Consumer Watchdog

| Thursday April 1, 2010 00:00

But where DO they come from? Is it a family business passed down from one generation to the next? Is it something that school kids in certain countries aspire to be? Some want to be a soldier, others a doctor or lawyer and a small group want to grow up to become scammers?

Presumably there's money in it, otherwise there would be so many people doing all the scamming. There IS, in fact money in it if our case this week is anything to go by.

A consumer contacted us saying that after visiting an African entrepreneurship forum on the internet, he had been contacted by a company calling itself First Morgan Capital Group. They had invited him to apply for a major loan to fund his new business idea. Quite quickly they offered him the massive sum of over P2 million. He was delighted of course and was ready to accept when they dropped a slight bombshell. Before they could give him the money he needed to come up with a security guarantee of 7% of the loan value. They told him that this was just in case he defaulted on the loan repayments but they assured him that the sum would be safely looked after by a bank in Singapore.

Did I mention that at no stage in this process did these supposedly major investors actually meet their potential recipient face-to-face? Did I mention that all he had to do to get this loan was to send them a completed application form and a business plan? However it was after that demand for 7% that he became suspicious. They were, after all, asking him for almost P150,000 of his own money before he could have the 'investment'. I assume that like him and me, you are now suspicious? You too can smell an 'advance fee' fraud approaching? It didn't take long to confirm that this was a scam. Firstly there's the 'First Morgan Capital' web site (firstmorgancap.com) which you should visit to see how professional these things can be. On the web site they give a profile of their supposed company and give addresses in both Switzerland and Peru. However it took me a matter of minutes to establish that their Swiss address was a fake. All the phone numbers they give are answered by an answering machine in English, which is strange as you would expect either German or Spanish, don't you think?

The web site gives examples of recipients of their generous investments but, curiously, none of them actually seem to exist. Pretending to be rather gullible I then contacted the company and asked a few nave questions. Who were their backers, what criteria do they use for selecting recipients and could they give me a named contact from a successful recipient please? Within a few hours I got an email from someone calling himself 'Kenneth Jones' who gave me a contact in Jamaica who he said ran a fleet of buses and who had been lent US$ 1.5 million. Isn't it strange that neither the name nor the phone number actually exists?

Like the 'traditional' 419 'advance fee' scams the scammers realise that almost everyone will realise it's a scam sooner or later but they only have to catch a small number to make a very decent living. If they just get one or two people to call for this particular scam each month they could easily make a few million Pula a year. It's almost tempting to start your own scam isn't it? Well it is if you have no conscience, no morals and you are a thieving piece of excrement.

Luckily the potential victim who contacted us was skeptical enough to seek advice when they demanded all that cash. He's been smart enough to avoid losing a small fortune.

Will you be too?An open message to HomeChoice[This was emailed to HomeChoice last week. You can read their reply on our blog. They say that the market in Botswana is too small for them to adjust their advertising. Who cares? Surely Botswana law applies in Botswana, like it or not? Let me know what you think.] 'Some while ago we contacted HomeChoice both in Botswana and South Africa suggesting that you address the content of your advertisements in Botswana. As you will recall from my earlier emails the Control of Goods (Marking of Goods) Regulations 1974 states:

'6.Goods sold on hire-purchaseWhere goods are offered for sale on hire-purchase terms or by way of credit-sale or on any other terms as to deferred payment the following details shall be displayed in addition to the prescribed details and in characters of similar size-(a)the amount of any deposit; (b)the amount of each instalment; (c)the frequency of instalments; (d)the total number of instalments; and (e)the total amount to be paid by way of deposit and instalments.'

As I write this I have a HomeChoice advertisement that was distributed in a Botswana newspaper today in front of me. It contains clear references to items (b) and (d) and item (c) is implied but, critically, no reference is made anywhere to the 'total amount to be paid'. Your advertisement is therefore not in compliance with Botswana law. Given that we have informed you about this issue in the past and that (with one exception) all other furniture stores in Botswana have decided to act in accordance with the law, I think it is fair to publish these facts in the media.

I would welcome your response.'If you have any consumer issues and you think we could help please get in touch. You can contact Consumer Watchdog by emailing us at watchdog@bes.bw, by post to Consumer Watchdog, P. Box 403026, Gaborone or by phone on 3904582 or fax on 3911763. You can also visit our website at www.bes.bw and then click on the link to Consumer Watchdog. Finally you can visit the blog where you can comment, criticise and even insult us (we'll ignore you) at consumerwatchdogbw.blogspot.com.