Hi,
(Not sure whether to put this here, the LGAT thread or yet elsewhere.)
Has anybody heard of the above mentioned employers and potential links to Landmark, Byron Katie and the likes?
It seems from a large number of online posts and my own experiences that they have been using extremely unethical methods on a large, systematic scale over years already and all around the globe! Focus: unemployed recent college grads, journalist-media backgrounds, highly skilled people. Their wages are very low, around 1,000 $ – no surprise that works during the crisis and adds vulnerability to the scheme. Another major danger lies in the transitional stage that all targets are in due to their job search context.
Strong match on most of the Singer criteria. Motive remains unclear. But it happens on a LARGE scale. So far we retrieved about 600 online statements of former employees in discussion threads (list below).
Some of their unethical methods: highly confrontational and berating to break you down systematically in front of and with the group, highly concerted effort, peer pressure, emotionally abusive, try to drive you into inner conflicts, some seek to seduce you to participate in criminal behavior, harassment, elicit any values, needs, wants, fears, weaknesses, vulnerable points to build a psychological case and then try to use that information massively against you. After a while one gets the impression that most conversations on- and offsite are highly scripted and engineered towards the above mentioned goals. Company behavior is utterly bizarre, surreal, doesn’t make sense economically with what they pretend to do (event production, so-called sales of “summits”, flexible metaphor? pyramid schemes? other?). There’s clearly a hidden agenda. Comes across like multi-level marketing but it lacks the upfront payment of the pyramid schemes. However, they are massively advertising for new recruits to fill a steady pipeline as people are laid off constantly. One only realizes after a bit that it is all a coordinated group effort for SURE. Systematic bullying from the first to the last day interspersed with seemingly normal periods. It could be mistaken for individual assaults from target’s perspective but online research shows that it is systematically the same for hundreds of people, from different competitors, in different international locations.
For some groups also indications that they went through employees’ belongings including private electronic data means. There’s even one post in one of the Marcus Evans threads stating one of the head honchos secretly spies on employees pc screens. Other posts quote personal theft. Extremely high on manipulative behavior (slick, smooth talkers, waking hypnosis, NLP, dark patterns / black ops, indirect methods, very gradual, bait and switch, very high on covert-aggressive / two-faced personalities, not clear whether malignant narcissism / psychopathy, very high on gaslighting, some entries mention sexually offensive behavior as well). Many IT security alerts regarding their own websites (e.g. frequent google alert lines “site could harm your computer” and Firefox warnings when accessing Marcus Evans sites). Probably quite some fake websites when you run searches on them with certain key words. It appears that “Marcus Evans” has created their own “scam”, “fraud”, “crime” pages mid 2009 by pretending (? cf. Ripoff Reports) to run courses on such issues just to hide google results on large numbers of complaints further down in the google rankings.
[
www.ripoffreport.com]
[
www.ripoffreport.com]
Question is: why are they throwing that much money and energy at hundreds of people in the industry over years with such bizarre, surreal practices? What is the purpose? At first one ponders the option of some hidden training aspect. But: they NEVER inquire about your medical history at any stage, don’t ever inform you about what dubious, confrontational methods they are about to put you through. So, in our opinion it’s clearly uninformed consent. Moreover, it’s the same old abusive approaches:
(1)…tell you what to think and how to behave and which situations you have to get through to be a “proper”, experienced business person.
(2)…appear to believe they’re berating you in your “best interest”, know better what’s “good” for you, try to teach you a “lesson” (without telling you or checking whether you’re at all interested in this or are in an emotional / physical state to cope with it).
(3)…regress you to a retarded kid’s perspective by withholding information, belittling, talking of you in the third person, pretending they’re your parent or describing your presumed experiences while saying they’re talking about their children.
(4)…reinvent their histories through fake storytelling.
(5)…try to test and make you lose your self-respect through various means (turning you against yourself by leading you down the rabbit hole).
Same old, same old…
They then either fire you (obviously for fun, many threads quote this) or drive you into quitting. Extremely high turnover, many quit right in the first couple of days.
Most of the companies are about cold calling and high pressure sales in contexts where those ruthless methods don’t make any sense anyhow (high-level CEO conferences). Please note: from what I experienced and can NOW (before/after!!) understand better from other posts: at the meta-level these jobs are NOT about sales although they heavily pretend to. Many (most?) conferences seemingly don’t even take place!
Key personnel initially appear to be friendly but then frequently turn into untouchable arrogant people, two-faced, disloyal pressuring behavior, very much like those pressure movies (Boiler Room, Wall Street, Glengarry Glen Ross, Training Day – the threads mention a few). At least five companies are using almost the exact same approach. They are initially friendly but then shift to harsh abusive behavior in a matter of days or weeks. Wonder how many people get depressed, hospitalized, traumatized, or worse. Within the working environment many planted people cheering on, very few seemingly refusing the baits. In my case it seemed most of the group is part of the game, bait and switch, typically followed by exclusion/isolation strategy once you unveil their activities, even from previously friendly people.
Does anybody have any experiences with them who also knows the cult context? Some of the threads quote “cult-like” (e.g. Meltwater) but more as a general term. Unfortunately, still too few know Margaret Singer’s criteria, shame! Everybody’s got to read her book “Cults in our Midst”…! It should become part of school education. Some discussion boards linking to them also sport Byron Katie trained tricksters in the disguise of bullying “help”.
Some links to the discussion boards: Posts appear to be paradox marketing at first sight as they sound extreme and are interspersed with planted "apologists" (those who don't make it or post online just aren't "tough enough". However, when you indeed work there it soon turns into being seriously soul destroying. Please note: These companies position as competitors but in the end they’re all using a VERY similar scam approach, scripts and employee abuses. Due to this massive occurrence and also because of their totally absurd approach I wondered whether it was a hoax at some stage but they massively try to undermine your defences, seriously try to break you down emotionally and it is completely uninformed consent and could do MAJOR harm!
IQPC:
UK, USA: [
www.jobvent.com] (19pages!!!)
EUROPE - Germany: [
www.wiwi-treff.de]
Marcus Evans:
USA: [
www.ripoffreport.com] (link overview referring to many additional posts)
USA: [
www.ripoffreport.com]
USA: [
www.ripoffreport.com]
USA: [
www.complaintsboard.com]
ASIA: [
company.asiasalary.com]
ASIA: [
forum.lowyat.net]
ASIA: [
www.complaintsboard.com]
INTERNATIONAL: [
www.glassdoor.com]
USA: [
www.jobvent.com]
They also appear to have engaged in fraud soccer worldcup tickets 1998 (then under the old name ICM – International Championship Management, today they run a “hospitality“ group):
UK: [
www.mondaq.com]
UK: [
www.lg-legal.com]
Germany: [
www.focus.de]
UK: [
www.christianaid.org.uk] (old problem of uncertain ownership of European soccer clubs through offshore companies, small entry)
Interestingly, there seems to have been a Florida fraudster named “Marcus Evans” engaging in identity theft who presumably runs business straight out of prison. No idea whether any of this is related. The “real” Marcus Evans seems to not make appearances in public (see Wikipedia) so could be a placeholder name.
USA: [
articles.orlandosentinel.com]
IBDG a.k.a. Strategy Insights International (looks like they operate two entities):
EUROPE - UK: [
www.daniweb.com]
Meltwater News:
EUROPE - Norway: [
antimeltwater.blogspot.com]
EUROPE – Norway: [
antimeltwater.blogspot.com]
Cobra Group (Referral from Meltwater) (this one appears to be a “real” pyramid scheme):
INTERNAITONAL - [
www.scam.com]
Could be that some of their names are acronyms (IQ- PC but unsure if this stands for PC or political correctness, IBDG – I’ll be digi?, Marcus Evans is often quoted as ME – the ego aspect?). All of these could be metaphors for seemingly benign influence in disguise. HOWEVER, this leads us back to: hidden agendas, unwanted influence, uninformed consent, berating, attempts to break people down systematically, yadda, yadda, yadda… Hence, benign influence seems unlikely. Also, I haven’t found any indications that employees get any clarification of why they have been put through this.
Maybe a number of people could apply for them undercover or even spam them with fake applications to clog up their pipeline... lol
In case you are a current employee or consider employment for monetary reasons (understandable in these tough times), please be sure to read into this research first. Be prepared, know your vulnerabilities and needs to withstand their manipulations and bait, seek qualified help, check all – ALL – their legal information, particularly contract clauses, fake monetary deals they offer, company registrations, legal declarations on company documents or online means, personal background of officers, and make sure you document EVERY SINGLE transgression in writing, try to get witnesses. If they won’t let you do this by email (many (pretend to?) lack basic equipment such as computers), then by all means use letters, signed-off by your bosses or by registered mail. Ensure proper and officially recognized DOCUMENTATION with dates at really every single stage of the process, including the documentation of your achievements!
And be clear about this to yourself: Even if they’re initially friendly or even seductive, they WILL try to break you down from some point onwards. Try * NOT * to disclose personal information. Plus, keep your personal stuff with you all the time. This is not meant to be paranoid but just common sense in that type of environment.
Steer clear and stay strong!
Fosters.
(Foster Strength of Character!)