“If you're here, it's most likely you were looking for a backlink to your website, you were asked for a £1 payment to 'prove your identity' (have they never heard of Cloudflare?) and they've since taken £12 - 60 from your card? Correct? All this hassle for a bloody backlink!
Keep emailing them and they will come back to you. I can't say if I've had the refund but I never got the £1 back so I'm doubtful.
Here's the full email transcript from my conversation with 118 business directory.
"Dear Kez
Thank you for your email.
We charge a verification fee to stop bots from creating fake listings and ask all businesses to verify their information with a payment card.
We can see from our records that you were refunded on the 3rd of May 2023, please can you confirm if you have received this?
After verification all customers are offered a trial of a primed listing, this is not compulsory and you are not automatically enrolled, you would have needed to opt-in at a point in the journey.
As a gesture of goodwill, we have issued a full refund and cancelled your account with us.
Please let us know if you need anything further."
My response:
"I can confirm I have not received anything from you.
I can also confirm that I did not opt into your service, it’s pretty clear from the layout of your website (I build them for a living), your impressive haul of 1* reviews and the unclear email you sent me asking me to UN-ENROL if the paid service was not what I requested that this is indeed your strategy, lure people in through a classic “prove it’s you” £1 payment, auto-enrol into a paid device and blame the consumer for not opting out."
For info, I have referred 118businessdirectory to trading standards, GDPR regulators for Europe, and Financial Ombudsmen. I've also been in touch with anonymous so we'll hopefully find out who these crooks really are.
They've unleashed Pandora's box and I really look forward to seeing justice prevail.
Best of luck guys.”
“Thank you everyone for your reviews. I was trying to get a free ad. I was asked to give my bank details to prove I'm not a robot. I was suspicious and it appears I was right. I didn't want to give my bank details and so relieved I didn't. Thanks again.”
“Signed up for free business listing carefully reading as I went along. Opted for free listing rather than upgrading but something is obviously wrong and they are clearly setting people up to subscribe. Charged me £60 without any authorisation and refused to refund when contacted immediately. There is no option on the account to remove the listing/personal details/card information or to unsubscribe to texts/emails.”
“Like most other reviews on here I also got scammed for 2x lots of £12, sound up for a free business directory and was no mention of this! Disappointing that companies today can get away with this immoral business practice, I’ve reported them to trading standards and strongly recommend everyone else does!”
“They shouldn't receive any stars, as with all the reviews here, what they do is very clever and if it wasn't for my bank letting me know they had taken £12, which is a monthly subscription of £10 plus vat, they offer a free listing, want a £1 verification transaction to verify the user, this then opens the door for them to take money at will.
Avoid, avoid, avoid!!!”
“I was charged £1 as verification for a free listing which was returnedto my account as promised. However a few days later and they have now taken a payment of £12 from my account without authorisation. Avoid these scam artists like the plague”
“As others, sadly signed up for a "free" listing but unfortunately they signed me up to a subscription without my agreement or telling me and took £60 from my account. I have asked for a refund and been declinded so will now need to pursue this as a legal complaint via the bank
Don't trust them with your card details.”
“They scam you by stating they will take £1 from your account and then refund, they will sign you up to a paid subscription using those details do not trust”
“I sadly signed up for a "free" listing but unfortunately they signed me up to a subscription without my knowledge and took £60 from my account. I have asked for a refund and been refused so will now need to pursue this as a legal complaint.
Don't trust them with your card details.”
“SCAM - AVOID - They charge you for 'free' listing!
SCAM - bait and switch tactics - get you to sign up for a free listing but then charge for a premium listing without any confirmation, no cool off or refund. When I tried to cancel their website put through another £60 charge!!
Useless as a lead generation as well, the only lead email I've had through them was a fraudster attempting to get me to sign up to an overseas money fraud.”
“Don’t do it. As the others are saying, it is a scam. I in now for a 100% fact I signed up for the basic free listing yet they still debuted £69 from my card. Avoid as they are blatant scammers.”
“I advertise my business on there free advertisement they asked for your card details to verify who I am and then two to three weeks later they took £60 off my card and when you contact them all they reply back with is that’s we signed up for the seven days free and then you get charged afterwards which is rubbish I ask for evidence of this and you cannot prove it and they’re not replying back so they charged £60 for nothing”
“Scam.
Paid £1 as they said was to prove I was not a bot, however then automatically set up a payment plan, and charged 50+VAT, and I have now logged back on to move my plan to the free option, and want to remove my card but wont let me!!!!!!”
“SCAMMERS !!!!!!
118 Business Directory are running a Bank Scam where they offer a free listing service and ask you to confirm bank details to then take a £1 transaction and then they'll refund you. This is actually a scam that allows them to then take money out of your account as and when they require it. Already £60 has been taken out of my account as an unauthorised transaction and when contacted, they refused to refund.
118 Business Directory trading as Outbound BPO and based at 7 Bell Yard in London - avoid these”
“118 Business Directory are running a Bank Scam where they offer a free listing service and ask you to confirm bank details to then take a £1 transaction and then they'll refund you. This is actually a scam that allows them to then take money out of your account as and when they require it. Already £60 has been taken out of my account as an unauthorised transaction and when contacted, they refused to refund.
118 Business Directory trading as Outbound BPO and based at 7 Bell Yard in London - avoid these”
