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.

• Article 1
• Article 2
• Article 3

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 Utrecht

T 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