Small business owners. What's with all these calls to update our listings?

I have never received calls asking to “update info” on my business….And if I did…they scream Scam/fraud/spam and I wouldn’t give them anything.

This happens in Ireland too. I’ve always fobbed them off as well. It’s obviously a complete scam. I do occasionally wonder what exactly they’re up to.

They see who they can send out by getting your info, then have a salesperson call/come by if you’re actually a business. Standard (sleazy) tactic.

I’ve fielded a few of those calls before. Usually I just brushed them off, but once I was curious enough to stay on the phone with them for a while. They said they would need to charge me for the service and that I could cancel at any time. So either they’re offering a real service of some kind and they’re just telemarketers, or they’re just running you for a scam. When it got to the part with the payment, they started talking really fast and saying they would just invoice us- at that point I backtracked and said I wasn’t interested.

@coffeenut Wow! If you figure out what you are doing to avoid them, let me know.

@osullivanbr I guess once they figure out a scam and get it working in one country, it goes worldwide pretty quickly. There’s no telling where this one started.

@aprilsimnel & @Haleth Thanks for the specifics. I’ve been doing the right thing then by blowing them off. Now knowing what they want, the devious part of my mind kicks into gear. I’ve got to come up with some totally insane responses to play with their heads as a way to let off the steam all the useless interruptions generate.

Caller ID is a beautiful thing. If the area code isn’t one I recognize, I don’t answer. I have found that the legitimate ones and my customers will leave a message.

@alamo That’s what I’m adopting. If it shows Caller Blocked or is a toll frr number, I let voice-mail take it. I can’t filter by area code because my customers come from all over the US and occasionally off shore.