Web Listings Inc. states that they will submit your domain to 20 top search engines. Sorry to break it to you guys, there are only 3 top search engines! If you received one of these fake invoices, our advice is to just throw it in the trash, or if you have a fireplace, burn it! Web Listings Inc. uses dishonest tactics to try and catch unsuspecting people off guard. Their phony invoices are actually sign-up forms for a service that has absolutely no valid purpose for existing.
Comments (152)By John posted on Monday, March 15, 2010 @ 7:00 PMAhh, yes, we to have recieved such an "invoice". They must make some good money out of this or they would not do it!! We have also recieved letters in the mail from "international business registers" requiring a couple of hundred dollars to keep our company registered. I guess when you play the numbers game you will always have a win somewhere. I just wish the law could do something about it!!By susan posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 @ 4:37 AMI received the statement referenced in your warning. I did not submit for obvious reasons. I am however interested in linking my site to search engines to increase business. Do you know of a reputable company that can help me or can i do this myself?By Andrea posted on Saturday, March 20, 2010 @ 8:56 PMThe issue with domain names is that it stresses out many small business owners: they just fear if they do not pay, their website (and their business’ online visibility) would disappear. You know, $65 for fulfilling your safety concerns... That doesn’t seem much. So they pay...By Brad Proctor posted on Sunday, March 21, 2010 @ 7:13 AMI've got these before, they are pretty shady. They make it look like a bill you have to pay and I bet a lot of people do without actually reading it to the print that says "THIS IS NOT A BILL"@susan: No need, your site is already indexed by the big three. And submitting to any others is just a waste of time. By Lisa posted on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 @ 2:58 PMI also received the same letter. When I didn't see a phone number and attempted to find one by googling, I saw this page!!! It's a damn shame - and yes, obviously they are making money.I am so glad I saw this. By Martijn posted on Sunday, April 11, 2010 @ 5:36 AMI have a friend in America who has received exactly the same letter. His strategy? Just throw the bill away and warn your clients about this letterBy Sherae posted on Friday, April 30, 2010 @ 5:33 PMI just got the letter today and it freaked me out a little considering that I am still building my website and haven't even published it yet. If it were cold enough I would start a fire with it... BBQ anyone?By Anil Mathew posted on Sunday, May 2, 2010 @ 6:26 PMI received the referenced bill and figured out it is fishy. But I am interested in linking my sites to search engines. Do you know which companies provide this service?By Mike posted on Monday, May 3, 2010 @ 12:57 PMMy website comes up on Yahoo, Google, and Bing searches how many more do I need Web Listings INC ?By Signs Stockton, CA posted on Monday, May 3, 2010 @ 1:54 PMWow, we've had our site for years and just received one of these. I figured it was a scam when I saw the note at the bottom.By kate hogeland posted on Monday, May 3, 2010 @ 5:08 PMI just got the same thing and realized it was a scam. I went on line to google and found this site. So glad you posted this for others to see!By Scott posted on Thursday, May 6, 2010 @ 5:56 PMI just got one of these too. Does anyone know - how do they find your mailing address? It's not on my site anywhere. I also have to wonder how they know what my site is - it's not really built yet, so I haven't told anyone about it, and I don't mention my full name on it.By Shane posted on Saturday, May 8, 2010 @ 2:55 PMThe website that the letter is listed to James Madison one of our beloved presidents. The 800 number says thanks for calling and says to press 0 to talk to a rep. All it does is say invalid number try again, but 6 will let you leave a message. Oh and the regular number that is listed is the Niagra Aquarium.By David Hoffman posted on Monday, May 10, 2010 @ 7:34 AMThis is an old Yellow Pages industry practice; they send what appears to be an invoice to "renew" your listing in their book - problem is, you never had a listing in their book. If you look into this company, my bet is it's run by old Yellow Pages people who need a new industry to slime.The only search engines that matter - Google, Yahoo (for a few more months), Bing and Ask - will find a site if it's optimized. If it's not, submitting the site to them wont make a difference. By Bubba Gump posted on Monday, May 10, 2010 @ 5:48 PMThat address is a UPS Store - where you can rent mailboxes.The UPS Store - 2194 www.theupsstorelocal.com 1623 Military Road Niagara Falls, NY 14304-1745 (716) 298-4461 By Caldude posted on Saturday, May 29, 2010 @ 1:01 PMI receive one of those letters 3 days ago. The interesting part is the domain name they are referring to does not even have a website associated to it. I found it ridiculous and when they mentioned "Submission to 20 established search engines" I knew then it was some sort of scam.By Mat Brooks posted on Monday, May 31, 2010 @ 12:07 PMMan, thanks for this posting, I almost fell for this as I would like my website to get more hits and not knowing any better this sounded pretty good. I'm glad that I looked into this further $65.00 puts alot of stuff in the pantry.By Rene posted on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 @ 1:10 PMI just received a statement from this company for $65.00. Good luck!! be making a ton of money! They must preying on innocent individuals who don't know any better.By Bobby Rhoades posted on Wednesday, June 2, 2010 @ 5:44 AMI just received the same letter from Web Listings Inc. Such dishonest tactics. Thank you for bringing this to everyone's attention.By Joe posted on Wednesday, June 2, 2010 @ 3:57 PMI would think that with all the laws (CAN-SPAM ACT) for newsletters ONLINE, they'd protect the mail service, too. I wasn't going to do it anyway, because anyone can do it for free on their own.By Bobo posted on Thursday, June 3, 2010 @ 8:08 AMMine arrived yesterday. My first reaction was that it was odd to receive a snail-mailed letter about a website -- which I closed months ago.By David posted on Saturday, June 5, 2010 @ 1:32 PMThanks for the help. I got a bill today from these guys. I will burn it.David By Alma posted on Saturday, June 5, 2010 @ 4:40 PMOh my GOD! I received this "invoice" too!! I wanted to call them and ask what the heck this was about. So I decided to type in the address and look for their number. This ARTICLE was the FIRST THING that popped up.. Thank God I listened to myself on this one...By Sai Thakor posted on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 @ 10:34 AMThis Is Bull. I Am Not Paying It HahaBy Morgan posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 @ 9:10 AMI work for a University and they attempted to solicit payment from us. They are a scam. Very glad for this original post.By Mila posted on Sunday, June 13, 2010 @ 2:14 PMYes, I received one of these yesterday. This is a scurvy operation--thought I had to pay it until showing it to a friend. My guess is they do pretty well with this phony invoice. They ought to be jail. A pox on them!By Cleever posted on Monday, June 21, 2010 @ 4:43 AMGot it last friday, immediatly rumple it and thrown it and when it was falling shoot it with a shotgun!By redconfetti posted on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 @ 9:02 PMI just got one of these in the mail today myself. This is funny.For those that don't know, you can submit your domain to search engines for free. For instance, here is the link for the Google page submission form: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl The other search engines have one too if you look for it. Really the best thing you can do is make sure your website has actual text on it that provides information which is useful enough that people decide to link to you. The more people that link to you, the higher the social value Google see's you provide (such as useful blog posts from a Wordpress blog)...whereas nonsense articles that aren't helpful don't get linked to by others. By GLO posted on Thursday, August 19, 2010 @ 9:10 AMWell glad to see that this letter is still out there. I just got mine Today, August 17th.Did anyone get a letter to a strange name and your own home address? Just making sure -- one never knows. Thank you for the Posts, so very helpfull Glo By RR posted on Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 10:55 AMYah, I got mine today... August 30th! What a shame ... and I hope no one believes them and send any money... I feel sorry for those who end up losing their money. In my case they are asking me $85.00By Joachim Loutangou posted on Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 1:43 PMThank God somebody made this fraud public. I received the same mail on August 25th 2010; I was about to send a signed check, but I wanted to chek if it was possible to do the payment online and I was stoned to discover this fraud alert. Thank you guys.On my letter the amount have changed to $35.00 instead to $65.00 and the subscription said "submission to 10 established search engines up to eight keyword/..." By lain posted on Sunday, September 5, 2010 @ 4:17 PMGot mine on August 16 for $85.00 for 20 search engines. This was for a domain that I have not even developed. I would not have minded an email, but this is sent as a bill for a service I never signed up for is pathetic!I have no idea who this company is or how they got my information, and thank you for posting this scam! By Jerry posted on Monday, September 13, 2010 @ 3:14 PMI just got one of these in the mail, and googled them looking for reviews. This site popped up instead. Thanks so much for saving me the money. Otherwise they would have potentially scammed me out of $65. And for me they were offering 20 search engines for that price.By Linda White for Midway Community Church posted on Monday, September 20, 2010 @ 10:33 AMWe received this "invoice" also and just having established a new web site, paid this invoice. On July 26, 2010 I wrote a letter to this Web Listing, Inc., 1623 Military Road #926, Niagara Falls, NY 14304-1745 requesting a full refund of the $65. I also did an extensive web search to try to find a telephone number before I wrote my letter. I found 1-800-280-3897 and called it. An automated machine thanked me for calling and advised me that if I wanted to speak to a representative to press "0". When I did I was told it was no a valid selection. As of today, 9/20/2020 I have not received a response to my request for a refund.By Matthew Gonzales posted on Friday, October 8, 2010 @ 6:42 PMI received this as well. It clearly states that it is NOT a bill and that I am in no way obligated to pay any amount shown on the offer. It also states that it IS a solicitation. My website comes up on all search engines as well, so no need for the service. I do think it is a scam, but definitely not an invoice or bill. More like a quote for the service if paid for.By Levi posted on Saturday, October 16, 2010 @ 11:36 AMGot this too, was a little confused at first, and then I saw it wasn't a bill, and then that they miss spelled quite a few words. Good to see its online to let people know.By Wanda Violet posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 @ 5:51 AMThey are still fishing, for I received one today too!By Lisa posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 @ 3:47 PMWe too received this "invoice" and it seemed strange to me. Thanks for such a great post!By Dan posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 @ 6:04 PMGot mine in the mail. glad i googled web listings inc. i was ready to give them my money too. its such a small amount of money that it wouldnt have been a terrible loss. but im still glad im not wasting $65By Amy posted on Sunday, October 24, 2010 @ 6:52 PMI received one and new it was NOT an invoice because I don't use them. It even says "this is not a bill, this is a solicitation". You are only deceived if you deny yourself all the information provided.By Larry posted on Thursday, October 28, 2010 @ 11:30 AMThanks for the heads up. I was suspicious since there was no phone number attached. I have to go now and feed my shredder! He's hungry for the Web Listings Inc. correspondence!By jeff posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 @ 6:56 PMThanks for the post! I was going to take the offer, so I thought I would research how well they did their offered service. Well the proclaimed service does not exist, the money taking part they have down. Anyone in Niagra want to stop by that UPS store??By b061253 posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 @ 2:46 PMI received this bill today myself. They are apparently retrieving mailing addresses from the registry. My brother received a similar solicitation from a different company implicitly luring him to unwittingly switch his web site host - defeated.I've sent a "share" to Facebook. Thanks for confirmation of my suspicion. By gpalabs1 posted on Thursday, November 18, 2010 @ 3:43 AMIt clearly states that it is NOT a bill and that I am in no way obligated to pay any amount shown on the offer. It also states that it IS a solicitation. My website comes up on all search engines as well, so no need for the service.By Tracy Arceo posted on Thursday, November 18, 2010 @ 1:01 PMThank you for posting this! I just received one of these dubious phony invoices myself. I am very glad I am the one who received the mail today and not my husband who most likely would have assumed this was an invoice and since it contains information that suggests that thi company received our information from our hosting service, he'd have assumed the host company was re-billing us and would have canceled my host account as a knee jerk reaction. I will be complaining to my web hosting service about giving out our information to such a fraudulent company to try and trick their good customers out of out money.By Roger Zubarik posted on Saturday, November 27, 2010 @ 2:11 PMI received my letter today and mine was for $85.00. I called Go Daddy to see if they ever heard of these guys, and the response was negative. "Bad Boys" they are!!!! I like what they say! "Please send check, and do not send cash!" I called the UPS store and the young lady who answered said that was the company called "Web Listing Inc" was assigned to the box number #926. I asked for a phone number for "the company" and was told that they do not give out that information. Who the heck would send $85 to a UPS box in Niagara Falls, NY???By Big C posted on Thursday, December 2, 2010 @ 1:28 PMI have one of those proposals, I received it on August 20 2010 . I was offered search engine listing at the annual subscribtion of $35.00 I did not pursue the offer, even though it sounds very tempting to a small business, I did not rush out to send any monies. I believe the internet works or can work in both directions, so slow down read the info and do the research...By LISA posted on Saturday, December 11, 2010 @ 3:48 PMI received one recently and they have increased their price to $85.00!By Ronald posted on Monday, December 13, 2010 @ 5:39 PMwhoo hoo i got mine today 85 bucks aint getting squatBy Joe posted on Thursday, December 23, 2010 @ 10:59 AMI just got one of these letters too. I already have my websites ranking on 1st page of google, yahoo and bing for very competitive terms like, Used Lexus, Pre Owned Lexus and User Lexus For Sale. I am the webmaster for lex4less and my boss called me in thinking this will help our SEO alot. I without googling it, knew it was a scam.I will write an article about it on my blog and make sure no one falls prey to these scammers. Scammers will come up with any sort of scam to steal peoples hard earned money. Also, beware of all these emails you get from people telling you that they can get you #1 on google for targeted keywords. 99% of those emails are scams. If they were good at SEO, the first thing they would have done, had they any knowledge of SEO, would be to get their own business on top of Google SERPS's. By The Munch Machine posted on Friday, December 24, 2010 @ 12:49 PMGot mine today. Fraud Fraud Fraud... I love how their own website: http://web-listings.net/about.shtml is an 2 hour attempt to make something that looks legit. Notice how the centering of the page jumps left and right when clicking the menu buttons. Rookie mistakes (dreamweaver).This company will be closed in a few months from now - when they have cashed their last checks. If anybody wants to do something about this. Write a letter to Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc. and let them know that they are protecting a company who is essentially all about fraud: Registrant: Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc. Whois Agent PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St - F1 C/O web-listings.net Bellevue, WA 98007 US +1.4252740657 Fax +1.4259744730 By funnyface posted on Friday, December 24, 2010 @ 2:51 PMI sent them back a big picture of a middle finger with this caption:THIS IS NOT A RUDE GESTURE. THIS IS MY MIDDLE FINGER. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO BE OFFENDED UNLESS YOU INTERPRET THIS TO BE OFFENSIVE. HAVE A NICE DAY! : ) ...just like their stupid THIS IS NOT A BILL statement By Orlando posted on Saturday, January 1, 2011 @ 9:28 PMYeah, I just received one of those bogus letters. I knew it had to be fraud when I saw the website. Very cheap looking. Always google a site and type in fraud behind it and check over the listings. Always worth a look. Bogus site, bogus address (UPS RentABox), and bogus company! I appreciate you guys for posting all this useful information. Whether you know it or not, you guys have saved a lot of people from headaches and hard times. Happy New Year! See you guys around the way.By Rhonda posted on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 @ 12:30 PMI too just received an invoice in the mail today. They want to charge me $85.00 for an annual search engine listing to include my domain name of ushopforfree.com to 20 search engines. I am so glad GOOGLE exist!!! With GOOGLE we are now privy to information we would have never known about, like this being a scam and all, you know what I mean?By gbreehl posted on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 @ 7:21 PMYou got off lucky. They sent me a bill for $85.00By Juanita posted on Saturday, January 8, 2011 @ 9:24 AMYes....I just got one too. I figured I better reasearch it....in this day and age there is no reason to get scammed. I think I'm going to send this to my local news to alert people locally! Thanks for the heads up!By Pablo Ramos posted on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 @ 11:06 AMReference Number 25689168 by $85I do not know what to do. The domain was made with yahoo.com To what company i have to pay? By Michael Jackson posted on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 @ 3:00 PMsoon after using INTUIT WEBSITE SUPPORT, i recived a letter in the mail from WEB LISTING SERVICES. they had all my information. Every thing that i gave INTUIT web listings had. Now how can that be. ??? are they the same ???? I paid WEB LISTINGS SERVICES $85 by check in a return envelope. For nothing i can't get a username or a password. found their phone number that went to nithing. the address went to a ups at 1623 Military Rd #926 Niagara Falls, NY the phone # 716-218-4441 is out of service. I HATE RIP OFFS GET A REAL JOB AND MAKE SOME MONEY THE RIGHT WAY.I would just like to know What part did INTUIT have in this??? By jim posted on Saturday, January 22, 2011 @ 10:53 AMi just recived an offer from web listings inc. 1-21-11. it does look like a bill, but clearly states at the bottom of the letter that it is not a bill,!! in less you except the offer. question: is this a scham or not?By Sandy posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 @ 5:27 PMI just got my letter today. So glad I found this site on the web. My bill was for $85.00 as well.By Michele Heroux-Bynum posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 @ 1:55 PMYep! Gotta' hand it to them, but not your money! Notice they won't take anything but a CHECK? Easier to run with!By Ed posted on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 @ 11:49 AMI got mine today. They upped the price to $85. 30% price increase for a no value "service". Since they write "this is not a bill" and "no obligation to pay" etc. it doesn't constitute fraud. It's still a scam and I'd like to see those people stopped doing this.By Rick posted on Thursday, February 3, 2011 @ 10:11 AMSame here I went into a freak out for a bit, I almost got a panic attack. But I calmed my self down and Googled it. Hey Thanks for the post.By Rachel posted on Thursday, February 3, 2011 @ 2:47 PMWe got a letter today from Web Listings Inc. We get upwards of 100+ similar letters each week from no-name companies gracious enough to help our site get better search engine results. This is the first time getting it from Web Listings Inc out of Niagara Falls, NY. While Web Listings Inc out of Niagara Falls, NY may be a different company name than we are used to seeing, they are offering the same, lame vapor service crap. Funny how they tell you to send a check "Do not send cash" to Web Listings Inc at 1623 Military Road #926, Niagara Falls, NY 14304-1745 because they want to make sure they have something that constitutes a "contract". Oh... love to know how Web Listings Inc is going to submit our domain name "with up to 8 keywords / phrases" to 20 different established search engines without accessing our code or creating some bull pass through page. Web Listings Inc... another joke of a company preying on the naive.By Ann posted on Thursday, February 3, 2011 @ 6:21 PMI also received the same kind of invoice, but the cost on mine was $85.00!Glad I decided to check it out on line first. Thanks for your warning. Ann By James posted on Monday, February 7, 2011 @ 6:00 PMI too received this fake invoice for $85.00 and decided to check it out online prior to mailing. Thank God you guys had posted this information. I plan on reporting them to the Texas Attorney General's Office promptly tomorrow morning.By Gary posted on Tuesday, February 8, 2011 @ 11:27 AMI just got the same fraudulent mail from Website Listing Service. The neat thing is that when you search for them this blog comes up way ahead of their own web site. Of course their address is nothing but a box number at a UPS store. and of course their whois listing is private. Time to flush.By Susan in Alaska posted on Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 5:37 PMWow, everyone else got a deal - my bill is for $85, not $65 (Maybe they know that things are more expensive in Alaska?!) I reported them to the Better Business Bureau in New York and filed a mail fraud complaint with the Post Office.I despise this kind of thievery. Disgusting people! By Matt SF posted on Sunday, February 13, 2011 @ 11:25 AMJust received the same fake invoice for $85 via snail mail. Would love to know how these shady folks got my mailing address. Hopefully someone will throw the book at these shady characters.By Lucy Graesser posted on Thursday, February 24, 2011 @ 6:14 PMThanks a lot, people! I am glad, I searched information before I payed $85 to thiefs.By J posted on Friday, February 25, 2011 @ 7:33 PMYeah, I got mine today (Feb 25, 2011) and knowing how the SEO game works, I knew it was bogus. But, it's still funny that people are actually searching WHOIS databases for domain ownership.And, yes, if you don't keep your domain private, anybody can get your WHOIS information (name, phone, address, apt #...basically what you signed up with to get said domain). By Dre posted on Tuesday, March 1, 2011 @ 7:09 AMtotal scam. I received this letter every so often...I figured it was a scam.By Ken Clark posted on Monday, March 7, 2011 @ 8:51 AMThanks for the heads up; I was very suspicious.By Eugenia Reid posted on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 @ 6:07 AMTo whom may concern:I never sign up with your company. You send me a bill, stated that I owe your company $65.00. Please email me asap! eugeniareid(at)sbcglobal.net Thanks By Jamie Kelly posted on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 @ 9:06 AMI just received the same "bill" from Web Listings, Inc. I looked on their website to find that they do not have a phone number and everything is done by email. I am rather disappointed in companies like this that take advantage of people. If something like this was sent to my Grandma she would have paid it and never thought twice about it. I am filing with the Better Business Bureau as well. Please let me know if there are any other place to file with in regards to their wrong behavior.By peta posted on Thursday, March 17, 2011 @ 5:46 AMI sent a client a renewal for their domain names and website, the reply I got was that they had already paid it... to Website Listing Inc. Some people's stupidity is quite unbeleivable. I am really cross, as my client seems to think that I was trying to pull a fast one.. end result, I lost a client.By Monica Campbell posted on Sunday, March 20, 2011 @ 6:21 AMI too received this yesterday. I was just telling my biz partner about it last night. We were going to look it over today. Thank you for all who have saved us the time LOL.By Skunk Smell posted on Friday, April 1, 2011 @ 6:10 AMOh my gosh, I get letters like that all the time, except they are from a different company (but they say the same thing). The thing I always look for is the tiny sentence at the bottom that says "This is not a bill".By Michael D posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 @ 1:43 PMGuess what. I just got a PERSONAL MONEY ORDER from Web listing Inc for $65. The problem there in no name in PAY TO ORDER OF. I called the bank that issued the check and they say I have to go to one of their Banks....38 miles away. It will cost me $25 to cash a $65 check. But I got a refund. Might be a new scam.By CamillE posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 @ 2:12 PMI just got the mentioned letter, read it... hated it so much that I had to help boost the SEO ratings for this comment thread. What a scam. Considering I'm on a no mail list I should be able to get these guys in trouble legally right?By Luiz Morais posted on Monday, May 9, 2011 @ 4:43 PMDoes some body know if we can have legal action against that people? They theraten you, your bussiness and still looking for our money. One more to advise others who get this "invoice" in home or office. Thanks a lot. Luiz Morais.By Brooke J Levis posted on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 @ 10:45 AMWell....It's 2011...I guess they are broke and trying for another round of attempting to fraud....folks throw this notice away--this is a scam!!By Luke posted on Thursday, May 12, 2011 @ 7:42 AMReceived this same notice on May 11, 2011. It was for $65.00 and I live in KS.I'm sick of scammers... By Chris Thompson posted on Thursday, May 12, 2011 @ 9:36 AMI received this too. It even has my correct email site. I did not think my company was called Web Listings Inc, but then thought maybe my company sold to these people. Thanks for posting this fraud announcement, I might have paid it.By Anna J posted on Friday, May 13, 2011 @ 6:40 AMI got the letter yesterday. Since all of my websites are through GoDaddy I knew this was a scam. Sadly I am sure many people fall for it.By xtina posted on Sunday, May 15, 2011 @ 9:37 AMGot mine last week - I knew it was a scam right away. I plan to send them a letter that says "HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?" Scumbags. Just pray they don't have children.By Scott posted on Monday, May 16, 2011 @ 9:25 PMGot one too...I assume they got my info from GoDaddy which also pisses me off.By Dick B posted on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 @ 8:19 PMGot mine in the mail today. I looked everywhere for it to say "This is not a bill"The letter I got does not state that anywhere! Because of that I will contact the District Attorneys Office in N.Y. and see if there is something one can do about these crooks. May they fall into an outhouse while a horde of gypsies is approaching after eating prunes and drinking wine! By Carla H posted on Thursday, May 19, 2011 @ 11:28 AMI got one too. If they do get our information from GoDaddy that makes me mad too!! Isn't this illegal and why haven't they been stopped by now? By the dates on these posts this has been going on for a long time.By destiny posted on Friday, May 20, 2011 @ 4:47 PMI received a letter today as well and thought I had mistaking signed up for something. Thanks for posting this.By Justin posted on Monday, May 23, 2011 @ 1:48 AMI got one for my PRIVATE domain which I have done nothing with. There is no way anyone got my name and address for this domain unless it was from one of the recent hacks.By Almost Fooled posted on Friday, June 3, 2011 @ 10:41 AMShame on these guys, and hurray for us! I was about to write a check when "the voices" told me to look them up.By jack b posted on Sunday, June 5, 2011 @ 11:22 AMWhen I got the letter a couple of weeks ago, I was suspicious since the fools addressed it to the former Catholic Bishop of Orlando and I'm not even Catholic. I wish these kinds of people could be sent to prison for a long time.By Toniwllms posted on Sunday, June 5, 2011 @ 4:56 PMYes, I also received a "wanna be" official bill, from these desperate crooks at "Website Listing Service, at 1623 Military Rd #926, Niagara Falls, NY, 1404-1745." I believe that now is the time to notify our legal authorities, with our info, with hopes to stop these illegal attempts against good, hard working people! I'm disappointed based on these responses above, that there are many fraudulent letters mailed out through out the US. My question is how long has these letters been circulating around to people?I'm however, happy that I and many people took the initiative to follow up, and knew where to go to investigate this matter! It's time to stop "Website Listing Service" with their fraudulent practices! To all responsible for arranging this site thank you! By Polywave Studios posted on Monday, June 6, 2011 @ 12:48 PMI received one of these today, it clearly says in bold letters that it is no a bill and I'm not obligated to pay. Don't think they are trying to make it look like an invoice, but it may be a scam. And to comment on that there are only 3 top search engines, you are wrong, there are several (Google, Bing, yahoo, ask, dog pile, AOL search, Lycos, Altavista, Alltheweb, and more). Most web hosting companies offer some kind of search engine submission, so you should look into that before going anywhere else to submit your url.By Dom posted on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 @ 12:16 PMI received one of these "Bills" today. complete and total fraud. I post this to keep this page active.the more people post here, the higher up on google listings its going to be. HOPE this page shuts the scam downBy Carol Palmeri posted on Thursday, June 9, 2011 @ 7:42 AMI also received one of these bills. I am in the process of having the site designed. Lucky me - my web designer sent me something today and I mentioned the bill and that I wrote a check out for it. He immediately wrote me back and mentioned this scam. Thankful that I didn't mail the check out yet.By my posted on Thursday, June 9, 2011 @ 9:59 AMThe flip side of the "invoice" is where they put their disclaimer. How the paper unfolds is clearly designed to fool the unsuspecting victims who may not flip the invoice over. Unfortunately, designed well enough so it's probably not a crime.By Rahbinah posted on Thursday, June 9, 2011 @ 4:48 PMI received this "bill" about a month ago. I thought it was legit at first until I read the entire letter and saw where it said "this is not a bill. It is a solicitation". I changed my website provider to Weebly about six months ago and I did have to pay for my domain name, so I thought these fools were connected with Weebly at first. They are some evil, scum-sucking crooks! A plague on them!By Dick Collier posted on Thursday, June 9, 2011 @ 6:05 PMOne of my clients that I wrote a website for got one of these yesterday in the mail. I assured them that it was a feeble attempt at a scam. The domain name (web site) owner and address is retrieved by a simple Internet domain name inquiry. I hope this jerk spent a fortune on postage.By Dick Collier posted on Thursday, June 9, 2011 @ 6:25 PMIf you have a linux/unix computer connected to the Internet, do a "whois (your domain name)" and don't be upset to see your name and address and phone number listed for anyone to see folks. This is how these scams can take place. Remember, there are no secrets on the Internet if you know how it works.By Email Marketing posted on Friday, June 10, 2011 @ 11:04 AMWhen we opened up our P.O. Box this last week we found three statements all for different domains we own. Of course the statements are for domains that we did not pay a private listing for. The only advice we can give is to pay the extra money for private domain registration, this will prevent scammers like this from contacting you!By Rap Music posted on Friday, June 10, 2011 @ 11:08 AMIt's sad, but people fall for these types of direct mail scams all the time. Website Listings Inc wouldn't keep doing it if it didn't make them money right? I guess we can only hope that postage rates will rise so much they will no longer be able to operate this type of shady service!By Sandi posted on Friday, June 10, 2011 @ 2:22 PMI received one fro 65.00 on yesterday and thought i should checkit out. Had I not reread it I would have thought I owed 65.00. Even so I do not want to be on there mailing list etc.By frank posted on Saturday, June 11, 2011 @ 4:53 PMYes, got one these letters on friday guessed it was scam, but thank you for the up date will pass this news on!!!!By j posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2011 @ 3:53 PMoh boy! I just got one of this on the mail. I obviuosly came to do the research and voila! i had a "hunch" that something wasn't right and I found my answer. I'm new to this website listing thing and been trying to learn how to tag words and all that. It's sad how there are people out there that try to scam just because they can. Glad I found this post! very grateful and thank you to all of you who took the time to "talk" about this people that pray on newbies. I do read all my bills carefully but it's very well designed to make you believe something is up with your site. Many thanks again.By Jeremy Cohen posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2011 @ 5:45 PMWhat a sham of aletter! And look at this community of resistance. I love it. They even wrote "remit payment on or before" as if I owe them something.By thomas hammill posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 @ 10:23 AMyup i have one of thouse too!!, $65.00 thats--1-2 out of perhaps millions two many people fell for there trick(( thank for this post,)) but not me ,guys the hammer down on you, hope the IRS , Get you,if not the millitary, hah 1623 military rd#926 ,<By Herb posted on Friday, June 17, 2011 @ 7:41 AMwow - one of my clients JUST emailed me asking if "he should pay this invoice". Thank you so much for posting this and I am sharing the post via twitter and facebook.By Fielding J. Hurst posted on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 @ 10:55 AMGot one of these this week. I can see a lot of folks paying these especially if they have a lot of domains with multiple companies.By Jan Hvizdak posted on Saturday, June 25, 2011 @ 12:09 PMHaven't received anything similar yet, but it would be cool to know the ratio of ignored vs. paid! I think someone must be that stupid that in the end this activity is profitable, although dishonest.If such a company hides somewhere abroad, then it's practically impossible to punish these and similar scammers. By dorothy posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 @ 1:51 PMYes, very interesting. I got the same letter that is created to look like an invoice. I was rather surprised but I checked with my hosting server and found that I'm okay - this is not a bill. And they state that on the letter that it is just a solicitation. Very clever Marketing; but leaves one rather doubtful as to their honesty. And expensive. I'd rather they just advertise their services straight out, instead of making it look like something it is not.By Billy posted on Thursday, July 7, 2011 @ 12:17 PMWow! Thank you for posting this I'm so glad I didn't waste the money! Frieken scammers if yur readin this you suck!!!By Baldylocks posted on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 @ 6:16 PMI sniffed "scam" immediately, but I thank you folks for verifying it. Any time I don't see an 800 number for a company "billing" me, there's gotta be something amiss.By Bobby L. posted on Thursday, July 21, 2011 @ 7:36 AMWOW, my wife almost paid this bill but thought better and asked me about it. I said no and then googled and came upon your site. Thanks for being on top of it and I hope more people see this site and are not duped out of their hard earned money. I just started a small business and www.batterycomponent.com and appreciate not getting scammed.By UBG posted on Thursday, July 21, 2011 @ 11:07 AMI red flagged it when I didn't see a website or a number I'm glad I read this post too.By Donna A posted on Thursday, July 21, 2011 @ 11:27 AMI also received one of this fraudulent letters in the mail, after receiving numerous phone calls from various individuals and phone ID's identifying themselves as representatives of Website Listings. This continued for about 3-4 months even though I demanded they remove me from their calling list. I never supplied any info to this company and then "the invoice" arrived. They are persistent and are quite unethical!By Sherman Chevalier posted on Thursday, July 21, 2011 @ 11:33 AMI think they used to be called "Liberty Names of America". That address looks so familiar. Used them for a server until they went bankrupt or whatever. Recall hearing LNOA used same method when domains were about to expire.By Donald Prince posted on Thursday, July 21, 2011 @ 5:03 PMReceived an invoice for $85.00 today. Thanks for the heads upK7r8 By willy posted on Friday, July 22, 2011 @ 1:22 PMgracias por este post me ha ayudado a darme cuenta que este tipo de facturas son una estafa ya que yo tambien recibi una por un monto de 65dolares gracias estoy seguro q ha ayudado a muchas personas con este incoveniente....graciasBy Kade Jones posted on Friday, July 22, 2011 @ 1:29 PMI'm calling the better business bureau. How do they get our adresses?By Scott Alberts posted on Sunday, July 24, 2011 @ 8:34 AMAbout as cheesy as it gets; you have to read thru to the bottom of the second page to find the "disclaimer" that it's not an invoice.By John Ball posted on Monday, July 25, 2011 @ 8:04 AMI received the same bill. Smelled like a fraud as soon as I read it as I paid for the max time frame to Go Daddy. Wish the Feds would do something about these scammers.By Live Ambitions posted on Monday, July 25, 2011 @ 5:37 PMI've received their invoices on a few occasions. They must have people falling for this scam, or they would've quit by now.Whoever was defrauded can report your complaints here: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx By Galloway Grumblefield posted on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 @ 9:25 AMGot one just now. Knew it was a scam before I opened it.I think I'll send an invoice back to them for $130, which is what I'm charging now to open junk mail. By Sandy posted on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 @ 2:20 PMI just received a letter from that company today. I knew it was a scam when I read that they offer "up to 8 domain submissions to 20 established search engines" and they cannot even name one of their established search engines!By annoyed posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 @ 3:01 PMWHAT TO DO RIGHT NOW:Call Shelley Carosella at 716.843.5838 (US Postal Inspector) and let her know that is happening. You can also email her at skcarosella@uspis.gov Post a negative review about the UPS store where this mailbox is rented http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=1623+military+rd+niagara+falls+ny&cid=10423620023155994752 (http://goo.gl/PYn4E) Call the UPS store at 716.298-4461 and tell them about the situation (ask as many questions as you want and waste their time on the phone). They already know about web listings and their scam and claim that the company is doing nothing wrong. By Get Money Young Money posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 @ 7:12 PMJust received one today. I found out if you set your domain to private registration, you'll not have this problem.By steveneatsquiche posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 @ 9:32 AMI have already paid a website hosted service provider. Why would I want to pay someone else? It's like the monthly mortgage and credit card scam letters we receive monthly about reducing your debt. The letter itself says: " this is not a bill but an offer. I am reporting them to my website hosted service. Using the letter to pick up my dog's poop.By Eric posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 @ 3:30 PMThank you very much for posting this. Not that I was going to pay this BS bill, but it was still nice to see this posted on Google so I knew for sure that it was a scam. These guys are definitely scum bags.By billy bob posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 @ 4:34 PMGoing to send them a turd in a box and see if that is good enough to get me listed on 20 search enginesBy Easyngoodfood posted on Thursday, August 25, 2011 @ 7:39 AMGot the same letter today, and suspected it was a scam. Glad to know my instincts were correct!By Lisa Chambers posted on Thursday, August 25, 2011 @ 5:42 PMGot one, too, but mine doesn't say anywhere that it is not a bill. Shame on Web Listings, Inc! Dishonest scam!By Rachel posted on Friday, August 26, 2011 @ 10:13 AMI got a similar "bill" and I called my domain service provider and they said that the bill was not generated by themselves or any company that they work with. Also, I noticed after talking to them that it is not a bill but a solicitation and if you want the service then you have to pay the bill. They do a pretty good job of making it look like a bill, but when I googled it this was the first thing that came up. This company is not good at SEO if they can't keep this page from the second listing on google. Thanks for the original post, might have saved me $65!By Harold posted on Thursday, September 1, 2011 @ 9:17 PMI got my letter a month ago and paid it right away! Last night I found my website on the first page of Google!!! WOW!!!Not really, I'm kidding you. What a SCAM! To answer a common question in this thread: to get ANY website owner's name, address, phone etc, just Google: DNS (thewebsitename) In His Majesty's Service, Harold Hernandez By z.tom posted on Friday, September 9, 2011 @ 6:47 AMYeah, I get about three of those per year. The first time I got one I actually thought it was a bill haha.By Janice Konstantinidis posted on Friday, September 30, 2011 @ 1:56 PMI received this letter today. I Googled it and came up with this site. Thanks to all who posted this. I am glad I trusted my instincts as well.By mike posted on Wednesday, October 5, 2011 @ 7:25 AMI just got this last night 10/4/2011 & figured it was not totally on the up & up so I Googled the name "website listing service" & found that my instincts were correctBy Kouros Mohit posted on Friday, October 7, 2011 @ 11:52 AMI too received the fraudulent invoice. FBI should look into this.By Gail posted on Saturday, October 8, 2011 @ 6:52 AMwhat do you know, I got a letter, name and address not correct, but a family member actually got it in their mail, and handed it to me, yes they've gotten so good at this they raised the price to 85.00 since this original post was started. The web domain they sited states "forbidden". Glad I found this blogBy Gary posted on Sunday, October 9, 2011 @ 2:48 PMI got the same "invoice" mailed from Niagra Falls, NY. Its bogus, DON'T FALL FOR IT.By bjulius posted on Friday, October 21, 2011 @ 10:47 AMso pleased to see all these comments. I was just about to call GoDaddy who host my domains and websites and ask why I should pay $85.00. Now I know!! what a scam and it looks so official. Note there is no tel contact numberBy Juan posted on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 @ 12:16 PMhahaha, I just got an invoice from Web Listings Inc, for $85. Be careful - lucky there are blogs like this to prevent people to be scammed.By my sites already ranked posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 @ 5:14 PMWhoever owns "Web Listings Inc" is a SNAKE!!! and a thief!!! Burn this letter!!!By Stephen posted on Thursday, November 17, 2011 @ 6:32 AMAdd me to the list. I figured out quickly it was a scam, but I was trying to find out if there's a way to get them in trouble for this. It's basically an invoice identical to any legitimate bill you would receive, with "This is not a bill" placed on the back of the invoice. It's obviously unethical, but is it illegal? I'd love to nail them with the USPS or FTC or my state's AG.By Daniel K Martin posted on Thursday, November 17, 2011 @ 9:21 PMI do not believe the 'invoice' would be considered to be illegal. The document does not say invoice. I received one of these letters and did the same thing most of the people that commented here, did some research. We all have an obligation to understand the 'agreement'. If a person sends in the money in response to this correspondence they did not understand the agreement.The law has something called a peppercorn rule. It stands for the idea that courts will not interfere with a contract on the basis that one party received very little value for their contribution. As long as a party receives something as valuable as a peppercorn then the agreement will be upheld. I am a California lawyer however this post is not intended to be the practice of law, instead it is intended for educational purposes only. By General Protection posted on Sunday, November 20, 2011 @ 2:46 PMJust got one too. They've been using that same UPS address for over a year and a half, and increased their "offer" to $85? Sounds like they're getting complacent to me. So, I just signed them up for everything from product catalogs to Scientology pamphlets to free samples of tampons-- at they very least, maybe they'll need to upgrade to a bigger box soon :)By RevSandra Hunting posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 @ 10:49 AMI also received the same notice I have not ever had a website so I am disregarding this notice if I receive another I will take it to the Attorney General.By Alex posted on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 @ 10:05 PMMy email is full of SEO offers. But that's not the worst of it. There are all kinds of notices like this one. For example, I've gotten bills once I registered an LLC for a notice of formation. I would say that's twice as bad, as it's as though the department of state sold my information to charlatans.By Kristen lucio posted on Sunday, December 18, 2011 @ 5:52 AMDoes this mean they have some of my credit card info or anything? Should I be concerned? Thanks for posting this site.By Susan Howarth posted on Thursday, January 12, 2012 @ 7:30 AMI use this company for three different websites and the results have been excellent. This is not a scam and if you take the time to read the invoice that is pictured above, you can clearly read the following in all caps:THIS IS NOT A BILL. THIS IS A SOLICITATION. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO PAY THE AMOUNT STATED ABOVE UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFER. I'm confused about what everyone thinks is so dishonest about this. What a crafty bunch - putting that language right above the box you fill in with the payment amount. Read people.....READ before you whip out your checkbooks. By Seth Mariscal posted on Friday, January 13, 2012 @ 9:57 PMJust got one of those! It seemed odd to me because I know who does my hosting and I know how much I pay so when I read the back and saw that I thought maybe it was an offer to take up my hosting. I googled the address and saw that it's a UPS store. That kind of confirmed what I already suspected but I decided to google it to see what would come up which is what led me here.@Susan, while it is true that they placed that text, it's to avoid legal repercussions. At the end of the day it's all a numbers game. How many people will fall for it. |
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