It's that time of year again - directory scams

Every year at this time the directory scammers come out to play. The World Business Guide is an obvious case of a scam but there are local slippery directories as well.

We've been receiving phone calls from a company who sometimes call themselves "Yellow Pages Botswana" or "Business Directories Botswana" or "SADC Yellow Pages". I eventually spoke to their representative who asked if I was interested in "updating" our entry in their directory.

"But we don't have one", I told her. "Yes, you do, we put you in for free, under Business Training", she said. She was wrong, there is no "Business Training" section. So the offer of an "update" qualifies is either a mistake or a lie, surely?

Needless to say there's money involved. When you sign their form you commit to paying P295/month for an entire year. However you need to visit their web site to see the terms and conditions. These say that:

"The agreement shall commence on the date of signature and remain in force for a period of one (1) year. Thereafter the agreement shall continue for an indefinite period unless notice is given one month prior to the expiry of the initial period."

I think that this is deceptive but let's be charitable, maybe they're just mistaken when they claim companies have existing entries that can be updated?

And anyway, who ever actually looks at an online directory? Do you?

P.S. Take a look at their online directory. It takes skill to make a web site that horrible.