Issue Date:  -  Thursday, 9 September 2004

Bogus Business Directories register alarm

A localised consumer alert last week to small business operators in the state’s Northwest and Midwest, has turned into a full scale consumer warning as smooth talking scammers crank up a telephone campaign of false billing.

Internet company WWW Business Search Pty Ltd and its managing director, Sandor Kranicz of Station Road Seven Hills in NSW, are allegedly behind the telephone campaign which many callers to Consumer Protection claim is trying to dupe them with hard-sell calls and false billing.

“We became concerned when small business proprietors started reporting unsolicited telephone calls from an organisation calling itself the Northwest WA Business Directory and asking if they could send invoices for $324.50 for supposed renewals in the directory”, Consumer Protection Commissioner Patrick Walker said.

“Reports about a Southwest WA Business Directory from the Great Southern Region around Albany and outer metro locations near Mandurah, are indicating these operators are widening their target areas hoping to catch out overworked business people”, he said.

Small businesses that have only a few staff and informal purchasing and ordering arrangements are particularly susceptible and should be on high alert.

Businesses are reporting receiving a package that includes an invoice for $324.50 and 2 computer disks asking them to copy the disks and pass them to other businesses interested in the directory.

Many of these people allege that they had not agreed to advertise in any directory before receiving this demand for payment.

Bogus publications and false billing scams plague small businesses and community groups who often do not have the same rigorous purchasing and bill paying protections in place at bigger organisations.

Previous investigations have discovered that interstate operators obtain information and advertising details from legitimate publication source and then use them to target WA business people with invoices for non-existent services or services with little or no value.

“When one recipient of a false invoice wrote to the company complaining, they received a cool letter in reply telling them their business owed the money and they risked a bad credit rating if they didn’t pay”, Commissioner Walker said.

The Fair Trading Act covers offences relating to payment demands for unsolicited services or for making entry in directories and misleading or false representations.

“These operators obviously have a lot of nerve and I am referring their details to the Office of Fair Trading in their home state of New South Wales. Recently a false billing fraudster has been jailed there for contempt of Court, relating to Supreme Court Orders banning him from invoicing businesses.

“If you have received a demand for payment for an unsolicited service or entry in a directory that you have not authorised in writing, do not pay it and contact us immediately,” the Commissioner said.

Consumer Protection can be contacted on telephone number 1300 30 40 54. Copies of false invoices or demand letters can be faxed to WA ScamNet on fax number 9282 0862.