Misleading offers and newly registered domains indicate the presence of a scheme

Jul 10, 2012 08:42 GMT  ·  By

If you own a company and you want to register it in an online directory, you should beware of these shady emails. They purport to come from the World Trade Register and they try to trick customers into paying fairly large amounts of money for services that, at first glance, appear to be free.

MX Lab experts reveal that this scheme is similar to the ones that “advertise” the European Trade Register, the World Company Register, or the World Business Directory, all related to EU Business Services Ltd.

Originating from an email address hosted on the recently registered wtrlisting.eu domain, the notifications bear the subject “Business Registration 2012” and they look something like this:

Dear Madam/Sir,

In order to have your company inserted in the World Trade Register’s 2012/2013 edition, please print, complete and return the enclosed form to the following address:

World Trade Register P.O. Box 3079 3502 GB Utrecht The Netherlands

email: [email protected] Fax: +31 205 248 107 Business Registration 2012/2013

Updating is free of charge! To unsubscribe, please send an email to [email protected]

After reading the email, recipients might be tempted to believe that the service is free. The attached PDF form also contains a confusing piece of text indicating the same thing.

“To update your company profile, please print, complete and return this form. Updating is free of charge. Only sign if you want to place an insertion,” reads a note in the form.

However, the fine print at the bottom of the form reveals a completely different story.

“I hereby order a subscription with service provider EU Business Services Ltd “World Trade Register” I will have an insertion into its database for three years. The price per year is euro 995,” it explains.

If we analyze the “offer,” we see that customers who already have a company profile and want to update it don’t have to pay anything. Those who want to register a new profile must pay the yearly subscription fee.

However, the way it’s worded is very misleading and unsuspecting users might rush to sign the document, unwittingly accepting to make the payment.

Experts recommend company owners to avoid doing business with such shady organizations.