European City Guide Scam
I received the picture mailer through the post this morning, address to the company. It states that our details will be included into the European City Guide, and that “Filling in this form would give you the opportunity to be published in our inter-professional Guide on the CD-Rom and Internet”.
There are the standard spaces to change and modify your details, and a box at the bottom to date and sign. What they only tell you in the small print is that by signing it you are entering into a legal contract to pay Euro 997 per year for the privilege. All the terms and conditions are laid out on the reverse, but they are printed so faintly I struggled to read them.
A quick look on the Internet would suggest that far to many people simply fill this out, sign it and send it back! My apologies if you have already done this, but it’s amazing that scams like this are still so wide-spread and successful! This particular one come from an address in Portugal.
So – please be aware!
Update 7th September 2010
I have have today received several emails from ECG asking for this page, and the comments to be removed as they consider them ‘defamatory’. I have duly refused to do that. I believe that they are valid feedback and that the ECG should take note of their ‘customer’ feedback. We shall see what happens.
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Dave is a 30-something year old technologist and professional working and living in the UK. Ever since he first sat down at a computer keyboard back in the early ‘80s he has been hooked on technology – good and proper! Now-a-days he works within the software business with a fast paced organisation evangelising how technology can help save us all time, and make us money! Dave’s wife and 2 kids tend not to share this enthusiasm and believes that he is just playing!
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer.
Hi Dave
I have filled one of these out in error!! Do you have any information on how I can contest this and what I should do?
Thanks
Sue
Sue, take a look at http://www.stopecg.org/premium_recovery_ag.htm – as there seems to be more information up here about what to do if you have been involved with them.
Sue
You seek advise. I too have fallen prey to these people and have not paid on the advise of my local MEP.
These peole are well known to the European Parliament and they are currently being investigated by them.
I suggest you contact your local MEP who I am sure will confirm wto you what they confirmed to me i.e.
1. Cancel your instruction
2. Ignore any further correspondence they send. Nobody has been taken to Court to this date according to my MEP.
Hi, I also have filled in this form, I couldn’t believe it when I received the bill for doing so, I e-mailed them and simply but SCAM ! They replied saying it was unfounded and I would have to pay. I replied with all the you tube clips I have luckily found. I have also returned the second demand letter without opening it: stating wrong address and I won’t be paying a penny! .Let them pay the postage they are nothing but scum worrying hard working class people. I am hoping I don’t receive another correspondence from them as it still leaves me feeling sick, I’m just so relieved I goggled and found out I was not the only one! Jen
Yup – I was caqught in the scam aswell -= sent off thinking was for further info – very scarey – 2 chase letter received already – makes me feel really sick and worried. Stop ECG gives good info – arghhhh!!!!
Hi
DO NOTHING I received one of these letters in 2008. I have received many, many letters/threats from them. I have heard nothing from them now for 5 months. DO NOT pay them a penny. Even if you do you will not have heard the last of them. They will still invoice you each year. They have never taken anyone to court over this. Best of luck
guess what i was scamed 2 years ago i got in touch saying i didnt sign up for any thing other than a free listing they are now demanding their 3 payment and i have only just found out on the net it is a scam im gutted but they are adding intrest on daily i have no intension of paying any more i will go 2 stop cite
I thought I was the only person faling for the scam! just received a bil from them for over 900 pounds! I thought it was only a register. I have looked through the stop ECG, of course it is a disgrace that they can carry on like that. So I just ignoring their letters?
Just ignore this scam. I received one this morning plus we also have one regarding their “World Directory” scam that was inadvertently signed in our office in the belief it was a free directory.
Have had several calls from Spain regarding this issue and have told them where to stick it. Just ignore their emails, calls and letters. If push came to shove there are enough people caught up with this scam to fight them off in a Court.
Was duped by these people last year and paid out €1006 euros in total would ahve originally been €997 but with intrest it went up. Sent the form off in Auust never recieved a bill till october and againthe it was to late to cancel got a solicitor to write to them and in the end solicitor said it was a legal binding document and was up to me to pay it. If I had only checked it up on the internet before hand myself I certainly won’t pay anymore and they keep sending more invoices this time for over €2000. They have some cheek!
i hope they ring me. i will waste so much of their time they’ll wish they hadnt.
I have been receiving letter from these guys for the last 6 months and now I have 1 form what they say is their legal department. I have not paid them a cent because none of it made sense to me. Even the phone numbers are incomplete to be able to call form overseas. I hope they eventually stop but it does concern me when they are still sending letters. Would love to hear advise any ones on what to do.
I am general counsel to a car retailing group and have had a number of dealings with these crooks over the last few years as a result of employees innocently returning their forms.
When they first send you the form they deliberately mis-spell some part of your details – either the company name or the address – so as to trick you into completing and returning the form without reading the small print. Once you have returned the form you will probably receive first, second and third reminders, and then a letter from the “Legal Department” threatening legal action. Sometimes they even refer the matter to a third party debt collection agency who will write similarly threatening letters. I understand that they also ring people up, although I personally have never experienced this (possibly because they are frightened of lawyers).
My advice would be – do absolutely nothing. The operation is clearly a scam and should be treated as such. If you do write to them it will not put them off, but rather it will simply reassure them that there is someone at the other end that they can continue to chase and threaten. If you ignore them they will eventually give up (until they send you another form to complete!).
As people have said in the other comments, there is no record of ECG ever taking anyone to court (crooks tend not to, on the whole). Indeed, even if they did I think it is highly unlikely that any court would allow them to succeed.
Great advice – thanks for your input James! I am sure that other readers of this will find it useful!
Yep,
Our office fell for it too last year, we contested for ages. With loads of threatening letters, coming in our solicitor said pay it. We did and lo and behold got a bill for this year’s entry! They have started chasing for money again but I’ve found this site when I googled and have sent back a suitably worded email. Why didn’t my solicitor use google too????
I too was scammed in 2008 wrote back to them several times stating the document was signed in error as I thought it was a free publication, received several demands finally paid the first year at 997 euros, Cancelled the contract with the payment but have since received year 2 invoice which I never paid and recently received year 3 invoice and statement including year 2 unpaid. Solicitors vary the first one I contacted advised me to pay the second I contacted knew of the scam I advised me to ignore all letters or return them unopened. DO NOT PAY THIS COMPANY A CENT!!!!!
I too have been stupid enough to correct the errors in the address and think I was getting a free listing in something I wasnt really bothered about anyway, thankyou to all who have made me feel a whole lot calmer. I have just received my first reminder and have been so annoyed since I got the original bill, so a big thankyou to all who have bothered to write. I will certainly be putting all future reminders in the bin where they belong!
I too returned this mailing in January 2010, I signed it in error .Upon getting their invoice I immediately tried telephone calls and faxes neither could be completed due to misleading numbers ? for their telephone and fax .I emailed and posted letters , in return I was told via mail I was in a binding contract and to pay up with interest incurred . I contacted a lawyer and he said ” ignore their high pressure tactics – DO NOT PAY ” Then tonight I found this information that further set me at ease with regards to this matter . I’m sure they will continue to harass me but I am going to ignore their correspondence . I nver thought I’d get taken like this but never say never .
Dave – thank you. I just completed the form, then read the small print and thought I’d check it out on line… luckily your site is top of the list on Google!
I can’t believe the cheek.
Thanks again
I too fell for this scam in January this year 2010 and when i got the invoice i rang the number on it and got talking to a fella and told him i would not be paying as it was a scam and he said ow you will be paying so i just hung up was worried i said what did i do and then i said i would google it to see what came up thank god for google and all the people who have posted messages about this scam on the internet thanks again everybody please nobody pay these thanks Craig.
My girlfriend has fallen into this trap too. After a lot of research (http://stopecg.org is a great place to start) it soon became apparent that we SHOULD NOT PAY THEM!
I contacted my MEP (Mr Malcolm Harbour) and spoke to his sectary Rebecca. As soon as I mentioned ECG she said “throw it in the bin”, not only are they getting many calls at the moment from people in the same situation but they even received on of the letters themselves!! The cheek.
The upshot is that in 2006 Directive 2006-114-EC was passed (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:376:0021:0027:EN:PDF) making their practices illegal.
My next course of action, as advised by the lovely Rebecca is to first contact my local MP and ask why the aforementioned directive isn’t being enforced on our behalf. Then I will be contacting Edward Davey MP, Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs (http://www.bis.gov.uk/ministers) and asking the same questions. The fact that these people are allowed to steal money from small businesses in this way is downright disgusting and I would ask anyone affected by this to contact there MP and Edward Davey MP and ask why nothing is being done about this issue by our government.
Rant over,
Chris.
Great advice – thanks Chris.
Anything to stop people falling into there trap!! And thank you for the original post David.
On a side note Edward Davey MP is on twitter
@eddaveykands ask what he’s doing about directive 2006-114-EC NOW and ECG!!
I also have signed and returned the form sent out by ECG, the company had just moved so I filled in the new address details without reading the small print. I have lost many nights sleep worrying about the invoice they have sent in despite trying to cancel it on numerous occassions and sneding all their correspondence back, they don’t give up they just keep coming at you. Until I read this website I felt like leaving my job, thanks for all your comments and advice.
I received the form in April and like others I corrected the info and posted it back to them and have subsequently received letter confirming £997 +vat for advert (I hadn’t read the small print nor the terms & conditions as they were very small & faint). I wrote to them on 8th June stating that the form was not completed by myself therefore I had not given the go ahead. On 16th July I received an email stating that we couldn’t cancel as our reason was not sufficient and the fact it had been sent to our company and then returned they took this a authorised, a cd-rom has been received also (which I haven’t installed/run). Today I have received our 1st Reminder for the sum of £961.99. Do I just sit on it and ignore or should I seek legal advice form CAB or a solicitor?
Based on previous comments I would suggest leave it as no-one seems to suggest that they follow up on the threats, as it holds no substance.
yes I sent back the form correcting the mistakes then send a bill for over 1000 euros.
Rang the number and they said it was legally binding and I would have to pay the money.
Sent e mails and tried to phone again but now giving a no such number tone tried to fax but cant.
Maybe this scam company has moved the address was in Valencia.
I was so worried but now I know its a scam will ignore them I have just send an email saying I will go to the police so lets see what happens.
Rellieved Sue Harrison
I too have been duped. It is also clear that no matter what you say to them they dont listen. The advice from the stopecg site, all the MEPs and many others is to ignore their harassment. No court action has ever been brought in this country. I still think it of value to inform as many people as you can including your MP so that it is brought to others attention so I have have got onto them all!
Hi all, while I feel sorry for anybody involved with this vicious scam, I really can’t understand why would anyone think that it was for a free listing. It is not said anywhere that it is free and furthermore at the bottom of the cover page the cost for edition is clearly stated in bold ‘Euro 997.00′.
I own a barbershop and must have received the same offer some seven times over the past five years the last one being this morning!
It never crossed my mind that it was free and realised that was a scam from offer one. On reading it carefully, it really bears all the features of a scam.
I have come across many other scams over the years (especially from utility companies) but never signed anything that I didn’t understand fully.
Suppose we all live and learn.
Regards,
Marco
It gets worse. They have actually forged a signature on the form, claiming someone form our company signed. Plenty of lettes etc, ignore them all.
Gesh, that is a bit extreme …
Hi there, i also am recieving letters from these gangsters. i filled out the form almost 2 years ago thinking it was just an up date for the eu on your business details and i was sure it was a free service but alas like most people who have posted on this site, i dident read the small print. so 3 months after filling it in i recieved my first invoice in the post for 997 euro. i was gob smacked so i decided to google ECG and low and behold what came up only scam after scam. i read alot of the posts on various sites and i ignored the letters completely. i tried calling the numbers on the first 2 letters but the were invalid numbers but however i got another letter this morning which was a third reminder to pay 2 years sub and admin for 9.00 euro and 13% vat slaped on it for good measure .what a laugh if organised crime are going to pay their taxes!!!!!!!
any how i called the number on the last invoice and i got through to an answering machine ( as today is saturday no one in ).
the first voice i heard on the machine was in english and it had a very irish accent as i myself am irish so its not hard to miss it….. i will call them monday morning and i will f### them out of it as anyone who is working for these parasites knows exactly what they are doing. I have never paid them a dime and luckily as soon as i recieved the first invoice i smelt a rat. my advise to anybody who is in the same delima is to laugh it off and just IGNORE any threats from these low lifes and for gods sake DO NOT PAY THEM A CENT as they will try and scare you to pay but thats all they will do.
p.s Dave thanks for the great work you have done on this site and for putting so many peoples minds at ease. well done mate.
I also fell for the same scam. In addition to all the points made,I would also advise writing to the ECG highlighting the misleading and confusing nature of the form but also copying and pasting sections of ECG’s own terms and conditions of service from their website. They state that they are customer focused along with other clauses of their terms and conditions to which they are clearly not adhering. I have also highlighted to ECG the European Parliament’s adopted report on misleading directories, authored by MEP Simon Busittil whose office I have copied on all my correspondence; he is effectively taking the lead on this issue for the European parliament. Their informal advice is not to pay and confirm that of the 1000′s of small businesses scammed,they are only aware of a handful where court action is being seriously threatened. I received similar informal but not legally binding advice from the Office of Fair Trading. Having collated a very detailed response to the ECG, copying in the authorities in Catalunia, where Barcelona courts fined the ECG in 2002 forcing them to stop trading for one year), the Valencian geovernment and Spanish Dept of Trade and Industry in Madrid as well as the UK office of fair trading who have 2 press releases on their website about the ECG. I have also copied Mr. Simon Busittil’s office – the European Maltese MEP who authored the Eur. parliament Report on misleading Directories. The Eur. Parliament is pursuing this scam, as indeed are the Australian Authorities. The BArcelona courts have already ruled against the ECG. Therefore, I shall now ignore all future requests for payment. if harassed or frankly threatened, as was an Irish Barber, I shall refer the issue to the UK and Spanish police. Stand firm on this issue and, eventually, cross border legislation will be passed and this scam will be deemed illegal with appropriate action taken. Hope this helps. Best wishes to all affected by this distressing pan-European and evdn global scam.
Thanks for the information Stuart. Hopefully this scam will be locked down and dealt with. Until then the comments from you and others continue to provide some support for those that have been pulled into this scam.
Thanks Dave. I echo Donal’s sentiments in thanking you for your great work and commitment in facilitating these comments.
Another supportive point – the stop ECG website (fantastic work also by Jules Wuddell in taking the lead on the stop ECG site – well done Jules!)stated that the Swiss authorities have raided the offices of debt collectors apparently hired or in partnership with the ECG to harass people like us. Indeed, I understand from the stop ECG website that one of these debt collecting companies has gone into liquidation so
- DON’t PAY THE ECG OR THEIR DEBT COLLECTION COMPANIES ANY MONEY
- DON’T INCUR LEGAL FEES IN GETTING LEGAL ADVICE – THE EXPERIENCE OF COLLEAGUES ON THIS AND OTHER SITES INCLUDING FACEBOOK, AND ADVICE FROM THE EUROPEAN MEP’S SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT
- STICK TOGETHER: SMALL COMPANIES IN BELGIUM ALL PULLED TOGETHER TO OBTAIN A SUCCESSFUL COURT RULING IN BELGIUM AGAINST THE ECG.
Best wishes. Stuart.
Just found theses details, It is comforting to know i’m not the only one court up in this scam, i have now received my third invoice and have not paid them a cent, I originally wrote to them stating I didn’t enter a contract and that i was totally misled beleiving it was a free update service to their guide, I also said in every contract their is a cooling off period, which they replied yes 15 days, Bull S…. considering it takes 30/45 days to reply, DONT PAY, IGNORE THE LETTERS
Hi, I just recieved a first reminder from ECG, soooooo glad i found this website, as i was considering paying them, i will not loose any more sleep now, thank u ;0)
i also have been duped, i can’t believe in 30 years of trading that ive been tricked into filling in this form.
i only filled the form in because the address
was wrong, not only on the form they sent.
but on the internet as well, & also my post sometimes had the wrong address.
keep up the greet work guys!!!
& thanks to every one for there posts. it really helps to now others have been taken for a ride as well
Hi, I write from Bosnia.
My employer also signed up such an contract. He didn’t understand english very well and simply filled it out, singed and send back.
We beame like you guys a bill of 997 €. I am so glad i found this site. I will also not loose any more sleep. Thank you all. I will do absolutely nothing. And i will warn my emoployer.
Thank you guys, thank you very much.
Luckily and thanks to this site and others listed on Google I haven’t sent them any money, against the advise of my solicitor. In between getting the demand and my wife having the presence of mind to google Euro City Guide I suffered a period of torment, beating myself up on how I could have possibly agreed to such a thing. I was looking at what was clearly my signiture on the form agreeing to pay 997 euros for a listing in some obscure directory and repeatedly questioning my sanity. This came at a time when I was struggling with many other issues, so the timing was especially cruel. As with other crimes what gets me is the pure selfishness. I wonder if anyone has been tipped over the edge with this. Of course we will never know and would they care?
THis site is such a source of comfort. I have the misfortune to be involved with 2 sites, the City Guide and the European Medical Directory. Their covering letter told me it was time to update my existing free basic data, much further down the paragraph the word chargeable appears. The letter and form are both clearly designed to deceive; that must surely invalidate the notion of a contract. It surprises me how solicitors take such a narrow view and see the signature as so binding. I have not and do not intend paying a cent and am noting with interest how both scams operate in such identical ways. The Medical directory one is based in Portugal, maybe spain is getting too hot.
Fell for the same scam last October.Got quite angry when first letter received and just scrawled a quick message to say it was a mistake. then the letters started to come in earnest. Got v. worried until checked on google. Thank you so much to all involved with posting comments.
Sent a v. involved letter back, most of quotes coming from Stop ECG site telling them that I never had a contract with them. they then sent a letter threatening legal action etc. Had the usual reminders coming every three weeks, and, hurray, the last one came on 6th June. Am hopeful that this is the last that will be heard from these scumbags! If not, am prepared for war!
Questions: surely you could prosecute a solicitor that gave advice to pay these people?
Why doesn’t the European Parliament prosecute them?
Good luck to everyone: hang on in there.
After finding in July 2010, Richard Corbett MEP’s site. We wrote to ECG and said, 1. Signature box not signed, 2. no search section under Florist 3. Their mail outs are unsolicited and highly misleading. That we do not want or ever wanted inclution in their guide or to ever hear from ECG again, sending copy to Direccion General de Comercio (Regional Government of Valencia) Spain. ECG wrote back to say (ignoring the fact that it wasn’t signed) the contract is for 3 years and 3434.76 Euro owed. Found this site this morning. Best advice, keep your paperwork somewhere and make no contact with them, it is a discusting sick making scam.
HI, in the same boat as you all. From day one said I wasn’t going paying these guys and have been ignoring the letters largely. I just got billed for year 2 there recently and i’m just curious as to whether it is worth my while sending in the written notice for cancelation for subsequent years. As per their condiditons you need to cancel 3 months before end of calendar year. Just wondering did anyone do this and have they accepted the cancelation ?
Yes, same story here.. Thought I was just confirming information they already had published on our business. They had our business classified as a different profession, I corrected this and returned the form. Sure I should have read the small print, never thought I was entering an agreement or contract. The ECG was very rude to me when I initially telephoned them to clarify the situation. We are plagued with reminders of the outstanding fee. We were only saved a very distressing setback when we googled this website and others giving us the back up and understanding of what we are dealing with. Thanks to you David and all the other people who have come forward here we will not be paying and will have to see it through to the end!!