I’ve been planning on doing this post for some time, but putting it off because it involved a lot of research.
What tipped me over the line? The other day my husband got a solicitation from Cambridge Who’s Who.
“It is my pleasure,” the letter from Editor in Chief Jennifer A. Gonzalez begins, “to inform you that you are being considered for inclusion into [sic] the 2007/2008 Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals “Honors Edition” of the Registry.”
This is a major honor, Jen explains, because the Registry will include biographies of “our country’s most accomplished professionals,” many of whom regard inclusion as “the single highest mark of achievement.” There’s an application form that my husband can fill out and send back if he’s the snail mail type, or if he’s electronically inclined he can apply online. Just in case it occurs to him to wonder whether there’s a catch, Jen hastens to reassure him: “There is no cost to be included in the Registry.”
My husband knows me (and Writer Beware), so the first words out of his mouth were “This is a scam, right?” Unfortunately, many people are much less suspicious.
There are legitimate Who’s Who publishers that curate their listings and research the people they include. While they’d love it if you bought the book, that’s not the main reason for their existence. Cambridge and its ilk, on the other hand, are all about the hard sell.
Similar to the vanity poetry anthologizers, Who’s Who schemes lure customers by presenting themselves as a no-cost opportunity, but make their money by persuading people to buy books and/or memberships–often at costs exceeding $1,000. They claim to be selective, but in reality they harvest names just as junk mailers or spammers do, randomly and without regard to credentials–which means that their networking value, often touted to justify the enormous membership or purchase fee, is negligible.
The bigger ones attempt to tailor their solicitations–Rob is in insurance, so he got the Executives and Professionals letter. A woman might get an invitation to the Executive and Professional Women registry. There’s a solicitation for people in education. There’s one for scientists. There’s one for healthcare professionals. Here’s an especially disgusting one targeted to people with religious affiliations.
The Who’s Who gambit is a long-running, recognized telephone sales scheme about which there are a sizeable number of warnings. There’s a dizzying number of different Whos–many of which, I would guess, are run by the same people, though they’re pretty good at making themselves seem separate. Here are just a few examples:
- United Who’s Who (which has an unsatisfactory record with the Florida BBB for failing to respond to complaints)
- International Who’s Who Historical Society (ditto)
- American Who’s Who Association, which has a number of different schemes
- Premier Who’s Who (formerly Prestige Who’s Who, also d/b/a America’s Who’s Who)
- Emerald Who’s Who
- Madison Who’s Who (this one also has an unsatisfactory BBB record)
- Global Register’s Who’s Who (formerly National Register’s Who’s Who)
Frequently, the Whos are short-lived. Doctors’ Who’s Who (erm) and Nationwide Who’s Who are now only Internet memories, but Google either of them and, as with the rest, you’ll see people who list them as a professional credential. Ditto for Enterprise Who’s Who–which suggests one reason for the schemes’ short shelf life in the complaints it has left behind.
Back to Cambridge Who’s Who. It’s half of a two-headed hydra made up of Cambridge Who’s Who (which previously did business as Manchester Who’s Who and Empire Who’s Who) and Metropolitan Who’s Who. Cambridge and Metropolitan do business separately, and have different websites, URL registry information, and mailing addresses. But their logo designs and their solicitation letters are identical (compare Manchester-now-Cambridge’s letter with Metropolitan’s)–as are their hard-sell telephone tactics.
People who answer the solicitations from Cambridge and Metropolitan report very similar experiences. (These links represent a fraction of the online discussions and complaints about Cambridge in particular.) A representative of the company phones them, congratulates them on the honor of their inclusion in the registry database, and conducts a lengthy interview, with many questions about careers, professional accomplishments, etc.
Once the victim has been softened up by this process, the phone solicitor lowers the boom. The victim–who, remember, is under the impression from the initial solicitation letter that no costs are involved–is told that there are two levels of membership–a cheaper junior membership (currently close to $800) and a more expensive lifetime membership (currently nearly $1,000). This money, the victim is assured, isn’t for inclusion in the database; it’s for access to the database–which surely they’re going to want to have, since the registry is a fantastic networking opportunity. To sweeten the deal, there are extras–gift certificates, airline ticket vouchers, a handsome award certificate, a media kit.
If the victim expresses doubt about the cost, the solicitor says something like “You know what? Because I really don’t want you to miss out on this fabulous opportunity, I’m going to offer you a lower rate! You’ll only have to pay what a charity organization pays!” More hard sell tactics ensue. If the victim continues to resist, the solicitor hangs up on him or her–just like those magazine-sales scams where the people rudely blow you off the instant they realize you aren’t going to fall for their line of bullshit.
I’m sure it won’t surprise anyone to learn that Cambridge and one of its predecessors, Empire, have poor records with the Better Business Bureau. Empire’s BBB report shows 57 complaints over the past 36 months, most involving (surprise, surprise) selling and refund practices. Cambridge’s BBB report shows a stunning 150 complaints over the past 36 months, again involving selling and refund practices, and also billing and credit disputes. The bulk of the complaints–123 out of 150–have been made in the past 12 months. Metropolitan’s BBB report is currently being updated. When I viewed it in February (when I first began thinking about doing this post), it cited complaint patterns similar to Cambridge’s. Some of the content of that report is reproduced by blogger T.J. at his dogscatskidslife blog.
Another thing Cambridge and Metropolitan share: a very poor reaction to criticism. The hydra really, really doesn’t like it when people say bad things about it. When the Southern Conservative blog featured a satirical post about a solicitation letter from Metropolitan Who’s Who, a threat of legal action quickly followed from one Cyndi Jeffers of Metropolitan (she also contacted people at the blogger’s job). Blogger Shawn Olsen, whose description of his experience with Manchester Who’s Who is linked in above, is being pursued by a lawyer hired by Manchester/Cambridge, who threatens a defamation lawsuit and demands $7 million in compensatory and punitive damages. These two bloggers appear not to be the only ones who’ve experienced this kind of harassment.
If you hear from a Who–and don’t assume it will be one of those I’ve highlighted in this post, because I wouldn’t be surprised if Cambridge, at least, were thinking it might be time for a name change–don’t hesitate. Toss the letter straight into the recycling bin. That is, unless you want to make fun of it on your blog.
UPDATE 1/11/22: As the date on this post attests, it’s been a while since I heard anything about a Who’s Who solicitation. But you should still consider it an active “beware”, because today, I received one myself:
The submission URL leads to a “dangerous web page” warning, so it didn’t seem wise to explore further, but from what I can gather, Professional Who’s Who is part of a web of Whos associated with Marquis Who’s Who, which apparently was once at least somewhat legit but in 2015 or 2016 was bought out by Worldwide Branding, the company that owns Cambridge Who’s Who (the subject of this post). Professional Who’s Who isn’t included in Marquis’ listing of its many Who variants, but the logos tell the story:
I just recieved a call from cabridge who's who today and it was exactly as you described. The phone sleaze even brought the cost down to $99 for lil ol special me. I did not give her a penny and I did not recieve my fancy plaque. It makes me sick to think they have my name and address and the name of my place of buisness. I hope they all go to jail!
…looks like it has been awhile since people have been hit up by Cambridge Who's Who!! Just got my letter today. I was in Who's Who Among American High School Students, and since I recently finished my Bachelor's degree I thought it had something to do with something similar. When I read that it was for Executive and Professional Women, I knew it was a scam. I just got out of the Air Force…have done nothing too substantial…yet…and am currently unemployed!! HA! I showed them!!!
hahahahahah
Thank-You for your time and efforts in researching and compiling this information! I was going thru some old mail before shredding and I and ran across a Cambridge letter. Expires October 13, 2009. I went to investigate but you have already done so. They are still at it.
M. Foster is the editor in Chief now.
You are one heck of a shovel Mrs. Strauss! keep "Digging" up hidden information!
This is hilarious. Completely. Both your blog post here and including what I'm about to write.
About 2 years ago, I started getting these annoying phone calls from the Cambridge Who's Who after I filled out the online form for them to contact me. They were persistent with reaching me for the interview. But it was annoying. So, 6 months ago I found a form to write them a note to remove me from their calling list.
Then there was silence… they didn't call me and I figured that they got the word. Then yesterday I received a message from them in my voicemail saying to call them for an interview from Nicole Cavisinski at extension 1242. I didn't call.
Then today, she called me and then I decided to mess with her. So, I said to her.
(in a relaxed voice)
"Oh, Hi Nicole… You sound so hot…, what are you wearing?"
Instantly she hung up.
So, I went ahead and wrote to a complaint to the FTC do not call list.
A minute after the phone call, I get an email from them with this note:
Thank you for taking a moment to speak with us today regarding your Cambridge Who’s Who application. As per your request, we have withdrawn your application. Should you ever be contacted by another representative, please email us immediately at withdrawal@cambridgewhoswho.com.
Best Regards,
Cambridge Who's Who
516-535-1515
info@cambridgewhoswho.com
LOL
So, it seems that messing with them does some good. So, I'll wait for another 6 months to see if they start calling me again.
I hope this helps other people here.
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Thank you for doing this research! I knew this had to be a scam and was hoping to find a Blog like this one to prove it. Your efforts helped so many people and I'm sure they are all as greatful as I am.
I received this honored invitation today, as always, if it sounds too good to be true it is. 'Cambridge Who's Who' sounds most like an English Owl Society. Therefore, I don't give a hoot!!
Thanks for your information. I received one of these letters and had a little suspicion about these Cambridge Who's Who, so I decided to look it up online. I thought it was fishy how it didn't give much information on its website. Thanks so much for your help. I'm sure you've helped thousands already.
I met with the people at Cambridge and listened to them laying out their business model – it was a very large but professional looking boiler room setup and people seemed to be making money there…disappointed regarding the owner's past (they bragged about him) and also about the scam you all say they are running from at least two Companies. I pointed out to them that I had been contacted by a likewise Firm in a nearby Town in 2008, and they gave me some mumbo jumbo about buying up another Company, which I picked up on as bullshit. Tempting, though – a fast talker with no qualms about the approach can bring in the bucks there…or so they said. "Who" knows — I had a feeling things weren't on the up and up when I looked at one of their Registries, filled with pathetic no names as well as accomplished people — but mostly from mundane backgrounds.
I may start one of my own, but a bagel shop might be less risky in the long run — TGG
I myself got the bullshit letter over a year ago, and going through some old letters found it and considered it, but due to my skeptical nature I had to research it, and thanks to this blog I cant mail them a nice "fuck you very much letter!”
My Cambridge Who's Who letter came today after only living in Theresa, WI a month, but they stated that I was recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent the fair city of Theresa. Needless to say, it's a scam. My letter was signed by M. Foster, Editor in Chief, 498 Rexcorp Plaza, West Tower, Uniondale NY 11556
Know what, good point – this post is so informative I am including it as my post of the day on Facebook to warn others I care about not to fall for this Scam!
Best "Let the Buyer Beware" post ever!
I am shocked they are allowed to exist at all, haven't been sued, reverse logic bombed or put in jail. I just got an annoying letter and immediately googled this.
How in the world does this company survive these days with Facebook, twitter and google? The first think anyone does these days anyway is join linked in if they really want networking and facebook is what REAL companies are using for recruitment.
This company is a farce and they cause me to want to spend my free time calling them making up names and then reverse harrassing them while I star *67 my phone. Except, I have a life. But it still makes me mad.
Much thanks for the post and the blog! Its a great piece of work.
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I just got the letter and quicky googled it. I am glad I found this post. Thanks!
Looks like Cambridge Who's Who is at it again. I just got one today. That's September 2009 and they're hungry for victims!
I worked there for a year in upgrades dept…the upgrade dept I
f the most profit making for the. Com
pany…u see when u get your f
irst call after u fill out
the application its called memberships…if u r crazy enough to pay for any of the programs u r then going to get a call 6 months later to upgrade your membership. Now all of your credit card info is still in there system…so they r very carefull what they say…it goes something like this…(it could have changed) mr …. We have your book and plaque ready…now its part of
Your membership and the balance is 650.00
That will be shipped out this week…we still have the credit card ending in xxx thank you and have a good day…
That's as much as I remember….
Mine came to me as an Executive or Professional, which made me laugh. They clearly got my info from a "free" magazine subscription in which I listed myself as the VP of Marketing for my own website.
I just received a Cambridge invite, which I knew by first appearance was a scam. I'm at the bottom rung at my employer for only a year now and can only guess they obtained my name from the hosts of a "conference" I recently attended. It's the only way they could have obtained my name by purchasing the customer list from Skillpath Seminars (formerly CompuMaster).
Please be aware they are using a new angle on this scam. I just got a call today. They got me last year although I did not buy the book, plaque nor the lifetime membership so I got off without losing too much. But the new catch they are using is that I was selected as 1 of 10 professionals out of 400,000 people to be a VIP. I would get to be featured on the web, get a full page in the book and a free lifetime membership, oh yea and that plaque. All for the privalege of paying about $600.00.
I had no intention of doing this again after my experience with them last year so I told her that I had to talk with my husband first that we do not make a decision to spend over a hundred dollars without talking to each other first.
She wanted me to call him at work and I said I would do no such thing. Then she tried to pull a fast one on me by saying she needed to verify the credit card they had on file. I had closed that account so I knew I was OK but when she read it off to me I said absolutely do not charge anything on that card until I called her back. If I would have just thought she was verifying it and said yes that is the right number, the card would have been charged. She let that little tid bit slip later in the conversation when she said something about once she verifies the card it goes to another department and she has nothing to do with that. Yea right. She did agree to call me back tomorrow and I am not answering the phone!!
For anyone who is reading this, hang up on them do not even let them start their speil. If you get the letter in the mail like my hubby did shred it!
got a "cambridge who's who registry among executive and professional women" letter today in the mail. Ha! No way
Two years later and your information is just as powerful. A shredding I will go.
This is great I just got this in the mail. Cambridge Who's Who Executive and Professional Women. Looks like they are taking it a step farther.
Being a naturally suspicious person I just goggled them and there they were and right under them was you…Thank god.
Anyway, debating on shredding it or filling out the form and letting them talk to my 6 year old for an hour!
Just got off the phone with a scammer from CAMBRIDGE. Thank goodness we are broke as my husband just got laid off, our income has been cut in 1/2, and we have voluntarily stopped using all credit cards. God is always here to protect us. Yea. I just feel $1,000 richer right now.
"Old MacDonald had a farm, ee ei ee ei oh."
"And on that farm he had a WHO, ee ei ee ei oh."
"With a WHO WHO here and a WHO WHO there, here a WHO, there a WHO, everywhere a WHO WHO…"
Thank you so much for this blog. I received a letter from the crooks (August, 2009), and contemplated sending it in. I wanted to know more about them and googled them, and I found your blog. Thank you so, so, much for preventing me from possibly getting into such a scummy contract. Thanks again……….
Just wanted to let you know that as of Sept. 2009, Cambridge is still alive and well and targeting new "members". Thanks so much for your post. Like others, my scam radar went off, but it was good to confirm.
A big thank you! I was on the phone with one of the scamsters while I did a Google search to see just how legitimate the Cambridge folks were. Thankfully, your post was one of the first to pop up on Google, just as I was getting the sales pitch from Cambridge! I kindly declined to pay any money to them and hung up the phone as fast as I could!
Hey Guys,
If anybody gets taken on this scam and gives them the credit card number. The quickest way to a refund is to tell them that you demand a FULL REFUND. (Yes you can get one.) If they say no, just let them know that your next call will be to the New York State Attorney Office for Fraud. They will try to continue telling you how great they are, but they will give you that refund. Good luck to all who have paid them.
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Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I'm not the type of person to give money to anything like this but definitely keeps my pride in tact to know this was a complete scam. And, for those of us truly on the way up it's just that much more predatory.
What I want to know is, "Who's ultimately going to pay for this scam?" That's the who's who I'm looking for.
Years ago I found your blog and use it as my bible for scams. You taught me to research everyhing. I received a letter from Cambridge Who's Who and thought hmmmm… maybe that could work as a professional creditial I could use. But just in case lets look to see if it's a scam online.
BANG heres your entry. Into the shredder it went. You've saved me yet again. Thank you.
-Mandy
Wow! I just got a phone call from these people who gathered my information I gave them based on an ad I saw in Facebook. Luckily for me, once she started pitching a sell I Googled Cambridge Who's Who and found this blog. I never mentioned that I was reading up n the scam but rather insisted that I just had to pass on this incredible opportunity due to a pending deployment to Iraq.
They are actually targeting men and women with combat experience in order to "properly recognize them" for their service and offered a discount on the membership. People have some nerve.
Cambridge is still going strong. I received the "Interview" call and was offered the Platinum lifetime membership @ $769 ( plus a $199 deferred payment) or the Gold 5-year $569 membership (plus $199 deferred). I kept saying no…and was offered the 3-year $369 plan, the 2-year $189 plan, and finally that 1-year trial plan for $99. Good grief…normally I think playing this game is fun, but it was a drain on my time. I want those 13 minutes out of my life back!
I received my letter informing me that my canadidacy was approved for the Registry "among Executive and Professional Women", two weeks ago. M. Foster is the Editor in Chief. I was a factory worker for 33 1/2 years until my company closed, so I knew it wasn't legit. Wondered what they meant by "Professional". They even gave a web address for me.
Thanks for your post. Comments were very informative.
Victoria, once again your blog helped me. I just got a letter from Cambridge Who's Who. Funny, when I achieved my National Honor Society status in high school, I was flattered and fell for a membership to Who's Who (Among American Students … or something like that); that boosted my self-esteem. Now as an adult, I am glad to be skeptical and search your blog. Thanks to your invaluable warning about Who's Who, I will continue to be "Who's Golden Leaf". THANK YOU!
Just go the letter today and you confirmed my thought that they made their money selling the books.
But I was disappointed when I realized it was the
DOCTOR who's who
instead of the
DOCTOR WHO's who
Ok so I just went and googled their address in Uniondale, NY. Guess what, definately not an area that a place like this should be. I typed up the full address and it was not found, duh a fake, I'm glad i did that too, alongside checking this website out. I guess they think we are all stupid and won't look up the address or check the sites. Tankyou again for your research it is a BIG help to me and all. Big smiles at you. 🙂
Thank you. I was wondering about this letter I recieved today. Suposedly, I am an executive professional.! I havent even finished my college degree!! wow
I just got the letter today and wondered who they were. So I opened the letter, It says I was recently appointed as a biographical candidate among Executive and Professional Women. Whatever that means, I'm a teller and a lesbo. I went on the website they give you http://www.JaneDoe.mycwwapp.org. Well i was weary of it so I looked up Cambridge Who's Who. And just so lucky to find this website. I don't even have 99 dollars to give to these people for anything. Much less waste it on anything stupid. Thank you soooo much for the site. 🙂
I was on a tour of the Egyptian Pyramids a couple years back with a very good tour guide. He warned us about the free camel rides that would be offered to us at the foot of the pyramids. You see, the camel ride is free. The pilot takes you out about a mile or so then asks for a donation to get get you back to the pyramid or even get off the stupid animal. Thanks for the blog.
I was on a tour of the Egyptian Pyramids a couple years back with a very good tour guide. He warned us about the free camel rides that would be offered to us at the foot of the pyramids. You see, the camel ride is free. The pilot takes you out about a mile or so then asks for a donation to get get you back to the pyramid or even get off the stupid animal. Thanks for the blog.
Hey Anonymous who can't understand why people are calling this a scam: Shame on you! Cambridge Who's Who is LYING to people about the exclusivity of their list, the reasons for inclusion, the benefits of membership – they are lying about their product. They are a scam. You didn't purchase a membership, not because it didn't "fit your needs," but because it is completely worthless. It doesn't fit anybody's needs.
Hey, thank you very much. I received the letter today through my in-box at work (8/18/09). I assumed it was a work related entry, but Googled the name anyway to see what was being said about them. After reading this, it is now shredded and waiting to be recycled waste.
Thanks again!!!
im so glad i found this blog…..i almost caved in to this…..they wanted 1000k for what????i can link to others just by going to the library and getting the marquis whos who….
or thomas register. be on the look out for the shark sales technique
a big hint to u all…..i use to work in cancellations dept…if u buy a membership, do not accept it..refuse it they must show proof of delivery…if u say u never got it…and they cant prove it u get off the hook….i know for a fact…they would get a charge back for it
I cannot believe I fell for this… After feeding my ego and going through the initial "interview", then being "approved", my head must have been the size of a watermelon. The instant Sari mentioned the two membership possibilities, I grew wary. It reminded me of a "but wait, there's more!" infomercial. Every time I would mention that I would need to speak with my husband first about such an "investment", she took down the price, throwing in the free airline tickets and upgrading my membership for free. My palms got sweaty and my heart was racing as gave her my credit card information and I settled upon a trial membership of 1 year for $99, just to buy me some time until I could talk with my husband. I called back minutes later to the extension she gave me and left a message, being careful not to say anything about canceling, even though it was my full intent to do so. I waited a bit, then called customer service back and explained the situation. "Trisha" was very polite, but asked if Sari told me that all memberships are final. I said I didn't remember, so she said she would listen to the call between Sari and me and call me back. Fan-fricken-tastic. So I called back again to see what else I could do, explaining I do not want to be any part of a company who treats their clients in such a manner. She said that Trisha was still going through the call and would call me back. So, I called my credit card company and removed the pending charge. But after I was informed that the company could still charge the card again, I decided to just cancel my credit card account. No kidding. I am nauseous at the thought of how I fell for this, because -to be quite honest- this "honor" didn't ever seem to be owed to me. Lets face it… I'm not that special. All in all – this is just a very expensive ego boost. Don't fall for it. My husband may kill me 🙂
Two days ago, I was nearly had by this one! I initially confused Cambridge Who's Who with the "real" Who's Who registry (the one I was listed in when I was in High School and then in College, the one you don't have to pay anything for) or I would never have even responded to their solicitation……I finally agreed to an "introductory" membership for $99, after turning down their offer of an $1100 "Platinum" and then an $800 "Gold" lifetime membership, thinking it might actually give me some business exposure even though it was probably not worth even that amount of money. I normally never fall for any type of scam, but I felt somewhat obligated after such a lengthy interview, and gosh, Jane just sounded so sincere and nice (ha ha, I know, that's part of their M.O.). Had I not been fooled by the Who's Who moniker, I would never have gone even that far. Today, I decided even $99 was too much for what was probably a scam, or at least, a worthless "membership", and I called my credit card company and disputed the charge. American Express removed the charge immediately from my account and stated they would contact this company about canceling the charge. Fortunately, this was easy to do since it did not involve any goods having been exchanged, just a "membership"…..I will let this will be a reminder to me to be more vigilant next time! I will keep all of you posted on what happens next, because I might now be the recipient of harrassing phone calls or letters, since they have probably already mailed my "welcome packet" (which I intend to refuse and have the post office return unopened if it arrives). So, this could get interesting before it is through……I'm giving my family a heads-up to not answer any phone calls from "restricted" numbers….
They are still at it…got a letter today to my business PO Box. Mine is from Cambridge Who's Who and lists the website I'm supposed to reply to like this:
http://www.JaneDoe12345.mycwwapp.org
I love how they use a .org extension as if the company is a charity.
I am in the entertainment industry, and this con reminds me SO much of the business model used by talent scams. You've probably heard radio or tv commercials: "Does your child have an outgoing personality? A Casting Agent from Disney (or Nickelodeon, or an "talent scout") will be in your city this weekend, looking for kids to be in their next project! Only the first 200 will get to audition…blah blah blah".
When you get there, there is an audition (for someone you don't know), but there is also a pitch for acting classes or a talent competition. Pricetag: $2K – $10K. Non-refundable deposit? $1,000.
Common threads are all there:
–a list they buy from
–flattery
–make you feel "chosen"
–an actual product (book, class, etc) although the quality is worth about .02
–use of a charity name
–celebrity endorsement (in this case CAMBRIDGE, but in the case of talent scams they often use D-list celebrities who are paid to lend their names).
–statement that there is no cost, but then a pressured one-day-only sale later.
Thanks for the blog…and btw Tara, back in 2007–I still love your tactics! Gave me a giggle.
Great article for your blog. I received a Cambridge Who's Who Among Executives and Professionals today. I knew right off it had to be a scam. The only things in my life at the moment that warrant the words "professional" and "executive" are I'm a professional student and the executive Dungeon Master for my Dungeons and Dragons group.
Hmmmm…my situations a bit different. I was contacted by a group called "Who's who in North America" by a group that says is "associated with the Montclair Network".
I went through the whole interview etc….they approved me on the phone and said a "package will be on the way". I then said "Does this cost any money or do I have to join anything?" and the woman on the phone said that there was basically a $99 annual fee, but that everything would be explained in the package I was to receive. I never gave them any credit card info or anything. Can I be scammed if I haven't given them card #s or anything? They couldn't already have such info…could they?
Because they never asked for any money over the phone, it didn't seem to match the Cambridge scam…but in other respects it sure sounded a lot like it.
Well, I have received a letter from them today from M. Foster, Editor in Chief" asking me to fill out information including my work and cell, address, email address and signature! Thats a lots of information to give out to strangers! What a scam! Thank you for posting previous information, was very helpful.
just wanted to add to the list of women who received the 'honoary' letter from cambridge just today. so glad that i googled it and found your awesome blog about it. i guess they are still trying to bilk people out of their money. thanks for your blog. this letter is going in my recycle bin…
Thank you it is a wonderfull article,
I was in vacation when I got this letter and wandering who knows me so good to have my information so clear and further more, my new address.
At least this didn't cost me so much time and efort to clarify this
Again THANK YOU
Thank you for the information. I, too, thought it suspicious. I just moved into the neighborhood I'm in not even a month ago and it sounded off. How could they have investigated me so quickly around here??
I will send them their reply card BLANK so they pay for the postage.
I wanted to verify my suspicions and you have all attested to my gut feeling.
Thanks so much for this! I found a letter from Cambridge Who's Who in the mail tonight and googled them and found your blog! Thanks for the warning!
I got the same letter in the mail today. Thank you all for your posts.
I just noticed I spelled moron incorrect…oops
I worked there for 3 weeks..they start you out in a weeks training. If you don't sound good they fire you. Maybe 3 people make it out of a class of 20. What u need to do is take your card and attach a brick to it. If everyone does this it will cost them a fortune.
If u want to show them to fuck off do it! The management is all on commission so that's why they r thirsty for sales…they could give two shits who u r… U can be a moran, but if u have the cash they will publish u…I am sad to see that they winning on pushing the negative ones off of google. They have people who work there that just do positive blogs for them..what a joke this company is..
thank you people who posted, i just received the letter in the mail box today and decided to get on the internet and the first listing was the word scramm, thank you taking out time to let people know what is going on, times is too short, to be going though this kind of stuff.
I got one of these today and as soon as I read it I knew it was a scam. Here's why… they said its for the Executive and Professional Women Who's, but I'm not even a professional yet. I just graduated with my master's and haven't worked a professional day in my life outside of internships (which I'm sure doesn't count). How could I have any accomplishments as a professional if I'm not one till fall. Lame. Glad I Googled this and thanks for the post to warn all.
Why don't we all do what I've done. Make up all kinds of bullshit during the interview, I even told the interviewer I was a Broadway composer, and had a PHD in physics. Kept her on the phone for 45 minutes, and told her I'll think about it and to call me tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll find another way to waste a half hour of her time, AND get her to call me back next week. I'll just keep screwing with her till she gives up.
Hey, "Anonymous": It's Whether, not Weather. And since no one who has written in in the last 2 years has actually received any product for the money they paid, then it doesn't qualify as direct marketing. It qualifies as a scam.
I got my letter today – I do remember getting things like this even in high school – and while I was flattered for about 30 seconds…my BS alarms started dinging. Glad I found this site!
Ah – I love the internet! I just got my prestigious Cambridge Who is Who interview, and was already thinking "where is the catch…". I started browsing the web while being "interviewed" by a Nancy Miller, and saw your blog, and was reading it as she was pitching. I just gave her a very friendly "no sales pitches, please", and she became more insistent. So I finally said "sorry, no sales pitches. Thank you very much." and hung up.
I was not going to put any money into this anyhow, so there was no risk I was going to be had. However, your posting was quite ensuring about what I felt was going on. Thanks!!!
Gee, yesterday I received a call from Global Reach telling me I'd won a trip.
Today I got my letter from Cambridge Who's Who. I must be doing something right.
Bottom of the letter states that they are "proudly not associated or affiliated with any other Who's Who Organization or Publication." Yes, 'organization' and 'publication' are capitalized. They also have a website.
Thanks for the warning, Victoria.
Thanks for the blog. Luckily, I knew this was a scam before I received the letter in the mail from M Foster (rather than Jennifer Gonzalez) at Cambridge. I will be bringing this to the attention of everyone I know. Thanks again for acquiring as much info as you could on these scam artists.
Hi! I was just "honored" by being accepted into the Montclair Who's Who registry. I can't find much information about that organization. Oddly enough, I have also been accepted into a Who's Who Amoung Women Executives (or something like that) and at the bottom of that note it specified it was not part of Montclair Who's Who. Hmmm Now I'm thinking they're both scammers. When I said I wouldn't spend money without consulting my Board first, I never heard back from them.
Wow… Thank you for saving me the hassle of trying to recover my money. Patricia White from Cambridge Who's Who contacted me with the same amo, however, I really did not have my credit card available to give her the information, but she was very adamant about getting the information because time was running out to be included in the "registry". But luckily I am saved thanks to all of you.
Hey,
I just received a letter from Cambridge, and being the person that I am (a student), I wondered what the hell earned me a "professional" mention. That and I think the worst of society and always wonder what people what from me. So I looked into this ploy on the internet and ran into your article. Thanks for the warning, you do our society a favor!
I just received a who's who letter and was about to throw it out. Then, I went on line and read your very well written and extremely well researched piece.
However, since you have a list of people complaining about this for two years, why are they still in business?
Do you really think that making them pay $.30 is going to make a difference in their $70,000 a day business?
I don’t understand that if you receive a letter asking you if you want to be included, you willfully reply and then you are contacted to purchase something, and you are given a choice wether to purchase it or not, and the you receive exactly what you were promised how it is a scam?
I think it’s great marketing. Isn’t that what direct marketing is all about? Just because you are swayed by the direct advertising it doesn’t make it a scam. Where would the business world be without direct marketing.
No one is physically taking your credit card out of your pockets and charging it without your authorization, are they? …No, they are presenting you a product or service or whatever the hell it is that they do, telling you how much it is, charging you the amount they tell you and delivering the product to you. This is what I get from reading the preceding.
Weather we like it or not the whole world of direct marketing is based on mailing lists. When you subcribe to a magazine, sign up for american express, get your discount card at the grocery store, etc. you are put on a mailing list. Do you really think that when you buy a magazine subscription for $12 – for 12 issues they are making a profit???? …No, they are selling your name hundreds of times as a subcriber to a certain magazine, which gives marketers a knowledge of what your interests are.
Visit the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and have a poke around. You’ll all see that these companies are great direct marketers, not scammers. I’m actually quite impressed, but folks, stop trying to destroy a business because they are great direct marketers. That is a shame.
Take this for what it’s worth… I’m in the direct marketing industry, and thought this approach was Genius. Did I buy.. NO, but not because it’s a scam, but simply because the product didn’t fit my needs.
I just got the letter today in the mail, right away I thought it sounded 'hinky'. But it was still in the back of my mind so I googled it and there was this post! Thank you so much for shedding light on this. I'm 23 and most people my age wouldn't see anything weird about this… I just hope they google before they hand out credit card info!
Yes beware. I just got off the phone with them and I gave my credit card number. After the call I googled them and found this blog. I called back immediately (within 5 minutes) and was told no refunds all sales are final due to the personalization and printing. I told her the sale has not even gone through yet and nothing is printed. The card is in authorization at my credit card company. The rep still refused to give a refund. If this is such a reputable company, don't you think they would tell me to do my research and if I was still interested to come back and be a memeber. I finally called my credit card company and told them to close out my credit card so no future charges can be applied.
I truly wish I had found your website before I spoke to one of the agents this morning. They gave me the whole pitch on the value of networking and how beneficial this membership would be. Sure… I can't see how they possibly came up with my name unless this really is a scam. So I agreed to their $189 option (kept stating my budgetary concerns). Then after I got off the phone, I did a search on google. Why, oh why, did I ignore that little voice in the back of my mind screaming at me! I just called them back and spoke with Trisha who agreed to refund my credit card. We shall see.
Thank you so much! I thought it could be a scam when I received the letter in the mail so I got online to check it out. I first saw that Cambridge Who's Who is a real thing, but then 2 links later was the link to your blog. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this information.
Thank you, for taking the time to warn us…. I just received a phone call from Cambridge's Who's Who.. I like others got curious and I found your blog.. Thanks for warning me ahead of time!
I too received my letter. This is the second time I have been solicited. Both of those times are when I have been a home mommy. I wonder what kind of executive and professional woman that makes me? Professional mother? I may just send back the post card blank, just so they have to pay the postage.
I just received a come-on from Cambridge Who's Who, and I smelled a rat immediately. Thank you so much for the thoughtful post; it helped validate my suspicions.
I sent back their ridiculous postcard with a request to be removed from their mailing list. Keep up the good work!
I just got a letter from Cambridge Who's Who today- had never heard of them but remember getting something like this in high school so I thought I would check it out online first. Glad I did. I am mailing back my response card with a "No thanks" written on it. Thanks for taking the time to let people know about this- could have been a major waste of time!
Do what I did and fill out the
Business reply card inside that they have to pay the return postage on. I just filled it out by writing rhe word SCAM for every entry, Name, address, city, state, etc.. They will have to pay for all the postage on every one that gets sent back. LOL!!!
Thanks for this post, I just received my "very exclusive" letter from Cambridge today, glad I checked it out before calling!
Tray: I was fortunate in that my credit card refused the charge and had already identified this as a scam. I have read on this blog that others have had success canceling. Call them and demand that they cancel.
sadly, i found this post and all the comments too late. i'm usually an avid online researcher about this crap. unfortunately i let my guard down just this once.
has anyone been successful in challenging the charge and/or canceling?
Thank you very much for all this information. 2 weeks ago I got a letter from Cambridge whos who and I responded, then I got a phone call from a girl wanting to interview me and honestly I felt special. Then she was talking about money, alot of money over $700. Till this point I was ingnorant of what was going on. I told her I couldnt pay that much money. I have a kid and Ill prefer to spend on him than on me and I told her no. Then she lowered the rate and to be honest I was very tempted but good thing Im responsible and I didnt go with it and I hang up on her. I told my husband and he told me to do research that it was probably a scam. After reading this Im sooo GLAD I didnt become their next victim. Thank you!!
Thank you for this great posting! You did some excellent research. Everything that you described matched up very closely with my experience… a lengthy phone interview, an airline ticket valued up to $550, the urgency of making the decision to be included was now or never, the price of inclusion dropping from $700 to $99 when she found out I was unable to afford that much, etc. Wow, what a terrible scam, and a waste of 25 minutes of my time! My interviewer even told me that her daughter and son-in-law are also pharmacists (I just graduated from pharmacy school). Pretty ridiculous, huh?
Thank you thank you thank you! I just got a Cambridge Who's Who letter today. I fell for a who's who in high school, thinking it would help me get noticed by more colleges. Fortunately that only set me back $60.
Appreciate this greatly. I became an apartment manager six months ago and received this letter from cambridge in the mail. Searched for it's credentials online and found this. I was also an up and coming teenage poet, lol, and pretty much recognized this for what it was. but I wanted to check for myself. thanks for saving me the hassel!
Just got the letter in the mail and was very skeptical. Thanks for the great article, I had the feeling it was bogus.
I thank Almighty God for allowing me to know "who" I am and "whose" I am. It sure does protect one from this sort of garbage. As long as He recognized me, I could care less about the who's who of the world. hanks for the incite.
Minister LLC
http://www.cambridgewhoswhoconnect.com/profile/RandyNarod
hey this is what i found check it out
I just received one of these from Cambridge Who's Who from M. Foster, Editor in Chief. I am glad I checked it out online first, as this blog told me everything I needed to know to make the right decision!
Thanks!
Shawna
I am a new business owner and received one of these cards too. I am usually pretty good about researching things that don't see right or if I question why am I getting this. Always do your research, I'm glad I did so I didn't get taken advantage of. I love the last post about returning the blank card so they pay for the postage, that's what I'm going to do! Thanks for this blog everyone!
I'm so ashamed of my vanity! I got the letter inviting me to be recognized in the Cambridge Who's Who and, as many of you have pointed out, the letter said clearly, "Remember, there is no cost to be included." When "Megan" called, it was clear she knew nothing about me. Then when she talked money, I wasn't listening. That was this past Friday. The money was removed from my account before I hung up the phone. Today is Monday and I called this morning to cancel. I met with hostility and was told so much work had already been done on my behalf. They offered to refund approximately 50% and, when I said I wanted the full amount, I was told they would consult with their "compliance officer" and call me back today. I was then informed of their "no refund" policy and when I said that was never told to me, they said they would review the tape of the call on Friday. This is clearly a scam and, again, I am so ashamed I fell for it! Thank all of you for verifying my buyer's remorse feelings.
I don't want to go the personal "web" site, for fear they can trace visitors, but how are they allowed to use our names to set up "web" sites?! Isn't that infringement or identity theft or something. Also, I remember a similar scam back in HK being run by, you'll never believe this, Nigerians! They sent out "invoices" to businesses and asked for corrections to information on hand for publishing in the International Trade (Who's Who/Registry/whatever) Book. Come to think of it, Nigeria and Uniondale are not so very different.
I use to work in the uniondale office. I got fired for not selling enough memberships. I even have the sales pitch. I'm gonna sell it to bitmore. I hated workn there
Bogus vanity publishers infridge upon marquis who's who..goole this
Hey folks..you are correct. Scam it is..and your names are bought from a list broker.the owner is a telemarketing brain. He is trying to make cambridge look legite. What u can do is take the reply card and attatch a brick to it. They need to go to jail like global who who international
Good work. Thank you for posting!!
I got the same sales pitch-of course- and managed to google them while on the phone and found this site. Amazingly the rate went from $800-$99 in the course of our conversation.
STAY AWAY. SCAM.
Thank you so much for this information. I never even heard of anything like this "who's who" until I got a letter in the mail today and googled about it.
Apparently now the Editor in Chief is an "M. Foster"…
It IS a very unfortunate thing that people get sucked into such scams.
I don't do ANYTHING impressive for a living. I ain't exactly a Who's Who Cambridge! But nice try there buddy!
Thank you for your research, they are still at it. I got my announcement yesterday. I am glad I had your comments ti fill in the missing gaps.
Best wishes; Cindy
Well a situation such as this. Is easy I love consumer issues like this one. Here in Oregon we have several laws pertaining to these kinds of scams.. From both the consumers and the Merchants POV.. the Merchant..
When You Must Cancel an Order
You must cancel an order and provide a prompt refund when:
* the customer exercises any option to cancel before you ship the merchandise;
* the customer does not respond to your first notice of a definite revised shipment date of 30 days or less and you have not shipped the merchandise or received the customer’s consent to a further delay by the definite revised shipment date;
* the customer does not respond to your notice of a definite revised shipment date of more than 30 days (or your notice that you are unable to provide a definite revised shipment date) and you have not shipped the merchandise within 30 days of the original shipment date;
* the customer consents to a definite delay and you have not shipped or obtained the customer’s consent to any additional delay by the shipment time the customer consented to;
* you have not shipped or provided the required delay or renewed option notices on time; or
* you determine that you will never be able to ship the merchandise.
The consumer..
Putting Cold Calls on Ice
So just how did they get your number? Fraudulent telemarketers may get your phone number from a telephone directory, mailing list or "sucker" list. Sucker lists include names, addresses, phone numbers – even how much money you may have spent on telemarketing scams in the past. Unscrupulous promoters buy and sell sucker lists on the theory that consumers who have been deceived once are easy prey for additional scams.
The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule helps protect you from abusive and deceptive telephone sales practices. The Rule restricts calling times to the hours between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., and puts other limits on telemarketers, too. For example:
* Telemarketers must tell you it's a sales call, the name of the seller and what they're selling before they make their pitch.
* It's illegal for telemarketers to lie about their goods or services; earnings potential, profitability, risk, or liquidity of an investment; or the nature of a prize in a prize-promotion scheme.
* Before you pay, telemarketers must tell you the total cost of the goods they're selling; any restrictions on getting or using them; and if a sale is final or non-refundable. In a prize promotion, they must tell you the odds of winning, that no purchase or payment is necessary to win, and any restrictions or conditions of receiving the prize.
* It's illegal for a telemarketer to withdraw money from your checking account without your express, verifiable authorization.
* Telemarketers cannot lie to get you to pay, no matter what method of payment you use.
* You do not have to pay for credit repair, recovery room, or credit services until these services have been delivered.
* It's illegal for a telemarketer to call you if you have asked not to be called.
For more info visit us on the web at http://www.americanlibertyrights.org/consumerrights
thanks…. save me time on this… got one today. They sign it with M. Foster now.
Thanks so much! I just got the letter informing me I'd been selected for inclusion. I knew some of these were scams, so I was going to just throw it away when I thought, "What if it is legit? It might be something to include on my resume." So I googled them and found your blog. Question answered. Letter appropriately filed. Thanks again!
I am too embarrased to identify myself, but I just got ripped-off by Cambridge to the tune of 598.95 for a Platinum membership (which I did not want) then automatically they plan to charge me another $199, and of course all sales are final…….I can't believe this happened to me, I am too old to fall for this but it is true. I should have read your blog earlier……
Received my letter today, and even went to the website created in my very own personal name to check it out. It was there that I began to get that feeling in the back of my mind that something wasn't right, and jumped over to another window to Google "Cambridge Who's Who". Upon immediately seeing all of the information pop-up against them I knew I was being conned. Thank you so much for putting this out here for the rest of us to access!
Now am wondering if they are tracking the website and will contact me even though I didn't enter any information in. Actually, I am kind of hoping for it just so I can keep the person tied up on the phone for an hour or so (going for the record) and prevent them from being able to con someone else during that time!
Thanks again!!
I received my letter today. I am skeptical by nature when it comes to this kind of thing. Especially since I just graduated and moved to this city 8 months ago and now I have been "appointed to represent the city" among Executive and Professional Women?? Come on, give me a little bit of credit. While I will admit to being slightly flattered to begin with, sensibility immediately kicked in so I did a Google search. Lo and behold I found this blog. Thank you so much. It only saddens me to know that this has been going on for so long and no one is doing anything about it. This letter is going straight into the shredder. I don't have time to deal with harrassing phone calls or annoying people who want me to part with my money!!
Totally turned it around on these guys. I wrote them a nice letter, explaining that "As I'm sure you are well aware, as a person of great stature and importance to society I receive many such offers. Adding my name will certainly give your publication great notoriety and elevate it well above the many similar offerings.
As such, I have established a fee structure for incorporation of my name in your registry. For a one time fee of $5000 my name can be listed for a period of one year. For $20,000 you may gain the rights to list my name on a lifetime basis.
There is also the possibility of having an exclusive listing. Please contact me if you have significant resources and have an interest in pursuing this possibility.
The process works as follows: once I receive your payment and the funds have been well established, a cursory check of your business listing in the Better Business Bureau will be conducted. Shortly after that, I will provide you with the listing information.
Best Regards,"
Never heard from them again, so I guess they aren't interested!
Thanks for all the info. Just got my letter and I was all excited! Figured the catch was coming soon.
Thnks So much for the insightful blog. I recieved this letter today. Although it was very flattering. I just completed my internship and will be graduating in a few weeks and thought something doesn't smell right… So I Googled it, and sure enough it was a load of crap. Thanks again so much!!!
– Miss C.P.
And still in June-09 this scam continues! Can't believe Cambridge Who's Who is still kicking on.
Thanks for the warnings.
Just got my letter today. Am inherently suspicious of anything that says "REPLY NECESSARY" in all caps at the top — oh yeah? Or you'll do WHAT?
And then at the bottom is the odd phrase, "Cambridge Who's Who is *proudly* (my emphasis) not associated or affiliated with any other Who's Who Publication [sic] or Organization [sic]" — okay then. Proud of that, are you? Well, yippee-kai-yay for you.
Was going to tear it up anyway but decided to Google it just for grins, and found your great post. Thanks! Most informative!
I just got off the phone with these people. I knew they where going to ask for money. At first they offered my two choices, one was for lifetime for like $800 and the other was for 5-years for $600. They also included the companion ticket. I told the scammer I would like to think about it because it's a lot of money!
So she said she had a 3-year membership, I said I'd like to think about it. She continued with a 2-year and then a 1-year membership. I finally just said "NO" instead of the "I'd like to think about it" no. Then she said congratulations, thank you you for your time, and that is all.
I'm glad I didn't fall for their scam. If it didn't cost so much money, I probably would have because I failed to follow my own rule: Always check online for shady offers.
I'm surprised these scams still exist even after 2 years.
Cambridge Who's Who is a scam!
Ha Ha. Looks like they are trying to enroll everyone in the US.
sorry for the misspellings…I am still upset
I just finished one of the lengthy conversations. And she was all nice and caring and saying all the righ words and then she tells me that the membership costs 800 and then other one that was a little cheaper. I told her that I have my student loans to pay off and she said oh of course will give you the membership for $99.00 for a year. I told her no I needed to talk to my husband and she says for $99 oh okay we will just list you in the book. This is such a scam and was such a waist of my time.
Wow I just can't believe this. I just got the letter like two hours ago and when I read it I was confused. So of course, I decided to go to the Website that had my name on it and when I saw the Welcome screen I was atonished!!!then I saw the appication and it hit me. I never give any one my information on line or over the phone unless I know who they are. Since I don't know who the heck is Who's who" I went on goggle first and found you guys. I was not gonna go thru with it but I got really curious to know WHO again this people were,but I siriously never though in a million years to find all this information. This is so hillarious to me but at the same time I feel comple to express my sympathies to the affected victims. I really hope that this people can be stopped one way or another. because of people like them humanity fade each day more and more and people find themselves no trusting anything or anyone in this life which sometimes may cause a lost of real opportunities.
Thanks again for this blog and good luck to everyone!!
Just got this letter in the mail. When I googled it, this blog came up and I want to thank you for spreading the word! Very kind of you…
BEWARE!!! BIGGEST SNAKE IS DEB MORRISSEY HEAD OF HR FOR CAMBRIDGE, IF SHE ISNT THE DEIFNITION OF SLEEZE I DONT KNOW WHAT IS!!!!
I cant believe this. I just hung up the phone from some lady named Lucille. Cambridge Whos who. Last week I received a letter in the mail stating I was honored to represent Miami Beach professional women. I was so excited. I told everyone I knew about this great thing that happened to me. I also placed it on my resume. They called me a few days ago and left a message on my voice mail. Today they called and reached me. She had me on the phone for at least 45 min. I told her from the start,"If this is about money I don't have it". She stated no and interviewed me. After the interview she through membership dues at me. I couldn't express enough that I was not paying anything. She let me hang up with the thought in my head that I was still be honored and if I have a change of heart to call her back. I decided to Google Cambridge whos who to see what information I can get about them. I found your Blog. How can they do that to people. Made my hopes go up high . Made me look like a fool . Thank you for doing this research. I had a feeling about them but didn't want to believe.
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I just received one of their letters today and I thought I'd look it up before submitting any info.
The B.B.B. (Better Business Bureaus) bbb.org has all of their websites and names.
Cambridge Who's Who
Emipre Who's Who
Empire Executive & Professional Registry, Inc.
Empire Who's Who
Manchester Who's Who
Thank you,
Thanks a lot, just received this mailing and was supecting the same
I filled out my Cambridge return card in the name of "Phuc A. Yu" with a bogus address but with real phone numbers….to a prominent law firm in a major city to whom I doubt they wish to speak. I'm glad to have cost them postage AND wasted their time.
I got this too. The surprising thing is I'm still in Middle School.
Oh man (imagine whiny obnoxious voice) just when I thought I’d finally been recognized for working in a low paying job, for a tyranical incompetent boss, all to support my writing habit, I had to read this blog!
I got my Executive and Professional Women’s nod from Cambridge today. I then quickly fashioned my resignation letter, sure that fame was mine. What a rotten Monday. Almost as rotten as the time Gilbralter Who’s Who wanted to recognize me as an International Executive before I’d even been out of the country.
Next you’ll be telling me that editors don’t really sit in a room and debate how great my manuscript is and they aren’t deeply emotionally torn by having to send me a rejection letter!
i just received a letter from Cambridge… i drew a penis on the business reply. i hope it gives the reciever a paper cut and they get gangrene and have to amputate.
Thanks a million. I was about to respond to this honor mail and read your posting and zillions of comments from other folks and you all saved my money in this tough economy!
I will be watching this blog and if people want to get together and send these guys to jail, I will be more than happy to join the revolution.
Beware scammers, stop here or get nailed.
To the scum that obviously works for either Madison Who’s Who or Cambridge Who’s Who.
Madoff was in business far longer than 12 years scamming people. Do you think if a scam goes on long enough it become legit? Guess what? We are all on to your scam and its a matter of time before the companies are closed and the owners are put in prison
thank you for this warning. I just got a letter in the mail this afternoon. I can’t believe it’s still going on 2 years later…
A NOTE TO ANYONE WHO HAS RECENTLY BEEN RIPPED OFF:
If you paid them with credit card- and it was recently, you can very easily get your money back.
Simply call them up on the phone and DEMAND a REFUND. If they say no, tell them if they dont, you are going to call your credit card company up and do a “CHARGE BACK” . (be sure to use that word- “charge back”) If you say them words they will assuse you know how the system works, and 50% of the time they will go ahead and credit your money back.
If they still say they wont refund you, dont waste any more of ur time with them. Hang up then call your credit card company and tell them you want to dispute the charge because they are fraud.
Some people dont realize how nice credit card comapnies are about stuff like this.
Credit card “charge backs” do have time limits though. Some credit cards have a 30 day limit, meaning in order to do a charge back the transaction had to occur within the past 30 days. Most credit card companies however do 60 or 90 days. My credit card that I use has a 6 month grace period on all charge backs. Thats the best because especially on ebay, if you have any problems within that 6 month period you can make a phone call and get your money back.
This does not apply to bank or debit cards though- charge backs only apply to credit cards.
haha I was thinking the same- was going to send the blank post card back to them. But im having second thoughts.
Im thinking about filling it out with all my info on it, then when they call me I may turn the tables on them.
I will go through the interview process, I will talk lots about myself, and make it very lenghty. Once she throws her sales pitch at me ill throw it right back at her by telling her I know what they do down there and im not interested in any of her services. Just wanted to waste some of her time- then hang up on them.
yes i too got a letter and i was certainly honored…but 300 posting on how it was free then they want to charge you 800 dollars FOLKS THATS FOR A MEMBERSHIP, I TOLD THEM I DO NOT WANT MEMBERSHIP, THEY TOLD ME I WAS ENTITLED TO A COMPLIMENTARY MEMBERSHIP,,,,,,I WAS GRATEFUL. THEY STAND BY THEIR WORD ….EVERYONE STOP CRYING…THE LETTER SAYS COMPLIMENTARY LISTING….AND YOU are comparing this to FACEBOOK….lol. AND LINKIN YOU HAVE TO PAY…… please grow up all of you…I FOUND OUT THEY HAVE BEEN IN BUSINESS FOR 12 YEARS….DO YOU THINK IF THEY ARE NOT HELPING PEOPLE THEY WOULD STILL BE IN BUSINESS?????
I just got this in the mail, “Cambridge Who’s Who”. I was not sure if it was a scam until I read the post on this site. Thanks so much for all your help. 🙂
Thank you Victoria! I just received a letter. I was suspicious. I googled the organization and found your posting…thank you for taking the time to warn so many of us about this scam!
I just received a letter today from the Cambridge Who’s Who, telling me I was recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent my home town in the 2009/2010 online Cambridge Who’s Who Registry among Executive and Professional Women. First I am a stay at home mom, I am also in the Army National Guard. I am no professional and I have never heard of these people let alone filled out an application for anything like this! The name on my letter is M. Foster Editor in Chief, I saw other blogs with different names on it. I hope people don’t fall for this scam!
wow, these sons of bitches are must think everyone is a “someone”, im a nineteen year old alcholic. why should i be honored, i dont even have a job right now. When i opened my letter i didnt know what it was, but apperently they already have a website made for me, and to be honest that pissed me off, i dont want my name in a website. Also they said that i was chosen to represnt my city, Temecula,ca, and to be honest im sure their are a plethora of people who are better suited. But anyway, i used the letter to light a cigar, and i gotta say, it even made the cigar taste bad. (I think that was a bad attempt at a joke), anyway anyone who gets a letter and actually calls and is pressured into buying something is really feeble, and even more so if they really are an executive or professional. But anyway, thats what americans are feeble sheep who’ll go against everything they been taught for something they have never heard of.
Well thats all i gotta say on that.
Oh and screw obama and his socialist agenda, i want michal savage for president
I also got a phone call and mailings from Cambridge Who’s Who. I don’t know how they got my work address and direct phone number. They are sure persistant and manipulating, but nice enough so that you won’t get too mad at them.
They even tried to call me on my home number repeatedly but never leave a message.
Who’s Who is definitely a scamming franchise. They amount they charge is obscene considering they do not specialize in a particular industry and the people on their directory are completely useless and not the kind of people I would network or associate with.
LinkedIn and Facebook is way more effective and efficient for networking and finding people, and best of all it is free.
I hope the word spreads around, especially these days where everyone is networking like mad and will do anything to get a lead.
I have just received a phone call from emerald who’s who. They have started from 899$/699$. While I show hesitation to pay money. The agent started to lower the amount 399$ two year then 199$ for one year. At last minute he tried 99$. As having similar marketing attempts, I do not decide such offers immediately. And after seen your page, I am sure that I did it right. Thanks for the blog for informing people.
Hi, Thanks for your work!
I’ve just hang up the phone with Sharon Block – Cambridge Who’s Who. Thank God I didn’t give them any money. I said that I needed to think about it and she tried to get something from me. I ended telling her that I would call her back.
Is there a way to sue this people? I was thinking that we innocently add their name to our resumes (or cv’s) as a award and people might look at it and laugh. I almost added to my resume as indicated for Cambridge Who’s Who 2009-2010. Imagine if an HR from a Nestle saw my resume and laughed because I fell for the scam!
Thanks for posting the information. I just received a Cambridge invitation and thanks to you it is now where it belongs, in the trash!
Thanks again
The story goes further. I emailed Elizabeth to tell her about the 3 charges, at the email address she gave me and it was returned “undeliverable.” Later, there was a message from her on my voice mail that possibly I had not yet activated my card (that I just canceled). Apparently, they attempted to charge it again.
oh my goodness- THANK you for posting this… I got called by these guys and what you descibed was exactly what happened! Came time for my credit card and I said I wanted to do research- she said as long as she had my “word” that I would pay the next day, she’d go ahead and process my application… good hell, sure enough, I google it and here you go. THANK YOU for people like you.
That charges to your card which they reported to you as declined is the worst “charge” I have read on this site. How lucky that this forum exists.
I was just contacted and sold on this by Elizabeth George, a very nice sounding lady. I went for the “platinum” membership and charged it to my credit card. Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth called and told me the card had been declined. I called the fraud dept and was told that 3 charges had been made by Cambridge Whos Who: 798.95, 398.95 and 118.95. I then googled “complaints” and found this site. Thank God! Needless to say, I declined the membership and canceled the credit card. Thanks for this blog!
Thank you so much for posting this. I received my phone call today and was deeply upset to find out that they wasted my valuable time. I explained that I did not have a credit card currently on me, the caller asked me to walk around and see if i can locate an old receipt with the number on it. That was enough for me.
Thanks for the heads up. I put a booger on their card and mailed it back.
Wow. And it’s still going strong. I got my letter from Cambridge this morning informing me that my candidacy had been approved as of April 15, 2009 for the online version of Cambridge Who’s Who Registry Among Executive and Professional Women.
I’m not a professional anything. Thanks for the thorough investigation and report on this scam. After googling and finding your blog on the first page, I feel confident in my own ability to spot a scam a mile away! Thanks again for confirming my suspicions.
Seriously, this is great information. I love the WWW, since you can really get info on all these scamming companies. I almost fell for the Cambridge scam until I realized that no one at work would put forth the effort to nominate anyone else for something like this. I am glad I came across this.
Now, if someone would have equally warned me about apartment rental scams…I wouldn’t be out $2,500. Tsk…Tsk…Tsk…
Liz
I appreciated the fact that I was “approved” on April 1. How appropriate!
I really want to say thank you for the helpful info. I recieved my letter from Cambridge today. It was so obviously a scam that I actually started to laugh reading it.It says, “Cambridge Who’s who among Executive and Professional women.” Now what is so funny about that is that since graduating in 2001, as my personal choice, I have been a stay-at-home mom. I have never been a professional at anything outside my home. Again, Thank you for shining a spotlight on just how deep this scam runs.
I sure wish I’d seen this sooner! I just decided to google Cambridge Who’s Who – I guess I’m a lot more gullible than most of your readers! I just checked, and the charge just cleared my credit card on 4/10/09. I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do about it at this point. At least I had him down from his first quote of $700 for a lifetime membership to $99.95 (which showed up as $118.95 on the credit card website). I told him “No” several times in the course of the conversation, and almost hung up at one point, but unfortunately I kept going. I’m glad you posted this – just wish I’d seen it sooner!
I recieved a postcard as well. Went through the whole interview and everything. Then, came the whole membership package thing. I actually transferred money over to pay my credit card to pay for this thing. But, I told her that I would have wait until I got paid the next day. Meanwhile, I search Cambridge online. After reading all of this, I reported my card stolen before she could even charge it. I called and left word that the card wasn’t going to work if they swiped it. The chick called back and left word on my answering machine, oh we can work something out. Give me a call back. Never called her back. After reading, I was starting to feel bad because I almost got caught in this mess. They go after a lot of people.
I have been dodging these calls for months. Today I answered. Word for word you are right on. If I said I picked my nose for a living; I am sure she would have told me it was a great accomplishment. How can anyone sell this garbage? If I want to see myself in print, all I need do is enter MySpace, Facebook, or EBay and it doesn’t cost a dime. Signed: Not born yesterday
I’m so glad you posted this! I had an “invitation” from Cambridge hanging around my office for weeks, and this evening I actually went online and started filling out the app. I stopped in the middle and thought to myself, ‘You know, I’d better look further into this first.’ Good thing I did! Thanks for the tip!
An organisation calling itself whohub recently contacted me via my blogspot.
/quote
Hi, BuffySquirrel
We are contacting you because we have seen references about your work online.
We would like to include you in our directory of interviews with creative professionals and artists.
We invite you to take part in this interview. It is free.
You will also be able to include any web links to samples of your work on the internet.
To start the interview just go to this web address and start responding to questions:
http://www.whohub.net/interview/WRITING
Here, you can find some examples from other professionals:
http://www.whohub.net/en/authors.php
Best
Elsa Wide
Whohub is a directory of interviews with professionals in the fields of communication, arts, technology, and marketing.
/unquote
Squirrels are naturally suspicious. So I wrote back and asked them where they had seen my work referenced. So far, no reply.
Any thoughts, WB?
Thank you for writing this, I had received a letter from Madison Who’s Who for my business (with myself as the only employee and a total of 10 clients, HA!) About a month later got a call. After reading your blog, I went through the checklist with the guy on he phone…
$800 lifetime
$600 5 years
SPECIAL DEAL normally only for charitable ogranization.
2 free plane tickets and a plaque! WOW!!!
How stupid do they think we are? We are a better business because we do research and stay away from money blowing schemes such as this!!!
Great article!!!
Just got off the phone with a Cambridge Who’s Who rep. Everything happened the same way everyone else is speaking of. Platinum or Gold membership, and a companion airline voucher. After I said no a few times the price went down to $100. I told him that I still wanted to do some research and that is when he got mad.
Thanks for the blog!
Loved the story, Tara! I wish I’d looked up Cambridge before they called me this morning so that I could have messed with them too. It’s called karma adjustment. Fortunately, I didn’t give them anything. Any reputable company will send you information on membership fees/awards/benefits in writing if you ask for it. If they hem and haw at such a request, something is fishy! Thanks for the post and info.
Thanks, I got one of these in the mail the other day.
I’ve gotten invitations from the legit Who’s Who in the past but the disclaimer at the bottom of this letter tipped me off: “Cambridge Who’s Who is proudly not associated or affiliated with any other Who’s Who Publication or Organization.”
Thank you for the post. The letter is now residing somewhere in the recycling plant.
Thank you so much for the information. It will definitely go in the trash. Figured it was a scheme of some sort!
I was contacted by the International Who’s Who http://www.internationalwhoswho.com/
Same thing, they asked for money. I need to understand, is the Who’s Who organization that is creating this scam or people pretending to be part of the Who’s Who?
Thanks so much for this post. I got one of these in the mail, and I am like you friend that does trust anything. I knew something was wrong because I don’t even work now. I retired and I am finishng my degree, and they claimed I was in a professional who’s who, PLEASE!
THe AG’s really needs to investigate this company. As a former employee, I can personally attest to the unethical and probably illegal actions perpetuated by Randy Narod, the “real” president toward the employees there. Unfortunately it is the employees who put themselves at risk in following the illegal actions, as demanded by Narod.
As of today (3/12/2009) the scam of Cambridge Who’s Who is still going. I got the same tactics, pressure, promises, tickets for two etc. Luckily, I caught their scam on time and called my credit card company. It is the biggest scam I have seen, STAY AWAY from those BASTARDS!
I know this is probably a tad childish, but if I have a few idle moments on a public computer, there is nothing more I like to to than fill in their online application forms (from their website, not the ones that link from your email) with utter rubbish.
I’m never insulting, and I probably waste more of my time than theirs, but for some reason it does make me feel a warm glow of satisfaction of annoying them, even if it’s only for a nanosecond.
Small update: 1) They stated they would be pulling my call records and would play the call back to me if necessary to prove their side. 2) They never called me back. 3) I placed a dispute with Amex over the weekend. 4) Today I looked again at the paperwork that was originally sent to me: it clearly stated NO COST which I totally forgot when they called me back. So, in essence they TRICKED me by not even offering me the “no cost” plan/option.
I really hope AMEX agrees to reverse the charges.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I received one of these and I just about filled out the form. I decided to do a little research before I went further. Thank God I did! I appreciate you writing this to save the rest of us from a scam.
I hope you do get your order canceled..if not you will have a fight on your hands.. gl
I recently fell victim to these people, mainly because I was interested in the networkinf aspect of the listing. Now that I have read over and over that it is not really exclusive I changed my mind. I called them less than 24 hours after giving them all my info. They said it goes to be personalized immediately. I told them that I did not care and that if they did not stop the charge I would dispute it. I work for a company that sells things and if we tried to tell our clients that they could not change their mind on an order after we worked for hours putting their order together we would be crucified!! I will post again once I have my resolution to the issue.
I was just working for one of these Who’s Who. It is a scam and also a boiler room. They actually got mad at me when I put the phone down for a second to file something; “The phone must stay at your ear, and you must keep dialing for dollars.” 99% of the people out there hang up immediately, mainly because they know of the scam or don’t like to be solicited – especially people in the US. So they attack Bermuda, Barbados, etc… Where people, to me, seem to be a little ignorant. They all seem to use the same type of scripts and aggressive tactics. They will include anyone in their registry; it’s all about the dollar. I worked there 1 week, and was actually fired when I couldn’t make it into work one day because of car problems: but, I really don’t think they liked me too much, even after I made a $1900 sale. I asked too many questions; such as, how many members are there? Why do you say that you have been in business over 6 years when your domain name was created in Sept. 2006? If I am an independent contractor, why am I not treated as one?
Anyway, I knew there was something wrong the first day when I couldn’t take home the script to practice it; and also the owner got real worried when he saw me copying something down off the sales board. It was just the office #. Only one salesman has been there a year; all others have quit in a short time – probably because they knew it was a scam or didn’t like to be pushed so hard on the phones. In such a bad economy, why are they having so much trouble finding employees? They also charge the persons credit card before you get off the phone with the sucker — I mean customer — to make sure the card clears. On the plaque they say is signed by the general mgr. of the company; just some office girl; they charge $159 for it; must cost $15 to make.
Basically, it’s a boiler room; so don’t take it out on the “Senior Editor” who is calling you. It’s just some kid who has probably been scammed himself to do the job and make 300 calls a day. The real thief is the owner who has been opening who’s whos since 1992.
I am surprised the authorities don’t catch up to this guy. He sells lifetime memberships to people for a company has a very short life.
I just received a letter in the mail from Cambridge Who’s Who letting me know that I’ve been as a biographical candidate in the 2009/2010 online Cambridge Who’s Who Registry among Executives and Professionals.
It tells me that on February 18, 2009, my candidacy was approved! It’s that amazing, considering I never applied to be in the registry in the first place.
It then lets me know they’ve set up a personal Web site for me! There’s no way I’m going anywhere near that site, lest my computer be subjected to spyware or worse.
I wonder what would happen if I sent this letter back to the address it originated from with the word “SCAM” written in black marker all over it?
Am a regular British guy who’s not had an amazingly spectacular career. I do like to follow current affairs and subscribe to the International Herald Tribune newspaper. Out of the blue arrives this letter from Cambridge Who’s Who and I had no doubt why. When an American lady from the organisation rang me, I mentioned that I’ve hardly done anything worthwhile. I told her I’ve been in my current post for less than 11 months and because I subscribe to a specialist newspaper am often put into a sterotype as a highflying businessman in my 50s (of which I am neither). She said they have a whole panel that reviews each candidacy. Rubbish. I told her that they can’t be doing a very good job! Thought I was being humble – now realise I avoided falling for their scam.
Thanks on the Who Who’s Scam I ran it by my boss b/c I know I should not be in this and she told me to google it and came across your blog.
They shouldn’t be called a scam. They should be called scum. It is sickening to hear that these folks are still up to their old tricks. I got a letter from them a couple of years ago (I think it was Manchester’s), sent in the postcard, and went through the whole detestable phone call thing. It was one of the most memorable and disgusting experiences of my life. I complained all over the internet, in fact if you search for complaints mine is one of the first that comes up! And just the other day, I got another letter from Biltmore! Talk about “doing some research.” No one should feel bad about being taken in by these people. They are smooth, they are sly, they can take any level of personal accomplishment you provide them with and make you feel good about yourself, and then make you feel horrible by berating you and eventually hanging up. I wish I could think of a punishment bad enough for them. Should I send in the postcard, get them to call me, and try and keep them on the phone for hours? I don’t think I could handle it without giving them a piece of my mind. Thank you for keeping this scum in the public eye – hopefully we can work together to drive them out of business!
Thanks for this post! You just saved me a lot of hassle from Cambridge Who’s Who. I’ve been included in some legitimate Who’s Who Directories before, but had not done anything spectacular recently that would have earned such recognition – made me wonder enough to Google this thing before responding, and I found you. Thank you thank you thank you!
thank you so much for researching and writing this. BRAVO!
Thanks for this very helpful post.
I got a letter from Cambridge Who’s Who a couple of weeks ago, which began ‘Dear Ms X, you were recently proposed as a biographical candidate to represent [county] in the 2009/2010 online Cambridge Who’s Who Registry among Executives and Professionals.’ (Nothing about women, maybe they’ve dropped that part, for UK targets anyway.)
Two things made alarm bells ring. First, the letter was sent to my home address, not my business address. Second, they didn’t use my professional title of ‘Dr’. I got my PhD back in 2006, and I use the title in my professional life as it is relevant to my work as a researcher. So I decided to Google them before doing anything else – and I’m very glad I did.
I am a hobby writer and have recently had some success in selling short stories to women’s magazines. I use my home address for correspondence related to this, and I use the title ‘Ms’. I wonder if that’s how they got my details.
Thank you for saving me frustration of having to deal with the Carmbridge Who’s Who. I am a Realtor and receive their Professional Women bla bla bla letter and they were calling my home and cell as well. I assume the got those numbers from my Real Estate advertisments. I have yet to return their calls due to skepisism. So again thank you for sacing me thetime it would take to listen to the scumbags.
thanks for this info!! i just got a letter from Cambridge for the women’s who’s who… and i thought i might check it out before giving them any info.
i got bugged about buying a book from a company years ago that supposedly used a picture i had taken in their book. i don’t want to go through the annoyance of that again.
thanks again!
Received a letter from Biltmore Who’s Who, postage paid envelope to Coral Springs, Florida yesterday. Same scam, just changed their name.
BEWARE. Will return envelope with junk stuck inside and a note “Scammers Beware!”
Great Post. Just received my letter – Like Ros I thought it had scam written all over it but googled it just in case – top of the list was your post.
Thanks
Like a lot of women in the IT profession, I have worked very hard for many years to gain a decent level of success, and have continued to update my skills with both vocational and academic qualifications, so it wasn’t completely out of the question to receive the effusively flattering invitation this morning from M Foster, for a biographical inclusion in the Cambridge Who’s Who listing. They mis-spelt my name, however, and the url they included for me to check my details doesn’t exist. Hmmm. No reflected glories there, then!!
😉 Thanks for your well-researched blog. I thought it probably was a scam but vanity is such a pernicious trait that I might just have succumbed, if I hadn’t been so damn’ cynical …..
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Thanks very much for the lowdown on this scam. I received my invitation yesterday and was immediately suspicious.
Thank you for saving me time and effort – I can safely throw this in the round filing cabinet (the bin) without thinking I was missing out on something important!
Great Idea on sending back the mailer someone!
As above! Thanks – and I’ll post their card (but blank).
I got one of these today………..and I am unemployed!
Thanks for this. My 13 year old daughter got a mailshot from Cambridge, so I reckoned that it was a scam, but this served to prove it.
So, I just got the mailer stating that I had been chosen by Cambridge in my town (that I moved to less than 3 months ago!) among professional and executive women. I’m a stay-at-home mom and haven’t worked outside the home since before I got married 8 and a half years ago. Thank goodness I’m the suspicious type when it comes to things like this!
I just recieved one of the “Who’s Who” letters from Cambridge. I am soooo glad I fould you blog!!! I am not a professional so I thought it a bit odd that a bartender be recognized.
Thank you for your work in researching this.
Unbelievable! Got a letter in the mail today. The scam is still going strong two years after the original blog. I figured it was a scam, but wanted to make sure.
Thanks
Excellent.
x 1000.
Madison Who’s Who, buys the books from other Whos who and calls their members. When a new CC is issued they simply change the expiration date, not the number. MWW knows this and will guess the expiration date by trial and error. If you want your $$ back call your CC company and tell them your card was stolen by Madison Who’s Who, since it was anyway. Tell them you never heard of the company and never authorized any charges. It is a long painful battle. If they send you something DO NOT ACCEPT it. W/o a deliver confirmation and w/o a signature they have no chance of beating you.
Your link on the Better Business Bureau information on Madison Who’s Who is a dead link, do you know if BBB has any other info on Madison?
I was nominated to Marquis Who’s Who and shortly thereafter received a call from someone at Madison’s Who’s Who and failed to realize that they were not affiliated (my bad). It made me wonder if Madison has an insider at Marquis. The Madison rep had the hard sell trying to sell everything up to airline tickets. I agreed just to get the one year membership but have been charged for their book twice, which I never received. I hoped that when my credit card expiration date was changed that they would stop charging me but to no avail. I figure I can’t get my money back since I have waited too long but at least I can stop them from charging my account anymore. What measures have others taken?
I just got a letter from them too. I have made it a habit of checking on this kind of stuff. I am glad you are here to shine the light of truth on these nefarious dealings. Just for fun, send the pre-paid mailer reply back to them blank. They have to pay the postage on it and if they are deluged by a lot of these it may just put a nick in their income and let them know that people are wising up.
this company seems to have droped to a new low, i found a charge from cambridge on my credit card, and i have NEVER talked to them.i googled them found this among many other complaints and promply called the fraud dept at BofA. there is no way they can come up with a recording of my voice as i have never talked to them!!
Guess they wil have to close this company soon and open a new one….
I received the invitation to accept an appointment as a biographical candidate to represent my town in the Cambridge Who’s Who Registry among Executives and Professionals. I guess I’m gullible enough to fall for their flattery (they actually set up a URL with my name in it to “verify” my biological information — of which they had only my name) but, luckily, I suffer from low self-esteem, so I knew that it had to be a mistake.
Thanks for the confirmation that it is the scam it appears to be.
I feel like the winner in this situation. I managed to keep that “account director” on the phone for nearly 2 hours and didn’t buy anything. I also worked her down to $66 before cutting her off. Definately a scam.
I received a Cambridge solicitation at work today. I hadn’t hear of them, but even with a legitimate W-W I would never make a purchase. To me that just demonstrates vanity. I was contemplating becoming registered, but now that I know their reputation, I would consider it an EMBARRASSMENT to be listed with Cambridge.
A similar scheme among technical professions, although I’ve never seen solicitations, only advertising, is the vanity “inventors’ registration service”. In the unlikely event they come across an invention of any value, it probably gives away some of the inventor’s rights of ownership.
I got the letter in the mail today. Right away I knew it was phony. I waited til after work to look it up and found this website. Thank you. Some people are just so ruthless. They have no heart. They just keep on taking advantage of others.
My wife got a Cambridge ego letter today and was doubtful it was legit. I Googled Cambridge and found this excellent blog. My wife’s letter was for inclusion in (get this!) “Cambridge Who’s Who Registry among Executive and Professional Women in Religeous Services” My wife’s been a church secretary for 23 years, and she deserves the recognition, but not from these thieves!
I just got this letter. If you even want to call it a letter.
Executive and professional women? Hahaha, very funny. I am a high school student who has never worked a single day in my life. I had a good laugh reading some of these comments.
Thank you for your research! I am working hard on my professional career, so I was like aww, this is really cool. I went to the link, but then I thought… you know what, let me search this company first. BAM, here’s the bad review. I wouldn’t have paid a penny anyways, but I would have been highly annoyed!
Thanks for the info…just got my Cambridge Who’s Who invite today…I won’t be sharing this fake news with my bosses!!! Most of us, especially us new to the business world, are very excited to receive some kind of recognition…the fact that it is a scam is very sad. To think I thought I was special! Glad the internet can firm up what is real and what is not!!
Add me to the idiot list. I have recently legitimately had some pretty major professional accomplishmnets for which I have been recognized locally so my skepticism level was abnormally low. I agreed to the $89 membership only to decide shortly after that I should look into it. Well, shame on me. Looks like I am now a “victim”. I have calld to try to cancel and will cross my fingers that it happens.
Thank you for putting this out there. Too bad I let my guard down on this one.
I received a letter today stating I had “recently been appointed as a biographical”
I knew it was a scam right from the get-go ’cause I’m pretty much a nobody! lol!
Appreciated this blog, for sure. Just got a Cambridge letter today, found you through Yahoo search. The humorous part is that I have set up a trucking corporation but, due to the recent economic meltdown, have not yet succeeded in actually financing a truck… and Cambridge states their listings are based on “accomplishment”.
Well, I may still be a “truckless trucking company”, but avoiding the scams must be SOME sort of accomplishment…right? Maybe we need a WWOSA publication–Who’s Who Of Scam Avoiders, of course.
I FINALLY figured out who had been calling me on a Restricted number when I accidentally picked up and hung up immediately. Within a minute, a number I didn’t recognize called again. I put the number into google and alas, I find this site. Cambridge has been trying to contact me for years. Bastards.
I know this blog has been out there for a while- but it helped me today. I was contacted by Cambridge as well. I replied thinking, what the heck. When I spoke with the account “manager” She did all the things you said she would. When pressed for the honor of spending $900, I kept her on the phone long enough to goggle the company. I then found your website. All I can say is THANKS! The adage still applies, “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!” She didn’t hang up on me though, I quickly dismissed her off the phone before she told me again, that it would be a shame for me to miss out on the opportunity. 🙂
I too just finished hanging up with Cambridge. I was feeling pretty good about the phone call until she started talking faster and faster. Once she hit the two level membership, I remembered the word, “Free.” I did a quick Google search while still on the phone. I was tying in Cambridge Who’s Who, the word scam auto-filled the field.
I hung up the phone and saved $800.
I just finished my interview with Cambridge Who’s Who. :O) They were really proud of my accomplishments. One question I thought it was very good: “What do you contribute to be the reason for your success” (at this point I am still only half skeptical). I replied: “Paying attention to detail, never second guessing my gut feeling and being honest” (which is true by the way). Same story…bottom line is, they started with the usual: Platinum $1250 or gold for $489, to Trial for $289, to “special deal” of $189 and down to (I believe a record) $99 special discount! Thanks to this blog I got none, but I stayed true to my gut feeling, paid attention to detail and was honest (the representative laughed and agreed…and proceeded to call the next potential victim).
Great Job!!! I got one of these just a few weeks ago and figured it was crap. After the interview they started wanting $$ and i told them sorry I am not paying for anything then they did not really care to talk to me after that.
I’m an idiot *smacks head on top of desk* . Guess I’m just out my $200 rest of Christmas money. Nothing like getting burned to teach you to mind the fire, eh? Stupid stupid stupid…. *large sigh*
Thank you for all the good people taking the time to contribute your information about this scam. I am using this link and the posts related to my Cambridge charge to dispute for my credit card account. I’ll keep you posted if I have the luck of getting back my money. If so, many of you should use this link and the posts related to your situation to get back your money.
I wish I read these comments before I was being charged by Cambridge Who’s Who. I had similar experience being charge by Cambrige Who’s Who and they would not refund me when I told them that I do not need their services. Now, I have to waste a lot of time to dispute the charge of $918.95 to my Chase card.
I appreciate the “duress” information that Victoria Strauss posted on 8/1/2007 11:18 am. I was under duress to agree to pay the $918.95 charge as final sales. It is because 516-535-1515 X 1212 Tricia told me she would not refund my $199 additional charge if I do not agree to the $918.95 as a final sales.
Thanks again for all the information all of you provided.
Wow!!!after all this time they are still doing it..I guess someone will fall for it..but thanks to me research and google..and I found Victoria Strauss Blog..thanks for doing the work and posting..I received a letter from Cambridge who’s who this month and didn’t respond after pulling up the link it want to much info..if you know who I am it should have already been there..I love my poetry though but not this much..and the Editor in Chief on my paper was M. Foster..what does the M stand for? :)..anyway great work..cut my time down. I love the saying each one teach one..Victoria you did it girl!!!!!Happy new year.
Today I received a letter in the mail from Cambridge WHO’S WHO. A month ago I received an acceptance letter from the NAPW (National Association of Professional Woman). I did not know who would have provided my information to anyone since I never signed up for anything. After a little online research I found these two organizations are connected. The Cambridge WHO’S WHO letter is persuasive urging me to confirm my biographical information at www.(firstnamelastname).mycwwapp.com If I did not have an internet connection they provided a card to fill out all my information. It appears this company has no information on it’s intended victims, but will press to obtain information, which can possibly be sold to marketing firms or steal identities. Thanks for creating this blog and sharing your stories.
I JUST received a letter myself, and was skeptical to say the least.. I have a 1 year college diploma in a technical field, but have parlayed that into a 120K annual income which allows me to do medical mission work 1-2 times per year. I am active in my profession, but not to an extent I felt was worthy of inclusion.. So, the red flags went up, I found your blog, and was able to start a toasty fire in the fireplace with my new found kindling. Thanks for the extensive blogging!!
I just recieved the ‘you were recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent “” “”, “”.’ Thank you for this post as I would not want these people harassing me at work or home.
Cheers
Thanks for the post, and thankfully it was easy for me to find by simply Googling “cambridge who’s who.” I just opened a solicitation from them today, and who isn’t susceptible to the flattery connoted? But fortunately I also have the suspicious gene. You’re saving a lot of people a lot of grief.
I figured this was a pretty decent-sized scam, as I just received a letter and have been UNEMPLOYED for the past three months….
SO GLAD I’m a suspicious googler…thanks for this post, your blog was my first hit and clearly saved me lots of unnecessary drama!
Yes, again thanks for the post. They are still at it, I received my attaboy letter today and smelt SCAM as soon as I opened the envelope. Googled them and went straight to your blog:)
Thanks for exposing these creatures.
I really appreciate your blog on this subject. Thank you so much for the info. I received an invitation from Cambridge today. It looked awesome and appealing, but something seemed a bit scam-like about it. Perhaps the lingo was composed of just one bumpersticker-line too many. Last week I received an invitation from a Professional Women something-or-other. I’m thankful for your writing about this subject. It was very informative. God bless and keep you, and happy holidays!
– Samantha
Thank you very much for te heads up. I just got a letter from these sleaze bags too.
Thank you , thank you, thank you! I just got this is the mail and thought that someone must have recommended me for this. I am so happy to see this is a scam.
They are so crafty!
Thank you so much for the info….I googled the Who’s Who and right below it I saw your info. I am so glad you posted all this information..saved me some money!
My wife was scammed by the Cambridge folks. We went through the usual credit card (Amex in her case) exercise of disputing charges but without solid evidence it’s unlikely she’ll get any money back. I thouhgt I would be able to find a looong trail of complaints on the BBB site but strangely enough, after searching by company name, phone number and URL they have no records of a Cambridge Who’s Who or Empire Executive whatsoever. I tried the links you posted on your bolg site but they both return “Page Not Found”. Any insight into what sort of search method I shoud use on the BBB site to locate any Cambridge complaints ?
The place is a total scam. Worked for them recently in a non-sales capacity. You have no idea what goes on in this place. From abusive behavior from the principals to supervisors monitoring your bathroom breaks. Nightmare. And of course, the scamming and the nastiness that goes on amongst the sales people. Someone should seriously launch an investigation.
thanks for the info. if it is free let it alone. if you do not it will cost you in the ‘rear’end.
Also was glad to find this blog. I did a quick search (as suspicion prevailed) and found this posting. Thank you for this info – obviously in Nov 2008, they are still at it. =)
Just wanted to say thanks! I received my “honor” from Cambridge today and immediately did a Google search – your article was one of the first that came up – glad I was smart enough to check. Wouldn’t want to have to rudely hang up on yet another annoying telemarketer….
I am happy to add my name to the list of people thanking you for your blog. My friend got one of these a couple of days ago – an email followed by an aggressive phone solicitation. Luckily she’s a smart one and told them to sod off.
As someone who reads a lot of resume’s though, I can say that anyone over the age of 19 dumb enough to list nonsense like this on his or her credentials will get a good laugh and a quick flight to the circular file.
Thanks for your help on this. I received my “invitation”, was a little suspicious, so I googled Cambridge. I came across your blog. You saved me some time and aggravation.
Thanks, I just got one of those in the mail. I couldn’t believe it could be free, so I decided to google it, and that’s when I found your blog.
I also wondered: How did they know about little old me? I’m just a cleaning lady.
But just a few months ago I took out an ad in the telephone book along with the other cleaning companies to try and get more business. That must be how they found me.
Thank you so much for taking your time to fill us all in on the real story! I figured it was a scam, since I’m not all that “accomplished” in my field…at least not enough to be recognized as an “interesting biographical subject”. I’m glad I had sense enough to look into it…I hope others do, as well!
Cheers!
Thanks so much. You just saved me a whole bunch of time trying to figure out whether or not these guys were legit.
There I was flattered and honoured to be finally recognised for something, but really, me, an entry into the glorious old boys club of Emeralds Who’s who? Surely it’s too good to be true…Clearly from your brilliant post it is!! just another internet scam, another piece of Spam. Hey ho for a minute there I thought I had finally made it!!
Thanks again and congrats for rating so highly, ahem, even higher than Emeralds Who’s who!!!
Mike
Thank you so much for posting this. I just got off the phone with them and the rep for them repeated what you posted almost word for word. I hung up on them after they did the non-for profit bit. Thank you so much.
Wow, glad I googled this. Thank you for your original post, it saved me a few headaches, I’m sure.
Has anyone ever heard of Princeton Premier? Do they fall under this same category of scam?
Thanks to Ms. Strauss and all the bloggers for the information you’ve provided. Looks like the Who’s Who parasites are continuing this scam business since I just recently got an ‘invitation.’ Too bad they can’t find something more useful and legitimate to do with their time.
Great Post!
I had this experiance just this morning, and was cracking up throughout. Thanks for the confirmation 🙂
I just got off the phone with Biltmore Who’s Who. They certainly buttered my biscuit during the lengthy interview. Luckily I knew this was a scam after looking it up (sadly after sending in the card). When she asked what level of membership I was interested in, I told her I’ve never had to pay to receive any of the aforementioned honors she just interviewed me about. She said the membership fee wasfor access to the resources to network with others and inclusion in the book was at no cost. I told her I would like to be included in her book, but I was not interested in purchasing anything. She told me I could self-post online through their website, but I would only have a basic account… and I wouldn’t be in the book.
Nice to skip that scam. Keep up the good work!
THANKS for your warning. My HUSBAND just received an “APPOINTMENT” to the Cambridge Who’s Who Registry Among Executive and Professional WOMEN, so clearly their research is exhaustive…AND highly selective!
I just recieved an invite from Cambridge Who’s Who today. I looked at the site and was curious as to how a girl going to cosmotology school, 18 years old, was part of the organization. There must be thousands of those right? So I did some research and after reading your wonderful post I decided to send them this letter. Ridiculous, I know, but I was so excited with you post. Here goes.
You know,
I am quite a notable person. I note myself all the time. Im glad the rest of the world wants to note me to. Thanks. So, I decided to research you guys to see how notable I really am. Quite notable! How noteworthy! I think I shall note it as so many other people have. In a BLOG! Wow. Im a noteworthy genius! Im not as notably forward as those folks though. I would never note Cambridge as a scam or a organization that sucks the blood from hard working notable american blue collar individuals like they did. Thats just not the type of person I want to be noted as. Well, once I get my blog up I’ll send you guys a note so you can check it out. I love that word, note, don’t you note it. HA! I crack myself up. By the way, I love american libel laws. Ah, the freedom of speech. NOTE!
I am so glad I found you guys. I, like many other people that have posted comments, received a letter from Cambridge. Due to the fact that I am currently unemployed and not an executive or professional I decided to call their Marketing and Research Dept. To my surprise I actually spoke to a “human” voice and inquired as to how they do their marketing and research and the person advised me that my information was likely found by a seminar that I recently attended or from a magazine subscription that I must have subscribed to. Knowing that there is no “unemployment seminar” or “better homes and the unemployed” magazine my question went specifically to tax information and she stated that in no way do they get tax records. With that said if anyone knows specifically how these scam artists are getting our information I think that would be great information for all of us to arm ourselves with. In closing I have never left a post before on any website but i love the fact that there are good and decent people looking out for each other. Keep up the good work and thank you.
Thank you so much for writing this Blog! I too have been “invited” to represent my community and asked to approve my “candidacy” into the Professional Women in the field of Real Estate” new one for them huh??? Thanks again for preventing others like me in making a huge mistake!!!
thank you so much for your post. I thought it was a scam, but couldn’t find any info on the bbb regarding this specific organization. Your information posted exactly what I wanted and neede to know!
Funny, I just got off the phone with the Who’s Who chick after her spiel she started with the lifetime of about $1,000, by the time I was ready to hang up and had done a little googling while she spoke, she had the price down to $189 – LOL I could tell she was getting a little hot under the collar and told her that when I ran into someone who has favorable things to say about Cambridge that I would give HER a call to join. I guess she won’t be getting that call back from me!! Thanks for the Blog!! Pamela@thelathamgroup.net
Big scam. I actually (unfortunately) tried to pay a membershp fee and was told I had not paid them anything. Had credit card statement to prove otherwise, let them know and they sent me an email again denying I had paid anything – and that I was entitled to NOTHING. So fine, I contacted my credit card company, sent them a copy of their email, and had the charge reversed. Avoid these people. Wish I would have found this website prior to the hassle. Thank you for your hard work – I will warn others.
I too sent the card in. I thought someone at work had made a recomendation,when they called on Sat, I was on my way to a babyshower and did not have time to talk,the lady got really offensive,so I said Bye and hung up, someone else called me at work today and when he started asking or telling me about the fees, i told him i was not interested it went from $800 for a lifetime membership to 99 for a trial membership.also was told i would get a companion airfare ticket, i kept telling him i did not have the money to spend so he said they would try to contact me later i may change my mind, i told him i did not think so. It is pretty bad when you have to pay to be a who’s who.
Well, it’s 9/20/08 and this scam is still going. Why??? Why haven’t they been closed down yet? My letter is dated September 11th. Think there’s any significance?
Thanks much for the heads up! It is greatly appreciated!
Thank you for posting this and for all your research. I keep being pestered by Emerald Who’s Who for inclusion in their Executive and Professional whatever. I thought it looked like a scam, but it’s nice to know I was right. I’m a bit suspicious about any organisation that, to misquote Groucho Marx, would want to have me as a member.
I would like to chime in as well. They called me at 9 AM today during my work period just to “take a brief interiew”. That took an hour of my time. Then at the end here comes the charges. I told them politely that I was not at a time to make such a large purchase and suddenly the prices drop. Asked about taking time to think about it, noo they wanted my card number now. Someone posted that they are good on the phone. Sure are, they talk you up like your the king of the hill and make you think this shit will make you a rockstar. I feel for it. Because I was distracted and caught up. 5 minutes later I called my CC company and had them cancel my card and issue me a new number.
It is a valuable lesson for anyone out there.
What “award” have you ever gotten that you had to pay for? They should be shut down and publicly humiliated.
Thanks for your blog. I had exactly the same experience with Cambridge Who’s Who. What a waste of time!
Dr. Scott Acton
Boulder Colorado
Thank you for this blog! I received a Cambridge Who’s Who in the mail. I was wondering if anyone knew where they even got my name and address!!!!!
I’m glad you posted this blog. I just got a letter from Cambridge Who’s Who today. I’m always suspicious of these types of solicitation. I’m glad I was able to find your blog. THANKS!
I just signed up with the on line application and then I googled them. I know that is backwards but it is never too late. I am not sure what this company is all about but there is too much controversy here to continue with them. It just isn’t worth it to take this chance.
Thanks for this; I just received a letter from Cambridge’s “M. Foster, Editor in Chief”, inviting me to be included. Good thing I decided to google them before I submitted my info!
Victoria, Thank you Thank you Thank you.
I was almost suckerd in to this scam. As I was listening to Joanne, I started feeling very good about myself, I am being Recognized. Ha Ha Ha.
Then the pitch. As all it started with 800.00 then 600.00 then 489.00 then 189.00. It got to 89.00.
Thnk God my air conditioner went out on me yesterday and I have to buy a new one… so I was trying to explain to her that I live in Florida… and at the moment did not have the money….
That is when I decided to look them up online, And there you were.
When I told her I could not do it now I also got the click.
Thanks again…
Hello all,
I dont think there is a Jennifer Gonzalez anymore. I just received the lttter and saw the name M. Foster. Editor in Chief.
So look out for that name as well.
Regards
Excellent posting!! Thank you all for the heads up. I just received one of those Cambridge letters, and am happy that my due diligence panned out. Whew!
Thank you for posting this as I was contacted by both Cambridge and the other company. Of course felt honored and sent back the completed forms. Made the mistake of listing cell phone number, I receive dozens of restricted phone calls all day long. I spoke to a representative from Cambridge and asked why they keep calling me and hanging up. She wanted to talk about the apparent rip me off scam, but I was more interested in preventing future calls. Fail. I still get dozens of calls at all hours. Please do not believe this scam or you will be sorry.
Thank you so much for your blog. I received an “approval” letter from them with a postcard to “sign up” at no cost. I found your blog and appreciate the research you did in helping everyone filter the legitimate from the scam.
I received a letter from Cambridge Who’s Who at work today. You can imagine how shocked I was to learn I was “recently appointed” to represent Portland OR in their online Who’s Who registry. I actually laughed out loud when I read it! It smelled fishy from the first line. I decided to Google the company and came across this site, among others. I knew it was a scam, but was horrified at what others have gone through.
Unfortunately or fortunately (however you want to look at it), I have become quite skeptical in today’s world. Especially those “too good to be true” deals. Also, if they can’t give you time to mull over the purchase, chances are they are just after your money.
Thanks to everyone for sharing. A big kudos to the author for the research. Well done.
Not bad Tara, if I recieved a call from you I certainly would have ended the call with a, “…Ummm, Okaaaa, too much information,honey, bye,bye!” [Click]
Kudos,to Victoria Strauss, I had no idea that my former employers were such scumbags. Of course now it doesn’t surprise me that they won’t be sending my paycheck to me anytime soon.
So Tara, as inovative and clever your ruse/revenge was,(and again I salute you), I guess I’m not so clever as you are. But that’s o.k some of the people who wrote and complained about the people that called were scammed and had reason to be mad. Some people almost were and still think they have a reason to complain. Well all I can say is that I’m sorry to the people who were scammed. Let’s just say in my defence that I thought just like the clients I called, that this firm (Madison Who’s Who) was legit. As for the rest go ahead and use those free post to dis the company if it makes you feel good. They sure feel good riding in their fancy cars while laughing at the fools who sign-up and the despreate people who are just looking for a job to pay their bills.
Still that was funny Tara, I even laughed a little. Well back to looking for work and being on Welfare for me. Ciao.
Thanks so much for this blog. Well, these people are alive and well and still at it. My hard sell came with just a phone call, from Premier, targeting me in Arizona. Starts soooo smoothly, soft voice, very complimentary. Oohs and aahs at all the right places as I gave her some bio details. Strange how edgy and car-saleman-like the voice got as I repeated, over and over, that I had no intention of paying the fees. Never knew anything about the existence of this kind of racket until I read your blog. Lucky for me I am just naturally cheap and suspicious! Thanks!
A while back i wrote that i too had been taken in by Who’s Who not once but twice. To my embarassment. I also promised to let eveyone know what my results were on my request for them to nor process my charge.
They did process the charge, despite the fact that i left at least 2 calls on the same day within an hour of the conversation with Who’s Who to not post it. So i filled a dispute to the charge with the credit card company.
I have since heard from the dispute resolution “department” at Who’s Who. I stated that i had called back immediately and told them not to charge my card. Also that i was prepared to take appropriate action if they did not do as i requested. I stated that no other resolution was open other than that they completely reverse the charges. I also said I felt that the company was a scam and that i had had nothing but calls asking me to spend more more more. I also mentioned all the complaints online about the company. The rep tried to go on about them being reputable and that there was a suit against people making these claims. I said “well there are also plenty of people filing suits agains you, so what does that say. that you do not follow through on your claims.”
I am happy to say that i have received a call from Who’s Who stating they will reverse the charges. They have also put a statement on my account stating to not solicit me with calls.
What does this mean? I dont’t know. But i do feel to have a fair opinion about things all information should be provided. not just the complaints. I still feel this company is unscrupulous and that something should be done about them.
In 1995, I received a call from International Who’s Who and they stated that my membership was free and any other certificates were free as well.
Also, they stated that I would receive a plaque in the mail within 5-10 business days for free as well. I was very honored to had been recognized for my works that I had done throughout my professional life and took it with pride and did not go any further into purchases or anything else. I left it at that. Therefore, since I am a tough cookie for not paying for anything anyway, I felt none of the scam. I still believe that you have to keep in mind that scams are always out to get what they can, only if they can. No one can do what you do not allow them to do. It is still your choice to make.
I love this blog and I wanted to at least put some common sense in the value of critical thinking.
Victoria Strauss I love your blog and always will…
I just got my Cambridge invitation today and googled this article. While I’m very content with the life I have led, I’m surprised that they are now recruiting full time homemakers and home schooling moms to be included in their who’s who book.
Thank you. I love people who speak up.
Anybody knows how to cancel the “membership”?
Unfotunately, I sank into their sweet deal and was waived a couple of houndreds, because I had American Express, and gave them a hard time. Once you say yes to the “membership” you cannot go back, and if you threaten with legal action, they will threat you back.
M Guzman
I was on the phone for 1/2 hour just NOW and became suspicious so I Googled Cambridge Whos Who and saw your blog. Am I ever thankful. You just saved me over $800. Okay, she reduced it to $489 for a 3-year membership. NO? Okay how about a one-year trial membership for only $189? I can’t look into it and make a decision later? Well then, thank you and good bye.
Please folks, be careful. My father was in the REAL Whos Who back in the 40s and 50s and I couldn’t even get a courtesy copy of his bio as published.
Thanks for the post.
I had these people from Cambridge on the phone and they were giving me their speel, and I thought I would google them to see what came up…… to my suprise a lot of negative items came up, yours being one of them. So I told the lady that I don’t spend money on anything without checking them out, and that I googled them as we were talking, and I was suprised at what I was reading….. she said you can get bad info if you google pepsi cola. I then said Pepsi cola is not trying to get $ 1000.00 dollars out of me…. she then hung up.
Thanks for your post
Maximum dB’s DJ Service
Northern Ky
thanks much for your comprehensive description of the jackassery that is Cambridge Who’s Who. I’m listening to my shredder hum as it chews up their correspondence…
I just got off the phone with Cambridge Who’s Who. I am so glad to have read your blog. I lied and told them I didn’t have my credit card info since the whole thing seemed fishy. I nearly laughed when the lady asked if I’ve ever heard of Cambridge Who’s Who–of course I haven’t! LOL.
I just received a letter today from Cambridge Who’s Who. Thank you for posting this information.
If it looks like a scam, smells like a scam….it is a scam!!!!!
I have learned from reading these posts that from now on, before I go down a road like this again, I will google first, talk second. Luckily I made no monitary commitment.
Thank you for writing this! I’ve been getting calls from Cambridge Who’s Who for over half a year. Finally they got me and initially, I wasn’t at all interested… but then it sounded like a great opportunity until they mentioned the membership fee (Platinum or Gold for either $889.00 or $689.00) with an additional bonus of (2) airline tickets. I wasn’t expecting that and asked if I could call back, it was then that “Lori” switched to sounding anxious and pushy by asking me “WHY”. I immediately felt a disconnect … so I mentioned that I needed to speak to my husband and she then said: “Why don’t you call him… just put me on hold.” After that comment, I thought it over for about 15 seconds and hung up. They haven’t even attempted to call me back!!! This is a terrible scam!!! I made sure to check out the website when they first contacted me, and they seemed legit. Unbelievable!
Thank you for writing this Blog…I just received this. I know a good place this letter belongs…in the TRASH! 🙂
Cambridge Who’s Who has not changed their corporate branding and recieved the “invitation” August 1st, 2008. The game is still afoot. I thought it was a scam and the first thing I do is go to the net to find out “Who’s Who” which we all know that’s 100% accurate also : ). I’m toying with the idea of setting up a site for the sole purpose of getting this information higher up in search engine rankings. They are preying on ego’s. I’m sure if you are of the nature you would want to buy the book to show your friends that you have your 15 nano seconds of fame. I wonder what Ralph Nader would think of this and if he is included in it. It would be a LARGE Buyer beware if they were asking for money for inclusion as it stands with the futher research I’ve done they are slimey but legal. Best way to get rid of these scumis to inform the public which these threads are wonderful. Trick is to bring it to a broader base. Thanks for having a reference that can save people $$$ and embaressment.
I got singled out for the supreme distinction of merely living in the city I do. Kind of a blow to my ego. Maybe they are running out of categories… Are they next going to offer it to those who are members of the human species?
Anyway, I sent the postcard back with a note graciously thanking them and explaining that it is my strict policy to give permission to my being listed in a registry after receipt of $1,000.
Gonna have me some fun if they call..!
Everything you have said here is completely true. I received a letter today from Cambridge and immediately recognized it as garbage. It was addressed to a name I only use for junk mail. Makes it easy to catch those stinky fish!
Thanks for posting this. I’ve just been approached by Premiere Who’s Who and appreciate knowing that it is what I suspected…nothing but a scam. Thanks for putting this info out there!!
Victoria, thanks for the advice – I just received my second invitation to be considered as a member of the Emerald Who’s Who for Executives and Professionals.
Although I’m very good at what I do, I wouldn’t class myself as a worthy candidate for a Who’s who (unless the Who’s who was, perhaps, the ‘drink and eat too much and really should exercise more Who’s Who’).
A quick Google led me to your Blog, and a splendid find it was.
I echo the sentiments of everyone else who has thanked you for doing research on this “organization.” I just received and invitation for Cambridge Who’s Who among executive and professional dentist, dental hygienists and dental assistants–Honors Edition of course. The same exact wording as you all have been saying. I realize I am not adding anything that hasn’t already been said but want to let you know of a different category of cambridge. And you asked for more people to let you know. Glad I googled and keep up the good work
well!!! i just found this blog after receiving my 3rd call from these people. the 2nd on i refused to get what they were offering and the guy abruptly hung up on me. well i get the 3rd one and i got suckered!! AGAIN! like a moron. $189! soooo after i read all this i immediately phoned them back 2x informing them i wanted them to not post the charge to my card and if they did i would file a dispute with my charge company. then, thanks to the person in NY who mentioned the atty general, i called my atty general and have them sending me a form so i can file a complaint against them. will where i get and i will post my results!
Thanks for this info- I just got off the phone with them and refused to buy and they kept going lower and lower on the price- then the guy just was totally rude after that! I used have researched it before but glad that I didn’t buy!
Raleigh, NC
AS someone who is listed in the real Who’s Who (for which Marquis does not charge for inclusion) I can tell you I was giddy when I got my letter from them. Still don’t know who nominated me. I thought is was my boss. But when I asked him he not only denied it but pointed out that he’s not even in it himself! Anyway, I used to get a lot of bogus solicitations from Cambridge and the like. But they stopped a few years ago. Now my wife got one for Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executive and Professional Women — “Honors Edition” no less! I clipped the “application code” off the corner of the postcard and mailed it in so they can pay the postage on a blank card.
I’ve had an outstanding credit dispute with Who’s Who Cambridge for a month now. I wish I read this sooner! For those of you who stopped payment, did you get anywhere?
Apparently their record keeping at Cambridge is not the best. Like many of the other postings, I supplied the initial information because the posting was supposed to be free but then the call started. So I told them that I was not interested and did not answer any of their subsequent calls.
Oddly, a month later I received my fancy certificate in the mail accompanied by the login information for the web site. When I searched myself on the site, my entire bio is displayed rather than just my name – however they never got a dime from me and never will.
I just got invited to the women’s edition. I’m so excited, except I think I’m missing one key attribute — a va-jay-jay!
Nice work. Both yours (positive) and them (negative) as in piece of work. At least it seems you guys got your notice BEFORE it expired. Mine arrived two days after the expiration, and I felt so hurt to miss being included in their farcical comedy.
But rest assured they are still at it.
Being a member of one of I hope more valid collections (Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges) and I only say I had to do a lot more to get on that short list (no matter how many tens of thousands made the book..)
Mark
Nice work. Both yours (positive) and them (negative) as in piece of work. At least it seems you guys got your notice BEFORE it expired. Mine arrived two days after the expiration, and I felt so hurt to miss being included in their farcical comedy.
But rest assured they are still at it.
Being a member of one of I hope more valid collections (Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges) and I only say I had to do a lot more to get on that short list (no matter how many tens of thousands made the book..)
Mark
I get a call from them every two weeks. They don’t seem to understand the FTC do-not-call list. More importantly: Every call I get that has it’s ID blocked instantly raises my suspicion level. I do run a company and am familiar with Who’s Who lists. Frankly, I’ve never been interested in even opening one. I don’t think what they do is illegal or even a scam. It’s just not for me or most like-minded people with reasonable egos. There are plenty of sheep out there that need shearing. Maybe people will wake up after giving away their money to these people.
Thank you Victoria! I just received a letter to be a part of the Who’s Who for Executive and Professional Women. I was suspicious. I googled the organization and found your posting…thank you for taking the time to warn so many of us about this scam!
Thanks for your educational post. I was curious about the letter in my mail, having been nominated by my unit for a legitimate award earlier this year, and was wondering how they got my name. Now I remember I am reminded of the a scam letter I received in high school too.
Thank you for your help.
Thanks so much for your blog and to all of the others who commented. I could tell it was a scam, but I just wanted the proof, when I found your blog. I will definitely mail back the blank postcard so they have to pay for the postage. Thanks
Tara, when I grow up, I want to be just like you.
I’m filling out the application card with a big “shame on you” and other less repeatable phrases. Why not let them pay the postage to let me tell them what I think of their scamminess. Keep up the good work and maybe someday we will rid the world of these lowlifes!
I, too, am among the many who am glad that I found this posting before I ‘gave away the farm’. These professional organizations are new for me and I was very excited to have gotten ‘recognized for my accomplishments’ when I got the letter from Cambridge last week.
I was offered membership for prices ranging from $189 to upwards of almost $1000, free airline tickets and of course, all the awesome ‘benefits’ which come with being a member.
I passed on the opportunity.
I just removed any reference to being included in the supposed book.
Thankfully I didn’t purchase anything from them.
I just received my Cambridge Who’s Who letter today… it seems that I’m being considered for inclusion in the Who’s Who Among Executive and Professional Women registry. This is quite the accomplishment for a 21 year-old college drop out like me, working 2 minimum wage jobs just to make the rent… Perhaps they should research a little more beforehand…
I just received a letter from Cambridge yesterday. I found your blog when I was trying to find out more about them. So glad I did!! Something about this letter struck me as odd and “rehearsed”. Keep up the good work!
Just got one from Biltmore.. will assume it’s fake too. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for this blog. My just-arrived invitation to be included in Cambridge Who’s Who is going straight to the shredder which will go to my rabbit’s litter-box, then on to my compost pile and in a few weeks into my vegetable and flower garden.
holy crap!! I just read the email from Tara B! That is hilarious! I used to work for these creeps, but not in sales. Sorry, I needed the money. I had no idea (I wasn’t there long!) that they charged so much. How is this guy still ion business.
Thanks for the laugh, Tara!
I can’t thank you enough for posting information about Cambridge Who’s Who. As sucked into that heady feeling of (self) importance that i most certainly felt, I decided to google who they were first. Again, thank you for saving me from myself and most importantly, Cambridge Who’s Who!!
Well, I guess it had to happen–I just got an email solicitation from Madison Who’s Who. Guess they didn’t Google me.
I can not believe how many people have commented on this! I wish I had read this about an hour ago, BEFORE I got the phone call from the “Cambridge Who’s Who of gullible people”! They just sounded so convincing and before I knew it I was giving out my credit card number. After getting off the phone I started to feel like I had been scammed and sure enough, I came upon your blog and realized I had been. So I quickly called my credit card company and stopped the payment. Thanks for the warning!
I am Soooo glad that I googled these guys while I had them on the phone! I was skeptical in hearing her pitch! But as I was reading more and more of these posts I am very glad that I was a skeptic!
They were trying to get the “lifetime” platinum out of me. Good thing that I’m on a fixed and very tight budget right now!
I guess if it sounds too good to be true it really is!
Thanks for all the info here! This is great
To all the scammed out there I offer you this vindication for being defrauded…..while I am not able to offer you your money back…they have always said that laughter is the best medicine. So heres hoping you all get a great laugh.
Before I tell you about MY phone call let me just qualify myself (and please don’t think I am bragging…it is just background). When I got my email (the one that the phone call was in response to) it came to my work email address and hit all the red flags. Not only did my spam filter start ringing the sirens but the flags in my head went off too. See I had received the Cambridge Who letter several years ago and at the time I thought it was legit. I am actually a successful person, back then I was running my own profitable executive career services/placement agency….ran in all the upper executive circles….and had all the “right connections” in my address book. I didn’t stop to think “hey that is kinda funny that I am being nominated by a listing up north since I live and work in Dallas and have never even been to Mass” but you know we all have our moments of stupidity right? Well it wasn’t a total brain fart as I am very tight with my money and when they wanted almost $1200 from me I nixed the venture very quickly. When the first letter came way back then I just assumed that one of my clients had been so thrilled with the work I had done that they sent my name in for nomination. Ok so flash forward to about a week ago. I open my email and head over to clean out my spam folder when what do my little eyes behold??? I have now been nominated to the Madison Who….how fortunate for me (dripping with sarcasm) and since I had been experiencing a particularly rough week what with my three year old discovering that it is fun to punch her 7 month old brother in the face and watch him scream…and my 7 month old already screaming non-stop due to the two teeth he has coming in at the same time; I thought I would have a little fun at their expense. So I went to the website, filled in the form, and patiently waited for the ill-fated call that I knew would soon follow. Hee hee hee hee……below is a recap of the conversation which ensued. Please pardon the typos as I am sure I will be laughing hystarically as I type this.
“Hello, may I please speak with Tara B”
“This is she”
“Good afternoon Ms. B….my name is Curtis J and I am calling you on behalf of the Madison Who’s Who. I am very excited to inform you that you have been nominated to be part of our upcoming list of most influential executives and young professionals.”
“Yes, thank you, I am very excited! I understand that this is quite an honor!”
“Yes maim it is. I just have a few questions for you so that we can fill in the blank spots in your biography and then I will explain how everything works. This will only take a few minutes.”
“Alright”
“First, can you tell me about your professional background and experience?”
“Oh sure. Well lets see, I opened my own executive services and placement company back in 2000 which I successfully ran for over five years. In 2005 I was given the chance of a lifetime to rejoin an old friend at the company he owns with two other people, I began my tenure with **company** in October of 05 and have been here ever since. I am head of the sales division for both corporate accounts as well as government initiatives, have personally brought in over $10 million dollars worth of accounts since I joined **company** and a little over a year ago I was asked to take over the fortune 50 alliances and affiliations position so in addition to overseeing the entire sales force here at **company** I also am responsible for building professional relationships with the top companies in the nation.”
“Wonderful! That is quite an impressive resume. Now tell me about any professional or community groups you are affiliated with.”
“Um ok. Well let’s see…..I volunteer at my church for both the Career Circuit and Women with a Voice ministries, hold chamber of commerce memberships in Dallas, Plano, Irving, Addison, Fort Worth, and Coppell. Then I am also a member of EWTL which stands for Executive Women Technology Leaders, Circle of Influence, The Mommies Network, a Girl Scout of America alumni, and a member of Theta Nu Xi which is a professional sorority.”
“Wow it sounds like you are very active in your community. That is excellent. Congratulations Ms. B….I believe you are perfect for our list; and the benefits of being included in our online directory will prove to be a valuable networking tool for you I am sure. Let me explain what is going to happen next and go over a few formalities with you. The membership works like this”
Do you mind if I paraphrase here….I think we all know the drill….blah blah blah….give us money……blah blah blah. Once he is all done telling me about the riches and spoils that will be granted to me with only a tiny investment on my part, he goes in for the kill…………hee hee hee and so do I:
“Now Ms. B., I would advise you to sign up for a lifetime membership as that will secure your place in our directory from now on and you wouldn’t have to worry about remembering to renew. The lifetime membership fee is ONLY $1350.00 which is a small price to pay for the wealth of connections and business relationships you will gain from being listed.”
“Hmmm….that seems a little steep. That is twice as much as I pay for just one of my chamber memberships and with the chamber I get to interact with other professionals face to face at monthly events and gatherings. I don’t know…”
“Well if you don’t think the lifetime membership is right for you we also have a five year membership for $750.00 but keep in mind that when it is time to renew, your renewal fee will be what the current membership fee at that time is. It is better to go with the lifetime membership as you are paying a one time only fee of $1350.00 which will save you a great deal in the long run.”
“The one time fee does sound like the wiser choice. And all I have to pay is the $1350.00?”
“For the membership, yes. Now we also have a plaque which will commemorate your listing as a Who’s Who and that is $200.00….most inductees prefer to order that so that they may proudly display the achievement in their office. We will also send you a leather-bound edition of the published list with your name and biography for $199.00 each. I am sure that you will want to order one for yourself and a copy for your loved ones to share in this honor with you. In addition we would like to send you a pair of complimentary airline tickets which will permit you and a guest to travel round trip to anywhere in the world. The charge today would cover everything…your membership fee, plaque, and special print editions of the publication; so that would bring your total to $1977.95 including a small shipping fee of $29.95. We accept all major credit cards. I’ll take your card information from you whenever you are ready.”
“Oh you mean I have to pay right now?”
“Yes maim, in order for us to ensure that you are included in the upcoming list I will need to secure your payment and submit your biographical information today as we are on a short deadline and rushing to get everyone in before everything is sent to the printers.”
“Oh well then that could be a problem. My credit card accounts have been frozen along with my bank accounts until the IRS completes their investigation into some unreported income that came up during a recent incident.”
“An incident maim? I am afraid I don’t follow…”
“Well during the police investigation into the accidental shooting that killed my husband they discovered that there were some discrepancies in our finances and reported it to the IRS.”
“I am very sorry to hear about your husband…”
(I cut him off)
“Well thank you, but really it was his own fault…….I warned him at least a hundred times about walking around the house in the dark….that if he wasn’t careful I was going to end up shooting him. But you know how the police are……they naturally assumed that I must be lying and intended to murder him for the three million dollars in life insurance just because I was having an affair with his sister. And well everything went down hill from there, they came with a warrant to search the house and that is when they found the drugs and lab where we were cooking stuff and so now I am just waiting for the trial. Really I don’t understand how they could think I would have killed him, I mean sure I couldn’t stand the idiot but murder?? I swear I couldn’t tell it was him when I pulled the trigger. Thank God for small blessings though….at least I still have my job! And I have to admit that I was a little surprised by the nomination….I thought certainly everything would have shown up in my background when you guys checked me out. After all my name has been all over the news here for over a year now.”
“Are you screwing with me lady?”
^at that comment I start to sound a little offended in a mob kinda way^
“Young man, I am a woman who has been accused of murder and running one of the most productive meth houses in Dallas. Does that strike you as the kind of person who ‘screws’ with people?”
“uh…..uh…….uh”
“Oh goodness, I hope I didn’t speak out of turn and say something that is going to keep me from making the list………I am still going to be on the list right? I mean I can send you a money order or something…….Give Me Your Address.”
*click* – line goes dead……
Strangest thing……..somehow we were disconnected and he never called back. Hahahahahahaha……. Okay I admit that was really cruel and yeah I had to pray that Sunday for forgiveness after making up such a wild tale. I mean after all I did sit there and tell the boy that my husband had been murdered by my own hand (in case you are worried…….my husband is alive and well snoring loudly in bed next to me as I type) and imply that I was mixing up batches of lethal drugs to sell to little kids who will go home and OD or go out and kill some innocent bystandard while hopped up. But I am sure that God has a sense of humor and surely must have seen the amusement in my actions. And really I think I should be commended……..I successfully managed to keep a straight face through out the entire conversation while my boss and the other two owners sat across my desk with tears rolling down their cheeks and holding their stomachs because the effort to keep their roaring laughter at a volume that it wouldn’t be heard was becoming painful. Boy I just can’t wait till I get my next email letting me know that once again I am being recognized for my outstanding professional achievements and heartfelt contributions to my community, and that the honor of that recognition only requires me to pay a tiny one time fee of a couple of grand.
I hope everyone out there who suffered the embarrassment of naivety and the financial burden of being scammed found my little act of retaliation pleasing or at least a little amusing if nothing else.
Till the next call………Ciao Tara
I just got one as well, I put the words Not Interested on it and sent it back. After all it is postage prepaid . 😉
I guess are going to see Not Interested moving up in the world!
Got the note in the mail…I’m so thankful that I found this blog! Shame on these people, I hope more people see this blog before they fill out anything.
I was just called by the saleswoman trying to sell me an $800 platinum membership, but I was leery and didn’t fall for it. I just now checked them out online and found your blog. Everything happened as you said it would! Boy, I’m glad I didn’t fork over the money. What a scam!
JUST received this call at work from Cambridge! I told the woman, who did sound legit that I didn’t need to BUY professional credibility! How ridiculous! We should start our own Who’s Who of people who they have tried to scam, but couldn’t!
I just got ~THE ALMIGHTY CALL~ Friday at work. To be honest, the woman “seemed legitimate”.
However, when I asked her who had actually “nominated” me she hesitated and re-directed the question…
***BUYER BEWARE***
I was also surprised to find that Biltmore is a member of the BBB, with only 27 complaints. Of course, there is no indication of how long the company has been in existence. I couldn’t find Cambridge or Emerald on there at all — maybe they morphed into Biltmore! — CK
I can’t believe this is still going on. I just got off the phone with Biltmore Who’s Who. She really had me roped in until she asked for 800 bucks. I smelled scam (especially when she started lowering the price and throwing in plane tickets)and told her I had to see a patient. So far I’ve gotten two callbacks on my cell — no messages! Surprise! I was Google-ing while I was on the phone with her and confirmed my suspicions. Like a previous poster said, I don’t think it’s illegal, but definitely not worth the money, at least for me. –CK
God. I worked there. I can’t even begin to tell you all the scams that went on. I would lisaten to the sales people and their hard-sell tactics, then hear them get off the phone saying how stupid that person was they just sold a book to.
And they don’t treat their employees much better. Whenever they can, they’ll try and not pay unemployment by saying the person was “insubordinate”. They dock you if you’re a minute or two late, monitor your bathroom time, and crowd everyone together in a office that’s a fire hazard. The boss, Narod, is a loud, slick saleman, who always seems like he’s on coke and rumor has it that he is.
What a pit. Glad I’m out!
They must have just sent a mass mailing because I got mine as well.
Just one question, where do they get our information from?
HAHA, I just received my “exclusive invite” today, with a postcard to fill out asking for my phone number, email and what type of business I am in. The editor in Chief is now a
M. Foster
Thank you for your info – I thought it seemed fishy and googled the organization and found a host of websites with warnings.
Glad this was here. I was seriously thinking about filling this stupid thing out. Thought I would google it first just to see if it was a scam. Thank you.
yeah, just got my cambridge letter! im in the club!! I cant wait for the world recognition for being such an accomplished professional 22 year old college student who sits around and smokes pot all day!
Got my Cambridge letter yesterday, and I want to THANK YOU so much for this information before I had to go thru all the b.s. It’s now in the circular file!
Well, I got my letter today. Actually not “my own” letter but addressed to my pseudonym I use when writing certain types of fiction. And also receiving certain types of email newsletters, such as killerplants.com.
The letter was addressed to Olivia Linde. She writes romantic historical fiction. Or she would if she wasn’t busy doing other things.
Since this is a fictitious person I was briefly tempted to invent a fictitious professional life.
Actually, after reading your post I have considered inventing my profession as working for the FBI as an investigator of Internet scams.( Heh, heh.)
This Cambridge scam must have gotten my email from a recent poetry contest I entered. Or perhaps Killerplants.com.
My final thought about these people is that they are getting income in various ways and one way is to sell their mailing list that so many people are will to give them for free by filling out the basic information card.
Really, people! Stop giving out your personal information. Also, stop entering poetry contests, that’s my advice to Olivia Linde…
I love Google, because people have the power now to find out immediately about scams! Thanks for the help–I thought it was a scam but I wanted to get other opinions, too.
I just want to say “Thank you” for posting this information. I, too, my self just received the letter for the 2008/2009 Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executive and Professional Women. At first, I thought how it would be a good thing to be listed on this “Honors Edition”; however, I started thinking to my self how did they come up with my name and information, so I decided Google the company and I came across your article. Again, Thank you. The letter is now in the recycle bin.
I knew I smelled a rat. These clowns have been harrassing me for months. So, today I started doing some investigating.
You’re not the only one with this opinion, you’ve just done the best research.
Thanks for all the info. It seems plenty of us out there appreciate it.
Just in time. I was ON THE PHONE with Cambridge when I thought to Google them and stumbled onto your post. A client called, so I rudely hung up on them. I get these letters all the time and just ignore them (must be all the credit card debt — they think I’m a stooge — should there be a “debtors who’s who” or “most likely to be fleeced who’s who”?), but for some reason I responded to this one. It’s the word Cambridge. Maybe if they include me in their Who’s Who I can go to Harvard…
Amazing, they gave me the exact same story line – “softened” me up, life time for $800, five year for $450, then (getting impatient) a 3 year special price reserved only for “charities”, and finaly, just before hanging up, a one year program. I’ll stay with LinkedIn.
I have to say thanks for this blog. I just got off the phone with them for my “interview”. I just wanted the free stuff.. and I must have said no over hundred times. Geez they are pushy. But I still didn’t cave and I am super glad that I didn’t.
Thanks again!
Great stuff! I too received a letter from Cambridge. Prior to reading the numerous blogs that point out the shortcomings of these “programs” (Ha! I just laughed out loud), I guessed that it was a joke from a clever friend. Now I’m pretty sure that it is, at a minimum, a “company” (and I use that term loosely) that knows nothing about customer satisfaction or honest business, or, more likely, a couple of innovative young entrepreneurs (again – loosely) who have found a loop-hole in the current justice system structure. Thanks for putting the good word out. I’ve created a MySpace profile for anyone who wants to help fight back. See it here… http://www.myspace.com/fightingwhoswho
Boy you would think I would know better. I actually believe in teh concept of networking pre-screened accomplished professionals so may be what I thought as initially valuable plus a body of work that was somewhat credible as “worthy” conditioned me to buy in to what is obviously a scam. I even offered to help them improve their site from a collection of past deed-doers to present vibrant networks (think Linked In). They – always nice by the way – responded that they were doing a survey last July. Now many months later no visible proof of that exists. I can’t help but ask if any one has gotten a refund or put legal pressure on them as it certainly seems illegal.
Bill
I got the same letter today. Thank you for blogging this. I’ve found some very specific professions targeted for such a “consideration”. To the shred it is for this p.o.c. solicitation!
I got a letter from Biltmore Who’s Who today. I did have to chuckle, I’m more of a Who’s not who kinda person. I was curious and googled the name and came across your website. Thanks for confirming my suspiscions.
I did fill out the postage prepaid card and sent it back to them. Well, I filled out the name and phone number only. The name I entered was “Myra Maynes” and the phone number is the local funeral home. Yeah yeah, I’m a 12 yr old at heart, but I did get the giggles thinking about them calling a funeral home and asking to speak to Myra Maynes (My Remains)
Not only do they get to pay the postage, they get to waste their time calling a bogus number.
While I, like the rest of America, have a pretty over-inflated opinion of myself, I was pretty surprised to receive the Cambridge Who’s Who letter…and promptly googled it, to get your blog, and so, I want to say Thank You!
I just got off the phone with the kind gentleman at Biltmore Who’s Who. Experienced the same interview about my career with the final “Congrats!”, and lead-in to the sales pitch about press kit, photo-ready artwork, plane tickets, plaque, world recognition, etc. As a former door-to-door sales rep for Southwestern Book Company, I recognized all the Zig Ziglar type pump ’em up and go for the close sales techniques from the start (i.e, ask questions that reveal what makes the customer tick, and never ask “yes/no” type questions).
I said “I am not interested in membership” and hung up when he asked for my credit card info.
Here’s the whois on them:
The data contained in GoDaddy.com, Inc.’s WhoIs database,
while believed by the company to be reliable, is provided “as is”
with no guarantee or warranties regarding its accuracy. This
information is provided for the sole purpose of assisting you
in obtaining information about domain name registration records.
Any use of this data for any other purpose is expressly forbidden without the prior written
permission of GoDaddy.com, Inc. By submitting an inquiry,
you agree to these terms of usage and limitations of warranty. In particular,
you agree not to use this data to allow, enable, or otherwise make possible,
dissemination or collection of this data, in part or in its entirety, for any
purpose, such as the transmission of unsolicited advertising and
and solicitations of any kind, including spam. You further agree
not to use this data to enable high volume, automated or robotic electronic
processes designed to collect or compile this data for any purpose,
including mining this data for your own personal or commercial purposes.
Please note: the registrant of the domain name is specified
in the “registrant” field. In most cases, GoDaddy.com, Inc.
is not the registrant of domain names listed in this database.
Registrant:
Biltmore Whos Who
Suite 220
4601 Sheridan Street
Hollywood, Florida 33021
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: BILTMOREWHOSWHO.COM
Created on: 09-Aug-05
Expires on: 09-Aug-08
Last Updated on: 20-Jul-07
Administrative Contact:
Mittler, David webmaster@biltmorewhoswho.com
Biltmore Whos Who
Suite 220
4601 Sheridan Street
Hollywood, Florida 33021
United States
9548930114 Fax — 9548939527
Technical Contact:
Mittler, David webmaster@biltmorewhoswho.com
Biltmore Whos Who
Suite 220
4601 Sheridan Street
Hollywood, Florida 33021
United States
9548930114 Fax — 9548939527
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.IMPACTBS.COM
NS2.IMPACTBS.COM
Thank God for your post. I was foolish enough to fill out and accept Cambridge Whose Who application. But after accepting membership and a $500 fee, something just did not feel right. I decided to google Cambridge Whose Who and your site was the firt to come up. It explained exactly what had happened to me and I immediately called my credit card co. to cancel payment! Thank you so much!!
I just received an e-mail from Emerald. I will report it as phishing thanks to you guys. Keep up the good work.
Here is the start of the mail:
I am pleased to inform you that today, March 27, 2008 Emerald Who’s Who for Executives and Professionals has selected you as potential candidate into our organization to represent …
Being that I am not a Doctor, Lawyer or Indian Chief, and I have changed professions ALOT – the letter from Cambridge smelled very much like a dead fish… I must say I am smarter than the average bear and this letter kept gravitating to my walet…. Wow. I am glad some one let us know that these Cambridge folks are related to Buddy Dallas in Thomson Ga. He’s a slime bag TOO. Good Luck and I hope your vanity doesn’t work on you to spend your hard earned money
I recently received a promotion at work and then came home to the Who’s Who Stuff. I also thought it was junk and googled it. Thanks for your write up. – L
Just got an invite to Cambridge’s in the mail – decided to google them to see what I could find and came upon your blog. Thanks for the info – I know just where to file this.
There is a Biltmore Who’s Who with a trial membership of $189 + 29.95 S&H of materials.
Thanks for taking the time to research and post. I received the Cambridge scam in today’s mail. Perhaps we can create the “Women’s Who’s Who Refusal Registry.”
Funny because I just got off the phone with them this morning and I told her that I left my credit card at home and if she call me back tomorrow. She said that she would check with her supervisor and put me on hold, I immediately hung up. Something didnt feel right because they were asking me to purchase a Platinum membership for 800.00! I am going to call her back and say that is that the only way to be included?
-LT in DC
I just had a call today from a lady who wanted to interview me for 15 minutes. I was skeptical but curious, and told her to call back tomorrow. (I really don’t want to talk to anyone and give them personal information!) Hey, everybody, thank for the What’s What on the Who’s Who! Any brilliant comments when she calls me back?
I just got off the phone with them, but I had to go back on shift, so I put them off when it came to the cc information. I am glad that I did. I can’t afford to lose $1k!! Thanks so much for this post. BA in DC
Thank you so much for taking the time to disclose this. You saved me!
But I received my letter from the Editor in Chief, on behalf of the Managing Director!
Thank you for the confirmation of my suspicions, although I remain convinced I am a very important person.
I did not do my homework nor was I skeptical of the CWW’s manuevers. Now what do I do?
And I thought I was sooooo special! Bummer. Another case of being a legend in my own mind.
Seriously, I was so happy to find your site after receiving my Cambridge letter. Into the round file it goes – and yet my vanity remains intact.
Robin G.
It’s funny. My husband just started his company 2 months ago and now we get a letter from Cambridgge. I knew it had to be a joke but didn’t expect this much info to be found. Good Job!!
Wow…I’m glad I just read this blog! I was going to mail in my “no-cost” registrey form.
I’ve been called at least 5 or 6 times by them – not for inclusion in their registry, but to interview for a position with them. Whenever I get an unsolicited call with a job offer, I immediately Google the company name, if the gave it, or the phone number. Sure enough, they usually leave out the name of the company and ask me to call a number, then an extension. The number they leave is (on Long Island, NY) 516-535-1515. When I Google that number, it comes up as Cambridge Who’s Who. I’ve never even entertained the idea of returning their calls, having read all of the “scam alerts” on the web.
Thank you so much for writing about them. You are doing a great public service – I received one today and googled. Thank you to GOOGLE too!!!
My 17 year old high school student son just received an invitation to join “Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals Honors Edition.” I figured it had to be some kind of scam, and of course, it was. I just wonder where they got his name and address and why they think he’s a “professional.” Just for laughs I should send the form back in and list him as a “professional high school student” and see what they do. They’d probably list him, if I gave them the money!
I just received my invitation for inclusion in the 2007/2008 Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executive and Professional Women “Honors Edition.” I spent about 14 seconds being mildly flattered–after all, I am a reasonably accomplished writer and editor, having worked in the field for nearly 20 years now. Perhaps it’s my time to receive some professional recognition?
Well, thanks, but no thanks, (Mr.? Ms.?) M. Foster, I’ll continue to garner my meager kudos from my coworkers and allow my reputation to spread through those less glamorous avenues, such as good old-fashioned word-of-mouth. Methinks that your registry of “thousands of executive and professional women throughout America” will simply bring me more uninvited invitations for wonderful opportunities such as yours. I simply haven’t the pocketbook for your generosity.
Agh.. I wish I found this sooner. They got me the first time and I never received the “book”, etc. Got a call today and they asked if it was ok if the post office could leave without a signature. Without thinking I said ok. And they are trying to charge me a second time for the book that I never got in the first place. I have called my credit card company and the charge is already pending and have to wait until it is cleared to dispute it. I know I’ve got a case since I never received the first packet (stupid me). Regardless if they reverse the charges – I will report to the State Attorney’s office – because while it may be “technically” legal – our Attorney General is aggressive about stuff like this. I’ll also share it with the news stations who also go after this stuff in my community.
Congratulations on being the second hit on a “cambridge who’s who” Google search! I got one of these in the mail yesterday and sensed immediately it was some kind of scam. Five minutes reading this blog post clears it right up. Thanks!
what about all the people these who’s who employ some of them employ 100’s of people, generating jobs, pays a very good compensation, fair to the employee, an equal opportuniy employer with benefit packages camparable to most fortune 500 companies. If someone wants to be in the whos who why make them feel as if the have done something stupid. They get the recognition they want while all the while putting money in the pockets of the sales person that conducted that lengthy interview. Just cuz you dont want to pay dont complain. Its working for a lot of people. And whos to say what a persons credentials or merrits are necessry to be recognized. If you want to pay for it.
Just got the infamous invitation in the mail and started laughing as I read it. After telling my coworker why I was laughing (our mail typically isn’t funny), I went straight to Google to search what I was fairly certain was a scam. When you’re right, you’re right! (And my letter is signed by M. Foster, Editor in Chief.)
The latest person signing this letter is the editor in chief M. Foster! Guess they were tired of jen’s name popping up in google searches!
Although this post is way back in the blog archives, I’m still monitoring it, and over the past few days I’ve deleted a number of flame-ish comments. I’ll continue to do so.
I welcome comments from anyone who has experience with one of the Who’s Whos, but please let’s keep it on topic and civil.
Thanks.
I think Victoria’s keeping this topic afloat. It’s just too hard to believe there are so many whining saps in the world. Eh….maybe not so hard.
I got letters from Metropolitan in 2006 and Cambridge in 2008. Last year I called and got the pathetic sell… “We are honoring you for all you’ve done as a woman in business, but pay us a hundred something bucks for your plaque.” So I took my letter, filed it for reference that my business and self would appear in the directory and then wrote my own press release and sent it to the local papers. A few new customers came in from seeing the mention – so I got something out of it. I knew it was a scam but like I said, used it for a local paper mention that got me a few new customers. So the new letter just came for Cambridge and of course the logo is exactly like the Metropolitan. ALL I REALLY NEED TO SAY IS thank you thank you to all the people who have posted these blogs. They are empowering and make me confident that I’m not passing up an opportunity. And that I shouldn’t continue to associate myself at all with such a stupidly unprofessional association, no matter how good “Who’s Who” sounds. Thank you to all the writers.
HEY PERKY…Your either an idiot or work for one of the Who’s Who Companies. Publishing amazing people??? I hate to burst your bubble they buy lists of emails from brokers and will sell it to anyone dumb enough to buy it! They butter you up with an interview and deceptive sales tactics. YOU NEED 3 QUALIFICATIONS TO BE INCLUDED.
1. A PULSE
2. A CREDIT CARD
3. A BIG EGO
Thank you for a very cogent and unemotional point of view!
I too belong to Cambridge Who’s Who but I disagree with most if not all of you. I have had the ability to network myself. I have been offered some amazing opportunities. I took advantage of one and am doing great. Do you people think you are going to get something for nothing??? This is the U.S. where gas is over $3, we don’t even mfg our own products here anymore!!! Have you heard of the housing market scam a lot of you bought into. Did you actually believe the interest rates were going to stay so low??? Why don’t u people stop bashing a company that employs people in the U.S. and publishes the profile of some amazing people. Instead of bashing them why don’t you use them to your best advantage and get something out of it?
You’re obvisouly not telling the truth!
I listened to these people for 3 months (sorry, didn’t make it to 6!), and not once did I get any inkling that they were going to ruin anyone’s credit or charged people twice. In fact, the trainers made it painstakingly clear that nothing inappropriate had better take place or you’re out! Now I don’t know what the principals do with the money, but the chicanery ain’t happening on the floor.
BTW, dear, they do record phone convos–of the sales people and everyone else in the office. Oh, and I still have a friend who works there, and if anything, security has gotten tighter.
You must’ve been one of the sad sacks who got taken, and now you just can’t admit it.
If anyone has a TAPE RECORDING, then why don’t you make it public?
People hate to hear the truth, but I worked there for 6 months. They will tell people they are a different whos who on the phone. Charge people twice. Lie about recording convos. Threaten to ruin people’s credit if they dispute. Sell to people overseas who do not fully understand english. Lie about if they charge you in dollars, euros, or pounds. Finally they send you a paid invoice in 10 days saying you had 24 hours to cancel.
OPEN YOUR EYES AND READ WHAT THE OTHER 99% OF PEOPLE WROTE HERE…NOTICE A THEME?
Ha! I worked for these guys in more of a support capacity. Hate to break this to you, but it’s not a scam. It’s legal, there is no defrauding. If someone didn’t want their package or were unhappy, their credit card was refunded. I’m sure there had to be some instances that were shady, but that’s not new in any industry.
And you know what? I felt like I WAS doing a good deed working there. I did my best to go over the person’s bio, fact-check it, read it for mistakes, etc., so that they would get what they paid (and they KNEW what they paid) for.
So, how is this a scam? It may be scammish, but what isn’t, from the beauty and health industries to the book and music clubs–you think the phone companies don’t hard sell and scam you into buying their packages–I could go on. Sure, there’s high-pressure selling tactics, is there an industry where there isn’t? The point is that no one is twisting your arm to buy this, and if you do, you buy at your own risk. Someone wants pay $600 for a book and a plaque, so what? Or, if you don’t want it, you just get your name and info online and in the book for nothing.
You know what, guys? No one tells you the straight dope, not the President, not the Pope and certainly not the businessman.
who’s who is a scam! nalts said it himself!
Relax. You pay for your vanities. And it’s doubtful anyone’s running your card “whenever their hearts desire.” Such drama! You want scams? There are plenty of real scams the government should investigate.
I must disagree…THIS IS 100% A SCAM. They claim they will provide you with a service, they claim they have way more members then they actually do, they claim they select people on merit, accolades, and accomplishment, they claim it is free…ALL OF WHICH IS A LIE! No one ever benefits, they have nowhere near as many active members as they say, they will list anyone with a CC#, and it is far from free. In addition, once you do pay, they seem to run your CC when ever their hearts desire.
THIS IS THE EPIPFANY OF SCAM.
Um, no one is telling you to buy this stuff. They sell crap like any other business, and it’s your own fault if you’re such a dope that you buy into this. It’s clearly a play into people’s vanities, but it’s not illegal!
Though I too sympathize with those who were caught up in this (I also received the letter, but did not bite), I think calling this operation a scam is a little over-the-top. It is no doubt true they are rife with high-pressure sales tactics, immediate credit-card charging, and much difficulty in getting refunds. But some folks WERE apparently successful in getting refunds, so it is not like they completely refuse to provide them.
A “scam” implies illegal activity. They probably do exactly what they say they’ll do: put your name in a listing and allow you to access it so you can “network”. They surely hype the listing WAY more than it deserves (I think the only exclusivity to the listing is that it is reserved for people willing to spend all that money to get on it), but there’s probably nothing illegal here. I think that as long as you don’t give ’em your charge numbers, you can have fun with ’em if you want, as a couple of posters have done. In fact, I’m now a little sorry I don’t still have the letter, so I can do so myself. If you choose to do that though, just keep your wallet in your pocket or your purse closed.
Sympathies to all who fell for this. I guess sometimes the empirical method is the only way to learn something.
After getting these things for a few years in a row, a few months ago they sent me another application; so just for giggles and grins, I sent it in to see what would happen. I figured that, though the listing was said to be free, they’d try to sell me a copy of the book with my name in it.
When I got the call from them wanting to “interview” me, I told them they had to call me at 6am my time (9am theirs, in NYC), at home, because I didn’t want to do an interview at work. They ended up calling me a few more times at work ANYWAY, then a couple of times at home at the wrong time after I’d already left for work.
Finally, about a week ago, they made the call at the right time. The interview, as many of you know, was pretty trivial (educational background, why I wanted to be in their listing etc; they didn’t even ask what I’d done that was so noteable that I should be in “Who’s Who”), and finally they said “congratulations, we’ll put you in” (even though the reason I gave for “wanting” to be in was that they’d solicited ME, not the other way around).
Then they hit me with the money hook. In my case, the “platinum” was nearly $1000, with hundreds of dollars in annual recurring fees; The “gold” was MUCH more reasonable (sarcasm alert), a few hundred dollars a year for reduced “services”. Well, that of course got the Scottish Jew in me all riled up. So I asked them “well, what do you have for a free membership?” They said “well, we have a trial membership for $150”. I responded “well, perhaps you can’t count. $150 isn’t ZERO dollars. What do you have for zero dollars?” And the response was something about a complimentary one-time listing or some such. So I said that’d be fine, and they said they’d do that, and that was the end of the call; no cc info was ever exchanged.
The funny part is, just a half-hour ago I got ANOTHER call here at work from them! So I told the woman that I’d already talked to her people, and she said thanks and that was the end of THAT. But it will be interesting to see if I get any more calls in the future. I DO wonder how much money they spent on all those long-distance calls across the country. Must be a pretty profitable business.
I think that next, I’ll submit my dad’s name for candidacy. One of his greatest joys is going to shops and being an old coot to them about something he’d bought with which he wasn’t satisfied. This is JUST the kind of thing he’d sink his teeth into, I’d bet! I’ll make sure Dad knows not to give them a cc number; but, being my father’s son, I’m sure he’ll know better…
This is a good blog. I was just contacted today (1/2/08) because I had previously paid for a “Gold” membership and now since they have merged and redesigned their web site they have a new “VIP” package for $600. I spoke to “Dana” for over 10 minutes and she tried every angle for me to bite bringing the price down to $298. The crystal engraved plaque was $200 and then there is the 2000 page hard cover book (which can come in a softcover which they tell you later is cheaper). No thank you! Beware, they are very slick in the way they “lead you” to a sale. I do not like the feeling I was left with – slimy! Take care out there and beware.
Anyone feeling embarrassed about falling for the Manchester/Cambridge scam may feel better about themselves after reading this:
http://badpsychics.com/thefraudfiles/modules/news/article.php?storyid=634
Psychic Rose Schwab positively glories in her string of utterly meaningless awards, which include a couple from Manchester/Cambridge…
I just received a letter informing me that I am being considered for inclusion into the 2007/2008 Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executive and Professional Women “Honor’s Edition.” I was at first thrilled that someone had submitted my name for such a distinguished honor. I read every word searching for a cost or any signs of a scam, and found none. Getting something — unexpectedly — for nothing was a little unnerving to me. Skeptical, I began to search the internet to ensure that this was a legitimate company and true honor. I found this blog. Thank God for you and your research. You saved me from this terrible scam. Lord knows, I have enough stress in my life, and I don’t need anymore!! Thanks again.
Here’s my suggestion…. the postcard is pre-paid postage which means for everyone that is mailed, Cambridge has to pay postage. So fill out one or two lines with fake info and stick it in a mailbox. Those postage costs will eventually add up for them……
Wow, you can actually view the biographies of the poor suckers that paid $800 for the VIP membership! Those poor souls. Something smelled funny when I received the letter offering inclusion into “Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals in Aerospace Honors Edition”. I mean, really, “considered by many as the single highest mark of achievement”!
I was contacted by Cambridge Who’s Who many times over the past few weeks. When I finally gave the salesperson the time of day she took some information about my job and then went in for the kill. I immediately recognised it as a bad cover up for a scam and pointed that out to the lady. She assured me that thier company was legitamate and diveled on long enough for me to poke around the internet and find your site. When she was done spewing after seveal failed attempts to get her off the phone I informed her that I had already made a complaint to the BBB while on the phone with her. I suggested that thier sales approach be shorter in the future, especially if I had enough time to do that! Thank you ladies!
Emerald Who’s Who just contacted me via phone after I filled out an online form this weekend. Thankfully I didn’t provide any of my credit card or bank information. I just received a call from them and their representative was saying the exact things other people have been told. The rates were $689 and $469 or something close to that. The discount 2 year membership was only $249! That’s when I hung up on them. 2 minutes later I was reading this site! Thank you so much for posting! I’m sure it will help others! I guess flattery does work these days! Man I feel like a fool! Good luck to everyone else out there, stay smart and do research before you give anyone you don’t know your personal information.
Gelly from Minneapolis.
BLOCK ALL CHARGES ON YOUR CREDIT CARD!
I am a professional who was invited to join CWW. Due to some confusion on my part, and as a person who belongs to many organizations, I mistook the CAMBRIDGE’S WHO and WHO for somthing else.
After an extensive “interview”, I foolishly gave my credit card # and authorized them to sign me up. Immediately after getting off the phone, I googled and found this site. Within 1 minute, I called my credit card company and asked them to BLOCK ALL CHARGES EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY (LIKE THE CARD WAS LOST/STOLEN). Asking them to block a single INCOMING charge may not be effective as they will ask you to wait for the charge to appears and then dispute it. THEN, IT IS TOO LATE. I read all the comments and there isn’t a single comment about A SUCCESSFUL REFUND. As soon as you realize this is a scam, call and ask your credit card co. to block ALL INCOMING CHARGES UNTIL YOU DECIDE TO UNDO IT/CHANGE THE NUMBER. After contacting my credit card co., I called CWW back and ask them to hold off on processing my application. The response was similar to everyone’s experience. “Membership department will get back to you in 24 hours” “The application process goes through immediately”. About 15 minutes after I got off the phone with CWW, they called back and left me a message stating they will hold off on the application and then added that the charge to my card was declined….obviously they tried to charge me right away and failed.
Thank you very much for the information. I just received one of these letters today and am thankful that I can avoid the inconveniences that some of the other bloggers experiences.
Hi there! Thanks for your research! Just want to add to the anecdotes about Cambridge… I received an invitation to join the Who’s Who Executive and Professional Women’s “Honors Edition” of the registry today. I have my talents, but I am neither an Executive nor a Professional. I am, in fact, a stay-at-home mom to 3 small children. The last paying job I had was that of middle school English teacher in 1999. Ah well, as Bertie Wooster would say, “Into each life some rain must fall” and I regret I will have to decline the invitation of “M. Foster, Editor and Chief” to join this august body.
I just got off the phone with these knuckleheads. I have to admit that I was taken in for a short while then as I was going through the “interview” it dawned on me that this was a scam. A quick Google search brought me to this page. I listened for about another minute and then just ended the conversation. He was not happy when I told him that I would not make a decision until I had seen what they were publishing.
Yeah, I’m in college and I don’t even have a job and I got a letter about the Executives and Professionals “Honors Edition” version; what the hell – honors? Is that supposed to make me want to buy it more? Though the editor-in-chief listed was M. Foster instead of Gonzalez. What a load of crap. Thanks so much for posting this! Very informative, and it makes me so angry that this kind of crap happens.
wow, amazing how long this has been going on. I received a letter last week and was suspicious as I am not in a “prestigious” position in my career.
Thanks for the info – this letter went straight to the trash.
Hi, I read your article and was really interesting.
This summer I received a weird phonecall and I showed no real interest. I immediately thought it was a scam but the woman offered me a real deal of a cheap trial. The real memberships were really expensive by the way.
So I agreed and wanted to check out their website which appeared to suck. I did some additional research about this firm and found other firms that were really similar: similar website logo’s, used names. Only the addresses were different and such obvious stuff. After calling in a couple of times, I got every single time the same guy on the other end which was really odd.
Furthermore I only required my last name to identify and you would think they would ask for your member ID.
After gathering more information about the servers hosting the website I found that one particular website (I won’t mention the name) was created by a ‘firm’ which appeared to have created the website. Last update of that website was in 2006 and they had an online portfolio of other websites that appear o be scams as well. Funny thing is that all the websites were created in 2006 and so were the firms ^_-
Now my research is done I guess and last week I reported the whole issue to the FBI so they can deal with it.
For everyone else who has received offers from companies claiming they will list you in their database: check the company’s BBB report. Believe me, all regular and honest firms will want to be listed in the BBB database so if the company is in there, you will know for sure it’s not a scam.
Colleen –
What a wonderful idea! I just got this prestigious invitation (and I pity anyone who regards anything like this as their “single highest mark of achievement” sheesh) and I was going to toss it (already knowing it was a scam) and googled it anyway, found this blog and just think your suggestion to send back BS information just so they pay the postage is inspired! I’m going to do that.
Haha – You are right on! – I just received the invitation from Cambridge and smelled something stinky – I Googled, found your blog and was delighted that my instincts were correct. I actually sent the registry request with bogus info because it is “Postage Paid”. I figure they deserved it. If everyone did that they’d pay out the nose and eventually give up the game.
oh, btw: follow-up comment
fyi: I had originally received the email from the Madison Who’s Who (and yes, stupidly replied with my info), but when they called me, they were now from the Emerald Who’s Who, so yes, they are all linked…again, unlike me, do your research!!
wow, I should have googled this earlier…I just got off the phone from a 20 minute “interview” with Emerald Who’s Who…everything was just as described by the others on here…praised me up and down and gladly let me know I had qualified for inclusion into their newest edition…then came the sales pitch…luckily, I knew I didn’t want to pay for it, even if it was legit..:) So, wheil she was pitching, I was Googling in the background..and found your site…then it was the battle to get off the phone with her…she put up a great fight, but my barrage of “no thanks” finally wore her down…
Get info on here, now I’ll be better aware…I should have known that my work quality wouldn’t get me nominated for anything..:)
Another thank you for this information. I received my letter today. I was temped by the “free”, but it goes right out with the trash after reading this.
Thank you!! I was 10 minutes away from a Cambridge Whos Who interview – at least now I will not waste my time! Wendy
I just found this great page of “success stories”: http://successstories.cambridgewhoswho.com. And by great, I mean incredibly sad.
Try googling some of the business names. “Melody’s Income Generator” (in quotes) gets a whopping 10 results, and The North American Andy Transplant Foundation, brings up a craptacular website http://www.andytransplantfoundation.org/
Unfortunately this morning I opened the letter and like most others was interested in being recognized. I typed in Cambridge in my Google bar to start my research and hit their site first and entered the online app information (no credit card info).
Then I went back and hit the other Google search links and ended up here and now of course I am upset that I fell for this scam.
Thanks for posting all of your comments.
I received my letter in September and started receiving calls ever since. They really did a great job of making me feel special. Here I am thinking WOW, someone wants me in their publication and I could use this as a networking tool. This is low and I am happy I did the research on Cambridge Who’s Who.
It would be fun to record the call and post it on a blog. I would be interested in their answer to the direct question “the letter said there was no charge”. That would probably make the news.
Thanks so much for your research, and to everyone for their posts. I was harassed this morning by the representative from Cambridge. They assured me that I MUST commit to one of their expensive memberships TODAY, as I was “already past the interview process.” The representative continued to reduce the price of the memberships, offer travel vouchers, etc. I knew at that point, we had a scam!
The representative indicated that they had over 200,000 members in their database…I would sure hope that is incorrect information!
I just received the letter and am thankful for a little curiosity and this blog.
Just thinking that the best thing to do (and maybe get you off the list) is to put some heavy washers in the return envelope – make them pay for that return postage!
Be curious!
Just got the F.O.S (full of shit) letter today. I think a a quick way to tell if it’s real or not is to just look at the Gonzalez signature. If its pre-printed (like they are), I’d be headed for the trash. If they don’t have the time to sign themselves, it must not be that important. That’s how I feel anyway.
Re: Anonymous’ message of 09/17
Thank you — and all the others — so much for posting this info.
I fell for it this morning. Got the call at work, and within the hour, I knew I should have listened to my gut feeling. Also, I felt extremely stupid. I called “my account director”, only to receive a message that this number was not in service at this point. I then called the number listed on their stationery and was told I would receive a call later this afternoon or tomorrow. Called back the account director, this time the number worked, and left a clear and precise message.
In the meantime, I started doing more research, came upon this site and was armed with info (State Attorney’s Office, name, etc. — I am not in NY State). I was ready to call every extension tonight and leave a voice mail (thanks, Anonymous!). Lo and behold, just now, after official business hours, I received a call from a rep. He wanted to know what and why. I kept repeating “I simply changed my mind” (as an easy start) to each of his questions (budgetary issue? Is it a budgetary issue? If it is, I might be able to help you) After I was on hold for a couple of minutes, he said I would be credited. Let’s see — I hope it’s true. I think what made this smooth — so far, I’ll talk again when I see the credit on my statement — is that I went (let myself be talked into) the (supposedly) cheapest program they have, which is still around $200.00
I feel like such a fool, because they know how to make you feel good about yourself.
TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS! My alarm bells did go off when I was not given time to think it over; made feel uninformed (“Do you not KNOW who we are?”), etc.
I just received an offer for the “…Among Executive and Professional Women” edition. Does it count that not only am I actually male but they got my first and last name transposed? 🙂
Because of the name screw up I was able to ID the source seller to Fawcette Technical Publishing (as was) who originally had to change as such to resolve delivery issues for a magazine I used to receive (long story).
Thanks for the great work!
S
Thanks to all of you. how could we further get this word out? I am an older adult & I let myself be talked into $100 which my credit card took care of, take god I said no to the high price, but still feel stupid. Good advice about not accepting the package. When I called back trying to cancel..the lady I originally spoke with sang silly songs and actually belched! into the phone!!!when I told her I wanted to cancel!! Professional? I told Am. Express about this.
I fell for this scam because when I was in high school I was selected for a legit who’s who. When this came I immediately thought of that, which had been very helpful for me, and bought into it. I did get the call and got talked into buying one of their memberships, but once I hung up I realized it was a little fishy so I looked them up. Lo and behold I came to this site, saw it was a scam and called back my “Account Director” getting only a voicemail. I left a threatening voicemail basically saying that I had been scammed in the past hour and did not want any of their company’s services. Maybe it was that they realized I work in litigation or maybe they just didn’t want any trouble, but I got a call shortly thereafter from some guy saying he heard I had questions about my purchase. I told him that I didn’t want any of their services and he immediately agreed to cancel the purchase. These people are leeches and should be put in jail for what they do to innocent people.
Hi everyone,
I received one of those wonderful who who’s in the mail as well. Completed it, mailed it and forgot about it after all it was free, right?
Just a call a few months later- nice sales rep with a good voice- makes you feel important but then here comes the hard sell money!! She insisted I give her my credit card number because this has to be done today, or I may miss an opportunity of a life time. If the first membership was to expensive she has the authority to give me a lesser membership(less money). She only needed my authorization and she would wait until I found the credit card. I said okay, wait one moment. I guess she is still waiting!!! SCAM AS SURE AS RAIN.
DC
I am one of the fortunate ones not to be hit with a solicitation letter from Cambridge et al.–yet. However, I am in the process of looking for a new job and came across a job listing for Cambridge that seemed to fit within my skill set and salary requirements. But something about their ad made me nervous. Of course, after some Googling, I found the true story about the company. Thank goodness I hesitated about sending my resume out. I certainly don’t want to work for an outfit such as this.
I’ve been through the scam with Cambridge Who’s Who and fell for it unfortunately due to the hard sell, and that fact I was at work and was trying to get the salesperson off the phone. I checked the Internet online as soon as I got home and saw all the blogs about how unethical Cambridge is w/their sales tactics and Who’s Who book that never materializes. How did I get them to not charge my credit card? I left voice mail messages for anyone on their pohone directory, AND I threatened them that I would gladly report my experience to the State Atty’s Office for New York to the actual division that handles these type of phone scams (I can’t remember the name of the dept, but found it when I looked up the State Atty’s office). Also told them that I would be contacting the BBB as well. Boy, did I have a quick response from one of the “higher ups” at Cambridge informing me that they would cancel my order, and NOT charge my credit card! I now have an email from Prestige Who’s Who offering the same scam. Delete, delete, delete! Advice – just use the Name of the State’s Atty who handles these scams, and they react verrry quickly!!
Just received me phone call from Cambridge and I was accepted! Hooray! And how much? $800? It did sound professional, but I’m not in the habit of passing out car payments to just anyone, so I asked her to call back in an hour. I Googled, found their site and just below that your post. Thank you very much! I can’t wait to ask for the charitable rate, get it then hang up! Maybe I’ll have time to sell them on the idea of joining The Strauss Who’s Who of Who’s Whos.
I have just been invited to join emerald Who’s Who. I am already listed in International Who’s Who’s for professionals. I do not know who referred me to them. But What I do know that while I was researching business opportunities and ideas, it said do a Who’s Who book. It is a good attempt to complile a list of professionals a nd join together to use joint resources, but I understand some of the people just want you to pay the money. I hope one day to make a proper Who’s Who for professional so that It can really benefit a wide spectrum of professionals around the world.
well add me to the list too. I have a hard time fighting against these people. The day i received the crapy package i returned everything in a heart beat, and called immediately the bank to cancel the sale. this was in April 2007. everything was fine from the bank ( even if i had to give them 10 tons of letters and papers explaining i had been scammed ) until today when i received a call from the bank that the who’s who was coming back to the charge. I just sent a letter to the bureau of better business and another one to the attorney general because i am really fed up with these people. I dunno where it will go, but i am ready to do not let them keeping scamming people like that.
I got an e-mail fromEmerald, claiming it was a follow on to an enquiry I made in April. (no such case) It went on to say that I was among the elite of the professionals in my town and fortunate I would be to be included in the who’s who. I had to laugh. “my town” has only 275 people, counting all of the farm hands in the two bars on friday nite! There are no “professional” people IN the town! The closest thing to a professional is the fry cook at one of the bars.
None of these outfits deserve anyone’s time and certainly not any money. NOBODY EVER would look at one of these who’s who publications anyway, even if they did exist.
8/28/2007
I just received a letter from Cambridge Who’s Who and decided to research it to see what the company(?) were really up to (I suspected right off that there was something fishy).
I found a few other sites that complained about the group, but your site was especially helpful. Thanks for the great research and information!
Thanks, Karin
Thanks! Just got off the phone with Cambridge Who’s Who, and the talk started out with everything being free (although, of course, they never *said* that word), and so as soon as they started talking about money, the jig was up. I was disappointed, of course, that it’s all a scam, but hey–so it goes! Amazing how quickly they lower the price of membership and start adding on crazy gifts when you balk… And then, of course, it’s amazing what you’ll actually end up with if you say no: they go from trying to sell all of these wonderful wonderful things to, “Well, fine then, go to http://www.cambridgewhoswho.com/basiclisting/ and put in your own damn name!”
I vote we spam the basic listings: I just put in a totally fictitious name and address and submitted it. Unfortunately I can’t look to see if it’s been posted, since I’m not a member. Any members wanna look and see? I think I used the name Jackson Howland (last name might be incorrect), and put my position as professor, company as Harvard, and city as Boston, MA.
Now I feel better! 🙂
Once again thanks I got one today also and new it was fishy heck coming from my past background they would definately not wont me lol. I think I might fill it out and when they call and they ask me what I do etc tell them I am a professional drug dealer and say heck I though you all got my name from the prison when I killed that guy for trying to rob someone hehe.
Hrmmm I think ill do it I love having fun with people like this.
THanks again
Thank you very much for taking the time to research”Cambridge Who’s Who). My intuition felt it wasn’t legit. So I did a search and I had to understand who was Blogging or bragging!
Thank you again for your’re eye opening article .
Well I can be added to the list.
I received my ego letter from Cambridge who’s who today 8/21/2007. Being duped a very long time ago for my poetry…I know nothing is ever free. Suspecting something fishy, I started searching and found my suspicions valid.
The main reason I became wary is I just recently started to tread the surface of free-lance writing. So why would anyone want to reconize me for my accomplishments? How could I be accomplished, being new at the trade. There is no way I’ve made any real accomplishments, except with a couple of small publications, which I am thrilled about, but my goodness it is only a start.
Thawwwwrrrrt to them, playing on peoples sensitive fragile emotions.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I knew this sounded too good to be true. It seemed fishy to me. Hats off to you for exposing them.
Thank you, thank you for blogging about this. I just got one of the “Professional Women” solicitations, and having been in my position for only three months, found it particularly fishy. Like any good cynic, I Googled them immediately, and yours was the first entry I saw that wasn’t all glowing comments or from the group themselves. SO glad for your explanation. You saved me a lot of time!
Laura, I may be jinxing myself by saying this…but no, Writer Beware hasn’t heard anything at all from Cambridge, or any of the other Whos. If they’re like most outfits that prey on writers, they only go after the people they know they can intimidate.
I’m very curious; did Writer Beware become the target of any threats of legal action by these people? I’m sure this blog has been an excellent resource for a lot of people that could have been taken in by this scam. I wonder if it’s caught their attention yet.
Thank you for the “Duress” comment. I just happened to get my CITI bank dispute letter today, and sat down at my computer to write my letter. I saw you post, and decided to add your website to my letter.
I am so sorry for everyone that gets scammed by these people. Great website ladies!!! Keep up the good work! Thank you.
I just received their letter about being specially chosen to be a part of their “Executive and Professional Women.” And I almost
fell for it. I looked at their website and thought okay, not too bad.
I am so glad I also decided to do a Google search on them and found your blog. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You just saved me a lot of money and aggravation.
Another sucker here from last week. I was told they only needed my card # to know how to begin processing the application. I was under the impression that I wouldn’t be charged until I received and looked over and signed my package. Needless to say I was charged $618.95 that same day. I have called my credit card company (Bank of America) and they told me to try to call them and cancel it first but that they would make a note on my account. They then provided the dispute charge form online and told me to not accept the package when (and if) it comes and requires a signature.
Arggg! Frustrating! I could go on, but let’s just see how far we get. Any updates on refunds people? Heck, at this point I’d give them $50 just to get out of this mess. I’ll be sure to dispute it through my credit card company if Who’s Who doesn’t cancel for me.
Anyone actually get Who’s Who to cancel and refund the charges yet?
Thanks and good luck to the other who were suckered.
A Robert Sullivan 516 535 1515 ext 370 called to inform me that he had a “Taped conversation” of me agreeing to the amount being charged on my credit card. He was extremely rude, and told me that I was basically “out of luck”.
I’ve gotten a number of reports of this particular intimidation tactic used by the Whos. I would guess that such high-pressure tactics would qualify as duress, and I believe that, depending on what state you’re in, the use of duress makes a contract or agreement voidable by the person who is under duress.
At any rate, duress is something to mention to your credit card company when you’re disputing the charge (be sure also to give them the URL of this post), or to a lawyer if you seek legal counsel.
Hi everyone,
I was caught completely unawares and I fell for the scam myself. I just came back from vacation and was woken up this morning by a rep from Cambridge Who’s WHo. She asked plenty of questions and when it came time for that sell, I fell for it. I talked and yesed her just to get off the darn phone. Pretty expensive way too since it is probably gonna cost me the junior membership price of $700.
I wish I did the research online first but at the very least they won’t be able to charge me for the book. I called up my credit card company and hd them change my card number.
I also had similar issues with my credit card. Once a charge goes into the approval stage, the best that you can do is to wait for it and then put it into dispute. The way I see it, while they have a recording of me saying go ahead and charge my card, it is a service we are paying for. Service hasn’t been rendered yet and I intend on making sure that it doesn’t go through. I shouldn’t have to pay for a service I haven’t received. So, like others before me, wish me luck in getting through and getting a refund.
I am terribly embarrassed about having to post this blog. Last week I too was scammed by Cambridge Who’s Who!!! I received a call about 2 years ago about being published in their book, and all of my “recongnition” and “accomplishments” as a professional..blah blah blah….you all know the deal. I gave them my credit card for one hundred dollars or so, and they left me alone for a while.
Stafanie Taylors 516 535 1515 ext 252 called me on a Thursday or Friday and preceeded to tell me how fortunate I was to have been one of the 1% chosen to receive a VIP membership. OH BOY!!!!!!!! I get my picture and accomplishments, etc posted on a full 1/2 page of their book. Blah, blah, blah. I was excited as I am a upcoming professional in my area, and throught this was a great experience to get my name out!!! (Much to my dismay I was scammed for 619.34 on my CITI bank mastercard). Stefanie was such a smooth talker that I did not even realize that she was going to “use the credit card on file” to bill me for the “FREE VIP MEMBERSHIP” she had made mention of earlier in the conversation. I was taken right down the same path the rest of these Bloggers have taken. I am very embarrassed about it.
I called back within 4 days or so to speak with Stefanie Taylors and she would not return my calls. A Robert Sullivan 516 535 1515 ext 370 called to inform me that he had a “Taped conversation” of me agreeing to the amount being charged on my credit card. He was extremely rude, and told me that I was basically “out of luck”. I preceeded to ask him if this was how CWW did routine business, and he did not want to hear my complaints. I was at work, and I cut the converstaion short.
I then called my Citi bank card to tell them of the situation. One of the account managers is currently working with me. She has made a temporary “Credit” on my account until the “Dispute” is investigated by CITI card, and they (CITI CARD) would be in contact with the merchant.
I am waiting on pins and needles because I have better than excellent credit, however I do not plan on paying this bogus charge. I will just take a ding on my credit, close the account, and not have a CITI card account. I hope everyone reads this ahead of time.
I wish I had made an investigation ahead of time as well. But, who knew we would get scammed by what we thought was a legitimate business.
Good luck to everyone with a claim or dispute with Cambridge Who’s Who!! I will spread the word via email and word of mouth about what “SNAKES” they are!!!!!
Thanks for the blog… unfortunately I joined. 🙁 It was a bad decision, thought it would be good for my company to network. It was $600 for that junior membership and another $289 for the book. I’m gonna try and cancel that order.. wish me luck. But they definitely soften you up with all the questions. 🙁 There’s no one really in their network.. just people like me who are gullible and can’t stand up for themselves.
I too recieved one of those letters. I filled it out and sent it in months ago, just got a call back about it today. The questions she asked made me suspicious, and I told her I was driving and didn’t have my credit card with me. She said that I HAD to give it to her, I again repeated I was driving, and she told me to pull over. So I said “fine”… she asked if I had found a place to stop yet, and I said sure…. she again asked for the credit card number. So I said it’s “2468, 1357….” and hung up. She tried to call me back, but I didn’t answer and she didn’t leave a message… oh well, guess my phone just didn’t get good reception while I was ‘driving’ 🙂
thanks for the informative post!!!
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I got one of those Madisons Who’s Who. I don’t know why cause I’m just a home maker. It gives me a giggle to think that people will do anything to get someones money. I laughed so hard I had an accident!:))
thanks ! this company found me on monster.com & wanted me to interview with them IMMEDIATELY…the first clue that it was a scam was the way he kept running around my questions about the company and their practices. he kept saying the company name very fast also when giving me his whole spiel about what it was. anyway, the final part that made me realize this company was a ripoff is when they told me with commission i would be making 70-90,000$ per year….im 21 and only have my associates, that just isn’t feasible at this moment in time, so i did my research on the internet just to make sure my paranoia wasn’t creeping in, and nevertheless, i was correct. thanks for the information so i don’t waste my time interviewing !!
I just got a call here at work from Cambridge Who’s Who. I forgot that I ever filled out the form a few months ago. The woman had such a nice voice that would make anyone think it was real except for someone like myself that does not trust anyone. I went through the steps about being published thinking all was cool, then she dropped the big bomb on me stating I had to pay money. Told her, I don’t have any money to spend on something like this. She tried every which way to get me to pay for a subscription, but I told her I was not going to give my credit card over the phone to anyone I don’t know. I said send me something in the mail or e-mail and I would check it out. She was not happy. I told her that she does not need to publish my name now cause I won’t give her any money. The call ended. I Googled right away Cambridge Who’s Who & found this site. So happy to see other people had the same thing happen to them. I am mad that I even was on their list cause I am signed up to not get Junk Mail. Guess this one slipped through the cracks. Thanks!!
I also received the invitation, decided to play with them. I am a born skeptic and the more I am pushed the more my feet plant. Got the congrats call this morning wanting to know if it was a good time for me to answer a few further questions. I told them it depends on how long it’ll take them to get to the money part. Chris did not like that, told me to never mind, that she had already “made her decision”. So is it a compliment to be rejected and unacceptable to a scammer? I suspect they avoid people who may be too much trouble and yes, it IS a scam. Their telephone number shows as “531” in caller ID.
Got one too-it’s now in the trash! Another potential victim saved from these people- wonder what their next scheme will be if they never get busted??? BE WARY OF THE MAIL…
I received a second letter today and again assumed it was some sort of solicitation. The issue that I have is that somehow this letter was sent to me under my new, married name which I just changed this month. I just this week received my updated driver’s license. How is it that they’ve come by this information so quickly? What access do they have to my personal information? Maybe one of you curious types out there would want to take some effort to further investigate their data collection practices.
Victoria… this is a great blog!!! we should all stand together to make sure that EVERYBODY knows what a scam this company is. oh boy, do i hope that their attorneys attempt to contact me because i will take the harrasment public. The internet will be the small scale of it. i am NOT ashamed or embarrased for being scammed only because I confused them for the real estate “who’s who in luxury real estate” it was later when i checked my credit card bill that i realized it was a Metropolitan Who’s who. I did a quick search but saw that they had a website so i dropped it. I joined the lifetime membership and was promised a book and all these other things. they had told me that they would send me my id for the website and i never even received a letter from them to welcome me to the club. but then what happened was that i forgot about it and 6 months later they called me to tell me that the book has been delayed and that they were getting ready to send it out but that they needed an additional $400 last time fee for some other bullshit. i screamed at the person on the other line and told them to get that book out to me asap. they told me that it was on its way. then about a week later i received the tickets which i still have but have not called to check how valid they are (that is my next project). I had again forgotten about it and then they called me again 2 weeks ago to verify my mailing address because they were getting ready to send out the book to me. this is the same call that i got 6 months ago. the person again called me to tell me that they needed another $300 for some lifetime bullshit and that this would be the last time. They even repeated my credit card number back to me and were asking me for authorization to charge on that account. i told them absolutely NOT. and that if i saw a charge on that account i would report them. i told him to send me that book for it had been a year since they had charged me the first time which was ALOT! I still have the credit card receipt. i was yelling at the person and that person just replied to me: Are you sure you dont want to make this charge… it is only $300. I said I have NO money i am broke living under a bridge. then he said ok, have a nice life. How scary is that. that is when i decided that after my vacation i had to attack back. i may loose this money, but i will MAKE sure everybody out there knows everything there is to know about this company and hope other people are not victimized. I also read in your blog that attorneys were calling the victims… boy do i hope they call me. Because i will make this a VERY ugly and public case for them. I am not afraid and refuse to allow those attorneys to try to intimidate me. I have NOTHING to loose. they have all to loose. that is the difference and that is what people have to remember… that we were the victims. we are the ones being called and harrassed by their company. how dare they come back to us to try to threaten us when we are merely speaking OUR experience with the company. we are entitled to our opinion… especially in a case where the company contacted me first and not only once but on 3 different occasions asking for money. so yes i hope their attorneys contact me.
I am back here to update my story on June 26,11:20am. I found the phone number in the invitation letter, called the number and left a message ” I got your invitation letter and have some questions about the membership, please call me at…..”. Not after long a lady from the Cambridge Who’s who called me back, very possible considering me as a potential member. I told her I just joined the WHO in the morning and would like to cancel my membership because I need more time to research the institute before joining. ~{!0~}is it because of the charge, how about I give you a lower subscription: 1 years membership of ~~$110, you still get the benefit of air ticket~{!-~}.~{!1~}, I interrupted her and insisted that I need time to consider. She told me everything has been processed during the first call and a package is sending to me soon. I argued about the package, it’s no way that the package already on the way within such a short period, and good service always include try and return policy. She said they had this one time deal (no trial, no return) because they have thousands of accomplished members to take care of and not enough personnel and time for cancellation. Then I asked her to give me some member~{!/~}s contact so I could learn about the quality about the WHO from them. She immediately told me I had to be a member to get in touch with other member. Then I said ~{!0~}that~{!/~}s fine, since you have thousands of members, it should be easy for me to get online and ask their opinion on your organization, I don~{!/~}t need any contact from you~{!1~}. The lady was angry at the end, and told me ~{!0~}OK, I will withdraw your application, and the consideration of inclusion is no longer available to you any more.~{!1~} END OF STORY.
One good thing is that they do allow me to withdraw the membership but it is really an annoying experience.
I wish Deanna good luck.
I sure wish I had read this blog prior to the phone call I just had from Cambridge Who’s Who! Unfortunately, I am of the gullible variety of humans…I had a gut feeling that it was a scam, but let the “wow you are great” spiel take over..plus I liked the thought of 2 airline tickets! My husband then found this website – I am now going to attempt to get my money back. Wish me luck…
I wish I would have read this before I got the call from a lady named Kris Monte from Cambridge Who’s Who. The procedure was similar: several questions about how I became such an accomplished professional, my career goals etc. then the membership. I asked for days to make decision, and was told of a lower rate 3-yr membership. And gave her my credit card information. I went online and googled the Who and realized that I was just scammed. I called the lady right back within one hour to cancel the membership, she told me she was not responsible to cancel it since everything was already in processing, only the financial department could take care of it. And she did not have the contact information (phone, email) of the financial department. She said she would forward my request to the financial dept immediately and the financial dept would contact me within this business day… I was so mad at myself for being fooled. I called my citibank credit card company to block the charge from CWW, and was told that they could only dispute the charge after it shows up on my bill, so I will have to call the credit card company later for the charge.
What a day!
I filled out the whole Cambridge Whos Who, thinking that they wanted to actually recognize me for my engineering accomplishments. Once I received the call, it was very apparent that this was a money driven scam. The women was obviously reading from a book, with many catchy pre-packaged lines to make me feel like a big man… Well, I could see right through it. She eventually went for the hard sell and I said that I wasnt interested. Then she got pretty aggressive saying that it was my “last chance.” After telling her that I thought it was a scam, and that I could have signed up my cat for this and gotten the same treatment, she hung up the phone, and moved to someone perhaps a little more gullable. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME!!!
Okay, so I’m an idiot and actually gave them my credit card information. This was before I checked them out on the web. Is there anyone that has actually received a refund? If so, how did you do it? Do I need to threaten legal action? What legal action can I take. I feel so stupid
Adding a link to the above:
site:cambridgewhoswho.com
Worth checking out.
Thanks to all of you who’ve shared your experiences with Cambridge, Emerald, etc. Our blog traffic has increased by at least 25% as a result of this post, from people searching for information on the various Who’s Whos–just another indication of how incredibly active these solicitation schemes are.
Here is a good trick, If you want to see a listing of the hundreds if not thousands of people who have fallen victim to this scam type this into the google search box.
site:cambridgewhoswho.com
Every page of their directory has been crawled by the google spider. I member’s profile page will appear like this (not an actual link):
http://www.cambridgewhoswho.com/profiles/FirstNameLastName-SomeNumber.cfm
Enjoy the list.
I just got off the phone with a lady from the cambridge whos who. I told her i had to think about the decision and she told me that I had to make the decision while she was on the phone with me. No calling back.
Well I told her that if CWW was and organization that had as its goal to put together a list of accomplished professionals as they claim then they would be willing to wait so as to insure the itegrity of their list. She claimed that they had publishing deadlines to meet and that she had to know now. I asked if she were going to be making calls tomorrow and of course her answer was yes. Well then you can wait untill tomorrow because obviously you will be adding names to the list then. She then restated that they are the fastest growing networking directory in the industry and they have 200,000 members. I asked to see an example of this directory so that I could get a preview of what I would be paying for. she said that I had to be a member to get a username and password and there was no demo account. From the sound of the callcenter buzz int the background and hard sell tactics it is no wonder why they are the fastest growing directory.
I told her that i would be honored to be published in her free directory and got off the phone.
THIS IS ABSOLUTLY A SCAM. Preditors like this should go to jail and receive negative Karma points.
thanks soooooooo much for the info; when i read the letter this woman called jennifer gonzalez sent me, somehow something made me think, this is a scam; i mean it sounded so suspicious; one day she’ll appear on the who’s who scam experts!!!!!!!!!
thanks so much for the info…just got the e-mail from emerals who’s who, and i thought i’d check it out first. luckily, your post came up on google! you totally confirmed my suspicions! thanks!!
I just received a Cambridge Who’s Who in the mail and my (good) knee-jerk reaction was to look up “who” they were. Alas, I came upon many sites including this one and I’m glad I did.
First of all, I was just recently laid off from a job. Even though I have been pursuing writing for years, this is not my source of income, nor does my resume reflect any sort of exclusive, outstanding background, so why would I be included in such a list of “accomplished professionals? It didn’t help that they also misspelled my last name twice.
It is sometimes hard enough to get your work “out there,” but to get a letter like this and hearing about so many other scams, it makes things that much harder. This is unfortunate for a field such as writing where new, creative, insightful authors should be encouraged rather than become discouraged by having to go through minefields.
Normally, I would’ve simply tossed the letter without posting a comment, but I’m starting to believe that “organizations” like Cambridge do a lot of harm by inhibiting potential excellence by adding more cynicism into the mix.
Anyone who gets one of Cambridge’s letters might want to watch Glengarry Glen Ross first if you haven’t already seen it. Just a suggestion.
I got a call from the Cambridge Who’s Who today. When they told me I had to sign up and pay now or I would lose my chance to be in the registry, I told them that any “professional” person who was deserving of this “honor” would never pay $1000 without checking into all of this. It was the gift card that had me laughing. I really thought I was being honored! Now that I’ve googled this, I see I made the right choice.
Thank you very much for this great work, I wish I have had all this information before getting Ripoff for over $800.00.from Cambridge who’s who.
I received a letter from Cambridge Who’s Who in late Feb informing me I was “being considered for inclusion into the 2007/2008 Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executive and Professional Women in business ‘honors Edition’ of the Registry.”
The letter further explained:The 2007/2008 edition of the Registry will include biographies of our country’s most accomplished women.
Recognition of this kind is an honor shared by thousands of executive and professional women throughout America each year.
I sent back the card with my information and I got a phone call from Mr.Michael Collican Who and after a short question and answer period I was congratulated and told my biography was accepted.
After he congratulated me the sales pitch commenced,The price for being included in this edition ranged from $189 – $789 and mor for VIP plus $ 29.95 for sh&H of a packge. I tolled him I don’t know anything about this company and he said that all the information is going to be send out to me and he asked for my credit card #, after few hours after work I Googled this company and found out that I have been scamd.
More people like us need to step forward regardless of embarrassment or other concern for being initially taken, to put these folks in their place, so others will not be taken advantage of moving forward.
Thank you,
Sarah
I am so glad I found your blog on Cambridge’s Who Who. After signing up for membershiip to the tune of $800.00 I felt uneasy about it and tried to cancel it. Of course no one returned my calls or responded to my letters. When I didn’t hear from the company I filed a dispute with Amex which is where the charge was. After they contacted the company all of a sudden they produced a document of a recording that said I had been informed I couldn’t cancel the membership and Amex ruled in their favor. After reading the information on your blog regarding the number of complaints filed with the BBB, and you were right, they are in the process of upding information on this company, I was able to provide it to Amex and they are running their own investigation against this company. They again have suspended the amount requested from Cambridge. I am also filing a complaint with the Attorney Generals Office. Thank you for taking the time to make others aware.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t wise enough to Google Empire (or whatever) Who’s Who when I got it last summer… So, I was suckered into a 1-year “silver” membership for $300+ and never received any certificate, directory, or access to this so-called prestigious web site… Any advice on how to get my money back? Or is it too late???
Thanks for any advice.
CW
I got the exact same letter you did from those people, who are certainly a scam, and I am not a professional or an executive unless newpaper thrower fits into one of those catagories and I am only 25 plus I am NOT even working now I went back to school. I think they have some way of looking at peoples’ tax filing or something because I do have to file my taxes like I run a business because I am a independant contractor and this could be why the think I am a professional.
I am looking at a Cambridge Letter that was sent to my wife, who just laughed when she read it! However, my favorite part of the letter was the bottom tagline on the ‘stationary’ which stated “Cambridge Who’s Who is proudly not associated or affiliated with any other Who’s Who Publication or Organization.”
Gee, wonder why…
Just got the call myself (well a voicemail anyway)… I think to offer me a job rather than to put me on the list. But, given that I am not a bottom feeder, I will not be seeking employment in their general direction.
Thanks for the post– informative and entertaining!
Just got the “hard sell” a few moments ago from Cambridge. While in a state of shock and Cambridge holding on the phone–I called my accountant to authorize the $800.00 purchase. He pointed me to various complaints and blogs including yours. Thanks so much for confirming my subconscious thoughts not to give in. I sensed it was a scam and thanks to good sense–all I was provided was a “confirmation number” because I told the woman on the phone that I could not make the purhase unless it was approbved by my accountant.
Thus, we cut off one of the two heads of the hydra!
Thank you so much for these posts. I just got a letter inviting me into the Cambridge Who’s Who today. Of course, at first, I was downright giddy. Then I started talking to people to see who might have submitted my name. No one in my office. Talked to a friend of mine, he suggested I look online. Here I peek, and look what I find!
Thank you again, so very much.
It’s unfortunate that these companies are doing this to people. But is it really possible that all of them are ripping people off? I suggest everyone takes a look at the reputation of each company before the whole industry is bashed. Not everyone is on the same level.
Thanks so much! I found your blog through a yahoo search – what a terrific resource! You highlighted a lot for me about the darker side of these things. Kudos! :0)
oh yeah, the great airline tickets to anywhere -anytime—also have not receivd those besides everything else I was to get….never again
Thanks for the advice about the package. I called again last night and left messages with the editor, finance director and the person who sold me the scam. I reiterated NOT to publish or process anything and that I was taking action against them. My credit card company is now handling the dispute so I pray they do a good job. I had also written to the editor/director and told her the course of events, times, who I spoke with, etc. and asked her to return my call and that I wanted a full refund. Never a response from anyone. They also overcharged me from what I was quoted. They claim I agreed to some extra $100 chg for a wood plaque which I never heard about. Plus they say they are going to charge my visa $199 in a month for some CD Rolm. I’m so mad – at myself too for getting caught in such a scam but they are good on the phone and make you feel that this will really help with networking and look good on the resume. Plus, what the heck, don’t the airline tickets pay for it? Yep, everything I read here is what I went through too. I also sent this info to my credit card co. and told them that real action needs to be taken against the co.
Any other suggestions? Should I contact the Better Business Bureau? What about the media? We really need to pull together. I even said to the lady who sold me – how can you do this to people? How do they sleep at night? Some people have no ethics or morals I guess – so sad!!
After 2 months I received by now $800 CD Rom which I returned to sender right away.
The only reason I all of the sudden got it was beacause I started making noise.
However, I’m still waiting on my refund!
Call back immediately today and say you would like to cancel. Do not give a reason just insist you changed your mind and that if they fail to comply you will dispute the charge!
DO NOT SIGN FOR THE PACKAGE WHEN IT COMES, THEY WILL TRY AND USE IT AGAINST YOU SAYING YOU ACCEPTED DELIVERY!!!!
I too was caught up in this scam. She didn’t say “sales are final” until the very end and hung up before I could say anything. When I got home that night, I checked out their website like she said and there wasn’t much to offer so I immediately called and left messages to stop and refund me immediately. I’ve also filed a dispute with my visa company (in the process). What about the 72 hour period to change your mind? Doesn’t this apply? I never signed anything nor have I received anything. Any advice?
Carolyn said,
These predators you mention make me wonder if some of the “writers market” sites are scams, themselves. Can you suggest some reputable online writer’s markets in a near-future blog so that I don’t get hosed?
I’m assuming that you mean sites that list jobs for freelancers, like Elance . I’m not aware that any are scams, but they may list scams or less reputable projects/employers because most don’t seem to employ much if any screening–anyone can post a job. The burden is on the writer to carefully check out any potential job or employer to be sure they’re legit.
A comprehensive print guide to magazine markets is The Best of the Magazine Markets, published by Writer’s Institute Press (a division of the Institute for Children’s Literature). You can check it out at the link above.
If I haven’t answered your question, please drop me a line: beware@sfwa.org
Carolyn:
Though I’m by no means an expert, I have had success using the book version of “Writers Market”. I purchase a copy every other year, and it’s been a fairly reliable source for queries to consumer and trade magazines.
That being said, I have never investigated whether the agents/publishers represented in the books are legitimate or not.
AHC
So , as yet another victim of their scam has anyone ever tried to get a refund? And if so were you successful? I’ve asked my attorney to send them a “nice” letter beside all the other gears I set in motion – still waiting for the response 🙂
As a new freelance writer, I am glad to have found your blog and your “writer beware” site. These predators you mention make me wonder if some of the “writers market” sites are scams, themselves. Can you suggest some reputable online writer’s markets in a near-future blog so that I don’t get hosed?
Thanks,
Carolyn
Thank you for the informative post. I am presently a third year law student was solicited by Emerald Who’s Who for Executives and Professionals. Thankfully a Google search revealed this blog entry, but not after sifting through numerous professionals using this as an accreditation.
Damn! Brian beat me to it. Except that I was going to make a snarky remark about the “Doctor’s Who’s Who”: if it contains a Dr. John Smith, certain sentient pepper-shakers may be interested… can you imagine that phone call?
‘For the small fee of $999.99 we can…’
‘DA-LEKS DO NOT PAY SMALL FEES!’
Hmmmmm…. this gives me an idea. Maybe I should create a Who’s Who of Who’s Whos directory, and call up all the Who’s Who organizations, and tell them they’re now in the Who’s Who of Who’s Whos directory. That should confuse them!
Here is more of the truth! One of the owners of EMPIRE WHOS WHO, parted ways and created MANCHESTER WHOS WHO. Then one of these companies changed their name to METROPOLITAN WHOS WHO. Then an employee of EMPIRE WHOS WHO, left and created MADISON WHOS WHO. Then EMPIRE WHOS WHO and MANCHESTER WHOS WHO made up and created CAMBRIDGE WHOS WHO. Then an employee of MADISON WHOS WHO parted and created EMERALD WHOS WHO.
How do I know this? I worked there and the owners brag about how much money they steal and try and sue each other for copying each others scam!!!
Thank you for posting this very valuable information. You saved me a lot of money and hassle. I got the Cambridge invititation in the mail today, and threw it right in the trash. You are a life-saver.
This posting really made me laugh and shake my head… in embarrassment.
Why? Well, when I was a cocky teen girl who thought she was the greatest up-and-coming poet in the universe, I was solicited by a Who’s Who of Young Poets (or some such gobbly-goo.)
Of course, I believed every lie. I was awesome, after all, and I couldn’t wait to see my breakthrough poem (hold your hats… make sure you’re sitting down…) “Oh Goddamned, Blessed Rain” read by millions.
Ironically, my parents put the brakes on, especially when the requests for copious amounts of money came flooding in.
In the end, “Oh Goddamned, Blessed Rain” was never published. Alas. (Though if anyone would like to see it, go to my blog page and request it. I’d be happy to share the drivel as a source of amusement.)
It still makes me giggle. What a doofus I was. Time has greatly humbled this gal.
I want to read “Dr. Who” Who’s Who. I love that show. It could list all the Time Lords in chronicles order.
LOL, did they ever call the wrong household or what!?
Jules, the book you linked is produced by Poetry.com, a.k.a. the International Library of Poetry, a.k.a. the most active of the vanity anthology companies.
I first came across this idea with a book called the “International Who’s Who in Poetry”. There are several publications by this title, and I find it hard to tell which (if any) are legitimate books. All of them cost a small fortune, and none are published by anyone I’ve heard of. The particular edition I came across, however, was this one, or one very similar. One of the poets mentioned in it was insisting it qualified them to have a wikipedia article about themselves. Sorry, no, Wikipedia has standards…
I may have to list some of these soon. I think I have only one or two already listed.
Hey! I just gave you a shout on my blog without much description. Found you just surfing. Please stop by to express yourself briefly in the comment section on today’s post “Random Thoughts.”
Thanks!
Voice on Miscellaneous Matters
http://ruhoffman.blogspot.com/
Thank you so much for all your work regarding all of these writer bewares! I don’t usually comment, but I do come and read regularly. Your hard work is invaluable to us all.
Horton Hears a Who’s Who?
Did you know the word “who” starts to look funny after you read it so many times?
Tell me about it! By the time I finished revising the post I was having trouble telling the difference between Who, Who’s, and Whos.
Please keep the first-hand accounts coming!
Good timing on this. Several months ago, I got mail from Cambridge Who’s Who. “Cambridge” looked impressive, and I assumed my boss or someone in the company had recommended it. The application form said “free,” so I mailed it off. I did expect some form of sale for something that would cost money, though I planned to turn it down and just take the free part.
A month or so later, I got a phone call at work from them, with a lengthy interview. Then she hit me with the either/or: I could get membership that was $600 for a specified time (I think it was three years) or lifetime for $800. She wanted a decision right now, and was even tossing in a roundtrip ticket for two. I hated being pressured and wanted to think about it overnight (and then I would have said no), but she kept pushing that she needed it right now–according to her they were on a deadline for getting everything ready for publication. Realistically, I knew this part wasn’t true–if she has to interview fifty people a day all week and my last name is at the beginning of the alphabetical list she’s going through, the “right now” deadline is fiction. I told her I didn’t have my credit card with me, and she pressured for a promise of a time for me to call back. I did call back, got her voice mail thankfully, told her that the listing was supposed to be free, and I wasn’t interested in spending money for the membership. She then called back and left me a voice mail saying that the free listing was just of my name and company and not all the other information; the membership got all the other benefits. I did not call her back, and that was the last I heard of them.
I got an invite from one of these things once. When I was fifteen. (Which just goes to show how long these things have been around.) I never laughed so hard in all my life. How legimate can anyone be if they’re soliciting high school sophomores to be in a Who’s Who of writers/poets. (That’s what I get for entering a contest out of the back of a magazine.)
A few people I know have received solicitations like those targeted at students. I googled the name of the organization and, sure enough, came up with a bunch of discussion board threads questioning their value, all of which had been rebutted with the same letter–word for word–from the same “member” of the organization.
The best piece of advice I’ve heard about these things is, if you really want to make sure you’re not dismissing real credentials, save the letter. It proves you were invited to join, which says just as much as actually joining.
I think I’ll start a Who’s Who just for physicians, and call it the Doctor Who’s Who.
Thank you very much, I’ll be here all week. Try the chicken.
You’ve done a great job on this! I didn’t know that Metropolitan and Cambridge were linked.
Thanks!
later…
Did you know the word “who” starts to look funny after you read it so many times?
Great post, btw. As always.
As one of the people Manchester (now Cambridge) Who’s Who targeted and harrassed, I’m glad you ladies have finally been able to post about them. Kudos on digging up so much dirt on these sleazeballs. I spoke to that Jennifer Gonzalez chick myself once; she just oozed snake-oil. I’d love to see her go to jail someday.