The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I am really interested to know if this Northern Port University is fake or not and I want to know if it is how can I claim them and get back my money. Thanks a lot.

I’m sorry to sound unsympathetic, I really am, but what made you think you could get a degree without earning it? What made you think you could get any qualification without sitting exams, without submitting coursework, without reading any books and without DOING ANY WORK?

Northern Port “University” is a fake university and I’m sure you knew that when you gave them your money. Northern Port “University” offers degrees within days based purely on “prior life experience”. I contacted them online, pretending to want a degree and they told me that “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!”

I know that’s fake and I know you did as well. People don’t get degrees based on “experience”. Everyone knows that.

This so-called university is part of an operation called Organization for Global Learning Education, started by a crook in Pakistan called Salem Kureshi. The fake establishments in Kureshi’s bogus empire also include “universities” calling themselves Belford, Panworld, Headway, Corllins, Ashwood, Rochville, MUST, OLWA and McFord. Anyone with a degree from any of these fake establishments has a fake degree and they know it.

Unfortunately I don’t have any good news for you. Your money has gone, you’re not getting it back. Scammers don’t give refunds. And people who buy fake degrees don’t really deserve them, do they?

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

I need an advice here. There is this company called Worldventures, it specializes in leisure. Sign up is P3,000, its a pyramid scheme too, is it legit? Or you guys have had some cases about it? A part of me want to sign up but I need your advice first.

I was approached, I attended a presentation sometime last year in President Hotel, end of November to be precise. So is it a scam???

It most certainly is.

WorldVentures is yet another pyramid scheme, operating along the same lines as TVI Express which ripping off Batswana a couple of years ago. Both claim that they’re in the business of selling holiday discount vouchers and they say that these vouchers can drastically reduce the price of holidays, hotel stays and travel in general but that’s just untrue. They’re just a pyramid scheme pretending to have a product. Let’s state this very clearly. A discount voucher isn’t a product, it’s a reduction in the price of a product. What they’re really interested in is you recruiting more and more people beneath you, forming the pyramid that makes them so much money.

WorldVentures are required in the USA to publish their earnings (links to a pdf file) figures and they tell the real truth. Three quarters of all people who join WorldVentures don’t make a single cent. 90% of all the money earned in WorldVentures is earned by the top 1%. Only one person in a thousand makes more than average national earnings from the pyramid.

It’s a waste of time, effort and money and I urge you not to become a victim. If you want a discount in a hotel, there are plenty of ways to get them without coughing up loads of cash to join a pyramid scheme. Join a hotel loyalty club that offers you something for free, or use web sites like Bid2Stay in South Africa. As you read this I will be staying in a suite in a hotel in Joburg having paid less than half the normally quoted price, just because we visited Bid2Stay. What did it cost us to get the massive discount? Not a single thebe, just a visit to a web site.

Pyramid schemes don’t make you rich. They make you poor.

Celebrations

Benson at the Orange store at Riverwalk shopping center for being friendly and going the extra mile. Our reader said that Benson “downloaded everything I needed to get my Blackberry working and was more than helpful.”

Well done to Benson!