Was smoking at below my office block a moment ago and this Filipino guy walk up and starts to chat with me. It’s started with how’s my day at work, he seems friendly. Then he asked me if I want to quit my job or have an extra income by joining a new startup which can guarantee me up to SGD$10k income per month.

He then proceed on to tell me what the startup company is dealing and their operandi modu, basically I have to sign up as a team member of the new startup which is based in Philippine. And in order to become a team member of this new startup, I have to pay SGD$450.

To earn the promised SGD$10k per month, I will have to introduce friends, relatives and strangers to sign up with the startup company in order to earn the SDG$10k. When I ask him if there’s any selling of products involved? His reply was no, just get people to join the program and each person who join I will get some kind of introduction commission.

Immediately I stub out my cigarette and went back to my office. This Pinoy is definitely a scammer looking for people to join some kind of pyramid scam based in the Philippine.

With the current bad state of econoony out there, there’s bound to be more of these scammers and confidence tricksters out on the street hunting for prey. So just be aware of any offer that is too good to be true.

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This blog post is related to my previous blog post titled, Irresponsible Credit Card Marketeer, and my friend’s Boon blog post titled, Telemarketeer from ef****n sucks.

Those who are reading this blog post, how many times have you encountered phone calls from credit card or insurance companies after signing up for a credit card during a roadshows? If you do, the reason is because after you have sign up for the credit card, your personal data in your credit card application form, your IC and your payslip/IR8A form details will be harvested by these telemarketing companies either to be reuse internally for another of their sales team or to be resell to 3rd party (e.g. credit card firm, finance companies, insurance companies and what-not).

Boon’s wife have an unfortunate encounter with a telemarketer from eFusion after she applied for a SCB credit card during a roadshow. You can read more about it here.

And according to my friend Desmond, who is working in Citibank. The issuing bank is binded by a privacy and confidentiality clause in the application form. So they cannot resell or release your personal data/particulars on the credit card application and related documents you submitted for the credit card application to another 3rd party without notifying you.

Let me post my replies with regards to these roadshows on Boon’s blog,

“Hi Boon,

Got to say this, NEVER apply for a credit card from a marketing or tele-marketing company, no matter what kind of attractive freebies, annual fee wavier or vouchers during any these scumbag roadshows or cold calls. You will get the same benefits when you apply directly from banks.

The reason why I advice my family members, relatives and friends to refrain from getting a credit card from these scumbag telemarketer is because once they received your application form and confirmed your identities when you submit your ID and payslip or IRA8A. They will sell these data to 3rd party.

Even though there’s a confidentiality and privacy clause in the application form, it’s only cover the issuing bank and not the marketing or telemarketing company. So there’s a high possibility that they want to sell your wife’s info on the form to a 3rd party.

Isn’t strange that they asked for your wife’s qualification? Which credit card company will be interested to find out the qualification of a credit card applicant? More over in most credit card application form qualification field are omitted.

And to Anonymous, a big fuck you! to you. I bet you are from one of those scumbag telemarketing firm.

Everyone who read my reply, spread the word around. Your privacy is not protected with these telemarketing companies.”

“Let me ask you this, what is so decent for a rubbish telemarketing like eFusion to mine the personal data of an innocent credit card applicants personal data and resell it to a 3rd party?

Those who are reading this reply and against your personal particular data being mined for marketing purpose. Is your data worth the less than $50 of freebies? Is your privacy of importance to you? If yes, shouldn’t we stand up against such unscrupulous practice?”

If you are really in a desperate need for a credit card or insurance, please do not sign up for one during a roadshows no matter how attractive the freebies or offer are unless you want to be harassed with phone calls from these unscrupulous telemarketing/credit card/insurance companies.

If you really need to, you can either take the application form and fill up the details yourself, attach your IC, payslip or IR8A form, seal it and then mail it out to the issuing bank or go to the issuing bank website to apply online.

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