Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

Yesterday Willpower Infotech Limited contacted me over Skype and he told me that he got scammed from Christine Wisner. He is missing a payment of $15 000 and he cannot contact her. I have tried to contact her by Skype, her phone number +63-2-371 1478 and her fax number +63-2-371 1479. Both numbers are not in service and no reaction on her Skype.

A search at LinkedIn resulted in two profiles for Christine Wisner

Christine Wisner Managing Director at West Wood Co. NCR - National Capital Region, Philippines Marketing and Advertising	Cristine Wisner Marketing Head at Wildwood Co. NCR - National Capital Region, Philippines Aktuell: Westwood Co.
Education: De La Salle Santiago Zobel School Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Business Administration and Management, General 2005 – 2007	Education: ABE International College of Business and Accountancy - Manila Branch Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), International Marketing 2006 – 2009 University of Waterloo - St. Paul's United College Bachelor's degree, Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services 2004 – 2006
ph.linkedin.com/pub/christine-wisner/97/79a/a80/en	ph.linkedin.com/pub/cristine-wisner/80/b69/931/en

Both profiles get found in the attached pdf documents.

A search in the public phone directory about the company West Wood Pvt. Ltd. ended without any result. Even a reverse lookup has not given any result. A company, which is hidden, will not be able to make any business.

A Google search brought only a result of the Indian company West Wood Pvt Ltd, 15 Annamalai Nagar ,Thillai Nagar, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu ( East ) - 620018, which is trading with Plywood, Veneers & Laminates business and has nothing to do with a marketing company.

Each company, which is trading with something and each marketing company, have at least a website and a registered domain. Companies, which are having a land line are normally listed in the public phone directory.

I recommend to everbody to make a background check about your business partner before starting making business. Carry all the facts together and decide about making business on the base of that information what you could get proved. Don't believe only to the words of a salesperson.

Keep copies of all emails, contracts, chats etc. In such a case you will be able to warn others. If you are getting scammed then take the relevant copies and warn others by listing the scammer in all the call center groups and forums. Inform about the scam as much people as possible.

Christine Wisner _ LinkedIn.pdf (842.1KB)

Christine Wisner _ LinkedIn 2.pdf (223.8KB)

Update: The story continues - Christine Wisner tries to save what can still be saved

The following list give you an overview how you can identify a scammer and bad selling products without making a background check - only by reading their offers with an open mind:

• Earnings in the spotlight
  Every advertising, which puts the amount of earnings into the spotlight, is nothing else than scam. As higher the promoted earnings are, as less reachable they will be for the case it is not a scam.
  
  
• Pay per sale
  Even the client knows that his product is hard to sell.  If the client has an easy selling product, than he would offer only an hourly rate for the sales people.Each business is done for making profit. Nobody likes to pay more than absolutely necessary.
  
  
• High commission per sale
  As higher the promised commission per sale is as more difficult is it to sell the product. Nobody likes to pay more than it is absolutely necessary to find someone to doing the work.
  
  
• Offer without a picture of a real person or of a celebrity
  The salesperson already cannot show his face in public.  Maybe he/she has scammed already some people and need to hide himself for this purpose. It is also possible that such a person gets searched already by the police or Interpol. They are browsing the social networks too.
  
  
• Offers without an email address
  Such an offer is only a time waster. Such people even don’t know that the world has 24 time zones and are expecting that everybody is waiting for them.
  
  
• Calling data (phone numbers with names) are not provided by the client
  Address agencies are already to expensive for the client. He expect that you are making with already heavy used data a big business. Hopefully the client will be able to pay the center for their work,
  
  
• “genuine” offers
  Where is only written about a “genuine” campaign or product  than it is only scam. The person, who is offering something like that, does not even know what he is offering.
  
  
• Email me for more details
  That is only a time waster. Such people are only collecting email addresses. Maybe they can sell It somewhere. A normal salesperson will describe his product very well, because he has less work with false requests in this case. Why he should make more work for himself than necessary.
  
  
• Call me for more details
  That is even a larger time waster. Such a person is already afraid from the written words, which can get used against him. For this he likes to speak only. Such offers are in each case only a scam.
  
  
• Act fast phrases like "Last Chance", "Limited Slots", "Limited Seats", "HURRY UP", etc.
  The best translation would be: Don’t prove the offer or make a background check. In such a case you’ll find the scam immediately.
  
  
• Any upfront fees – however they are getting called
  That is the plumpest scam ever. If a client likes that you are using special software, than he has to pay for it. Maybe the client is already nearly bankrupt and cannot pay already the products, which you should use. In such a case he would even not be able to pay you for your work in the case it is not only a scam.
  
  
• Royalty fees
  It proves only that the “broker” has no contract with the client. For this is it already scam.
  
  
• Security deposit
  A security deposit is given normally to this one, which is working and has some investments to do. This is in the case the call center, because they are investing in staff and phone minutes. The broker gets paid from the client for whom he is working.
  
  
• Exuberant praising a product or campaign
  You will not be able to sell such a product to normal people. Such products are normally overpriced and trash. The purpose of such a behavior is to find stupid people, which will buy it. With the exuberant praising of a product or campaign the salesperson likes to hide the known problems of the product.
  
  
• MLM – Multi Level Marketing
  In such a system are getting low quality products for a very high price sold. The product price needs to pay your upline and need to be a winning for the company. You need to be happy if you are at least earning the costs you have with it.
  
  
• Repeated posting of the same campaign
  Real campaigns need to get posted only once, they get very fast taken. If a campaign gest posted longer as a few days then is in any case something wrong with the campaign.
  
  
• The offer sounds too good to be true
  In this case the offer is only a scam

As more from the above points are fitting to an offer as higher is the risk for running into a trap.

If the offer is interesting than you should continue with making a background check to avoid getting scammed.

A list of proved scammer can get found in the menu entry Scammer Exposed.

Offers from trusted and validated brokers can get found in the menu entry Fair Campaign Offers.

Hiring an offshore call center provider can make even the most seasoned executive a little bit nervous. In reality, there are many reasons to be nervous. An external company is being hired to speak directly with your customers on your behalf. However, these concerns can be overcome by hiring the right call center. 

Here are the top outsourcing concerns:

Yesterday I got an email with the content that sage.co.uk or staff from them is scamming center owners. As Sage is a big software company from UK I did not believe it. Why should a big company be in need to take a few thousands or Pounds from center owners?

The content of the email has been:

I got Cheated by person called Sameer Ahuja , Ranveer swamy and Leisa Dorcherty , In the name of Business they took $ 490  Fraudulently and Now they are not receiving call and not replying mail also I filed a complaint in Near by Police station , 
sameer Ahuja  Skype id : sameer.sage-inc  , Mobile Number (Office ) - 00447509754621 , (personnel) - 00447509756623

Ranveer Swamy skype id : ranveer.sage-inc
Leisa Dorcherty skype id : leisa.sage-inc
Account number which they have given
Bank Name : State Bank of India
Name: Ranveer Swami
Account no.- 20176913465
IFSC code: SBIN0001161
Branch- IIT Kanpur

Let us verify the data, which seem to be true of this scam.

If someone calls you and he is transmitting his caller id, then it is possible to call him back. If the same person picks up the call than you have at least a phone number, which can get verified. In our case it is a little bit difficult, because the UK data protection act don’t let you make a reverse phone lookup.

Under the UK's data protection act, reverse phone number lookups are against the law. There are however a couple of options, depending on your situation.

If you are receiving nuisance calls, then you should contact your phone provider and lodge a complaint. Should the problem persist, then contacting the police is an option.

Only the area can get located where the call comes from. In our case is it a mobile phone from the area of Jersey.

By having the phone number and the location we find the first reason why the scam is not from Sage. Jersey is in an Island in front of the coast of France. It belongs to the UK territory. Sage is located in Newcastle upon Tyne. If we use Google maps and let us calculate a route, than we see that the shortest route is 781 km and it takes around 11 hours to drive the route without respecting the possible traffic and resulting traffic jam. Nobody will drive to his workplace this distance. On the other side nobody will use a mobile phone from an area, which is around 800km away from his home or workplace and where he needs to use even a ferry going to the island.

The office and the private phone numbers are mobile phone numbers.  A big company like Sage has a land line phone number for their office. They are not using mobile phones for their office.  Manager from a company with the size of Sage will not give you their private phone number. Leisa Docherty is a manager from Sage.

Additional to the reason that you need not pay in Europe for getting some work you can easily verify such offers, which are coming from such companies. Sage has published some phone numbers at their website the offer can get easily verified if you are calling one of their phone numbers. If you have really a contact with one of the manager, then you will be able to pass the gatekeeper.

The next information which seems to be true is the bank account number, because the scammer likes to get the money. The name can be already a fake. It is the age of electronic transactions. For this the name will not get verified during a transaction from the bank as long as the account number is correct.

A company like Sage will every time use their real bank account and not a private account from someone in India. The reason for this is the strict tax law in Europe. Each company need to have a correct financial bookkeeping, which gets verified from time to time from tax officers of the government.

The only possible way to catch the scammer is over their phone number and their bank account.  In our case it the scammer located in India, because the bank account is there. The phone number gets simple forwarded by Voice over IP to any place in the world. Don’t let yourself get fooled bank accounts are normally in the same area where the company is registered. With the usage of electronic banking you have access to your bank account all over the world. For this there is no reason to have a bank account abroad if you have not an affiliate in the country abroad.

All other information cannot get verified. The LinkedIn accounts could got hacked and everybody can chose his Skype ID how he likes to name it. There is no verification for company names by creating an account. Each free combination can get chosen.

Companies are using for their contracts their own registered domain names for sending and receiving emails. Only people, which have something to hide, are hiding themselves by using freemail accounts. Companies, which are using official such freemail accounts have listed them on their homepage too.

The only criticism that can be made sage.co.uk is that they do not respond to emails. Apparently they do not care that criminals are using the name of SAGE. A company that not even not care about the crime, where her name is used, will not take care of the interests of their clients. This is the sign of today's society. Everyone cares only about their personal profits and the profit of their shareholders.

The scammer are speculating with the greed of the people. So don't see the proposed winning - take a look if you are not pay for get nothing!!! A good name in the offer does not guarantee something. Use your brain and make in each case a background check!!!

Hi Rudolf
Hope this finds you well.
Very impressed with your work against spammers.We face this issue daily in our contact center here in India. These guys come up to us offering campaigns.
In fact we have had many friends who have paid these guys money before getting these imaginary projects on board and lost a load of money.There are companies up in the North of India who run big organisations which only do this.They have 100-200 agents just spamming and trying to collect upfront money and a lot of guys end up paying.
We should take a stand against this and come up with a clean platform where honest centers are able to pick up some good work.
Regards[I have only removed the name and the city for protecting my informer]

If you followed the other posts abut brokers and scammer, then you know already that each upfront is SCAM and the scammer are coming mostly from low wage countries. In this case you should be very careful by taking a business partner, which hides himself behind pictures of celebrities, symbols, animals etc. As long as you are not able to make a background check of your new business partner you shall not make business with him. The risk for getting scammed in this case is 99.99%.