Charity Scam (An insider's report)

The Star Malaysia ran a report yesterday about various organizations preying on the public goodwill by making money under the cover of charity. It is reported that these various organizations sells bookmarks, hand-fans and pens for RM 1, RM5 and RM 10 respectively, the salesgirl / salesboy will of course, no doubt tell you that all proceeds of the sales goes to the whatever charity they're supposed to represent, HOWEVER, that's not the case, only a mere 10% (Which is only 10 cents from RM 1 for the mathematicaly challenged ones) goes to the said charity. The rest is divided among the salesperson, their boss and the company that manufactures the products. Among the few companies 'revealed' by The Star are; Montrans Connections Sdn Bhd, Sharity Greetings (M) Sdn Bhd, Asian Support Direct (M) Sdn Bhd, Appco Sdn Bhd, Granton Sdn Bhd and Cobra Group.

How does it all work?

Here's an insider's report.

I used to work with a direct sales company in Old Klang Road called WWI, I forgot what it stands for; Worldwide something something, right after form 5, before college starts. Did I mention that that company was registered under Cobra Group too? Not directly, but its registered under Granton Sdn Bhd, which is registered under Cobra, so there you go. Anyway. it advertised for advertising executives and stated no experienced required and the silly and naive me went for an interview, and surprisingly, accepted on the spot. Sounds great in the beginning from the way they say it. So the next week, there I am going into the office early in the morning, eager to start my first job. They introduced me to my supervisor, which I'm still in contact with, not sure if he's still in the business though; Lee (His real surname). OK, so this Lee fellow told me some details about what to do, what they do and other shits like that. I'm supposed to follow him around that day, see the way how they work and stuff like that, which involved going somewhere with some merchandise and sell to someone.

OK, let's not dwelve into my experience in the company anymore and let me tell you what they do.

Firstly, I'll like to mention that I'm not selling charity, but merchandises like keychains and stuff, which is different from what The Star reported, but my company is also registered under Cobra Group and the entire damned organization works the same way.

All the workers in the group are supposed to wear formally, slacks and shirts, ties and all. Everey morning starts damend early at abt 6 something because we all have to be in a large room and do some motivation shit like chanting demonic motivational shit to 'supposedly' lift our spirits, but in fact everybody is yawning away and is brain-asleep.

Next, we'll have to queue up at the storeroom to receive our consignment of that day's product, which changes bi-weekly. We'll all then file out of the company like loyal monkeys and 'work'. Work here means we'll have to approach strangers and go "Good morning sir, may I interest you in this super-kazooper-useless-something you'll never need-thingie?" or "Good morning miss, you look hot can I fuck you? Erm... I mean, buy this useless product we're selling?"

The usual price per item is RM10, and we received 30% of it, whatever expenses used during your sales trip is 100% borned by yourself; taxi, food, drinks, whatever shit, which leaves you earning an average of RM30 a day, if you're hardworking enough and is able to at least sell 20 items of whatever you're selling. If you think 20 items can't be that hard, ask yourself this "Who the hell would wanna buy a inferior stationary set for RM10 when they can buy several dozens of quality pencils for the same price?" Some items, however are hot cakes, like keychains, notepads and at one time, personal alarms, and yes, greeting cards, which I sold once during Chinese New Year period, which also stated are meant for charity, so yes, I'm guilty. But I didn't do it on my free will, GTA made me do it.

I also understands that my immediate supervisor receives 50% of what I earned, the boss of the company earns 50% of what I earned and 100% of what I earned goes to the organization. So that means if I sold 1 item that cost RM10, I get RM 3, my supervisor gets RM1.50, my boss gets RM 1.50, the company gets RM 3 and RM1 goes to whatever charity we're supposed to represent. Scam I tell you, scam...

So there you go, an insider's report of what happened in a direct sales company in Malaysia. I think it's the same for other countries as well because I know a person from Taiwan who did the same shit and is actually a representative of the Taiwan branch of my company coming down for our annual dinner. So does a friend of mine from US who told me he did the same shit before.

So the next time you're at a mamak and a fellow come trying to sell you something, if its nice and good, buy it, they're just victims of a scamming company. But if its useless, and they're persistent as hell, which we are trained to be by the company, just ask them to go to hell, tell them Flyz told you do say so.

Articles from The Star can be found here

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