Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

Blog about offshore outsourcing and scammer in the outsourcing industry

Scammer are inventing outsourcing campaigns - Outsourcing Logic...Missing!!!!

At LinkedIn in the group Inbound Projects Outsourcing if found a posting from Deva Prashanth about my special friends - the scammer. Please don't understand me wrong. I love scammer - grilled, fried, boiled, etc. The homeless cats in our area prefer them more if they get tortured before they get prepared for them. :)

If everybody, which made actually a bad experience with a scammer shall document it and post it in all the social network groups, then the scammer would not have any chance for doing their fraud business. Centers you need to work together and help each other. Nobody will ask to share your campaigns, but you should keep together by bringing the scammer and their fraud into the spotlight. With this you can reduce your own risk for getting scammed!

If you read the following posting from Deva Prashanth you'll see how easy it is to identify scammer by only reading their offers:

Outsourcing Logic...Missing!!!!

Dear Friends,

As an ardent reader of posts and a person who has seen the BPO space burst out of proportion and grow leaps and bounds I still fail to understand the logic behind scores of Brokers coming up with custom designed and self proclaimed client projects on every possible personal & professional forum.

A Typical Broker Day Offering Projects

There is no trick that is missed by a broker today, a fudged website and a company which in majority of cases will not have contact details and/or which is registered less than a year ago. I fail to acknowledge and understand how these brokers manage to churn out projects every minute, as a professional, one starts wondering, if not feels intimidated by these brokers when it comes to business development and marketing strategies.

However when you dig further one just finds that this is just like a parasite culture baiting and preying on every new company who is out there with little knowledge about such parasites lurking around these forums every minute, luring you,exciting your,attracting you with best possible project offers.

Moving further Taglines by brokers as if it were the end of a season sale " Hurry Limited Slots Available", "Direct Client Sign up - No Middle Man (Consulting Charges Applicable) - Sneaky Little Weasels", "No Unfair Charges", "Little Upfront" and this one gets even better, "No Upfront,No Consultancy, No Software Charges" Only one time registration fees/refundable security charges" and the list goes on. A broker who cannot even utter a single phrase in English poses himself as "You Know Who I Am" and claims to posses a bag-full of projects like apples which for sure are going to turn every service provider into a millionaire in a matter of months. I start thinking, how would this guy be carrying out a conversation in English with the clients that he is claiming to have. ( Are Clients Things To Have? or Could You Buy Them From These Brokers)

Then there are these scores of projects which are produced every minute in projects factories based in Gujarat,UP and Bihar, equation of finding the right project opportunity seems to be irrational,illogical and nearly impossible to beat the business development capabilities of these brokers for even professionals who have spent more than a decade in this industry.

There are also people who bring so many scams to light and also do their bit in bringing such parasite brokers and project producers to notice on these forums, having said that I hope professionals like us share and drive a mechanism which could make a beginning to eliminate this parasite culture and help young entrepreneurs and budding companies find a place in this business. This system may not be able to eliminate this scum, but sure can save lot of companies from falling prey to this onslaught of broker scams.

If you spread your information to newcomer too, then you are destroying the income base of the scammer. With this you are helping yourself and even win a friend instead of having a new competitor.

If you read an offer and it seems to be ok, then make in each case a background check. As higher the promised winnings are as higher is the risk that you get scammed! Don't forget scammer are not getting found in one area of the world. You find then everywhere!

If you got scammed you are guilty by yourself. You have only seen the promised winnings and did not think about the risk of the business. Your own greediness for money did not let you see the alarm signs, which are mostly found already in the announcement. Only because the offer has been written somewhere does not make it true!

You are guilty by yourself if you take some offers without proving if the campaign is in the destination country possible. Knowledge is power. Listen and try to understand the messages from other more experiences call center owners. Think about it, if that what you hear or read can be true or not. It is much more cheaper to learn from the failures done by others than on your own. If you are to lazy to get the knowledge or you are thinking that you know already everything, then you have to work hard to repair your failures, which you made - in the case you got scammed you have to work more for compensating your loss.

Outsourcing Logic...Missing!!!! _ LinkedIn.pdf (585.90 kb)

 

Why all these offered offshore outsourcing campaigns where customer data are involved are nothing else then SCAM?

toys phone cellsLet us take a look first at the data protection law from Australia, European Union and the USA. All this directives and orders have in common that the consumer data are protected by law and this one which has collected them is responsible for the proper use of the collected data. If the data are getting used wrong, then this one, which has collected the data, is responsible in front of the law court for the misusage of the data. The fines are very high. It is not allowed to make data accessible in countries, where this data don’t have at least the same protection like in the country they got collected in respect of the law. Even if consumer data are getting stolen, the company will get prosecuted.

The fines for breaking the law are very high. You can see an example how high the fines are in the article “Data of 280,000 customers stolen: AT & T lost over $ 25 million”. Why companies shall take the risk for paying high fines for making their data accessible to offshore centers? Especially if they find out how the data are getting traded in the call center industry. The following screenshot from Facebook is showing how protected data are getting offered:

Facebook offers  Amit Girje

The above screenshot is only one example from many. Such data are not getting offered only on Facebook. You can find such offers at LinkedIn and a lot of sites.

As long as in your country is not the same or a better data protection rule guaranteed by law you are only able to use the already heavy used data, which are traded between the centers. This called one will not be really in the mood to buy something.

Even companies which are transferring consumer data between the USA and the European Union need to be certified by the international U.S.-EU Save Harbor Framework. The certification need to get renewed yearly. You can read about a judgment at "FTC Settles with Two Companies Falsely Claiming to Comply with International Safe Harbor Privacy Framework".

The next problem for call centers is the “Do Not Call List” where you have to scrub up your data against the list. You are declaring by signing up to the Don’t Call List that you are telemarketer and you’ll respect the local law. In this case you make yourself prosecutable to the local law and this law can get executed because you have accepted it before. Ignoring the Don’t Call List can result in high fines. The fines can get international prosecuted.

The next problem for call centers is the “Do Not Call List” where you have to scrub up your data against the list. You are declaring by signing up to the Don’t Call List that you are telemarketer and you’ll respect the local law. In this case you make yourself prosecutable to the local law and this law can get executed because you have accepted it before. Ignoring the Don’t Call List can result in high fines. The fines can get international prosecuted. An example of such a judgment can get read at "Court Grants Partial Summary Judgment in FTC Case Against Dish Network, Finding the Company Liable for Tens of Millions of Telemarketing Violations". That such judgments can get international prosecuted if proven by "Federal Court Orders Tech Support Scammers to Pay More Than $5.1 Million". All the Indian companies, which have been involved in this case, have been running into bankruptcy.

Centers you are searching for inbound campaigns? Think about who will be calling a company. What can you do with an inbound caller if you don’t have access to the consumer data because they are protected by law? For this are all inbound campaigns nothing else then SCAM.

Centers you are searching for form filling processes? Think about which data you need to put into a form. Since years all the consumer data are getting collected at the point of sales. In the USA even the signature get collected from digitizer pad. For copy and paste nobody will pay your agents. There are enough programs for automatize the process available. They are even cheaper than the salary of one agent for a month. For this reason all form filling processes are only scam.

If you think now logically, then you know why all this inbound campaigns and form filling processes are only getting offered with a huge upfront payment. Even the scammer has no other chance to get some money if he does not get it from you. He has no chance to get such a process and cheat you after you have done the work.

Even the client tries to burden all the legal risks to the centers by hiring them on a pay per sale base. For this they can say in front of the law court that they have only bought some leads from you and you have been working on your own risk.

A serious client will support you with phone numbers based on his selection. This phone numbers will be already scrubbed against the Do Not Call list. He will also provide you with an extension to his own phone system because he likes that the called ones are coming back to him for the case they have some questions or need some help.

A serious client will hire a marketing agency in his own country or living area and not a suspicious campaign broker from a low wage country, which try to make money with his campaign. The hired agency has the order to search for the best center for the client and gets paid from the client directly.

All other kinds of clients will burden you up the legal risk and they will provide you with products, which are already well-known from the email spam. For the case that you’ll not make enough sales to survive they even will tell you that you should buy some better data and to provide a better work. They even will lie you by telling that other centers are making sales with each call.

 

Scam and Scammer - how to identify them

Scams target people of all backgrounds, ages and income levels all over the world. There is no one group of people who are more likely to become a victim of a scam. If you think you are "too clever" to fall for a scam, you may take risks that scammer can take advantage of you.

A scam looks like the real thing or a real opportunity. It appears to meet your need or desire. To find out that it is in fact a scam, you must first make the effort to check it properly. Take your time, ask questions and think carefully before you decide what to do. 

Scam from MonitorScammer are trying to manipulate you by "pushing your buttons" to produce the automatic response they want.

  • It’s nothing to do with you personally.

  • It’s to do with the way individuals in society are wired up emotionally and socially.

  • It’s because the response is automatic that people fall for the scam.

To stop scammers manipulating you into their traps, it can be useful to know how to prevent the automatic response they expect.

One of the believes is that all companies, businesses and organizations are legitimate and okay because they are all vetted and approved by the government or some other authority. That is not like this. Consumer protection organizations have very much work with the companies and their unhappy customers, because dodgy operators and scams are reported to them on a daily basis.

A similar dangerous myth is that internet websites are all legitimate because there are written words, or that it is difficult to set up a website.

It is quite easy and cheap to set up a professional-looking website. A scam website could be used to sell a dodgy product, or it could be easily made to resemble a genuine website, like a bank or credit union website. These websites are often only "live" for a few days. That is enough time to trick people into giving up their credit card details and/or other personal information.

Another belief, which makes people vulnerable to scams, is the idea that there are short cuts to wealth that only a few people know.

Ask yourself the questions:

  • If you know a secret to instant wealth, would you spend your time for telling it to others? 

  • Would you be in need to charge money for the information?

If you find some offers on the social networks, then check first the product and don't look at the promised earnings, Follow the steps:

  1. 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.

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

  3. If you have a communication with your business partner on Skype then verify his location with the information in his profile by locating him

  4. If you are still convinced about the offer, then check if you find something about the seller or the product at other fraud warning sites.

  5. Nothing found until now? Make your contract with the broker or the seller.

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.

 

Skype: Locate your Chat Partner

A Skype resolver is a program used to find out the IP address of any Skype user.

If someone likes to make business with you or is causing you trouble, you might want to know their IP address. A Skype resolver can help you find out the IP address of the person. It works only as long as the user is logged in at Skype.

First step is to go to the user’s profile. Copy their profile name.

Then you paste the Skype User ID into the Skype resolver.

Recommended Skype Resolver are:

http://skypegrab.net/resolver.php

https://www.hanzresolver.com/skype2

After you have gotten the IP address of your chat partner you can verify his location by using an IP location finder service.

Remember: There are even possibilities to hide the IP address by using proxy services,
Someone, which likes to hide himself in the anonymity of the Internet, has a reason for it. Don't make business with such people. The risk to get scammed is in this case 100%.
Don't make business with someone, where the IP location is not matching the location in his profile!

 

How it works:

Skype calls are peer to peer. As much as possible is done without the need for a centralized server through different types of nodes (clients). There are three types of nodes in the Skype network.

Supernodes

Regular nodes

Login server

Any client within the network can become a supernode. Supernodes have a cache of IP-addresses to all other supernodes. If you are behind NAT supernodes will help you UDP hole punch. UDP hole punching is using a third party to connect to another client circumventing the issue of connection directly to someone behind NAT.

Thus, you are connecting directly to the client when issuing a friend request or getting the cached IP of the username.

Sample Screenshot of http://skypegrab.net/resolver.php:

Input Mask of SkypeGrab.net

  1. Enter the Skype User ID into the field Username
  2. Enter the correct captcha
  3. Press resolve
    If you have a slow network connection then it can be that you need to repeat the above steps.
  4. You can get the location of your chat partner if you click at the link GeoIP: click here

Output of SkypeGrab.net

 

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.

 

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.