RFI - Is Madison Who's Who a scam operation?

[Sabrina]

I'm somewhat curious about this; I was contacted by this operation about six to eight months ago (I think) and agreed to a five year membership for around five hundred dollars; they contacted me again to inform me that I had been chosen to represent the company as one of their VIP members for this year about two months ago, and I then agreed to the lifetime membership and was charged an additional seven hundred. Thing is, I've been seeing a lot of testimonials online from people who claim that the business is a scam, that once they have your credit card number they'll run it without your permission at random times to purchase things that you never receive or ask for, that they ignore the whole Do Not Call thing because they can apparently claim that you were referred to them by someone in your circle of colleagues which exempts them or something, and now I'm concerned that I might have been scammed. It seems to me that I can recall hearing about them as a legit operation (in fact, I think I was chosen to be in one of their books when I was in high school, which is probably how they got my information for this time frame, at least initially), but I'm wondering if anyone here has found any legitimate sources that indicate one way or another if it's a scam or a legitimate networking enterprise; all I can seem to find are posts on forums from people claiming to be scammed, and I'm disinclined to accept those as factual accounts without seeing some research from a legitimate company.

I'm thinking I'll cancel my membership either way; I don't make use of it because the people who are typically listed as members don't seem to fall into my line of work very much (I'm a consultant specializing in working with the government), but I joined originally because I thought that it would be a good way to expand my contacts in the consulting world; I didn't realize they don't have many government consultants that work in the same line of work I do, if any. I haven't noticed any strange charges on my credit card, but for all I know that might crop up later if this is a scam. I thought I'd ask here since I figured someone might know of a source I can use to research the claims of a scam besides personal anecdotes on a forum. FYI, I did check the Better Business Bureau site but they had very little information on the company. I'd appreciate any help anyone can offer; thanks.

[Francesca R]

[ . . . ] I was contacted by this operation about six to eight months ago (I think) and agreed to a five year membership for around five hundred dollars; they contacted me again to inform me that I had been chosen to represent the company as one of their VIP members for this year about two months ago, and I then agreed to the lifetime membership and was charged an additional seven hundred. [ . . . ]Whoa . . . .:eye-poppi

ETA--How's it supposed to be better than LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/), which is free (or "freemium" really), and almost certainly bigger?

[Giggywig]

I can't search for much info at the moment but from wiki:
However, many modern copies are just vanity publications, where the inclusion criterion is the biographee's willingness to buy the book, with the business model consisting of selling books directly to the biographees. These are widely considered to be Who's Who scams.
So if their entire business model is to get you to pay for it in order to be in it, maybe your instincts are right.

[Sabrina]

Well like I said, I'm thinking I'll cancel my membership anyway; they've already gotten quite a bit out of me, and while I have received a nice plaque and a few other items from them, I'm just not sure I'll make use of the service in the manner that they suggested; i.e. networking with other people in similar positions to my own. Due to the sensitive nature of a lot of the work I do, I'm not able to go into the sort of detail I've seen in some of the profiles on other people's pages about my job, and it seems sort of silly to me to maintain the membership if I don't make use of it. I spent some time recently looking over the various profiles on their web page and couldn't find a single one that works in a similar capacity to me. So whether they're a scam or not, I figure 1200 dollars is more than enough for them to get out of me and if they try to charge me anything more, I'll inform them of that.

[Mr.D]

The Simpson's parodied the scam in one episode (http://www.snpp.com/episodes/5F22).

Marge: Hey, listen to this! [reading letter] Congratulations, your child, or children, have been selected in "Who's Who Among American Elementary School Students."

IIRC, there used to be a somewhat legitimate publication using "Who's Who" name, but at least as early as the early 90's, there were scam versions being sold for college application fodder.

These days with "teh interwebs," I doubt you'd really get your money's worth

[blutoski]

Wikipedia does have an entry for Who's Who scam.

I can't find the episode, but I think I recall Robert Price talking about these as 'Vanity Scams' on Point of Inquiry.

[Dunstan]

This brings back memories. Years ago there was a crank on a Usenet group I lurked in who would constantly brag about his inclusion in Who's Who as if it made him an authority on the subject. He would also go on about how his entry in Who's Who was [number] of lines longer than Ronald Reagan's or whoever. It was kind of sad -- assuming he was the individual he claimed to be, he was a university professor, so it's not like he didn't have any legitimate credentials.

[blutoski]

This brings back memories. Years ago there was a crank on a Usenet group I lurked in who would constantly brag about his inclusion in Who's Who as if it made him an authority on the subject. He would also go on about how his entry in Who's Who was [number] of lines longer than Ronald Reagan's or whoever. It was kind of sad -- assuming he was the individual he claimed to be, he was a university professor, so it's not like he didn't have any legitimate credentials.

I'm guessing he may have been pretty old.

I think there was a time when Who's Who was a really useful tool, and entries really did mean something.

Most purchasers were not in the book - the target market was pretty much the general public.

The utility of these books in the US and probably also Canada would have been entirely different than it was in the UK. The British social strata was different, and you really did need to know how to act in different social events based on the list of invitees.

You can leaf through these in a well-stocked library. It's interesting to see how handsome some of these really wrinkled old dudes were in their '20s. Orson Welles was a real looker once.

[Puppycow]

I don't know if it's a "scam" as in illegal fraudulent activity but it sure sounds like a "scam" in terms of the value you get for your money.

There are lots of free social networking sites on the internet.

[Sabrina]

Thanks for the responses everyone; helped solidify my decision to cancel my membership with them. I agree I'm not getting the value for my dollar, so, lesson learned and I'll be wiser next time. Thankfully this wasn't a bankrupting decision for me; I have more than enough liquid assets to be able to afford the 1200 or so I've spent on this.