Small businesses all over the country are receiving solicitations that appear to be invoices from the local Yellow Page Directory.
Florida is no exception. I am resposting links to the orignal blog about this scam because I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone from Florida who may have been contacted by anyone trying to trick them into paying a bogus invoice.
If your business has been impacted or contacted by someone perpetrating this scam, please get in touch with me. The many comments shared here, and on other blogs, continue to demonstrate how important it is to continue to raise awareness to fraudulent schemes, in order to help others avoid falling victim to them. Keep sharing your knowledge--it really does make an impact!!
Here's a short excerpt from the original post: Fraudulent Yellow Page Listing Scam - Beware It's Back!
It's a normal business day, just like any other, and you or your staff answers the phone. The person on the other end explains that they are from the "Yellow Pages" and just need to verify a few pieces of information regarding your "free" business listing in the Yellow Pages for renewal purposes. The conversation seems to be innocent enough and after all, their opening statement clearly leaves one with the impression they just want to verify your free listing is accurate. However, at this point, unknown to you, the caller has turned on a recording device and begins to ask a rapid series of "Yes" or "No" questions, recording your voice. Note, one of the questions commonly asked is "Are you authorized to make company decisions?" Still at this point, the questions are vague and seem normal in the course of verifying company information is accurate. One is left to assume they are asking this because they want to insure the person verifying the company information is actually an authorized company employee. Once the caller is done asking the questions, they simply thank you for your time and hang up.
Now, several days later your fax machine signals an incoming fax and low and behold, there is an invoice for $599 from the Yellow Pages for your "new business listing"...more
If you are a business owner and feel that you have been a victim of this scam, it is very important to have the incident documented by filing official complaints. To find out how, read the original blog post here. If you opt to share your story or leave a comment, please remember to include what state you reside in.
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This scam has happened to me in Massachusetts. I was contacted three weeks ago with the same story line. They played the recording and everything. However, they called into my answering service so we recorded them and thier recording of us accepting the charges. I have reported them to the Attorny Generals office and the FTC. The scammer who is calls is Anthony Brown 954-621-1712. I called the real yellow pages 4 times and I do not have an account with them. They did say that I had a free listing and that is where the scammers are pulling the information from. They also claimed that even though the operator was not a employee, a "new" law states that we are responsible anyway. Funny how the Attorny Generals office never hear of it. These people make me so mad.
I've gotten calls from the exact same person in California. Definitely going to be sending a complaint to the AG, BBB and anywhere else I can think of.