European City Guide Con Warning

I just got a letter today through the mail from a company called European City Guide. It's a simple form asking me to confirm my business details. The wording is kind of deceptive, like they're doing something nice for you, but if you read the text at the bottom you notice it says it costs 987 Euros (over $1500) to be added to the directory! Not only that it says you must apply in writing to NOT be included 3 months before the end of each year, otherwise they will assume you want to be in there every year at 987 Euros.

Anyway I thought this must be very suspicious, and it seems that it is as there is a website warning about it that I found after searching for the company in Google, seeing as their website isn't mentioned in the form, - see first result:

http://www.google.com/search?q=euro...ent-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B2GGGL_enGB177GB177&aq=t

It seems they consider just filling out the form as some kind of contract and try to bully you into paying up if you say you don't want to be in there.

Here is a copy of the form:

 

Thanks for the detailed information Astroman.

 

I just noticed the Conditions Overleaf mentioned. I went to look at them and they are so faint that it's hard to tell there is anything there. I did look on the back initially and thought it was blank, but it is filled with the usual legal binding type jargon.

 

And also they didn't mention their directory url in the form. Maybe they are collecting contacts for sending advertisement mails.

 

They already have the contacts, they sent me the form through the mail.

 

That happened a few days ago in Portugal + Spain... Beware of this guys, cause if you sign that form, you're in deep trouble.

 

That reminds me of those Domain Registry of America letters I used to get. Trying to scare people into renewing their domain names with extortionate renewal rates.

 

Oh God yeah, I get those too. I have to warn my web design clients about them, sending official-looking letters with reg fees 5 or 6 times higher than they should be.

 

What's so sad about that outfit is that those letters much have a great ROI for them to keep sending them. Seems like ICANN should revoke their license or something.

The letter Astroman posted reminds me of the Who's Who books where the recognition is free but it will only cost you $xxx to actually be listed.

 

The ROI for Domain Registry of America must be good, they send those things all over the world.