Comments on: Another Who’s Who scam – Your Recent Nomination to Continental Who’s Who

By: Alberto Prince

Alberto Prince — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:21:42 +0000

Hello! I just hung up with a girl called Mary Grace from this company and in the middle of the conversation I googled them and found this blog. As the rest of the people here, thanks a lot for the scam confirmation.

Francisco, I went through the exact same experience than you, but luckily I didn’t bring my cards with me at work! Couldn’t believe I almost fall on this.

By: Donna Erickson

Donna Erickson — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:46:19 +0000

I’ve been around long enough to know this was a scam without even speaking to them. When a company calls my cell phone, home phone, and business phone–one after the other–and leaves no message until the last call, you know someone is DESPERATE.

By: Francisco Bueno

Francisco Bueno — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:04:28 +0000

Thanks to all of you for your posts. I am a lawyer in Bolivia and I just got on the phone with some Diane Torres. I don´t need to repeat what she said because it has been perfectly described in all the posts above.

All the time she was talking and explaining me how “I´ve been selected and the great honor this SHOULD mean to me” I kept thinking “yeah, yeah, but how much is this going to cost me”. When I told her I would get back to her, she told me this needed to be done “right now” and then she lowered the package until she offered me the Executive 2-year package for $289. She then went straigt to say “so, which card are you using?”

I must confess I cave in for $289, I gave her my credit card info and hung up. 67 seconds latter she calls me back and says my card didn´t work, she verified all the card info again and, with me holding on the phone, tryed to process the transaction. I didn´t work again. God bless my bank, all international transactions are blocked until the client (me) authorizes the bank to allow the transaction only for a limited window of time anf for an exact amount. So, I told her I would call my bank and then get back to her. “How soon?” was the answer. “As soon as I hung up with the bank!”

So, insted of calling the bank I googled it and found this. I´m not calling tha bank and I´m not authorizing any transaction.

Thanks to all of you, I am NOT $289 poorer!

By: Russ Sillery

Russ Sillery — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:08:30 +0000

I JUST got off the phone with these people and they are most definitely a scam job. After her speel of ooh and ahhhs of my accomplishments and their prestigious standing she told me I had been selected by a group of my peers for this. I let he babble on for another 10 minutes of hard selling for this and that package I simply asked her again how she heard of me and replied well you sent us an email. Now how in the world does that correlate with the above “recommendation of my peers” she then said yes on such and such a date, your favorite magazine, blah blah blah, you sent us an email… WAIT STOP!!! I sent you an email??? a quick search of my inbox and there was no such thing ( as I had suspected ) but she in her slickness quoted a date back in June of this year thinking I might now actually look it up.

The long of it is this – tell them to piss off they are scam artists. I also told her I would be reporting her to the BBB. now that lit a fire in her!

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:36:35 +0000

Thanks Steve for sharing this, but alas, I already signed up for a 1-year Associate membership. Wished I had seen your posting sooner.

A lady contacted me from Continental Who’s Who and we spoke for an hour for the “interview”. After all the “selling”, she shared with me that I could begin to enjoy all the benefits of a Platinum Lifetime Program, with no annual fees, a mahogany wall plaque with my name printed in gold (not that it’s a big deal really) at a one-time fee of USD869 or a 5-year Gold program at USD634.

When I expressed discomfort about going ahead with the membership, she then shared with me the SIlver 3-year program with a one-time fee of USD394. I said no.

I work across Asia Pacific and claimed that the members’ list are mainly US-based, so not of much use to me really. And she then shared about the 70,000+ members on their list across the globe, the 2-year program at USD233.50 or the 1-year program at USD118.50 with the option to upgrade by paying the difference.

I’ve been duped sadly!!! Just genuinely wanted some networking options…..lesson learned – just keep saying NO!

By: Keith Gormezano

Keith Gormezano — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:19:02 +0000

I also had a call from Linda Forest, Executive Director from Continental Who’s Who from 516-216-4241. She told me to call 516-825-5634. I did and she called back from 516-216-4241. We had a poor connection. I had to ask her to repeat herself several times.

She tried to tell me how valuable a CWW listing would be to me even though I am on LinkedIn with 10 recommendations for my on-site QuickBooks and Quicken set up, review, and training service in Greater Seattle, Biznik, the BBB, and the Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor web site as well as being listed in the real Marquis Who’s Who in America.

I couldn’t find any listing for the company with the Better Business Bureau.

I ended up asking her since I am hard of hearing to send me any documents and a summary of what she was going to say to me by e-mail as a disability accommodation request as required by federal and NY and WA law.

We’ll see.

By: Diane

Diane — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:15:05 +0000

It is really interesting reading entries regarding the Who’s who scam. Could I be right in assuming most entries are from the US? It seems the company is expanding it’s operation to Australia where we have allowed ourselves to be had. My husband originally thought it could be good networking for his business and was talked around most skillfully. He tried to cancel but they must process the payment immediately. Having used Amex to pay he asked American Express to support him against this scam, (as Amex give the impression that they do protect their client holders ). To their credit, after a bit of discussion, American Express has frozen the payment until arbitration and it will be interesting to see whether Amex can assist. I think the company should be investigated for it’s practice and a little pressure applied regarding accountability. I know in this world it is buyer beware, but I can’t help but feel the company should be scrutinized, especially after all that I have since read. So can anyone offer advice on this? In Australia we have a consumer protection organisation which would kick things off here, but who would this be in the US?

By: Brad Baker

Brad Baker — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:51:10 +0000

In regard to the name, I was given by the “Jerry Nelson” sounding character: It was Kyle Madison. Not sure why I thought it was Sean.

By: Brad Baker

Brad Baker — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:50:06 +0000

In response to my post earlier, I have still not heard back from the company in 2 weeks so I decided to call them on Friday. I called the number I had, a man picked up the phone (sounded exactly like Jerry Nelson who I had spoken to before). I asked for Jerry Nelson and he fumbled a bit and then told me to hold for a minute. He then got back on the phone and told me that Jerry was in a meeting. I told him he sounded a lot like Jerry Nelson (his response: we get that a lot). He gave me some other name (I threw out the sticky that I wrote it on but I think it was Sean?). He told me I would be getting a call back from customer service. I received a phone call about an hour later from some Customer Service manager. He told me that they would be processing my credit and have me a confirmation #. I found this entertaining since Jerry Nelson told me the same thing 2 weeks earlier with a confirmation #. I had still not received credit back on my credit card statement. So the new customer service man told me that it will be processed now. In return for giving my credit back, they asked for me to remove all my blog posts about the company. They told me that it hurts the business and is not right to the members of the company. I kindly declined to retract my posts because I feel people should know how this company does business. And why would I retract posts when I still haven’t seen any credit from them? This place is a scam and I have a feeling they use different names to try and defend off complaints.

By: Van Yon

Van Yon — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:18:04 +0000

I am glad I was able to find this posting. I can verify that I have recv’d a similar sales call as described in most of the above. I had been contacted in the past and also declined to purchase anything but agree to only be included for the FREE listing. After all, if I am going to listed for free, then what exactly am I paying all this money for “membership”? The sales woman informed me she would “be working for me” to help find international clients to send to me for my real estate brokerage, and THAT is why their registry is DIFFERENT from others. An answer for everything…
Their website looks professional enough on the surface, and its seems like the “real deal”. Anyway, I am glad that I just said “NO” after a LONG phone call from their representative. Caller ID #516-612-7271. I don’t know for a fact that their service is “useless” and a “scam”, but money is tight these days and even spending $100 on an unknown doesn’t appeal to me.
I’ll just keep doing my social & business networking through FREE media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & professional organizations for which I know.