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Look before you Leap: Fighting Fraud by Making Informed Purchases
It seems to happen about the same time each day around 7:00 pm. I get a knock on my door and I am disappointed to see that the person standing there is not Cindy Crawford or Heidi Klum, but yet another annoying salesperson. Magazine subscriptions, candy, arts and crafts, whatever they are selling, I am usually buying. Thankfully, my purchases from door-to-door sales people don’t cost me too much. Others, however, are not as lucky as more and more people are becoming victims of door-to-door sales fraud from purchasing products and services that are illegal, will never be delivered or are incomplete. Therefore, before you make a major purchase, it is smart to get the facts on a business from a completely honest, unbiased and invaluable source of information: the online business search.
Many of us have heard of background checks and people searches. However, business searches are an often neglected yet valuable consumer tool that is available at most people search web sites like VoomPeople.com or PeopleFinders.com. For about $20.00 at PeopleFinders.com, you can purchase a business search report that can provide you professional-grade financial, legal and professional information on almost any business. Thus, these searches are considered by many one of the keys to making a smart financial decision. A typical business search report provides the following information:
- Full legal name of the business
- Corporate officers or owners
- Address/Phone Number
- Physical description of building
- Real property ownership
- Other businesses owned
- State and federal tax liens
- Corporate filing information
- Corporate status
- Agent for service
- Professional licenses
- DBA/Fictitious business name filings
To generate a business search report on your door-to-door salesperson’s organization, you typically need to enter the business name and city into a search box on a people search web site. From there you can select the business that you are looking for from a list of results and generate your report. Once you have purchased your business search report, you can then evaluate the business and begin to make your purchasing decision. The beauty of business search data is that it can be used in any way that you see fit. Additionally, this data is not trying to sell you anything or persuade you towards purchasing any product or service. So how do you go about determining if a particular business is a sound one from the somewhat raw data of a business search report? The process is actually pretty simple.
The first step in evaluating a business from a business search report is to check out the address and phone number information. If this information is different in any way from the card or information that the salesperson left with you, there could be a problem.
If the address and phone number information looks legit, give the business a call and verify that your salesperson works for that company. If he or she has never been heard of, you then may be dealing with a fraudulent salesperson. Either way, contacting a business directly can ease a lot of your concerns about a particular business and also can be a great way to gather additional information on a product or service.
Once you have determined that a business is legitimate, your next step is to put on your “detective hat” and look for anything that stands out as an indicator that you may not be dealing with a sound organization. For example, perhaps you notice that the company owns several other businesses that seem kind of sleazy like “Big Al’s House of Pornography” or “No Credit, No Problem Check Cashing Agency.” You may also notice that a State or Federal tax lien has been placed on the business because they didn’t pay their taxes, also not a good sign. Finally, if you notice that a particular business is not licensed in their area of expertise, like a pool company only having a license to build decks, you probably aren’t dealing with a reliable business. However, it basically is up to you to determine exactly what the data from the business search report means and what factors make you feel more or less comfortable in dealing with a particular business.
After you have weighed the data from the business search report, as well as discussed the business, product or service with those you trust, it is time to contact the salesperson and let him or her know your decision. Hopefully, whatever decision you make, will be a sound and informed one.
Dec 19, 2006
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