On July 23rd I received a fax at work. It was a 1 page document that appeared to be a yellow page update for our listing. Our business information was already partially filled in on the document.in order to be efficient I filled it out while standing at the fax machine and sent it back to the number provided. I never gave this another thought. Three weeks later my manager received a bill from "Yellow-Page-USA.com" in the amount of $1,188.00. She then contacted our corporate office because she had no knowledge of the bill. She was directed to write "Management did not authorize" across the bill and fax it to the number provided. She did this immediately. On the 19th of September she received another bill with the previous amount of
$1,188.00 plus a new "reminder charge" of $50 now making the total bill $1,238.00. We contacted the company "Open Business Directory Ltd" and asked what the bill was pertaining to. They explained that a contract was signed and services were rendered. We asked for the contract to be sent to us so that we could see it. The contract in question was the partially filled out form that I had received in July. I myself am not authorized to sign anything on behalf of the company, nor to speak on its behalf or authorize any new contracts and I am the one that mistakenly signed this contract. There was never any account number provided to me; not a single inquiry from the time this form was filled out and sent, to the time of billing. I am 100% positive that this is a scam. I have never heard of a business providing a service to ANYONE without first receiving some sort
of payment or formal legal documents. Our company has not provided these people with any kind of compensation nor do they intend to. This company models its paperwork so that they appear to be a business that most people are familiar with (The Yellow Pages). Our company did not pursue any kind of business with Open Business Directory at any point; we have become the
victim of a scam that is obviously rampant throughout the United States and Canada. There are over 700 complaints filed with the BBB and all of them are nearly identical situations to ours.
Just this morning (9/26) I was finally able to get ahold of someone at Open business directory. I spoke with a woman by the name of Nadia at 10:25 this morning. I explained that we are receiving bills and do not have any intention of paying for them. I asked for her Employee Number, she said she does not have one. I then asked for her Employee ID, she also replied
that she doesnt have that either. I asked how I could get ahold of her again she said I cant. She then said she sent the cancellation to the company where the contract comes from. I explained that she was very vague and argumentative and asked when I would be contacted by Open Business Directory and her exact answer was they do not make any outgoing calls.
I am in disbelief at how much of a scam this is and I am concerned about what will happen next. Unfortunately this incident occurred at work and now I am in a very uncomfortable position. I hope this can be resolved quickly and remain in good standing with my corporation.
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