Katter, Ansett scammed by bogus Yellow Pages

Independent MP Bob Katter and businessman Bob Ansett have no idea how they came to be in a "Yellow Page" bogus directory, run by a group recently targeted by fraud squad police.

Yellow Pages spokesman Stephen Ronchi said last week a YellowPage website was "masquerading as Yellow Pages" including the company's walking fingers logo placed upside down.

The directory was a scam designed to entice people to sign up to one they thought was a "real" Yellow Pages directory, he said.

The group, called Yellow Publishing Ltd, operates online in Queensland and other states but has no physical office.

It faxes people asking them to sign up to YellowPage-Queensland.com directory or ones based in other states.

Registration costs $129 a month, payable a year in advance, and details requested include name, address, phone, fax,  email and website. 

''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.

When potential customers try to go to the YellowPage-Queensland website they are redirected to  a site called Queensland-Directory.com, which lists many businesses.

The site claims to have 310,000,000 ''potential'' customers but most of the Queensland telephone numbers have 7 as the first digit in the listed phone numbers and cannot be connected when dialled.

Mr Ansett, a former car hire tycoon who runs a marketing business on the Sunshine Coast, said he had not given his permission nor paid for his entry in the directory.

"I presume they just got my business details out of the [Telstra] White Pages," he said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Katter's Mount Isa office said she could not remember having any dealings with the company and "certainly didn't pay any money".

Yellow Publishing claims to be based in Manchester, northern England, and Yellow Page Marketing claims to be based in the Netherlands and Spain.

 West Australian fraud squad detectives last month intercepted cheques worth more than $140,000 destined for the scammers who had demanded $1548 from each business for ''outstanding'' advertising that was never booked.

 Australian customs  intercepted a parcel that contained 57 envelopes addressed to an office in Perth, for the attention of the company running the scam (Yellow Page Marketing BV).

Workers in the office used by the scammers co-operated with West Australian Police and 1619 letters from YellowPage demanding money were seized.

The Major Fraud Squad officer-in-charge, Don Heise, said media outlets had received letters from the group's lawyers claiming that ''scam notices'' about the company were ''adversely affecting our client's [Yellow Page Marketing BV] business in Australia''.

Fairfax Media has received the legal letter of demand.

Mr Ronchi said Sensis,  owner of Yellow Pages,  had alerted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, relevant government ministers and business groups.
 
He recommended people phone 13 23 78 if unsure about a fax's authenticity.

BrisbaneTimes.com.au