How to Avoid Getting Duped by Business Scams (Like the Bogus World Trade Registry Offers!)

If you own or work for a company, big or small, then you know how important it is to have some sort of online presence these days. After all, most people are already connected over the Internet, dubbed as the information superhighway. You'd just be missing out on a lot of opportunities of you don't get your business online.

Unfortunately, scammers are taking advantage of this and have launched a new wave of scams that target businesses. One of these is the World Trade Register business registration scam.

It's basically a scam that invites people who want their business sites listed on some online directory. At first, the service is being advertised as free. But on second glance, there are actually a lot of hidden fees involved. This is similar to previous scams that featured the European Trade Register, the World Company Register, and the World Business Directory.

The form indicates that "updating" is free of charge. But the fine print below reads: "I hereby order a subscription ... The price per year is euro 995." That's an insanely high amount, just to be listed on some directory.

Don't get duped out of your hard-earned dollars. Here are a couple of tips to make sure you don't fall for this scam and others like it in the future:

1. Check the URL. These scams originate from a recently registered 'wtrlisting.eu' domain. Now that's one URL to avoid. To do further checks, you can go look up their who.is to see if they're legit, or if they've been around for a long time.

2. Read the fine print. Before signing any document or forms, check the fine print. This is where many people get tricked into offers that actually require purchases or payments in exchange for supposedly free goods or services.

3. Go over the forms. Before filling anything up, go over the entire forms you have to send in. If there's a space asking for your credit card information or bank account details, then that's a sign that there might be something else going on.

4. Google the company. Chances are others have talked about it, if it's a scam. So do a quick search on Google (or any other search engine) to see if anything has written any reviews or blogs about it.