The Bermuda Police Fraud Unit continues to warn local businesses to confirm the identity of the company they are dealing with before committing to any telephone sales pitch for Yellow Pages advertising.

The warning comes on the heels of the unit receiving numerous complaints from locals who have been contacted by representatives of the ?Island Yellow Pages?.

The US Virgin Islands-based company, also known as Caribbean Yellow Pages, has for the past year had its representatives contacting local businesses in an effort to get them to place ads on its online website, www.islandsuperpages.com, however the company?s sales pitch and its subsequent billing tactics have sparked numerous complaints to the Department of Consumer Affairs as well as the Fraud Unit.

Detective Sergeant David Geraghty said: ?On each occasion [local businesses have been invited to purchase advertising space in the Yellow Pages and on each occasion they believed that they were purchasing advertisement space in the Bermuda Yellow Pages.

They each claim that the person to whom they spoke did not do anything to correct this belief or make it clear that they were not the Bermuda Yellow Pages.?

While Island Yellow Pages does offer a service and some locals may choose to advertise in their small publication, Det. Sgt. Geraghty said people should ascertain if the pitch is for advertisement space in the Bermuda Yellow Pages or elsewhere before they decide whether or not to subscribe.

If people believed that they were agreeing to advertise in the Bermuda Yellow Pages, then they should report the matter to Police.

This newspaper understands that while each individual case must be dealt with separately, generally speaking, if people have been conned into incurring a debt, that debt is not enforceable.

Det. Sgt. Geraghty said that Bermuda?s Consumer Protection Act of 1999, deems unfair business practices as ?a false, misleading or deceptive consumer representation including a representation using exaggeration, innuendo or ambiguity as to a material fact or failing to state a material fact if such use or failure deceives or tends to deceive.?

?The Island Yellow Pages are based in the US Virgin Islands and accordingly are not answerable to the laws of Bermuda,? he said.

The company?s lawyers have threatened to instigate legal proceedings in Bermuda against persons refusing to pay invoices sent by the company.

?In the event that a representative of the Island Yellow Pages comes to Bermuda in order to pursue these proceedings, the Fraud Unit would be eager to speak to that person in relation to the complaints which have been made to Police,? said Det. Sgt. Geraghty.

He said that scams involving companies purporting to be local Yellow Pages have been well documented on the Internet by various law enforcement authorities around the world.

?These scam companies often employ legitimate law firms to harass and threaten people who do not realise that they are not obliged to pay the bogus invoices,? he said.