Have you ever heard about software development scam?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Aug 2010 Posts: 3

I'm currently negotiating software development project (Excel VBA) with a company I found on net. Their replies just seem fishy. First they couldn't understand me (it's possible but replies seemed too retarded) then they said although understanding is not quite there they are sure they can give me what I want and offered to pay a deposit for every hour of their review work, which i will be able to get back if after review they decide my project cannot be completed.

Please PM me for actual quotes and web address. I don't want to publicly defame them when I'm not sure.

Any help is appreciated.

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 4:35 pm

You aren't defaming people by asking other to check them out.
Post up their mails and web address and we can check them out.

Then again, if you think it's a scam, it probably is.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Aug 2010 Posts: 3

Ok here goes

http://www.excel-modeling.com/index.htm

http://www.excel-business-solutions.com

I send them Excel doc as sample, they still asked for samples and claimed my doc contains different info

"Also, the spreadsheet sample you sent seems displaying different criteria
than the ones you describe above. What is the purpose of showing us that
file?" Don't know why but style of this phrase seem to me awfuly like those in scam letters.

informed me about their qualifications

"If you could, please provide numeric example using your made-up sample data. Personally, I have a MBA in Finance and Investment, so your numeric example + the explanation you already provided will help a lot."

still failed to understand anything so

"Hi Alex,

I am confused too. It seems like you have more things going on the doc and spreadsheet then what you have described in the email. Does my numerical examples make sense to you?

We are almost certain that we can fulfill your requests (once we understand what your need is), but there are just too many things to be reviewed at one time. And the fact that we cannot get our thought across to each other is taking most of the times. Without a commitment, we are not sure if the time invested in this review is worth for us.

Could we do this? We charge you by the hourly rate on this project. Our rate is $75 per hour. You make a retainer of $300 now. This will be good for 4 hours. Once we have your retainer, we then resume our review on your project. As the project is progressing, we may ask you to deposit more money when the 4 hours are exhausted. If after the review, we find that your project cannot be completed, you may get your money back. If your project is completed partially (example, for criteria one), then you will only be charged for the time that is spent on the partial work.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks."

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 6:13 pm

I'm not going to say whether or not this company is a scam. It looks questionable.

If you do decide to hire a company to do some coding work, make sure you use some kind of protected form of money transfer such as PayPal. You *can* have credit card PayPal charges reversed if the work isn't completed.

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 6:32 pm

Must be talking about MSN Laughing

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Aug 2010 Posts: 3

The more I look at those mails the more I think it's scam. Shouldn't have given asshole personal info

Not quite a Newb Joined: 05 Mar 2010 Posts: 26

The wording of the letter, appears to be of the linguistics
used by "barristers" and "couriers". The expression "retainer",
recalls those of "demurrage", and the semi-cultured English
lads use to come off as those they impersonate.

(Formatting used on purpose)

Also, for someone who claims to be a pro at what they do, first they do not have an idea of what the #@*&! they're doing. Also, grammar.

No brick and mortar address? Scam, scam, scam all the way.

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:50 pm

I have had a quick look at excel-modeling.com. Their website registration dates from 2004. The other website dates from 2005. Both registrations match the companies claimed location. Tends to make me think "legit"

The registrant Anthony Sun also owns another 36 domains which may be a little unusual. However its not impossible.

Best suggestion is that you post the headers from the mails you received so we can have a better look.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 577

Rocker wrote:

Ok here goes

http://www.excel-modeling.com/index.htm

http://www.excel-business-solutions.com

They are registered corporations in New York with the same address.

I can't post the actual link as it will blow out...

Go here:

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/corps/bus_entity_search.html

and search for

Excel Business Solutions

Looks legit to me.

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 10:45 pm

http://www.excel-modeling.com/index.htm

I googled the street address of this page, including a street view. It comes up as a residential neighborhood. So I would be a bit iffy myself.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 05 Mar 2010 Posts: 26

Ask them how they'd like to be paid. If they raise the Western Onion or MoneyFlam flag, there's your lad. Once they feel the money is coming in, they won't care what BS you feed them.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Jun 2010 Posts: 15

Malcolm wrote:

I'm not going to say whether or not this company is a scam. It looks questionable.

If you do decide to hire a company to do some coding work, make sure you use some kind of protected form of money transfer such as PayPal. You *can* have credit card PayPal charges reversed if the work isn't completed.

If paypal told me today was Friday, I would look at a calendar

Don't depend on Paypal for a refund of anything

419Eater is my life Joined: 11 Dec 2009 Posts: 316

Hi,
maybe you did correspond with an employee who did not quite understand the specifications / special needs of your project.
But when I had a look on the page http://www.excel-business-solutions.com I can not imagine how a company running a website of that complexity and specific knowledge should be considered as scam.

I see there a page http://www.excel-business-solutions.com/representative_clients.htm -
I guess that you could get answers from some of the mentionend clients about how satisfied they have been with the result of the work of excel-business-solutions.
A more accurate answer than you will get from me after a look over their pages and on whois.

add: Here at Eater we are confronted mostly with poor wordet emails from fake bankers barristers and the like asking for a phantasy-fee for a fantasy-deal, paid via western-onion, to be cashed mostly in w-africa. Or correspondences where the 2nd mail is -- I loveyou, send me monnie.
This is simple a other league.

Rocker wrote:

Quote:

"Also, the spreadsheet sample you sent seems displaying different criteria than the ones you describe above. What is the purpose of showing us that file?

" Don't know why but style of this phrase seem to me awfuly like those in scam letters.

I don't understand why style of this phrase seems to you awfuly like those in scam letters. I understand that for this man your sample and your description of that sample is not detailled enough to give a quick answer: Yes we can do it for $... . Or maybe your demands are complicated.
I think more / or better explaination of your project is asked. Then you will get a more precise answer. Good luck.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 577

I don't know what's so hard to get here.

The companies are legit.

The syntax issue is due to the fact these guys are Chinese.....

"Anthony Sun"

They have registered corporations in NY and long time web presence.....

Registered corporate addressed at a home is NOT unusual - especially if you work out of your home.

As the consumer YOU have to perform due diligence. Have you asked them for their CV's? How about references?

Questioning their authenticity in this forum without conducting you own background is kind of lame.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 05 Mar 2010 Posts: 26

The company may be legit, but the person he's speaking with it just an impersonator?

Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:36 pm

I agree that the long registration period lends me to believe that it's legit company. The fax phone no. on the website does resolve to NY City, BUT the contact phone no. on the registration (whois) resolves to Auburn, WA. That may not mean anything one way or the other. The residential setting doesn't bother me, as many programmers, etc. run their businesses from home. I conclude legit with possibly a language barrier, and would contact previous clients. I also agree to ask about the method of payment.

I Googled this phrase, "we offer companies data cleansing, data integration, data enrichment and data mining services in support of accurate reporting, analysis and business decisions" and may have found a faker:

http://m2-business-solutions.com/home.html

In this case, one year registration, a free hosted site, and no contact info other than a gmail addy. I'll drop by later to see if there are any new developments, but for now I'm off to the Fake Sites forum and for some research on these m2 people. Confused

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