Dark Web Monitoring Auto Enrolment – The New Service Provider Scam
This post is a step away from our normal posting, to discuss how we conduct ourselves vs our competitors.
Ethical Business, some would find that an oxymoron, but Tetrabyte believe that there are ways that you do and don’t conduct business.
Last month we were approached by a provider of Dark Web Monitoring. The pitch was just auto-enroll all your customers and then start charging them next month. The way you get away with it is send them a long email, make it boring and sales like, then put a note in the bottom saying you will start billing them unless they opt out. Let’s face it, most people skim an email and ignore anything looking like a sales pitch.
We rejected this, but went further and have rejected doing any business with this provider because we believe that if they don’t meet our ethics and standards in one area, they won’t meet it in others. The sales pitch telling us to ‘scam’ our customers is not the way we wanted to be introduced. As a team, we feel personally protective over our customers and there business I.T. its not just a contract, it’s a partnership where businesses invest their trust in us to do what’s right for them.
However, this is not limited to a single provider or distributor. We have been informed that many local firms are doing just this. Bundling a product that no-one asked for into mobile phone contracts, IT Support contracts and even web hosting. Customers have approached us asking if they need this service and why they have been signed up and we have open and honest discussions with them.
Customers that do want this service tend to swap to our offering, which is more than a blank template monitoring service. It’s a fully comprehensive, managed support service. We don’t just leave a note in a portal you never access, we contact your users and manage the situation to provide real protection.
Importantly, we don’t auto enrol our businesses in any product without their consent. If you need a product, we speak to you, we tell you why and how it will help you, the business decision on if you can afford it… that’s yours to make, not ours.
What you should do:
Check your invoices, from all providers – Ensure you know what each line item means and why your paying for each service.
If you find Dark Web Monitoring services or anything else you didn’t explicitly consent to, contact the provider and ensure they are aware of your feelings towards them. Then contact Tetrabyte and see how we can help you moving forward.
