I received an invitation to be included in a registry of Who's Who Among Professional Women. The letter indicated that the listing was free and that I had been chosen to be interviewed for this publication. My husband wanted me to have this as a gift for all of my years of hard work. He promptly completed an online application for me.
Two days later a representative contacted me for a telephone interview. After answering an extensive list of questions, I was asked to hang on so that he could find out if I qualified. After a few minutes he returned to give me the good news. Then the bad news followed. He told me about two plans - a platinum lifetime membership plan of over $900, and a gold five year membership plan at a little over $700.
He also told me that I would be receiving a "free" airline ticket worth $550. I was skeptical and unsure if my husband knew about these charges. The man went on to say that they had a payment plan and that only $199 would be charged against my credit card. I unfortunately fell for this. I then heard from my husband who became quite upset since this offer was supposed to be "free". I immediately contacted the company and my credit card company to cancel this deal. I was told by the company that I had to wait another two business days for someone from the company to contact me.
Upon further investigation, I found numerous blogs online of complaints and horror stories regarding this so-called company. They are a.K.A. Biltmore Who's Who, Manchester Who's Who, Empire Who's Who, Madison Who's Who, Emerald Who's Who, Metropolitan Who's Who... And maybe a host of other names. Unsuspecting people like me have been scammed of their hard earned money from this company too.
Later on the same day, my husband and I called the company demanding to speak to a manager. A woman by the name of Carla Gwatney got on the phone. She flat out refused to cancel this claiming that she and her staff had already processed this application and that my name and information had been already sent overseas!
We continued our search online, wrote letters to the Attorney General's Office, Office of Consumer Affairs in Nassau County, filed a complaint with the BBB, and sent this company a registered letter putting in writing our request for this contract to be dissolved immediately.
The next step will be to contact our two senator's office in Albany and the media. We want a thorough and complete investigation into this fraudulant company once and for all. We are heartsick over this, and believe we have the right to cancel a contract particularly when this was requested on the same day that it was made. I believe there are consumer protections that should assist us.
But we are also worried about other and future unsuspecting people out there who may also become the prey of these scammers.
Please help us if you can. Thank You!
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