Scam Alert: Yellow Pages and Directories

Please be cautious when contacted by any company claiming to be the Yellow Pages or an Internet version thereof. There are many of these questionable businesses out there and they keep on growing. Why? Because so many businesses and organizations keep sending them money.

Multiple operators have started  companies with the name Yellow Pages and designed a logo that looks like the traditional Yellow Pages. They send out solicitations disguised as actual-looking invoices. Please do not pay any money to any company claiming that you have ordered a Yellow Pages listing. If you have questions, please contact Jonathan Easterbrook in the Office of Communication at ext. 5096 or easterbro@hartford.edu.

In a different scam, a check is sent out from the Yellow Pages. What businesses don't realize is that on the back of the check is fine print that says cashing the check obligates you to pay $200 for a useless Internet listing.

Another variation of these scams is by phone. Directories will call to "verify your listing" for inclusion in their next edition. At this point, please verify with 100 percent certainty that this is a free listing from a legitimate source. Much of the time, it is another scam where verifying your listing turns into an agreement to pay money for either the listing, the book the listing is in, or both.