A representative from Minority Business Today called our company to report that we had an unpaid invoice for $895 for advertising in Nov.'08. We did not immediately recognize the name of the business or the individual so we asked them to send over an invoice and a copy of the ad.
When we received the ad it was apparent that it was not a legit advertisement that we would place. There was vital information missing from the ad that we would never approve without. When we expressed to them that we didn't think that we placed the ad, they insisted that we did and said the we verbally approved the ad over the phone. Again, something we would never do.
They went so far as to have someone from their "A/R" department call us and demand payment. We said we would check into the matter further and get back with them later.
When we did some research, we discovered that the "article" that our ad was supposedly placed next to was not even from their magazine... They ripped that off too! And all of the information that was on our ad was easily found on-line and much of it was copied verbatim.
This is a scam intended for people who don't have the follow-through to check up on them. The invoice looks authentic and upon first glance the ad does too. We let them know that we were on to them and haven't heard back from them since.
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