MX Lab, http://www.mxlab.eu, reported earlier in the past of directory scams to register your company “for free”. But when sending back the document, you really agree to get involved into a commitment for several years while paying each year a significant amount for the registration.
MX Lab is intercepting these messages on a regular base and from time to time we see that the sending email address is changed, the company name get changed,… but in fact the scam is the same: lure people into signing an agreement and get their money. This time it is no different with the “World Trade Register’s 2012/2013 edition”.
The email is send from the address”World Trade Register <register@2business-list.com>”, while the domain 2business-list.com is registered on 03-feb-2012, and has the following body:
Dear Madam/Sir,
In order to have your company inserted in the World Trade Register’s 2012/2013 edition, please print, complete and return the enclosed form to the following address:
World Trade Register
P.O. Box 3079
3502 GB Utrecht
The Netherlandsemail: register@2business-list.com
Fax: +31 205 248 107
Business Registration 2012/2013Updating is free of charge!
To unsubscribe, please send an email to remove@2business-list.com
Attached to the email is the PDF document wtr2012.pdf.
The first item you will need to be carefull with is at the top of the document on the left:
To update your company profile, please print, complete and return this form. Updating is free of charge. Only sign if you want to place an insertion.
Notice the part “Updating is free of charge” and “Only sign if you want to place an insertion.” It is quite obvious and self explaining for everyone, isn’t it? But keep reading further dow, where the small letters are.
The second item you need to read is the following part of the text regarding the order:
THE VALIDATION TIME OF THE CONTRACT IS THREE YEARS AND STARTS ON THE EIGHTH DAY AFTER
SIGNING THE CONTRACT. THE INSERTION IS GRANTED AFTER SIGNING AND RECEIVING THIS DOCUMENT BY THE SERVICE PROVIDER. I HEREBY ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION WITH SERVICE PROVIDER EU BUSINESS SERVICES LTD “WORLD TRADE REGISTER” I WILL HAVE AN INSERTION INTO ITS DATABASE FOR THREE YEARS. THE PRICE PER YEAR IS EURO 995.
What does this mean? According to the document, when it is returned back with your signature, your entry in the World Trade Register is subject to a contract with EU Business Services Ltd for the next 3 years with a price tag of 995 Euro per year.
Now I suppose that anyone would sign this because of the “clear instructions” and the lay out of the document. This is a malicious technique in order to get companies signed to a contract of 995 Euros per year and again, we expect that some people will be fooled by this way of working.
Our recommendation is: don’t sign the document and don’t do business with this company.
