I have written several times about the “EU Business Register Scam.
Update: Commenter Lek points out that these people are either operating out of Spain now, or have branched out:
European Company Network – new name, the same story.
995 EUR invoice, the beneficiary is SEO MARKETING SL, Malaga, Spain
Bank: BANCO SANTANDER, S.A.
The same scam continues to be played out, with people being taken advantage of by a deceptive solicitation implying free listing in a business directory, and then being charged €995 x 3, and harassed by a “global debt collection firm” if they decline to pay – simply because they missed the small print.
Today I received an excellent and welcome comment from reader CZECH_FIRM at one of the articles, and it’s valuable enough that I felt a full post was warranted. I have taken the liberty of cleaning up the translation from Dutch a bit (based on rules of grammar, but not having seen the source text.) This user contacted the Dutch police and received this definitive response:
Dear Sir/Madam:
If you have been defrauded by making a payment, you should report this to the police.
We have been warning people about this company since 2015. I cannot confirm that there have been any past investigations regarding this company. In any event, if you receive any invoices from this company, you can forward them by email to valse-email@fraudehelpdesk.nl.
Please see the warnings about this company below:
DECEPTIVE FORM FROM “WORLD BUSINESS DIRECTORY”
March 4, 2015
Businesses receive a form from EU Business Services Ltd. The business gathers company data to be published in World Business Directory. It is implied that the update is free, but whoever responds ends up signing a three-year contract.Advice: You do not have to do anything. You are not obliged to respond to these types of offers. You can simply throw the document away.
Have you also received a dubious mail? Let us know so that we can warn others.
Warning for World Business List emails
Be on the lookout for an e-mail about enrollment at the World Business List in Zeist. This e-mail is from the address: general.company@globalcompanies.online or info88@globalcompanies.online. and contains a PDF file where “the company” indicates that you can be in a list of companies when you fill out the form. If you return this you will be committing yourself to a three-year contract. It seems free, but costs 995 euros a year.
Kind regards,
Sandy Honders-Egter
Medewerkster wijksecretariaat
Politie I Midden-Nederland I Utrecht stad I wijkteam Centrum
Kroonstraat 25, 3511 RC Utrecht
Postbus 8300, 3503 RH UtrechtT 0900-8844
Work days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
So it appears that at long last, we have confirmation that the Dutch police are working on shutting down these drones. Reporting any invoices or interactions with these companies to the email address above ( valse-email@fraudehelpdesk.nl )will help them in their efforts.
Be careful out there.
The Old Wolf has spoken
Playing in the World Game 
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They scammed the hotel I work at in South Africa, and it’s caused me to lose my job because of the sneaky way of “committing” to a 3-year deal.
Now that I see it is a fake, as well as the collection company makes me so furious I have to now get lawyers involved to get the money back, which the hotel paid.
I am pleased to hear the police are doing something. I hope it gets shut down sooner rather than later.
Really sorry you had negative fallout from this. I hope things turn out well for you.
I couldn’t help but be catty when informing them I would be ignoring them. See below for an amazingly cutting response from them!
(start from bottom of thread)
“1. Amazing response! Wow, that was quite an effort, I’m actually pretty impressed! Clearly you’ve got quite a bit of intellect, if not a soul. A slight correction however: a personal insult would be an insult “belonging to or affecting a particular person rather than anyone else”. Try not to be so sensitive dearie. Of course, unless info@eubusinessregister.org is actually someone’s name, in which case I do apologise to you Info. Your parents did not do you any favours with that name.
So that you are aware Joanna Hall no longer works for Schelling UK, yes it was a shame she didn’t check up on you. Good thing I deal with the money here and not her!
I’m terribly sorry for you that you’ve failed to scare us into paying. The best of luck with your future fraudulent endeavours.
A Merry Christmas to you too! Though personally I hate it and will be spending my day with an Indiana Jones box set.
Katie
Accountant
From: EUBS / Ms Andreea [mailto:andreea@ebr-accounting.eu]
Sent: 07 December 2017 12:58
To:
Subject: Re: Fw: Invoice 205398 – Second Reminder
Importance: High
To Schelling UK Ltd,
Please be informed that due diligence regarding our offer was not properly done before, as it should, before the order has been placed.
You are simply projecting your frustrations toward us for your own lack of awareness but I suppose that is to be expected from a company located in West Yorkshire. Please know that we are deeply sorry for the way Thatcher treated your community with her “managed decline”.
However, we know from the way Yorkshire voted for Brexit that the area you are conducting your business in is no beacon of hope and in no way representative for the entirety of UK, but I can’t help but wonder if you signed the order hoping for some more hand-outs from Europe.
I guess you needed the publicity while you believed it was free and you are now outraged that you have to honor your commitments, a bit like Theresa May, if I may.
If only Joanna.Hall@schelling.co.uk would have searched forums before placing orders for services your company then simply refused to pay, this problem should not have existed.
In regards to your so personal offensive email, please try not to worry about our human status or the jobs we choose to have. Representing a company in this correspondence, you were simply beyond; we could reply miles of phrases in the same impudent manner, however, sincerely, it is not worth it.
You should feel the exact way you have chosen to offend us – just for forwarding non-payment notices to your company who has delayed a payment to ours for 2 months. Yes, your debt was penalized. What exactly did you think that happens with an unpaid invoice?
We will have to block your email after this message is sent. Whenever you need to tell us (interesting or not) – please use other correspondence means (Fax or Post).
You will surely discuss in a proper manner with our Lawyers.
Have a lovely weekend and Merry Christmas!
EBR
On 12/7/2017 2:08 PM, EUBS / Ms Andreea wrote:
—– Original Message —–
From:
To: ‘info’
Cc:
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2017 1:06 PM
Subject: Invoice 205398 – Second Reminder
Good morning
We have today received your second reminder for payment of €1,129.
We are aware that you are a scam company (https://www.onlinethreatalerts.com/article/2017/8/15/beware-of-eu-business-register-for-20172018-scams/) and will be ignoring all correspondence from you going forward.
Try getting a job that doesn’t involve dishonesty and fraud if you’ve got a decent bone in your body. To say that you’re the pond scum of society would be an insult to pond scum. You are so low that you could milk a pregnant snake. Do some soul searching, that is if you have one.
The complete opposite of kind regards,
Katie”
This is ruddy brilliant. I’m stunned that the responder is so brazen, they know that they are scum and don’t care. I would like nothing better than to see these drones taken down.
I couldn’t agree more. I’m generally very professional in correspondence, but I just couldn’t resist leaving the little footnote in the first message. My eyes were on stalks when I got that reply, the cheek! Thank you for the email address for the fraud helpdesk, I’ve forwarded it all on.
Hey, So did they do anything when after you stopped responding to them? I am in this caddy and rude phase right now with them and have told them to leave me alone. I read some comments on other threads where they had lawyers contact them. Did they follow up with you at all?
Nope. I just kept ignoring them and they went away.
Hi,
I am from HK, and got same case. They hired a debt collector and mailed a letter to us. Can I keep ignoring them?
Thanks!
Kris
You can tell these 死人頭 that you have no intention of paying their invoice because you have no intention of using their service. Or just ignore them. There’s nothing that they can do to you, and they won’t try to push the issue because they know that they would get in trouble with the Dutch authorities. At some point I hope they get shut down. They may send more letters or emails, but just throw them away.
Thank!!
Thanks!
They are now partnering with an apparent lawyers who is issuing us (a small not for profit UK organisation) with aggressive and threatening letters.
Yes their actions are appalling and I too conveyed that I found them physically sickening, but they still persist. We’ve told them to file action in Court – I hope they do!
If anyone’s thinking of paying them a personal visit of sorts drop us an email at info@vocalisemagazine.org.uk
Ignore the threatening letters. These “lawyers” are nothing more than the same people under a different letterhead. I would bet a nice dinner that they will never follow up on any threats or take you to court, because they know they are running an illegal scam.
It happen the same to me , they offer a free list and when you fill a format then you receive an invoice for 995 euros per year , I wrote inmediatly to cancel it but they continue sending the invoice every year , I’m being harassed by eu business register , hope the authority could stop and close this fraud company
I have been trapped. So how do I proceed, the company is listed and I received their invoice.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney.
But, I would write them an email to this effect: “to whom it may concern, I was fooled by your deceptive solicitation, which implied that listing my company in your database was free. Since you choose to send me an invoice, I do not want the listing. Please remove it. you cannot charge me for a service I do not want. I will ignore any further communication from your company, including invoices, dun letters, or anything from your supposed “collection agency.” If you continue to harass me, I will report you to the appropriate authorities.”
And then send it, and ignore anything else they send you.
Dear Old wolf, I see you are on this topic for very long, I was also a victim of this scam and today I got a warning mail from them that I need to pay 995euro.
My question is, did unpaid invoices ever got the sued by court by theirs side?
Never heard of that happening. They threaten a lot but I’ve never heard about them carrying through.
Apri 2019
They are still at it I have received numerous e mails demanding payment and have now received a reminder via post .
I have replied in the format you advised and hope that will be the end of the matter but very much doubt it.
I do not even remember completing their form and submitting it .
I have also notified the valse e mail fraud line as you recommended
Good work. At some point they’ll stop bothering you. I can’t understand why these people have not been shut down, they’ve been at it for years. 🤬
t happen the same to me , they offer a free list and when you fill a format then you receive an invoice for 995 euros per year , I wrote immediatly to cancel it but they dont do it , i have struggle that fraud company for decieved me. warn here all people dont reply their email annex mesagaes any time. ı dont understann dutc police knows everything but dont apply any legal processing about fraud company
Sorry you have to deal with it. You’re doing the right thing, just don’t pay and ignore them.
Hi, did anyone receive a ‘collections’ letter from Waldberg & Hirsch Global Collections? If so what happened?
Many thanks.
We did, over 10 years ago. I wrote back and told them to sod off, we never heard from them again.
Ok, thanks 🙂
Here we are in 2021 – and they are STILL at it with a new name, new email but old fax and address – not very bright. And the icing on the cake – their latest solicitation e mail has a trojan virus attached!!
Scummy McScumbags, for sure.
Hello I just got one of their email offers through this morning bless them
The attached picture of the form to submit was so blurry the small print was practically illegible
Notice they are mentioned on the .gov.uk website for trading standards officially as a scam so hope that helps ease anyones fears
Indeed, story continues.
I just wrote to Triodos Bank Fraude Desk to inform them on the amazing track record of this company, operating a Triodos Bank Account in Spain. I advised them to do some customer due diligence on this company.
I’ll post the response if any.
Their bank account (REMINDER: never send any money to it!)
ES3414910001273000116176 BIC TRIOESMMXX
Excellent. If people working together could only bring this shady outfit down, it would be a great thing.
Triodos came back to me saying that they informed their Spanish colleagues. (I contacted Triodos HQ in the Netherlands)
I hope they will see the seriousness of the matter and close the account.
European Company Network – new name, the same story.
995 EUR invoice, the beneficiary is SEO MARKETING SL, Malaga, Spain
Bank: BANCO SANTANDER, S.A.
Maybe they got kicked out of the Netherlands? Or felt that they were so successful that they opened up a “filiale?” Thanks for this info.
European Company Network address is P.O BOX 2021, 3500 GA Utrecht, Netherlands. But the beneficiary is SEO MARKETING SL in Spain.
BTW, thank you for your efforts for putting all this information together. This particular scammers are on another level (not like daily spam you receive), they take their time and the way they act and communicate makes you believe the thing is legit. So the first thing I did after receiving the invoice, was googling and I came across this brilliant resource. Good job!
Four years since this publication and they’re still at it. Dutch police are powerless to stop them?
EU BUSINESS REGISTER
3700 AA ZEIST
THE NETHERLANDS
Fax: +31 205 248 107
I am so relieved to have found this site after the stress of receiving threatening emails from these people and to know that I am not alone. Yes I have also been tricked.
Glad it was useful!
Same here in Slovenia. They are sending tons of emails and letters, presenting themselves as EU Business Register, which sounds like an EU-led initiative. They make it look like a free service, but if you don’t read the paragraph printed at the bottom of the page in small characters and fill in the form, they won’t let you go and will harass you with reminders in very rude manner. Today I received a notice from Weldberg & Hirsch, a debt collector apparently. Still not sure how we will proceed. Any ideas?
Sorry it took me a while to get to this comment. “Waldbrg & Hirsch” is the same outfit as these scammers, they just send out BS dun letters. Ignore them. I’ve never heard of anyone being pursued legally, because these scammers know they will lose in court. It’s just a cheap attempt at intimidation.