Double Check that Bill! (Sneak)

Sneak: A possibly legal, but almost certainly underhanded and deliberately misleading way to separate people from their money.

You really have to admire the infinite creativity of those who are trying to find barely legal ways to bilk people. The latest "Sneak" came to me in the mail a few days ago, in the form of a bill from a company called Web Listings, Inc.

At least, I thought it was a bill. It listed a domain name I'd recently registered, included a "reference" number, and a "notice date," then the following very bill-like information:

HOW TO MAKE PAYMENT:
Please make checks payable to Web Listings, Inc.
Please write your reference number on the front of your check.
Enclose check in the addressed envelope provided
DO NOT SEND CASH.

Then there was a list of what my supposed "listing" included, plus a "Current Payment details" section that looked very much like what you'd see on any due bill. The amount I seemed to owe was $65.00.

This made no sense. I still had errands to run in town, but I decided to check into this "bill" immediately. The library in Springtown has, like many libraries nowadays, computers with internet connections. Rather than go all the way home, I stopped in, logged on, Googled "Web Listings Inc" and within two minutes learned that this company is actually selling listing services, though the only indication of this is three small lines on the back of the "bill" that let you know this is a "solicitation" not an actual bill at all.

Uh-huh. I sent the following email when I got home--bold type, all caps, to indicate, as best I could, the fact that this company had made me very, very angry.

ARE YOU PEOPLE CRAZY OR JUST STUPID?

WHOSE BRIGHT IDEA WAS IT TO SEND ME WHAT LOOKS LIKE A BILL? OR ARE YOU PEOPLE JUST CROOKED ENOUGH TO THINK I'D PAY IT WITHOUT NOTICING?

A bit extreme, some might say, but I think that companies who do this kind of thing deserve to receive slightly testy emails. Besides, I suspect they'd already gotten similar communiques from other people they "soliticited" since my email came back as "undeliverable." (How fast can such a company pull an email address after that address gets flooded with "flames?" Pretty durn fast!)

The point? Never pay a "bill" from anyone unless you're sure you've actually done business with that company. Companies do occasionally change names, but check first, especially when the bill is for a service or item you don't remember buying.