VictorSawma.com: Blog about Web, Security and Life

28 Oct, 2008

Emerald Who's Who is a Scam

Posted by victor 18:01 | Permalink | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0) | General, Web, Security

I am writing this article in here so that everyone else out there can be aware of this SCAM and FRAUDULENT company named Emerald Who's Who. These people are very professional at their SCAM business to the extent that you will feel very stuck in their deal. I was almost caught yesterday except for this small silly mistake that they did and got my defensive mechanisms up.

If you are intereseted in this story, click to read more. If you are not intereseted in the details, simply be aware of anybody calling you over your phone from a company named Emerald Who's Who.

My story with this is short and simple. A long time ago (around 6 months ago), I received an email from Emerald Who's Who informing me that I have been referred to them by experts in my domain as one of the credible people in my field. As such, they are inviting me to become listed as part of their Who's Who. I visited their scam website and, to my surprise, it looked like a normal one with some listings of other members on it (some of them being well known in my region). The website uses SSL encryption verified by Verisign so these people must be doing some real business (although not completely verified). I felt safe about it so I completed the form (a very long one) and submitted it.

Six months after that (literally six months), I recieved a call during a business meeting that I had. The man on the other hand of the line was very business oriented and used terms that caused me to feel really special. I know I am special in one way or another but I just did not know that Louis Gerstner was my next possible competitor ;)

He asked me many questions related to the way I conceive my business, what I think makes NetDesignPlus a special web development company, as well as many other questions that made him look really interested in preparing a mini-bio about me.

So far, I was the rat in the trap. I was thinking about all the possible ways to make use of this connection to the maximum extent possible. The guy moved forward to add that in addition to being listed, I can make use of some optional premium services in return for money. These services include being published in many forms (online, catalogs, journals, etc.) as well as a selective service that allows me to use their services to select potential customers from their database of professionals, etc.

The interview lasted around 20 minutes during which I completely believed this guy. Then, the BIG mistake was done when he started becoming pushy towards my credit card. I tried being polite with this extremely polite person by telling him that I will review his proposal (which he promised to send by email) and then, I will proceed and register for the package that I choose.

At this point, he started becoming more and more pushy (he must be this way since the rat is starting to vision the trap now) by offering me packages for lower prices and trying to get my credit card number over the phone. I explicitly mentioned to him that I cannot give my credit card number to anyone (isn't this what my bank told me when I got it?). How about giving it over the phone to some person calling himself Jerry Aguire (yup, Aguire and not Maguire). At this point, he said that he has an alternative solution for me where he can send me the proposal while he is over the phone and then, I can check it while he is on the phone with me and decide whether I want to buy or not while he is on the phone with me. I asked why I cannot get some time. He said that they have thousands of requests that they need to consider (poor them) and cannot go back and forth on a single application. At this point, I realized the scam and decided to have some fun (by increasing his phone bill as much as I can). So I told him that I have my credit card ready (and got him to wait for me to get it). Then I spent another 20 minutes trying to get as much information as possible about him (I got his phone number that surely nobody answers) and I tried recording his voice on my mobile phone (didn't work since the call was already in progress).

Finally, I really got tired of this so I told him that I will try to do my best to get back to him within the 24 hours period that he agreed on (I thought they cannot go back and forth on applications).

In brief, this guy is a real genius. The approach that he uses during his phone call simply traps you. You must be very aggressive to succeed in escaping his offers and proposals.

I hope this article helps some people out there escape this type of scams.

The links below are for you to read more about other people who went through the same story:

• Buyer Beware
• Scam.com