You’re probably here because you’re one of the thousands of people who have received a letter threatening court action from a company called Direct Publisher, for an advert. The advert will claim that you agreed to place an advert on a website called the Commercial Register.
Before we go any further, let’s be clear: no one has been taken to court due to the scam. The scammers are complete chancers so stop worrying.
I reported Direct Publisher SLU to Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre, who advised that they were aware of this company and not to pay the bill. A warning has also been issued to farmers. There are reports on Spanish websites of the same where Spanish companies have been duped into this scam (you can see comments in a translated page here). However, Action Fraud have failed to take action, and to the disappointment of many, you may be wasting your time.
In June 2016 my company received a letter from a company calling itself the Commercial Register, purporting to be acting on behalf of Companies House. The letter advised us that we needed to complete our company details and return the form to the company in the pre-paid envelope. The form was accidentally completed by the admin team and returned. This would result in months of battles, emails and telephone calls to overseas scammers.
We received a bill for €993 for placing an advert on the website. The invoice came from Madrid and included a copy of the signed ‘order form’. The order was for listing our company in the ‘England Commercial Register’, but it transpired we had actually signed up for an advert on the very poor quality website com-reg.com. We had been hit by the (yet another) scam on small business
Direct Publisher had hoodwinked my company into signing a contract for an advert, and the actions the company used to obtain the signature weren’t honest, weren’t upfront and hid the real terms and conditions in very small print on the reverse of the form. That’s an excellent example of fraud. In my opinion, these scammers are nothing more than bullies who attempt to apply pressure using various guises. They prey on small business owners and bully. They use poorly written letters and attempt to make themselves look official.
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Quite simply, No! Don’t pay it. It’s a blatant scam and to date (after receiving hundreds of emails from people) no one has ever been taken to court. They will threatened and try to scare you into paying, but don’t be fooled. It’s nothing but hot air.
In June 2017, some victims of the scam began to receive letter and emails from people claiming to be legal representatives of Direct Publisher. The emails come from m.m@legal-recovery.com and threaten court action. There is no name of the law firm on the email, which immediately looks suspicious.
You would have thought that if Direct Publisher had such a firm legal case that they would have taken the matter to court months ago, especially as they have given so many victims a final demand on numerous occasions. Alas, no. It seems that their bark really is much worse than their bite.
Another thing suspicious issue with these emails is that the legal-recovery.com has no website and the domain is hidden for privacy on the WhoIs database. Why would a genuine legal firm want to hide their details from the public domain?
The company was clever with the original letter looking to be very official and from a UK Government department. So be careful what you sign, and definitely don’t pay them.
I have been contacted by various people by phone, email and via this blog about this company. Here’s what I’ve been told to date:
What you do next is completely up to you but I recommend:
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Many people are receiving an email from the scammers saying that the website has been moved from com-reg.com to comm-reg.com. The registered person of the com-reg.com and comm-reg.com domains has now been revealed and listed on Whois as:
Royal Mail have confirmed that any letters meant for Europe without a stamp will be thrown away, so don’t bother returned the envelope without a stamp. You’re just wasting a good envelope!
I decided to write to this unscrupulous company and so sent them an email, saying that we would not be paying it and that we had reported them to Action Fraud. I received the following reply from Ella King <drp133-1@com-reg.com>:
“Dear Mr Hicks
We thank you for your e-mail of 31st May 2016.
We confirm that an advertisement order was placed by [our company name] when returning the original order form to us duly completed, signed and dated.
All the conditions of our commercial offer including a prominent price in bold were given to you at the outset and it can only be expected that you were fully aware of the contractual commitment being entered into.
Since your cancellation request was not sent to us within the contractual cooling off period of fifteen days from the date of signature this order has come into force. Your company’s advertising can be viewed on our website at: www.com-reg.com.
We kindly ask you to honour existing contractual commitments and settle the invoice at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely
Customer Support Dept.
www.com-reg.com”
Of course, I still had to intention to pay, so replied and said: “as previously advised we will not be making any payment and leave you to take any action you feel necessary”. A couple of days later, I received another email:
“Dear Mr Hicks
In reply to your e-mail of 6th June 2016 we must reaffirm that full consent was given to the business terms for the publication of your professional data on our website upon returning the signed order document.
Absolute Asbetsos Solutions Ltd.’s order has become valid and legally binding since no withdrawal was effected within the contractual cooling off period defined in Point one of order terms and conditions.
We look forward to receiving your payment.
Yours sincerely
Customer Support Dept.
www.com-reg.com”
So I wrote back, and said the following:
“I’ve already made it clear that we will not be paying it. I also left you to take whatever action you feel necessary.
No further correspondence will be entered into.”
Today we received a “PAYMENT NOTICE” from Commercial Register scam HQ. I’ve ignored it.
Ella King from Direct Publisher S.L.U. has accused this blog of containing “subjective material with no legal foundation or filtering or verification of the veracity of claims made” and that Direct Publisher SLU is a “fully registered business and the order document in question meets all legal criteria” (see comments below).
In response to this I would say that Direct Publisher SLU know exactly what they’re doing and they don’t like being called out on it. Action Fraud have themselves told me (and others) that Direct Publisher SLU is acting fraudulently. That’s fact, not subjection. As for “legal foundation” – if you scan someone’s signature and add it to another form that’s illegal. It is a fact that some of the people who have contacted me (see below) have alleged this has occurred.
Direct Publisher SLU may be a “fully registered company”, but not in the UK. They hide this fact on the original letter in small print and give the overarching impression that they are acting on behalf of Companies House in their initial letter. That’s not illegal, but it’s immoral and if nothing else its hoodwinking.
Received a “THIRD REMINDER” regarding the Commercial Register Scam today dated 12.08.2016. I’ve ignored it. This was received after my email to them on 28/07/2016 which read:
“Ella,
Time for you to take this to court. We’re not paying.
I look forward to hearing from your solicitors in due course.
Kind Regards,
Ritchie.”
I received a letter from Direct Publisher SLU and their ‘Legal Department/Departement Juridique’. The letter is another demand for the invoice to be settled as says that “to date you situation has not been regularized” and that they “demand that the outstanding amount is paid upon reception of this notice.cf1”. I’ve ignore it.
A person who has been a regular contributor to this article, Nina Woolcock, has spoken to a solicitor. Whilst I am not a solicitor and unable to offer any legal advice, she has this to say:
“I spoke this week with a solicitor specialising in commercial law/disputes. He said he had only that very morning had a client in with exactly the same issue with Direct Publisher as all of us. He also said, having looked at the evidence, that it is a scam, do not pay anything, do not enter into any communication with them. He interestingly also said there was another scam, virtually identical, about 6 years ago.”
Traffic to this blog has become exponential compared to a few months ago. I am probably being contacted by 5 people a day on average either reporting that they have been duped by the Commercial Register scam or that they have received a letter. It seems that this is a reincarnation of various other scams, including a European City Guide scam which even has the same greyed out terms and conditions on the reverse of the letter as the current fraud
I have received yet another threatening letter from Commercial Register, which I’ve filed along with all the others. I’ve also reported them to Royal Mail.
Please share this website on social media and spread the word about this dreadful company, and if possible link to the article from your own website. The more people that spread the word, the less people that will be conned!
As of 27/06/2017 I have never received any court letter. I’ve never been taken to court, seen a bailiff or anything else that this company threatened to do 8 months ago. This all goes to confirm that this is a scam set up by people who have absolutely no intention of actually commencing legal proceedings because they know they’ll never win a case.
I have been contacted by hundreds (if not thousands) of people who have been touched by this scam and my blog is currently receiving almost 75,000 page views a month. I’m always pleased to hear from people in the comments section but am unable to reply to individual emails or queries (I’m not a solicitor and can offer no legal advice, so please don’t ask).
If you’ve been helped by this blog or saved money, please consider making a small donation to help towards it’s upkeep.
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Hi, I too have had a letter from the 'Commercial Register' company in Spain demanding payment of £993 plus VAT. This is in response to filling out a form, which like the other company did as we thought it was from Companies House. It states we are on the 'register of companies' and this form is to ensure all details are correct and that we do not get removed from said register.
I have now received an email demanding payment. I am intrigued to know how the other company (on your website) got on with not paying.... I am thinking of seeking legal advice.
Please can anyone help?
It's a scam and I've been told the same by the police.
I wrote to them and said the same and that I wasn't going to pay it. They wrote back and said I have to. I said I wouldn't be. They then replied and said I need to pay it. I told them to take whatever action they want and that I wouldn't be entering into any further correspondance. Watch this space!
My name is
Paul I also received this and 100% will not be paying these people are penny . Do the same
I also am in the 2 year mark with all the demanding letters like everyone else. I am in Canada and initially thought it was a Canadian Government Form (as I am sure that was their intent) and filled it out and sent back (stupidly without looking at reply address). Lesson Learned!! When the first payment required letter came I also emailed ‘Ella King’ explaining my mislead understanding of this and was replied with that all was Legal and I was required to pay. I replied back that I would not pay and that was the first and last time I communicated with them. I am glad to have this forum to see that is so many in the same situation which eases my anxiety over the threatening letters I am bombarded with. Thank you
How is everyone
Hi had the same problem but not paying them any penny.
I too have had this happen and informed them today I would not be paying.
They scan your signature and put it on a new order form.
It would appear they are starting to get a little more well known...
We have had the same happen to us and now the company is demanding money. The form we originally filled out did not have any legal or contractual agreement on it, then the copy we had sent back to us did. It looks like this block of text has been added after we have filled the form out and signed it, there are faint lines where it looks like a printed paragraph of text has been photocopied onto the existing form. We have reported to Action Fraud and contacted SLU to inform them of this.
Your story is the same as everyone else who has contacted me, Paul.
Paul - I THOUGHT THIS!!!! The original did NOT have that and I am 100% CERTAIN it said Company House - I thought it was just us updating our details for the register.
I had the form recently - the first page says something like "Companies Register". No crest or anything but it looks genuine and has information pulled directly from companies house.
I stupidly filled out this form. I then found this blog so I repot it to Action Fraud. I have just received a third reminder from them. I WILL NOT BE PAYING!!
Thank you for posting this article....I also receive this form asking for my business information. Very official looking and a deadline for compliance....4 weeks ago I was about to drop it off in the mail when I stopped myself and said why don't you read the form a bit more since they were asking for information that the corporate registry should already have. So today I thought I will google to see what this is all about since there was no phone number on the form which is very unusual for any government correspondence. And to my dismay I found your article. You saved me from this SCAM.....THANK YOU!!!! I am going to report this to the government since there should be some public service information from the government with regards to this. I dodge a big one and to think that I always saw myself and savvy and on top of things it's frighten to think how so close I came to a different outcome had I not taken the time to use google and found your post.
I am relieved to see your comments! It's interesting what you say Paul - I too have no recollection of terms and conditions and could see by the email attachment that it appears to be added on at a later date - I thought exactly the same as you! There must be more people out there like us who have been trapped into this scam.
The emails I have had from Ella King are exactly the same as you've had Ritchie - word for word.
I have reported it to action fraud who said 'this sounds familiar'.
Can we please stay in touch with what happens next...
Of course! I'll keep updating this page frequently.
Actually, I got another email from the wonderful Ella this morning telling me I have to pay as it was a contractual agreement. I replied "go away"... :)
Happy to have my day in Court against these shisters.
If it's true that they are forging documents (which has been alleged by quite a few people now) I wouldn't be at all surprised.
Has anyone heard any more?
Not since my last update.
Here is a warning to Welsh Farmers regarding the same scam
https://www.fginsight.com/news/farmers-warned-over-scam-letter-13340
Thank you. Useful information.
I have now had another letter - 'second reminder' saying I must pay within the next 8 days (or what?) ..... Had that last Wednesday. No more e mails from the lovely Ella as yet.
I have ignored it. I sought some free legal advice, they said to ignore any communication.
I check this blog daily - if anyone can add anything I'd be interested to see!
How do these people sleep at night?
I had another email a couple of days ago - same rhetoric as usual - I just replied with "Not happening". Not heard back.
Hi there,
I too have had the same situation with the lovely Ella King and have written at least five emails telling them that I wouldn't be paying it, I would vehemently defend any legal actions and to take us down from their "Register" immediately. Like you, I saw the Companies House bit but did not see anything about the terms and conditions etc. To me, it looked like a renewal to a free subscription. How stupid I feel now. Ella King has written me many emails - I threatened her with action last week and received this email this morning:-
"We acknowledge receipt of your e-mail of 20th June 2016 and respectfully refer you to the signed order document on which business terms are presented without exception and the comprehensive responses supplied in our five previous e-mails.
We advise that our company Direct Publisher SLU is a fully registered business and the order document in question meets all legal criteria. Please note that as the order form was sent to your company as a Business to Business order and not to you as an individual or consumer Consumer law is not relevant or applicable in this case.
Since our discretionary offer has expired and your company has failed to respond positively the original order terms have been reinstated and the full invoiced amount is due.
Yours sincerely
Customer Support Dept.
http://www.com-reg.com"
I have no intention of paying this and, I must admit, was so relieved to see this thread that it isn't just me who is going mad!!!!
I will stay in touch with this page.
Thanks
Michelle
Our story is the same as everybody else who has posted on here. Has anybody heard anything off these people in the last few days
The last email I received was on 1st June 2016 and I ignore it. It read:
I haven't heard anything since my 'second reminder' letter which was a couple of weeks ago but communication seems to be roughly fortnightly so I'm thinking I'm due to hear very soon regarding their next demand!
I will update here as soon as I hear anything.
Hi guys
Really glad all you guys took the time to post these comments, it has helped me so much as I was very stressed about paying so much money for something I didn't want. I offered a payment plan and they turned me down but did offer a reduction to 350 euro! They will now be getting nothing from me.
Much appreciated guys.
Warren