European Trade Register: scam or not? You (as usual) decide…

November 23, 2011 By 90 Comments

Is the European Trade Register just another ‘misleading contract’ business directory scam?

As always, you – the Great Googling General public – will decide.

If you’ve received an invitation from European Trade Register to ‘update your details for free’ in any so-called business directory (particularly if it has a 3 part name in the following format:

[Europe / European / World / Global] [Company / Trade / Business] [Directory / Register]

then just bin it.

It will undoubtedly be one of a growing number of scams which all follow the same formula: make you think you’re getting a free listing then hit you with a demand for payment (usually for 3 years at €980 a year). The pressure then increases to threats of ‘court action’ from people passing themselves off as debt collectors – with the aim of scaring people so much that they’ll settle for paying ‘just’ a single year to get these people off their backs.

That’s €980 for doing nothing but mass mailing a form, sending threatening letters and making some bullying phone calls. Easy money for European Trade Register, no?

If you HAVE fallen for it, don’t give in to the pressure. You’ll start getting demands from people pretending to be ‘debt collectors’ (in this case under the fake name ‘Walberg & Hirsch’) trying to (lols) ‘mediate’ on behalf of their client. Make no mistake – these are the same people as ‘European Trade Register’.

For immediate reassurance, please read all the comments on the following threads on my site:

• EU Business Guide 

• Expo Guide

• World Business Directory 

(…and any number of other sites dealing with every possible variant of these names. Use Google to learn more).

If you’re here because you’ve been hit by the European Trade Register scam, then please consider adding your experience using the comments link below to help to reassure others in future who will arrive here worrying about threats of legal action.

Remember, the power lies with YOU and the truth.

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!

 

Filed Under: scam, scam warning, Scambusters! Tagged With: , , , , ,

Is Hydroxatone free sample a scam? You decide.

October 15, 2011 By 10 Comments

Is Hydroxatone free sample a scam? As always, you the great Googling public will decide.

Today Clare received a Post Office note saying ‘We are unable to deliver your package until you pay £26.50 in customs charges’. The only thing she could recall having ordered that could possibly have incurred customs charges like this was a free sample of some kind of face cream.

A quick search in Google for ‘skin cream sample customs charge’ turned up this result for a product called Hydroxatone. My next search was ‘hydroxatone sample customs charge’ gave me several more revealing results including this one and this one.

It also shows that Hydroxatone is being promoted by a large number of spammy blogs stuffed with keywords like this one (right). What makes this one particularly interesting is the phrase ‘hydroxatone scam’. As a rule of thumb, when you see a business trying to hi-jack its own company or product name + “scam” in the search results, you can bet there’s a problem.

At best, this seems to be another promotion that makes money by people forgetting to cancel within the 30 days period. At worst, it looks like its deliberately designed for this to happen. I’ve seen loads of these recently and only today blogged about having been caught out myself by one operated by CreditExpert.

It’s not like Clare to get caught out by something like this either, so I’m doubly interested to find out more about Hydroxatone and how their ‘promotion’ works. Of course, if you’ve been caught out by this and want to share your experience of Hydroxatone to help inform others, then please leave a comment using the form below.

Filed Under: WARNING!!, what do you think? Tagged With: , ,

Goodgaragescheme.co.uk: how do you respond to this?

March 7, 2011 By 108 Comments

Is Goodgaragescheme a dishonest way of shifting car treatments masquerading as ‘honest’ feedback?

Quite some time ago I noticed ‘The Good Garage Scheme’ when waiting at my local garage. I asked the owner about it. He told me straight that the only way a garage could be ‘in’ the scheme was by agreeing to stock certain engine treatments. What???!!? Being a fan of honest, credible feedback, this naturally made my ears prick up.

I did some research at the time and, sure enough, he appeared to be right. I blogged about it (generously NOT using the name ‘Good Garage Scheme’ in my title to give them the benefit of the doubt) and then left it alone. Today, however, alerted by a Google search bringing traffic to this site, I found the following recent online review:

“If you’ve never heard of the good garage scheme …well it’s a scheme that any garage can join as long as they sell certain products endorsed by the company behind the scheme. They have a website where you can find good garage scheme garages and also , the most important I thought, leave reviews about the garages you visit. Now if you check their website it would be impossible to find any negative reviews posted for any garage that belongs to their scheme. On the other hand most people would probably think that this is because all the garages are good indeed and that’s why there is no bad reviews. That’s not the case though.

I live in St Albans and I decided to visit xxxx xxx x x xxxxx in St Albans to do a simple wheel alignment. The service I got was horrible. There was a 17 year old kid doing the wheel alignment while the boss ( the mechanic) was sitting in his office with his feet on his desk chatting on his mobile phone.Needless to say that the kid messed it up big time and my car was driving in a straight line with the steering wheel at an angle of 20 degrees!!!!! I complained to the mechanic who immediately tried to blame it on my car and a faulty steering wheel. That was not the case though. He did the wheel alignment and he got the car perfect which proved the point that the kid didn’t know what he was doing and in fact he put my life in danger.

Anyway , this is not a review of xxxxx x xxxx xxxxx who are completely irresponsible and dangerous. I tried to leave a negative review for this garage on the good garage scheme website but of course there was nothing posted and my review will never be posted. This is just a scam scheme. What is the point of posting only positive reviews and ignoring negative ones.

I think that trading standards and the watchdog should have a look at this scheme. In the meantime just run away from any garage under this scheme.”

As I discovered the first time I looked into this, the scheme is operated by Forte – a company supplying high-price, high-margin ‘emission-control’ fuel additives to the garages in the GoodGarageScheme system.

We think this is fundamentally dishonest.

The results? Standards of customer care and quality of work that are worse than non-participating garages!

Yes, in a recent Which? survey Good Garage Schemes performed WORST of all in a test in which cars with a list of basic faults were presented at a range of garages. Check out the Independents’ report on this here – and note the poor GGS performance.

Filed Under: feedback, marketing, online reputation management Tagged With: , , ,

The Physicians Register: Scam or not? You decide….

December 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Is the Physicians Register another misleading contract form scam?

As always, you the great Googling global public will decide.

Our aim is just to collect the experiences of ‘customers’ of this directory and let them speak for themselves. Why? to help you decide whether The Physicians Register is a scam or not.

The title ‘Physicians Register’ came to my attention the other day when a lady from a NHS PCT emailed me with some updates for her entry into some unspecified directory of GP surgeries. I emailed her back to first let her know that I don’t actually run such adirectory and second, ask whether or not she was expecting a ‘free’ listing in a directory such as TEMDI.

From her replies I learned that she had mailed back the form (“but I haven’t sent any money”) and was convinced that the reason she had emailed ME with amendments was because MY contact details “pop up on the Physicians Register website”.

As of today, I’ve not been able to find ‘The Physicians Register’ website – although it’s clear that the scam is at least on the radar of the Londonwide Local Medical Committees. Until this practice manager in question emails me back with the actual website she’s talking about, I’ll carry on trying to find out what she’s talking about. I suspect that, in fact, she’s fallen foul TEMDI – the ‘European Medical Directory’.

I also doubt that the people behind these directories (formerly ‘Novachannel AG’ and now ‘UNITED Directorios, Lda’) would put my contact details on their website since I’d do a pretty good job of dissuading any victim contacting me from paying them – lols. I think what’s happened is that this lady has searched ‘TEMDI’ and found my critical posts as no.2 in the search result (and the only entry to use the acronym TEMDI) and clicked on that, gone straight to my contact details.

It almost goes without saying that the most likely victims of this practice are those with the least online skills and the least ability to smell a very big, old hairy rat.

More to follow when we find out if ‘The Physicians Register’ is in fact TEMDI.

So.. if you’ve fallen foul of something called ‘The Physicians Register’ and found yourself on the receiving end of demands for nearly 3,000 euro – please use the comment function (below) to answer the following questions:

• Did you think you were getting a free listing?

• Do YOU think the Physicians Register is a scam?

Filed Under: Scam or Not, scam warning Tagged With: , , , ,

European Business Guide: Scam or not?

December 7, 2010 By 238 Comments

Is ‘European Business Guide’ a scam? You, the great Googling public will decide..

…meanwhile, here’s some information to help you.

Confidence inspiring. NOT.

‘European Business Guide’ sends out a pdf offering you ‘free updating’ of your entry in their online directory of European Businesses. The idea is to make you think that entry in their ‘directory’ is free, whereas the small print on the form states that entry actually costs 990 euros a year (min 3 years and automatically extended year on year) while ‘updating’ (once you’ve been entered) is – amusingly – ‘free’.

This is an old but surprisingly successful scam that’s based on a simple principle: people are needy and careless. They want something for nothing. They’ll sign the form without seeing the small print, believing that they’re getting something for free.  Then, if you bully people hard enough, a percentage of those people will pay you out of fear and/or shame.

Simples.

Anyway. Enough from me. Suffice to say there are many versions out there at the moment. Expo Guide, Word Business Directory, World Company Directory, World Business Register, European City Guide, Fairguide and many many more.

If you’ve started receiving demands because you filled in the form without reading the small print, then add your experience here by commenting. Search for my posts on ‘Expo Guide’ and read all the hundreds of comments there. Hopefully, they’re enough to reassure you not to pay.

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!

Filed Under: scam, Scambusters! Tagged With: , , , ,

The British Awards Council: scam or not? You decide

September 3, 2010 By 14 Comments

Is The British Awards Council prize claim ‘promotion’ another scam? As always, you decide..

But let our collection of comments about all McIntyre and Dodd Marketing Ltd‘s other recent rip-off promotions help you.

If you want to know about McIntyre and Dodd Marketing Ltd, click here.  You’ll see that this kind of promotion is their speciality – and they’re doing it as much and as fast as they can before the OFT manages to shut them down.

** WANT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THESE PEOPLE?? Click HERE **

Since I’ve been tracking their rip-off promotions they’ve gone through several names – all designed to appear credible and worthwhile. They change the name as soon as the general public wakes up to the fact that this is a con. Community Awards Register was the first one I blogged about. Shortly afterwards came PDO Prize Distribution Office. Then there was NB: Notification Bureau. Now – probably speeded up by people like me blogging about these rip-offs – they’ve changed the name again this time to the grand (and trustworthy-sounding) ‘The British Awards Council’.

Please follow the links I’ve put here to see just how systematically exploitative this outfit is.  You’ll also see how lucrative this business is. The group of companies that’s behind this rip off is worth nearly £14m – of your money.

More importantly, read all the various ‘victim’ comments from ordinary, everyday people who have wasted their hard-earned money on these promotions and received little or nothing in return.

The British Awards Council: scam or not? You decide – and please feel free to share your experiences here to help others make up their minds too.

Filed Under: Scam or Not Tagged With: , , , , , ,

ICAA Ltd Cyprus: If you’ve received a demand from these people..

July 17, 2010 By 56 Comments

Is ICAA Ltd Cyprus demanding money from you on behalf of Expo Guide?

If so, you might like to read this thread first.

Don’t forget to read the 400+ comments too.  Hopefully you’ll be reassured that you’re the victim of a global scam. This means they can’t take you to court in any country because THEY are the ones who would be sent to prison :-)

It also means that the ‘ICAA Ltd Cyprus’ acting on Expo Guide’s behalf to try to bully money out of you doesn’t actually exist.  Nor does ‘Fobble International’ or any of the other names they pretend are debt collection agencies.

Their ‘website’ is simply a front to make you think they are a real business and out to get you.  Don’t be fooled.

So to beat them at their own game, I wrote this post to beat them to the top of Google for their own (fake) name. Lols.  See the results below.  Now, anyone receiving threats from them will go to Google, type in ‘ICAA Cyprus Ltd’ and find this post BEFORE they find their dummy website.

That, by the way, is how you use Google to get the truth in front of the lies.

Filed Under: scam Tagged With: , , , , ,

Peter Popoff: online reputation disaster represents no hindrance to religious scammer

June 13, 2010 By 14 Comments

Peter Popoff exploits people’s greed, need and vulnerability for financial benefit according to Google results

I happen to agree with that view. So did the highly respected James Randi (who demonstrated Popoff’s wife feeding him ‘divine information’ via radio link in his live ‘ministries’) and so do most of the people writing about Peter Popoff online.

I came across Popoff last night, flipping channels after England’s depressing performance in their World Cup opener. Clare and I watched Popoff and his charming wife Liz promising ‘supernatural debt cancellation’ in return for nothing more than writing in to request their miracle water gift.

A gift which, of course, then turns into floods of direct mail with ever-increasing demands for money – ‘seed gifts’ – to help God to get started sorting out your debt problems.  According to Popoff, you can’t expect God to supernaturally cancel your debt unless you stump up something yourself first. It’s the religious version of the Nigerian funds transfer fee.

Despite having declared himself bankrupt following Randi’s high-profile debunking on American TV (easily available on YouTube) Peter Popoff today pulls in millions of dollars a year through his latest direct mail operation – and pays himself and all the members of his family millions in salaries too. First time round the target was believers with health problems.  Now, in the shadow of the credit crunch, it’s believers with debt problems.

For someone with a really bad online reputation, he’s doing far better than he should – and raises a question about how important online reputation is to a business.  The answer, of course (and Popoff will know this all too well) lies in the likelihood of his intended victims – sorry, ‘market’ – using Google to critically evaluate the things they’re presented with.

Judging by the audience profile at his ministry events shown on TV last night, I’d say that this likelihood was low, to say the least, reminding us that online reputation is only a meaningful concept to those who are already critical and use the web to do some form of due diligence before making decisions.

That greedy, insecure, grubby little people exploit other greedy, vulnerable and grubby people is absolutely no surprise to me. It’s everywhere – scratch the surface of everything British these days and you’ll find this sleaze. What does surprise me is that Peter Popoff can be still pushing this scam on TV and there’s not a watchdog or body that can – or will – stop it.

MacIntyre and Dodd Marketing, Peter Popoff.  Just two – but there are tens of thousands more and our culture gives them carte blanche to operate. Disgusting.

Filed Under: scam, Scambusters! Tagged With: , , , , ,

yatsy999 – your eBay ID is being misused

April 24, 2010 By 1 Comment

…in a phishing scam

** Hey, somebody who IS on eBay and is here because they received the phishing email, be a good netizen and contact yatsy999 on eBay and let him know, would ya? **

This neat little phishing attempt came through this morning. I picked it up on my iPhone – on which it appeared convincingly like something from eBay might look.

If I was a regular eBay user (I avoid it like the plague as it happens along with its unholy sibling, PayPal), I might be tempted to fall for this email. It’s cleverly designed to provoke you into thinking that someone out there thinks you haven’t paid for something. Someone is wrong!!  That’s a powerful psychological attractor. You go Google to check on yatsy999 and find he does in fact sell VW camper van parts on eBay.  But since you haven’t bought any camper van parts, he must be wrong – and that leaves you feeling both aggrieved and right.

“I’ll show him” you think.

And right there in the email is a nice big ‘Respond Now’ button to help you do just that.

Of course, if you click it, you’ll go through to a site that looks just like an eBay login page (although the URL is nothing like an eBay URL). Enter your details in that login page and you’d be handing your eBay login details over to the scammers.

Like a good cybercitizen I wanted to let yatsy999 know that his account is being used for a phishing scam. Only I couldn’t without logging into eBay.

All I could do is tweet and blog and hope he picks it up somewhere.

Filed Under: scam warning, WARNING!! Tagged With: , , , ,

We are a Global Domain Name Registration Centre in Hong Kong

April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Typo – should read ‘Scam Centre in Hong Kong’

Like all scams, I suppose there are people who fall for this pile of old junk (pun, geddit?). If they didn’t, nobody would do it, right?

This scam reminds me of a caper I always wanted to pull. It goes like this.

You’re in the Lottery queue on a rollover Saturday night.  You watch the numbers the guy in front chooses carefully, then copy them. You: “Ere, mate. I’ve just chosen the same numbers as you.  That means we’ll split that £10m jackpot 50-50. Now, think carefully. That’s got to be worth giving me a tenner to NOT to choose them, wouldn’t you say…?”

Of course the reason I never tried that out in real life is because I’d probably get twatted – and I’d deserve it.  Online, you’re protected from any consequences by all that lovely distance and anonymity – which is, of course, exactly why it pays scammers to try anything and everything.

I do wish they’d avoid choosing names that sound like porn actresses, though. ‘Shawn Michaels’? Lols.

Filed Under: scam warning, Scambusters! Tagged With: , , ,
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