Yellow Pages Group is launching an awareness campaign after many business owners who advertise in the directory were targeted by a fake directory scam making the rounds in B.C.

The campaign will launch in March to coincide with Fraud Prevention Month.

Many small business owners are being billed for advertising in what looks like the Yellow Pages, but is actually a directory originating overseas that doesn't even exist.

Vancouver model scout Brenda Wong was one of the people targeted in the scam. She recently received a $1,500 invoice for what appeared to be ad space in the local Yellow Pages directory.

Last year, five businesses were found guilty of violating the Competition Act for operating a deceptive marketing scheme that used variations of the well-known trademarks of the Yellow Pages Group.

An Ontario court ordered the companies to pay $10-million in penalties and to pay back the Canadians duped by the scheme. One owner has since appealed the judgment, but his appeal was dismissed.

Some of Yellow Pages’ key recommendations to help protect Canadian small and medium-sized businesses against fraud are to:

  • Beware of similar names: Yellow Pages Group is not affiliated in any way with “Yellow-Page-Canada,” or any other company that has a name similar to ours.
  • Remember that YPG’s sales force never conducts business by sending unsolicited faxes.
  • Never sign a document without properly reading it. Sometimes, a seemingly innocent signature to confirm the coordinates of your company can actually be an attempt to bind you with a contract by “selling you services” – you have to carefully read everything, including the fine print.
  • Learn how to properly recognize the Yellow Pages logo in order to better identify scams that fraudulently use a similar version of the logo or trademark.

Businesses that receive questionable solicitations from companies purporting to be Yellow Pages Group are invited to contact YPG’s Client Services department for validation at 1-877-909-9356.

For more information you can visit the Yellow Pages Group website.