CAUTION... INTERNET SCAMMING! I'm pretty sensitive to "solicitations" that appear as a standard bill. Today I recieved a very official looking solicitation invoice in the mail with the description: "ANNUAL WEBSITE SEARCH ENGINE LISTING" for April 1, 2008 thru April 1, 2009 (366 days... woo hoo!) for $35.00. This appears to be a take off of the ol' - here is your tear sheet with an invoice going to someone elses PO Box. If they time it right, you or your staff processes a check just like a normal bill. A few weeks later the real bill comes from your newspaper to be paid. YES, it happens and now it appears to be adapting to the internet. CAUTION... read the words, look this over carefully. Like I indicated, the very first thing I noticed was the annual billing with 366 days. If it does not smell right... it is probably a scam! What a racket! Imposter bills and no way to correct it if you pay it. It says right on the official looking document that it is not an invoice, but a solicitation for submitting your domain name to 14 estabilished search engines - which they will do (for what ever that means) when you send them a check for $35. Experience helps us to identify these scams and avoid them... as they say, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." Many businesses have a good process for paying their bills and often time we don't really think about the process. An owner looks at every penny... a process pays the bills... which are not always aligned properly. This is an excellent example of an area that we discuss during an assessment done by Strat Exe. Having the experience of seeing a process work great, a company suffer cash flow issues and a respectable looking and often thougth of loyal employee help themself at the expense of the company, I am very sensitive to these types of issues and want to help you avoid the problem. Recommendations on steps to ensure these types of issues are caught and understood before the process pays the bills on time: - For a small business, the owner should approve, or review, all expenditures before payment.
- For businesses with higher volume of invoices, or larger organizations, the use of a pre-approved PO system should flag these solicitations and bogus invoices before they are presented for approval. NOTE the PRE-APPROVED comment; don't waste your time with after the fact PO's... the process is already broken!
- Having two people sign off on the billing before payment is a good move, but it can become a process that does not always do what it is to set to accomplish.
Don't get caught... you can not do anything about it and you will not receive a refund. Remember, they have already performed the service before you even know about it. Good luck - give me a call anytime to discuss an organizational assessment with your processes, systems, marketing or talent development. Above all else, watchout for an solicitation from ICLS.NET (Internet Corporation Listing Service, 303 Park Avenue S, #1073 (I'm sure this is a PO Box) in New York, NY. Best Wishes, Marty |
