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      Local Businesses tricked out of thousands of Pounds



*Contact Details
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*Fax and email



The European City Guide based in Barcelona, Spain. Have sent letters to a number of local businesses. The letter looks like a simple request for information but hidden in tiny text is a restrictive contract tying signatories into paying over £1200 for a listing in the guide. The company take around 3 months to confirm the "orders" and when people then contact them asking to cancel they state that cancellations can only be made in the first week; requests to escape from the contract are refused, followed by hostile for money. The contract is for an initial 3 years, it is also self renewing for subsequent years

The scam has affected nearly 35,000 businesses in over 30 countries

Businesses trying to complain find that they must write to the Catalan Authorities in Barcelona, who have received in excess of 1,000 complaints to date. The Catalan Authorities have ruled against the European City Guide once but have not enforced their ruling. They also conduct correspondence in Catalan, making it nearly impossible for UK businesses to understand what is going on. They appear to be simply overwhelmed by the scale of the scam

There is a website with additional information at
http://www.stopecg.org/

*Local Information 
*XX Businesses in the XX Area have been affected,
*Of the XX contacted:

*XX stated that they were duped into signing the form 
*XX are not aware of a problem, but may yet get demands
*XX is getting demands even though they do not think they ever sent the form back

*That means that XX% of businesses contacted were duped

*Contact details for the local businesses affected are enclosed on a separate sheet

Note to editor: I can be contacted on the phone number at the top of this release to give my personal experience of what it is like to be tricked and harassed by The European City Guide, I have enclosed other contacts on a separate sheet.