I have seen a lot of scams both on and off the net. Naming them here would
take a while and a lot of space. The current times we live in are full of
potential victims: those of us who lost jobs due to the downward spiral of
the economy. Also, the new key word in marketing is "green." Add these
two together and you have people ready to believe anything that will help
them out financially and perhaps save the world.
Enter kachingkaching.com.
I had a friend all excited about this venture and talked to me at length
about the "new way people will make money." He used statements like, "we
aren't looking for people who want to make sixty thousand a year. We want
people who want to make over one hundred thousand a year." (Red flag #1,
sales hype.) And he capped it off by saying, "Kachingkaching will soon take
over Amazon.com and put them out of business." And it will be "green"
because people will shop from home. Not a bad idea, since a lot of people
do that anyway, and with positive results. But he insisted that Kaching-
Kaching.com would be better, and I should join and have my own store to
run, and make a lot of money.
I told him no several times, explaining the messes I got in by other "great
money-making businesses," but he insisted on telling me to join. He sent
me an email with a link to watch a presentation. I entered my email
address and phone number (both are what I call my "non-serious contact
points," in case of problems, then I can cancel them.) I watched the
video. It kept repeating itself over and over and offered little
information, other than it is a new online store and I could make money.
(Red flag #2, insufficient information to keep you on the hook.) At the
end of the video I was told that I now have my own free store. Oh, joy.
I surfed the "store" and searched for items, but instead of finding brand
names, I found model numbers and prices. (Red flag #3, selling products by
misrepresentation, as if to say "They don't like this brand, but they don't
know the model number, so we'll fool them into buying it that way.)
Later, I was emailed a telephone number for a national conference call so
that I could learn more about this thing. The number was a long distance
number, not an 800 number. (Red Flag #4, I have to pay to listen to a
business call? If they make so much money why don't they have an 800
number? I asked and was told, "We're new. They are working on getting 800
numbers!") I called the number (I can afford a half-hour call to Vegas),
and heard one lady back-patting everyone in the company but said little,
other than how excited she was about this business. Another person started
talking about how excited he was, then another person, and finally Bob
McNulty, CEO and such. He said the most about kaching-kaching while doing
more tap-dancing than Bo Jangles. (Red Flag #5)
At the end of the call, nothing much was said, other than how happy
everyone was.
My friend came over a week later for the next call. For two hours before
the call, I put him on the spot about how I felt uncomfortable about
joining. (I was playing Devil's Advocate with him). He deflected every
point I had with scripted answers. (He was in sales mode.) Then I asked him
how much he made last week. "Well, nothing. I just started." Later on in
the conversation I asked him how long he was doing this. "I've been at
this for six weeks." OK, six weeks of work, and nothing, not even a
statement. (Red Flag #6, working for free?) He told me that his friend,
and mentor (Red Flag #7, heard that term "mentor" from other business
scams) had made seven hundred dollars the previous week. I asked how long
he was doing this. "Twelve weeks." And the total amount he received?
Seven hundred bucks, some $8.33 per day. (I made more than that on a slow
night delivering pizzas.) (Red Flag #8, all work, and no pay makes Jack
very broke soon in telephone bills, advertising, and recruiting.)
I asked him how do I make money then? "You have to call people and get
them to sign up. Just having them shop at your store will make you money.
But if you invest in the $99.99 store you can give away ten stores and
generate more business. If you sign up for the $299.00 store you can go
international, give away unlimited free stores, and share in the company
stock." I told him that I would watch him for one year and see if he can
make it work, then I would go for it. "But we're new. We just started,
and in a year, everyone will already be doing it. You need to get in on
the ground floor..." and so forth, implying the need for urgency to join.
(Red Flag #9)
Then I lowered the boom. "Sorry, I'm not interested. People pay me to
work for them. I don't pay people to work for them." He sighed and
replied, "Well, I'm only trying to help. And we're only interested in
signing people up who want to make money." (Red Flag #10, using the guilt
trip.)
Later he called me up again and asked how I was doing with my free store.
I told him that I wanted out. I'm not interested in cold calling a bunch
of people in hopes to get two people to buy a license, and so forth. So,
he got his friend and mentor on the phone. This guy was the typical smooth
talker. He over pronounced words in his speech to make it sound more than
what it is. "Robert McNulty has worked so-o-o-o-o-o-o ha-a-a-a-ard in
bringing KachingKaching.com together so everyone will beneifts. And I'm
su-u-u-u-ure that when you see the results, you will be so-o-o-o-o-o-o glad
you joined up...." on and on. Then he started to name drop. "Ron Lovely,
the man who invented Wal-Mart and Sam's Club and gave Sam Walton the idea
for the name, has put in ten million dollars of his own money...." I
stopped him telling him "No, that was David E. Glass, his Vice President
who gave him the idea for the name, while they were flying over their first
big store location, and that if Ron started Wal-mart, it would be called
Ron-Mart, and that in the two years I've spent working for that company his
name NEVER appeared anywhere." His reply was that Ron Lovely started
working for Sam Walton when he was 15, then his voice trailed off. (Yeah,
right.) I mentioned some things I've read online and he came up with Bob's
legal history saying that his competitors tried to sideline him, and so
forth. In short, anything you have mentioned above will get a weak
argument from them, like an automatic gain-say over points made.
Again, I told him no, then he used the guilt trip. "Well we only have your
best interests at heart. We know the economy is tough (preying on the
financially strapped people who need money), and we have the right solution
for you, and it's a green solution (playing on the Save the Earth
movement), but we don't want people who want to make sixty thousand
dollars. We want people who want to make six hundred thousand dollars...
I'm just trying to help you out." Again, and again I said "NO!", but still
my email is flooded with cashteambuilder.com and kachingkaching.com news
letters telling me to call their conference number and listen to some
speeches from people patting themselves on their backs, and if I have given
any thought at investing $99.00 for a National Store, or $299.00 to be an
"International Store Owner" and get stock options.... (Yeah, tell me
another one.)
I also mentioned this whole Kaching thing to family and friends. None of
them has every heard of this company. Amazon and Overstock both advertise
on TV. Not these guys. Secrecy is their way to stay under the radar,
while they try to get others to sell for them.
So, there you have it, the new online scam takes hold of America.
"Kaching-Kaching: The Sweet Sound of Money" (leaving your account and
lining theirs.) This isn't too far from the truth, as I received an email
from them telling me about a business conference in Las Vegas. All I have
to do it get there, and pay $65.00 for the meeting. (THE BIG RED FLAG. My
father was a sales rep, then district manager for a large company, and he
never once had top pay to go to meeting, other than gas to get there, and
then it was on his expense account.)
Matt, Store-Owner (and I don't want to be)
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