Dear Mr. Bane:
A local business has informed the Central Indiana Better Business Bureau that US Telecom based in Ontario, CA is soliciting in our area. US Telecom is sending correspondence to businesses for telecom maintenance agreements covering all telecom system equipment including telephone instruments, switches, and cabling. This correspondence appears to be an invoice, but is actually a solicitation for business. Click here for an example of the solicitation.
Similarly, back in March, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) temporarily stopped a foreign operation that was scamming small businesses and non profit organizations into paying for a bogus online directory. The FTC filed a complaint against Construct Data Publishers, a Slovakia based company. The FTC is seeking to permanently halt the alleged scam and require the defendants to refund the fees. Click here for an example of the solicitation.
The BBB encourages you to share this notice with your Accounts Payable personnel, colleagues, and other business contacts you may have. If you have been a victim of this or a similar scam you can file a complaint at either bbb.org or ftc.gov.
Regards,
Wendy Dych
wdych@indybbb.org
(317) 488 2221 ext 133
And here's one from last week... another bad one to watch out for:
Secure Message
he security of your personal information is of the utmost importance to American Express, so we have sent the attached as a secure electronic file. Note: The attached file contains encrypted data. If you have any questions, please call us at 800 973 0032, option 0. Representatives are available to assist you Monday through Thursday between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET and Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET. The information contained in this message may be privileged, confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.
Thank you,
American Express
2012 American Express Company. All rights reserved.
Don't open the attachment if you get one that looks like this.
©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2013 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.
I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.
