Maybe you are a diligent hawk who meticulously scrutinizes every invoice and bill that you receive to ensure its legitimacy. Well, you better be, because if not, you could be out some money soon.

About a dozen phony invoice swindles today try to “take” agents: You get a bill in the form of an e-mail. It looks like other e-mailed bills that you get for, say, Web ads, registrations, directory listings, etc., thus it seems very familiar, and it’s less than $200, so you just pay it, right?

Or, you hand it to your assistant who you think is a diligent hawk who meticulously scrutinizes every invoice and bill that you receive to ensure its legitimacy. But what if s/he is not? Now you are in double trouble.

Sadly, some of these clever new swindles routinely target real estate agents and other professionals who are likely to have their own web sites.

Perhaps the most legitimate looking swindle is the phony invoice from a firm called Europafind, (or, sometimes called Europa-Club / World Travel Register / EuropaFind) which pretends to be a real estate directory/search engine located in Germany. It sends you an invoice very much like the following:

Invoice:

Invoice number: AU921880

To: Mr./Mrs. Access California (South) Real Estate at Debbie Ferrari

We thank you for your order.

Your Url: (http://www.debbieferrari.com) you submitted to our search engine http://212.184.71.243/default_au.htm respectively http://212.184.71.243/add_url_form_au.htm

With your submission dated 02/02/03 you agreed to our terms of use:

http://212.184.71.243/agb.htm

You have submitted:

Url: http://www.debbieferrari.com
Title: Orange County CA Real Estate - Search MLS - Debbie
Description: See photos and text of homes for sale in Southern California. Visit most-awarded Realtor site. Get school, city, utility info, plus local area pics and latest realty-mortgage news.

In compliance to your order we charge you for the following positions:

---

Euro 158.92 For publishing your url for 2 years
Euro     3.00 Urging costs first urging letter

---

Euro  161.92 TOTAL AMOUNT

What’s interesting is, the agent above never signed up to pay money to be in this real estate directory. She only filled out the form, which, in Europfind’s opinion, apparently constitutes agreeing to pay for the listing without ever having done so.

The bottom of the form only says: “Terms of Use. A Link back to us from your site is required for a free listing!

Now, most people would deduce from that statement that “A Link back to us from your site is required for a free listing!” is what actually constitutes the “Terms of Use.” since that line immediately follows the statement “Terms of Use.” But that’s not the case. They just want you to think that.

Why? Because they made sure that there is no typical “ENTER” or “SEND” button for you to use. There is only a single button at the bottom of the form that says:

“I accept your Terms of Use. Please Register.”

Note that the point that I am belaboring here, is that there is no per se button that is labeled SEND or ENTER as there usually is. Thus, agents have to assume that the SEND button for the form is also the button that says, “I accept your Terms of Use. Please Register.” In other words, you cannot separately SEND the form without simultaneously agreeing to the terms, which seems to be innocuous enough, except it's not.

Giving the site a reciprocal link would have been just fine with the agent because she already engages in reciprocating links with other sites.

But of course she never took the opportunity to do so after she saw how fishy the site was starting to look.

Now, few agents ever click on “the small print” links that say Terms of Use on most forms that they fill out online, though they should--- (and YOU don’t, either, so quit your smirking). But even when you do read some contracts, their small print can be “legaleezeed” to the point that it is hard to comprehend.

See how deceptive the site’s pages are. Look first at the sign-up form yourself, but please, do not fill it out. Go to Register.

This form is designed to make visitors think that there is NO agreement being considered at this point in the signup process. That’s because on virtually all other sign up forms structured like this on the Internet, there truly isn’t.

What most agents would expect after filling out and sending THIS form, is a next page that would ask for bankcard data the same as virtually all sign up forms today offer. But none exists. Once you’ve clicked, you’re cooked.

You will not believe what the “Terms of Use” (Contract) page says. It will both make you laugh and disgust you. Look at the Europafind Terms of Use/Contract here.

It is so ridiculously one-sided and burdensome that no one in their right mind would ever sign up if they read it first. In fact, the agent never did look at it or sign up. She just clicked on the “I accept your Terms of Use. Please Register” button which was the only SEND button in sight. But when she got to the next page, which LACKED a bankcard form, something seemed odd about the completely unnatural, weirdly formatted signup process to become listed in the Europafind realty directory, and so she wisely aborted the signup, and left the site.

Sadly, even though she had never given a credit card number nor clicked anything that specifically said that she agreed to make any payments, she began getting invoices like the one shown above.

Incredibly, each time that Europafind sends her a new invoice, it adds a charge of 3.00 for “Urging Costs first urging letter” or second, or third, fifth, or whatever iteration that particular emailed invoice number is.

Its latest invoice (June 1, 2003) to the agent said:

See our terms of use: In case of late payment we have to charge interest (1.95% p.m) additional to a handling fee of 1 Euro/month. We also have to add all other costs like lawyer fees, court fees, collection firm fees. We also have to add the cost of investigations in case the address is false. The first urging letter costs 3.00 Euro, the second urging letter 7.00 Euro and the third urging letter 10.00 Euro. To pay online for your EUROPAFIND listing click on the following link!!!

Imagine, it adds a phony charge to her already phony bill every time it sends her an e-mail that tells her to pay up!

So, what can agents do about such frauds? Expose them, just like we are doing here. But we are not the first to do so.

The web site at Stopecg.org tracks and identifies such swindles. Here is what it says about scams such as the Europafind search engine and directory:

“The scam guides all use the method of sending out thousands, possibly millions of trick contracts. They use legitimate publications such as Yellow Pages to garner lists of targets. They never hit large numbers of people in a single trade or area; they need their victims to feel alone.

”The contracts are disguised as requests for information, the "legal" agreement and price are hidden away and printed very small and in hard to read capitals. It is very easy to fall for the trick; even trading standards offices have been duped.

Once a contract is returned they wait a few weeks before sending the first letter making it clear they are expecting money. From that point on all requests for cancellation are refused.

”Most of these guides operate the "10% Rule"; a simple but aggressive tactic based on the fact that when threatened repeatedly approximately 10% of victims cave in and pay up. They often accept part payments as they are offering no service to speak of and any money they can weasel out of people is sheer profit. While court action is threatened it is never used. They would need to travel to the countries of their victims in order to pursue them in court. This would involve unwanted publicity and should they lose, all contracts would then be deemed invalid, a risk they are unwilling to take.”

Here is a list that the site posts of other scams that you are cautioned to watch for.

1. European City Guide
2. The Millennium Guide
3. The European Internet Guide
4. The FAIR Guide
5. UTP Digital Directories
6. The International Fax Directory or IT&T fax directory
7. International Business and Trade Databases
8. Europa-Club & World Travel Register
9. 1st European City Guide
10. The Tour and Travel Guide
11. Verlag Fax Directory also called the Classified Telefax Pages

On the site, there is an e-mail fraud-warning service called “Constoppers,” that is free to join.

Does the future of the Internet hold that we’ll be at the mercy of swindlers and spammers? Likely not. New legislation is on the way that creates more severe penalties for con artists that prey on consumers. "The [federal] legislation weeds out fraudulent spam and eliminates the burden" of deleting unwanted e-mail, according to Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas).

At the state level, California Bill-under-consideration number 12 says that any state resident who receives unwanted commercial e-mail would be able to sue the sender for $500 per message. Currently, in California, only government attorneys and ISPs can go after spammers in court. However, existing laws protecting consumers against fraud also apply to e-mail fraud.

The next time that you, or your assistant, get a bill e-mailed to you, do this: Check the name of the issuing firm online at sites like www.stopecg.org. Check also with various news groups such as news.admin.net-abuse.email and others.

Unless you know positively that the bill is valid, do not make any payment until you go to www.Google.com and enter into the engine the name of the firm to see if there is bad press about it. Check, too, with the Better Business Bureau.

If necessary, contact the firm and ask for proof in writing that the invoice really is for something that you willingly and knowingly asked to buy.

Published: June 26, 2003

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