More on the Who’s Who fax spam

I wrote a while ago about the Who’s Who Among Executives, Professionals and Entrepreneurs fax spam recently and it seemed to hit a nerve. I have received and continue to receive lots of feedback from others who’d received similar faxes.

I was curious when Bob noted that a business in Hobart was advertising their listing on their site (looks like this has since been removed) so I contacted owner Shane Mundy to find out more. Shane joined up and paid his money and has a slightly different take on the situation so I asked him if he’d mind sharing his experience which he was happy to do. Here’s what he had to say (unedited)

I suppose you can look at it a couple of ways, yes it is defiantly marketing , you are led to believe you are a special person to be asked to be a member, but at the end of the day you have joined a networking organisation, that’s what it is a membership that you pay 500 dollars to be a member, I did a google and when I told the SALES PERSON I saw lots of google results as a scam. It could be classed as a scam if you look it at it that way, there are 2 membership options platinum or 5 year, I at first said I was not interested but as any sales person he offered me the benefits of platinum for the cheaper 5 year option, in that I received 2 airline tickets to a list of destinations across the globe, there is a little catch though, you have to stay in their Ritzy hotels they are networked with for a number of nights, that was fine with us because we wanted to treat our self to some nice accommodation when we go back to new york after Boston, my wife is not here to ask what airline but I am pretty sure its Continental, so in all Steve it suited me this time around but if I wasn’t flying OS it would be hardly worth joining for the glory of having your name in a black book. They do send a black book as part of package with all the other members names and profiles.

Make of this what you will…

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You’re currently reading “More on the Who’s Who fax spam,” an entry on Steve Coates's Blog

Published:: 02.12.09 / 10am

Category:: Random

Tags:: fax, spam

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Fax Spam Scam Who's Who Among Executives, Professionals, and Entrepreneurs in Australia | Steve Coates | Steve Coates 02.12.09 / 8pm

[...] 2, 2009 update: read another point of view on this from someone who shelled out the bucks → Tags: [...]

Brian Green 11.12.09 / 1pm

Dear Steve,

Great Marketing- YES. SCAM – ABSOLUTELY NOT. Please help us and remove this negative site about us. You even have people on here that “shelled out the big bux” STATING THAT THEY DID IN FACT RECEIVE WHAT THEY WERE PROMISED!!! Your site is costing us customers because of it’s negativity. I think you should remove it as that is the right thing to do, as you have been told by one of our customers directy that we are not. People are forming the wrong opinions about us becasue of your site. Yes we market agressively but are in no way shape or form a scam. We provide a great service and have thousands of members that use our directory, PR services and love it. Please do what is right and stop hurting a good companys reputation because the people they are marketing to have a forum to puff up what is really happening. 99.9% of the comments here are from non-customers. Our customer retention rate is great, and they upgrade consistantly and love the service. We are asking you, business man to business man to please remove this site. It may be exciting to you because of all of the hits your getting from our marketing efforts but it is truly huring us and our over 50 employees that count on our great company to make a living. It also makes our happy customers question our credibility. So we ask you to please remove the negative press as We are clearly not a scam, just agggressive good marketers that provide a great service. Thank you in advance for you cooperation. We can help you get major traffic to your site with out hurting our company if you like. Please.

Brian Green

Ed from Melbourne. 15.12.09 / 4pm

Brian, if you really are a bona fide marketing company (as you would suggest) then come out and be open about it with a company name, an ABN, a phone number and an email address instead of hiding behind some woman’s skirt.
If you are an agressive marketer as you say, then be proud of that fact and your results and show us what you have. Of course you have retention (at least until the 5 year contract runs out) and of course they upgrade because you offer them the upgrade at the lower price. How you can sleep at night is just beyond me, but that’s your cross to bear.

Brian Green 16.12.09 / 11pm

NO actually upgrades are for additional services at higher prices. Get your facts straight before you ramble on with a bunch of rubbish. We put businesses on the map in search engines so they can generate more income. Leave me your phone number ED, and I’ll call you and explain everything, however we will not be leaving personal details on a site that does nothing but bash us with false information.

Brian Green 17.12.09 / 12am

We have great products and tens of thousands of happy customers. This site is a compilation of a bunch of synical non-customers so here is what we are willing to do to change that. THE FIRST 10 PEOPLE That leave their contact details on here, we will provide them with free services for 1 year to prove the validity of our product. That is only if they come back and publish the great things that our services do for ther business.

And just for everyones information, Crown Content IS NOT the original Who’s Who. Marquis Who’s Who is. Their web address is http://www.marquiswhoswho.com. However Crown Content has the right to publish Who’s Who books, just as anyone else does. We publish Who’s Who Books, but that is only the tip of the Iceburg. We are a complete PR firm that brands individuals and their companies through internet presence and executive networking.

So If anyone out there has anything else negative to say, please do so with contact information, and the first 10 of you will be given our top services for one year at NO CHARGE to prove our value to everyone on this site.

Thanks For Listening Mates.

Sharon 21.12.09 / 11am

One easy way to fix Brian’s little red wagon… turn it BLACK. Go to your fax machine, remove your ID fax number or replace it with a false one and start faxing ALL BLACK pages to the fax number, don’t be shy send 10 – 20 – 30 copies all at once. Hopefully if enough of us do it, it will get to the stage where he can’t afford any more ink or paper for his fax machine.

I was singled out by Jennifer Crowley and this is not the first time. Bugger Off Brian… if you are legitimate declare your ABN (which is supposed to be on all correspondence by LAW) and an opt out. You are nothing but a deceiptful low life thief. If you are in the USA then I am sure that once the authorities here get enough complaints about you they will soon track you through the fax number you are using and report you to the relevant authorities in the USA and hopefully you will end up having a nice “holiday” with all the other scammers and thieves over there, behind bars!

John 12.01.10 / 5pm

Hi Folks
I just received one of these faxes. We have a manager and a director working here so can’t tell which one of us has had our “candidacy approved” but how flattering!
Brian has broken a few Fair Trading rules in NSW actually; he hasn’t used his registered business name (yep Brian – I checked) or an ABN; no “opt out” – not legal Brian. There are others but I can’t waste too much time on this.

Finally, the fax is deceitful – you haven’t really approved my candidacy have you Brian?

I am in the marketing game – deceit is not “aggressive marketing” and it misrepresents marketing to call it that. Deceit is lying – not moral or legal and certainly not a valid form of marketing.

Offering free member ship is a nice touch but better still would be if you could get a couple of happy punters (you have thousands remember) to pop their names and email addresses on this forum so that we could get some rave reviews from them…they shouldn’t be hard to find.

Bucko in Brissie 19.01.10 / 1pm

I’ve just received two of these “Who’s Who In Australia” faxes in the last two working days. Since it doesn’t mention any addressee name, other than “The Director / Manager” I can’t see that any particular individual in our organisation can possibly have had their “candidacy approved”. Therefore it would appear that the fax is misleading and deceptive in terms of Section 52 of the Trade Practices Act. I’m not sure if it really is in contravention of the Anti-Spam Act though. The main thing that annoys me is that there is no telephone number to make an enquiry. Why would a legitimate business not include a proper telephone number and address for contact?

Margaret 19.01.10 / 3pm

“Brian Green”, you are obviously reading this thread – “get a life” and move on. Stop spamming people.

Since John rightly highlighted the correct procedures for “marketing”, you’ve gone very silent all of a sudden…

Chris 27.01.10 / 1pm

I also received this fax today. My number is on the ‘Do Not Call’ register, so this is not ‘marketing’ as Brian Green puts it, it is straight out fax spamming and infringement of the law. I have reported them.

Jocelyn 29.01.10 / 11am

I just received ‘the fax’ from Jennifer Crowley. I realised straight away that it wasn’t bone fide because it wasn’t addressed to anyone. I think the biggest problem is that the fax is allegedly from “Office of Public Affairs” which people would assume was a gov’t dept.

I’m glad I Googled it and found other people had stuff to say about it. If there was an email address on the fax I would have replied telling them that they were being deceptive, so I’m pleased to see that others have been in touch with them.

Thanks for the opportunity to state my distaste!

James 12.02.10 / 10am

Drats! I received this and thought getting my GED had finally paid off, and I would finally get the recognition I deserved as the world’s 14th fastest milk shake maker.

I am so glad I checked my ego at the fax machine and checked this fax with Google.

wendy 16.02.10 / 8am

I am so glad I googled this fax I recieved yesterday. I thought it was rather suspicious when there was no phone number to contact on the fax and I was wondering which friend had notified the government of all my hard efforts in my business? None worst luck!!!
Thanks for making this information available.

James (Sydney) 16.02.10 / 6pm

Yep another bright spark in the world of misrepresentation and false advertising. ‘Though not limited to the USA, I would have thought that at least the appropriate authority here in Australia (come on minister for communication) in camp Kevin, would have pounced on this long ago. This is my second ‘humbling’ opportunity for a pretend moment of fame. But like most of us out there in small business land (which IS most of us), gaining recognition in a local sense, is of the greatest value to our success. Bugger off Brian, we all know who WE are….we don’t need you to tell us. Find yourself a really good magician and ask him to demonstrate his best, you beaudy ‘disappearing trick’ ON YOU !!!

Thank you editor John.

James

Apology to Steve Coates. I just inadvertently addressed you as John. Thank you editor Steve.

James (Sydney 6pm)

Steve 17.02.10 / 2pm

You must have know John was my middle name James :-)

Margaret 23.02.10 / 3pm

I just received the fax. AGAIN today. Third time around, since December 2009.

Sick of these people wasting my fax roll — it is a long way to drive to town to buy new ones!

I wonder if Jennifer Crowley the Editor on my fax, is listed in the little black book? She obviously is a very clever business person and deserves recognition for creating the worlds greatest scamming business, probably makes a lot more money than me too!

I have a great idea!!!

Why don’t we (those who have been faxed) nominate ourselves as being truly recognised for our accomplishments — right here on this blog? that way it costs us nothing!!

I am nominating myself as the fastest macadamia nut cooker in the west!!

regards Margaret

Vivian 25.02.10 / 3am

Dear All,

Greetings from the USA. Seems Jennifer Crowley has found her way across the globe. The fax is addressed to my employer — here in the US name lists are shared, be it right or wrong. The fax does provide an opt-out #888-833-1296. I called and was prompted to key-in my fax # in order to have it removed from their fax list….let’s see if it works.
Best to you all, Viv

Robyn 01.03.10 / 1pm

I received this email today 1/3/10 and I am pleased that I did a google check before returning the email. As a small business I cannot afford outlaying money for scams. The ediotor apparently does not know anything about my biography so how can she assume it would be interesting!

Please excuse the typo in ‘editor’ above. I omitted to say that I am from rural New South Wales, Australia.

Dawn 01.03.10 / 3pm

I am not even a company or business, in fact I am a housewife, so I find it interesting that I would be deemed interesting enough for inclusion in a Who’s Who!

Craig 01.03.10 / 6pm

I received my fax for this great offer, as I thought, as a small business, trying to get off the ground, this seemed like a god send…but like most here, trust the power of google and found this fourm… as mentioned on this fourm before, there is no “opt out” number, no other, what I would call important info. So Ill be putting this fax into the “piss off” pile with other “scam faxes” and will use the other side of the page for my kids to draw on.

Steve 03.03.10 / 8am

I received the fax too. I say use big, BLACK, thick heavy marker and reply UNSUBSCRIBE to their fax number. Either they will unsubscribe or at least we get to use some of their fax roll. :-)

Michele 04.03.10 / 1am

This, as most other Who’s Who offers, is a scam to get you to spend money for information which can be obtained for free by a number of other methods. Jennifer Crowley, Brian Green, et al – are probably all fake names. Opting out via the 888 phone number sometimes puts you on yet another list. My advice – just trash it.

Hector Schmidt 06.03.10 / 1pm

YOu souns like a rocket scientist michele.

Donald 06.03.10 / 3pm

I haven’t got a lot of time/money to waste, so I wish “Brian Green” would stop wasting my printer ink. I have no time for people who prey on others in this way. These time wasters should do as most of us have to do and get an honest job.

[...] Green, who was a regular commenter on this site over the course of a week in late December 2010 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), commenting on most of the same posts with similar opinions and [...]

Tony 12.03.10 / 5pm

I couldn’t help myself… I just had to fax back a “Black Page” to “Jennifer”. Sick of scam fax/email letters. Wish all of them were listed on a national register so it would be easy to check and the Govt could prosecute people for it !

Peter Grundy 16.03.10 / 5pm

We got the fax (thank god for google) I have faxed them back with an interesting application!
ERRH 100 X Times yeah well that don’t cost me much on my business fax just hoping to clog theirs up with lots of colour say as it will use up all their laser cartridge

By the wat the applicant’s name well “Bob the builder” of course!

Ps here’s the tip scan the document and reprint with a colour in the background.

Sue Gabriel 19.03.10 / 4am

Wow…. Thank you! As a non-profit trying to help feed people with a food pantry and running programs to help them get jobs and become self sufficient, we’re always looking for free ways to get the word out about us. Almost bit, but something seemed not quite right. Good intuition and an internet search led me to you folks. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to post so I didn’t fall into the trap. Be warned, those who come after us!

Hector Schmidt 21.03.10 / 5am

Sue –

It’s not a trap. This rubbish has swayed you away from getting your message out to a captive audiance of over 50,000 worldwide. What a shame. Yes there are paid options available, but also free ones as well. Good luck in your mission.

Hector

James Taylor 22.03.10 / 6pm

I got one of these faxes today. Thanks to this site I did not complete the details. I too was a little surprised to find that I was so important they didn’t actually know my name. As others have commented, if these guys are legit why not include things like ABN /ACN, website etc. Also why not list other people who have found this service to be helpful. Given they claim to have so many of them, surely they would be lining up to get more of the “great exposure” this “service” offers. What a waste of time. Also I think it is a good idea to send the black pages back but don’t waste your time and money. They are prob. using a vitual fax system where nothing is actually printed but rather just emailed to someone. Companies often use these to give the impression of being locally based as you can get Aust capital city looking number allocated for about $20 a month and receive your faxes via email from anywhere in the world.

pam simpson 25.03.10 / 11am

Diane Garrick ext 2216 what have you done….Shame on you for giving out your ext number but no phone number. Jennifer Crowley if you are legitimant email back a number wher I can reach you. You got 99.00 dollars from me and I hope it is worth the bad Karma you will have. This was a lesson to be learned. I have reported you to the Attorney General to see what he thinks.

Sharon (Cairns QLD) 30.03.10 / 12pm

We received yet another one today. This ones from Lisa Smith. As everyone has mentioned – they dont know my name, no contact details and no business details. Get a life you scammers.

Leah Grimus 12.05.10 / 4pm

We got our 1st one today and I did the usual research before responding so such notices… thanks to everyone for commenting. It makes it easier for such plebes like myself to workout what to do with these things. It’s in the recycle bin :)

Penny 12.05.10 / 5pm

I have just received the “Who’s Who” (anyway catch the irony in this name) fax today. It is name marked ‘Lisa Smith Profile Coordinator’, however the most hilarious thing is that it is clearly NOT HER signature. Ha ha ha ha. Thanks Brian Green and the team for a hearty laugh at your stupidity. :)

Sophie 12.05.10 / 5pm

I just received one today from Lisa Smith from the office of public affairs, ironically the signature that accompanied “Ms Smith”‘s name appears to read “Jennifer Crowley”….
poor effort!
I replied with a “you must really think that we are stupid to believe this”… I doubt I’ll receive a reply but it would be interesting to see…

Carl 12.05.10 / 9pm

Well call me a sucker but i agreed to a deal on the ph with a sales rep and gave them a credit card, very embarrassing. They have charged me a amount, and are continuing to charge me amounts i have no idea what they are for. I have informed my bank to halt payments. ‘They’ have not answered any phone calls, i have sent multiple emails, all with no response. In the infopack there is a certificate totally shonky, they have all my details wrong including miss-spelling my name, a scam you bet oh boyo. I got sent a info pack with the most amazing typos and wrong info in it, what a classy outfit! Horrible feeling being ripped off.

Deb Robinson 07.06.10 / 12pm

I received one today – they’re still at it (the Lisa Smith variant). Thanks to all the people who list and comment on scams. I have made it a rule never to accept any unsolicited offers without googling them first (how I found this website).

Sue (NZ) 10.06.10 / 9am

Well, guess what, we are now being recognised in NZ as well.
Some people are just not busy enough. I would love to share soem of my workload. Get a life worth living “Brian”.

Geoff 05.07.10 / 1pm

I got one this morning.

Yep, scammers. Illegal Communications, SPAM Tactics, wasting my communications resources, time and headspace. (I’ll raise them an invoice if I find out who they are)

Don’t give them info or money, do report them, or at least post here so they DO suffer and wise google-aware business folk are forewarned.

(seems there is at least one REAL dissatisfied customer in OUR local market – Thanks Carl)

Thanks Steve, for this great resource.

…it was faxed from (02) 8078 6030 if it helps anyone.

Kerrie 19.07.10 / 12pm

We received 2 faxes over the last 3 days, they came from fax number 02 8078 6030 and the persons name was Lisa Smith. It was a dead giveaway as we are only a small company and not up their with the who’s who. Can anyone tell me who we can report this to as I am sure there are people out there who will not realise this is a scam and get caught.

Onray Jacques 26.07.10 / 9am

Ho Hum. Such is our life with technology. I don’t need a Who’s Who. I am well known. I have all the quality clients I need and can only lament the trickery and deceit that lurks behind such obscure methods you seem to employ

More Ho Hum. I shall fax back your offer suitably endorsed with my comments.

By the way.if you need some management advice and audit to advance your business, let me have look at your outfit in depth. OK?

Steve Coates

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