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Sonia Klair

Sonia Klair

Absolutely outrageous that someone who defrauds “customers” of $700,000 would have the gall to claim that 10 months home detention is “manifestly excessive”.

A woman who fleeced small businesses in a “sophisticated” fake invoicing scheme that used forged documents made in India has appealed against her sentence.

Sonia Klair, who is now living in Australia, in 2008 set up NZ Look, an internet-based directory where consumers could look up products and services.

During that year, the company began sending out documents that falsely told the recipient that they already had listings with NZ Look and invited them to sign on for another term.

The customers contacted were from a database that originally belonged to NBO, a similar business previously run by Klair and her then-husband.

From early 2010, Klair used forged documents made in India in an attempt to convince businesses they had previously signed on for NZ Look’s services.

These documents copied over customers’ signatures from NBO documents to NZ Look documents.

Klair would then send an invoice requesting payment for the listing to these “clients”.

Read the rest of the article at the NZ Herald

Read the Judge’s sentencing notes.

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I’ve been alerted to a new directory to NZ’s overheated market – and it appears to be a reincarnation of National Business Online (NBO).

They contacted a client and tried to sign him up with a free extra year listing.

You’d think they could get the country’s name written right – New Zealand and not New zealand!

NZ Key List logoand we’re asked to

Submitt your business details and keywords here to be easily found by your customers.The site is registered to an Aryan Gill and the emails (parri100@gmail.com & mmousabbir@gmail.com) don’t link to anything – which I always find curious. The phone number (given as 64 2 2102218059 and 64 21 02218059) links to a very busy account on Sella who is selling aviation equipment, property and employing a chef for Sangeet Indian Cuisine in Manukau.

What then catches my attention is what happens when you use Google to search for “NZKeyList” and you get 20 results where there should be 1 for every page in the site. 2 of the results link to this warning on Twitter:

The rest clearly link the site with NBO

Why would NZ Key List be calling themselves National Business Online if it wasn’t being run by the same people?

Why also would the search button on the screen be called “NBOsearchbutton.gif”?

If you look at their Contact Us page there is a form to fill in but not postal address or phone number. Their About Us page is insultingly bare.

I’d be really interested if anyone knows who this Aryan Gill really is because until then this directory is tainted by its association with NBO.

 

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Occassional checks on the Searcha.co.nz website show that it has been offline for a month now.

The domain registration information still shows the same old disputed details: http://whois.domaintools.com/searcha.co.nz. Shallendra Singh’s lawyers claim he’s not the owner but the whois documentation clearly state he is.

I’ve heard that the old NBO (National Business Online) offices at Albert Street are now officially the Searcha offices – which seems bizarre given that the website doesn’t even exist.

So… all the people who have signed up for advertising on Searcha – have you been told what’s happened to your advertising?

  • Has it been transferred to one of the other sites?
  • Have you been refunded?
  • Any explanation at all?

I’d love to know!

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NZBO appears to be the latest offering from Shallendra Singh of NBO infamy.

One comment on the iTamer post suggests that they’re using an Indian call centre and renewing 2 year listings. There appears to be no intention of running the directory legitimately. Such a shame.

The NZBO website is registered to a Jitendra Singh – yet the NZBO site seems to be a copy of a recent version of NBO which is owned and operated by Shallendra Singh. Interestingly NBO has reverted back to it’s original look and feel.

 

Whois for NZBO.co.nz

Whois for NZBO.co.nz

http://whois.domaintools.com/nzbo.co.nz

Jitendra Singh is registered as a company director for Searcha and NZBO. His address is in Papatoetoe and the 2 companies have an address for service in Birkenhead. He is the sole shareholder and director for both companies. Is it odd that the postal address on the domain registration is in Greenlane? Or that the phone number is very close to the phone number for NBO implying they are on the same exchange? Astounding that directory owners prefer to operate from the same locality.

I’ve found some interesting references to NZBOContinue reading