Cambridge Who's Who

Last updated
Cambridge Who's Who
Company typePrivate
Industrypublishing
Founded Long Island (April 4, 1975 (1975-04-04))
Foundermerge of Manchester Who's who and Empire Who's who
Headquarters Uniondale, New York
Area served
Worldwide, mainly English-speaking countries
Products Who's Who registries, available via membership
Number of employees
ca. 150 [1]
Subsidiaries Metropolitan Who's Who, Marquis Who's Who
Website www.cambridgewhoswho.com

Cambridge Who's Who, also known as Worldwide Who's Who, is a vanity publisher based in Uniondale, New York. [2] It describes itself as highlighting people's professional careers by publishing encapsulated biographies. [3] For additional payment, the publisher also provides other promotional services such as press releases, videos, and Executive of the Year awards. [2] The company is located in Uniondale, New York. As of 2010, Donald Trump Jr. was spokesman and "executive director of global branding" of the company. [4] As of November 2016 the business was "not accredited" by the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York, Long Island, and the Mid-Hudson Region. [5]

Contents

History

As of July 2006 Cambridge Who's Who was established as a merger between Empire Executive and Professional Registry, Inc. and Manchester Who's Who Registries, Inc. [6]

In July 2007, Cambridge Who's Who completed its "acquisition" of Metropolitan Who's Who, also based on Long Island. [7] (Cambridge's logo designs and solicitation letters are identical to Metropolitan's.)

On April 10, 2010, Cambridge Who's Who issued a Video entitled "Donald Trump Jr teams up with Cambridge Who's Who," that featured him promoting the publisher. [8] [9] According to Cambridge Who's Who owner Randy Narod, Trump's contract was discontinued following public criticism of photos from Trump's African hunting trip. [10]

As of 2014, Cambridge Who's Who operated under the umbrella name of Worldwide Who's Who (Worldwide Publishing) and was primarily owned by Randy Harris Narod. Narod also owns Sugar LI (a night club in Carle Place, NY), Butera's Restaurants, DaVinci's Restaurant, Bellmore Bagel Cafe, and the Long Island Bagel Cafe chain. [11] He famously disputed with Helmer Toro, former owner of H&H Bagels, in 2012 over a trademark issue. [12] In 1998, Narod consented to findings that he arranged to have an imposter take the General Securities Representative Exam and the Uniform Securities Agent State Law Exam on his behalf. He was censured, fined $50,000, barred from association with any National Association of Securities Dealers member in any capacity and required to disgorge all monies earned by him while associated or otherwise employed in the securities industry. [13]

Controversy

Among the complaints leveled at the company include using hard sell tactics, [14] charging customers hundreds of dollars for non-existing member benefits, [15] limiting customer contact to email, [16] being denied accreditation by the Better Business Bureau due to hundreds of confirmed complaints, [17] changing the name of the company when complaints accumulate under the old name. [14]

Cambridge Who's Who advertises itself as a database of professionals and "an honor limited to individuals who have demonstrated leadership and achievement in their industry and occupation". [18] It typically solicits persons to list with an unsolicited letter proclaiming that they have been selected for the honor. [14] The company will interview the prospective listee, after which the company will ask the listee for money. [14]

The Guernsey States' data protection office advised the island inhabitants that the company would charge them hundreds of dollars for non-existing member benefits, even if it was advertising itself as a free service, and that any personal detail submitted to this company could be sold to other companies. It further advised that they shouldn't reply to letters from the company and shouldn't even visit its website. [15]

Writer Beware, a watchdog group from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, published an article from Victoria Strauss explaining that her husband had received an unsolicited email from the company just because he was inside her writer insurance. She claims that there is a network of interconnected Who's Who scam companies that keep recycling themselves, and that this company is actually the same company as Metropolitan Who's Who since their logo designs and solicitation letters are identical. She also says that the company was the result of the "merge" of Manchester Who's who and Empire Who's who, with the last company having many complaints registered with the Better Business Bureau. She also says that the Cambridge and Empire companies use hard-selling telephone techniques, first selling themselves as a free service, then giving a high price, and then lowering it to make people believe that they are getting a good deal. She says that the companies have many complaints against them in the internet, and that one blogger that denounced them was menaced with legal action, and another blogger was sued for $7 million in damages. [14]

AOL's Daily Finance reports other problems: while the company's name suggests an association with Cambridge, it is actually located on Long Island, as of May 2010 the only way to contact the company was via email, and the privacy policy allows to sell the information to any third party. [16]

In 2006, the company sued Ripoff Report and the Better Business Bureau in the United States for defamation but settled the suit in January 2008. [19] [20] [21]

In early 2009, Cambridge Who's Who was involved in a breach of security. An executive, Harsharan Sethi, discovered that a set of five back up tapes, or electric storage devices, containing confidential financial information of approximately 400,000 members of Cambridge, as well as thousands of Cambridge employees, were missing and unaccounted for. Sethi urged officials of Cambridge to report the data loss to "appropriate authorities", but the officers alerted no one of the breach. [22]

In 2010, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) labeled the company as a Who's Who scam. [23] Hundreds of consumers filed complaints against Cambridge Who's Who with various complaint bureaus, reporting fraudulent practices. In early September 2011, the BBB reported 414 complaints filed since April 2007. Based on the confirmation and nature of these complaints, the Better Business Bureau denied accreditation to Cambridge Who's Who. [17] As of 2012, Cambridge Who's Who had a C grade with the BBB based upon 356 complaints in 3 years. [17]

In 2012, Cambridge Who's Who settled with the Oregon Department of Justice to pay $15,000 to Oregon consumers, to pay $13,500 to a consumer protection fund, and to bring its sales tactics into compliance with the state's fair trade practices laws. [2]

Related Research Articles

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is an American private, 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization founded in 1912. BBB's self-described mission is to focus on advancing marketplace trust, consisting of 92 independently incorporated local BBB organizations in the United States and Canada, coordinated under the International Association of Better Business Bureaus (IABBB) in Arlington, Virginia.

A domain name scam is a type of intellectual property scam or confidence scam in which unscrupulous domain name registrars attempt to generate revenue by tricking businesses into buying, selling, listing or converting a domain name. The Office of Fair Trading in the United Kingdom has outlined two types of domain name scams which are "Domain name registration scams" and "Domain name renewal scams".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lou Pearlman</span> American talent manager and scam artist (1954–2016)

Louis Jay Pearlman was an American music manager and scam artist. He was the person behind many successful 1990s boy bands, having formed and funded the Backstreet Boys. After their massive success, he then developed NSYNC.

Email fraud is intentional deception for either personal gain or to damage another individual using email as the vehicle. Almost as soon as email became widely used, it began to be used as a means to defraud people, just as telephony and paper mail were used by previous generations.

A modeling agency is a company that represents fashion models, to work for the fashion industry. These agencies earn their income via commission, usually from the deal they make with the model and/or the head agency.

Bottom Line, Inc. is an American publisher of books, newsletters and Web articles that provide advice from experts on a wide variety of topics, predominantly health, health care, investing and personal finance but also food and nutrition, taxes and legal matters, career, privacy and security, home improvement, small business, travel, entertainment, automobiles, technology, personal and family relationships and other topics. It publishes books, print newsletters, Web articles, videos and podcasts, blogs and email-newsletters.

Video Professor, Inc. was an American company that developed and marketed tutorials for a variety of computer-related subjects, such as learning to use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Windows, and eBay. Video Professor was founded in 1987 by John W. Scherer and was located in Lakewood, Colorado. It was known in the U.S. for its commercials and infomercials on late night television and print ads almost daily in USA Today and other nationally-distributed newspapers. The company has been the subject of controversy regarding its sales and billing practices, as well as lawsuits it has filed against online critics of the company.

Vertrue Incorporated, headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American consumer services marketing company. The company again received an "F" from the Better Business Bureau for making unauthorized charges to its customers' credit cards. In 2007 it was acquired by a trio of investment firms, including Rho Ventures. In 2010, Vertrue and two of its subsidiaries were found guilty of defrauding nearly 500,000 of their customers in Iowa.

ACN, Inc. is a North American multi-level marketing (MLM) company. It provides telecommunications, energy, merchant services and other services, depending on the country, through a network of independent sellers who also can recruit other sellers. Based in Concord, North Carolina, United States, ACN began operations in the United States in 1993. As of 2019, the company reported that it operates in twenty-seven countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorrance Publishing Company</span> Subsidy publisher of printed and ebooks

Dorrance Publishing Company, Inc. is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States–based book publishing company. The company publishes both traditional printed books as well as ebooks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heritage Internet Technologies</span> Web Hosting and Design Company

Heritage Internet Technologies was a web design and web hosting company located in Provo, Utah and founded in 2001 which specialized in creating custom websites for small and medium-sized businesses. According to Inc.com's Inc. 5000, in 2007 it was the fastest growing company in Utah, the 3rd fastest growing IT company in the United States, and the 22nd fastest growing company overall. The company was ranked 392nd for 2008 in the Inc. 500 list, and 49th in the list of top 100 IT companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MyLife</span> Online information broker

MyLife is an American information brokerage firm. Founded by Jeffrey Tinsley in 2002 as Reunion.com, it changed names following a 2008 merger with Wink.com. MyLife gathers personal information through public records and other sources to automatically generate a "MyLife Public Page" for each person. These pages can list a variety of personal information, including an individual's age, past and current home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, employers, education, photographs, relatives, political affiliations, a mini-biography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Holiday Club</span>

Royal Holiday Club is a vacation club membership operator and resort developer based in Mexico offering points-based vacation ownership.

The International Association of Women (IAW) is a for-profit professional association and networking platform fully owned by Professional Diversity Network (NASDAQ:IPDN) since 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banc De Binary</span> Israeli financial firm


Banc De Binary was an Israeli financial firm with a history of regulatory issues on three continents. On January 9, 2017, the company announced that it would be closing due to negative press coverage and its tarnished reputation. The firm also surrendered its brokerage license with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) removing its ability to legally trade in the European Union. Its 2014 revenues were reported as $100 million.

A vanity award is an award in which the recipient purchases the award and/or marketing services to give the false appearance of a legitimate honor. Pitches for Who's Who-type publications, biographies or nominations for awards or special memberships can have a catch to them in which the honoree is required to pay for recognition.

The Agora is a Baltimore, Maryland-based network for over thirty companies in the publishing, information services, and real estate industries. Agora was founded in 1978, in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. The Agora Companies operate independently from cities around the world.

"Can you hear me?" is a question asked in an alleged telephone scam, sometimes classified as an internet hoax. There is no record of anyone having ever been defrauded in such a scam, according to the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Consumer Federation of America. Reports of the supposed scam began circulating in the United States and Canada in 2017.

World Patent Marketing (WPM), founded in 2014 by Scott G. Cooper was a fraudulent Miami-based corporation that presented itself as an invention-promotion firm but was later determined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to defraud investors seeking to market inventions. In May 2018, following an FTC investigation, World Patent Marketing was shut down and Cooper was banned from the patent industry and ordered to pay nearly $1 million in FTC fines.

Simple Health Plans is a Florida limited liability company founded by Steven Dorfman and Matthew Spiewak in 2015. Simple Health and Simple Health Plans are also the trade name for Health Benefits One LLC, another Florida limited liability company founded by Steven Dorfman and Matthew Spiewak in 2012. The Federal Trade Commission has a preliminary injunction against the Simple Health Plans LLC and affiliated companies granted on May 14, 2019.

References

  1. ↑ Who We Are, Cambridge Who's Who
  2. 1 2 3 "Vanity Publisher Agrees to Pay Restitution and Change Sales Script". Media Release. Oregon Department of Justice. June 13, 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  3. ↑ "Cambridge Who's Who Publishing Inc". BBB Business Review. Better Business Bureau . Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  4. ↑ The New York Times, "'We’re an Easy Target': Taken In by the Trump Brand", June 2016
  5. ↑ "BBB Business Review". bbb.org. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  6. ↑ St. Petersburg Times (Florida) March 22, 2007 Thursday (Lexis). Also merger announcement and general FAQ's in company's website
  7. ↑ General FAQs. When was Cambridge Who's Who® established, Cambridge Who's Who, retrieved 27 August 2011
  8. ↑ Donald Trump Jr. Teams Up with Cambridge Who’s Who Jennifer Eberhart |circa 2010 | Vimeo |accessed 7 November 2016
  9. ↑ Ioffe, Julia (June 20, 2018). "The Real Story of Donald Trump Jr". GQ. In 2010, he signed on to help hawk Cambridge Who's Who, a self-billed "leading professional branding and networking organization." In a promotional video for the firm, Don says over the soft tones of a keyboard that "Cambridge Who's Who is your exclusive, by-invitation-only, private PR firm."
  10. ↑ Sedensky, Matt; Condon, Bernard (September 11, 2017). "Donald Trump Jr. fled father's name before eventually embracing it". Newsday. p. C6.
  11. ↑ Randy Narod.com
  12. ↑ The Wall Street Journal - "Ex-Owner Pokes Hole in Bagel Story"
  13. ↑ Harrigan, Susan (January 28, 1999). "NASD Hands Down Punishments". Newsday. p. A56.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Victoria Strauss (2007-04-26), Victoria Strauss -- Beware Who's Who Schemes, Write Beware, watchdog group of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
  15. 1 2 "Islanders warned about scam mail'". BBC. 2009-02-21.
  16. 1 2 Beau Brendler (5 May 2010), "Are you Cambridge Who's Who material? So are we all", Daily Finance (see also Privacy policy in company's website)
  17. 1 2 3 Better Business Bureau: Business Review Reliability Report for Cambridge Who's Who Publishing Inc.
  18. ↑ "Cambridge Who's Who About Us". Cambridge Who's Who. 2009-08-31.
  19. ↑ The Guardian (London) - Final Edition. December 20, 2008 Saturday. Guardian Money pages, p.8.
  20. ↑ Cambridge Who's Who Publishing, Inc. v. Xcentric Ventures, LLC et al, case number 2:2006cv06590 Filed: December 11, 2006 Court: New York Eastern District Court
  21. ↑ Cambridge Who's Who Publishing v. Xcentric Ventures, Citizen Media Law Project, links to many of the case papers
  22. ↑ Judge Stephen A. Bucaria (25 July 2011), "Sethi v Narod et al", Sup Ct, Nassau County
  23. ↑ "Experts warn against business scam". Salt Lake City: ABC4. July 8, 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.