The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Is the Gemini app a scam?

Could you please find me more information about Gemini App which I found in the website claiming to be turning people into millionaires instantly.... is it genuine or it's just another scam?

Thank You.

From what I can establish, Gemini is a piece of software that its producers say will trade online for you. Their promotional video makes a range of remarkable claims, including that it is “no loss trading software”, that you can use it “without a single losing trade”, that “it trades 100% by itself” and that “zero experience is required” in order to use it.

First things first. Online trading is a very good way to lose lots of money very quickly indeed. Whether it’s stocks and shares or the foreign currency markets, your money can grow but it can also shrink. Remarkably quickly.

Another thing about the markets that these people will neglect to tell you is who you are competing against. Yes, it IS a competition, particularly in the forex market. Do you really think you can beat the world-class experts that are employed by banks and investment companies? These companies seek out mathematical geniuses from universities around the world to help them develop the algorithms that their supercomputers then use to trade on their behalf. I don’t mean to be insulting but what makes you think you or I can beat these experts at their game?

You also have to ask yourself why the people behind an online trading scheme would want to share it with total stranger like us? If this scheme really is a “no loss trading software”, why aren’t they keeping it to themselves? What possible benefit is there to these guys from including us in their scheme? It’s obvious really. What they want is your money. They make money from you “investing” your hard-earned savings in their scheme.

That’s the lesson you should ask every time someone suggests you join a scheme like this one. Why would they want to share their secret with you? How do they benefit? Until you get a good answer to that question you should keep your money safely where it is right now.

Are online directories worth the money?

I would like to ask you about Yellow Business Directory, this is a company that is based in South Africa and they are getting Botswana Companies to advertise with them, My question and concern is that I am sure that they do not have a resident company within Botswana and they are raising their invoices in BWP Currency, when I asked the lady in the mail as she phoned me to ask if we will be advertising with them about the matter she dropped the phone.

I then called back and asked her about the matter again and she told me that they invoice in Pula because it our currency.

The reason why I send you this is because I am not sure how legal this is, maybe something to look into.

We’ve had many complaints over the years about companies running online directory services and they’ve been a very dubious group. Others have had very shady business practices, offering to “update” entries in their database, only to send over an invoice like yours claiming that the original “update” was a binding contract.

However, I’m not sure anything here is illegal but I wonder whether it makes any sense. The invoice from them that you sent was for a staggering P6,995 for a year in their online directory. How can they possibly justify that amount of money? The company you mention do actually have an online directory but I can’t see that it offers any business any real benefit, certainly not for the amount they charge. You’d be better off spending that money on getting a web developer to design you a nice web site and then people can find you on Google.

In your case (this guy runs a hotel) you certainly don’t need this company’s services. Keep working your reviews on Tripadvisor!

Indirect directories

To every thing there is a season. A time to deceive and a time to expose the deceivers.

The run up to Christmas and the New Year is often the best time for certain scams and deceptions. Maybe it’s because we all go slightly mad at Christmas or maybe it’s the sense of a new year approaching, I don’t know. There are certainly some scams that rely on a seasonal business cycle.

The most obvious example is the telephone directory. I don’t mean the one we get from BTC or the local printed competitors, they’re legitimate (if often inaccurate). I mean the online directories that always, in my experience, are either scams or deceptions.

The World Business Guide is probably now a well-known scam. This organization with the grand-sounding name is in fact nothing grand at all. They advertise via email this time of year, offering to place your company details in their directory which they claim is available on CD as well as online. The email asks that you complete a form with your company details and email or fax it to them. The introduction says clearly and in bold capital letters “UPDATING IS FREE OF CHARGE”.

What they’re hoping is that people will misunderstand the word “updating” and will think it means “submitting” or “informing”. What they actually mean is that once your details have been inserted into their directory any subsequent updates or changes are free. What they mean is “corrections” are free.

Hidden in the very small print is this:

“I will have an insertion into its database for three years. The price per year is Euro 995. The subscription will be automatically extended every year for another year.”

Once you make the mistake of sending them the form with your company details you’re trapped. You’ll then be bombarded with invoices, repeat invoices, follow-up invoices, aggressive emails and even lawyer’s letters from the World Business Guide demanding that hidden €995. They’ll ignore anything you say about it being a mistake by you or a deceptive practice by them and insist you pay up.

Although the vast majority of the victims refuse to submit a small proportion do eventually pay up. It only takes a few companies to cough up the money and they’re in profit. The sad irony is that even those victims who were bullied into paying needn’t have done so. No company has EVER been sued by the crooks that run the World Business Guide. Not once, it’s a bluff. Nobody needs to pay.

There’s also some confusion about where these crooks operate. Their web site says they’re based in Spain and the Netherlands but elsewhere they say they’re “a corporation organized and existing under the laws of BVI”. “BVI” means the British Virgin Islands, an offshore financial centre with a rather relaxed attitude towards shady characters. The ridiculous “University of SouthCentral Los Angeles”, a fake university that threatened to sue us a couple of years ago was also based there.

There’s also a more important question about the World Business Guide. Who actually uses it? Ask yourself, have YOU ever used an online directory? I know I’ve used the online BTC directory once or twice but that was such a ghastly experience that I gave up (particularly as the link to their directory on the BTC web site is currently incorrect so it doesn’t work anyway).

I’m not sure that anyone uses online directories, even the local ones. We’ve had several readers get in touch about a local directory calling itself the “SADC Yellow Pages”. On other occasions it’s called itself both "Yellow Pages Botswana" or "Business Directories Botswana" but whatever they call themselves they raise suspicions. To begin with, like the World Business Guide, they seem to have adopted slightly shady tactics. I got a series of calls at our office myself from them over the last few weeks. When I finally spoke to them they invited me to “update” our entry in their directory. There’s that word again, “update”. I told them that we didn’t already have an entry but they said they had put us in the “Business Training” section of their directory last year for free.

That was a lie. We are not in their directory, we never have been, they don’t have a “Business Training” section in their directory and they were lying about “updating” it. They seem to be another online directory that’s deceptive.

Also, something that’s curious about these people is that they too seem a little unclear about the truth. How can they claim they had my company details online last year when they were only registered as a company in South Africa last September? Sounds a little fishy to me.

My suggestion is to give these directories a miss. I can’t think of anything that you actually get for the significant sums of money they want you to pay, they behave in a fashion that can charitably be described as suspicious and I’m sure you can think of a better way to spend a few thousand Pula on in the run-up to Christmas, can’t you?

Like a Christmas party for instance. Don’t forget our invitation!

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

There is a company calling itself SADC Yellow Pages. Someone calls from South Africa with the details of the manager. What they will then request is to do you a free artwork to see if you will be interested in placing your company in the directory. The person insists that they fax you the request for a free artwork form while you hold. As you do that, she tells you to sign at the bottom and fax it back to her. You are then promised to be sent the artwork for proof reading. The next time you will receive an invoice. The last time they did it they used the name SADC Directories. They have now returned calling themselves SADC Yellow Pages.

We’ve had a number of people contact us about this company and we even got several calls from them ourselves. They called themselves "Yellow Pages Botswana" or "Business Directories Botswana" or "SADC Yellow Pages". I eventually spoke to their representative who asked if I was interested in "updating" our entry in their directory.

"But we don't have one", I told her. "Yes, you do, we put you in for free, under Business Training", she said. She was wrong, there is no "Business Training" section in their online directory. So the offer of an "update" qualifies is either a mistake or a lie, surely? I thought the most interesting thing was that they didn’t know my full name, they just called me “Richard H”. The other curious thing is that they claimed we had an entry in their directory last year. How can that be when the company called “SADC Yellow Pages” was only registered in South Africa on 15th September 2010?

Needless to say there's money involved. When you sign their form you commit to paying P295 per month for an entire year but you need to visit their web site (perhaps the most revolting web site I've seen in ages) to see the terms and conditions. These say that:

"The agreement shall commence on the date of signature and remain in force for a period of one year. Thereafter the agreement shall continue for an indefinite period unless notice is given one month prior to the expiry of the initial period."

I think that this is deceptive but let's be charitable, maybe they're just mistaken when they claim companies have existing entries that can be updated? And anyway, who ever actually looks at an online directory? Do you?

My suggestion is simple. Tell them that you’re not interested and that they shouldn’t ever call you again.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

I bought a bed in 2009 and paid for it in full before I took it. I then put it in storage until I moved into my own house this year in August. This was when I unwrapped the bed to sleep on it only to find that the base of the bed is bigger than the mattress. I made the shop aware of this and they told me that the bed I had bought was no longer being made by the manufacturer and that I should go see them and choose a new bed, to replace the one I had bought. Today I went to view the beds and they want me to pay the difference of P1,000, between the bed I had bought and the one they are replacing it with.

I really don’t know if this is the right way to go about it, I just wanted to know if I should incur the extra charges that arose.

I suspect there's not much you can do with this situation. When you buy something you have a reasonable chance to check that it’s correct and if not the store has an obligation to fix the problem if they caused the mix-up. Unfortunately you surely have to do this within a reasonable time and waiting for 2 years and then expecting the store to fix the problem is asking too much. In fact by offering you a deal like this I suspect you’re being treated pretty fairly by the store.

Sorry not to have better news.

More Yellow Pages problems

We got an email from a reader who also felt that the SADC Yellow Pages people were deceptive. We commented on them earlier this month.

The email said:

"There is a company calling itself SADC Yellow Pages. I suspect that this same company that once conned our company of some money. They get your information from your website or directory. Someone calls from South Africa with the details of the manager. What they will then request is to do you a free artwork to see if you will be interested in placing your company in the directory. The person insist that they fax you the request for a free artwork form while you hold. As you do that, she tells you to sign at the bottom and fax it back to her. You are then promised to be sent the artwork for proof reading. The next time you will receive an invoice. The last time they did it they used the name SADC Directories. They have now returned calling themselves SADC Yellow Pages."

If this is how they operate then it certainly seems deceptive to me. Who else has been contacted by them?

It's that time of year again - directory scams

Every year at this time the directory scammers come out to play. The World Business Guide is an obvious case of a scam but there are local slippery directories as well.

We've been receiving phone calls from a company who sometimes call themselves "Yellow Pages Botswana" or "Business Directories Botswana" or "SADC Yellow Pages". I eventually spoke to their representative who asked if I was interested in "updating" our entry in their directory.

"But we don't have one", I told her. "Yes, you do, we put you in for free, under Business Training", she said. She was wrong, there is no "Business Training" section. So the offer of an "update" qualifies is either a mistake or a lie, surely?

Needless to say there's money involved. When you sign their form you commit to paying P295/month for an entire year. However you need to visit their web site to see the terms and conditions. These say that:

"The agreement shall commence on the date of signature and remain in force for a period of one (1) year. Thereafter the agreement shall continue for an indefinite period unless notice is given one month prior to the expiry of the initial period."

I think that this is deceptive but let's be charitable, maybe they're just mistaken when they claim companies have existing entries that can be updated?

And anyway, who ever actually looks at an online directory? Do you?

P.S. Take a look at their online directory. It takes skill to make a web site that horrible.