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The Scammers Are Coming!

The Scammers Are Coming!

I’m writing this on the Internet at 34,000 feet on a Delta flight from Atlanta. We’re returning from Hilton Head Island where I hosted 55 people in The Write Stuff™ Workshop, then 67 in my two-day Mentor Summit, then a dozen of the Mentor Hall of Fame members for a full day.

All of these people throughout the week are dedicated learners, high performance people seeking to improve by investing in themselves. Their professions call for them to add value to others.

During this same week I’ve been approached by the following scammers:

1. Tom, from some organization that sounds like WTG in London, leaves a message with no detail to call him back. When I do track him down in London, he recites either a script or memorized spiel about business executives paying him 2,000 Pounds each to find “solution providers” for their businesses. He is running meetings for them in Berlin and Boston, and would like me to attend as a solution provider.

“How much will you pay me to be there?” I ask, smiling at my wife next to me.

“Oh, you pay me for the opportunity,” Tom says glibly.

“This conversation is over,” I inform him, ending the call. Tom leaves another message calling me “dismissive,” noting that he will remove me from all his data bases and all his mailings. I guess there is great ROI in being dismissive!

2. A woman named Brittany (what else?) calls to tell me she is a “risk analyst” and has found my credit card merchant account is among the lowest risk anywhere. If she can ask me a few questions, I may be qualified to “be treated like my own bank” and not have to work with my credit card processor or real bank.

“Do you work for my bank or my merchant services people, and what are you trying to sell me?” I ask.

“No, I don’t work for them, and I’m merely a risk analyst,” she coos.

“We’re done here,” I coo back, but apparently not dismissively, because I received no follow-up call assuring me I’d be taken off all their lists.

In prior weeks, I’ve received:

3. The ancient offer to place a chapter in a book where the other chapters are all written by “names” and famous business authors. Of course, everyone knows that you pay to do that, everyone knows that there is no credibility at all in doing so, and everyone with a brain thinks poorly of the “names” who lend their names to this awful scam, since most of them don’t need the money (or, then again, maybe they do).

4. The incredible offer for only $15,000 to shoot an “interview” with a host and an ancient politician or celebrity who is propped up against a wall while you’re asked softball questions about your business for a non-existent audience. Why would your buyers find it credible for you to be on channel 469 at three in the morning with Alexander Haig? Who’s in charge here?!

5. The AM radio station that offers you a show to host for only $500 per half-hour and an advertising quota you must bring in. I know a realtor who did this and actually walked around telling people she was asked to host the show!

I could go on. While the thoughtful, professional people in my communities are trying their best to grow and help others legitimately, the scammers immerse all the media with appeals to our ego, the quick buck, the phony celebrity, and the scam.

As the sergeant used to intone on the great, late Hill Street Blues, “Let’s be careful out there!”

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Written by

Alan Weiss is a consultant, speaker, and author of over 60 books. His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients from over 500 leading organizations around the world.

Comments: 10

  • Alan Weiss

    October 2, 2010

    It exists because so many people have egos that demand “instant recognition” with no body of work, track record, or intellectual property. There are also people of such low esteem that they feel they can only be elevated by who they are associated with or an arbitrary claim to fame. How many people have said, “My book…” when their book is self-publshed, or “My TV show….” when the show is a cable time they purchase?

  • michael cardus

    October 2, 2010

    Thank you Alan.
    I have also received requests like this and I am always so confused as to who does this?
    Almost twice a year I receive a phone call asking if I want to have audience with C level executives and other training buyers from fortune 100 companies. When I say yes I would, then they want me to send them $20,000 to attend the conference, and they arrange meetings with these buyers.
    I always ask them “are you serious, who /what companies are paying you for this?” They never have an answer although some companies must.
    Plus your Chapter in our Book example – how does this business model still exist?

  • Marty Dickinson

    October 3, 2010

    Well, you were on a roll there Alan as I just became introduced to you online. I get similar spam offers. What threw me for a curve was your remark about self-published authors. I mean, fine, I’m a published author too, but I don’t hold self-published authors to any less esteem. Actually, it takes a hell of a lot of work to self-publish a book too and people who do so have a right to feel accomplishment just as us who are house published.

  • Rabbi Issamar Ginzberg

    October 6, 2010

    Years ago, I lost $10,000+ with a company that I trusted… because Alexander Haig was somehow affiliated with the company.

    It’s something like the events where they pay Colin Powell to show up… and then they have pitchmen who speak right after him selling some dubious investment scheme… using the “rubbed off” credibility.

    A shame people use their good name to lend credibility to pure rubbish.

  • Rabbi Issamar Ginzberg

    October 13, 2010

    Thank you for that, just read it. (it’s online here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/opinion/06dowd.html?_r=1 )

    How horrible that these “respectable” individuals with years of high profile public service sell their name and prestige to attract attendees seminars (backed by expensive coaching, of course) from charlatans pitching all kinds of schemes… then obviously, the years in public service might all have been done in that same dishonorable manner….

    Gosh. One would think that if they had a PR advisor or some common sense (I don’t expect one person to have both!) this “speaking engagement” would never have gotten onto the calendar.

  • Eric Fetterolf

    October 15, 2010

    I’m curious at your comment “How many people have said, “My book…” when their book is self-publshed” Alan. I interpreted it to contain derision for those who take that path. Is it truly a mark of shame to self publish a book?

    I’m beginning to wonder if book publishers have irrevocably moved down the path of “main stream” news print media and record companies; where they no longer have monopoly control of distribution and have very little value to truly add to an author. Don’t you add more value to your publisher, who can claim that they publish Alan Weiss, than your publisher adds to you by publishing your books?

  • Alan Weiss

    October 17, 2010

    I hit a nerve, obviously, which is why I write.

    Publishing your own work—which I have done—is fine if you’re looking to make money from a back-of-the-room or Internet sale. But it’s not credible with corporate buyers if you’re trying to be a thought leader in their eyes, and never will be. Most self-published books are crap. They haven’t passed the test of convincing an agent, or acquisitions editor, or editorial board. Some commercially published books are crap, but not nearly as many.

    If you tell me you’ve written a book and don’t tell me you’ve published it yourself then you’re trying to play games. Ironically, self-publishing is far more successful AFTER you’ve commercially published and/or have a brand.

    I’m not that arrogant to think I’m adding value to McGraw-Hill or Wiley without the quid pro quo of having two of the best publishers in the world continually interested in my work.

    The first rule in candor: Be honest with ourselves.

  • Eric Fetterolf

    October 18, 2010

    No nerve. I’ve never published, self or otherwise. I’m simply curious. You answered the “value” question very satisfactorily.

    The other question you left untouched and I’m wondering if you would address it as well:

    Are main street publishing entities in danger of falling into the quagmire that , say, the major record labels or print news media fell into?

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