Website Woes: Avoiding Web Service Scams
If you're interested in using the Web to expand your small business,
be cautious. Some unscrupulous companies, claiming to provide free
web design and hosting services, are billing small businesses for
services that were never authorized and have little value. The bogus
charges usually appear on businesses' phone bills - an illegal practice
known as "cramming" - or on fraudulent invoices.
The Scam
You get a call from a company offering you a free, 30-day website.
They say you can continue the service for a nominal fee, say $25
or $30 a month, and cancel at any time. Some service providers state
that you'll be billed automatically after the 30-day period; others
claim you won't be billed after the 30 days unless you tell them
you want to continue the service.
Before or after explaining the offer, the provider asks for basic
information about your company: the address, contact person, business
hours and a brief description of the business. The provider says
that your free website will be up and running within a week, and
that you'll receive a welcome package, which may include a printed
copy of the website, instructions for accessing the site, and a
phone number to call to make changes or cancel the service.
In fact, unscrupulous service providers bill you, whether you authorize
the services or tell the provider that you want to cancel. Also,
many of the services have little value. That's because these providers
design and host sites that contain limited information about the
business, include misinformation or misspellings, and lack important
features. Moreover, most of the sites are not listed with major
search engines. If customers can't find your site, it's worthless
to your bottom line. In addition, you probably won't see the welcome
package, but you will see the bill - either on your phone bill or
as a direct invoice.
Unless you review your monthly phone bills or invoices carefully
you could end up paying unauthorized charges for months before you
notice the scam.
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