The BBB of Abilene and The Big Country is alerting the public about Web Host Agents, a company claiming to be located in New York and sending unsolicited invoices as far as The Big Country, including sending one to the BBB of Abilene. John Riggins, CEO of the BBB of Abilene warns, “We are sharing this alert so people can take measures to protect themselves against this type of scam.”

Businesses and consumers reported to the BBB of Metro New York that they received solicitations from Web Host Agents that look like invoices for services associated with domain hosting; yet, most reported that they had not done business with the web hosting service. A call from the BBB of Abilene to the business was met with a message stating: “If you received one of our solicitations, this is not an invoice – it is merely an advertisement of our services.” As of December 8, 2020, the BBB Business Profile for Web Host Agents notes 19 unanswered complaints and 20 customer reviews, with share similar stories. In addition, over 100 scam reports about this firm’s practices have been submitted by individuals and businesses in across the country, with 22 in Texas, and are available to the public on BBB.org/ScamTracker. As of this date, Web Host Agents has an “F” rating noted on its BBB Business Profile.

To avoid falling victim to an unsolicited invoice scam, the BBB recommends:

•    Have an effective accounts payable process for invoices; and, question invoices not on your vendor list.
•    Check out the company at BBB.org. Helpful BBB alerts about issues such as advertising problems and a pattern of complaints are reported in BBB Business Profiles. In addition, search BBB.org/ScamTracker to see if others have reported issues about suspect companies.

Read more about and report unsolicited invoice and other scams at https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/abilene/news.