Business Watchdog

Archive for May, 2009

Watch out for emails like this: “I took the liberty to do some research on your website, and uncovered some interesting points. This may interest you, since it appears that you are trying to gain new business through your website. From my initial observations, your site is probably underperforming in the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, and MSN LiveSearch. When searching on a topic, most people don’t look past the first page of search results. I struggled to find you in the first couple of pages, meaning that you could be losing a significant amount of business”

There is enough truth in all of this to cause you concern that you may be losing out on valuable business. They might have struggled to find my web site – but what obscure keywords did they try? The site they refer to is actually listed second on Google for my chosen keywords. So do your research and be aware that there is nothing you can’t do that these people offer to do for £40.00 a month!

There are companies that specialise in the publication of hotel wedding brochures. The hotels typically provide details of local wedding suppliers to sales reps, who then phone suppliers using the hotel phone and introduce themselves as calling from the hotel. It is reported that the salesmen often introduce themselves as the hotel manager or an area manager of the hotel group. The inference is that you are dealing direct with the hotel and most local businesses generally value an opportunity to be featured in the brochure of a respected hotel.

CMYK / SOS Industries have gone into Administration.
You can read about it here www.cmyk-conned.us

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A friendly person phones from the Crime Prevention Team and thanks you for agreeing in a phone call last February to participate in the scheme. I simply said someone had given him false information. But as usual they have published something and want to send it to schools – and want to collect money from you. A charity might get 5% but the chances are the Crime Prevention Team – whoever they are – pocket the lot!

If you receive an email from “eNomCentral Support <”tech @ enom.com”>”, with subject of “Maintenance at eNom.com – attention!” – do NOT click on the link, bin the lot.
The link address is “www.enom.com.com94.net” which is nothing to do with the registrar “enom.com” – it is a subdomain of “com94.net” which was only registered on 25-10-08 with a Russian address. There is no “com94.net” website. It will either be a phishing page or will try to install a trojan downloader.

If you receive an email with the subject line of “Registration of EU Companies 2008/2009″, and an attachment “euform.pdf” just make sure you read the small print or you may be in for a shock. “THE VALIDATION TIME OF THE CONTRACT IS THREE YEARS”, “THE PRICE PER YEAR IS EURO 995″ and “THE SUBSCRIPTION WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY EXTENDED EVERY YEAR FOR ANOTHER YEAR, UNLESS SPECIFIC WRITTEN NOTICE IS RECEIVED BY THE SERVICE PROVIDER OR THE SUBSCRIBER TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE EXPIRATION OF THE SUBSCRIPTION.”