Scam
Complaint
Ron Nowell
Country: United States
I received a call in September of 2011 from the Public Yellow Pages On-Line wanting to give a free ad for Barnwell Enterprises, Harpers Ferry Flea Market in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. After turning them down over and over during the conversation, I finally accepted the free ad. They assured me that there would be no charges for this free ad and there would not be any strings attached to this one time ad.
Two months later in November of 2011, I received a call stating that I had an overdue bill for advertising in the Public Yellow Pages of $599.99.
I never agreed to anything but a free ad.
The caller said that I could cancel the ad only if I agreed to talk to a second person to get a cancellation number. He coached me on what to say, which was odd. I told him I was not going to answer any of his questions. He said the cancellation number would not be given unless I talked to this person. I wanted to get this situation behind me so bad that I answered a few questions to get the cancellation number. I never received it.
On April 4, 2012, I received another call from Public Yellow Pages telling me that my bill was $676.80, however, if I paid with a credit card, Caroline James would do away with the bill and cancel the ad for only $499.99. I went into a yelling contest on the phone. I told her that the Federal Trade Commission and Better Business Bureau would be in touch with her.
Caroline James is in New York at (646) 863-6212. She said I could only pay with a credit card, no checks or other form of payment would be accepted, and if I did not pay immediately the bill would go to a collection agency.
My business partner Dan looked up Public Yellow Pages on the internet. When the site name was typed into a search engine it produced results that were all related to scams. Under some of these links we found countless numbers of people that have the same stories that we have experienced right down to the $599.99 that we owed.
Dan suggested that I call the representative for the Federal Trade Commission, Mid West Region, Rozina C. Bhimani (312) 960-5634 to report this fraud attack on businesses.
I called Rozina C. Bhimani and told her the story and she said it sounded exactly like other scams the Federal Trade Commission has been investigating. She said that I should register my complaint on the Federal Trade Commission website. She also told me to file complaints with Better Business Bureau, New York State Attorney General’s Office, and West Virginia State Attorney General’s Office.
Two months later in November of 2011, I received a call stating that I had an overdue bill for advertising in the Public Yellow Pages of $599.99.
I never agreed to anything but a free ad.
The caller said that I could cancel the ad only if I agreed to talk to a second person to get a cancellation number. He coached me on what to say, which was odd. I told him I was not going to answer any of his questions. He said the cancellation number would not be given unless I talked to this person. I wanted to get this situation behind me so bad that I answered a few questions to get the cancellation number. I never received it.
On April 4, 2012, I received another call from Public Yellow Pages telling me that my bill was $676.80, however, if I paid with a credit card, Caroline James would do away with the bill and cancel the ad for only $499.99. I went into a yelling contest on the phone. I told her that the Federal Trade Commission and Better Business Bureau would be in touch with her.
Caroline James is in New York at (646) 863-6212. She said I could only pay with a credit card, no checks or other form of payment would be accepted, and if I did not pay immediately the bill would go to a collection agency.
My business partner Dan looked up Public Yellow Pages on the internet. When the site name was typed into a search engine it produced results that were all related to scams. Under some of these links we found countless numbers of people that have the same stories that we have experienced right down to the $599.99 that we owed.
Dan suggested that I call the representative for the Federal Trade Commission, Mid West Region, Rozina C. Bhimani (312) 960-5634 to report this fraud attack on businesses.
I called Rozina C. Bhimani and told her the story and she said it sounded exactly like other scams the Federal Trade Commission has been investigating. She said that I should register my complaint on the Federal Trade Commission website. She also told me to file complaints with Better Business Bureau, New York State Attorney General’s Office, and West Virginia State Attorney General’s Office.
Comments
They will play you the same doctored "recordings", so they are clearly in on the scam.
If you get contacted by them, ignore their threats, and file fraud complaints against them as well.
If they send a fraudulent bill in the mail, file a mail fraud complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspector.
http://www.justice.gov/usao/nj/contact.html
The last place they want to end up is in court, as they are too well known for running this type of fraud. They have literally THOUSANDS of complaints of mail and wire fraud on complaint sites, and similar numbers filed with FTC and state Attorneys General.
For the same reasons, it is highly unlikely they will ever "ruin your credit". They are carefully staying in the "commercial debt collection" part of the fraud shakedown game, probably to avoid the complications of FDPCA or FCRA lawsuits that allow for consumer plantiff's attorney fees. The moment they start smearing personal credit reports with bogus "collection" accounts, they become sitting ducks for RICO class action lawsuits with punitive damages.
Every few years FTC, the U.S. Postal Inspector, and Canadian law enforcement (RCMP) do a sweep through the Montreal fraudulent telemarketers, and a new batch of federal lawsuits starts winding its way through the federal courts.
Last round was a couple years back, and these guys might even be some of the same sued before.