Neo Capital Crypto Scam

Neo Capital called from 0202137180 claiming to be in the UK. It was a terrible VOIP connection.

The usual “You registered on our website, but probably forgot or it was a while ago. You indicated interest in investing.” Um, no I didn’t.

The “Financial Consultant” had an American accent, but obviously not a native speaker. Possibly East Asian or Eastern European. She tried to get me to install AnyDesk so she could help me. I obviously refused.

She said they were affiliated with Coinbase which I doubt except maybe they refer some clients there as an Affiliate Marketer.

Claimed they were regulated by FCA (UK), “Just like Coinbase is.” I pointed out that cold calling Australians offering investment advice is illegal, they are an unregistered and therefore unregulated financial advisor and by definition as scam.

She persisted!

Tried to get me to register on Switchere and CREX24 Crypto exchange websites. Both hide their WHOIS registration data so I don’t trust them. Finally got her to tell me the URL of their company which she claimed was neocapgroup [dot] com but she got it wrong three times, so they may not even bother having a website.

Man! They really wanted my $150 initial investment. She kept asking me if I was going to invest or should she call her next client.

I after 27 minutes I was escalated to their Senior Financial Advisor – Ben Gray (or Grey?). He claimed his grandfather was English but he was raised in Romania, but he didn’t respond to my “how you doin’?” in Romanian.

Finally their plan becomes clear. They want me to buy Bitcoin and then use that to buy a “fresh” crypto currency that is recently launched, but I have to buy it on a “Coinbase affiliated website”. So it’s a pump and dump scheme with a Bitcoin transaction to help clean the audit trail.

After 41 minutes I was bored with wasting their time so repeatedly accused them of being scammers. I suggested that if Neo Capital could show me a single regulator with whom they were registered I’d invest $150. They couldn’t.

Stay safe in 2020

Income Class Online Trading Scam

Income Class just called from +44 20 0689 8239 on an awful laggy VOIP line.

They had my name, phone number and email address and claimed I’d registered on their site to make additional full-time income in online trading. Of course I didn’t register, I’d never heard of them.

Their website is IncomeClass [dot] net and is a clone of another scam TrueCapitalPro [dot] com. Both seem to be by Enigma GRC Limited

Their sales pitch assumed I didn’t know anything about trading. I didn’t have time to string him along today. Plus the poor quality line meant I could hear myself echoed back.

Once I started asking questions about his assumptions, he dropped the call.

They’re WHOIS information is obfuscated, but the registrar claims the domain is for sale.

$ whois incomeclass.com
 % IANA WHOIS server
 % for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
 % This query returned 1 object
 

 refer:        whois.verisign-grs.com
 

 domain:       COM
 

 organisation: VeriSign Global Registry Services
 address:      12061 Bluemont Way
 address:      Reston Virginia 20190
 address:      United States
 

 contact:      administrative
 name:         Registry Customer Service
 organisation: VeriSign Global Registry Services
 address:      12061 Bluemont Way
 address:      Reston Virginia 20190
 address:      United States
 phone:        +1 703 925-6999
 fax-no:       +1 703 948 3978
 e-mail:       info@verisign-grs.com
 

 contact:      technical
 name:         Registry Customer Service
 organisation: VeriSign Global Registry Services
 address:      12061 Bluemont Way
 address:      Reston Virginia 20190
 address:      United States
 phone:        +1 703 925-6999
 fax-no:       +1 703 948 3978
 e-mail:       info@verisign-grs.com
 

 nserver:      A.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.5.6.30 2001:503:a83e:0:0:0:2:30
 nserver:      B.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.33.14.30 2001:503:231d:0:0:0:2:30
 nserver:      C.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.26.92.30 2001:503:83eb:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      D.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.31.80.30 2001:500:856e:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      E.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.12.94.30 2001:502:1ca1:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      F.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.35.51.30 2001:503:d414:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      G.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.42.93.30 2001:503:eea3:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      H.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.54.112.30 2001:502:8cc:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      I.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.43.172.30 2001:503:39c1:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      J.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.48.79.30 2001:502:7094:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      K.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.52.178.30 2001:503:d2d:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      L.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.41.162.30 2001:500:d937:0:0:0:0:30
 nserver:      M.GTLD-SERVERS.NET 192.55.83.30 2001:501:b1f9:0:0:0:0:30
 ds-rdata:     30909 8 2 E2D3C916F6DEEAC73294E8268FB5885044A833FC5459588F4A9184CFC41A5766
 

 whois:        whois.verisign-grs.com
 

 status:       ACTIVE
 remarks:      Registration information: http://www.verisigninc.com
 

 created:      1985-01-01
 changed:      2017-10-05
 source:       IANA
 

    Domain Name: INCOMECLASS.COM
    Registry Domain ID: 2296309444_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
    Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namebright.com
    Registrar URL: http://www.DropCatch1474.com
    Updated Date: 2019-08-12T07:31:23Z
    Creation Date: 2018-08-11T18:26:08Z
    Registry Expiry Date: 2020-08-11T18:26:08Z
    Registrar: DropCatch.com 1474 LLC
    Registrar IANA ID: 3683
    Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
    Registrar Abuse Contact Phone:
    Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
    Name Server: NS3.AFTERNIC.COM
    Name Server: NS4.AFTERNIC.COM
    DNSSEC: unsigned
    URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
 >>> Last update of whois database: 2019-12-05T07:13:41Z <<<
 

 Domain Name: IncomeClass.com
 Registry Domain ID: 2296309444_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
 Registrar WHOIS server: whois.NameBright.com
 Registrar URL: http://www.NameBright.com
 Updated Date: 2019-08-12T00:00:00.000Z
 Creation Date: 2018-08-11T18:26:08.000Z
 Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2020-08-11T00:00:00.000Z
 Registrar: DropCatch.com 1474 LLC
 Registrar IANA ID: 3683
 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@NameBright.com
 Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.7204960020
 Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
 Registry Registrant ID: Not Available From Registry
 Registrant Name: Domain Admin / This Domain is For Sale
 Registrant Organization: HugeDomains.com
 Registrant Street: 2635 Walnut Street
 Registrant City: Denver
 Registrant State/Province: CO
 Registrant Postal Code: 80205
 Registrant Country: US
 Registrant Phone: +1.3038930552
 Registrant Phone Ext: 
 Registrant Fax: 
 Registrant Fax Ext: 
 Registrant Email: domains@hugedomains.com
 Registry Admin ID: Not Available From Registry
 Admin Name: Domain Admin / This Domain is For Sale
 Admin Organization: HugeDomains.com
 Admin Street: 2635 Walnut Street
 Admin City: Denver
 Admin State/Province: CO
 Admin Postal Code: 80205
 Admin Country: US
 Admin Phone: +1.3038930552
 Admin Phone Ext: 
 Admin Fax: 
 Admin Fax Ext: 
 Admin Email: domains@hugedomains.com
 Registry Tech ID: Not Available From Registry
 Tech Name: Domain Admin / This Domain is For Sale
 Tech Organization: HugeDomains.com
 Tech Street: 2635 Walnut Street
 Tech City: Denver
 Tech State/Province: CO
 Tech Postal Code: 80205
 Tech Country: US
 Tech Phone: +1.3038930552
 Tech Phone Ext: 
 Tech Fax: 
 Tech Fax Ext: 
 Tech Email: domains@hugedomains.com
 Name Server: ns3.afternic.com
 Name Server: ns4.afternic.com
 DNSSEC: unsigned
 URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System:
 http://wdprs.internic.net
 >>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2019-12-05T06:36:37.786Z <<<
 

 Domain Name: IncomeClass.com
 Registry Domain ID: 2296309444_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
 Registrar WHOIS server: whois.NameBright.com
 Registrar URL: http://www.NameBright.com
 Updated Date: 2019-08-12T00:00:00.000Z
 Creation Date: 2018-08-11T18:26:08.000Z
 Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2020-08-11T00:00:00.000Z
 Registrar: DropCatch.com 1474 LLC
 Registrar IANA ID: 3683
 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@NameBright.com
 Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.7204960020
 Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
 Registry Registrant ID: Not Available From Registry
 Registrant Name: Domain Admin / This Domain is For Sale
 Registrant Organization: HugeDomains.com
 Registrant Street: 2635 Walnut Street
 Registrant City: Denver
 Registrant State/Province: CO
 Registrant Postal Code: 80205
 Registrant Country: US
 Registrant Phone: +1.3038930552
 Registrant Phone Ext: 
 Registrant Fax: 
 Registrant Fax Ext: 
 Registrant Email: domains@hugedomains.com
 Registry Admin ID: Not Available From Registry
 Admin Name: Domain Admin / This Domain is For Sale
 Admin Organization: HugeDomains.com
 Admin Street: 2635 Walnut Street
 Admin City: Denver
 Admin State/Province: CO
 Admin Postal Code: 80205
 Admin Country: US
 Admin Phone: +1.3038930552
 Admin Phone Ext: 
 Admin Fax: 
 Admin Fax Ext: 
 Admin Email: domains@hugedomains.com
 Registry Tech ID: Not Available From Registry
 Tech Name: Domain Admin / This Domain is For Sale
 Tech Organization: HugeDomains.com
 Tech Street: 2635 Walnut Street
 Tech City: Denver
 Tech State/Province: CO
 Tech Postal Code: 80205
 Tech Country: US
 Tech Phone: +1.3038930552
 Tech Phone Ext: 
 Tech Fax: 
 Tech Fax Ext: 
 Tech Email: domains@hugedomains.com
 Name Server: ns3.afternic.com
 Name Server: ns4.afternic.com
 DNSSEC: unsigned
 URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System:
 http://wdprs.internic.net
 >>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2019-12-05T06:36:37.786Z <<<

True Capital Pro Forex Cold Call Scam

I just received a call claiming to be from True Capital Pro. They claim to be based in Covent Garden in London but it sounded like a Philippines call centre.

They claim to have exclusive software that scans the markets 20 times per second.

They said I’d responded to a current campaign looking for a secondary source of income.

They said their commission is just 3% so that absolutely aligns their interests with their customers. So much so that they’d assign an experienced mentor to help me make $30-$70 AUD per day.

The minimum investment was just $200 USD which is $300 AUD exactly.

Most importantly they claimed to be regulated in Australia. Without taking a breath he told me not to worry about it because I obviously have never traded before.

This is all a lie. Actually MetaTrader 5 software does real-time market scanning, but it’s hardly exclusive. And most of the scammers don’t run a true data feed. Instead they manipulate the data when they need to give you the illusion of profits and then manipulate again when they need to wipe your position out.

He asked what I did for a living, I answered “I write about scammers who illegally call people with forex scams.” He didn’t even listen to that an moved on with his script.

They didn’t even bother exposing their fake Australian phone number on the call. It was just “No Caller ID”. This is the second call from them, but I was driving the first time so couldn’t take notes.

While demanding to know who is regulating their brokerage business in Australia he said he wasn’t here to argue with me and hung up.

This is exactly the same modus operandi every other scam company out there does, collectively they have stolen millions globally from their clients. truecapitalpro.com (don’t click that link – I’ve already told you it’s a scam so it redirects back to this post)

Your Account Is Locked Scam SMS

I received this SMS today from +61 448 111 215

Your account is locked. Proceed with additional verification. https://online-banking-nab.com/.cgi

scam SMS text message

This is a scam. What are the clues?

  1. It’s from a random Australian mobile number. Banks don’t use mobile numbers to send messages.
  2. The domain looks like NAB but it is actually online-banking-nab as a dot com. Australian banks don’t use .com they use .com.au and don’t put dashes in their URLs
  3. The .cgi at the end (note that is dot CGI). This hides the directory on the server so the admin can’t see it in a casual scan.
  4. Legitimate Australian Bank’s messages contain much more additional information and mention what to do if you weren’t expecting this SMS

Even if an SMS passed those tests I still treat every SMS purporting to be from a bank as suspicious.

Luckily Google Chrome, Safari, iPhone Safari and Firefox have already blocked that Deceptive Site URL using Google Safe Browsing with a Deceptive Website Warning.

Scam Lottery Winner SMS

If you play lotteries you already have a way of being notified if you win.

If you don’t play lotteries you can’t win and any message about winning is a scam.

Here are the scams I receive. Comment below with yours. If you don’t want to use your email address to comment, please use [number-you-are-reporting]@wealthesteem.org or use bugmenot.com

+61 403 089 042 (aka 0403 089 042) sent

YES: Your [mobile number] has hit this year Donationz for GB-6.5,000.000 Pound. To Collect, Visit http://bit.ly/2mm0WDE+ go on CLIAMS & enter XY4132ZA

Requesting Removal of Information from Wealthesteem.org

If you wish to request the removal of anything from wealthesteem.org you are hereby instructed to provide the following:

  • URL of the page text or image you are requesting removed.
  • name, address, phone and email address of the business organisation making the request.
  • name, address, phone and email address of the individual responsible for the request.
  • authorisation/capacity for individual making the request.
  • grounds for making the request.

This is quite simple procedure that the internet has adopted for nearly 20 years. If you want something removed, explain where it is, what it is, who you are, who you represent, and why you request it be removed.

Until you can provide that information I cannot tell if you are actually the complaining entity or an impersonator or possibly even a troll. There have been many impersonators on this site.

Is this Investment Call a Scam?

You’ve just received a phone call on your mobile (a.k.a. cell) phone. The nice person on the end of the line is lovely, polite, smart and caring. They care deeply about you and they have amazing investment opportunities for their clients.

It’s very rude to assume this nice person is a fraud, thief or scammer. So push that thought right out of you mind. But, a nagging thought made you look things up on the internet, “just in case”.

How can you tell if that call is from a fraud, cheat, thief or scammer? Here are 12 ways to tell that the nice person on the phone is a scammer. Note this is a list of red flags, answering Yes to any one question implies it’s a scam.

  1. Have you heard of the company before?
    If you didn’t and you did not talk someone in the previous 24 hours who mentioned that company name explicitly to you and asked to call you back, it’s a scam.
    It’s that simple, if the call is not from your bank, insurance company or stockbroker and you are not an active trader attending networking events, what makes them think you’re a prospect for their marketing call?
  2. Can you fund your initial position with a credit card?
    Real brokers will not accept credit cards, because the fees are too high and customers can charge back deposits in most jurisdictions.
  3. Can you fund the account with as little as $250 US Dollars?
    Even the largest and cheapest US stock brokers charge about $10 per trade so that represents 4% of your capital. Factor the cost of the call, plus time and infrastructure to make these marketing calls, $10 does not represent a decent return on investment for the call centre. Not all Dealer-Brokers charge brokerage. Forex and CFD charge a spread between buying and selling. The fundamental financial equation does not change, it takes thousands of dollars in fees to justify a broker’s one-on-one time and attention.
  4. Is the caller from outside your national jurisdiction (i.e. overseas)?
    Calling across borders has been the basis of investment scams since the invention of the telephone. If your local Securities Law enforcement organisation can’t touch the dealer-broker, you can’t be protected by them.
  5. Does the caller speak with an accent different from your own?
    If the person calling speaks English, French, Russian or your local language but not with your local accent and you can’t visit their local office today, it’s a scam. I’ve had brokers in Sydney, Australia who had a foreign accept, but I can walk into their offices during business hours. I can’t do that with the broker-dealers who’ve called claiming to be in London, Hong Kong or Tokyo.
  6. Is the caller pitching something you’ve never heard of?
    If you are not a sophisticated investor who regularly reviews private placements, and the call is pitching something you’ve never heard of, it’s a scam. Even if you’ve only heard of it in the news (like “bitcoin”) it’s a scam.
  7. Does the caller mention the words ICO (Initial Coin Offering), Bitcoin, Blockchain, Coin  or crypto? 
    If you’ve never invested in Bitcoin or other crypto-currency and those words come up, it’s a scam. If you want to buy bitcoin (or any of the alt-coins) for the first time, meet someone IRL (in real life( in a public place and exchange cash for the digital currency. People like that exist, they’re not all drug dealers.
  8. Is the phrase “Binary Options” used?
    Seriously Israel has banned Israelis from promoting Binary Options outside of Israel because it is that big a scam. It’s up there with the Nigerian Princes.
  9. Do they offer to remotely log into your computer to set you up on the trading platform?
    If they offer to use Team Viewer (or other remote desktop software)  to help set up your account, it’s a scam. If you can’t set up the trading platform without them taking over your computer you don’t have the IT and security skills to use their trading platform safely. It’s a scam to see how much money you have in your bank account. Normally by this time you’ve already sent them money. Cancel you credit cards and stop talking to them right now.
  10. Is this a cold call?
    If you receive a cold call, it’s a scam. Cold calling is dead in the internet era. Every legitimate marketing move is about attracting warm leads from customers who want to call the supplier. Insurance companies don’t cold call. Credit card companies don’t cold call. Car dealerships don’t cold call. Legitimate investment advisors do not cold call.
  11. Does the caller lack an active LinkedIn account?
    Note the existence of a LinkedIn profile is not any guarantee, if could be fake. Check if their connections are all in the finance game. If so, they’re fake. Brokers are sales people and they love having lots of connections. Thousands to tens-of-thousands of connections. Ask for all their social media accounts. Do a search for the firm name and the results should be a lot of people who work or have previously worked there.
  12. Bonus for the cautious – Is the caller speaking a recognisable language?
    This is a variation on “if their lips are moving, they are lying”.  If you want to invest in a new area, do your research and reach out to someone. Never accept a call from someone you don’t know who wants you to give them your money. Always ask for a recommendation from someone more experienced than you.

No Bitcoin for Sir John Key Former NZ PM

Sir John Key, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand has never invested in Bitcoin. He is not promoting cryptocurrency. If you see it on your news feed or on a website it’s a scam.

Scammers on social media Facebook and Twitter and other sites have set up fake websites to look like the New Zealand Herald. With that photo and a pull quote claiming

I have invested in Bitcoin because I believe in its potential, the capacity it has to transform global payments is very exciting.

~ Never said by John Key 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand but actually said by Richard Branson

Scammers never fully abandon an idea, this will be recycled when the bad publicity dies down.

The article quotes Key as saying he turned a $1000 investment into $300 Million in seven years using a “bitcoin loophole”. Supposedly you can make hundreds of millions of dollars without understanding the market, without effort and without risk.

There’s a hint. Anybody selling you something that uses a “loophole” is a scam, 100% of the time. People who actually discover loopholes (or correlations) keep the secret to themselves while they make money on this arbitrage. When the process stops working efficiently, they sell it to other fools people.

Sir John Key tried to get Facebook to take down ads using the fake image and website. Initially Facebook refused and resisted despite it being an obvious scam. Hopefully six months later and with all the focus on fake news, it looks like the ads are no longer visible on Facebook, but a source who knows Sir John says he is still frustrated and annoyed by these scammers.

The NZ Herald also worked to get the fake site taken down and appears to have succeeded. However the registry information shows the bisimfinance domain is still registered.

Sir John Key made his fortune as a currency trader before entering politics. His net worth is estimated at $65 million NZD.

FTOCapital.com Scam

I received a call today from 03 9077 1873 claiming to be from  Financials Trading Online with a pitch exactly the same as HQ Brokers.  I’m not sure if H Q Brokers have pivoted to a new name or a different scammer driving this call. It’s a different scammer from H Q Brokers.

It was obviously a Filipino boiler shop, but they claimed to be located in London. The caller stuck to the script like glue. I could trade “forex, commodities, stocks like Apple and Coke and even bitcoin.” Every interruption saw him back up to the top of the paragraph and continue reading like nothing happened.

I asked how they got my details and he said:

Surfing the internet you get popups for bitcoin or forex. You’ve seen them right? Well you accidentally click on them and we have your name, email and phone number.

Now I don’t accidentally click on popups or POP-unders because my browser is locked up so tight that I never see that stuff anymore. So that’s a lie but I don’t doubt they actively remarket and retarget anyone with investing interests (hello Facebook and Google). I also think they’ve got the BitCoinTalk forum user database and other hacked forums’ user-lists and cross-referenced emails to phone numbers. Plus a bot could do Facebook phone number lookups until two weeks ago to match numbers to names.

FTO Capital’s script really focuses on confirming past trading experience. I think this is supposed to get me nodding in agreement with what they are saying as well as reinforce their expertise (?) as a trading platform. I could open an account with a deposit of $200USD. Aha! Now I see the reward the boiler-room is working for.

Their website is at FTOCapital[dot]com and they try to get you to create an account and make an opening deposit straight away.

Asking about regulatory compliance and licensing, I was quickly escalated to the Senior Account Manager Dale Davis. Dale promised me that my very own Senior Account Manager would teach me how to trade using their MetaTrader 4 platform to trade forex, commodities, stocks and even bitcoin.

But Dale is a Senior Account Manager right, why do I need another? It turns out Dale is only for onboarding new accounts. What sort of things will I learn at FTO Capital from my personal Senior Account Manager? I’d learn “How to read price and signals”.  Really?!?!

By now I was bored, but I persevered for you, dear reader.

I asked Dale, If I have a trading account why would I change to FTOCapital? He says I “May want to give it a shot”, which is the most low-pressure answer I’ve ever heard in a high-pressure sales call.

Back to basics. Are they regulated, and in what jurisdictions?  Dale says FTO Capital are physically located in London, operating in Australia & New Zealand for two years, South Africa longer, some Asian and some European countries too.

That didn’t answer my regulation question. Dale said Financials Trading Online are regulated in Canada, USA, France and Cyprus. And despite being located in London, FTO Capital is not regulated in the UK. In what jurisdictions is FTOCapital actually licensed? Dale said he’ll send all that info to my email address right now, put me on hold and 60 seconds later the call dropped out.

I didn’t believe any of that for a second but I wasn’t challenging anything FTO claimed on this call. Normally if I have the time to string these guys along I play hardball. Today I played coy for 19 minutes so they weren’t trying to scam someone else.

FTO Capital are listed on ASIC’s MoneySmart website. ASIC advises this company could be involved in a scam. Do not deal with this business as it is unlicensed in Australia.

The FTOCapital website mentions other company and brand names

  • Nona Marketing Ltd,
  • Financials Trading Online, and
  • Albius Ltd.

Red Flags from the website:

  • All references to companies and brands are pictures of text facilitating the easy swapping out of corporate entities and making it hard for search engines to link the context of the text.
  • The privacy policy does not name the company it applies to merely (“The Company”) hereafter the “Company”,
  • Terms & Conditions does not name the company or incorporation jurisdiction. It  merely states The Company is a brand owned and operated by(“The Company”) incorporated in the; and it peters out there.
  • Anti Money Laundering (AML) policy of for Nona Marketing Ltd with no reference to brands, subsidiaries or related entities. It is also a generic cut and paste AML that offers broad responsibilities of “the board” and “senior staff”

Addresses for this group are

  • Nona Marketing Ltd Ajeltake Road, Ajeltake Island, Majuro, Republic of  Marshall Islands
  • Albius Ltd, 53-55 Totlben Blvd. Sophia, Bulgaria
  • 4th Floor, Holden House, 57 Rathbone Place, WIT IJU, London UK
  • Lincoln House 296-302 High Holborn WC1V 7JH, UK

Phone numbers

+44 208 068 2565

Share your experiences in the comments below.

Update: 13 June 2018

As police RAID Israeli-operated boiler rooms in Asia and Eastern Europe, local law enforcement has yet to indict a single operative from an industry that has stolen billions.  – https://www.timesofisrael.com/israelis-nabbed-in-philippines-are-tip-of-iceberg-in-alleged-fraud-gone-global/

There are international news reports that Philippine Anti-Cybercrime Group raided the offices of IBD Marketing on 6 June 2018 arresting 8 Israeli citizens and 474 Filipinos. According to Philippine police, IBD Marketing operated as a call centre on behalf  FTOCapital.com. Hopefully that puts an end to this particular scam, but it seems the scourge of Israeli-citizen operated boiler rooms continues.

Fired on Your Birthday

My daughter heard that a coworker was let go on her 18th birthday.  Her message to me was in ALL CAPS and full of umbrage. The worst was the boss knew it was the kid’s birthday and FIRED HER ANYWAY!!!

That reaction was natural and wonderful. I am so proud of her empathy and humility.

Now, let’s look at the situation. They are all young, casual, employees in retail, customer-service roles. A manager decided a specific employee must be fired and not for theft, fraud or illegal behaviour.

Would it have been better to wait and make the worker come in on another day just to terminate them? Should the manager have made a phone call tomorrow and fire over the phone? What about firing by email or SMS?

Another way I’ve seen this done is merely not roster them for the next few weeks, with a gutless understanding that “they’ll get the message”.

No, there is nothing to be gained from avoiding doing it, in person, as soon as the decision is made. All other options extend the pain and drag the ugly feelings on.

It’s harsh but fairest to get it over with.

I’m sure the Manager took no pleasure in the firing. Managers who don’t feel bad letting someone go need to be fired themselves by their bosses. Managers who cannot feel empathy destroy a business.

And for the record, the Manager did not know it was the former employee’s birthday, but was saddened by the timing and shocked that the rumour-mill works so fast.