I filled out an online "application" after receiving a congratulatory letter, that I was "nominated" for Cambridge Whos'Who! Woo-Hoo!
About an hour ago, she called me for "the interview". After spending about 30-minutes, going over my resume (education, work history, etc.) and further probing, she stated that she was proud to submit this to their editor.
Same song and dance about the plaque, certificate, complimentary companion airline ticket, my name will be "going in their book", I would receive national recognition, my own cambridge e-mail address (along with access to the hundreds of thousands who were members in my HR field), and they would even provide a link through Google, so if anyone Googled my name, they would see all these wonderful things about me! But...
Just when I think we're wrapping up the call, she jumps in with the platinum and gold membership benefits. I was taken aback. Nowhere did I read that there was a fee involved. She told me that she was "personally recommending" the platinum plan for $800.
Little voice inside my head reminded me that she was just a little too "rushed" in the interview, I could tell that even though she was fairly professional, she wasn't really engaged with me... BIG difference. I told her I would like to think about this, and for her to phone me back tomorrow.
She couldn't / wouldn't do this. She went on to the third tier plan, but at this point I tuned her out as I figured it was really a scam, if she was not going to return the call tomorrow. I said, "Well, I REALLY am interested in the platinum or gold plan, but want to talk it over with my partner before giving you almost $1,000!"
She then said, "Well, as I told you, I cannot call you back tomorrow, we have to do this now. I have literally thousands of applications to go through... Thousands of potential candidates want to be a part of this."
I ended the call by hanging up, but before I did, I said, "I get the impression you're scamming me. How do I know this? You want $800 from me, and will not call me back tomorrow. Why is this? You really don't care, this is a sales call and this really isn't about me and my qualifications and CV, it's about you ringing in another fool for their money. This is a scam."
The last words out of her mouth before I politely hung up was, "This most certainly isn't a scam..."
Yeah, right. What a waste of time.
Beware folks!
0 comments