Complaint Review: Cambridge Who's Who - Uniondale Pennsylvania

 

This is a well-organized, well-scripted, professional fraud run by very cold hearted people who target professionals who are trying to progress on their careers. Their fraudulent appeal is exclusiveness of professional net working. They use high-pressure sales techniques to get people to agree to their fraudulent services. It all started when I received a letter on April 2009 saying that I was being considered for membership of their registry for executives and professionals. The letter said it was free of charge. I decided to submit my application. The link said I would be getting a call for a phone interview. They did the interview so that they could pressure people into buying their extra services. (I wish I had thought of that before I filled my application.) A couple days later, someone name Christina called my house and left a message that she was from Cambridge Whos Who to interview me for the listing. I was not home.

 

On July 10, 2009, I went against my intuition and made a call back using the phone number Christina left for me to call her. I got a voice mail of Christina Smith and left a reply. She called me back when it was close to the time I have to leave for class. She started to ask me questions about my job, my hobby, my activities

 

After she was done with her questions, she told me I have reviewed your profile and you have been accepted. She started complimenting me and then proceeded to ask for my credit card number. I said, Well, then I dont want it. She kept pressure for my credit card number and me to buy in. I kept telling her no at several occasions (5 or 6 times) and she started to change the membership with a lower fee. I was still hesitated and she said that she had this great deal due to my financial concerns. She lowered the fee to 3 years for $369.00 and a free airplane ticket (not a companions ticket) that is worth $500.00. I asked to make sure that it is a FREE AIRPLANE TICKET WITH NO BLACKOUT DATES. She assured me that it was a free airplane ticket without blackout dates. She kept trying to talk to me and I wanted to hang up but she would keep me on the phone asking me question and weirdly complimenting me. She kept making claims, We had 400,000 members and I cracked under pressure. I gave her my credit card information. It was on an early Friday evening and I had night class. I was held hostage longer than the 15 minutes interview they claimed. I was late for my class.

I still had doubt, so on Saturday, July 11, 2009, I called Citibank to try to block the transaction and I was told to call Cambridge who's who back and try to resolve the issue with them because the payment was pending and nothing could be done until it was posted. I called Christina again on Monday, July 13, 2009 and left a message that I wanted to cancel my listing and I will block my payment from the credit card. Christina called me back and I told her that I wanted to cancel because it would not do any good for me. Again, she talked me to wait until I get the password to sign in the site and actually see their services. A day went by. I still felt uneasy the next day. Citibank customer service called me today and said that they will reverse the charge pending investigation.

 

On Wednesday, July 15, 2009, I called Christina and cancelled again. This time she transferred me to a customer service person who now offered to up grade my membership to a lifetime for the same amount. This offered me a lifetime professional networking membership with access to exclusive executives and professional that would allow me to network , interact with established business contacts and potentially land better job opportunities.   Same as Christina, she told me We had 400,000 members and wait until I get the packet to sign in and discover their services. She also reminded me the free $500.00 airplane ticket (again not a companions ticket). There is no mention of blackout dates.

On September 17, 2009, I received a packet from Citibank stating they cannot help me and included the copy of the packet from what Cambridge Whos Who. In their letter to the credit card company, they said, we cannot and should not be held responsible for her buyers remorse. If it is legitimate service, we would be happy about it! Why would we have any reservation?

 

Now the bank rebilled my account for the charge with related fee and finance charges. They had threaten to fill a bad report to the three consumer report agencies if I will not make the payment also.

 

Cambridge Whos Who even have my name and my school's name wrong in the packet they sent to the bank.

 

I will be contacting the New York and Pennsylvania State Attorney Generals. I also will appeal the banks finding and dispute some discrepancies of Cambridges facts.