(03) 9020 2905Debt Man column – The West Australian (Business)
For: September 17, 2010.
This column should be legalled. My mobile is 0434-024-274
Bruce Brammall
Debt Man
We all know that money is a honeypot for the greedy, a magnet that attracts the naive and a beacon of light that attracts the stupid like moths.
I’ve been around the money world long enough to be surprised by little. Crooked executives using shonky business practices to meander through legislative loopholes to essentially act as thieves from innocent consumers who blindly give away their trust. Like my DebtBoy when he wants a lolly.
Or perhaps from innocent investors who are simply over-weight the greedy gene and underweight the common sense gene.
But last week a disturbing email arrived in my inbox.
I was in no immediate financial danger. I know my advance-fee frauds and my “official” bank email scams.
It was an invitation to “connect” professionally via a social networking site. I’ve received dozens like them before.
But this one stood out like 50 blaring fire engines and 10,000 of Darth Vader’s finest storm troopers had simultaneously converged on my inbox.
The woman was young-ish and well presented. Her title was a little over-the-top. But that wasn’t what made me alert and alarmed.
And then, there it was. The title of the company she works for – 21st Century Education. Fire engines! Storm troopers!
By reply email, I asked: “Is this the same 21st Century group that is part of Jamie McIntyre’s business interests?”
Eventually: “Yes – it is. Would love to discuss potential opportunities.”
Um … gee whiz … er … let me think about it …
No. No. No, no, no. No! You’ve-got-to-be-freaking-joking no! How-stupid-do-you-think-I-am no! Not-even-if-I’d-sold-my-soul-to-the-devil-and-knew-I-was-going-to-hell no! If I was crazy like Jack Nicholson’s mates in “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”, I’d still be saying no!
McIntyre’s 21st Century uses flashy presentations and high-pressure sales tactics to sell ridiculously priced investment courses. He largely signs you up for five years! His website suggests that everyone can make hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, a year. Little money down. Virtually no risk.
Says the website: “Dear friends. I want to ask you an extremely bold question. What if you could take all the holidays you want, whereever you want, on the spur of the moment … pay off your mortgage in no time flat … send your kids to the best schools … update your car on a whim … surprise your family with outrageous gifts … own holiday homes in every part of the world … and become the hero of your five favourite charities. Without even breaking a sweat. And that’s just in an average year!”
I don’t know how expensive your tastes are, but those promises add up to about $2 million-plus a year for me. Utterly ridiculous claims.
McIntyre and his business interests are no stranger to ASIC. Between 2002 and 2005, McIntyre was variously stopped from holding some of his conferences, ordered to cease printing and distribution of his book and warned not to provide financial advice without holding an Australian Financial Services Licence.
During the same period, ASIC had taken action to wind up at least five of his companies.
((((((You don’t have to search hard on the internet to find out more about McIntyre’s organisation. Put his name and “21st Century Academy” into Google and read the links on the first page. You’ll get the picture.
You’ll find out what many of his “students” think, what his ex- and current employees think and what the corporate cop, ASIC, thought of him in 2005.))))))
Join up and you’ll pay thousands of dollars a year for courses in … largely gambling in foreign exchange and futures. For the 200,000+ people McIntyre claims to have “educated”, it doesn’t sound like there’s too many “self-made millionaires”.
You’ll be left asking the same thing I was. Why couldn’t authorities shut him down for good? Probably for the same reason they can’t shut down sharemarket predator David Tweed. Because they are operating just far enough inside the law that authorities can’t actually do anything.
Back to the email.
My 21st Century emailer came to me offering me … well, I’m not really sure because she was as elusive as her employer. She quoted having friends/colleagues in common, but couldn’t remember who they were.
I asked her to elaborate three times. Not one name. Evasive?
Despite several prods, this upbeat, cliche-chirping, “can’t tell you any details” public relations chickybabe seemed a little frustrated that I still hadn’t accepted her “invitation to connect”.
Seriously?
What’s my point? They say dogs look like their owners. Sometimes the organisation that you work for shapes you. Sometimes you join it because it shares your own values.
Bad organisations don’t always employ bad people. But if they share the organisation’s penchant for vague promises and secrecy … woof.
Bruce Brammall is the author of Debt Man Walking (www.debtman.com.au) and a licensed financial adviser. bruce@debtman.com.au .