The website www.speedyinfo.ca appears at first to be a "portal" or search engine providing customers the privilege of appearing in their results if you pay for their service.
The scam is,
(1) The results they return in their so-called search engine are just reformatted results from other popular search engines thus they aren't actually providing any added benefit!
(2) There is a theory that they might be making money from third party advertisers by displaying unauthorized results on their pages, directing users to the page and then asking them to click on the results so that they generate revenue
(3) They send unjustifiable invoices to organizations & companies who never asked for, signed up for, even heard of their bogus service and then demand payment. Typically the invoices vary in amounts: $402.52, $250.00, $384.00, etc but they'll "negotiate" any price if they have a notion you might be willing to pay something just to leave you alone.
Whatever you dodo NOT pay these crooks. They use high pressure tactics to guilt you into paying. It's not uncommon for their sales associates to call weekly or daily until you "give up" and pay. Here are a couple of the scenarios we've heard аbout:
1) They'll claim you paid them several years ago and that this is the "last" installment for their service. They like to use this scenario if you happen to have fallen prey to another scam which ran several years ago under the name "Infosearch Publications Inc" which sold business directory listings.)
Either the same people are running this scam or they're using the same mailing list. Some organizations are reporting that they are referencing old payments made to InfoSearch and therefore stating that THIS is why you owe them now as a final instalment.
2) They'll claim to have a contract with you and simply demand payment. They might ask for your credit card number or fax you a fake invoice as evidence. In one case, they claimed that the deceased founder of the organization made the commitment. Very low class.
3) If you ignore their requests or threaten them, they'll might have a "legal representative" contact you. They typically threaten with legal action or debt collectors (affecting your credit rating blah blah blah). It's all bogusand you can safely ignore these idle threats.
There seems to be no moral limits for these scumbags. We've seen reports from non-profit organizations, Royal Canadian Legion, as well as other small, independent incorporations. We are speculating that they feel these companies are the most vulnerable because of their size, limited knowledge of the subject, and resources to fight back.
Our recommendation is to document their attempts to contact you including time of day, name of caller (albeit fake), and the general purpose of the call. Then I would recommend passing the information you've collected about the calls, including the fake invoices, over to the Montreal Police Fraud Division who are already building a case. Your additional information will increase the severity and nature of their investigation. Let's get these crooks behind bars as soon as possible.
The cowards at Commercial Media Services hide behind a PO Box number but a private investigation firm has confirmed their office address to be:
CMS - Commercial Media Services
720 Boulevard D'carie Suite 202
St-Laurent, QC, H4L 3L5
Phone: 1-877-748-5021
or 514-944-4865
speedyinfo.ca
Bobby
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
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