In the run-up to the Ice-hockey World Championships in Slovakia this year, a group of speculators took advantage of the good faith of internet users by getting them to register to their site, with customers unaware that they were agreeing to pay EUR 50 for accessing the database site.
The company Online Investment Group is now moving to stage two of its plan by suing those people who have not paid the EUR 50. When registering with the site, the only mention of a fee was in the small print, and so visitors had no idea they were signing up to make someone rich.
According to an article in Hospodarske Noviny today, the credit recovery company BIB Services is now trying to enforce the fees from many of the estimated 30,000 or so people who registered on the websites. The Nitra-based BIB Services is demanding payment within 15 days or it will initiate distraint proceedings against the non-payers.
Unfortunately, the people who registered with the site agreed to the fee, even though info about it was in a well-hidden place. The consumer protection organisation Ombudspot says the company is guilty of unfair practices, but legal systems generally don’t provide customers with protection against cases like this.
If the estimate of around 30,000 users is correct, even without additional legal fees etc, the company will have made around EUR 1,500,000 from its unfair, but legal, activity. These kinds of scams are growing, with the following companies among those to watch out for: Pro Content s.r.o., Web Content s.r.o., South Ocean Investment corp., Online Investment Group Ltd etc.