Post No Bills

We've reminded readers before about being careful about having a staff member or bookkeeper automatically paying bills.

According to the Federal Government Scam Watch web site, the rip-off goes like this:

You receive a letter that looks like an invoice for the registration or renewal of a domain name.

The domain name listed in the invoice is very similar to your actual domain name, but may have a different ending. For example, it may end in .net.au instead of .com.au or the .au at the end may be missing.

The domain name may be correct, but the letter is not from the company that you previously used to register your domain name.

In the most recent case, it's not a domain registration but an online directory listing:

ONLINE business directory company Australialink has been banned from continuing a scam where it sent out fake invoices and then threatened legal action against businesses that refused to pay.

The Federal Court, by consent order, has banned company's director, Rachel Louise Dargie, and general manager, Desmond John O'Keefe, from sending out similar letters for seven years.

In the meantime, the court has left open the door for victims of the scam to take legal action against company.

Sadly, the scammers are from the Gold Coast.