THE (not so exclusive anymore) CLUB
For people that feel that they have been scammed
by World Business Directory and now World Business Guide
My Story
This website was launched on 09 September 2008 by Grant Brook to create awareness of business directory scams (Specifically the world-businessdirectory.com one) in South Africa with a view to making victims aware that they are not alone and providing them with a support infrastructure to better be able to 'fight' WBD/WBG (EU Business Services Ltd t/a World Business Directory / World Business Guide)
In March 2008 I received an unsolicited email from EU Business Services. At first glance it appears to offer a "Free Update" of your listing on their website.
In my case the street address was incomplete and the first indication that something was wrong was an email in June 2008 from Olga Kelemen asking politely where my payment was. I was totally bowled over as I had no clue what she was on about. It was only when I received an email copy of the 'contract' that I knew I had been conned. A quick internet search and my heart sank. I had fallen for a worldwide scam that is older than the hills (Some 40 years by some accounts)
When I tried to tell her that I had no intention of contracting their services when I completed the 'free' update form (at an INCREDIBLE GBP749 (R11,000) per annum for 3 years) all she can do is tell me that there is no way in hell that I could possibly have signed by accident as everything I need to know is on the form.
Well, I have shown this to be totally untrue. By contacting South African listings on their website I have found one person after the other who is in the same position as myself. Not a single person (sofar) is happy with WBD/WBG and more and more people are joining my (not so exclusive anymore) club!! Have a look at the statistics page to see how many people HAVE signed by accident.
If all these people signed in error then it MUST be a scam and you can take comfort in the fact that you are NOT ALONE.
Another significant pointer to this being a scam is the fact that despite 100's of people informing EU Business Services that the document is misleading they continue to send it out unchanged.
If together we can prevent one more person from being bullied into paying for something that they did not knowingly commit to (or even want) then the website will have been a success.
If you would like to make contact with me then please join the google support group (need a password) or go to the new facebook group (no password required). Links to the above groups can be found here. Unfortunately it is not possible to accept email correspondence at this stage.
