Area businesses receive emails notifying them they have won an award from a national association appear to be part of a widespread scheme.
Recent emails notifying Amarillo area businesses that they have won an award from a national association appear to be part of a widespread scheme designed to get companies to pay for “vanity” awards and plaques.
U.S. Commerce Association’s "Best of Local Business" Awards – which are believed to be mass-distributed – entice recipients to purchase plaques. The business usually receives an e-mail that begins: "I am pleased to announce that [BUSINESS NAME] has been selected for the 2009 Best of [CITY] Award in the [BUSINESS TYPE] category by the US Commerce Association."
U. S. Commerce Association, based in Washington, D.C. has been sending out emails in recent months to area businesses, stating they have been selected for the “best of Amarillo award” and offering them an opportunity to buy one or more awards to mark the honor. Best of Amarillo is an awards program sponsored by the Amarillo Globe News. The two awards programs are not related. The email from U.S. Commerce Association is an effort to convince businesses they have won the Best of Amarillo Award when in fact they have not.
While there is a fee of $180 in order to receive the award, that fact is not stated in the email. Once you link to the website, you can see information about costs.
Other than the material on its Web site, there seems to be little publicly available about the U. S. Commerce Association. The site says its offices are in Washington, D. C. A recently updated BBB report says that the association’s Web site is a match to the Web site of an association with a similar name – U. S. Local Business Association. Both groups identify Ashley Carter as chair of the associations’ selection committees. And both groups report virtually identical award programs.
The Washington, D. C. area BBB gives U. S. Local Business Association an “F” rating grade and warns that the address of the firm is a “known mail receiving/forwarding address. The BBB has not obtained a verifiable local address or phone number for either named group. BBB has no current phone listing for the USLBA, which indicates on its web site at www.uslba.net, that it is a business membership association. No contact information is obtainable from either web site except via email. Those approached with email notification of such awards are advised to be cautious, as with any contacts from unknown groups.”
Mr. Les Simpson, Amarillo Globe News publisher, contacted BBB concerned about the similar sounding award after his office was contacted by a local business who thought they had won the Best of Amarillo Awards.
While the awards often look locally distributed, U.S. Commerce Association is based in Washington, D.C. and has BBB's lowest rating, an "F". Click for BBB's full Reliability Report.
The BBB offers several tips to avoid losing money in a “vanity award” program:
- Get a BBB Reliability Report at www.bbb.org on the business or organization distributing the award.
- Learn everything you can about who is giving the award. If it is coming from a mystery company, chances are it simply wants your money.
- If you didn’t apply for an award or the group cannot tell you how you were nominated, chances are the award is not legitimate.
- Most legitimate awards do not come with costs for the recipient. If there is a cost, scrutinize it even more closely. If there is a fee for winning or for receiving a certificate or plaque it could be a scam.
- Ask specific questions about how your company or organization was chosen for an award and find out how many similar awards are given each year. Get details. Businesses and organizations that offer legitimate awards will usually be willing to provide detailed information on why a specific company received the award.
- If the announcement for the award leads to a Web site, do not enter any personal information on that site unless you are positive of the company’s legitimacy and the award’s validity.