Netherlands Registration, Chicago Location
Repeated e-mail interview requests to the address in Internet Listing Service Corp.'s domain registration information elicited a phone call from a man who identified himself only as Zach. Zach said he worked for the company, and said the business was in Chicago. He gave no explanation for the Netherlands mailing address.
"We take consumer complaints seriously and address any such situations immediately and cooperate fully with the appropriate governmental and consumer advocacy organizations," Zach said. He acknowledged that Internet Listing Service Corp.'s mailings may be confusing to some customers, but said the firm has a no-questions-asked refund policy.
We subsequently checked with Chicago Better Business Bureau spokesperson Tom Joyce, who told us the BBB has received 22 complaints against the company in the past 15 months.
Joyce says Internet Listing Service Corp. has an "unsatisfactory record" for failing to respond and to resolve consumer complaints in a timely manner. As with the other services, most of the people complaining said they mistook the company's solicitation as a bill and paid it.
"Later, when consumers tried to receive a refund, they couldn't," Joyce says. Other complaints stated that the company failed to provide the services that were paid for. With the BBB's assistance, all those who complained eventually received refunds, Joyce says.
We also asked Zach whether Internet Listing Service Corp. was related to any of the look-alike services we found, including Internet Listing Service(s) Corp. (ilscorp.co.uk). He said there was no connection. But software that traces the IP addresses where sent e-mail is received indicated that messages to ilscorp.net and messages to ilscorp.co.uk go to the same IP address, assigned to a computer somewhere in Canada. No one replied to our e-mail query about this apparent link between the companies.
The same tracing software indicated that e-mail sent to icls.net and ilscorp.net were also opened in Canada, but at two different IP addresses.
Search Engine Optimization?
The postal mailers we obtained from Listing Corp. and Internet Corporation Listing Service are typical. They are addressed to domain name owners and reference the recipient's specific domain name. Here are the mailers--both front and back:
The documents describe their services, each saying that the company will submit the recipient's Web site domain name to a number of unspecified search engines--20 in the case of Listing Corp. and 14 for Internet Corporation Listing Service. The first page of each letter also states how to make $35 payments to the firm, and has a perforated tear-away section to be returned with payment in the form of a check. A return envelope is included in the mailing.
On the reverse side of each letter is further description of the services, along with a disclaimer in bold capital letters. In Listing Corp.'s case it reads: "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."
Despite the disclaimer, however, these mailings have drawn the attention of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the law-enforcement arm of the USPS.
"By the time people have looked over the bill and get to the second page, they are just seeing the payment slip at the bottom," says Cheryl Swyers, a spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Boston.
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