Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

Blog about offshore outsourcing and scammer in the outsourcing industry

Internet without promotion: Adguard AdBlocker browser extension

AdGuardSimple install the Adguard browser extension if the promotion, pop-ups and pop unders from the different web pages is annoying you. Adguard AdBlocker is really fast and lightweight. It uses half as much memory as other popular solutions. Adguard can handle Anti-AdBlock scripts. You won't have to turn off the AdBlocker anymore to be able to visit the websites that are using such scripts. Just send a complaint to the Adguard tech support and they will handle it.

Adguard AdBlocker effectively blocks all types of advertising on all web pages, even on Facebook, Youtube, and others! Adguard makes your work on the Internet not only comfortable, but also safe - Browsing Security module blocks access to all fraudulent and malicious sites.

What Adguard AdBlocker does:

  • Blocks all ads including video ads (including Youtube video ads), rich media advertising like video ads, interstitial ads and floating ads, unwanted pop-ups, banners and text ads (including Facebook advertisements).
  • Speeds up page loading and saves bandwidth, thanks to the missing ads and pop up windows.
  • Blocks many spyware, adware and dialer installers (optional).
  • Protects your privacy by blocking common third-party tracking systems (optional).
  • Protects you from malware and phishing (optional).

 

Installation:

Firefox: You can install the latest release from addons.mozilla.org or download it from direct link https://chrome.adtidy.org/app.html?app=main.xpi,

Google Chrome: Install it from the Chrome Web Store

Internet Explorer: http://adguard.com/en/adblock-adguard-internet-explorer.html

Opera: You can install the latest release from addons.opera.com

Safari: You can install the latest release from extensions.safari.com

Yandex Browser: Starting with the version 14.2, Yandex.Browser introduced catalogue of recommended Extensions. This catalogue provides the free Adguard extension by default.

Install Adguard for Android: http://adguard.com/en/adguard-android/install.html#howToInstall

Adguard for Mac http://adguard.com/en/adguard-mac/overview.html

 

How to identify scam and bad selling products without making a background check – a translation between promotion and reality

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.

 

Documents and contracts confirmed by a notary (powers-of-attorney)

I see my posting are getting read and my recommendations are not getting ignored. Some people like make themselves more important, than they are. They use some ideas, which they have read from my blog or postings and try to use it.

One of them is "leading"  a "big" call center with more than 1000 seats. By chatting with such a person, you get it immediately that have only a basic education (they are not guilty for it) and try to copy the ideas of other without trying to get the full knowledge.

They are calling themselves business man or business woman, but they even not know the requirements and the law situation in their own business. They have been even too lazy, to inform themselves about the requirements and result of such an idea. For this it has been coming to the following funny situation:

 

This is a part of a communication by using Skype:

He/she: we always notarize every document to be secure.

Me:  I'll search here notary office and let it certify

He/she: no need Rudolf. We will do it as one of my partners in our Firm is a Lawyer. 

Me: I don't know how they can certify there my signature. A notary confirmed signature has to be given in front of a notary. There you need to show a valid ID too. Otherwise you don't get a certification.

He/she: let me consult that with my partner and let you know about it.

 

Together with the schedule of the meeting, which should be 2 days later, I got the message:

He/she: Please send back the signed NDA that I have sent you as the document to be notarized and Client will not approve the meeting without the signed NDA. This is to meet the expectation. Thank you.

 

There are a lot of mistakes and misunderstandings:

  • A notary’s office is not a law firm.

  • Compare it by yourself. The definition of a public notary is found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notary_public. The definition of a lawyer is found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyer

  • A notary can only confirm in such a case a given signature. The signature has to  be done in front of the notary and the signer needs to authenticate himself. For this the signer has to go to the notary’s office by himself. A document or contract will even get registered from the notary including his confirmation in the public register, which makes it viewable to all, which are interested in it.

  • A document, which should be kept secret, cannot get confirmed by a notary, because the notary needs to publish it for the case that someone needs to verify it. For this it does not make any sense to sign a NDA in front of a notary. The content of the NDA and the maybe possible contract will get published by the notary and lose by doing this his secret!

  • Such a document has to get transmitted in original. A copy sent by email does not help. I think a lot of people know how to use Photoshop. The snail mail (traditional post) will not be so fast transmitted from one province to another in 2 days. So the appointment of the given date cannot get fulfilled, because the recipient will not receive it in time.

  • In this case are companies from other countries involved. Documents, which need to get the power of attorney need to get legalized too. The legalizing process needs a lot of time, especially if the contractor is not living in the capital of his country. You need to go through all instances of your country for confirming the previous instance until you have reached the ministry of foreign affairs of your country. After this you have to go to the embassy of the country where the document should be valid. This embassy confirms the signature of the ministry of foreign affairs. After this you can send the document to your business partner. Your business partner has to take this document to the ministry of foreign affairs of his country. There he gets the confirmation of the signature of the embassy in your country. The document is not valid before all this steps are done. The document will be valid only for these countries, for which it got legalized. Don’t forget that each confirmation will cost you some money and a lot of time.

 

A full description of legalizing documents will get found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalization_(international_law)

 

The best is coming at the end, where I said NO to the project:

I asked: Maybe you tell us the promotion for the project before everybody needs to run to a notary office. I think the country, the kind of sale, commission, payment terms, inbound/outbound and if data, scripts, etc will get provided or not will not be top secret.

The answer has been: Hi Rudolf, all info is in the SOW. NDA's purpose is to make sure that you will not disclose any information to other parties that might mislead. We protect the interest of the Client and the information it self. Hope you understand. Just sign the NDA and send it to me. See you later. Thank you.

I dropped the call center campaign as I don't waste time for any unknown business, where I even don't know the surroundings like inbound or outbound work, payment terms, data and scripts provided by client, kind of product, etc. With other words, everything what you get on information from a broker.

if such an information is already top secret, then can it be only a crime.

 

Spamming at LinkedIn and similar websites

Yesterday I got an email from a spammer. A part of the content is:

"As for the spamming I also have a marketing background, spamming is a great form of advertising, everyone gets spammed in one form or another when you really think about, look at a car, it has its manufacturer's name on it, drive down EDSA or any of the main roads in Manila and you will see globe, Smart all spamming. Its how businesses survive, by pushing your name out there, it proves that you are a genuine business."

I don’t know from where he has this marketing background, but in Europe you learn already in the second grade, that a permanently repetition of the same content will get ignored from your target audience. Observe it by yourself. You are mostly driving the same way daily. How many of the promotions, which get seen on the road, you recognize really? How many promotions are you watching in the TV and how many times you use the time of the promotion shown in TV for doing something different, like take a fresh beer from the refrigerator, going to toilet, etc.?

For this the promotion agencies are developing every time new ideas for making the promotion different and distribute it on a different way. In USA the marketing agencies have already found a way that their promotion does not get directly into the trash box. They are offering coupons, where you can save something by buying the product. These coupons are getting collected from the people. The negative aspects of this form of marketing you can even watch it at the Philippines at the TV station "Travel & Living" by watching "Extreme Couponing".

LinkedIn knows about spamming too. At LinkedIn is it possible to block updates from a member. This is done by a link on the upper right side of each posting at the start page, where you can block the postings from this member. In such a case all posts don’t get shown from this member. I have used it already for two members. It works for me perfect. The disadvantage of this is that I’m not see some interesting posts of this members too, but with this I can survive. Others, which are not spamming, have interesting posts too.

Spamming proves only that the product cannot get sold and the spammer is searching for someone, which is stupid enough for buying it. It never proves that the company or the product is genuine. A real and authentic product gets sold by the first advertisement. 

 

A translation of a promoted call center campaign at LinkedIn

Recently I found a call center campaign at LinkedIn, which has been looking good at the first view:

LOOKING FOR CENTERS FROM (INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND PHILIPPINES)

5 year old Tech Support Company based in Texas looking for "experienced" call centers to outsource our outbound tech support sales. We have centers in India working for us from more then 4 years and generating good profits.

Pay-out from $50 to $185 for per sale.

 

Analyzing the product:

The product is not really a bad idea. As the company is based in in a small city, with a population of around 40000 people, called Hurst in Texas, the local possibility for offering a computer service has not really a big chance. Remote service and support can be a possible income.

Negative aspects:

  • A remote service works only if the computer is still running and has a connection to the internet

  • It can be only a software service for optimization of the performance, virus removal (as long the virus is not blocking the Internet connection), spyware scan and malware removal.

  • The service is limited to Windows and Office

  • The offered service "Setup a new system" cannot get done from remote. A transport of the computer can result that the computer does not work when it arrives back to the customer. The reason is very simple: From the vibrations during the transport a card or a plug can lose the correct contact. For this is it better for the customer to visit a computer repair center locally.

  • The company exists already nearly 5 years. They are offering 4 different plans for home users and 2 different plans for business use. The monthly rate is with $15.95 the same for all plans. The initial price for home users varies from $195.95 until $349.95 only the contract time is different. At the website is no reason written why someone should make a contract for 3 years for $349.95 initial with additional $15.95 per month instead of a contract for 6 months for $109.95 + $15.95 monthly. The only difference is the initial price. What the benefits of the higher price and the longer contract time are is missing. Maybe they don't know it by themselves. In this case the telemarketer has no arguments to sell a higher priced plan.

  • Compare at Amazon the price of a new computer in the USA with the maintenance plan what the telemarketer should sell: a complete computer set including monitor, keyboard, mouse and Windows 7 is actually at Amazon for $160 (Dell) available. The setup can get done with the help of the Dell Hotline. An argument for the price is in this case really missing.

In sum is the product not really a runner. In the USA is it normally that the monthly price is coming less as longer as the contract is running.

 

I try now to translate this advertisement for you:

You need to know that the average call center agent in the USA gets $27000/year ($2250/month or $15/hour)..I have simple divided the yearly salary by 12 and the monthly salary by 150 hours like it is in Europe usable. This company is located in Texas, There is the average income for a call center agent even lower. It is there $26000/year, which makes a hourly rate of $14.45

The offered pay out from $50 - $150 per sale is looking at the first view good, but only on the first view.

Let's take the lowest offered commission per sale, which is $50. A one is not really realistic, because for this the arguments for selling it are already missing.

The company would be positive in labor costs if she would sell each 3 hours and 33 minutes one product per agent by having own telemarketers. The company itself does not believe in their own sales possibilities at such a rate. For this they try to find a call center from a low wage country, which even takes the risk of the product. Maybe the call center should even provide the data for the sales.

My opinion is that very good and very experienced agents will be able to sell in average one product per day as long as the marketing of the product will not get improved. If the marketing will reduce the sales price, the pay out per sale will go down too or the company will not be able to survive and pay you.

So centers think about how long can you work for $50. Maybe you sell one product per 10 hours per agent in average. Are you able to survive with this income?

The sentence "We have centers in India working for us from more than 4 years and generating good profits" is only promotion and for this I can say only: "Never trust a statistic which you did not fake by yourself"

 

Source offer: LinkedIn offer

Source product: www.fixmycomputerdude.com