Brisbane Car Brokers managing director Martin Corbett was suspicious
when a company called YellowPage faxed him a letter to sign-up and
pay for advertising.
Queensland small businesses and even a consumer watchdog have been targeted in the latest scam that aims to extract money from the unwary in advertising rip-offs.
A company calling itself Yellow Publishing Ltd, based in the United Kingdom, is offering ''free submission'' to internet search engine Google if businesses sign up to a (non-existent) directory.
Last week, Queensland companies received faxes saying registration in the directory for two years would cost $129 a month, payable one year in advance.
''Payment is still required for the agreement term in the event that the customer chooses to remove their record from the directory,'' the fax said.
The fax is headed "YellowPage-Queensland.com" and asks for business details including name, address, phone and fax numbers, email and website details.
It uses a bogus Yellow Pages logo with the distinctive 'walking fingers' pointing up instead of down.
Other faxes have been headed with other states' names or specific cities have been targeted with YellowPage-Sydney, Melbourne or Perth.com.
Martin Corbett of Brisbane Car Brokers at Hamilton said he was unsure at first whether or not the fax he received was legitimate.
''It wasn't until I read all the fine print saying the company was based in the UK and that it was after money that I became suspicious,'' he said.
''People who don't use the internet much and don't understand the technology could be easily taken in so I sent it to Yellow Pages to investigate.''
A spokeswoman for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said she had received a fax touting for business in her office and had forwarded it to other officers. She would not confirm or deny whether an investigation was under way ''in line with ACCC policy''.
Yellow Pages spokesman, Stephen Ronchi last week confirmed the scam and said customers including those from NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia had received faxes. It is believed about one in 20 people are taken in by such scams.
He said Sensis, the owner of Yellow Pages (owned by Telstra), was trying to end the scam and retrieve the domain names involved. He said this was not the first ''rogue overseas business'' falsely claiming to be or have some association with Yellow Pages.
''Other scams involve people posing as our sales consultants and asking to confirm business details such as their ABN, the name of the business owner and directors,'' he said.
''Some ask people to renew their existing advertisements and to pay for advertising in non-existent directories.''
He said Sensis had alerted the ACCC, relevant government ministers and business groups to the scam.
Mr Ronchi warned customers against signing up and recommended they call 13 23 78 if they were unsure about such a fax.
A Google spokeswoman said the company had not received complaints.
What to look out for:
The ACCC's SCAMwatch website says small businesses should be wary of the following in relation to directory and advertising (false billing) scams:
- Callers from a business directory or publication you've never heard of, 'confirming' your entry or advertisement.
- Callers claiming the government requires you to be registered on their register.
- Callers reading out your listing or advertisement from a listing you put in a different publication.
- You receive a document in the mail that appears to be an invoice from a publication you've never heard of.
The website recommends that you:
- Check that goods or services were both ordered and delivered before paying an invoice.
- Never give out or clarify any information about your business unless you know what the information will be used for.
- Avoid having many people authorised to make orders or pay invoices.
- Never agree to any business proposal on the phone; always ask for an offer in writing.
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