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WEB LISTINGS INC.

I have received a snail mail letter from a company called "Web Listings Inc." and I suppose I will receive many more as they crawl the WHOIS database, seeking to prey on unsuspecting and unwary domain owners. I have never contacted nor been previously contacted by this company until the letter arrived. The letter is formatted exactly as an invoice, and folded so that the recipient sees a payment reminder first. If the recipient turns the page over and reads THOROUGHLY, they will see the words, "This is not a bill. This is a solicitation....." This type of practice is by no means new, but it needs to be exposed as much as possible. NEVER send money to anyone unless you know you have requested or subscribed to their services. If there is any question, call them.  It's interesting to note that there is NO phone number listed on this letter anywhere. If this were a legitimate invoice or bill, the company would have included a customer service phone number in their contact information. The letter listed a website address and an email and that's it. So, since they won't tell me who they are or how to contact them, I did some digging of my own. (scans of the original documents are below; I've added my own notations)

Here are the research results so far: 

• According to WHOIS, the domain name web-listings.net was registered April 24, 2007 by James Madison in New Britain, CT
• There are no result in the White Pages at all -- listed or unlisted -- for anyone by that name in the New Britain, CT metro area.
• The Connecticut Corporation database has no record of a company by the name of Web Listings Inc or any relevant businesses that use the name "Madison" or "James Madison".
• A reverse address lookup for the New Britain, CT address revealed it is located at the Barnes & Noble College Bookstore and other offices at Central Connecticut State University.
• A reverse phone lookup for the number reported by the Whois database as belonging to James Madison in New Britain, CT is a land line, serviced by Southern New England Telephone Co., and is unlisted or unavailable.
• A search in Yellow Pages online for Web Listings Inc in Niagara Falls, NY received no results.
• A Google search for "Web Listings" inc received hits from bloggers who sensed a scam.  A Yahoo! search for "Web Listings Inc" received several hits for blogs warning others of a possible scam.
• A reverse address lookup for the address provided by Web Listings Inc on their letter revealed it is located at   U Ps Store The 1623 Military Rd Niagara Falls, NY 14304  The UPS Store offers great services such as automatic mail forwarding. A customer can request that any mail sent to a box there be automatically forwarded...anywhere. So the owner of the box doesn't even need to live in the same state.
• A search of the New York Division of Corporations revealed no business registered in any form of the name "Web Listings Inc.".
• An email received from info@web-listingsinc.net was from an IP address in Palo Alto, California.
• A search of the Yahoo! Member Directory for the email reported by the Whois database as belonging to James Madison/Web-Listings Inc. (weblistingsinc@yahoo.com) returned no results.

• CONCLUSIONS:

• This is not a Corporation as its name states.
• The owner of the website has a number that is not in service and an email that is not listed in the directory.
• The business' email is being monitored from someone in Palo Alto, CA.
• The domain registrant listed a college address in New Britain, CT.
• The business lists a rented mailbox in Niagara Falls, NY.
• It is likely that "James Madison" is a pseudonym used by a current/former employee of a company in Palo Alto, CA.
• ALL INDICATIONS LEAD ME TO BELIEVE THIS IS INTENTIONALLY DECEPTIVE MASS MAIL PRACTICES
• My theory: The sender is hoping that the letter will be grouped in with other, legitimate bills and paid as such.
• (If you did send a payment and received a canceled check, note what bank or cashing facility honored it.)

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