Please Note - The domain name "Europafind.com" is now owned by another company and does not relate to this scam
This page has been developed by and for people who have run foul of Europafind in it's various guises, namely Europafind Yellow, Business Yellow, Yellow International, PK Yellow and Europa Club Search.
It is intended to be a self help page and a contact page. Somewhere where you can ask questions and find out more details about this so called "business directory". A forum will also be added shortly and a weekly update email newsletter is now also available. (Sign up at the bottom of the page).
The main thing to realise if it's your first visit here is that Europafind is a SCAM. Nothing more. True, it's a clever one, one of the most sophisticated to date, but the fact remains it is still a scam! It is against the law to ask for money to remove your business from any directory. They ask $25.....
Firstly, a little on West African Scams
Scams have been perpetrated on the internet for years. You have probably seem the West African email scams. They're not at all sophisticated and are easy to see through. They all want to give you large sums of money, some from banks, others from lotteries, governments, etc., anything big! Everyone knows by now that no one gives you something for nothing, so really they shouldn't fall for them. Alas, some still do. To see some typical examples that were sent to try to con me, click on the links below. Bear in mind that there are many different, but similar emails coming out all the time.
The Europafind Scam
Europafind, run by Peter Kurz, a German national from Pforzheim in the Black Forest (situated about 30 odd miles from both Stuttgart and Karlsrhue) has already tried a similar scam to Europafind some time ago, namely Europa Club Search. This demanded far more cash than he's asking for now, in the region of $170 a time. It's likely that he thinks that more people are likely to part with $25 or $30 to stop him harassing them than larger amounts. He's been quite right - until now. Now you know too.
You are more than likely visiting this site now because you're worried about the emails you've been receiving from Kurz. Just below are a collection of the different ones you will receive or have already received. I have had over 50 of them over a period of 2 months. Usually it's one a day except Sundays.
The thing to do is either ignore them completely, or better still, reply to them. Yes, that's right, reply to them with your own demand for money. Surprised? Read on.
Just think, while you have his logo on your website, you're helping him to rake in more scam money from more innocent small businesses. There's a way around this though, you can turn it against him, so keep reading and I'll explain.
You need to cover yourself legally first and in order to do this you need to add a very small hyperlink to the bottom of the page with your "Europafind" logo on, like this:
All you need to do to put the code on your page is as follows. Highlight the code above by holding down your left mouse button and then draw your cursor over the whole code. Then you let go of the left button and right click on it with your mouse and "copy" it to your clipboard, then you can "paste" it into your page.
It's quite unobtrusive but it's important. The next step is to create a page with details of the reciprocal link terms that apply to anyone who charges you for a link. You can them charge them the same amount that they are charging you, thereby negating their original charge. By clicking on the link below you can now download the whole page "reciprocalterms.html" complete in a Zip file to save you building your own. The link above is also included in a text file named, "link.txt" with the same instructions that are here.
This is what it says. Don't forget to add your own business name where it says YOUR BUSINESS NAME. (Sorry if this all seems rather patronising but it's best to be safe than sorry and not everyone is used to it.)
If any link/reciprocal link is ever required by any business/organisation/individual (hereafter known as "aforementioned") when
YOUR BUSINESS NAME advertises/links with any of the aforementioned, this will not be charged for by YOUR BUSINESS NAME unless a charge is levied by the aforementioned. If a charge is levied against YOUR BUSINESS NAME or it's proprietor, the reciprocal charge made by YOUR BUSINESS NAME will be the exact same amount that is charged by the aforementioned. Any further charges relating to charges made by the aforementioned will also constitute part of the original charge and will also be included in the reciprocal charge made by YOUR BUSINESS NAME. These terms shall be deemed to supersede all other agreements/acceptances, whether by written letter or otherwise. These terms are non negotiable and constitute a legally binding agreement in all countries between YOUR BUSINESS NAME/the proprietor of YOUR BUSINESS NAME and the aforementioned.
The next thing to do is reply to Europafind's emails by sending the following text to Kurz. Just add your own business name where it says YOUR BUSINESS NAME and the amount he's demanding where it says $XXXXX. Send one of these each time he sends you an email. (Sorry if this once again seems patronising, I just have to make sure you're all ok with it.)
See our reciprocal links terms on our web site. According to our terms, you now owe us $XXXX+$5 Bank Fee. U.S.Dollars only.
Please send a bankers cheque or money order made payable to "YOUR BUSINESS NAME" for the total amount within 3 days stating your invoice number, to the following address:
YOUR BUSINESS NAME - Reciprocal,
STREET,
TOWN.
POST CODE.
COUNTRY.
A receipt will be issued on clearance of funds and if requested by yourselves.
Regards,
YOUR BUSINESS NAME.
http://www.YOUR BUSINESS NAME.co.uk
When it gets to the stage of him threatening you with debt collectors, send him this one:-
See our reciprocal links terms on our web site. According to our terms, you now owe us $XXXX+$5 Bank Fee. U.S.Dollars only.
Please send a bankers cheque or money order made payable to "YOUR BUSINESS NAME" for the total amount within 3 days stating your invoice number, to the following address:
YOUR BUSINESS NAME - Reciprocal,
STREET,
TOWN.
POST CODE.
COUNTRY.
A receipt will be issued on clearance of funds and if requested by yourselves.
Despite a number of reminders this invoice has been ignored and left unpaid. Unless payment is made forthwith, the matter will be put in the hands of debt collectors in your country. Costs incurred in this action and any further legal costs will also be added.
Regards,
YOUR BUSINESS NAME.
http://www.YOUR BUSINESS NAME.co.uk
So..... now you've got him annoyed, what next? Try sending copies to ALL his email addresses.
Now this is where things have changed!!! There used to be a host of email addresses that you could send mail to. Not any more, we must have had an effect on him as he's closed all these accounts :-
He's now back to using his main one - 520001497972@t-online.de and this one too until recently but it appears to have been closed now, bl.new@firemail.de There may be others and no doubt we'll be hearing about them in due course. If you know of any, don't keep them a secret, let us know.
There was this one but after I sent him lots of emails he closed the account. newcomer@firemail.de
If you come across these, they're fake addresses - rech.mahn@firemail.de re.mahn@firemail.de
I'll be adding to these as we go along no doubt. If you hear of any more, please let me know.
You now need to add a warning to your web page to let others know of this scam.
Below is a link to a Zip file with the code to add to your page in a text file that you can download. It says this:-
3) Report him to Pay Pal - they are currently investigating him, Email them at
spoof@paypal.com
4) Complain to the Office of Fair Trading on 08457 22 44 99 or email them at
enquiries@oft.gsi.gov.uk File your complaint fully in writing too, (GB only) at this address: International Liaison, OFT, Fleetbank House, Salisbury Square, London EC4Y 8JX.
5) Tell each of the above his telephone number too: +49-7231-358269 (He can get abusive if you call.)
Here's another phone number I found, probably his personal one: +49-7231-140420 And Not forgetting this new one found on his new site: +49-7231-359012
6) His address is: Peter Kurz, Schlossberg 19, D-75175 Pforzheim. Germany, and both phone numbers are registered to this address.
7) His bank account details are as follows, why not inform his bank of the scam? : Account holder: P. Kurz, Account-Nr.: 7441142, Bank: NetBank, ZIP/City of Bank: D-22704 Hamburg, Bank Code: 200 905 00, Swift/BIC, Code: DVBR DE H1 IBAN, Code: IBAN DE14 2009 0500 0007 4411 42
So there you have it, you're covered and you can give back some of what you've had to take. It should make you feel quite good, especially as you now know that there are other people out there who have been through all this before and can now help you to feel a little more secure.
If you'd like to receive our fortnightly email update, please fill in the form to the right and send it in.
If you have any details you'd like to tell us, such as what's happened to you, if you've paid any money, what did you pay for and how much, please send it in to us. The more evidence we can gather against Peter Kurz, the better tha chance of taking him to court and prosecuting him.
At first we thought the scam just operated in the UK and Eire. Since then we've found people in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Argentina, Italy, etc., etc. The list just grows.
When you consider the idea of the scam, if he gets 5% to 10% of people pay him $25 each, just think how the quickly money mounts up. From the email response to enquiries so far, the percentage stays at 15%. Very, very high for any scam indeed.
He's not going to want to let go of this as it's making him too much money, so we've got to stick together and find more people with stories about Europafind and Kurz. Good luck to you all. Give him all the grief he most certainly deserves and more!
Addendum 1 He's actually stopped sending me emails since I sent him this link by email - http://realtytimes.com/rtnews/rtapages/20030626_fakebills.htm. He may have noticed that the odd person is standing up to him more forcefully than usual. But then again, he doesn't know what's coming his way yet... does he?
Addendum 2 Guess what? You may find you start receiving porn email shortly after telling him to take a running jump. I started to get some, much of which has been coming through the ISP "t-online.de". Sound familiar? Yes, you're right, the same ISP as Kurz!!! I don't think he's ever heard of spam blockers..... What a dipstick! Needless to say, I've given his ISP a complete breakdown of everything. That should be interesting.
Addendum 3 21/8/03. You're not going to believe this. He's started sending me demands again! Threats of collection agencies - yet again! Yawn..... What a complete and utter plonker, Rodney! It makes me think he has an email program that doesn't differentiate when compiling a list of people to mail to, just the category of harshness that you happen to be in. It would be nice to know what program it is. Maybe we can find out. Then tell the licensor what's going on with their software.....
Addendum 4 8/10/03. You've guessed it..... He has started sending emails every day now, just like before. Well... he gets back everything he sends plus my own demand for money from him. Do you think Kurz lives in the real world? Maybe he's just getting hacked off at the trouble he's getting from me and many others. Keep up the good work and don't relent. Let's bring the jerk down once and for all!
Addendum 5 18/10/03. He finally found out about the site and must have complained about it. The ISP Envy.nu removed our site from their servers! The cowards! It really says something when an ISP backs criminals doesn't it. Well, our site is back and will continue no matter what happens or who decides to close us down. Representations have been made to "t-online.de" to close Kurz's operation down. It's also been passed to the European Parliament to a colleague of mine, an elected member, to look in to. He's also stopped sending me emails - for how long this time? :)
Addendum 6 1/12/03. YEAH!!!!! T-Online.de have removed Kurz from their servers after countless complaints. They are apparently looking at prosecution. BUT!!! And it's a bad but. Kurz is up and running at this URL - http://69.57.164.231/ - It's based in the US. I've informed them all about Kurz today, so keep on writing to them if you can. The address is abuse@pwebtech.com. Don't let Kurz get away with it!
These are his latest instructions on his new site
To link to us follow 3 easy steps:
copy the code below
paste the copied code into your web page
save your web page and put it on your web server
report your link at http://69.57.164.231/linkreport.php
report your link within 4 days after registration by registerd letter to: Europayellow, Peter Kurz, Schlossberg 19, 75175 Pforzheim, Germany
Addendum 7 17/1/04. Firstly, may I wish you all (except Kurz) a very happy new year! Not too much to report on Europafind yet this year, he's keeping away from me :) I have heard from a couple of others though who have given me some more information on Kurz's activities. Apparently he's now started trying to sell software bundles on the net. I don't have any more details yet but will keep you informed as and when I do. Needless to say, avoid these like the plague.
Addendum 8 14/8/05. Well... What's been happening? No sign of Kurz anywhere...!!! Has anyone had any contact with him or seen his website? Everything seems to have been removed. Searches reveal nothing. Does this mean that he's given up his bad ways? I very much doubt it. A leopard doesn't change his spots after all. Maybe the name of his "enterprise" has been changed. Perhaps he's using a different payment method without his name coming into it. Maybe he has a partner. If you have any news at all, let us know.
Please note: The forum below has been moved to a new site due to the original one not responding.
EUROPA
