Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

Blog about offshore outsourcing and scammer in the outsourcing industry

Chandra Gupta - Kreation Next - kreationnext.com - likes to make money from scammers

kreationnext.com social network logoIf I would take some money to removing some entries from my blog, than I would not be better than the scammer. Making money on this way would lead with the time to scam others or into blackmailing of innocent small business owners. That is not my idea for making money. Before I'll go down to this level I would prefer to be a beggar.

Anyway even such an offer shows that this one, which makes the offer, does not understand the nature and structure of the Internet. In the Internet are a lot of services available which like to archive the content of the web and the authors from websites have no influence on it. Examples are Googles Web Cache, WayBack Machine, etc. It is nearly impossible to remove some content from the Internet as the content gets distributed viral. To get something removed from Google you need to get a court order and in this case it will only get removed from the search result in that country from where the court order is coming from. Google is not the only search engine on the web.

If you get under these conditions an invitation for an offer from a company, which seems to be an Internet service provider and is offering at their website "Professional Web Designing", "SEO Expert Solution", "Online Store in no time", dedicated servers and more, for removing content from your own site under the title "Managing Web Reputation", than you think first about a bad joke, a faked sender or some other fraud instead of a real business. How someone can handle your online reputation if he does not know the basics of the Internet?

Under the above condition I got the following invitation for an offer from Chandra Gupta (19 contacts at LinkedIn) - kreationnext.com (LinkedIn profile [14 contacts], Facebook page [83 likes]) by using my web contact form:

Hello

This is Chandra Gupta from Kreation Next. We have a few clients who would like to remove their complaints from your website and wants us to manage their web reputation. Before getting them into our contract, we would like a quotation from your end for removal of each link / topic from your website, and also a
contact person/number where we can contact you on it.

Also, if possible please provide quotation on bulk & single link basis. The time required for removal of a link/multiple links (say 50 or more links).

Awaiting your reply.
Thanks in advance


 

Author information
Name: Chandra Gupta
E-mail: chandragupta@kreationnext.com
IP address: 122.163.17.45
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:43.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/43.0

The only verified information in a web contact form is the ip address from the sender and the user-agent (the browser used from the user) because that information gets resolved from the web server. All other information are entered from the user itself. the site iplocation.net provides the following geolocation data for the ip address 122.163.17.45:

Geolocation data from IP2Location (Product: DB4 updated on 1/2/2016)
IP Address Country Region City ISP
122.163.17.45 India Delhi Delhi Abts Delhi

 

Geolocation data from EurekAPI (Product: Pro On-demand API)
IP Address Country Region City ISP
122.163.17.45 India West Bengal Kolkata Airtel Broadband
  Continent Latitude Longitude Organization
  Asia 22.5697 88.3697 Airtel Broadband

 

Geolocation data from DB-IP (Product: Full updated on 1/3/2015)
IP Address Country Region City ISP
122.163.17.45 IN Delhi New Delhi (okhla Phase Iii) Bharti
  Time Zone Latitude Longitude Organization
  Asia/kolkata 28.5492 77.2687 ABTS DELHI

 

Geolocation data from ipinfo.io (On-demand API)
IP Address Country Region City Postal Code
122.163.17.45 IN West Bengal Kolkata 700001
ISP Hostname Organization
AS24560 Bharti Airtel Ltd., Telemedia Services No Hostname ABTS DELHI,

 

Geolocation data from MaxMind (Product: GeoLiteCity updated on 1/6/2015)
IP Address Country Region City Postal Code Area Code
122.163.17.45 India 28 Kolkata 700001

As the provided email address is from his domain and the name has been fitting to the domain registry data I have answered the request without offering something. To get an answer back I have invented the wrong information that his company is registered in Dehli and his posting has been done from Kolkata:

Hello Chandra Gupta

 
I think by reading of the attached mail more on a bad joke than a real offer. The IP address is from Kolkata and your company is registered in Dehli - a distance of 2 hours by airplane.
 
The message got entered at my website at January 20, 2016 09:36am (GMT+1) into the mail form with the following informations:
Author information
Name: Chandra Gupta
E-mail: chandragupta@kreationnext.com
IP address: 122.163.17.45
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:43.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/43.0

As expected I got a reply from Chandra Gupta as expected with a confirmation that he has sent the offer request, but the request is not from a real business man,which likes to make some business - it is more the email from someone which did not get what he has expected in his hope:

Von: Chandra Gupta [chandragupta@kreationnext.com]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 21. Januar 2016 19:25
An: Rudolf Faix
Cc: mailbackup@kreationnext.com
Betreff: Re: AW: CC Scam e-mail - Qoutation for removal of complaints
 
Hello
Mr. Rudolf Faix,

I think you have got confused somewhere. I mailed you from kolkata, that's true, and also we are from kolkata.

Please refer to the following links for more details:
https://secure.kreationnext.com/about-us/contact-us.html
https://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=kreation+next&fb=1&gl=in&hq=kreation+next&hnear=0x39f882db4908f667:0x43e330
e68f6c2cbc,Kolkata,+West+Bengal&cid=0,0,12882392238866733486&t=m&ll=22.594063,88.370762
&spn=0.009787,0.021136&iwloc=A&source=embed

https://secure.kreationnext.com/iso/verify-iso.html

There are a few things I need to clear about:
1. It doesn't take me a two hours journey to reach my office
2. We are based at kolkata
3. I make jokes with friends and family. And I don't make friends at business or make any joke (good or bad) at business.
4. The research you made on our company is a massive failure.
5. Your spellings are disastrous on the mail.

Finally, If you are interested to talk business please send me a quotation rather than pointing out lame excuses to avoid work.

Regards,

Here are the header data from the above email:

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X-Received: by 10.98.75.139 with SMTP id d11mr62357387pfj.57.1453400774004;
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Return-Path: <chandragupta@kreationnext.com>
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(version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Thu, 21 Jan 2016 10:26:13
-0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: AW: CC Scam e-mail - Qoutation for removal of complaints
To: Rudolf Faix <rudolf.faix@wwpa.com>
References: <SQLyBrKr766o39Qzx8d00000528@SQL>
<C8A896DCB45E224DB2C84D2A50D5D903085B61CA@WEBERDE.weberhausde.local>
CC: <mailbackup@kreationnext.com>
From: Chandra Gupta <chandragupta@kreationnext.com>
Message-ID: <56A122B0.2010008@kreationnext.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 23:55:53 +0530
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My answer to the above email is that I'm not commercial available and my opinions are not for sale. Maybe it is hard to believe for some people without any beliefs as some are thinking that everything is commercial available and the big question is only for which price. I don't belong to this kind of people. I don't like to let me pull down to the same level like scammers. I like to be able to look into the mirror without shame.

Why shall I remove a scammer from my blog? Why shall I make it easier for a scammer to continue with his sham business? Why shall I try to make the online reputation work from Chandra Gupta for a scammer easier? As we are here in real life and not in the kindergarten I see no reason to help some scammers as long as they don't change their own life by coming honest. Small scammers don't have the money for hiring someone to improve their online reputation and these scammers which have enough money for this purpose have gotten it from cheating their hard working victims and not from their own hard work. Would it be fair for a first time scammer, which has no money for getting removed, to prefer the serial and organized scammers only for the reason that they have been successful and are paying some money? That would be like carrying water to the sea for making the sea less salty.

Domain registration data from kreationnext.com:

Domain Name: KREATIONNEXT.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1627347787_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2016-01-14T07:51:25Z
Creation Date: 2010-11-26T01:56:07Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-11-26T01:56:07Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Chandra Gupta
Registrant Organization: Kreation Next
Registrant Street: 76/2A Bidhan Sarani, Suite No. D
Registrant Street: 76/2A Bidhan Sarani, Suite No. D
Registrant City: kolkata
Registrant State/Province: West Bengal
Registrant Postal Code: 700006
Registrant Country: IN
Registrant Phone: +91.9830339013
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: admin@kreationnext.com
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Chandra Gupta
Admin Organization: Kreation Next
Admin Street: 76/2A Bidhan Sarani, Suite No. D
Admin Street: 76/2A Bidhan Sarani, Suite No. D
Admin City: kolkata
Admin State/Province: West Bengal
Admin Postal Code: 700006
Admin Country: IN
Admin Phone: +91.9830339013
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: admin@kreationnext.com
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Chandra Gupta
Tech Organization: Kreation Next
Tech Street: 76/2A Bidhan Sarani, Suite No. D
Tech Street: 76/2A Bidhan Sarani, Suite No. D
Tech City: kolkata
Tech State/Province: West Bengal
Tech Postal Code: 700006
Tech Country: IN
Tech Phone: +91.9830339013
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: admin@kreationnext.com
Name Server: NS1.KREATIONNEXT.COM
Name Server: NS2.KREATIONNEXT.COM
Name Server: NS3.KREATIONNEXT.COM
Name Server: NS4.KREATIONNEXT.COM
Name Server: NS5.KREATIONNEXT.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2016-01-21T23:00:00Z <<<

How much the owner of the site understands from SEO and Internet marketing gets shown at his own site. The Alexa ranking from kreationnext.com shows not really impressing values after the site has been 5 years and 56 Days online. The same quality can expected from his new service "Online Reputation Management" too:

The Alexa daily pageviews are interesting too:

Alexa: How engaged are visitors to kreationnext.com?

What can you expect more from people, which are using phrases like "Finally, If you are interested to talk business please send me a quotation rather than pointing out lame excuses to avoid work.". Only stupid people are calling pressing a simple "unpublish" or "delete" button "work"! That Chandra Gupta has not invented the work by himself gets shown on his own website and his social networks entries. He likes to earn money only from the work of others.

Update January 24, 2016: Chandra Gupta has submitted an email to me and asked for publishing it as add-on to this article. Here is his email:

Hello
Mr. Rudolf Faix,

I found your article on me and my company from your website. I have to agree you are a good writer and your spellings have improved a lot. Still you are missing the spelling of the city "Delhi" & "too"(its not 'Dehli', and you pronounce it as 'Dilli').

I thank you for showing interest in me and my company. I haven't seen a stranger in my entire life who has taken such interest and given so much time and effort to research on my profile and background. I should have given you a hug if you were near.

Some of my clients requested for removal of negative links/comments from other websites. Since I am not in the business of SEO or Reputation Management, I asked them to hold the offer while I complete the cost analysis. Before I get them in a contract I wanted to make sure that I can do it and provide them the best price for their request. As such I requested for a quotation from your side as well as other websites owners & staff. I am not at all interested in what business they do or who are they in their personal life. It takes too much effort and time to do so. And after working(Well by work I include my studies too) for 16 hours a day and 365 days a year, I don't get that much energy to do so.

A simple and small event of "request for a quotation for removal of links from your website" can lead to so much issue that you would take me under the microscope and start making wrong assumptions and portray a different image to the world. I didn't think that such a minute little thing can turn out to be an iceberg, that you will start researching on my website and me and turn me out into a parasite.

Well let me tell you what I exactly do:
1. I sell and configure dedicated servers, VPS servers, proxy servers, email gateways, system monitoring system, etc so that it can perform at an optimum level, safely without any unauthorized access attempts from hackers and spammers.
2. Design customized desktop applications and web applications for my customers.

And this is what I do all by myself with a lot of assistance from Google search. I have a small family and I am satisfied with my small earnings and a happy family.

And it takes a lot of hard work and research to take care of each and every minute detail. And I am really sorry to my business as I haven't taken good care of my website and SEO. I have just completed my website a few days back, but still a few tweaks are pending. Well about SEO, I am not an expert. I need to learn on it a bit before I proceed.

I am still a black dot on a black board and I frankly am not such an important guy that you need to spend so much of your valuable time on me and my life. Though its a wrongly assumed small biography, but still, I haven't grown that big yet.

Though I checked your blog too, it is mostly based on scammers and scams, and some info about some good campaigns from Deep Blue Marketing. I think you are a part of the Deep Blue Marketing Team though (Its only my personal view). And you have been blogging for about a year now on the wwpa.com( check your last post). As I assumed your work, you are good with seo and your domain is 20 years old. Don't you think you should be within the top 1000 in alexa, with so much of seo experience?

You have spent so much time and effort on writing blogs on spammers, I fear that you may turn out to be a spammer in future if not already. You know, "We are what we do".

Keep yourself safe and happy.

I am a bit rude sometimes, sorry if I have hurt you in anyway.

Finally, a request though, you may or may not do, its your choice. Add this mail to your blog too and don't forget to comment. And also if possible send me an email when done with the link so that I can check it out.

The risk that I'm start to scam is very low, because I'm not active in business. That means that I'm not offering or selling something. I have been hard working in business for more than 35 years and everything comes one time an end. Now I enjoy my life and take it how it comes.

As I have started in the late 70ths to work in the IT industry in Austria I made the experience that everybody helped each other without any restrictions and without asking for something. It has been a simple helping each other. I have continued this kind of working together during all my active time.

Two years ago I have relocated from Austria to the Philippines. Here I found a friend, which needed to close his call center for the reason of getting scammed. For this reason I have taken a look into the offshore outsourcing industry again and found that nearly all the offers are nothing else than scam. I started December 2014 by commenting and writing against the scammers found at the social networks. Since December 2014 I have found only three campaign brokers, which are offering in a serious way campaigns. The three companies are Kathy Sisk Enterprises (USA), Ian Haines Consulting (UK) and Deep Blue Marketing (DBM) - Lars Christiansen (Denmark, Spain, USA, Dominican Republic). All three are offering campaigns without any upfront payments. They are getting paid from the client for searching call centers which are able to fulfill the requirements of the client and not for centers which are able to pay for getting work. That is that what I understand in making a serious business. I'm publishing available campaigns as soon as I get updates from these companies. I'm publishing the campaign offers for free of charge as they help me to show that not all the offers found in the social networks are scam and how real offshore outsourcing business is working.

That I'm independent from the named campaign brokers gets already shown that DBM is the exclusive broker for the Caribbean Cruise Line campaign. That is a real campaign with very tight margins and it is hard for the centers to make some earnings with this campaign. I'm not promoting this campaign. I have even written some negative articles about this campaign. These articles are getting found at:

If you are working for a company you will not have the chance to write negative about a customer of this company. At least you would not long working after such an article for this company.

Don't worry I have been thinking if there is a possibility to monetize my blogs. By showing banner ads will nobody click on it. The most people are already using AdBlocker (I'm using an AdBlocker too). I have been even thinking about placing a donate button on my site, but what will I do if a scammer will donate something and I need to write later on an article about this scammer? I think it is better to let it like it is and stay independent.

About the writing of the capital from India I can say only that in the early 70ths has been written in the Austrian schoolbooks the name as Dehli and that is the way how the city gets pronounced in the German speaking countries. I'm not searching Google for the correct writing of city names. Even in the German version of Wikipedia is written about Delhi/Delhi:

Daneben existiert die Variante Dehlī [ˈd̪eːhlːi], die ursprünglich vor allem von den Muslimen benutzt wurde. Der Name leitet sich vermutlich vom alten Hindustani-Wort dil für „Hügel“ ab.

Translated to English is it:

In addition the variant Dehli [ˈd̪eːhlːi] exists, which was originally used mainly by Muslims. The name properly derives from the ancient Hindustani-word dil for "hill".

I think that there are much bigger problems found in the offshore outsourcing industry than the correct writing of the name from the capital of India where even two versions are existing or to discuss about possible type mismatches.

It is hardly possible to hurt me. We have in German language a proverb: "Wer austeilen kann muss auch einstecken können", translated to English has it the meaning of "Who could kick and punch must be able to stand answers in return".

 

The Marketing Source - Robbie Middleton - sent a bad joke instead of a proof

In each of the articles about the Caribbean Cruise Line (CCL) – Virtual Voice Technology (VVT) is getting found that the center is guilty by themselves if they are accepting the conditions from The Marketing Source. Business is a risk and not a sandpit where nothing can happen. Even in the email from Robbie Middleton is stated gets found that this campaign “is a VERY tough campaign with tight margins”.

The campaign gets offered as none voice campaign where the agent does not need to speak. That is nothing else than a misleading promotion, because if we take a look at the article “FTC Statement Virtual Voice Technology - CallAssistant, L.C. - submitted by The Marketing Source - Vance Vogel” then we can read that the agent is free in his choice to speak or playing prerecorded messages. The background of the FTC-rule is that it has to be a life agent to be available that the live agent has to speak with the called one if a recording is not available for answering a specific question. It will be seldom happen, but it can happen.

The statement that only Lars is offering the CCL campaign is not correct. Robbie Middleton has simple forgotten that he is offering the campaign at BPO Friends by himself too. Everybody can be sure that other companies have voice systems too, which are conform to the FTC rules.  TMS is not the only company, which has access to such a system. It is only used as an argument for their rip-off. US$ 200/week system costs + VoIP (up to $ 275) for 12 seats (24 connections) are nothing else than profiteering.

We have built for an Austrian satellite TV broadcaster a similar system with click to dial, manual selection of prerecordings and a few more features like play and win, live quiz, dating, shopping, etc. in a multi-language system (German, English, French, Spanish, Polnish), for € 1,450 (~US$ 1,615) including server hardware. This system has assigned 2,200 phone numbers, on this system are working 250 agents and a few full automated services like every 50th caller goes live into the studio, each 100th caller is winning a price, etc. at the same time.

It is not forbidden to make a bad deal. Everybody, who accepting a bad deal, is guilty by himself if he lose money in such a case. It is only from a company expected to recognize a good and a bad deal. If a company defends such a bad deal then such a company is in my opinion very suspect and there seems to be a reason why they are defending such a bad deal. Mostly is the reason that they are earning by themselves.

The construction of the included proof from the email shows more that it is a fake instead of a proof.  I think that CCL and TMS have enough experience in front of the law court collected to know how a proof has to look like. In this case the proof consists of pictures (one company header, and one picture for each “invoice” line), which seems to be from different sources. Such a construction is nowhere accepted as a proof for anything. All necessary parts for an official invoice are missing. It seems even to be a secret to whom the invoice got sent.

In a fair and transparent business is it usage that as soon as a customer likes to use his own or rented systems has the customer to pay the bill for it. How the customer makes his calculation in this case is the problem of the customer and not the problem of the service provider. Already the promotion of the campaign is misleading because there is written “The base rate is $ 2.25 per transfer with additional performance incentives based on quality” (BPO Friends - Robbie Middleton, .pdf (187.38 kb)). In such a case the rate cannot be lower than $ 2.25 for the >60 seconds transfer, but if we take a look at the document VVT CPD Explanation.docx (17.84 kb) we see that the base rate can be lower too.

The email from Robbie Middleton in reaction to my article "Slavery offer: CCL VVT none Voice or Semi-Voice campaign - The Marketing Source - Vance Vogel":

On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 6:05 PM, Robbie Middleton <rmiddleton@themarketingsource.com> wrote:

Rudolph,

What your source neglected to tell you is that there is a list of requirements VVT sends centers at the time of campaign implementation and VVT makes NO claims that this is an easy campaign at any time.  VVT does not even recruit centers at all.  Every center VVt have has either approached VVT via word of mouth or through Lars.  Lars is the ONLY approved broker for the VVT campaign.  VVT actually tell the centers that this is a VERY tough campaign with tight margins and very clearly state all charges.  99% of all center that fail, do so because they do not follow our guidelines.  It is absolutely, positively cheaper and easier to dial using the centers own VOIP and dialer, unfortunately this is ILLEGAL per the TCPA laws as well as infractions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule that would undoubtedly occur if the call centers were not regulated.    TMS and/or VVT receives no profit Login and VOIP charges.  I have copied the most recent invoice for logins associated with 4 centers Lars has referred and feel free to confirm the same with the company that invoices us as well as Lars.  This is the actual amount deducted from the centers commissions and not a penny more.  You can see that VVT IS CHARGED $10/login.  VVT pre-pays this expense on behalf of the centers so they do not have any up-front expense of their own.  VVT provides Leads, VOIP and Logins so they can LAUNCH without investing ANY of their own money.    VVT then deducts this Login and VOIP expense from the centers earned commissions.  There is no charge for leads.  We disperse the amount VVT loads each for VOIP each week evenly amongst all centers based on their percentage of total logins.  We do not profit from this expense either.  Regarding “CPD” and what your source failed to tell you is that VVT is paid by the cruise line on a CPD (Cost Per Deal) basis.  Each centers quality is tracked separately and a quantitative measure of quality is attached to their transfers in terms of “CPD”.  We cannot let centers send calls “at will” with no concern for quality as many of them (even with the CPD +/- structure in place) send calls with no customer on the line, transfer answering machines, transfer customers that requested DNC, etc….. I will send you the complete VVT launch e-mail just as I would a prospective center so you can see the truth.  The fact that VVT must implement so many rules and guidelines is indeed most unfortunate, but don’t let your source fool you into thinking we are “screwing” them.  Rules and guidelines are in place to adhere to all applicable laws and to protect VVT from unethical centers.  We have centers that have been doing the campaign for more than 3 years now and while it isn’t easy, it CAN be profitable when guidelines are adhered to. 

The above email had the following five pictures included as shown belown: 

Invoice header of SunBridge Systems
One line of the invoice from Sunbridge Systems
Another line of the invoice from Sunbridge Systems
Another line of the invoice from Sunbridge Systems
Another line of the invoice from Sunbridge Systems

The invoice header seems to be a fake because I did not find until now one IT company frome the U.S.

  • where the office phone number is hidden for privacy reasons from the public phone directory

  • where the office phone number is assigned to Google voice

  • where tel2name.com gives the result: 727-753-9323 - Deane Arteaga Wisteria Cir New Port Richey, Florida instead of Sun Bridge Systems LLC.

  • which writes their own domain name in the heaer of the invoice wrong
    (subbridgesystems.com instead of sunbridgesystems.com)

  • which needs to hide the ownership of their domain behind a privacy service

  • which makes since 2 years and 5 months promotions at her homepage for their registrar Godaddy

  • which has since 2 years and 5 months a homepage with the amazing content
    Screenshot from the homepage of sunbridgesystems.com

  • Buzzfile.com says about SUN BRIDGE SYSTEMS LLC:
    Sun Bridge Systems is located in Oldsmar, Florida. This organization primarily operates in the Business Services, nec business / industry within the Business Services sector. This organization has been operating for approximately 2 years. Sun Bridge Systems is estimated to generate $ 49,000 in annual revenues, and employs approximately 1 people at this single location.

SUN BRIDGE SYSTEMS, LLC is really a company and is listed at Floridas Department of State Division of Corporations (.pdf (119.20 kb)). The company got founded on March 11, 2013 at 5520 Rio Vista Dr., Clearwater, FL. 33760 (Link, .pdf (43.19 kb)) and relocated on April 1, 2014 to 518 Lakewood Dr., Oldsmar, FL 34677 (Link, .pdf (3.30 kb)).

Interesting is that LookUpBear (.pdf (118.69 kb)) tell us that the company SUN BRIDGE SYSTEMS, LLC is listed "under the heading Construction/Contractors which includes businesses that may offer home improvement construction, home construction, roofers, manufacturing of building materials". I know that we all would search for a telcommunications company in exactly this category!

Screenshot from the entry Sun Bridge Systems, LLC from LookUpBear

Update Jan. 18, 2017: Link to http://bpofriends.com/profiles/blogs/vvt-free-cruise-non-voice-process removed as it already returns error 404 - not found.

FTC Statement Virtual Voice Technology - CallAssistant - from Vance Vogel

Mr. Vance Vogel, CEO and founder of The Marketing Source, has submitted together with an explanation that they are using CallAssistant instead of Avatar systems, the following statement of the FTC from September 11, 2009 (I have only removed the page breaks):

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20580
Federal Trade Commission
Division of Marketing Practices
September 11, 2009

Dear Mr. Bills:

You have requested an informal staff opinion as to the applicability to 2008 amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”) to a particular technology used by CallAssistant, L.C.(“CallAssistant”). The amendments at issue impose new restrictions on the use of prerecorded messages in telemarketing. 16 C.F.R. § 310.4(b)(1)(v); 73 Fed. Reg. 15204 (Aug. 29, 2008).

Specifically, these amendments require, as of December 1, 2008, that any outbound telemarketing call that delivers a prerecorded message include: (1) if the call could be answered in person by a consumer, an automated interactive voice and/or keypress-activated opt-out mechanism that the call recipient can use at any time during the message to assert a Do Not Call request pursuant to § 310.4(b)(1)(iii)(A); and (2) if the call could be answered by an answering machine or voicemail service, a toll-free telephone number that the call recipient can use to assert a Do Not Call request pursuant to § 310.4(b)(1)(iii)(A). Additionally, as of September 1, 2009, the amendments prohibit any outbound telemarketing call that delivers a prerecorded message unless the seller has obtained from the recipient of the call an express agreement, in writing, that evidences the willingness of the recipient of the call to receive calls that deliver prerecorded messages by or on behalf of that seller and includes such person’s telephone number and signature.

As described in your letter, CallAssistant uses technology that enables its calling agents to interact with the recipient of a call using his or her own voice or by substituting appropriate audio recording of a response. According to your letter, when used to place outbound telemarketing calls, this technology works as follows:

A live agent using the System places a call to a consumer and hears the consumer greeting. In response to the greeting, the agent may elect to speak to the call recipient using his or her voice, or may press a button to play an appropriate recorded script segment. After the agent’s response, the agent listens to the consumer customer’s reply. After listening to the consumer’s reply, the live agent again chooses whether to speak to the call recipient in his or her own voice, or another recording. At all times, even during the playing of any recorded segment, the agent retains the power to interrupt any recorded message to listen to the consumer and respond appropriately.

In adopting the 2008 amendments, the Commission 1 recognized that in the future prerecorded message might eliminate the objections that prompted the adoption of the these rules and justify exemptions permitting interactive prerecorded messages:

[T]he Commission notes that it is aware that the technology used in making prerecorded messages interactive is rapidly evolving, and that affordable technological advances may eventually permit the widespread use of interactive messages that are essentially indistinguishable from conversing with a human being. Accordingly, nothing in this notice should be interpreted to foreclose the possibility of petitions seeking further amendment of the TSR or exemption from the provisions adopted here.

73 Fed. Reg. 51180 (Aug. 29, 2008).

Furthermore, according to your description, “live agents hear every word spoken by the call recipient, and determine what is said” in response. A single agent always stays with a call from beginning to end.

You seek an opinion as to whether the amended TSR provisions on the use of prerecorded messages in telemarketing apply to CallAssistant’s calls that employ the technology summarized above. Based on the description of the technology included in your letter, the staff of the Federal Trade Commission has concluded that the 2008 TSR amendments cited above do not prohibit telemarketing calls using this technology if the calls that otherwise comply with the TSR and other applicable law. The 2008 amendments at 16 C.F.R. § 310.4(b)(1)(v) prohibit calls that deliver a prerecorded message and do not allow interaction with call recipients in a manner virtually indistinguishable from calls conducted by live operators. Unlike the technology that you describe, the delivery of prerecorded messages in such calls does not involve a live agent who controls the content and continuity of what is said to respond to concerns, questions, comments – or demands – of the call recipient.

In adopting the 2008 TSR amendments, the Commission noted that the intrusion of a telemarketing call on a consumer’s right to privacy “may be exacerbated immeasurably when there is no human being on the other end of the line.” 73 Fed. Reg. at 51180. The Commission observed that special restrictions on prerecorded telemarketing messages were warranted because they “convert the telephone from an instrument for two-way conversations into a oneway device for transmitting advertisements.” Id.1 Consequently, in Staff’s view, the concerns about prerecorded messages addressed in the 2008 TSR amendments do not apply to the calls described above, in which a live human being continuously interacts with the recipient of a call in a two-way conversation, but is permitted to respond by selecting recorded statements.

Nevertheless, the use of such technology in a campaign to induce the sales of goods or services, or charitable donations is “telemarketing” under the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, 15 U.S.C. § 6106(4), and therefore must comply with the Rule’s other requirements and prohibitions. In particular, the technology must connect an outbound telephone call to a live agent within two seconds of the call recipient’s completed greeting. 16 C.F.R. § 310.4(b)(1)(iv). The agents making calls using this technology must disclose the purpose of the call, the identity of the seller, make other required disclosures, and comply with other TSR provisions preventing deceptive and abusive conduct. Id. §§ 310.3 and 310.4.

Please be advised that this opinion is based exclusively on all the information furnished in your request. This opinion applies only to the extent that actual company practices conform to the material submitted for review. Please be advised further that the views expressed in this letter are those of the FTC staff. They have not been reviewed, approved, or adopted by the Commission, and they are not binding upon the Commission. However, they do reflect the opinions of the staff members charged with enforcement of the TSR.

Lois Greisman
Associate Director
Division of Marketing Practices

 In short - the system Virtual Voice Technology is only legal if:

  • a live agent hears the called party from the greeting until the hang-up or transfer.
  • an agent is active in the line within 2 seconds the called party has finished his greeting.
  • the live agent is free in his choice to speak with the called party or playing prerecorded messages.
  • if the live agent is playing prerecorded messages he needs to have a possibility to stop the playback.
  • the Telemarketing Sales Rules (TSR) does not get changed.

 

Slavery offer: CCL VVT none Voice or Semi-Voice campaign - The Marketing Source

This campaign offer is not a scam, but in summary is it even worse than a SCAM because the client likes even to earn from the call center. But the centers are guilty by themselves, if they are accepting the conditions in the contract. Each business owner need to know what he is doing and he is responsible for his own decision.

The client is Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc. located at 2419 E Commercial Blvd Ste 100, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308-4042, website http://www.bahamascruiseregistration.com. By taking a look at the website of the U.S. Better Business Bureau (BBB) then we’ll find about the Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc. that there have been during the last 3 years 1,253 complaints closed with the BBB from which have been 335 during the last 12 months. Already this shows which kind of business this company is running and how they are handling their customers. You’ll find at the site a government action too, which you can find in my article “FTC and ten state attorneys general take action against political survey robocallers pitching cruise line vacations to the Bahamas”.

Responsible for this campaign is The Marketing Source, Inc. located in 12551 Indian Rocks Rd. Suite 2, Largo., FL 33774 with owner Vance Vogel. A Robbie Middleton is promoting this campaign and makes the billing for this campaign. I don’t know if the conditions for this campaign got invented from the Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc. or from The Marketing Source, Inc. It does not really matter, but these conditions are a simple rip-off for the call centers which are working for them:

  • The center is requited to use their CallAssistant System. The center has to pay $10 per week and per connection. The center is required to have at least 10 agents where each agent needs to handle 2 connections at the same time.
    That does not sound very much, but it is at least $200 per week and the center does not really get something for it. My opinion is that profiteering because the phone system itself has a value of around $500 - $600 and the CallAssistant system can only get used for the CCL campaign. This one which likes that this system has to get used has to pay for it. The call center has no benefit from it.

  • CPD (Cost Per Deal) factor (see the Word document VVT CPD Explanation.docx (17.84 kb))
    The CPD reduces or increases the payout for the successful transfer. Already the name proves the cheat. The client does not have any costs per deal as the center gets billed for usage of their systems and for the VoIP minutes. Whether Caribbean Cruise Lines neither The Marketing Source is able to give an explanation for these costs per deal. With other words they like to make money from the call center.

    The costs per deal are even getting increased (lower payout for the center) for the following conditions:
    • Transferring a call where no customer was on the line
      Each cold called customer will hang up if he needs to wait too long for a transfer. In this case is not the call center which is transferring the call guilty

    • Transferring a call where the customer was not interested
      That depends on the mood of the agent which is picking up the line during the life transfer too and cannot get controlled from the sending center.

    • Transferring a call where the customer did not have a credit or debit card
      If the agent which picks up the line is not friendly or says the wrong words, I'll say that I have no credit cards too even if I have said before that I have one. Such a case can get proved by listening the recordings of the sending center only.

    • Transferring a call where mandatory recordings were not played
      If the CallAssistant system is good instead of quick and dirty programmed, then the transfer would not be possible if the mandatory recordings were not played.

    I have seen by myself that additional to the above rules is the transfer counter working wrong. It are getting 40% more transfers counted as really happened and it are getting calls transferred without any action of the agent. All this failures seems to have the only purpose to minimize the payout of the call center.

  • The center is to required to buy VoIP from them
    Together with the other facts is this behaviour strange, because this one, which pays for it has to be able to chose the provider to buy from. As The Marketing Source Inc. and/or the Caribbean Cruise Lines Inc. are showing at the points above that they even try to earn by profiteering from the call centers are even here only end user prices billed and not reseller prices.

By taking a look at the website of Caribbean Cruise Line Inc. (http://www.bahamascruiseregistration.com/) we see that their business model is not a trusted one and in not conform with any fair trading standards. At Google are getting a lot more complaints about the Caribbean Cruise Line Inc. found. I list here only a few. At Cruise Critic we can find that the passengers have to participate at a five hours timeshare presentation. At CBS news you can read how their customer get handled and your lead destroyed at the call center you’ll transfer the customer. Some of their methods are getting described at the Rip-Off Report, Complaints Board and Jim Walker’s Cruise Law News. Even at the customer reviews of the U.S. Better Business Bureau are 75% reporting a negative experience, 66.67% will not recommend and 33.33% are undecided in recommending this company.

You see how the Caribbean Cruise Lines Inc. is handling their customers. Think about it how you will get handled from them as their supplier! A result can be looking like the following weekly billings sent out from The Marketing Source – Robbie Middleton:

Screenshot about payments to the call center of Krishna Varma

Everybody which is working with such a company like Caribbean Cruise Lines Inc. need not wondering himself if the shit from them is coloring themselves too! A business which has during the last 3 years in average 1.15 complaints to get handled per day from the U.S. Better Business Bureau is fighting for the last cent until a government institution will force them to pay. A serious business will avoid to get listed in such a way at the U.S. Better Business Bureau.

Brokers are getting paid from their client to find call centers doing their campaigns and for this the broker are not asking if the center can make profit or not. Scammers like Omer Ali - Oceanspace Innovative service pvt Ltd are offering this campaign against an up-front fee of 2 Lakhs (INR 200,000 ~ US$ 3,014). You can now calculate yourself that in the case you get the campaign from the scammer and you make some little earnings with this campaign that you'll need years for getting your up-front fees back.

Domain registration data from themarketingsource.com:

Domain Name: THEMARKETINGSOURCE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1502506868_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2014-06-13T14:33:04Z
Creation Date: 2008-06-26T18:43:43Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-06-26T18:43:43Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Vance Vogel
Registrant Organization: The Marketing Source, Inc
Registrant Street: 12551 Indian Rocks
Registrant City: Largo
Registrant State/Province: Florida
Registrant Postal Code: 33774
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Phone: +1.7272167773
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: admin@themarketingsource.com
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Vance Vogel
Admin Organization: The Marketing Source, Inc
Admin Street: 12551 Indian Rocks
Admin City: Largo
Admin State/Province: Florida
Admin Postal Code: 33774
Admin Country: United States
Admin Phone: +1.7272167773
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: sales@themarketingsource.com
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Vance Vogel
Tech Organization: The Marketing Source, Inc
Tech Street: 12551 Indian Rocks
Tech City: Largo
Tech State/Province: Florida
Tech Postal Code: 33774
Tech Country: United States
Tech Phone: +1.7272167773
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: sales@themarketingsource.com
Name Server: NS8047.HOSTGATOR.COM
Name Server: NS8048.HOSTGATOR.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2015-09-01T7:00:00Z <<<

Update September 5, 2015: Vance Vogel from The Marketing Source sent a statement from the FTC under which conditions prerecorded messages are allowed to getting played. This statement can get found in the article "FTC Statement Virtual Voice Technology - CallAssistant, L.C. - submitted by The Marketing Source - Vance Vogel"

Update September 7, 2015: Robbie Middleton from The Marketing Source sent a statement. This statement can get found in the article "The Marketing Source - Robbie Middleton - sent a bad joke instead of a proof"