The BBB & Phone Scams

Submitted by: , APR President

Greetings:
Our trusted friends at the Better Business Bureau take great pains to disseminate news releases to media nationally warning consumers to beware of telephone scams. Two of the biggest red flags to watch out for are firms that: ask for you to pay over the phone; and or won't mail you the information.

So this week I received a call from a nice woman claiming to be from the Better Business Bureau, inviting my company to become a member because of my firm's good record. Imagine my surprise when she wouldn't send me any proof, documentation or invoice unless I agreed to become a member for $500 and gave her my Visa number to pay for it. So, I told her it sounded fishy, and she referred me to the regional Web site for the BBB.

Now, being the kind of guy I am, this begged for me to: find out if she really did work for the BBB; and if she did, then track down the head of BBB member recruitment to point out the irony of this marketing approach.

Turns out, the call was legitimate, and the marketing guy admitted that the BBB promoted against scams that cheat people by getting them to give their Visa numbers over the phone before getting any documentation from the caller. Yet, when asked to consider why the BBB would do this themselves, he claimed that as a non-profit they could not afford to send letters to interested parties who were suspicious of their phone marketing campaign. Hmmmm. $.37 cents plus paper for the chance to get $500 that they won't get at all without the note.

To make matters worse, when I suggested an email (much cheaper - nearly free), he still insisted that their fax approach was the only way they could make the system work. Bear in mind that in order to get the fax from them you have to agree to join and then give them the Visa number.

So, while I am marginally flattered by being "invited" to join the BBB, the fact that they won't do business with me unless I pay them before seeing an agreement will keep them from making the $499.63 from me this year and every year in the future.

Maybe it's worth making sure your marketing efforts and public relations campaigns compliment each other, or at least don't conflict.

Ya think?

May your voice always be above the noise - MCP

, APR
President, Sopra Voce Communications
952.881.3426