Have you ever received an invoice for a business directory listing that you never ordered? Perhaps you had experienced the following scenario.
You received a phone call from a telemarketing company claiming that someone (could be your ex-employee) from your office had previously authorized the purchase of business listing in a business directory, and they would like to verify your business information, such as company name, address, telephone and fax number. This so called verification would lead you to believe that your business has already been listed in their business directory.
Shortly, you received an invoice, typically between $399 and $798, in the mail or fax for your “order”. A few days or one week later, someone from the Account Receivables department called to collect the payment for your company listing. If you refused to pay the invoice, the caller would harrass you and even threatened to initiate a legal action against you, and also forwarded your invoice to a debt-collection agency that could damage your credit rating.
Well, if this scenario happened to you, please be on your guard. You could be a victim of a business directory scam.
Here are what you should do if you received a phone call from a collector:
1. Do NOT under any circumstances send these scammers money.
2. Tell him/her that you are not going to pay for the invoice, and let this scammer know that you are going to take the actions outlined in the step 3 and 4.
3. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission by visiting the the FTC website (http://www.ftc.gov) or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).
4. Report the scam to your local Better Business Bureau and your state Attorney General.
Remember folks, you are NOT obliged to pay for services that you never requested or ordered. Last, your credit rating will NEVER be damaged/ruined just because of not paying this business directory scam.
To help you recognize this scam, here is a list of companies known to scam small businesses:
- ABI Publications
- B2B IPages – Chicago, IL
- Business Data Center – Plattsburgh, NY
- Canadian BizOnline
- Canadian Media Pages
- ClearView Corporate Communication, Inc. – Chicago, IL
- Canora Pages – Montreal, QC
- Commutel Marketing – Montreal, QC and Victoria, BC
- Empire Direct Group – Plattsburgh, NY
- DataSource411 – Montreal, QC and Rochester, NY
- Horizon Data Inc. – Champlain, NY
- Info US411 – Middletown, DE
- Infotel Publications – Montreal, QC
- National Business Information Exchange (NBIE) Inc. – Montreal, QC and Chesapeake Beach, MD
- Reed Publishing aka Reed Directories
- Target Publications – Ansonia, CT and Champlain, NY
- Tradeshow Data Center – Plattsburg, NJ
- YourCompanyListing.com (a spin off of NBIE Inc.) – Montreal, QC and Chesapeake Beach, MD
- YourYellowURL – Ottawa, ON and Watertown, MA
The list will go on and on… so please share with us if you know any of similiar companies.
you can add Executive Business Listing to the list. for almost 2 years they would send my business invoices, i’d call them saying we never requested service, they’d void out the invoice and send me a zeroed out invoice via fax , then a few weeks/months later send a new one with a different amount and different invoice number. after the 5th time, i filed a complaint with the better business bureau, and they finally stopped.
i still get calls from other companies trying this scam every few months, but i just tell the person on the phone i’m filing complaints with the BBB and my local police if they call me again, and it usually stops them for a while. unfortunately the first time we didn’t know better and paid the invoice, i think that’s why they keep trying. to see if we’ll fall for it again and send them more money.
I have a long list:
Merchant 411 Listings
National Advertising and Publishing
Electronic Media Marketing Group Inc.
US-Yellow Pages
Yellow Page USA
National Online Pages
411 Yellow Book
411 Business Book
Global Publications Inc.
Ever notice that whatever the telemarketer says his name is, from whatever company, it is always the same white American male voice on the line?
I’m so glad to have found this site! Now I see that I’m not the only one who is annoyed to death by these predators. It seems to be only small businesses and non-profits that they target.
Is anyone having or have had Allen Albright from 411 Online Search.com call them? They have a recording of me saying yes (and just yes) to questions I was never asked. Now that want me to pay some ridiculous amount of $$ for an ad I never ordered ….. I am SOOOOOOOOOO sick of these idiots!!
Im actually in the same situation, How did it work out for you. im currently receiving calls from Allen Albright. He has a recording of me saying yes as well. To questions i do not remember ever being asked. i probably wouldve paid it already if i hadnt stumbled on this website.
You can add United States Directory to the list. They called our business made contact and when my wife was asked to verify the address to take us off their “list” they sent us a bill for $495.00 for “listings” we didn’t want. Now they harass us with faxes and threatening phone calls.
United States Directory keeps calling and bothering us. They try and fax us bills for services we didn’t agree to. Who would want an internet business listing for what is local client-type business? They are basically harassing us now.
another scammer currently working its way through Texas – - posting this info that others may become aware and not fall for thier trap. They are supposedly offering services as an “online business to business directory” for up to $400
Business Info Source
phone (877) 213-8370
fax (866) 422-5134
website: http://businessinfosource.net
Yes, this one is definitely a scam! They edited the recording of my voice! I reported them to the FTC. Hopefully others will follow to get these crooks where they belong.
WARNING: canadian media pages is now posting them selves as SEOCAN!!
We have been harassed since 2006.
It started with Grant Publications, then they changed their name to Canadian Biz OnLine, then they changed their name to Access Publications – their address changed, including phone # and fax # listed on the invoice, however the fax # where the invoice was sent remained the same along with the invoice #. In 2009 we started getting harassed by Canadian Media Pages. Now we are getting harassed by SEOCAN, Canada Registry.ca and Direct Market Link.
Please add these names to the list. All are located in Montreal.
Add these ones: Pub en Ligne, IT Data Direct and Media Excel.ca IT Data Direct is the most persistent. I have been getting, at least, 5 calls a month for the past 3 years. At first, the woman – Marie-Therese annoyed me, then I started to just have some fun with her. I am happy to announce that I can, actually, drive her to swear at me, without one single rude comment or action from me. All the above companies are based in Montreal; Quebec really has to do something pro-active and shut these people down.
Add
J White Publications Inc, PO Box 24516 West Hill, Montreal, Quebec, Canada – we have been receiving invoices for something we never ordered for over a year, and they won’t go away.
Add myunitedstatespages.com to this list… they are attempting to scam me for almost $750 right now! Avoid them like the plague!
We’ve received invoices from Canadian Media Pages and National Online Directory. Thankfully, I don’t think anyone has ever paid these, that I’m aware of. I recently came back from a maternity leave, and started receiving calls from “Sask Business Listings Online” to renew our listing that I wasn’t even aware we had. Seemed suspicious, so I asked them the last time they called for a web URL (since it’s an ONLINE listing, there must be one?) and they gave me globexaccess.com… and said they provide links through google and yahoo. so I”m pretty sure this one is a scam as well.
Just wanted to put those names out there, as I didn’t see anything about them, but they gave me a bad vibe like it’s a scam.
ONLINEDATACONSULTING.COM IS ALSO A SCAM BEWARE
Add Business Solutions Online in Derby Line VT, Comm-ad Media Corp in Lake Placid NY, Info-Data Pages in Seattle WA, Super Business Yellow Pages in Cleveland OH, and 411 Superpages in Lake Success, NY. Same thing with all of these as what you all are saying. I’ve filed complaints with the FTC, FBI, Attorney Generals’ office and the BBB. The BBB seems to be the way to go – we’ve had most success with this avenue. These scammers need to be shut down!
I too am a victim of these scumbags…I am on tape saying I would send them a check, because I thought it was something that my company had signed up for. Never have they produced a recording of the actual agreement (because it doesn’t exist.)Has anyone ever actuallyHAD to pay these invoice because of legal action? Please advise, I’d like to stop worrying about this…
They told me the same thing – that they have me on tape agreeing to pay them. They will tell you anyting to get your money. Don’t give in to the threats. I made that mistake and now they have my checking account number and are now debiting the account each month. I’m working with my bank to try to get them to refund the money they have taken, but I may have to change the account number to prevent them from taking more money in the future. The name of the company is Merchant 411 Listings. I have a long list of other companies that also harrass me regularly. It is very annoying. I have work to do. No time for this nonsense.
Wow I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. Last year some bozo called me on my cell at work and told me that I ordered some business listing and blah blah blah. I get an invoice from Canadian Media pages for $479.00. I threw it out. These clowns harassed me constantly to the point of involving my attorney. This whole thing is a scam is what he told me because in general without a signature nothing is binding.
The clowns then called me from “debt recovery” trying to scare me with regard to my credit rating.
Long story short I told them to F off and that was that or so I thought, recently they tried again but now they call themselves SEOCAN. I took this one to the BBB and they put a stop to it.
Finally thinking Id have some peace, they changed their name again to C.C.I and phoned last week to try again………pathetic!
DON’T BE FOOLED BY SCAM STOPPERS THEY ARE A SCAM !!! GO TO SCAM.COM AND DO A SEARCH ON ROBERT BRADLEY DUSKES OR SCAM STOPPERS AND FIND OUT THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS SCAM ARTIST AND HIS COMPANY !!!!
Scam Stoppers is a scam the BBB has issued and warning about this company.
Mis-use of BBB Name
This firm has illegally used the Better Business Bureau’s name on its Web site at http://www.scamstoppers.com. On November 18, 2010, the BBB requested that this firm cease and desist all unauthorized use of the BBB name and logo on its website. The BBB is awaiting the firm’s response.
THIS FIRM IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH AND IS NOT ENDORSED by the Better Business Bureau Serving Metropolitan New York, the service area in which it is headquartered.
This is an update to the latest tactics that Robert Duskes from scamstoppers.com has been involved with.
He has for the last couple of months been posting complaints through Better Business Bureau but using other clients names and businesses as the ones who are posting the complaint. However, if one looks at the actual complaints, the email and phone numbers posted belong to scamstoppers. Furthermore, if a reply is posted to the complaint, bbb is not the one who answers back, in fact, it is scamstoppers pretending to be a representative of bbb that answers back. The way to go around it is to actually go directly to bbb website itself and post a reply. Our response was to first acknowledge that any customer complaints would be dealt with directly with the customer and/or an actual true representative of bbb. Furthermore, we stated that we would not deal with any complaints made from scamstoppers as they are a scam themselves and we provided all the links where bbb could view all comments made about scamstoppers. As well we have informed bbb that scamstoppers.com is has on their webstite a statement that they are affiliated with bbb, which of course they are not, that is a total lie on their part. Since then, we have received numerous responses from bbb claiming they were unaware of some of the complaints sent by scamstoppers and they would investigate the situation. Also, there have been instance where we gather bbb contacted scamstoppers themselves and told them to remove and stop their complaints. How do we know this, well, shortly after we replied directly to bbb, some of the the actual complaints posted through scamstoppers were suddenly resolved without us having to actualy deal with the so called customer complaint. For all you businesses and people out there who are either dealing with scamstoppers’ harrasing phone calls, letters, faxes, and emails, make sure to go over any bbb complaint thoroughly. Make sure the complaint is actually from bbb. In some instances they are not, they are from scamstoppers who are using bbb complaints web page without bbb’s knowledge. Yup, they have gone that far. For all the businesses that have put faith in scamstoppers’ help to void any fees they owe to other companies, you best check out all of the posts about them. More than likely, you are being scammed yourselves. If you want to resolve your bills, we suggest you deal with the companies you owe money to directly.More than likely, an agreement can be made directly with them. Paying scamstoppers to do that is not only costing you money, but, also, you risk having your credit rating damaged by the actual companies you owe money to.
This company charges so much to so called helping me with my invoices, but he has so many complains with the NY attorney general, his listesd as a scam himself, his not the scamstopper, his the scamstarter, i already reported him to the RCMP and Phonebusters in canada and FTC in USA, He is the owner of the company and he has other directory companies ralated to the fake yellow pages and several. He also has a coloreful resume on ripoff.com and all over the internet! SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM WATCH OUT PEOPLE DON’T FALL FOR THIS GUY!!!
the list of complaints on this company is long just google Robert Bradley Duskes
Robert Duskes – Scamstoppers.com
4570 Saint Kevin, apt.11, Montreal, Quebec
1324 Lexington Avenue, #286 New York 10128
United States of America
Phone: 888-315-5770
Web Address: scamstoppers.com
Category: Questionable Activities
Submitted: Friday, October 01, 2010
Posted: Friday, October 01, 2010
I am so happy I found all these warnings on Robert Duskes…if only I had seen them before he hired me!
Let me give you a first hand account! I worked with Robert in his crummy little office…by the way…he says he’s surrounded by important lawyers…more like pimps and other telemarketing rooms…there are at least 2 other scam telemarketing companies that work in the same building…I know..my friends work in them!
I worked for Robert’s main business
Right beside me was another telemarketer, he would call all the important businesses that weren’t paying on the behalf of Robert’s other company scamstoppers.com.
Scamstoppers.com…what a joke…just like Robert is. Robert didn’t dress to well actually…so I guess he’s not making that much money…and yes I can confirm…the office is trash dump…it’s cheap..just like Robert. Robert owes me $546.31 Canadian dollars…I don’t think I’ll ever get it…so you know what…I am going to post 546 comments on Robert and how cheap and scammy he is…that’s called Karma…works both ways!
I sold on average 5 directories per day…other telemarketers sold up to 20 per day!
By the way…I read his comments…his name is not Robert Bradlely…Bradley is his middle name, his real last name is DUSKES…why do you think he would lie on that point? I know…he’s a scammer that’s why. It was a crappy experience working there…I think I’ll be taking another profession! Telemarketing
Anyways…I am happy that I can give my unique point of view…I hope he gets stopped, arrested…he deserves it…all day long his company just scams people! I am sure he will get what he deserves! $546! Man! What a waste of my time! I should have a picture of him soon…this way you all can see the face of the con man himself!
Remember one thing Robert if you read this… you won’t last long..all scams come to an end…and if you rip both your own employees and customers off…that’s bad news for you!
Nationwide Business Directory. My job was to call Canadian and American businesses to sell them a bogus directory between $399 to $499…whatever I could sell. This was my first telemarketing job…and guess what…it was a total scam…and in the end I got scammed…Robert didn’t pay my last paycheck!
Hi all, I have been suffering from the same problems. Countless companies invoicing me for products or services I’ve never subscribed to! Recently I was online searching what’s real and what isn’t and I found a company who claimed they could help. scamstoppers.com was the site and at first I was worried they might be someone else trying to steal my money. I gave them information but didn’t pay a dime. Since, we’ve been communicating almost daily and I’ve found them to be quite helpful. So far they’ve had a couple of the fraud accounts closed on my behalf and continue to fight to save my money, I’m quite pleased so far, will come back and update all as we continue!!
Your being scammed, do not agree to pay anyone and they can’t do anything about it.
Rita,I find your statement very hard to believe..that it didn’t cost you a dime.
Scamstoppers is well known for posting false testimonials all over the place to try and make themselves look like a legitimate company. Are you one of them????
I suppose if anyone really wants to try , they could treat this organization like any other scammer and simply refuse to pay anything. After all , they are just as powerless as any other scammer to collect anything.
Read the above post about them posting on the BBB web site.
Add – Direct Market Link, ROMAC Publishing and Direct B2B as scammers. I made the mistake of getting caught with a voice recording telling them to send me an invoice, but it sounded fishy afterwards. I contested the invoice afterwards, and after numerous calls from them to collect and after much harsh words, I ended up sending them half of the invoice. Since doing research on these scammers and this website I WILL NOT BE SENDING ANYMORE CASH!!! What makes it funny is that after that, I started recieving 3 different companies claiming they had voice recordings of me agreeing to their service! Bunch of bull….!!! Thanks for a great online community to vent this stuff. I will keep you updated as it happens.
Online Data Consulting, same senario, called back in 2008, offering a free listing. Now calling for payment. Our owner authorized the caller to talk to me instead of our owner who was trying to leave the building. The Operator tried to say the owner authorized her to be paid. They were to take us off their list and to never call again, that is all the owner authorized them to do. I told her she is on the scam list and I told her no way, she can just take me to collections. She said I was being rude, I told her she is a scammer, she hung up on me.
I’m pretty sure these scam attempts have a second motive. A couple years ago I notices 2 new charges appearing on my business phone bill.
I called my phone service provider, Verizon, and complained. Immediately, with no hesitation, offered to reverse the charges and connected me to a rep from the offending company. In both cases the rep played the verification recording. Each was of a different employee answering the list of verification questions. I soon realized these answers to “verification questions” were the same answers given in response to the verification of my free online business listing from ABC Online Yellow Pages.
So, not only may these groups try to bill you for an ad you never placed, they may also try to slip in fraudulent charges on your phone bill. The Verizon rep told me that they were obliged by law to act as a third party billing partner. They also collect a large fee for doing so so their motivation is in the direction of allowing the fraud to perpetuate.
Don’t pay Scam Stoppers anything. They are simply trying to collect for the scam artists and/or line their own pockets.They don;t do anything you couldn’t do yourself only a hell of a lot cheaper.
The scammers are virtually powerless to enforce any of their threats such as small claims , credit reporting etc. etc. They prey on the naive and gullible with these threats.
Get on their case , charge them for time wasted on the phone , faxes , mails etc. Invoice THEM and threaten court action.
Did that with ABI and when they realized they weren’t getting any money they went away and haven’t had any scammers contact me since.
Hi,
Actually scam stoppers doesnt collect for the companies.
But you are right you should not pay them.
The owner formally worked and owned numerous b2b directory sites.
ABI Publication is a SCAM!!!
They tried to fraud my work – a non for profit childcare… after a lot of research. I let them call us and I ranted to them:
1) that if they continue to call this is considered harrassment and that you can press charges.
2) if and as long as you do not live in Quebec – which is where they are located – you can tell them that you will be calling the RCMP for harassment
3) They will tell that they will send you to small claims court – but you can only send someone or a company to smalls claims court when you are in the same provience
4) Lastly, they will tell you that they will call the better business bureau-
They could call but if your company is not regeisted with the better business bureau then it wouldn’t matter, however, when I looked them up ABI Publication is regeisted and they were in a negative standing which means you can use the same threat against them.
After ranting at them and using all this information against them – they have never called my childcare back.
Add Scam Stoppers. They called me to help out with bogus invoices for a fee. The thing is they are same people calling me for the bogus invoices with a different company name. So they try to help you with there own invoices.
Scam Stoppers
1324 Lexington Avenue #286
New York, NY 10128
Phone: 888-315-5770
Fax: 888-315-5320
http://www.scamstopers.com
Globex & U tried to bilk me out of 500$ for some garbage listing with a wrong map location… They are the scam!
Same here! I’m now fighting not to pay the invoice. There is a mistake in our company name and the map is not right. Did you had to pay for it?
Add Info yellow pages to your list.
It was nice to know how to handle these guys, I just kept telling him he was a scam and I was going to add him to the scam list. He insisted we ordered this product, I told him there is no way, we are on to this kind of scam. He asked for my fax number so he could fax me an invoice with proof we order the listing for $450.00. I finally gave him the fax number but ya know, no invoice or proof ever showed up.
Add Direct Market Link to the list of scams.
I have been called several times in regards to there “online Listing” scam.
You can add Manufacturers News, Inc. to your list. They are based in Evanston, IL. They strong arm small businesses into paying for ads they never wanted by threatening outside collections. Plus, all the “registries” they publish are nothing more than lead generators sold to other businesses for a large sum. Now you just paid them to sell your company info to a bunch more telemarketers.
I got a letter from “DirectoryOnlineService.com”, the address is 75 South Broadway, 4th Floor, White Plains, NY 10061.
The first time they billed me, they even give me an computer generated login/password. The amount is $439. They billed like this:
“Business premium” $439
“Online scroll Ad” $29
“Online search ranking” $9.99
“credit” (for being scammed?) -$39.98
3 months later, they billed me the second time.
Add Sterling Business Solutions dba 411 Directory Assistance to your list. Address:
1184 St. Catherine Street West
Suite 400
Montreal QC
H3B 1K1
phone 1-866-482-7474
fax 1-166-482-6673
I have been a victim to ABI, Data Source, Horizon Data, Info US411, Infotel Pub. and I thought all of this was due to a past employee. I now have United States Business Pages calling me and saying I owe them. I just got off the phone with one of their collectors, and when I asked hime for his email address he hung up on me. I am so sick about all the money I have given these lossers over the past few years. If I can save anyone else from these type of pretitors I will do so.