As I am only moderately knowledgeable about the web and computers in general, I did not know exactly what to make of an invoice my firm received from Web Listings Inc. However, since I have a legal background, and because the name of the company was not familiar, I was skeptical.
The invoice was for $65. It purported to be a billing for an "Annual Listing (Apr 15, 2011 to Apr 15, 2012). The invoice also touted that the "listing" included "domain name submission with up to 8 keywords / phrases to 20 established search engines, initial search engine position and ranking report sent to you via e-mail, and quarterly search engine position and ranking reports sent to you via e-mail."
In a business setting, a once a year bill for $65 seems pretty modest and might get easily approved in the shuffle without significant scrutiny. But I decided to do a bit of checking. First, I checked with our website design firm. I also checked with our local IT company. Both confirmed Web Listings Inc. was nothing they had listed us with.
I then did a quick "Google" search of the company name. You know Google. It is one of those "20 established search engines" touted in the invoice. Really? 20? Can anyone name more than 5 or 6? Anyway, that quick search came up with plenty of information confirming that Web Listings Inc. was just a new example of the "fake invoice" scam. I have seen it before involving telephone yellow page advertising, but this was my first encounter in the internet setting. So, be careful out there.
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