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From my perspective, D&B is in the business of scaring SMBs into paying for a 'cleaner credit report' for thousands per year. Its always seemed like a big sham to me, and thats after 6 years of receiving taunting letters that 'my credit report has been requested, and for only $5,000, I can close more deals by looking stronger from a credit perspective!"

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D&B made a terrible mistake in 2010. They let a startup in Malibu use the D&B name and take over some D&B services for small businesses. The startup called itself "Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp". Their business model involved cold-calling companies and giving the impression that unless they paid D&BCC, their credit rating would get worse. This caused terrible publicity for D&B, lawsuits, extortion charges[1] and eventually settlements. D&B finally bought D&BCC for $360 million in 2015.[2]

This destroyed the reputation of a once-respected company.

[1] https://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/01/21/dun-... [1] http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2015/apr/29/dun-bradstreet...

Agreed. D&B is a complete racket.

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