My small business received a call from someone named Ashley who said that she was calling from Dun and Bradstreet. Dun and Bradstreet is a credit bureau for businesses, reporting to others on their creditworthiness. Ashley explained that our credit records with Dun & Bradstreet were way out-of-date so that if there were credit inquiries, let's say by potential clients, Dun & Bradstreet would be reporting incorrect info.
Ashley wanted $449 a YEAR for keeping our credit record up-to-date. When I pressed her for a lower-cost program, she said that she could release our credit info to us so that we could correct it on a one-time basis for $179. When I asked wasn't there a free way to update our info since it seemed like that was actually the job of Dun and Bradstreet — to provide up-to-date info to people who PAY to get an accurate credit report, she insisted that it would cost us to update our incorrect info. This seemed crazy as she had also told me that other businesses were paying about $300 a shot to see out completely out-of-date credit info. She offered to lower the price to $401.10 for the first year if I bought the program in the next 5 minutes (this was at 4:55 pm and it needed to be by the end of the day). I turned her down.
Upon going to the D & B website, I found that supposedly one can update a company credit report completely for free. However, the site has glitches in it and looks like they're not making it easy. I'll call for Tech Assistance and see if they can make the site work. I also found a blog article along with many comments, headed up something like "Dun and Bradstreet Phone Scam." It appears from the comments on this blog, that this scam is not done directly by D & B. D & B hires telemarketers like Ashley's company which say anything they like to make a sale.
Dun and Bradstreet's full name is "Dun and Bradstreet, the Credibility Corporation" and as it has only one thing to sell - credibility of their reports - it appears that they are busily shooting themselves in the foot.
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