Sounds good? Does it not sound too good to be true? Think about it. The center owner needs only to pay the travel costs of the trainer!
You are right. Sure, it is a plain advance fee scam. It is the newest idea from the well-known scammer Christine Wisner. Scam reports about Christine Wisner are getting already found at:
Let us take first a look at the terms the scammers are using for their unbelievable offers:
- Advance Billing
A billing is every time in advance and does not include an "advance payment". Nobody will pay before he gets a bill. For this reason is a bill nothing else than a simple form without any value if the bill does not get accepted from the recipient. You don't have any guarantee that the bill will get paid.
Let us take an example: Even the supermarket cashier makes your bill in advance, before he receives the payment. At this time the supermarket cashier even does not know if you are able to pay the sum. That is called "advance billing". The only difference between the scam offers from the social networks and the supermarket is that the customer has to pay the bill before leaving with the purchased goods the supermarket.
- Advance Payment
Let me use the same supermarket example for the "Advance payment". If you enter the supermarket and before you take the shopping cart you have to pay the goods which you like to buy. Afterwards you collect your merchandise and go to the cashier again. The cashier will check if you have not taken more than you have paid in advance. For the case you have taken more than you have paid you need to pay the difference. You'll get some money back for the case you did not find all the goods you liked to buy.
Would you choose such a supermarket for your daily needs? If your answer is no then ask yourself why someone should be someone so stupid and pay you before you did the work? Do you really think that others are silly? A successful business owner does not give you money as a gift. He is only successful because he knows his business and is not irrational acting.
Only scammers are writing such offers into the social networks and are hoping to find a senseless person which is paying their advance fee (however they are calling it - security deposit, consultancy fee, VoIP costs, etc.):
PRE-PAYMENT ON THE FIRST DAY OF GOING LIVE.
CONTRACT TIME : 1 YEAR
CLIENT CAN STOP THE PROCESS WITH OUT ANY NOTICE DURING THE FIRST 15 DAYS TRIAL PERIOD
AFTER FIRST 15 DAYS IT WILL BE A 1 YEAR CONTRACT.
MAN POWER : 30 AGENTS, 3 TEAM LEADER , 2 QUALITY HEAD.
AFTER 15 DAYS OF TRIAL , IT WILL BE MONTHLY PRE-PAYED BILLING CYCLE.
CLIENT MUST BE GIVEN FULL DAILER ACCESS
** NO CALLS MUST BE EDITED
** PAPER WORKS AND DOCUMENTATION WILL BE DONE IN PERSON BETWEEN STARTEC TELICOM AND THE CONTACT CENTRE.
Startec Telecom, full name Startec Global Communications Corp, shares are getting traded at the NASDAQ. At their NASDAQ profile is written:
STARTEC is a rapidly growing, facilities-based international long distance carrier which markets its services to select ethnic U.S. residential communities that have significant international long distance usage. Additionally, to maximize the efficiency of its network
At Startec's company profile is written:
Building on that tradition, Startec is dedicated to being the leading provider of communication services to communities around the globe. Startec services connect worldwide communities spanning the Pacific Rim, Middle East, North Africa, Russia, Central Europe, and North and South America. We provide our services through a flexible network of owned and leased facilities, operating and termination agreements, and resale arrangements. Startec technology assets include an extensive network of IP gateways, international gateways, domestic switches and ownership in undersea fiber optic cables.
Does anybody believe that such a company hires a broker or consultant from Kolkota, India which is a well-known scammer?
Does anyone believe that such a company like Startec Global Telecom is sending a trainer on the costs of the call center from Hongkong to an unknown call center placed in the area of Hyderabad, India?
Such a business behavior would destroy the reputation of a company. The share values of Startec Global Telecom would in such a case go down to the area of the penny stocks and the responsible person would get fired.
Such a company knows how to hire staff, freelancers and subcontractors. If such a company hires someone than the hired one would get paid from them and not opposite round. As such a company is dealing with VoIP they would even make the recordings by themselves and you would even not have the chance to manipulate or edit them. For this reason and the reasons found above is the offer nothing else than a scam.
This scam gets initiated from Christine Wisner and afterwards she changes her identity to Joslyn March and uses the Skype ID joslyn.paul103. At this profile is written that she is from Toronto, Canada. She likes to get a flight ticket from Hongkong to your place while she is chatting from Kolkota, India. Here is her Skype profile:
The picture in the above profile got stolen from a photo model and should hide her real nationality.
By searching at Google for the exact phrase "client can stop the process with out any notice during the first 15 days trial period" I found another offer at the already well-known scammer platform SaveBpo.com:
The complete offer of the "US INBOUND CUSTOMER CARE SERVICE WITH VERY GOOD PAYOUT" campaign (.pdf) is the following:
CAMPAIGN : CUSTOMER CARE SERVICE
PAYOUT : $10 / Hour / AGENT
TIMING : 24 X 7
NUMBER OF AGENTS : 10 agents 24 x 7
ADVANCE BILLING : 15 DAYS PRE-PAYMENT ON THE FIRST DAY OF GOING LIVE.
CONTRACT TIME : 1 YEAR
TRAINING : PROVIDED BY CLIENT ( 5 DAYS ). UNPAID TRAINING
PROCESS DETAILS : CUSTOMER CARE SERVICE. INBOUND CALLS AND EMAIL.
CENTRE MUST COVER THE EXPENSE FOR CLIENTS CENTRE VISIT
CLIENT CAN STOP THE PROCESS WITH OUT ANY NOTICE DURING THE FIRST 15 DAYS TRIAL PERIOD
AFTER FIRST 15 DAYS IT WILL BE A 1 YEAR CONTRACT.
MAN POWER : 30 AGENTS, 3 TEAM LEADER , 2 QUALITY HEAD.
AFTER 15 DAYS OF TRIAL , IT WILL BE MONTHLY PRE-PAYED BILLING CYCLE.
CLIENT MUST BE GIVEN FULL DAILER ACCESS
** NO CALLS MUST BE EDIATED
** PAPER WORKS AND DOCUMENTATION WILL BE DONE IN PERSON BETWEEN xxxxxxxxxx AND THE CONTACT CENTRE.
COMMERCIAL PART IS INVOLVED PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME
Here gets even offered $10 per hour per agent for a not existing campaign. Which support can get given to the caller if the agent cannot get access to the customer database? Remember that AT&T had to pay a fine of US$ 25,000,000 for copied/stolen customer data during an outsourcing process. Why shall one company take the risk to get fined like AT&T?
The next question is why a company likes to outsource some telemarketing campaigns offshore? The answer is very simple, they like to save money by taking advantage of a lower wage in the offshore country. If we take a look at the average payment for telemarketers in the USA then the offered payment is the same like in the USA. By taking a look at PayScale Telemarketer Salary for the United States, than we see that the average salary is $10.07 and the minimum is $7.86 (data from September 2015):
By looking at the data above, we see that telemarketers can get hired for less than $8 per hour. So why should hire a company from the U.S. a broker or consultant from India and offer a higher payment for the telemarketers. A company from the United States can hire and fire in the U.S. telemarketers for less and how they need them. Even the fee for the man-in-the-middle, the useless broker or consultant from India, can get saved in such a case.
Additional gets the same campaign under the tite "US Telecom Customer Service Inbound Only One Slot Available" (.pdf) found at the scammer platform BPO Project World from India. At this site shows the scammer how urgent he needs already money, because he writes that only one slot is remaining on this not existing campaign. Additional have even 12 amateur or "like to be" call centers asked for more information.
Update Jan. 18, 2017: Links to http://www.bpoprojectworld.in/us-telecom-customer-service-inbound-only-one-slot-available/ and http://www.savebpo.com/project/us-inbound-customer-care-service-good-payout/ removed as they are already returning error 404 - not found.