expo Guide, S.C., Mexico D.F., Mexio
IBAN: HU59 1378 9017 0575 8077 0000 0000
SWIFT: INGBHUHB
Any hackers fancy going to town on this bank account, feel free
I have just returned the Expo-guide pre-paid envelope but with two blank pieces of paper, if everyone did this, at least they would have postal charges to pay!
I get their directory every year and they make it look like it’s specific to your industry, and would be easy to just sign and return, I normally bin it but posting blank pages back gives me a little satisfaction.
I thought it would be good to know the possible outcome when Expo Guide threatens with ‘legal action’. The outcome would be: nothing!
If they; 1: Take the case to a Mexican court (as they claim to have the right to as it is written in their bogus ‘contract’) they could not use that ruling outside of Mexico, even if they would win. Any Mexican ruling is only enforceable in Mexico. If you reside outside of Mexico you are safe as a baby. 2: Take the case to a court in your country. That court would most likely rule in favour of you! The contract is fraudulent and any court would see that, no claims from Expo Guide could be made based on it.
In both scenarios Expo guide loses a lot of money just to TRY to take you to court, money they most likely won’t want to part from as the outcome would most definitively be unfavorable for them. Even IF they would win it would cost them more than they could possible gain.
Hi, thanks for the comment. Even in your careful ‘working it out using logic’ you’re still falling into their trap: there’s no need to work out if / when / what. This is really simple:
Bad guys sit down and plan a scam. “Hey, let’s frighten people into giving us their money” says one. “Yes” says the other “We’ll make out that if they don’t give us their money we’ll take them to court”. “Hah hah hah brilliant” says the first one. “Let’s go to the pub” says the other. Planning done.
That’s all there is to this scam (with a few people making bullying phone calls and printing scary-looking documents). Going to court NEVER featured in the plan. When you realise this, you’ll stop trying to prove to yourself (by the way, that is understandable, please don’t take offense) that they won’t take you to court. Until you DO, you continue to send them a message that they have power over you.
Best wishes
Hi to all,
We have also recently received another invoice letter with their new bank account details. It rather looks as if Bank Santander have bowed to pressure. Maybe we should all pressure the new bank
Account Holder: Expo Guide, S.C., Mexico D.F., Mexio
IBAN: HU59 1378 9017 0575 8077 0000 0000
SWIFT: INGBHUHB
Country Code: HU.
Bank Name: ING BANK ZRT.
SWIFT Branch: XXX.
SWIFT Code: INGBHUHB.
City: BUDAPEST.
Locations: BUDAPEST 84B, DOZSA GY
Have fun. By the way The letters scared me to start with but if anyone has just started getting any DON’T PANIC, If you don’t want to worry about them, then don’t open the letters, you will soon start to recognize the letter. Just what ever you do don’t communicate with them in any way what so ever. They know they are scum bags, we all know they are scums bags so don’t waste your time and energy telling them.
Michael
Hi
On January 2011 my Company took part in ShowCase Ireland.
In 11 months later we received a letter from the Showcase Ireland (with their logo
) asking for update of company data. I had been convinced that it’s just a minor formality and in good faith, automatically I filled in and sent back a letter to the Dublin’s address.
Unfortunately, not everything I read what was written in small font … and there was written, that 3DIreland place order for 3 consecutive years in Mexico Showcase and required to pay EUR 1,271 to the account of Expo-guide SC Mexico. Of course, all this is a tricky pulled agreement to pay for Expo-guide Mexico …. 1271 EUR for 3 years …
As you guess I’m not going to pay to this gangsters any one penny – just wondered how to protect us in the best possible way….
Thanks God I found the website that completely calm me down ( I highly recommend this site for study for all “victims”)
http://www.energygrid.com/watchdog/2008/11-expoguide.html
At the moment we received 1-st invoice. I found their e-mail address and write them this:
(this was before I studied website mentioned above – now – I would not do that – I full agree – IGNORING THEM is the best way…)
_____Please immediately stop sending reminding letters/invoices to our company for participation in Expo-Guide.
Our company has never reported a desire to participate in the Expo in Mexico – and sending to us such reminders/invoices is simply disgusting.___________
This has been written in lovely bold arial type in red color ( So I’m little bit better than Expo Guide, because they use red color only in fourth or fifth correspondence, not as me – on very first
What we received as an answer was:
___________We reply to your email dated 12.02.2013 and we inform you as follows:
Your company has concluded a contract with their signature in the field requiring a legally binding signature, i.e. under the section that contains the general terms and conditions and starts with the word Order in bold letters. We published the data listed on the order form as per instructions. To view your advert, view the following link: http://www.expo-guide.com/3DIRELAND.
As you entered into a legally binding contract, immediate cancellation is no longer possible and we request that you settle the outstanding invoice no later than 31.03.2013.__________
Of course they will see my money like pig heaven…
I will put some updates at key moments for the case…
and for all “victims” … do not panic – I’m mechanic!
Regards
Max
Hi, I was very interested to read this thread.
I was duped into signing the Expo-guide “contract” in 2010. It came at at a time when I was exhibiting at a large trade show and I (incorrectly) assumed that it was to check the accuracy of information for an official web listing for the show. I did not see the small print.
As soon as I received the initial invoice I sent a cancellation letter by recorded post but Expo-guide claim that is was not received within the cancellation period. I have disregarded their correspondence since.
Today I received a call from Angela Gordon – a Scottish lady working for a dept collection agency called “ICEE” out of Cyprus. She said that my bill was standing at 3805 Euros + charges and she asked me if I would like to negotiate a settlement, else she would pass the claim on to their legal people.
I did a quick search on the dept collection agency and found them turning-up in this article:
http://www.energygrid.com/watchdog/2008/11-expoguide.html
John – stick around, you’ll see very quickly it’s all just one, big nasty scam and neither you nor anyone else needs to pay anything. Read all the comments here – take your time – and take reassurance from what you find here and elsewhere online. If you’re on LinkedIn, search for my ‘Stop Expo Guide’ group.
Also – if you search Google for ‘ICAA Cyprus Ltd’ you’ll find my blog posts about this fake ‘debt collector’ which is one and the same Expo Guide.
I am still only at the stage of letters from “Legal Department”.
Has anybody tried putting heavy pressure on the banks – like say that if they handle money connected with this outfit they are assisting in a criminal activity and at the very least it is a breach of Money Laundering Regulations?
Without the help of a bank Expo Guide has no business!
Hi Sam, we are very interested to read all this, we have also been caught. I phoned the number in Mexico yesterday to ask what it was all about after receiving another reminder to pay about €2500. They emailed me a scanned copy of the form we had signed in November 2011 (if they were going to sue us surely they would have done so by now?) which – like a lot of other people – we thought was just to check for accuracy for a free listing. I emailed them back saying it was a big scam and to stop contacting us and to remove our details from their listing. They tried to intimate that they could sue us for slander and said they would sue us if we did not pay. Now that I have read your posts I am just going to ignore the whole thing. Thanks for all your advice.
Good for you Floss. Don’t worry at all
Hello from Portugal, I’m a victim too, they sended a letter saying a lot of wrong info about my parents company and my mom signed the “contract” with a false signature just in case, so I believe I will not have problems, or I will have problems even so??
Thank you so much for doing this Sam
HI Mauro, you will not have ANY problems – so long as you STOP communicating and ignore them. They have no power, they work on fear alone. They only way they can work on your fear is when you communicate with them, so cut off that option. Keep reading the comments here, joined our LinkedIn group and trust Google to show you the truth about these scammers.
We have been scammed. We have received copy orders and invoices . We are starting to get threatening letters . However, they have made many mistakes, they have our company name wrong, they have addressed it to a breed of cow! The contract is not dated so is not lawful.
Its going to get really boring reading their letters.
I have read the advice and it sounds the best thing to do is nothing and that is what we are going to do.
It was good to read this forum and it is what I thought , a SCAM .
We will not be bullied.
Good for you Liz
Don’t worry either, they have no power over you legally or morally. Everyone I have ever know who has chosen to ignore them says it was the right thing to do.
I hope it costs them lots of money chasing us.
(UK)
I too have been scammed I felt ill once I received the invoice, fearing that I could loose my job as I am not authorized to sign such “contracts” but reading the comment on here I feel a bit better. My bosses fear is that we get a CCJ against us. judging by the comments on here that will not happen is that the case? I didn’t find this forum until after I had emailed, called and faxed to tell them that it had to be cancelled as it was sign in error, of cause their response is that is not possible.
We reply to your email sent 13.03.2013 and inform you as follows:
By submitting the signed order form that we have enclosed, your company placed an order for payable advertisement and concluded a contract with Expo-Guide. We executed your order accordingly and developed and published your insert. To view it, please click on the following direct link: http://www.expo-guide.com/MULTIWAL-UK. As per the terms and conditions established by the contract, a cancellation of your order is no longer possible.
As a legally binding contract has been concluded, we ask that you settle the outstanding invoice as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully,
Customer Services
Hi Alison. Don’t worry AT ALL! This is just a nasty scam and they can do nothing to you. They exploit your (and your bosses’ fears). You will not get any CCJs because it will never go to a court (because it was never designed to go to any court). The scam doesn’t need to to make them money. A small percentage of people are scared enough to pay. That’s enough for the scammers. Tell your bosses to keep researching – here and elsewhere. You will never find any evidence of any of the millions of people these scams have hooked being taken to court…because none of them ever have. As I’ve said here a million times before there’s a simple explanation for that lack of evidence and it’s because Expo Guide CAN’T take anyone to court.
UPDATE !!!
Hello to all.
First and formost, fellow scammed, DO NOT WORRY.
I was scammed in 2008. After going through the steps, the threats, the calls, ect… I simply ignored and they stopped sending letters and calls.
*Never got any lawsuit !
What I did get afterwards, AND AM STILL getting, is the form to fill out!!!
Imagine, after trying to scam me, and me telling them I know it’s a scam, we have received since then no less than 5 (FIVE) aditionnal forms to fill out after tradeshows we participated.
The latest one just last week.
This means that their whole model is to simply machine-gun these forms to exhibiting companies, and simply hope some suckers will bite and pay-up.
DO NOT PAY !!! NOTHING bad will come out of it.
Throw the letters in the trash, and forget about these scammers.
Cheers!
Mike – thanks for commenting. You’re absolutely right, nothing bad will come out of it.
Don’t believe Expo Guide, they are a directory scam that makes a lot of people fall into their trap and become victims. Don’t reply them , don’t pay them at all! 来自中国大陆的同胞们请注意， 不要相信EXPO GUIDE的恐吓，更不要汇钱给他们这帮骗子！
There’s a new scam that I just received – exactly the same format at Expo Guide – but this is called The UK Corporate Portal that comes at the bargain price of just £797 for each of 3 years. Based in Germany and written in poor English (which obviously makes it a little easier to miss what it is really about) – but apparently stating that EU law requires a VAT number to be entered on the “return” which serves as your “order”. Otherwise identical to Expo Guide.
Hi all
Firstly I’d like to thank Sam for this group. I fell for this scam when I started at a new company in August 2010. I had so much to take on board I didn’t read the Expo form properly and assumed it was a free listing so sent them our company information.
Increasing demands for money followed, and it was only my discovery of this site that stopped us from paying them. It is almost 3 years later now, and we have ignored every letter/threat they have thrown at us, with no negative consequences to the company I work for. So far this year we have heard nothing, so my guess is they have stopped trying.
So, to everyone coming to this site, I’d like to confirm from experience that what Sam is telling you is true: do not panic, nothing will come of the threats, and eventually they will stop contacting you.
Best wishes
Ben
Ah, thanks Simon. I will watch that one with interest.
Perfect story, thanks Ben.
HEADS UP, WORRIED SCAM VICTIMS: READ BEN’S COMMENT SLOWLY AND LET IT SINK IN.
I’m a sole trader based in the UK and like almost all here, I signed their form in innocence only to be confronted with an invoice for EUR 1271.00 this morning. I don’t know if there is any comfort at all, I have not dated it. I am sick to the stomach right now. I am going to try and ignore it and hope that they go away. Sick, sick, sick.
Exactly the same thing has happened to me as Abi. I’m just going to ignore this. Thank you all for your comments – it’s not nice, but comforting to know that just ignoring them does work. This practice is so disgusting.
I am one of the victims in Hong Kong. I have mistakenly signed the contract in Late-2012 with Construct Data, which currently located in Slovakia.
i have searched via internet once i received the invoice from them. then i know it is a Scam.
i received the first “overdue letter” in early March of 2013. up to today, i have received FIVE “overdue letters” and today i received the Final reminder. This letter said i must pay otherwise they will initiate legal proceedings for recovery.
i was scared before. I have reported to HKTDC, GOV and SME. NOONE replied me for months…
today, i am quite confident to fight with them after seeing you guys.
the only concern is that…. my boss still dun know this yet… i will be blamed toughly if they called to my office. this is the reason why ppl still pay to them to help them survive due to this reason.
I will NEVER pay. cheers!
Ryan, tell you boss SOONER rather than LATER
Get them to come here, the LinkedIn group – and take them through a Google search to demonstrate the scam and how it works. Make sure to tell them that this scam is designed DELIBERATELY to get people like you (who are afraid of what their bosses will say) to pay your own money.