Business Identity Registry - 0870 716 9928 or 0845 782667 - Domain Name Scammers
| Company Name(s): |
Business Identity Registry Also known as: eWorld Formations IT 4 Business New World Formations New Design Solutions |
|---|---|
| Telephone: | 0870 716 9928 or 0845 782667 |
| Website: | www.biz-reg.com |
| Status: | Active |
| Last Updated: | 25th September 2008 |
| Known Staff: (could be aliases) |
Bianca Matthews Chloe William Marshal Kim Adams David Roberts Jonathan Taylor Kelly Winters Hayley Brookes Nadia Dumbar Jamie Anderson |
Domain Name Scam Techniques Used
This group of companies has been reported to us as domain name telesales scammers. We would be interested to hear your experiences.
Operating the usual telesales "we have someone trying to register..." domain name scam.
Latest News
Possible contact addresses:
71 Regent St
CAMBRIDGE CB2 1AB
150 Kings Road
BRENTWOOD CM14 4EG
The new-designsolutions.com domain is registered to a Jamie Anderson at:
Birch House
Eastmount Road
Darlington DL1 1LA
What can I do if I have been scammed by Business Identity Registry?
You can get general advice from our Help! I've Been Scammed page or by reading the user experiences below. Make sure you act quickly!
Specific Advice
We will post specific advice for this scammer if we become aware of any police or Trading Standards investigations.
Experiences and Comments
Please register or log in (using the form on the left hand side of the page) to relate your experiences. Comments from new users are moderated.
21 comments to date. Newest comments displayed first.
Barbara Olioso - 7th March 2008
I reported New Design Solutions to
ICANN, the internet corporation for assigned names and numbers
and also to Trading Standards
I am planning to write a press release about this but I want to focus on getting my money back
The persons I was dealing with were Mary Stewart, Sophie Connor and Kelly Winter. Will these true names?
I reported New Design Solutions to
ICANN, the internet corporation for assigned names and numbers
and also to Trading Standards
I am planning to write a press release about this but I want to focus on getting my money back
The persons I was dealing with were Mary Stewart, Sophie Connor and Kelly Winter. Will these true names?
Barbara Olioso - 7th March 2008
They made me believe somebody was trying tobuy domains similar to my business name and ended up paying £800 for 8 domains for 10 years.
They made me believe somebody was trying tobuy domains similar to my business name and ended up paying £800 for 8 domains for 10 years.
David Hurst - 20th February 2008
Tony,
I'm very sorry to hear you have been scammed, but at the same time it is good to get reports from people who have actually handed over cash, as it enables us to get Trading Standards involved. They are your first port of call. You could try David Picken of Trading Standards, Swansea. Tel 01792 636000. He worked on complaints to do with another company on our database. Please let him know that there are comments on domainscams.co.uk which can help with their investigation.
Secondly, if you paid on credit card, you should see whether the bank will refund you. The problem with this scam is that the companies usually provide you with what they say they will, so they don't actually break the law. The problem is with the dishonest sales tactics they use to get your money in the first place.
Third, check whether this comes under the distance selling regulations, in which case you are entitled to change your mind within 7 days and get a refund. Bear in mind that you will lose the domains if you take this route, and New Design Solutions could dispose of them at will.
Fourth, please update this site with any progress or further contact, as it will help others avoid being scammed.
Check out the Help! I've Been Scammed page from the menu on the left.
All the best!
David
Tony,
I'm very sorry to hear you have been scammed, but at the same time it is good to get reports from people who have actually handed over cash, as it enables us to get Trading Standards involved. They are your first port of call. You could try David Picken of Trading Standards, Swansea. Tel 01792 636000. He worked on complaints to do with another company on our database. Please let him know that there are comments on domainscams.co.uk which can help with their investigation.
Secondly, if you paid on credit card, you should see whether the bank will refund you. The problem with this scam is that the companies usually provide you with what they say they will, so they don't actually break the law. The problem is with the dishonest sales tactics they use to get your money in the first place.
Third, check whether this comes under the distance selling regulations, in which case you are entitled to change your mind within 7 days and get a refund. Bear in mind that you will lose the domains if you take this route, and New Design Solutions could dispose of them at will.
Fourth, please update this site with any progress or further contact, as it will help others avoid being scammed.
Check out the Help! I've Been Scammed page from the menu on the left.
All the best!
David
David Hurst - 20th February 2008
Alison,
Sometimes the domain checker does not receive a response from the domain Whois server, so occasionally domain names show as available when in fact they are not.
I'll check the script as a precaution, but I can confirm that the 3 domains you mentioned are all registered.
Regards,
David
Alison,
Sometimes the domain checker does not receive a response from the domain Whois server, so occasionally domain names show as available when in fact they are not.
I'll check the script as a precaution, but I can confirm that the 3 domains you mentioned are all registered.
Regards,
David
Tony Barnett - 19th February 2008
WAS PHONED BY KELLY WINTERS INDICATING SOMEBODY WANTED TO REGISTER 15 DOMAIN NAMES INVOLVING MY COMPANY AND COULD BE UP TO MISCHIEF.I SPENT £500 TRYING TO PROTECT MY INTERESTS BUT RE-ALISED SHORTLY AFTERWARDS THEY WERE SCAREMONGINGING TO GET MY BUSINESS. WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE ?
WAS PHONED BY KELLY WINTERS INDICATING SOMEBODY WANTED TO REGISTER 15 DOMAIN NAMES INVOLVING MY COMPANY AND COULD BE UP TO MISCHIEF.I SPENT £500 TRYING TO PROTECT MY INTERESTS BUT RE-ALISED SHORTLY AFTERWARDS THEY WERE SCAREMONGINGING TO GET MY BUSINESS. WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE ?
Alison Clark - 19th February 2008
The above company contacted us yesterday - and I see that they are already on your list of known scammers. They said that someone was buying up all the acesupplies domain names etc... but the person who took the call didn't buy any names or give out credit card details. However today we find that our .com domain name is not working, and I have not yet had a response from the company who host it.
EVEN WORSE, I find that your own site lists the three domain names we own as being available! acesupplies.com, acesupplies.co.uk, and acesupplies.eu are definitely NOT available... Why are you listing them as such???
What is going on here please?
Please respond Urgently.
The above company contacted us yesterday - and I see that they are already on your list of known scammers. They said that someone was buying up all the acesupplies domain names etc... but the person who took the call didn't buy any names or give out credit card details. However today we find that our .com domain name is not working, and I have not yet had a response from the company who host it.
EVEN WORSE, I find that your own site lists the three domain names we own as being available! acesupplies.com, acesupplies.co.uk, and acesupplies.eu are definitely NOT available... Why are you listing them as such???
What is going on here please?
Please respond Urgently.
Bob Flemming - 19th February 2008
As web designers, 2 of our clients in the Lincolnshire area reported to us today that this company were trying high pressure tactics to purchase additional domains. The contact on this occasion was "Hayley Brookes".
As web designers, 2 of our clients in the Lincolnshire area reported to us today that this company were trying high pressure tactics to purchase additional domains. The contact on this occasion was "Hayley Brookes".
Greg Field - 19th February 2008
Just hung up from these jokers. Jonathan Taylor spoke to me initially, spinning a scare story that a third party wanted to register four domain names that are similar to ours for 10 years each and that he intended to forward them to another website. He inferred that we wouldn't want to be associated with the content of that website.
I remember this scam from when I first started working in web design, 8ish years ago... I strung Jonathan Taylor along until he put me through to their 'legal department' to help me resolve the problem.
The Scottish lady that I got put through to ramped up the scare-mongering, making it sound like I had mere minutes to act ("we're holding him off at the moment because he said he's not affiliated to you in anyway and we thought we should check")... I let her talk away while I hopped on the net and registered two of the four domains she was trying to get us to pay £500 for (two domains we actually do want). Then I told her she was full of the proverbial and politely requested that she placed her handset in a position that would hurt.
There should be a law against this type of thing.
Just hung up from these jokers. Jonathan Taylor spoke to me initially, spinning a scare story that a third party wanted to register four domain names that are similar to ours for 10 years each and that he intended to forward them to another website. He inferred that we wouldn't want to be associated with the content of that website.
I remember this scam from when I first started working in web design, 8ish years ago... I strung Jonathan Taylor along until he put me through to their 'legal department' to help me resolve the problem.
The Scottish lady that I got put through to ramped up the scare-mongering, making it sound like I had mere minutes to act ("we're holding him off at the moment because he said he's not affiliated to you in anyway and we thought we should check")... I let her talk away while I hopped on the net and registered two of the four domains she was trying to get us to pay £500 for (two domains we actually do want). Then I told her she was full of the proverbial and politely requested that she placed her handset in a position that would hurt.
There should be a law against this type of thing.
Stefan McMullan - 18th February 2008
Called me, "some ones trying to register 1500 pounds worth of domain variations of your current business name" , Stupidly called back the 0870 number , Spoke to them again, didn't try and directly sell me domains, more like prompting me to ask.
Called me, "some ones trying to register 1500 pounds worth of domain variations of your current business name" , Stupidly called back the 0870 number , Spoke to them again, didn't try and directly sell me domains, more like prompting me to ask.
Andrew Lothian - 18th February 2008
Two of our clients have (separately) been hit with the same approach within two weeks - the usual story that they have received applications to register a number of domain names similar to ours, the application is from a private individual who wants them for 10 years and is prepared to pay £1000 for them. They also advise that the user intends to set them up so they redirect to another web site, but they don't know what that is.
We typically report these to the Office of Fair Trading and will do so in this case.
Interestingly, the 0870 number is very similar to that of Business Identity Registry although that may be a coincidence.
Two of our clients have (separately) been hit with the same approach within two weeks - the usual story that they have received applications to register a number of domain names similar to ours, the application is from a private individual who wants them for 10 years and is prepared to pay £1000 for them. They also advise that the user intends to set them up so they redirect to another web site, but they don't know what that is.
We typically report these to the Office of Fair Trading and will do so in this case.
Interestingly, the 0870 number is very similar to that of Business Identity Registry although that may be a coincidence.
Stephen Lord - 14th February 2008
tried to sell us variations of our existing address which they claim were being sought after by a.n.other
tried to sell us variations of our existing address which they claim were being sought after by a.n.other
Hedley Stroud - 14th February 2008
Rang us up on basis that an individual was trying to register a whole series of domain names associated with our company- asking if we want to do nothing (and risk the consequences) or prioritise and register the names first - paying £1100 to do so ....the caller basically gave me until the end of the day to decide what to do ! I think I will risk the consequences but have in the meantime registered one name that might be useful for us for £12.50 !! Perhaps I have made a mistake ... !
Rang us up on basis that an individual was trying to register a whole series of domain names associated with our company- asking if we want to do nothing (and risk the consequences) or prioritise and register the names first - paying £1100 to do so ....the caller basically gave me until the end of the day to decide what to do ! I think I will risk the consequences but have in the meantime registered one name that might be useful for us for £12.50 !! Perhaps I have made a mistake ... !
Virginia Jennings - 13th February 2008
Said his name was Jonathan Taylor. Said that a man named Mike Turner was trying to register 15 domain names and does not claim to be affiliated with our company. Asked for CEO but did not have a name for the CEO. Total BS.
Said his name was Jonathan Taylor. Said that a man named Mike Turner was trying to register 15 domain names and does not claim to be affiliated with our company. Asked for CEO but did not have a name for the CEO. Total BS.
Gus Gelpi - 1st February 2008
They began with a call to my UK office. They were given my contact info and have tried to call me on several occasions with the "someone is trying to register my other extensions" story. I checked several of the other possible extensions and noted that all but .biz had been registered for quite some time. I tried to call for grins, but could not get in due to my schedule and the time difference. I finally got the "only a few hours left call". Thanks for the site.
They began with a call to my UK office. They were given my contact info and have tried to call me on several occasions with the "someone is trying to register my other extensions" story. I checked several of the other possible extensions and noted that all but .biz had been registered for quite some time. I tried to call for grins, but could not get in due to my schedule and the time difference. I finally got the "only a few hours left call". Thanks for the site.
Tom Farrar - 23rd January 2008
Another thing to notice is that, like BIR, they use a real address - 150 Kings Road is a insurance brokers address.
Another thing to notice is that, like BIR, they use a real address - 150 Kings Road is a insurance brokers address.
Tom Farrar - 23rd January 2008
See a report i did on this last year for a customer:
http://webserve2.it-ps.com/tomf/biz.htm
See a report i did on this last year for a customer:
http://webserve2.it-ps.com/tomf/biz.htm
john cook - 21st January 2008
I had a very similar experience to Paul Ledbury today:
I received a call from New World Formations who informed me they had received a suspicious attempt to register variations of our company name with .com .net .co.uk .info and .biz suffixes for a ten year period. I am responsible for IT in a South Wales manufacturing company.The person trying to register them, they said, was from Swansea.
I queried this with the caller, a "Nadia Dumbar", who claimed to be in their registrations department. She suggested that the registration attempt might be from a competitor. She also asked me if I had come across this sort of thing before. I replied that I had, from domain name scammers. She assured me that they were trying to help by notifying us.
She even said the person trying to register the domains had been rude to her to add authenticity.
We had quite a long conversation. She seemed sympathetic and helpful, explaining that there was little I could do if the domains were registered to someone else. She gave me New World Formations web site address, so I could check them out, and her number to call her back, saying she would hold the registrations until the end of the afternoon to give me time to investigate.
Incidentally their contact link with 'secure' payments is a http only link so unencrypted, not only are they ripping you off but they are exposing your card details to the web.
Maybe they can be prosecuted for this as well as the scamming?
I had a very similar experience to Paul Ledbury today:
I received a call from New World Formations who informed me they had received a suspicious attempt to register variations of our company name with .com .net .co.uk .info and .biz suffixes for a ten year period. I am responsible for IT in a South Wales manufacturing company.The person trying to register them, they said, was from Swansea.
I queried this with the caller, a "Nadia Dumbar", who claimed to be in their registrations department. She suggested that the registration attempt might be from a competitor. She also asked me if I had come across this sort of thing before. I replied that I had, from domain name scammers. She assured me that they were trying to help by notifying us.
She even said the person trying to register the domains had been rude to her to add authenticity.
We had quite a long conversation. She seemed sympathetic and helpful, explaining that there was little I could do if the domains were registered to someone else. She gave me New World Formations web site address, so I could check them out, and her number to call her back, saying she would hold the registrations until the end of the afternoon to give me time to investigate.
Incidentally their contact link with 'secure' payments is a http only link so unencrypted, not only are they ripping you off but they are exposing your card details to the web.
Maybe they can be prosecuted for this as well as the scamming?
Paul Ledbury - 18th January 2008
My experience is similar to those listed for EWorld Formations.
I received a call from New World Formations who informed me they had received a suspicious attempt to register variations of our company name with .com .net .co.uk .info and .biz suffixes for a ten year period. The person trying to register them, they said, was a "James Goulden". When I said I knew nothing of this, I was transferred to "Nadia Dumbar", who claimed to be in their legal department. She suggested that the registration attempt might be from a competitor. She also asked me if I had come across this sort of thing before. I replied that I had, from domain name scammers. She assured me that they had no need to get business in that way.
We had quite a long conversation. She seemed sympathetic and helpful, explaining that there was little I could do if the domains were registered to someone else. She gave me New World Formations web site address, so I could check them out, and her number to call her back, saying she would hold the registrations until the end of the afternoon to give me time to investigate.
On further investigation, New World Formations are not members of Nominet, and the domain newworld-formations.com was registered on 12th Dec 2007 through NamesCheap.com.
Compare New World Formations to EWorld Formations, IT 4 Business, and Business Identity Registry. They all have very similar web sites, identical terms and conditions, and feedback forms, and have names registered through NamesCheap.com.
My experience is similar to those listed for EWorld Formations.
I received a call from New World Formations who informed me they had received a suspicious attempt to register variations of our company name with .com .net .co.uk .info and .biz suffixes for a ten year period. The person trying to register them, they said, was a "James Goulden". When I said I knew nothing of this, I was transferred to "Nadia Dumbar", who claimed to be in their legal department. She suggested that the registration attempt might be from a competitor. She also asked me if I had come across this sort of thing before. I replied that I had, from domain name scammers. She assured me that they had no need to get business in that way.
We had quite a long conversation. She seemed sympathetic and helpful, explaining that there was little I could do if the domains were registered to someone else. She gave me New World Formations web site address, so I could check them out, and her number to call her back, saying she would hold the registrations until the end of the afternoon to give me time to investigate.
On further investigation, New World Formations are not members of Nominet, and the domain newworld-formations.com was registered on 12th Dec 2007 through NamesCheap.com.
Compare New World Formations to EWorld Formations, IT 4 Business, and Business Identity Registry. They all have very similar web sites, identical terms and conditions, and feedback forms, and have names registered through NamesCheap.com.
Rob Lancaster - 26th November 2007
A recent update on this.
We have been contacted by a company who must be using the same script to get registrations!
www.eworldformations.com
0870 067 0337
I’d previously been contacted by a similar company and the script sounded very familiar. I asked the ‘Legal Representative’ Jackie Roberts from EworldFormations.com how I could be sure this was not simply a scam to try to frighten us into registering multiple domain names similar to ours? And that If we did start registering similar sounding domain names, that I could very easily produce a list of 100 plus!
This seemed to rattle her cage somewhat! She very angrily pointed out that she was simply making us aware of this situation and that because of my query she would now proccess the other persons registrations!
What is the legal position with this? Can these companies be shutdown?
A recent update on this.
We have been contacted by a company who must be using the same script to get registrations!
www.eworldformations.com
0870 067 0337
I’d previously been contacted by a similar company and the script sounded very familiar. I asked the ‘Legal Representative’ Jackie Roberts from EworldFormations.com how I could be sure this was not simply a scam to try to frighten us into registering multiple domain names similar to ours? And that If we did start registering similar sounding domain names, that I could very easily produce a list of 100 plus!
This seemed to rattle her cage somewhat! She very angrily pointed out that she was simply making us aware of this situation and that because of my query she would now proccess the other persons registrations!
What is the legal position with this? Can these companies be shutdown?
David Devenport - 13th November 2007
This is to inform you that I have just been approached by a UK Domain Name Registrar called eWorld Formations (tel. +44 870 067 0337) with a similar story to the one published on your site. Also earlier this year we had another one from a company called Atlas, but I have no further details on this one..
An employee of eWorld Formations (Jackie Roberts, ext. 1084) called me mentioning a situation had been flagged. A gentleman from Bahrain (Mr. S. Ansari) was intending on registering approximately 15 domain names for a period of 10 years. The names I was told were very similar to the ones that were tried to be registered about 6 months ago. We were then called by a UK company called Atlas. She mentioned that she only had Mr. Ansari's email address (yahoo) and credit card details.
After doing a little research I was able to find out that the domain name eworldformations.com has only been registered since 6th November 2007. This doesn't give any credibility to the story.
I hope you can do something with this information.
This is to inform you that I have just been approached by a UK Domain Name Registrar called eWorld Formations (tel. +44 870 067 0337) with a similar story to the one published on your site. Also earlier this year we had another one from a company called Atlas, but I have no further details on this one..
An employee of eWorld Formations (Jackie Roberts, ext. 1084) called me mentioning a situation had been flagged. A gentleman from Bahrain (Mr. S. Ansari) was intending on registering approximately 15 domain names for a period of 10 years. The names I was told were very similar to the ones that were tried to be registered about 6 months ago. We were then called by a UK company called Atlas. She mentioned that she only had Mr. Ansari's email address (yahoo) and credit card details.
After doing a little research I was able to find out that the domain name eworldformations.com has only been registered since 6th November 2007. This doesn't give any credibility to the story.
I hope you can do something with this information.
Judith Stark - 26th October 2006
ot a call today from a Bianca Matthews from the ‘Business Registration Centre’ informing me that someone approx 30 miles away was trying to register 10 names relating to us. Web-site is www.biz-reg.com I was also given a phone no. to call her back on. She was very plausible, not particularly hard sell & asked me if I wanted her to contact this guy to ask him to put a disclaimer on his web-site denying any connection with us. She told me that he had been a bit aggressive on the phone and that if he sensed that they were not going to do the registration for him, he could do it through somebody else who may not give us the option to buy them ourselves. She said he was offering to pay £1000 for ten years. Fortunately, although I fell for it hook, line & sinker, I chose to discuss it with my IT consultant who put me wise.
I cannot believe that I fell for this – fortunately, it cost me only time, not money but obviously here is an active team of scammers.
ot a call today from a Bianca Matthews from the ‘Business Registration Centre’ informing me that someone approx 30 miles away was trying to register 10 names relating to us. Web-site is www.biz-reg.com I was also given a phone no. to call her back on. She was very plausible, not particularly hard sell & asked me if I wanted her to contact this guy to ask him to put a disclaimer on his web-site denying any connection with us. She told me that he had been a bit aggressive on the phone and that if he sensed that they were not going to do the registration for him, he could do it through somebody else who may not give us the option to buy them ourselves. She said he was offering to pay £1000 for ten years. Fortunately, although I fell for it hook, line & sinker, I chose to discuss it with my IT consultant who put me wise.
I cannot believe that I fell for this – fortunately, it cost me only time, not money but obviously here is an active team of scammers.