Warning about Your Business at Net GmbH Hamburg and Monika Ziegelmüller
Your Business at Net GmbH, Spaldingstraße 218, 20097 Hamburg and its Managing Director, Monika Ziegelmüller, are currently targeting customers using scam forms with the aim of generating fee-based contracts. This scam has been very popular and also very successful for many years. Monika Ziegelmüller previously pursued the same business model with TVV Tele Verzeichnis Verlag GmbH, which has since filed for bankruptcy.
Who is Your Business at Net GmbH Hamburg?
The company was first registered in the commercial register at the district court of Hamburg (HRB 157515) on 11th June 2019. The managing director is Monika Ziegelmeier, who has had much success with companies like this in the past and is now trying to pursue her old business model under a new company name. The services listed as being offered by the company are online marketing, online advertising, search engine optimisation and all related services. The company used to be called B@N Your Business@Net GmbH before it received its current name on 22nd July 2019.
The Your Business at Net GmbH Hamburg scam
The company sends official-looking forms titled “VAT Identification Number” and “Register related to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)”. The recipient is first asked to check the company information and to confirm that it is correct, and to rectify or complete any incorrect or missing information. There is a barcode on the right-hand side. In the middle of the form, details of the recipient’s company have already been filled in. However, some fields are left empty for the recipient to complete. The recipient is then asked to check that the details are correct and to confirm with a legally binding signature. Most recipients overlook the small print in the form. In the small print, it is stated that a fee of €711 will be charged for publication, which is to be payed upfront on an annual basis. It also states that the contract is valid for three years and is extended for another year if it is not cancelled three months prior to expiry. By signing, the recipient thus pays over €2000 for a listing which, in our opinion, is worthless.
The Your Business at Net GmbH directory
Your Business at Net GmbH operates a directory under the domain v-r-e.eu, where companies which sign and return the form can subsequently be registered. In our opinion, this is an utterly inconsequential directory, and is not suitable for directing new customers to any company. Of course, Your Business at Net GmbH describes the relevance of its directory entirely differently. The following information is provided:
„Our search engine, which offers interested parties a website, not only assures customer-friendly operating, but also high speed and efficiency of the latest software. In order to guarantee this, we use a self-developed program, which is enhanced constantly. As we are not only interested in providing our customers with a fast and dependable search engine, we always revise and update our data base because this is the only way we can ensure excellent search results.
We present your company in the right way and position your your business at the very front. It is us who will draw your desired target group to your own website. Increase the number of visitors of your company’s website, boost the turnover of your online store and leave your competitors behind.“
Your Business at Net GmbH invoice
An initial invoice is sent immediately after the form is returned, in which the first year is charged at the amount of €711. As well as bank details, a PayPal address to which the amount can be transferred is also provided. The invoice comes from the “Customer Care Billing Department”. Finally, a link is also provided to the page where the listing is supposed to appear on the Your Business at Net GmbH website.
Payment Reminder
If the ‚client‘ does not pay, Your Business at Net GmbH sends payment reminder via email:
Dear Mr. Xy,
We thank you for your e-mail and must respectfully inform you that by signing the order form and returning it to us, you have placed a legally valid and binding order. The contractual conditionswere thus confirmed and your advertisement has therefore been published accordingly. Please find enclosed once more a copy of the order. We kindly ask you to draw your attention to the order paragraph labelled „Order“ in bold print which contains all contract-relevant information and, also printed in bold, the price. Therefore we cannot understand how any misunderstandings with regard to the price of the insertion could have occurred. Of course we would appreciate to correspond with each of our customers in their particular national language. You will certainly understand that this is not possible for each and every country. We ensure you that this is not a lack of respect. You have agreed to correspond in English or German. This was stipulated in Point 10 of the general terms and conditions. Given the fact that we fulfil our obligations by publishing the advertisement, we also expect you to honour your contractual liabilities and proceed with the settlement of our pending invoice without any further delay.
Yours faithfully
Department Customer Care / Billing Department
The Legal Department of Your Business at Net GmbH
The legal department of Your Business at Net GmbH sends reminders for its invoices if the parties concerned do not make any payments. In these reminders the legal department points out:
„Your file has been turned over to our department, as you are still avoiding your financial obligation regarding the above mentioned insertion order despite several payment requests. The service you ordered has been fully provided by the Department Care / Billing Department. After expiration of this last term, we would be forced to take legal action in order to collect the outstanding amount. This will of course involve further significant costs for your company. If the payment has already been sent, please disregard this notice.“
Defence against the claims of the Your Business at Net GmbH invoice
The claims of Your Business at Net GmbH, which have materialised in the manner described above, can be averted. In our view, this is a fraudulent misrepresentation that can be appealed. In the past, we have represented countless clients against companies running similar scams (see http://www.ll-ip.com/aktuelles/ebn-european-business-number-dad-deutscher-adressdienst and our Google Reviews). We would be happy to help in the defence against these claims. Simply send a short email to office@ll-ip.com and we will take care of your issue.
A win against Your Business at Net GmbH
Your Business at Net GmbH has dropped their claims against our clients. This allows us to help our clients to quickly and effectively get out of one of these traps, saving them thousands of euros:
We were successful in every case. Please find some of our Google-Reviews:
„We were caught in a scam by the firm VRE – VAT Identification Number Register related to the European General Data Protection Regulation. The law firm Loschelder Leisenberg Rechtsanwalte and mister Daniel Loschelder from Munich helped us quickly and successfully out of this mess. We recommend you ask for their help and they will surely help you as well.“
„Daniel Loschelder – Great help with the process „Your Business at Net GmbH, quick replies, professionality . We are thankful for advice and letters to the opponent. Within 2weeks we received good news from Daniel concerning cancellation of the process. Thank you :-)“
„It’s very nice to sleep peacefully again.
Daniel + Timm = quick, professional and friendly solution to my big inconvenience (Your Business at Net). And the price for great service? Due to the impending danger actually low. Thanks! Dank!“
