ThePickards
standards, accessibility, and ranting and general stuff by the web chemist

I don’t know if this happens elsewhere in the UK or elsewhere across the globe, but human nature being what it is, I certainly wouldn’t bet against it. Anyway, I got a flyer through my door today offering a “Genuine Income Opportunity”. Maybe, I ask myself, but for who?

Long established British plc offers part time and full time positions (no selling)

Part time earnings in excess of £100 per week, 5 — 10 hours work and full time earnings in excess of £5000 per month, plus many incentives including a FREE BMW and various all expenses paid foreign conferences. Proof of incomes available.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, my bullshitometer is bleeping here, partly because anything that sounds too good to be true probably isn’t true, and partly because I’ve got a few questions of my own…

If the job is really that good, how come you’ve got to push leaflets through people’s doors to get them interested? Surely they should be clamouring at your door?

If you are truly a long established British plc, then how come the domain name you supply is listed with a registrant type of “UK Sole Trader”? And don’t you think that given it’s registered to a sole trader, it’s then misleading to state on your website:

Our company was established in 1923 and is part of a £150 million plc. Currently operating in UK, Eire and now The Netherlands, with further expansion into Europe in 2005

If you are really an international company like you say you are, then why on your frames-driven website does the content actually get served from a different site — one who say that they specialise in:

…low cost web design and software development for small to medium sized businesses.

Further more, if you really are an international company established in 1923, then how come you don’t mention them by name? I’ll tell you why. It’s because the catalogue selling company Kleeneze, who operate out of UK, Eire and the Netherlands (anyone spot any similarities yet?) and who were established in Bristol in 1923 by a Harry Crook (no, really, that’s his name. Check out the Kleeneze site) are the company you’re claiming to be. And yet your leaflet and website does not represent them in any way? Could it be that you are some kind of agent who gets other people to distribute Kleeneze catalogues, and takes a cut in the process? If so, then it’s a tad deceptive to imply that it’s your company, when in fact their site is registered to an entirely different trading entity — the UK Limited Company Kleeneze UK Limited.

Well, here’s my speculation. You don’t want to mention them by name because you aren’t them (although you may well work for them), although you’re seeking to imply this is the case. You also don’t want to mention them by name because they might get upset if they find out you’re trying to imply that you are them in order to allow you to make more money from them. You also don’t want to mention them by name because they are known as a catalogue company (who, so far as I’m aware aren’t associated with any dubious practices), and if people think they are going to be asked to shift catalogues of cleaning products, then they will quite rightly expect that the chances of them making five grand a month and getting a free BMW are pretty slim.

If you can early up to £100 a week for 10 hours work, that’s surely a rate of £10 an hour, and therefore surely in order to earn “in excess of £5000″ you’re actually going to have to work 500 hours in a particular month?

Is it entirely a coincidence that a number of people with the same user name as the registrant of that domain have been banned from various forums for posting off-topic spam messages? (to be fair, there may actually be more than one person with that name)

Subject : Make Money Real Fast ( THIS IS NO SCAM IT IS FOR REAL )

Given that the leaflet says that no selling is involved, and the website says:

started working this business in early 2001 and, in my first four weeks, earned £236 from just putting out catalogues

… then while you might not have been directly selling products, I don’t think you were actually paid for just delivering the catalogues. You would have been paid a proportion of the value of the products that were sold. So it may be that you don’t need to directly sell anything to make the money — but equally, unless people buy from your catalogues, they won’t make money either.

Well, what does anyone else think? Is this actually breaking any laws, and if so, who should I be reporting it to?

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 21st, 2006 at 10:36 pm and is filed under Life, Scams & Spams. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.