Yellow Pages scam

I just listed my new business and started receiving calls from these morons. I like having fun with them. I am a State employee. I tell them if they do not stop calling I will turn them over to the State Attorney General's Office. They hang up.

An underaged intern picked up the phone and was prompted to RENEW our current yellow pages directory. She asked who they were and they insisted it was SIMPLY A RENEWAL and all she had to do was verify the information. They then turned on a RECORDER and asked her questions. When I received a BILL from them I immediately called and told them she was UNDERAGE and legally not responsible for anything she may have said and I was CANCELLING the "order" and not to call me again. They REFUSED to cancel - threatened to RUIN MY CREDIT and repeatedly called trying to BADGER me into paying, even offering to LOWER THE AMOUNT If i PUT IT ON MY CREDIT CARD!!!
They also try to say if i pay now, they will eliminate the $300 Additional late fees (which I am pretty sure is illegal) on top of the $499 - for a "subscription" that was by the way NEVER PUT ON THE WEB SITE. Meanwhile, I researched the company, they were operating out of a MailBoxes Etc. in NY, NY. The web site (The Yellow Pages Network.com) was kindergarten grade and contained only ads for companies that no longer were in our city, and calls to several revealed the ads were just fill. One caller from their office threatened me bodily harm if I did not pay. The # was 1-866-928-6410 #603 Rachel Davis. Another address she gave me was: 245 Ace Ave. NY NY 10011 which does not exist according to google maps. She claims the owner to be Steve Brown. This scam seems to be operated by Rachel Davis and a young man who refused to give his name. Thank you for posting this - Who can I file this with and what do I do if they try to "ruin my credit"? I already filed a complaint with NY Better Business Bureau. THANK YOU!!!!

In your place I would see what your state has for UCC, deceptive trade practices, and debt collection laws, since technically these thugs keep demanding money in a hostile manner for the nothing they gave you. FDCPA won't help unless you find a third party collector is working with the scammers. The real trick is finding a valid address to receive your summons, which as other comments indicate, these scammers have made difficult.

I find the triple-B mostly toothless and often in the pockets of the entities they are meant to challenge. I would take your story to attorneys general and the FTC. You are not likely to get individual satisfaction, but will help others, just as the bad PR you are giving here will.

I think the chances are low you will find any creepy new entries on your credit bureau reports from these fools. It's an easy lawsuit under FCRA if they place any incorrect data.

What do I do to get them to stop calling?

The "Ace Ave" address is most likely "8th Ave", which is the MailBoxes Etc location.
It is easy to mispronounce "Ace" to sound like "8th"

Record the phone conversations with them, turn it over to the NY State Attorny. New York only requires one party know the conversation is being recorded, in this case you.

uhm... Dan learn how to spell.

I have been tricked by these people they are calling from a "FAKE" 777-288-7984 as well as calling from 1-866-928-6410. 777 is not an authorized phone number from "NEW YORK, New York"! I have called the BBB, the FTC they know who these people are and its a "SCAM"!!!! I've given the numbers and addresses... DON'T Pay... Say no... Tom Chase, and Rachael Davis, are the names now, and Jason Staford! I've contacted my attorney and are looking into legal actions if they are needed...

YMG Publications, are pushy and by talking to my "ATTORNEY", the collectors agency "WILL NOT" send you invoice through the "FAX MACHINE"! Its a fake, I never received and invoice nor a call. I didn't receive a call until last month, where Rachael Davis was returning my call. I fell for it but gave no money, now we just need to get my "CELL" number changed which is in the works!

I just got a call back by these people today.  I DID get scammed the first time in July. My husband was deployed and I didn't want his business to lose an ad in what I thought was our local yellow pages.  I paid the 499.95 because I did not want my husband's business to not have an ad in the phone book for when he returned this fall.  I went back and checked on my banking website and got this information that was charged to my credit card:
YellowPages 8662866410/ 305-2169552 NV: Loan Advance 499.95

The first number comes up as a fax noise & I actually got a man on the second number.  I figured they just put a number down & this was an "innocent" person.  But now that I think about it, he seemed to get agitated when I told him that I thought someone had created a scam, then he told me to "just call the customer service number on the website".  I think I was actually talking to the scammer!  This just ticks me off to no end!  I'm hoping that I didn't say the word "yes" to the gal earlier!  

Thank you for all your posts & insights.  I hope that we can find a way to beat these people and get our money back.  I don't see how we can't get them.  They asked for money in exchange for a service and we have not gotten the service. How is this legal?  Why can't they be caught?

Its NOT legal... And probably will not get your money back, but if you paid by a "CARD" you need to get it changed! Because these scammers can absolutely destroy your accounts!

Maybe your employer can get a refund and then use it to send you to a class on how to spell and use proper grammar. I sure hope you do not send out many emails to important customers with your lack of simple English skills lol

Embarrassed- call your credit card company and file a complaint with them and do what is called a chargeback. The credit card company will ask you some questions and then will take the money back from the scammers and debit your card for that amount. Then tell your cc company that you do not authorize that YellowPages company to ever auto charge your card again, because they will keep doing that. It may come down to your credit card company having to give you a new card.

Good luck with that.

Amen to that!   Get that credit card number changed fast or you'll find recurring charges for darn near anything.   These people are crooks and won't hesitate to fraudulently run up credit charges.

I'm a State Employee too and we rec'd a call from these morons today.  Stupid is what they are!!!

Ummm Hello get a life!

I have a "provisional" refund for the  $499.95 from my credit union & waiting for the final refund from VISA.  I filed a dispute with VISA & if they have reasonable assurance that it was fraud, they can just take the money back!  
BUT. .  I looked for www.theyellowpagenetwork.com and they no longer exist!  AND I received a call today from a "Private" number where the gal gave me the exact same song and dance that I had agreed to an on-line advertisement back in August with a 3 month trial.  She didn't even tell me the name of the website until I asked.  It is now GeneralYellowPages.com.  The website exists, but my business is not even listed!  I told her that I was not interested in any on-line advertising and she told me that I owed $599 and threatened to send it to her review board and allow them to make a decision.  (A decision on what?!!!).  I kept trying to play it out, and she refused to give me a number to contact her stating that she "could not receive incoming calls"!! RIGHT. . that's legitimate!!  I am in the process of reporting this to the FTC, again, and the Internet Crime Center through the FBI.  Not sure if any of this will do any good, but at least I can vent!  I wish I could give them incorrect information and send a number that looks like a credit card number, but has a number that their computer accesses where they would get caught or receive a virus that completely knocks out their computer systems!! LOL That would be great!!