World Business List bogus directory

They’re at it again, the phony directory scammers who try to fool you into paying €995 a year (wow!) for their so-called ‘services’. This type of scam has appeared for years in other forms including World Trade Register, European Company Network and EU Business Register. Now it’s re-appeared as ‘World Business List’ complete, once again, with a directory website and I got a spam email trying to get me to sign up.

Updates are still free, they say – but the scrambled small print has the overrider of trying to flog a ‘subscription’ to punters totalling nearly €3,000. They hope victims will be suckered by the ‘Updates are free’ and an invoice for €995 will somehow subsequently slip through the company accounting system later on.

I tried the much-vaunted World Business List website, in search of a comprehensive listing of global internet providers (for example), or anything connected with Internet services. I searched the keyword ‘internet’ in ‘All Countries’. You would expect hundreds if not thousands of entries in the ‘World Business List’, but I found exactly eight listings, and one of those is a takeaway restaurant in Britain!

The World Business List is a product of EU Business Services Ltd. (not an authentic UK company) and is similar to another site run by the same ‘company’ – the EU Business Register. You might compare the T&C to see how near-identical they are.

Don’t be fooled by this ancient old scam! And don't even think of paying them anything!

See previous entries in

• (2014) http://alanwinstanley.squarespace.com/alan-winstanleys-journal/2014/9/11/european-company-network-phony-directory.html
• (2012) http://alanwinstanley.squarespace.com/alan-winstanleys-journal/2012/3/21/bogus-business-directories.html
• (2010) Bitterwallet https://www.bitterwallet.com/news/the-eu-business-register-spam-a-scam-and-a-grand-37009
• (2008) BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7438580.stm