Dear All, as the starter of this thread, I have to remind all the victims again:

1. Just send one email or fax to them saying that YOU have mistaken them with Singapore Yellow Pages as the form give you the impression that they are Singapore Yellow Pages
and they have misled you with the form and you hereby you hereby shall terminate the form.

2. Keep this copy and do not attempt to communicate them futher regardless of their reminders, ignore them completely

3. Sleep well, nothing will happen

This is just my little effort to combat the Scams.

Chubb05,
There are more than one Benjamins in ABD last year, the Ben you spoke to was in Customer Care cum Sales, I suppose.

Interestingly, Benjamin, the GM and Belle, both have the same Last Name “Koh”. I wonder if it is a familiy “business” other than the Ang Mo German owner?

Chubb05 and others,
A victim has suggested that we should put pressure on Yellow Pages by cutting the ad spend with Yellow Pages. We can misled by ABD that they are YP, but YP has done nothing … lets all protest by cutting the ad spend on them…. don’t worry if you think that it may affect your sales lead, I have better alternative for you, cheaper too … send me a private msg and we can discuss about it

Wanderlust412,
Thanks for sharing. Yes, I have most of the victims contacts, and many who are ready to stand up against ABDPL in court. I do have some news that their days are numbered … so to all the victims, do not be troubled, just IGNORE them or if you have time to spare just tango with them and keep them busy … what Collection Unit, Legal Unit, full of bull shit …. the next time they threaten you to escalate it to the collected unit … invit them to your office … I have done that, and their collection unit is just the Customer Service / sale personnel. Why not ask Belle and Benjamin Koh (the GM, not their other Benjamins in the company) to come to your office to discuss the matter, I will gather all the rest to attend too … including the reporters from various media, that will be real fun!

PAY FOR ADVERTISING IN DIRECTORY LISTINGS?
He nearly signs deal for $4k until…
The Newpaper, April 08, 2008

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,...

HE spotted an error in his company information in the document which he thought was from Yellow Pages.

TNP File Picture
Mr Simon Quek, 52, owns an audio records store but the document listed his business as ‘communication, advertising and media’.

He wanted to amend the error, sign the document and then fax it back to the company.

But the document, which he received on 1Apr, wasn’t from Yellow Pages. And if he had endorsed it then, he would have to pay over $4,250 for a two-year advertisement contract with Asian Business Directories (ABD), something which he did not ask for.

While Mr Quek didn’t read the document carefully, he did the right thing by showing it to his brother-in-law, Mr Wee Cheeh Eng, a 65-year-old retiree, who remembered reading previous media reports on disputes related to some business directory.

Yellow Pages provides simple listings for free and charge only for display advertisements, while ABD charges for any listing.

On 17 Mar, ABD published an apology to Yellow Pages in The Straits Times for ‘having infringed their copyright in the Yellow Pages directories’ and declared that they are not related to the latter.

Yet, three weeks after the apology was published, Mr Wee called The New Paper, complaining that his brother-in-law received documents from the company.

Mr Wee said: ‘How can a business deal be sealed by just faxing a document?’

MATTER CLOSED

When contacted, ABD’s assistant general manager, Mr Benjamin Koh, said its recent apology had nothing to do with the similarities of the two companies’ logos, publication names and business directories.

Ms Sharon Liew, Yellow Pages’ marketing communications manager, said the company had accepted the apology and considered the matter closed.

The Straits Times reported that Case and the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore have received at least 53 complaints since ABD’s registration in mid-2005.

Case executive director Seah Seng Choon told The New Paper it has received three enquiries on the matter since the published apology.

If companies have already bought ad space in ABD and they are unhappy, they could turn to the Small Claims Tribunal.

Mr Koh noted that ABD was getting only 90 complaints a month about mistaken identity, from the 30,000 mailers it sends every month.

Mr Koh said: ‘If they don’t want to buy the ad and just want to amend their company details, they can just amend it on the document, but not sign it, and fax it back to us. This way, they won’t be charged any fees.’

But Mr Wee feels that business owners may still unknowingly commit themselves.

He said: ‘There’re enough complaints and media coverage for something more to be done.’

By Chermaine Goh, newsroom intern

Maycasa, how are you affected by these conman?

T3Chee,
Sad to know that you are in the same boat. Just ignore them completely, if they do dare to take legal action on you, you know that you are not alone. Also, you may wish to consider writing to the PM’soffice. This is probably one way to get CAD to act on it.

A victim just received a reminder letter for payment today, the scammers have no respect for their infringement of Yellow Pages Rights, Singapore Yellow Pages should be more firm on the stand with such clone!

THE STRAITS TIMES FRIDAY, MARCH 21 2008
BY SHOBANA KESAVA

NEARLY 40 inquiries about Asian Business Directories (ADB) – about one every week – have been sent to either the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) or the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore in the past nine months.
But the issue raised in these inquiries do not come under the purview of the consumer watchdog or the advertising standards watchdog, said Case’s executive director Seah Seng Choon.
He suggested that companies attempt dispute resolution at the Singapore Mediation Centre. However, if they have already bought as space in ADB, they could turn to the Small Claims Tribunal.
He added that businesses now have a strong case because they can cite ABD’s public apology as its admission that it is misled them into taking it for the Yellow Pages.
Mr Seah said companies in danger of violating copyrights should seek legal advice to stay on the right side of the law.

THE STRAITS TIMES FRIDAY, MARCH 21 2008
BY SHOBANA KESAVA

Businesses claim they were duped by firm’s ad mailer

Unhappy at having to pay for ads, they say ABD’s document was too similar to Yellow Pages’

THE document in the mail asked her to check that her beauty salon’s address’ was correct.
Madam W.C. Yeo, 52, faxed back her reply, thinking she was saying yes to a cost free Yellow Pages listing. • :! She did not realise her reply would be taken as an arrangement to buy a full-page advertisement in the Asian Business Directories (ABD) and to pay $4,700 for it.
She is among those who feel duped by the ABD document, which looked like it came from Yellow Pages. At least 53 complaints have been lodged with the Consumers Association of Singapore and the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore since ABD’s registration in mid-2005.

Recipients of both ABD and Yellow Pages mailers point to their similarities: Both company logos feature a yellow square framing an icon of an open book; both ask for
the company’s listed details to be updated by fax or mail; and both mailers display the deadline prominently.

The difference is that ABD runs its ad rates in fine print, while the Yellow Pages offers listings for free. The latter charges only for its display ads.

On Monday, ABD published in this newspaper a public apology to the Yellow pages for copyright infringement and declared that it had no links to the 41-year-old listed company. The quarter-page notice cost it $7,862.

When approached, ABD’s assistant general manager Benjamin Koh said the Apology was worded according to Yellow Pages’ wishes. He declined to elaborate on ABD’s discussions with the Yellow Pages that led to the placing of the notice, but denied that his company was trying to pass itself off as the Yellow Pages.

He said the logos “have so much difference” between them, and noted that ABD was getting only 90 complaints a month about mistaken identity, which pales against the
30,000 mailers it sends out every month.

Yellow Pages marketing communications manager Sharon Liew said her company was satisfied with the apology and that the matter was dosed.

Meanwhile, Madam Yeo has been told she has been locked into paying for the ABD ad.
She said she had explained that she could barely read English and that she had mistaken ABD for the Yellow Pages. But she was told that since the contract was binding, she could choose to take out a smaller $950 ad for $850, payable in two instalments.
She has made one payment, but feels resentful. She said: “They were firm and the letter said that it’s contractual and legally binding. I didn’t want too much trouble, so I took up the ad, but it s a very unethical way of doing business.” Sino Chemical’s manager Chang Sieh Yong, 47, has refused to pay up. He said the ABD document required a faxed response within “a very short time”, and he acted quickly because there were factual errors about Sinko that he did not want to see in print. A copy of the document obtained by this newspaper gave a deadline of three weeks. A check online uncovered complaints against ABD on sgforum.com; a notice posted last July by Hong Kong’s Commercial Crime Bureau, indicating something similar had happened there, called on victims of “possible fraud” to contact the bureau. Calls to the bureau were not immediately returned. Many other firms The Straits Times contacted declined to be quoted, for fear the ABD would alerted to their unpaid bills. But they need not worry, said lawyer Rajah Chettiar, because their contract with ABD “probably wouldn’t stand up in court on the grounds of misrepresentation”. ABD has threatened legal action against companies which owe money, but a check uncovered no lawsuits filed by it so far.

skesava@sph.com.sg

Yes, The time has come for a payback They do have a directory printed, may be that is why the infirnged Yellow Pages copyright?

Originally posted by redstone:

Pure cheating tactics... Should sue them to pay everyone who they threatened to sue.

So where's their phonebook?

http://www.yp.com.hk/event/e-DM/20070717/index_…

Hong Kong Yellow Pages Letter

I wonder if the GM, Benjamin and the Customer Service Manager Belle still there?

Originally posted by TS Kan:

The owners of this con company are foreigners. But the actual day-to-day activities are carried out by Singaporeans .... there is a local being a director of the company and other office staff manning the office. Are these Singaporeans so desperate for a job in booming Singapore that they willingly become tools of these foreign con artists conning fellow Singaporeans?

 

If the names of these Singaporeans can be shown here  ...... I am sure fellow forummers will want to know who they are so as to shame them.

Singapore Yellow Pages should tell the public the actual infrigement as most of the victims were mislead by Asian Business Directories that they are Singapore Yellow Pages

THE STRAITS TIMES MONDAY, MARCH 17 2008

PUBLIC APOLOGY

We, ASIAN BUSINESS DIRECTORIES PTE
LTD, are the publishers of a directory called
“Singapore Business Pages” and’ we, ASIAN
BUSINESS DIRECTORIES PTE LTD, hereby
unreservedly and sincerely apologise to
Yellow Pages (Singapore) Limited for having
infringed their copyright in the Yellow Pages
directories. We undertake not to commit any
further infringement of the copyright in the
Yellow Pages directories.

We, ASIAN BUSINESS DIRECTORIES PTE
LTD, declare that we are absolutely unrelated
and not connected in any way whatsoever to
Yellow Pages (Singapore) Limited.

Yellow Pages (Singapore) Limited are the
official publishers of the Singapore Yellow
Pages and the Singapore Business Listings.
We have no connection whatsoever with the
Singapore Yellow Pages and the Singapore
Business Listings.

Christian Hamoeller

Director
Asian Business Directories Pte Ltd

They have moved their office in Singapore and Hong Kong, The main tel no and fax have changed too.
I wonder if this is their deliberate strategy to hide something

Any news from CAD? Or they are deployed to catch an escaped terrorist?

Originally posted by Wehavemoney:

Hi,
A new company is launching in March. Here's a chance to be one of the pioneers of this new company!!!
As all should know, people who usually earn the most money in the company are the pioneers!

USD$3000 to join. Payout of 10% weekly, which means only 10 weeks to recover capital!!!
Payment up to 9 times the invested amount.

For people who refers and does the business, compensation plan is at average of 20%!!!

Interested? Pls contact me at wehavemoney@gmail.com

 

Another scam! pls go away

Wel, no news about them recently, may be the company is dead!!!

You are not alone at all .... I have most of the victims' contact. If they take action on you, they are dam stupid.

One of us have decided to take action against them ... heh heh it is their pay back time

Originally posted by newsurf:

wat a mistake i made for trusting the word SINGAPORE as stated in bold & bigger fonts.

it makes me feel scared of my own country. and it has been weeks i do not have good nights sleep. i'm gonna take this as a lesson learnt .. whenever i see the word SINGAPORE, i better be very extra cautious.

reputation for YP is not good either, i mistake that as YP's logo. and assumed that they are probably updating our company particulars for the year 2008's business contact publication. well, i received it towards end of Nov 2007 & was blindly "instructed" to check, correct & fax back by a designated date.

unscrupulous way of making $$ like that cannot be tolerated, i want & must bring this case to a wider awareness out there.

My company is small & i run it alone. If u want my $$, i'm prepared to go to jail if this matter can bring up to a "higher level" of attention.

please include me.

contacts & information will be given. Please also update me the neccesary information of the ongoing fight.

We the Singaporeans always "Kiang Chen Hu", I am afraid only if I am wrong, in this case, we are the victims, why are we afriad ... the scammer should be the one....

I am waiting for them to sue me ... and I will make the news bigger than the Sunshine Empire case

Till now I refuse to pay them, I rather spend on milk powder for my BB.

Dont' mention, we are the victims, we should help each other

Originally posted by gotcheated:

but if u do it this way, aint u afarid that they will sue u? cause maybe i m different i think i can pay then pay dun wana get into so much trouble...then may i ask if all of u paid to them then u start this forum or u all simply refuse to pay?

can share with me how u all get involded with them?

think back i duno if i did the correct thing by paying them...it hurts alot

now my kids ask me for cny clothes i have to cut n share my own spending to save for them...haizzz

i think is a good idea...to warn ppl too...but dun get into trouble, all of u r nice guys is nice to have u all ard then can share...lucky

thanks once again for the advice if nt i think i will be paying $xxxx instead of $xxx

No wonder JP is better than Warren Buffet, now I know why

Originally posted by xdrave:

seriously, there is no use doing wild guessing and we can only wait for the result from CAD. Right now, we can only warn people about the dangers of SE. btw, we have reach 76 pages, lol top in the mlm forum

I shall send out the warning message at my own cost if someone is willing to supply me the fax database

Originally posted by UnitedMind:

They can either buy a fax directory CD or ask a clerk to copy and paste the fax number from the internet yellow pages into their fax database software.

I think it is a good idea to fax to all the companies and Yi Ya hwang ya or the English saying: An Eye for an Eye.

Another method is to draft an email about "Singapore Business Pages" blood sucking tactics and send out to as many friends as possible and ask them to email to their friends and create a chain email.

Anyone has the fax number of the Singapore companies, I think the best way would be to send a warning fax to all companies in Singapore. I don't mind doing the job This is what Chinese call it : Yi Ya hwang ya or the English saying: An Eye for an Eye

How did ADBPL get their fax database??