WARNING! Directory Entry Scam

booler

I received a letter this morning from ...

TVV TELE VERZEICHNIS VERLAG GmbH / P.O. Box 616165 / D-22453 Hamburg GERMANY / Phone: +49.40.51 48 49 0 / Telefax: +49.40.51 48 49 50

This is a German comnpany that is passing itself of as a "Publisher of Companies and VAT registration Numbers". They use pseudo legal jargon about EU law and the requirement for businesses to provide their VAT numbers. They also include an application to be included in their directory for an annual fee of £797.

Another shower of crooks to be aware of!

thenudeone

You can check whether anyone's VAT number is genuine for free here:

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/

Very useful to check whether tradesmen are genuinely VAT registered (or just adding an extra 20% on top and pocketing it); or whether employees have submitted inflated expenses claims with bogus receipts!

You have to enter a "requester's VAT number" to use it - just use one from the company who sent your last phone or utilty bill.

booler

Not sure what this has got to do with the thread?

espresso

booler wrote: »

Not sure what this has got to do with the thread?

Not sure what your post has to do with the Techie Board. Only an idiot would pay up!

No WARNING! required.

thenudeone

booler wrote: »

Not sure what this has got to do with the thread?

Er. because the first post was about a scam involving a
"Publisher of Companies and VAT registration Numbers".

booler

espresso wrote: »

Not sure what your post has to do with the Techie Board. Only an idiot would pay up!
No WARNING! required.

So angry! Perhaps you have been drinking too much coffee?

I put it on the techie board because I wasn't sure where it fitted and a search revealed that this is where previous threads of a similar nature had been posted. Can you suggest somewhere better?

Also, the world is full of "idiots" who do pay up. That is why these people set up these elaborate scams involving surface mail and official addresses. They need "idiots" to prosper. If there were no "idiots" around then they wouldn't be around either.

booler

thenudeone wrote: »

Er. because the first post was about a scam involving a "Publisher of Companies and VAT registration Numbers".

Yes, but your post tells people how to check that tradesmen's VAT numbers are genuine, which has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the thread I am afraid.

antiquatedanne

Thank goodness you posted your warning. I recall a similar scam some years ago when a company know received such a letter. The then Company Secretary thought it was a statutory requirement, completed the form, signed and faxed it back.

The fact is that you receive a letter that is on similar paper to that used by HMRC, the letter makes no mention of a charge, but just asks for the information on Page 2 to be checked and to provide them with the VAT number. Page 2 is a form with the company details but the VAT number box left blank. Just above the signature box is a load of blurb which, and has to be read extremely carefully to spot the annual charge of "797 GBP" buried in the middle of the blurb. In an ideal world everyone would read this blurb, but we do not live in an ideal world.

Once the form is sent back, an invoice is then received and then aggressively chased. We had a devil's own job of getting out of paying it.

So the warning is very valid and should be placed on every message board.

Oblivion

I got a scam letter from my local council in April telling me they expect me to pay several thousands of pounds council tax. Ha, they must think I was born yesterday.

macman

This particular scam has been going for at least twenty years in various 'directory listing' guises...even if you do fall for it (unlikely) and sign up, I know of no instance where the companies involved have actually been prepared to pursue the 'debt' through the UK civil courts.
They just bulk mail and live off the one in ten thousand who are foolish enough to fall for it.

spannerzone

Sadly any idiotic person sending the fee shouldn't be in a position of that authority to make payments to anyone except the milkman.

By the way, apparently there's some trpublesome Nigerians sending out fake letters, faxes and I believe now via the new fangled email telling you that your've been selected to received $45,000,000 MILLION DOLLARS from a dead oil baron. Be aware!

(We need more wares)