Telephone directory

South Africans need to be vigilant when filling out phone book forms that appear to be from Telkom or Trudon, as this is not always the case.

Other directories or scammers sometimes use subtle techniques to make their forms appear to be from these companies at first glance.

A MyBroadband reader recently received one of these forms and mistakenly signed up for a new directory rather than renewing his yellow pages list, which he supposed to do.

It cost the reader over R 8,000 and listed him in a directory he did not want to be listed on.

The form stated that when completed, it should be sent to a “telkomsa.net” email address, which could easily pass as an official Telkom email address to the average user.

The form is also labeled several times as “Telecommunications Directory”.

It includes a small print “Agreement” section, which points out that this list is in fact not affiliated with Telkom or Trudon – but many readers might not take the time to read this wall of text.

Visiting the directory’s HelloPeter page reveals pages of complaints from users who said they were led to believe it was an official Telkom document.

Telkom responds

Telkom said scams where parties pretend to be Trudon or Telkom, such as the one described by reader MyBroadband, are common.

“We get quite frequently requests from customers who believe they have dealt with the yellow pages or Telkom or have a problem with their ad not appearing in the official yellow pages when they receive a copy,” Telkom said.

While it is legal for other entities to offer business listings in print or digital format, Telkom has stated that if they give the impression that they are doing so on behalf of Telkom, Trudon or Yellow Pages , this can potentially be considered a fraud.

This is unless they specifically state that they are acting as an individual’s agent to place ads in published directories.

“There have been cases of operators trying to use company or product names similar to those for which Telkom, YellowPages or Trudon hold valid trademarks. When we become aware of these cases, we take legal action against the alleged offender. “

The company said it has made an effort to educate its clients about the risks of dealing with those claiming to be agents of Trudon, Telkom or Yellow Pages.

“Where possible, we provide a list of companies that have claimed to be an agent but are not on our list of accredited agencies and advise our clients to be very careful when dealing with any of the above. these companies, ”Telkom said.

“Additionally, if it turns out that individuals have defrauded a potential customer using an ISP Telkom address, we will forward that to Telkom’s forensic team for further investigation and action.”

Beware of other directories

The company said the law makes it difficult to resolve issues with using telkomsa.net email accounts in scenarios such as the MyBroadband reader because these entities have not infringed the Telkom or Trudon trademarks.

However, the company cautioned that while these directories are legitimate, they do not offer the same capabilities as the Telkom and Trudon options.

“These small operators usually don’t have a large enough distribution network or significant website traffic to benefit their customers. Additionally, many online directory sites are not well maintained and poorly designed, resulting in the display of incorrect information that could harm the advertiser in the long run.

“As Yellow Pages, we invest significant sums in the constant modernization of our online directory and in ensuring that the information is accurate and complete,” said Telkom.

“We even provide tools for customers to ensure that the correct details are displayed on a multitude of platforms, including Google and Facebook.”

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indian passport is one of the most powerful and important travel documents. It also consists of 36 or 60 blank pages which are stamped when the holder applies for a visa. Now a video has gone incredibly viral where a man from Kerala shows his passport turned into a phone book. Yes, you heard us right! The man’s wife decided to use her husband’s old passport to write down important numbers. Not only that, but it also has essential details like a shopping list.Also Read – OCI Card Holders No Longer Required To Carry Old Passports To Travel To India

Well the video is proof of the perfect ‘jugaad’ Indians are famous for. However, the damage came to the husband from his wife and he was shocked after finding out. The video is hilarious and it will leave you smacked. Read also – Passport application: what the police are checking | All you need to know

The video was shared by the passport holder’s son and it gets interesting as the pages unfold in the video. The video shows the total of some of the purchased products noted for the calculation. Read also – Lotus symbol on passport: MEA declares part of security function, Congress calls it “saffronization”

Check it out here:

The video is breaking the internet, and netizens have responded with hilarious comments as well. One user wrote: “This only happens in India. While the other wrote: “Truly Indian. “

Passports being the most valid document are the most basic proof of identity and citizenship. Even old passports are useful in many ways. While it’s not a good idea to forge the passport, this woman’s idea of ​​turning it into a phone book is bizarre but hilarious.

If there was a college course on ‘jugaad ‘, I’m pretty sure the Indians would have passed it! Because logic sometimes pauses when we face a crisis. Remember the Uber driver who used a magnifying mirror as a rearview mirror? Turns out it wasn’t as far as desi people can go!

A woman from Kerala used her husband’s passport to record her phone numbers and make shopping lists!

Mothers generally tend to save everything on paper no matter how advanced our technology has become where everything can be saved and retrieved on your phone.

You will always find a diary or notebook filled with black, blue and red ink somewhere in the house filled with numbers and somehow a lot of bills between the pages!

However, this Kerala man posted a video on Facebook showing how his mother used her husband’s passport instead of a diary.

The video shows an ordinary passport in all its glory, but as the pages are turned… boom! It’s a phone book.

The video doesn’t end there. The woman saved the best for last – made shopping lists towards the last pages!

Watch the video here:

https://www.facebook.com/ricky.bhinder.52/videos/374110856512004/

Imagine traveling somewhere and showing that passport to airport officials!

20th Century Veterans Memorial is hoping to set up a phone book, board member Wilma Salisbury is confident it will happen. She says that since the start of 1998, fundraising for the memorial, residents of Lincoln County and North Platte have been very supportive.

Salisbury says residents of the area treat veterans very well. It was 2003 when the concrete and the first building stood on the current site, and the first bricks were installed at the southern end of the memorial.

“We worked to finish it. There are 6,500 bricks,” she said. And she explained that they had to be removed and replaced recently due to water damage. “There is room for 8,000 bricks. We will be placing 50 more before Memorial Day this year.”

And with so many bricks, you have to have a directory – or spend a lot of time looking for a name. There is a directory now. It is located near the facade of the memorial. People have to search for names through the slightly hazy glass (due to the elements) to find names, sorted alphabetically, by which the brick can then be located.

The new phone system will allow visitors to make a phone call to an “answering machine type system”, which will respond by directing the caller to the location of the brick.

The system will cost $ 8,000. Salisbury said two people went through the arduous task of typing in all the names, information and locations of the bricks. They want the information to be ready so that as soon as enough money is collected; they can implement the system.

Salisbury explained that the money was received during “Giving Day” at North Platte in early May. She said it’s great that they have special days to call attention to donations, and that the board greatly appreciates donations.

But they are far from the $ 8,000 needed.

Anyone can donate, and anyone can buy a brick for an honorably released veteran. It’s not just a Nebraska memorial. Salisbury explained that a visiting couple from Illinois bought four bricks for their family’s veterans.

Bricks cost $ 150. Forms can be picked up from the memorial, picked up online at 20thcvetsmemorial.com, or by mail to PO Box 1393, North Platte, NE 69101. There is no office, but there is a secretary for the board. administration that answers the phones and does paperwork. Salisbury was secretary for 18 years.

She said that when they place bricks, they try to bring family members together. A family has 15 and one has 11.

Donations can be placed through the Mid Nebraska Community Foundation in North Platte or donors can call 308-532-6579. The board does not advertise other than its signs at the north, south, east and west entrances to North Platte. Salisbury says many hear from word of mouth.

The memorial is on Google, Facebook and linked to the Lincoln County Visitors Bureau.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A list of wealthy Russians close to the Kremlin released by the United States on Tuesday included businessmen who distanced themselves from the Kremlin or even fell under the Russian ruling elite.

The US Treasury Department has named 210 people, including 96 “oligarchs” with a wealth of $ 1 billion or more, on a list of people considered close to the Kremlin as part of a sanctions package signed in August. Last year.

Those included will not be immediately subject to sanctions, but may face sanctions. President Vladimir Putin called the list an “unfriendly act” that would further complicate relations between Moscow and Washington.

Some of those named, however, have publicly clashed with the Kremlin and moved their assets overseas, or been prosecuted and their businesses attacked by people close to Putin.

Senior Russian officials and business leaders, many of whom spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, also noted that the US report bears similarities to the Forbes ranking of Russian billionaires and public lists of Russian billionaires. government employees.

“List compilers have demonstrated a good knowledge of Internet resources,” joked a Kremlin close and influential businessmen. “They also found the Forbes listings … serious, thoughtful work.”

A spokesperson for the US Treasury confirmed that the list of oligarchs was taken from public sources, including Forbes. There is no regulatory definition of oligarch, he said, so the Treasury Department set the threshold of $ 1 billion, which was also the same criterion used by Forbes.

One person whose listing surprised people in Moscow is Vladimir Yevtushenkov, a billionaire who was placed under house arrest in 2014 for alleged money laundering and has since clashed with powerful oil boss Igor Sechin. , head of Rosneft. ROSN.MM and a longtime confidant of Putin.

Russian conglomerate Sistema AFKS.MM, who owns the assets of Yevtushenkov, has spent much of the past year in a costly legal dispute with Rosneft over the privatization of a smaller oil company. Sistema did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sistema agreed to pay Rosneft 100 billion rubles ($ 1.79 billion) as part of a settlement agreement in late December and has lost 40% of its market value since the legal battle erupted in early May.

A senior official close to the Kremlin said the inclusion of Sergei Galitsky, CEO and majority owner of Russian food retailer Magnit MGNT.MM, and Dmitry Kamenshchik, owner of Russia’s second largest airport, was also “illogical”.

A spokesperson for Kamenshchik declined to comment immediately. Magnit did not respond to a request for comment.

Galitsky is not considered close to Putin, and a 20 billion ruble ($ 350 million) football stadium he built in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar has been scrapped for the Cup of the world 2018.

A Western banker in Moscow said he was surprised to see Galitsky on the list. “Why the hell is he here?” ” he said.

Kamenshchik spent more than four months under house arrest in 2016 on charges related to security measures at Moscow airport he owned at the time of a terrorist attack in 2011.

Asked for comment on Tuesday, a source from a company whose CEO has been named on the list compared the US report to a “phone book.”

” What is that ? Said the source. “An obtuse comprehensive list of political leaders, plus the Forbes list.” Work on the Titanic has been done.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A list of wealthy Russians close to the Kremlin released by the United States on Tuesday included businessmen who distanced themselves from the Kremlin or even fell victim to the Russian ruling elite.

The US Treasury Department has named 210 people, including 96 “oligarchs” with wealth of $ 1 billion or more, to a list of people considered close to the Kremlin as part of a sanctions package signed in August. Last year.

Those included will not be immediately subject to sanctions, but may face sanctions. President Vladimir Putin called the list an “unfriendly act” which would further complicate relations between Moscow and Washington.

Some of those named, however, have publicly clashed with the Kremlin and moved their assets overseas, or been prosecuted and their businesses attacked by people close to Putin.

Senior Russian officials and business leaders, many of whom spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, also noted that the US report had similarities to the Forbes ranking of Russian billionaires and lists of Russian billionaires. government employees accessible to the public.

“List compilers have demonstrated a good knowledge of Internet resources,” joked a Kremlin close and influential businessmen. “They also found the Forbes listings … serious, thoughtful work.”

A spokesperson for the US Treasury confirmed that the list of oligarchs was taken from public sources, including Forbes. There is no regulatory definition of oligarch, he said, so the Treasury Department set the threshold of $ 1 billion, which was also the same criterion used by Forbes.

One person whose listing surprised people in Moscow is Vladimir Yevtushenkov, a billionaire who was placed under house arrest in 2014 for alleged money laundering and has since clashed with powerful oil boss Igor Sechin. , head of Rosneft. ROSN.MM and a longtime confidant of Putin.

Russian conglomerate Sistema AFKS.MM, who owns the assets of Yevtushenkov, has spent much of the past year in a costly legal dispute with Rosneft over the privatization of a smaller oil company. Sistema did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sistema agreed to pay Rosneft 100 billion rubles ($ 1.79 billion) as part of a settlement agreement in late December and has lost 40% of its market value since the legal battle erupted in early May.

A senior official close to the Kremlin said the inclusion of Sergei Galitsky, CEO and majority owner of Russian food retailer Magnit MGNT.MM, and Dmitry Kamenshchik, owner of Russia’s second largest airport, was also “illogical”.

A spokesperson for Kamenshchik declined to comment immediately. Magnit did not respond to a request for comment.

Galitsky is not considered close to Putin, and a 20 billion ruble ($ 350 million) football stadium he built in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar has been scrapped for the Cup of the world 2018.

A Western banker in Moscow said he was surprised to see Galitsky on the list. “Why the hell is he here?” ” he said.

Kamenshchik spent more than four months under house arrest in 2016 on charges related to security measures at Moscow airport he owned at the time of a terrorist attack in 2011.

Asked for comment on Tuesday, a source from a company whose CEO has been named on the list compared the US report to a “phone book.”

“What is it even?” Said the source. “An obtuse comprehensive list of political leaders, plus the Forbes list. Work on the Titanic has been done.

Photo: Stijn Rademaker / HH

The printed version of the Dutch telephone directory is appearing for the last time this year after 138 years of publication, publisher DTG said Thursday.

Both the Telefoongids and the commercial counterpart of the yellow pages Gouden Gids will be completely replaced by the Internet from next year.

DTG chief executive Erik Wiechers told Telegraaf the phone book was “an iconic book”, but added that no one was mourning his disappearance. “We have three million visitors to our website every month,” he said.

The telephone book was first published in 1881, the same year that the first telephones were used in the Netherlands. But directories were not delivered to homes then: you had to go to a post office to consult a telephone directory.

The Internet was the last nail in the coffin of the telephone book. DTG launched its online service in 1996 and in 2014 decided that the printed directory would be phased out in 2017.

But the directories have benefited from another year of grace: the Dordrecht-Spijkenisse region will receive its last printed version in February, while Enschede will receive the absolutely latest edition on December 20. For advertisers in the small business sector, this is kind of a bonus because many directories will sit on low tables for a few more years, Wiechers said.

But he admits that many people will be glad the directory ceased to appear. They are upset that trees are being cut down to provide the paper for the underutilized book, Wiechers said.

The Yellow Pages telephone directory will no longer be printed after 2019.

Its owner Yell announced on Friday that the famous heavy tome would enter its final circulation, with the first of 104 editions being distributed in Kingston, southwest London, from January next year.

The last of the yellow books will be delivered in 2019 to Brighton, where the first edition was published as a classified section in 1966.

Yell, owned by the Hibu Group, said the move marked the company’s transition to a “pure digital business.”

As part of the initiative, Yell said he aims to help one million businesses get listed on his online directory by 2020.

Richard Hanscott, CEO of Yell, said: “After 51 years of production, Yellow Pages is a household name and we are proud to say that we still have customers who have been with us since the very first edition of Yellow Pages in 1966. How can many brands say they have had customers with them for over 50 years?

“We are proud of the transformation we have made from print to digital.

“Like many companies, Yell has discovered that being digital successful requires constant change and innovation.

“We are well positioned to continue to help local businesses and consumers succeed online, now and in the future. “

The Yellow Pages were rolled out across the country in 1976 and have become a pervasive feature in British households.

His best-known television ad campaign, in 1983, featured JR Hartley using the directory to search old booksellers for a copy of his book Fly Fishing.

The rise of internet search engines such as Google posed new challenges and the web directory was launched in 1996.

In an attempt to modernize the theme and revive Yell’s shaky fortunes, they launched a 2011 ad campaign showing a DJ using his online service to find a dance floor.

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