Today, I received an unsolicited email from the official sounding ‘EU Business Register’, together with a PDF attachment. Here is the text of the email:-
Hello,
In order to have your company inserted in the EU Business Register for 2016/2017, please print, complete and submit the attached form (PDF file) to the following address:
EU BUSINESS REGISTER
P.O. BOX 34
3700 AA ZEIST
THE NETHERLANDS
Fax: +31 205 248 107
You can also scan the completed form and attach it in a reply to this email.
Updating is free of charge.
At first glance this sounded (potentially) quite good, even if there was an attachment that I didn’t open, just in case it contained something nasty. However, a quick Google of this great offer revealed that all was not as it seemed.
Firstly, there is no such publication as the EU Business Register. Secondly, if you fill out their listing form they then start pursuing you for payment, even though they say “updating is free of charge” (sneaky wording).
Worryingly, this scam seems to have been around for at least six years and some people are still falling for it.
Read more about the EU Business Register scam here.
