All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Are all offers here on LET from “legal” companies?
nqservices
Member
Hi all,
Not to mention names, but I have bought here on LET some services from “companies” that in reality were not “real” registered companies and did not provide legal invoice.
Only invoice in most cases was just the default WHMCS invoice PDF that, by itself as no legal validity.
To be clear: I do not have any problem with that, since in most cases the services I buy here are for personal projects, so invoice is not needed.
Also, if someone wants to buy something from someone else, no issue at all. And if someone wants to start a project to test things out, also no issue at all with me.
But I wanted to know if here on LET such offers from “not legal/registered companies” are allowed (both in the Offers section and also durng normal discussions and PMs). This helps me filter from where I can buy services for professional use, with legal invoice.
Thanks!
Comments
A lot of real companies are actually just forged fake certificates
You can order such services in TG and they will draw you everything, from driving license to ID for onlyfans (the craziest I seen)
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/153228/rules-for-selling-on-lowendtalk-updated-04th-sep-2018/p1#ppt
and
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/153228/rules-for-selling-on-lowendtalk-updated-04th-sep-2018/p1#pptreq
You could assume that PPT are legal companies.
It is possible to spoof this data. Can get a random company or, even better, find one with a similar name, create a fake cert, and also put it to whois.
What is needed on invoices for them to be considered legal in your country? Genuinely curious. In the US a lot of contractors (think construction, etc.) invoices are basically a printed paper with the cost and the item, company, and not much more.
Living in EU, so invoices must meet EU general law and/or be valid for EU tax purposes and accounting. I'm not an accountant... but at least a real address, a real VAT number, company ID/registration, etc.. Do not know how it works, but my accountant checks the invoices for validity one by one, and sometimes he tells me that will not be accepted.
Aight. Seems pretty standard, but yeah, many definitely don't put company registration info.
Keep in mind in the US you can file a DBA which often won't appear in your company searches but is perfectly legal. There are many ways to legally run a business without incorporation. So really what you're looking to know is how common incorporation is.
I would say most people in the US running a business alone, from home, don't care to incorporate roughly until their business exceeds the value of their personal assets. Until then it just doesn't feel real enough, and it is an expense.
Of course I'm taking about US, things are much easier here.
WHMCS? At least it wasnt from an FOSS billing.
Hey man. If they're advertising on here, they must have passed the vigorous requirements to get a Providers tag. What else do you want? Jeez. /s
Yep, in EU things are more complicated... In many EU countries, WHMCS cannot be used to generate valid/legal invoices. Invoices must be generated using a software certified by the autorities.
Everything is allowed and legal until you get caught.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought something on LET and not gotten a usable invoice.
Although I don’t buy the lowendest of offers.
Can you say which ones ?
Im not an expert on this. But Im almost sure that at least in Spain and Portugal companies are required to use a certified accounting software to generate invoices.
In Romania is e-Factura - currently almost all billing platforms doesn't comply with our Law at all. Are still worth to pay a recurring software ?
You don't even need that if you're willing to trade under your own name.
After passing all those noxious regulations, Europeans don't deserve invoices.
You see what I mean?
I'm not sure that's true. Definitely if someone has the Patron Provider tag, then they have, but I'm not sure how onboarding advertisers works. @jbiloh ?
Don’t really care if it’s legal as long as it costs $7/year
Regards
Hosts who apply for Patron Tags go through a fairly rigorous review these days.
Banner advertisers who come in via BuySellAds or directly do not go through the same review but we do look at all banner orders before approving them to make sure they are an acceptable match for that platform. That's why you see only pertinent services advertised on LEB/LET banners because we decline stuff that doesn't fit our audience.
professional users dont search for 11$/year lowend offer. so legal/illegal don't care.
I guess I don't exist. That sucks.
Hello @nqservices,
On the LET forum you can find “certified” providers as they carry the “Patron Provider” tag.
Those who have this tag undergo a manual process of approval and verification by LET administrators so you cannot get it before a due thorough verification of the veracity of the information, soundness and reality of the company's existence in a legal way.
I hope I have been helpful to you.
We guess the horse shit is for @Nekki then?
$1/ticket - is virmache un-deadpooled ?
I can understand usage-based-billing having that requirement.. A litre of gasoline, certified that a litre was provided.
My quick internet searching didn't find anything that said all invoices need to be done by software certified by some authority.
Certain requirements being met, name, address, contact info, tax registration numbers, yes. But must be done from certified software, I can't find.
Hi,
there is ( afaik ) no country existing on this planet where companies will not have to issue invoices. At least not if they are in a country registered that has a requirement of book keeping and maybe even tax paying
On every invoice, there must be something to identify the company and what you actually pay for. These are the minimum requirements. All additional depend on the country the company is registered in. If its handwritten, whmcs template or what ever, noone cares.
As to fake companies:
Already mentioned here was the fact that there are fakes on tour ( dont know if here in the forum, but didnt pay attention on it ). In fact the forum will only allow postings of offers if you have some kind of provider / hoster tag. To get this, you will have to provide some information about your company and it seems to me they are checking this, as far as possible for them.
Additional Tags like the LIR Tag ( Member or a Internet Registry ) is also checked and usually a clear sign of the existence of a real company.
So in general its my impression that the forum tries as much as possible to filter here the worst obvious scam/fake out.
But if i were you do:
Following this should protect you from the worst. But its always on you to think about with whom you are doing business or not. In general doing business with companies that are from the same region like you are is always better than with companies that are on the other side of the planet...
I feel like incorporating in the US is so cheap and easy that it's almost always better to just do that. You have the LLC protection from a lot of liability and you also get access to a lot of business banking products which can be very convenient (e.g. business card issuing).
It doesn't really complicate your taxes if you stay as an S-corp either, so the downsides are almost entirely just the incorporation fees which are like $120/yr or something depending on the state.