Category Opinion Miscellany
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Over the years I have received quite a few invites to join various Who's Who lists; today I received the latest one from some list called "Strathmore's Who's Who". And once again, I laughed.

Why did I laugh? Call it the laugh of wisdom that comes with age. Call it the laugh of a skeptic through and through. Or maybe it is the laugh of someone who's seen too many scams. In any case it never ceases to amaze me that the (ahem) organizations continue to send out these "invitations" to be a part of a "prestigious" Who's Who list. But where did this all begin?

A long time ago there was a fairly prestigious list called "Who's Who in America", which was first published in 1899 by the Marquis Company (according to Wikipedia). Way back when this was an honor - you had to be invited, and the listing itself cost you nothing. And then in 1969 an appellate court decided that the phrase "who's who" was such a part of the American language that it could not be protected under the law. This decision opened up the floodgates for impostors and scam artists to try to dupe the gullible (and self-serving) into forking over their hard-earned cash for the "honor" of being listed. Oh, and lest you think the Marquis' version of the list is still above the rest, it isn't. It has now been broken out into a myriad of "flavors" (over 15!) of this publication (e.g. Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who of American Law, and many more). According to the aforementioned Wikipedia article, Tucker Carlson wrote an article in Forbes about this original Who's Who:

Marquis Who's Who states that selection of individuals for listing in its publications "is based on reference value. Individuals become eligible for listing by virtue of their positions and/or noteworthy achievements that have proved to be of significant value to society. An individual's desire to be listed is not sufficient reason for inclusion. Similarly, wealth or social position are not criteria. Purchase of the book is never a factor in the selection of biographees".[4]

Tucker Carlson, in an article entitled "The Hall of Lame" that appeared in Forbes Magazine in 1999, wrote that the selection process is neither rigorous nor meaningful, and self nominators and thousands of people not particularly notable are included, such as bowling coaches, teachers and landscape architects. Carlson also writes that Marquis makes money selling addresses to direct mail marketers.[9]

Marquis calls its selection criteria "stringent" and says that biographical data on candidates for listing are reviewed by its editors to confirm that its requirements are met. Once selected, a biographical draft is sent to biographees for prepublication checking. In cases where notable individuals decline to submit biographical data, Marquis compiles information itself.[4]

I think that Marquis had to choose to take the sleaze route to stay in business, under such duplicitous competition. What does this mean to you, fair reader?

That NO Who's Who publication is worth it's weight in crap.

I was going to go on and on about the letter; however you can Google Strathmore's or any Who's Who for that matter, and find report after report of who much of a scam these things are. The reports I found for Strathmore's, in particular, say it winds up costing as much as $800 or more! In fact, the first response to this blog entry says:

I have to choose "anonymous" because I am very ashamed at being suckered into this scam. Fortunately I can say this is the second scam I every fell for. I only wish that I had done my homework first. They played on my belief in my fellow man being good and trustworthy. Got me for $880 plus dollars. The "Engraved" Professional looking plaque is the only thing I have received (it was neither Engraved nor Professional looking) - and to this day I have it hung on the wall in front of me to see everyday serving the purpose of reminding me that (Barnum Bailey quote) "there's a fool born every minute". But what I bet the follow-on quote should be is that there is a scammer there to welcome him into the world an allowing the fool to give all his money to the scammer. Too bad this story is true. I made the misfortune of using my debit card to pay for this honorable prestiges nominated award. They have called me several times since then offering me other prestiges things of which I have declined - but this last call to pay for my copy of the 2007-2008 book takes the cake. They told me that they had tried to used the debit card information that they had on record but it had changed, could I give them the new information? I made it clear that I wanted nothing to do with their organization - to take me off of their lists. "I was not approving any purchases". They put me on hold - another person got on line (remember the call could be recorded for training purposes) I repeated myself. I was quite clearly upset with them. A week later I discover a change on my debit card account - this I could not believe, they have gone ahead and changed me for the book. To make things worse - they sent me a receipt showing the bill paid.

Of course they have seriously screwed the pooch - I will be passing this on to the FBI and the federal government will be in touch with them - my hope is that they will be forced to shut down. Don't fall for there scam.

**emphasis mine - Rock

Unfortunately, there are many other sob stories like this one.

My "invitation" didn't have my name right, couldn't spell my city, and asked me basic questions that they should know if they have "selected" me to be on some list! It reminds me of those "you've won!" sweepstakes scams that you get quite often in the snail mail.

One other thing to keep in mind... Usually anyone who feels they need to list a "Who's Who" on their resume' is attempting to either pad their otherwise unimpressive work history (i.e. it can't stand on it's own) or is so full of themselves that they really think they are SO special that they have been invited to some selective "list".

So, if you're new to the IT industry (or any industry for that matter) just say no to any "invitation" letters from a Who's Who list. They're BS, and actually are a detriment on your resume'.

Do you have any Who's Who humor (or horror) stories? Or do you have any other scams of this sort you'd like to talk about? Feel free to share.

Rock