Monday, April 19, 2010

Spring Scams

Being a small business owner is a constant learning experience. Having never benefited from an Ivy-league biz-school education, I took my cues from my parents, who have owned a business since I was a teenager. My father faced many issues that are common to all businesses, and thankfully, I have been the beneficiary of some of his hard-earned lessons. Most importantly, he has taught me the value of trust as the basis for every business decision.
The advent of the internet has exposed us to a world of associations that wouldn't normally occur. I can conduct a transaction with people around the world, whom I have never met (nor might ever meet). This has, unfortunately, brought about an exploitation you are probably all too familiar with by now: the email scam.
While my wife and I were enjoying a mini-vacation to celebrate my birthday, I received notice that a company in Asia was looking to register my domain name within Asia. The informer put themselves forward as a professional internet consulting company. Their website raised only a few red flags (stock image on home page of a young white male with open arms being the first one). After a few back-and forth emails from the very aggressive "Wanda Peng", I finally had the time to do a bit of digging. Of course, it didn't take long to determine that this is yet another scam that scares business owners into thinking that our very names are at risk of being stolen.
I wish there was a happy ending to this and I could tell you that the offending company has been caught and convicted...but like most overseas scams, I have little hope that anything will be done. At least I didn't get sucked into an expensive and useless service. I can only hope that other business owners find this before they make the mistake of responding to SKDNR/Wanda Peng/AsiaDM or whatever they call themselves tomorrow.