UPDATE: The Dutch police are aware of these scammers. See this post for a letter from the Dutch police secretariat, a way to report correspondence, and their advice (send no money, do nothing).
Edit: Received today [6/24/2017] email from
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contact@worldcontactmedia.com
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at the “World Business List.” Same scam, same scammers. Be careful out there. Send no money to these scammers for a worthless “listing” in their register. Do not respond at all. Read the fine print.
Subject: Business Register 2016/2017
Dear Madam/Sir,
In order to have your company inserted in the EU Business Register for 2016/2017, please print, complete and submit the attached form (PDF file) to the following address:
EU BUSINESS REGISTER
P.O. BOX 34
3700 AA ZEIST
THE NETHERLANDSFax: +31 205 248 107
You can also scan the completed form and attach it in a reply to this email.
Updating is free of charge.
The scam continues, which I referred to here and here. Making another quick reference to it for additional exposure in case people are searching the web to see if this outfit is legitimate.
It is not. It is a total scam.
Very little has changed. Their spam emails, blasted all over the world, always say “updating is free of charge.” But the small print, ah, the small print:
THE SIGNING OF THIS DOCUMENT REPRESENTS THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS AND THE CONDITIONS STATED IN “THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INSERTION” ON THE WEB PAGE: WWW.EUBUSINESSREGISTER.EU. THE SIGNING IS LEGALLY BINDING AND GIVES YOU THE RIGHT OF AN INSERTION IN THE ONLINE DATABASE OF THE EU BUSINESS REGISTER, WHICH CAN BE ACCESSED VIA THE INTERNET, ALL IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONTRACT CONDITIONS STATED ON “THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INSERTION” ON WEB PAGE: WWW.EUBUSINESSREGISTER.EU.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 THE SERVICE PROVIDER EU BUSINESS SERVICES LTD. “EU BUSINESS REGISTER”. I WILL HAVE AN INSERTION INTO ITS DATABASE FOR THREE YEARS. THE PRICE PER YEAR IS EURO 995. THE SUBSCRIPTION WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY EXTENDED EVERY YEAR FOR ANOTHER YEAR, UNLESS SPECIFIC WRITTEN NOTICE IS RECEIVED BY THE SERVICE PROVIDER OR THE SUBSCRIBER TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE EXPIRATION OF THE SUBSCRIPTION. YOUR DATA WILL BE RECORDED. THE PLACE OF JURISDICTION IN ANY DISPUTE ARISING IS THE SERVICE PROVIDER’S ADDRESS. THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SERVICE PROVIDER, EU BUSINESS SERVICES LTD AND THE SUBSCRIBER IS GOVERNED BY THE CONDITIONS STATED IN “THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INSERTION” ON THE WEB PAGE: WWW.EUBUSINESSREGISTER.EU
So if you enter your data and send it in for what you think is a “free listing,” you’re agreeing (at least on paper) to shell out €2985 for a three-year listing, and agreeing to be billed every year forever unless you cancel in writing.
Fear not. If you get stung, just write and tell them that you’re not paying. Quoted from my previous post:
If you happen to fall for this, these things will happen:
- The company will ignore any attempts to contact them
- If you simply refuse to pay, you will begin to get aggressive and threatening communications from a “global debt collection company,” Waldberg & Hirsch. That firm does not exist – it’s just the same drones trying to frighten you into paying. They will demand payment in full for the agreed-to three years, but will settle for one year’s payment if you’re foolish enough to send it.
The solution:
- Just ignore them. They can’t sue you, because they are running a scam, they know it, and they don’t want to attract legal attention to themselves. Never pay these gong-farmers a cent; ultimately they’ll go away.
Again, why the Dutch authorities have not managed or taken the trouble to shut this scummy operation down is incomprehensible.
Be careful out there.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Playing in the World Game 
Hi I am another victim of this “EU Register” scam. Our company is in Malaysia and we are foolish to completed the form and signed it back. We then received the invoice demanding Euro 995 and we refused to paid as we never ask for subscription. Now, a letter from Waldberg & Hirsch Global Collection Ltd. requested us to pay Euro 995 + late payment + legal fee. I am worried they will proceed the legal action against our company.
What should I do ? I do not want anything happen to our company ?
Is there any authorities contact that I approach to in order for us to complaint “EU Register” scam ?
Thank you.
Standard disclaimer: I am not an attorney. But be aware that “Waldberg and Hirsch” is just another name for the “EU Register” people. My suggestion to everyone is to ignore their letters, emails, or calls. You can simply tell them that you placed the order in error, that you do not want their listing, and that you have no intention to pay for a service that you will not be receiving. Their business model is to deceive and intimidate. I doubt they will pursue anyone to the courts, because it will shine light on their very disreputable tactics.
I will soon be posting the text of a petition that you can send, courtesy of another reader. Stay tuned.
This is the same people as Construct Data Publishers – Susanne Anhorn. Read the FTC vs Construct Data Publishers. I know, I worked for them. SCAM
Excellent reference, I’ll add this info for public consumption. I’m curious as to how they resurfaced, or if they were operating in multiple incarnations at once. These folks have been working out of the Netherlands for over 10 years.
Thank you Old Wolf, Expo10 is saying the same. We have been victim of this scam too and we did not know what to do, since very foolishly we have singed thinking it was a free listing like Europages.
Since then we have been receiving different e mails stating that we have to pay or otherwise we will be charged more interests.
After having searched the Internet and realising that it was a scam, I did reply on behalf of the Company that we wanted to be taken off from their list immediately and that we are not going to pay for a service that does not exist.
Honestly we do not know what to do or to whom we have to write to. we are based in London.
If you have any suggestions please let us know.
Thanks
Expo10
Any *legitimate* directory company would never use such a deceptive enrollment technique, and if there were a complaint – such as someone who signed up by accident or not understanding that there was a fee, would simply remove the erroneous listing and cancel any charges.
These people are not legitimate, and they know it. They are running a “scam by intimidation,” and I am frankly astonished that they have been allowed to continue for so long without being shut down.
You’ve already told them you don’t want this listing. You need do nothing else. They may rattle their cage and make all sorts of threatening noises, but (in my non-lawyer opinion) don’t have a legal leg to stand on.
Good luck.
Thank you very much for your reply. I do agree I am astonished to find out that no one has done anything at all about it to stop those scammers!! We have just told in writing the Scan Squad in the UK. We do not know if this is going to be useful or not, but in any case it is not harm in trying!
Thanks again
Cla
same, here I sign accidentally and sent them to Netherlands. I thought it’s just some EU business directory. No fee on sign form. Now they are asking for 995. I wrote them 3 emails that I want to unregistered and they sent me email again this morning. So I called there. I think the girl- Joan is eastern European. She was telling me that I registered and I have to pay. But I told her to unsubscribe me and I don’t pay anything. Now I will just ignore these emails. Thanks for this post. Another SCAM.
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