More fake degree offers from Northern Port "University"

In comes an email entitled "New Year Greetings and Savings from Northern Port University".

"Dear Richard,

Holiday Greetings!

We, at See If You Qualify for a Degree, appreciates your zest for higher education and acknowledge the constraints that pull you back from realizing your dream of earning an advanced degree. Also, we understand that it will become increasingly difficult for you to pursue higher education in the face of 10% increase in educational cost worldwide in 2012.

To help you overcome the hurdles and pursue your ambition, See If You Qualify for a Degree offers an ideal solution in association with Northern Port University.

With NorthernPort University, you can earn a degree of your choice on the basis of your work/life experience. We will evaluate your outside classroom learning, translate them into academic credits, and award you a globally accredited degree in 2 weeks! What's more, signing up now will get you $200 discount on your preferred degree program. Yes, this is true and is valid till Dec 31st 2011.

Blah, blah, blah."

Is that the quality of English you want from a fake university?

Northern Port "University" - another fake

Yet another fake university to add to the list of those who offer degrees for money and no actual work. The same offers of degrees within days, no actual study needed and based purely on prior life experience.

They claim accreditation by the "Universal Accreditation Council" but this too, isn't real.

Interestingly, they give a "case study" of someone they claim is called "Jackie Dason". Jackie says:

"Getting my higher education degree from Northern Port was one of the best decisions of
my life. Northern Port not only helped me hone my skills, but also guided me through ways
to change my career without any hassles. Studying at Northern Port was an amazing experience, and now I believe quality education can be attained at a low cost."

Curiously, this is what "Jackie" also says about "Panworld University":

"Getting my higher education degree from Panworld was one of the best decisions of my life. Panworld not only helped me hone my skills, but also guided me through ways to change my career without any hassles. Studying at Panworld was an amazing experience, and now I believe quality education can be attained at a low cost."

What a bizarre coincidence! Actually their web sites are exact replicas of each other. You don't think this is because they're both fakes and scams, do you?

So a welcome to Northern Port "University" the newest member of the fake university club, along with your clones like Belford, Headway, Corllins, Woodfield, Mcford.

Noni juice - background material

For a complete list of US Food and Drug Administration letters to and from Noni juice distributors see here.

For the official report from the European Commission Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General, which concluded that there is "no evidence for special health benefits of Tahitian Noni juice which go beyond those of other fruit juices" see here (pdf download).

The Mayo Clinic state here that:

"Noni juice has gained popularity as a tonic for everything from arthritis and depression to heart disease and cancer. But there's no evidence that noni juice is effective in treating any of these conditions."

A study was undertaken at the University of Hawaii and sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine into the effects of Noni juice in cancer patients that ended in 2006 but no results were ever published. I wonder why?

Finally, there's a good summary of the facts here.

Consumer Alert: Divinenoni

There's a sponsored link on Facebook for a product called "Divinenoni".

I have no problem with fruit juices, they're good for you. However I DO have a problem when they make absurd, reckless and criminal claims.

If you click on the link you go to the Divinenoni Facebook group the claims become a little bit more extraordinary. Rather than just a fruit juice it becomes a product that "improves the efficacy of the Medicine":

As you can see there's a link to the cancertutor.com web site which makes this extraordinary claim:

On that very same web page the authors make the most dangerous medical claim I've read in a very long time.

Let me be perfectly clear. The Divinenoni Facebook page links directly to this claim. There is no evidence whatsoever that noni juice has any effect on cancer in humans. This is dangerous, criminally irresponsible nonsense. It is illegal to make such claims in Botswana and the rest of the world. Encouraging people to stop their medical treatment and to drink magical fruit juice instead is a criminal offense committed by criminals.

P.S. I've posted a question on the Facebook group so see if they stand by their claim.

For some facts on noni juice see the Wikipedia page which links to a various warnings that have been sent to marketers of this nonsense.

A right to reply

I’ve been known to be critical of certain people and organisations but I also believe in fair play and offering people a second chance. At Consumer Watchdog we’ve always guaranteed the people and companies we criticise a guaranteed right of reply. So long as they’re polite then they can respond. They can even criticise us if they want, even when they’re not entirely rational.

I thought that as a demonstration of this and as a special gesture of Christmas generosity I’d publish an email we received a few days ago. This was from the so-called “Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (British)”. Despite it’s name this place has nothing to do with Northern Ireland and isn’t British. They have no permanent presence anywhere in the UK and they’re not a registered company there. What’s more none of their "academic staff" can be traced and they claim accreditation from a non-recognised accreditation body. You should also ask yourself why they have a web site that ends in "org.uk", suggesting that they're in the UK, when in fact their web site was registered as a "Non-UK Corporation" in February 2008 to an address in Malaysia. [Correction, this has now been changed, I believe on 22nd December to "Other UK Entity".]

Their email is an extreme example of the sort of thing we sometimes have to deal with. You can see the long running saga on the Consumer Watchdog blog but I thought I’d let you decide whether they’re being reasonable. I haven’t edited it other than to remove some boring details like addresses and some strange spacing. The spelling is exactly as I received it. See what you think.

"To Richard Harriman, Consumer Watchdog, the Mmegi

On l8/7/2011 you arrogantly posted three links in your blog in the internet and many links in Wikepedia and nastily asked us to Google search for the articles which defaming the Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (British) as fake, as Malaysia institute, not a registered company, fake accreditation, scam, Richard Lim as none existing and fake, etc.

You even sarcastically asked “How’s business? This is clearly shown that you possessed an ill intention to tarnish the reputation of the institute and intentionally to destroy the business of its agent Victoria Business Centre.

Tell us honestly how you how much you have been paid for the blogger job?

On 20/11/2011, you wrote again and agitated us to follow through legal action against you. You remarked that taking legal action against you was a silly threat.

You even dare to challenge us to lodge Internpol/FBI police report on you. Then you remark “So you were joking then?” Do you think that the Interpol and the FBI are simply set up for joking only? Come on; do not show under estimate and disrespects the ability of the Interpol and the FBI. Show your respect on them, ok!

We have been very patient with you when you began to slandering and defaming NIIBT and its agent Victoria Business Centre in the internet since 2009. Your slanderous, defamation and unlawful interfere of the internal affairs of both establishments have affected our educational service greatly.

On behalf of Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (British) and its agent, Richard Lim force to lodge an Interpol police report against you of your wrong doing. You are strongly urged to remove all the slanderous and defamation articles on Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (British) and NIIBT both from your blogs as found in the internet, Wikipedia, facebook, twitter and others immediately to avoid being sued.

A copy of genuine Interpol police report against you by Richard Lim, Senior Manager of International Affairs and Communication is attached for your prompt retract all the articles as posted in your blogs in the internet, wikipedia and others.

Should you fail to do so, you and your papers are really going to face the Interpol/the FBI plus suing you for tarnishing the reputation of the institute and its agent.

Can you provide us your physical address?

Our claim for damage on slandering and defaming on Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (British) and its agent is going to be USD6 millions. You are urged to treat this matter as serious and removing all slanderous and defamation articles on NIIBT, unlawfully using the NIIBT logo, unlawfully interference of the internal affairs of NIIBT and its agent in your blogs, etc from the internet and wikipedia instantly."

Is that entirely rational? Forgive me for thinking that either the author is very excitable or he hadn’t taken his medication that morning.

Here’s a few facts.

Interpol. Interpol is not a police force. It is described as "an organization facilitating international police cooperation". You cannot complain or lay a charge with Interpol. Their job is simply to enable different national police forces to cooperate with each other.

The FBI. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is a US Federal law enforcement agency whose jurisdiction is limited to issues affecting the USA. It has no jurisdiction or interest in fake non-accredited educational establishments based in Malaysia who claim to be based in the UK when they are, in fact, not.

Defamation. Section 195 of the Penal Code of Botswana say that comment cannot be considered defamation if "the matter is true and it was for the public benefit that it should be published". The laws of Malaysia protect "justification" and "fair comment" in their Defamation Act of 1957. Nothing I've said has been untrue or an unfair comment. OK, perhaps the time I called them lunatics was going a bit far but they did say some bizarre things such as "Action will be taken against internet terrorist of foul international law" which I think meant me.

So, Merry Christmas to all the smart and attractive Mmegi readers and “Keep taking the pills” to my Malaysian friends!

Am I too skeptical?

I sometimes think skepticism is a bit of a curse. The default position is NOT to trust a new idea until there is evidence. But then, without fail, I get a grip and remind myself that skepticism is the only safe route though life.

I saw a sponsored link on Facebook for Knowledge Edge Education that intrigued me. It claimed to "assist African students realise their dreams of of quality education", blah, blah, blah.

Their web site is very glossy but doesn't have quite the depth of authenticity I would have expected. The images are all clip art, mainly from gettyimages.com. Of course there's nothing wrong with using such images, we all use them, but when you couple this with some other facts it undermines your confidence a bit.

• Their News Update page shows details of 4 scholarships, all of which expired many months ago.
• Their Contact Us page gives phone numbers in both Nigeria and the UK. None of the Nigerian numbers appear to work.
• Their address in the UK is an accommodation address, a"virtual office". This was set up, I suspect, using a company called Westbury who specialise in setting up these addresses and companies. The address they use (145-157 St John Street, London, United Kingdom EC1V 4PW) is actually above a betting shop in London (that's it, on the right).
• They also give two addresses in Nigeria, but neither of them seem credible. 
• Their web site is an almost perfect replica of the Scholars Trust site which even calls itself "Knowledge Edge" when you visit it. The Scholars Trust site was registered on 22 December 2010 by the same person who registered the Knowledge Edge site on 12 January 2011. Curiously the address and phone number given when registering both sites are the same as those of "Favour Catering Services" which claims to be based in Luton in the UK. However no company with that name is registered in the UK but it does seem to exist in Lagos.
• There is a company registered in the UK as "Knowledge Edge Education Consulting Ltd", first registered on 7th February 2011. There's no trace of a company calling itself "Scholars Trust".

I must stress that I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with this company. It's just that a healthy skepticism and a little research can help guide your decision making. Particularly when someone wants your money.

It's amazing what Multi-Level Marketers will try and sell you

An excellent piece by Kasey Chang on some of the more absurd products sold using Multi-Level Marketing.

Canned Oxygen, fuel additives, water molecule aligners and my favourite bit of magical glass, the BioDisc. You can't fault their imagination. Just their claims.

I get email.

Actually comments on the blog. It's only fair that they are made public. Also so you can see the sort of silliness I have to put up with.

"Thomas R. Reich" commented on one of my posts about the fake Belford University (which Thomas can't spell correctly), saying:

"Stop this slanderous attack on Billford, obviously you are a person of low esteem, who did not qualify for a Life Experience Degree, and are disgruntled!"

Actually I'm perfectly gruntled.

"Anonymous" commented on a post about Herbalife, saying:

"Have you actually tried the product yourself? It bugs me when people have never tried something and they are quick to judge. If you have, and it didn't work for your then I can understand. I have heard and seen it work for alot of people."

My post in this case was about the criminal claims by a Herbalife distributor called Ignatious that he could "cure" heart conditions with Herbalife Products. I don't need to try a herbal "cure" for heart problems to know it's nonsense. Particularly when Herbalife themselves are careful to explain that they make no such claim.

It's also curious that "Anonymous" says "I have heard and seen it work for alot of people" when I didn't mention a particular product.

"behg" didn't like my comments on the ridiculous "Fundación Donaciones Humanitarias" and the equally non-existent "Sir Edward Cooper". He or she said:

"Mr. Harriman. Unfortunately you are very wrong about this individual and group. Blessed is he who believes but cannot see. Its called vision, little man."

A person who "believes but cannot see" maybe called "blessed" but is also called blind.

"Alexi" also commented on another post about the FDH, saying:

"What silly and childish little comments you have to add to such important accusations from your side. Clearly this is way above your pay grade/level of comprehension. If only you would look outside your world of blogs, you would be quite amazed at what goes on. It's a pity that people like you who are bored little (1.85m) men can sit and write about issues you have no understanding about. Your immature attitude is beyond me and don't deserve anymore attention from anyone regarding this matter. Maybe you should focus on where the "consumer" can buy fruit at a better price from."

"Anonymous" objected to me criticising the absurd "BioDisc", a piece of glass that apparently has magical properties. He or she said:

"Get your facts right on the bio disc and qnet company and stop jumping into hasty conclusions and deceiving the public. Ignorance is no excuse. The bio disc works whether you believe it or not. also Qnet does not demand ANY registration fee from customers unless a person wants to be an independent representative of the company."

The same day "Anonymous" (it's that person again) also commented:

"Richard, you had better research very well about Questnet and its activities rather than jump into hasty conclusions on the bio disc. POINT OF CORRECTION, QNET DOES NOT OPERATE a pyramid scheme, and two, they dont demand any registration fee from customers before buying the product. You only pay registration fee when you want to be part of QNET as an independent representative of the company. PLEASE GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT AND STOP DECEIVING THE PULBIC. AJUBY."

Bits of glass do not have magical properties. If they did someone would have received a Nobel Prize by now.

The World Business Guide are still at it

The World Business Guide, an online directory scam, is still at it. Emails are arriving like this:

"Dear Madam/Sir,

I am writing to enquire regarding the status of payment for the invoice no. 103971, issued for your insertion into the 2011/2012 Edition of the World Business Guide you have ordered on behalf of [company name].

The due date of this invoice was the 28th of November, 2011.

Our Credit Department will issue on Monday, the 19th of December, 2011 a Reminder towards your company.

Payment should be made within 7 days after the date of the reminder (In case of additional late payment we will charge you EUR 99,- Late Payment Fee and EUR 35,- Administration Fee).

Be kind and send us attached by e-mail or by fax the proof of payment as soon as the invoice is paid, in order to avoid the above-mentioned additional fees.

Bank Details:
IBAN: BG17UNCR70001519985205
SWIFT: UNCRBGSF
A/c#: 1519 9852 05

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

Best regards,

Ms Dana
Accounting Department
Tel: +34 91 188 1696
Fax: +34 91 791 9167"

Of course this is ALL LIES. There are no extra fees, there is no actual contract between you and these crooks. That's because they deceived you into joining their directory in the first place. Critically, despite their threats, they have NEVER taken legal action against anyone for non-payment, presumably because they know a judge would laugh at them.

Finally, some geographical curiosities:

• They claim to be "a corporation organized and existing under the laws of BVI" (British Virgin Islands, a well known tax and scam-haven).
• The phone number they give is in Spain.
• Their postal addresses are post boxes in Spain and the Netherlands.
• Their web site was registered on 14th October 2008 to an address in Spain.
• The bank account they want you to use is in Bulgaria.

If you get an email from them either delete it immediately or reply and tell them where they can put their demands.

Do the right thing

It’s not all bad news. I know it sometimes seems like we’re surrounded by crooks, scammers and thieves there IS good news out there.

A reader contacted us with a complaint about Orange Botswana last week. He’d bought a prepaid modem for his computer for P199 from Orange in Palapye. At the time he also bought P100 of airtime for the modem. Unfortunately try as hard as he might he couldn’t get it to work with either his laptop or his desktop computer. He did the sensible thing and called Orange to see what they could advise. Rather than try and fix things over the phone they asked him to bring both the modem and laptop to them but even they couldn’t get it to work. Before the techies start grumbling yes, he could use other USB devices, it was just this modem that didn’t work.

Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, Orange couldn’t get it to work either, at least not on his laptop. They could, they said, get it to work on their computers. Eventually the customer asked for a refund as the modem simply didn’t work for him. That’s when communication began to fail. Lots of phone calls were made, responses weren’t forthcoming and irritation levels began to increase. Luckily before things got too heated he asked us for advice.

At 6:16pm on Friday 9th December I emailed someone senior at Orange asking if something could be done to fix the situation. Of course this was late on a Friday evening and there was no way I could expect even an acknowledgement until the following Monday, so you can imagine how pleased I was to hear from my contact at Orange at 6:45pm on Friday evening saying that she was dealing with the situation. I was even more delighted to get an email from the reader at lunchtime the next day, a Saturday I should remind you, saying Orange had called him and his refund was waiting for him. And when did they call him? 7pm on Friday evening. A total problem turnaround time of 44 minutes.

Simple really. A happy customer and a celebration in a national newspaper.

A few weeks ago we had a call from another reader with a problem. Last year he’d bought a P12,000 LCD TV from HiFi Corporation. Unfortunately a few weeks ago the TV was stolen from his home. He was angry of course but at least the HiFi Corporation insurance policy would cover the TV, no problems there. However when they offered him a replacement TV it wasn’t quite the same. Although it was an LED TV, technically superior, it was a bit smaller than the stolen one and only worth P7,700.. That wasn’t necessarily a major problem because the insurance policy offered an equivalent replacement, not a brand new TV. They offered him something similar to a 1-year old TV. There were no complaints yet.

The problem began when he politely asked if he could have a better TV if he paid the difference between the P7,700 value he’d been offered and the value of the superior TV he wanted. That sounds reasonable to me, it’s not as if he was asking for anything for free. He was happy to cough up the extra cash.

That’s when things didn’t work out. The store told him this wasn’t in line with their policy. He could only have the cheaper, smaller replacement. Rather than get angry he got in touch with us. A single email later to the HiFi Corporation Head Office, a bunch of emails within the organization and a solution was arranged. Of course he could upgrade his TV, not a problem.

Simple really. Another happy customer and another celebration.

Another thing we should celebrate is the growing level of consumer skepticism that’s about at the moment. We’re getting fewer and fewer people contacting us saying they’ve fallen for a scam and more and more instead either asking if something is a scam or asking us to warn people about a scam they’ve seen. That basic skepticism, the approach of not believing things simply because you see or hear them being said is a fundamental consumer skill. The more of it there is, the fewer problems people will experience and it’s not just something that will protect you from scams and deceptions, it works just as well when you look at advertisements. I saw an advertisement a while ago in the window of a beauty products shop. Despite being enormously priced and almost certainly useless, it said “96% of women prefer it”. Let’s be skeptical for a moment. Did it say “96% of ALL women”? No. We have no idea who these women were and what interest they had. It’s perfectly possible that 24 women from a sample of 25 chosen from the Marketing Department of the cosmetics company were the ones who loved it.

So for once it’s a week of optimism and hope for more and more excellent products and services.

This week’s stars

• Tumie and the team at Orange for fixing a reader’s problem so rapidly.
• The management at HiFi Corporation for solving a problem and ensuring a valued customer has an excellent new TV to watch over Christmas.
• The team at Chutney Restaurant in Gaborone for being our nation’s No.1 restaurant on the tripadvisor.com web site and for having the most wonderful Dosas. If you’ve never tried a Masala Dosa go and have one today.
• Michael in the EMS section of Botswana Post for his amazing memory and excellent service delivery.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I bought a fridge in November 2011 and my first installment is due this month. However the fridge is still in wraps and I have never used it. I feel I don’t really need a 2nd fridge and I must have bought it on impulse. Can I return the fridge and have the debt cancelled or am I stuck with it?

Every detail was explained to me and I don’t have any complaints against the vendor and I totally accept full responsibility for the blame, I am just hoping since I have all the papers and the product is still in wraps and boxes maybe I can strike a compromise with the vendor.

Your advice would be highly appreciated.

Firstly, I respect you for being perfectly honest about the situation. Lots of people would try and find someone to blame for this and not take personal responsibility. We often hear from consumers who obviously made a mistake when they bought something and then make up excuses to avoid taking the blame.

As I’m sure you understand the problem is that the item is now technically no longer new. Section 13 (1) (c) of the Consumer Protection Regulations states that a supplier has failed “to meet minimum standards” if they represent that a “commodity is new when in fact it has deteriorated, or it has been altered, reconditioned, used or is second hand”.

An item like your fridge that had been sold and then returned would normally be seen as second hand but in your case it might be slightly different. If the fridge is still in perfect condition, isn’t scratched or damaged in any way and is genuinely still perfectly packaged the store might be OK in selling it as new. I don’t think any subsequent customer would worry too much.

It’s worth asking the store if they can do this. It might be helpful if you offered to pay them for their transport costs as an incentive. See what they say and let us know.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

A couple of years I purchased some books from a company called in South Africa. I didn’t pay for the books I received from them. In fact it was my fault that I did not pay them. I don’t have any of their contacts to settle my accounts. And because of that, I think that I have been blacklisted.

Please advise.

Firstly you should obviously make every effort to locate the bookseller in SA and see if you can settle the debt you have with them. Meanwhile it would be interesting to know why you think you’ve been blacklisted?

Whatever the reason it’s worth checking your credit history with TransUnion. You can do this at certain Post Offices.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #3

I bought a 42 inch LCD TV from HiFi Corporation last year worth P12,000. The TV was stolen from my house two weeks back. I claimed on the insurance and Hi-Fi agreed to replace my TV but the TV they wanted to give is not the one I had actually hoped for. They wanted to give me a 40 inch LED TV worth P 7,700.

I asked if I can make a top up to the amount of the TV they want to give and get a different TV. They said it is not possible according to their store policy. Do you think this is fair?

It’s certainly not very flexible. Nevertheless we got in touch with HiFi Corporation and asked if something can be done. We heard this week that they’d reconsidered and the customer paid the extra amount and has a lovely new TV to use over Christmas.

Good for HiFi Corporation for showing a little flexibility to a valued customer!

Another threat from NIIBT

Another email from the "Northern Ireland Institute of Business & Technology", NIIBT. This time they want US$ 6 million from me. I don't think they deserve it.

"To:

Richard Harriman, Consumer Watchdog, the Mmegi and the Voice,
P Box 403026, Gaborone, Botswana Tel: (267) 3904582 Fax: (267) 39117
Email: wlmailhtml:watchdog@bes.bw Web site: www.bes.bw.

Richard Harriman,

On l8/7/2011 you arrogantly posted three links in your blog in the internet and many links in Wikepedia and nastily asked us to Google search for the articles which defaming the Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (British) as fake, as Malaysia institute, not a registered company, fake accreditation, scam, Richard Lim as none existing and fake, etc.

You even sarcastically asked “How’s business?

This is clearly shown that you possessed an ill intention to tarnish the reputation of the institute and intentionally to destroy the business of its agent Victoria Business Centre.

Tell us honestly how you how much you have been paid for the blogger job?

On 20/11/2011, you wrote again and agitated us to follow through legal action against you. You remarked that taking legal action against you was a silly threat.

You even dare to challenge us to lodge Internpol/FBI police report on you. Then you remark “So you were joking then?”

Do you think that the Interpol and the FBI are simply set up for joking only? Come on; do not show under estimate and disrespects the ability of the Interpol and the FBI. Show your respect on them, ok!

We have been very patient with you when you began to slandering and defaming NIIBT and its agent Victoria Business Centre in the internet since 2009. Your slanderous, defamation and unlawful interfere of the internal affairs of both establishments have affected our educational service greatly.

On behalf of Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (British) and its agent, Richard Lim force to lodge an Interpol police report against you of your wrong doing.

You are strongly urged to remove all the slanderous and defamation articles on Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (British) and NIIBT both from your blogs as found in the internet, Wikipedia, facebook, twitter and others immediately to avoid being sued.

A copy of genuine Interpol police report against you by Richard Lim, Senior Manager of International Affairs and Communication is attached for your prompt retract all the articles as posted in your blogs in the internet, wikipedia and others.

Should you fail to do so, you and your papers are really going to face the Interpol/the FBI plus suing you Richard Harriman, Consumer Watchdog, the Mmegi and the Voice, P Box 403026, Gaborone, Botswana Tel: (267) 3904582 Fax: (267) 39117 Email: wlmailhtml:watchdog@bes.bw Web site: www.bes.bw. for tarnishing the reputation of the institute and its agent.

Can you provide us your physical address?

Our claim for damage on slandering and defaming on Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (British) and its agent is going to be USD6 millions. You are urged to treat this matter as serious and removing all slanderous and defamation articles on NIIBT, unlawfully using the NIIBT logo, unlawfully interference of the internal affairs of NIIBT and its agent in your blogs, etc from the internet and wikipedia instantly."

Some more facts:

Interpol. Interpol is not a police force. It is described as "an organization facilitating international police cooperation". You cannot complain or lay a charge with Interpol. Their job is simply to enable different national police forces to cooperate with each other.

The FBI. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is a US Federal law enforcement agency whose jurisdiction is limited to issues affecting the USA. It has no jurisdiction or interest in fake non-accredited educational establishments based in Malaysia who claim to be based in the UK when they are, in fact, not.

The NIIBT. They still have explained why they call themselves "British" when they're not, why they link themselves to "Northern Ireland" when they have no permanent presence there, why none of their "academic staff" can be traced and why they claim accreditation from a non-recognised accreditation body. Why do they have a web site that ends in "org.uk", suggesting that they're in the UK when in fact this site was registered as a "Non-UK Corporation" on 20th February 2008 to an address in Malaysia (P.O. Box 195, Johor Bahru, Malaysia, 80720)?

Defamation. Section 195 of the Penal Code of Botswana say that comment cannot be considered defamation if "the matter is true and it was for the public benefit that it should be published". All other legal systems in democracies have a similar protection for fair comment. Malaysia in particular protects "justification" and "fair comment" in their Defamation Act 1957. Nothing I've said has been untrue or an unfair comment. OK, perhaps calling them lunatics was going a bit far but have you read what some of the things they said? (Reminder: "Action will be taken against internet terrorist of foul international law" which meant me.)

The complaint above. I haven't mentioned them 3 times on the blog. In fact they've been mentioned 13 times. I only mentioned "Victoria Business Centre" once, I thought it was just their business address.

We get another lunatic email from NIIBT

I get an email from the fake Northern Ireland Institute of Business and Technology (NIIBT) threatening me with "the proper procedures of the law" because of my comments in the past. It goes like this:

"Hello Mr Harriman

How are you ? It's been a while. Greetings from Malaysia.
The purpose of this letter is to inform you for the LAST TIME to remove your slanderous claim on me, my work and Northern Institute of Business & Technology before we proceed in using the proper procedures of the law on you and your paper.

Your claims have affected my work and business. We are a registered, recognised and a well establish licensed organization.

My advice to you is that you

1. Remove all writings claiming we are FAKE and my existence as well. I am well and healthy
2. Public apology in your blog FOR ALL YOUR ATTACKS WHICH IS FALSE

This will serve as a FINAL warning to you.

Have a good day

note: you have 24 hours to response

Regards

RICHARD LIM"

Let's get some facts straight.

"Northern Ireland". The NIIBT has nothing to do with Northern Ireland. The web site claims an address in Belfast, specifically 20 Adelaide Street, Belfast, BT2 8GD. However that's just a business centre where you can rent offices by the hour. You can even rent a "virtual office" where they answer the phone for you with your company name even though you've never been there. They have no real connection to Northern ireland.

"British". They're not registered as a company in the UK. I know, I checked with the UK registrar of companies, Companies House. You can check here for yourself.

Accreditation. They claim to be accredited by "The International Accreditation & Recognition Council" (IARC). This is not a recognised accreditation body.

Staff. There appears to be no trace of any of the academic staff they claim to employ.

Richard Lim. There's no trace of a Richard Lim associated with NIIBT. His credibility is also somewhat undermined by his use of a Gmail address ("richlim2u@gmail.com") to threaten me.

They're insane. Previous emails from them included things such as:

"Action will be taken against internet terrorist of foul international law."
"FBI and Interpol are alerted on Internet Terrorists: Actions will be taken against internet terrorists soon who foul the international law."
"YOU HAVE REALLY GONE OVER BOARD RETRACT ALL YOUR FALSE CLAIMS OR FACE THE MUSIC."
"FBI is watching your uncorrectable behavior. You better watch out!!!"
"To avoid unforeseen serious consequence will come after you"

And Mr Lim's request for removal of my comments and an apology?

What do you think?

Believing the unbelievable

I repeat myself, I know I do. But some things are worth repeating over and over again until everyone understands them. I know that you, the one reading this right now, understands, that’s obvious. You’re a Mmegi reader, you’re intelligent, charming and outrageously attractive. However there are people out there not quite as fortunate as you or me. This is for them.

You cannot get a real, genuine, authentic qualification without doing any studying. You know this, I know this, most people know this. But the number of fake universities on the internet suggests that there are people out there who are either so unintelligent, lazy or greedy (or most dangerous of all, all three) that they think they can buy a degree online without doing any work.

Over the last few years I’ve had contact with an enormous number of fake universities and colleges. All of them have had one thing in common. They are entirely online, they don’t have a campus, they don’t actually employ any lecturers and they don’t actually exist. Their web sites are all very smart with pictures of smiling students and they repeatedly mention that they are accredited but this is all lies. In fact their accreditation is from fake accreditation bodies they have set up themselves. The pictures of students are just stock photos you can find all over the internet.

The real truth about these so-called universities is that all you have to do is give them your credit card number and you’ll get a fake qualification within days. They all do this.

What’s really surprising is that so many of them are all the same. I mean that literally. I suspect that they’re exactly the same people. In the past I’ve registered as an interested “student” using an assumed name and with a specially created free email address. Of course I didn’t pay any of them any money, I just got to the last step before that but already I’d been offered all types of qualifications from High School Diplomas to doctorates, all without any evidence that I was qualified, other than having a credit card. The interesting thing is that they continued to email my fake identity for months afterwards with increasingly silly offers. But then a more interesting thing happened. The fake email address started to get identical emails from other universities and I do mean identical. With the exception of the name of the fake establishment the wording was absolutely identical.

Clearly these fake online universities are all connected. So far, from an initial enquiry with Belford “University” I’ve been contacted by Belford, Corllins University, Universal Degrees, Headway University and, just a few days ago, RISE University. All of these are fake universities and clearly the same bunch of crooks and scammers is behind all of them. I’m not usually a conspiracy theorist but this is a conspiracy to delude the naïve into thinking they can get a fake degree this way.

Actually that’s not true. This is an area where I become intolerant. Anyone with the brains to know that a degree will help their career also understands that these degrees are fakes. They know they’re committing a fraud when they get a job or a promotion by passing off these degrees as genuine.

I also think that most people know that there’s no such things a genuine Get Rich Quick scheme. Other than winning a lottery or discovering that you’re the only beneficiary of a recently deceased millionaire (neither of which is ever going to happen to you or me) people don’t suddenly get rich.

At the moment the most common miracle money-making schemes are the Forex trading plans. Several are going around Botswana right now saying that they can offer you massive returns on a very small investment. Cashflow Pro promise you a return of 10-30% each month. If their promises are true that means after a year your “investment” will have increased by between 300% and 2,000%. Clearly that’s nonsense.

Another scheme I was asked about offers a return of “Up to 2.9% daily”. That doesn’t too much but on an annual basis that’s a potential return of over 3,000,000%. The first example was nonsense, but this one is insane.

Surely everybody knows that this sort of income is a fantasy? Surely everyone knows that anyone offering you this sort of return is lying? If anyone suggests that this is possible just ask them this. If it’s possible why aren’t the banks making this sort of money? They’re the experts, if they can’t do it what makes you think ordinary mortals like you and me can?

So why do people believe the unbelievable? Why do some non-Mmegi-reading people believe that they can get a degree without any work or make 3 million percent returns on minor investments? Is it just naiveté or is it something more sinister, something harder to forgive? I think the news is bad. It’s not just gullibility, I think it’s a dangerous combination of greed and laziness. I know we all want to better our conditions but there are plenty of people who want something quick without any work. This is where fake degree and income scammers make a fortune. They tap into naiveté and make money at the expense of the gullible.

The good news is that this would never happen to a Mmegi reader, we’re far too smart, moral and sophisticated. Aren’t we?

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I have a problem with a generator I purchased which has never worked properly or consistently since day one of installation – leading to air conditioners blowing and numerous call-outs to my electrician to try to fix the problem.

I have made efforts to speak to the supplier about this and they are giving me lots of excuses. The manager has never returned my calls nor has he bothered to respond to the fax that I sent him requesting that they replace the generator. I find that unacceptable. The generator is and always has been under warranty and he’s trying to claim that it is all serviceable parts. I did not buy a generator so that I spend every month servicing parts or without electricity. I am not interested in any more repair jobs; I want the generator replaced.

Please could you intervene and get them to replace what should have been a properly functioning and useful generator, which I spent over P10,000 on in February this year? Obviously with the call-outs to my electrician I have now spent much more than this amount.

This sounds like a relatively simple problem to solve but this is also the sort of problem that can drag out, lasting longer and longer until the warranty expires and the supplier can try to refuse you a solution. I can imagine how it must be very tempting for a supplier to stall you when the problematic item is approaching the end of it’s warranty period. However this is exactly the time when you must try even harder to get a solution.

In your case this clearly sounds like a case when the supplier owes you a replacement. After that many repairs and callouts it’s obvious that this particular generator is not of “merchantable quality” as the Consumer Protection Regulations require. It’s quite simple. A generator must generate electricity and yours doesn’t.

We’ll get in touch with the supplier and see if they can’t find a solution for you.

Update: We emailed the supplier and 48 hours later they arrived at the reader’s door with a brand new generator. They’ve even promised to transfer the diesel remaining in the faulty one to the replacement. Not bad!

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

What are my rights when it comes to warranties? Our company bought 3 laptop computers for official and home use and the laptops are on warranty. Unfortunately one of them incurred a hard drive problem which is apparently a manufacturing problem and only the manufacturer can resolve it. We took the laptop to the supplier we bought it from so that they can replace it and transfer data from one to another to avoid loss of company information, then they refused. They say they must take the laptop to South Africa for repair and that will take 24 working days which is very inconvenient as the laptop has our accounts data on it. Actually we want them to give us another laptop so we can transfer the account software and data otherwise we will end up buying labour and licence to install the packages. Please supply us with information on how to deal with this problem. The laptops are HPs but we’ve now been advised that they are not original HPs.

This is very suspicious. The warranty situation is simple. The laptop you purchased is from one of the most reputable brands in the world and they offer a decent warranty and you’ll have a right to a repair or replacement. However, and this is a critical point, it’s up to the supplier to tell you which they’ll offer. If they can repair the laptop that’s probably what they’ll offer you.

This business about the laptops not being originals is confusing. Please send me the serial number and I’ll see what I can find out from HP. If the local supplier sold you what they suggested was an HP laptop but it turns out to be a fake then they are in deep trouble. Between you and me (and readers of The Voice) I know the company you bought the laptop from and they have a complicated legal history, having been prosecuted in the past for software piracy.

However, the bad news for you is that your accounts data is not their concern. It was entirely your responsibility to ensure that both the software and the data were suitably backed-up and ready to be reinstalled on another computer in this situation. You can’t really demand that the supplier fix that problem for you, this isn’t their responsibility.

Send us the details of your laptops and we’ll make some enquiries.

A South African advance fee scam

You'd think advance fee scammers would at least try and get their English right, wouldn't you? This one is worth quoting in full for illustration. All the usual clues are there. The obvious nonsense about money, the cell phone number, free email address and the appalling English. However on this occasion there are extras. This one claims to know Jacob Zuma, sorry, "president Jacob zuma". You don't think he's lying, do you?

Parliament of the Republic of South Africa

PO BOX 15, CAPE TOWN, 8000 PARLIAMENT STREET, CAPE TOWN

OFFICE OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN PAYMENT
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
(RESOLUTION PANEL ON CONTRACT/INHERITANCE PAYMENT)
PO BOX 15, CAPE TOWN, 8000 PARLIAMENT STREET, CAPE TOWN

Attn: Sir/Madam

This is to officially inform you that we have verified your contract /inheritance/Wining file and found out why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled the obligations given to you in respect of your contract / inheritance payment.

Secondly, we have been informed that you are still dealing with some none officials/ex-staff of the bank, which made your entire attempt to secure the release of your fund to you, proves abortive.

We wish to advise you that such illegal act like this have to be stopped by you, if you wish to receive your payment since we have decided to bring a solution to your problem.

Right now we have arranged your payment through our swift card payment center in the United Kingdom or from our Ned credit bank offices, that is the latest instruction by president Jacob zuma republic of South Africa after the President Jacob Zuma on Thursday September 8th 2011 appointed Mogoeng Mogoeng as chief justice of South Africa., stating that Justice must be done to all This card center will send you an atm card which you will use to withdraw your money in any atm machine in any part of the world, but the maximum is (£5000.00 (FIVE THOUSAND BRITISH POUNDS) If you like to receive your fund this way please let us know by contacting the card payment center and also send the following information:

1.your full name
2. Phone and fax number
3. Address were you want them to send the atm card
4. A copy of your identity attached to e-mail

Contact bank: Ned credit bank
Dr. Theophilus Tuelo Mogorosi
Director Atm Swift Card Center
Tel: +27- 790-733-433
Email: committeeofforeignpayment02@gala.net

The ATM card payment center has been mandated to issue out One Million British Pounds (£1,000,000.00) as part payment for this fiscal year 2011. Also for your information you have to stop any further comminucation with any other person(s) or office. This is to avoid any hitches in finalizing your payment. Call the director on his direct number +27- 790-733-433 soon as you reply to this important message for further direction on this regards and also update me on any development from the above mentioned office.

Note: that because of imposters, we hereby issued you our code of conduct, which is
Nedbk/atmscxx0x5x9x3x06 so you have to indicate this code when contacting.
Please make sure that your reply should go straight to the board of director email: as stated above. We are sorry for what you must have passed through.
On behalf of the Republic of South Africa

(MR. MAX SISULU)
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN PAYMENT
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

The Consumer Detective

These days everyone thinks that they’re a detective. We watch Law and Order, CSI and Sherlock on TV and think it’s simple. Most dangerously we watch House and all think we have medical detective skills. In fact real police (and medical) detective work is much more complicated and less sexy that it’s portrayed on the TV. Most of it is tedious, routine and unrewarding work punctuated by the occasional flash of inspiration or luck.

However, in these days of the internet there are ways in which consumers CAN be detectives.

Last week I heard two visitors from South Africa on a local radio show talking about a miraculous opportunity they were offering us to make loads of money and move from poverty to riches. They called it “Wealth Solutions”.

I was suspicious mainly because at no point did they actually explain how anyone would make all this money. They didn’t mention the need to make, build or assemble anything. They didn’t mention going to the office, having meetings or actually getting off your rear-end and doing anything. It was hiding something.

The clues followed very shortly. The name of one of the people presenting this opportunity and the venue, day of the week and time of the presentation were all exactly the same as the presenter, venue, day of the week and time as the presentations a few weeks ago by Cashflow Pro.

Cashflow Pro is the brainchild of a South African called Jabulani Ngcobo. According to the South African press Ngcobo is currently under investigation by the South African Reserve Bank and the South African Police Commercial Crimes Unit. It seems that for someone with no qualifications and no business history the amount of money he’s bringing in is too much to be credible. There are suspicions that he’s running either a pyramid or Ponzi scheme.

Another clue that there was something amiss was that there is no company called “Wealth Solutions” registered in South Africa. There are plenty of companies called Something-Else Wealth Solutions but none with the simpler name of just Wealth Solutions. I know because the SA Government have put their company registration details online. The SA Companies and Intellectual Property Commission has a web site (www.cipc.co.za) where you can search for all the registered companies in the country.

So there’s no company “Wealth Solutions”. Why were the presenters so keen to hide their real identity? Maybe because they don’t want their potential investors to know the trouble the founder might be in?

I also used the CIPC web site to check on an educational establishment in South Africa called Oxbridge Academy. A reader had asked us to check whether they were legitimate or not and whether their qualifications were recognized.

It turns out that Oxbridge Academy (which has nothing to do with either Oxford or Cambridge Universities, the normal meaning of “Oxbridge”) claims on it’s web site that "Oxbridge Academy was founded in 1997". However a quick check on CIPC showed that the company was only founded in November 2007. Their web site also makes it clear (if you read closely enough) that their R10,400 “one year Diploma Programmes are not accredited since they are offered, assessed and certificated by Oxbridge Academy”. In other words they aren’t accredited qualifications in any way. You have no guarantee that an employer or educational establishment will formally recognize them.

Another useful online detective tool is an internet facility called a WHOIS lookup. You can use a variety of web sites to do a WHOIS lookup of any web site of your choice. For instance, and I’m not victimizing Oxbridge Academy, I’m just using them as an example, you can discover that their web domain (oxbridgeacademy.co.za) was first registered on 4th April 2008.

Let’s be fair. At least Oxbridge Academy has the decency to register as a company and tell the truth about the status of it’s qualifications. Others are not so scrupulous.

The WHOIS lookup has been useful with the even less respectable educational establishments like the fake “Headway University”. A quick WHOIS lookup showed that Headway’s web site was only created on 2nd September this year. However if you ask Headway University themselves how long this “online educational institution” has been online they claim that “from 1972 we were a campus based university then in 1991 we came online”. So that’s just a lie.

Finally there’s the miracle that is Facebook. Yes, I know there are many things wrong with Facebook and privacy is one of them. It’s a bit of a struggle sometimes to control the information about you that Facebook publishes but remember that it can’t disclose information you didn’t volunteer, so don’t complain if people can see your cellphone number. You did, after all, give it to them and allow them to display it. However, this slightly relaxed attitude towards privacy makes Facebook an excellent detective tool. It’s surprising how easy it can be to trace people on Facebook who don’t otherwise want to be found. The same goes for LinkedIn where people are so open about their often “creative” CVs. I’ve been able to trace many of the people behind the TVI Express pyramid scheme operating in Botswana using both Facebook and LinkedIn.

So here’s a big thanks from me and the Consumer Watchdog team to the WHOIS lookup, Facebook and LinkedIn for supporting us amateur detectives. An even bigger pat on the back to the SA Government for the CIPC web site as well. Many other countries have done similar things so with a little luck we’ll have the same here in Botswana one day? Then we can all be detectives.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

A few months ago, I received a call from my bank requesting me to submit some documents relating to my account. I told them that I gave them the documents when I opened the account and said that if they want them again they should ask me in writing. To my surprise I received an unsigned letter, not even on a letter head which I decided to ignore. A few days later, I received another call asking me whether I had received the letter. I told her I ignored the letter because it was not signed.

Two weeks later I noticed that my account has been blocked and I raised my concern with the customer service department and demanded that my account be unblocked because I was not at fault but to no avail. As a follow up I wrote a letter to the Managing Director demanding that my account be unblocked, sent by registered mail, on October 25, 2011. As of today I have not received any response and my account still remains blocked. Surely it was unprofessional and unethical for them to block my account like this? I maintain that they should first of all unblock my account and ask for those documents formally, not in a forceful manner by way of blocking my account.

Clearly something has gone badly wrong here.

You’re not the only person who finds it very irritating when banks demand information that you’ve already given them. It’s happened to me before and I’ve always insisted that the bank look in it’s existing records before bothering me. Your situation is even worse than that. I can only imagine how angry you must be.

I suggest you write to the bank demanding an explanation, a solution and an apology for their discourtesy. We’ll contact them as well and see if we can apply some friendly pressure.

Update: the account has now been unblocked, a proper letter has been written (on headed paper this time) and they’ll be apologizing for the disruption to the reader’s life!

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

I would like to enquire about stores searching our plastic bags and handbags at the door. I thought that there was a law against that.

I would also like to find out about the procedures of lay- bye, I lay-byed a hand bag worth P1,200 at a store in Game City but after I took the bag I noticed that the zip was broken. I went back to the store with the bag and the receipt but they refused to exchange it and are being difficult about the whole issue. What can I do?

Regarding the first issue, I think we have to understand that stores have a right to protect themselves against the high levels of shoplifting some experience. However, I also share your unhappiness with the way they often do this. Decent consumers like you and I hate being treated like a criminals when we shop. I think it’s up to stores to find a way to protect themselves but also not to make us feel humiliated and embarrassed. They could begin with a little courtesy.

Regarding the lay-byed hand bag I think you need to be much more assertive with them. It doesn’t matter a bit that you bought the bag after a lay-bye, the fact is that the bag is not “of merchantable quality” as required by Section 13 (1) (a) of the Consumer Protection Regulations. I think you should go back to the store, politely demand to speak to the manager, politely explain that they’ve breached Section 13 (1) (a) and politely demand that they do something about it. If this doesn’t work then you should politely ask if they’d like some free publicity in The Voice. Just not good publicity.

We had another complaint recently from a shopper who was stopped by the security team in a store in Francistown. They searched her bags but when they found nothing they insisted on strip-searching her, even searching in her underwear. I spoke to a friendly lawyer about this one and she was spitting with rage when she heard about it. This is one we won’t let rest.