Consumer Alert: Ads That Look Like Bills

Several Companies, Similar Mailings

Listing Corp. is just one of several companies that send similar pitches to Internet domain owners via postal mail. Over the past 15 months, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Fraud Complaint System has recorded 875 complaints related to search engine directory solicitations such as the mailing the San Diego ASIS chapter received from Listing Corp. The losses reported in these complaints total $8161.

In researching this article, PC World found more than a dozen sites for companies with similar Web marketing pitches and a history of sending similar postal mailings. Some were no longer functional and were accessible only in the form of Google's cached versions of old Web pages.

But other sites were live as of late April. For example, marketing copy on the sites ilscorp.net (Internet Listing Service Corp., which, according to Internet domain registration records, is based in the Netherlands), icls.net (Internet Corporation Listing Service, which declares California as its location), and ilscorp.co.uk (Internet Listing Services--or Service, depending on which of the site's pages you read--Corp., which states its home country is Azerbaijan) were similar in several ways, as were the appearance and wording of their postal solicitations. Like Listing Corp., Internet Listing Service Corp. and Internet Corporation Listing Service accept physical mail at Mail Boxes Etc. branches.

The Silicon Valley, California, Better Business Bureau has recorded 90 complaints in which recipients of Internet Corporation Listing Service mailings said the company's solicitations looked like bills. In 20 cases consumers stated that they accidentally made payment to the firm. In only one case did the Silicon Valley BBB confirm that the company sent the complaining individual a refund, according to Zach Vander Meeden, public relations director for the BBB.

Internet Corporation Listing Service didn't respond to e-mail requests for an interview. No one answered the Ontario, Canada, phone number (905/948-0921) noted in the company's Internet domain name registration.