Complaint Review: International Business Directories

It all starts with a phone call. Someone calls about your yellow pages advertising and before you know it they are telling you that you are already obligated for some ad you never authorized in the first place. The price is usually just under $400.

Or someone calls up to do a survey of the type of office equipment you use. Then you get another call from someone pretending to be your regular supplier. They trick you into buying overpriced office supplies based on the information you gave them when they called you in the survey.

Then the invoices start coming. Often from a border town in New York,,, Yes, the perpetrators of this scam are in Canada! Welcome to the world of Cross-border directory and office supply scams.

We get a lot of these calls. Most persistent is a bunch known as World Wide Source, but they go by many names!

The whole scam seems to have begun with Michael Mouyal and Albert Mouyal, two brothers who perform the same scam but each using a different name for it. The authorities have charged them and the FTC is trying to shut down International Business Directories (the original scam) but by the time you read this it will be coming to you under a new name!

So beware of anyone who says you have a standing order with you who can't provide any paper work for it. They are frauds and YOU ARE UNDER NO LEGAL OBLIGATION TO PAY THEM! Paying them will not make them go away. Knowing they are a scam and asking THEM the right questions when they call may hasten their departure.

Robert
Staunton, Virginia
U.S.A.