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I was sent an email from AI Global Media on behalf of their Wealth and Finance Publication that "after months of in-depth research, Wealth & Finance INTL has awarded you the title of Best in Funds 2016 – US in recognition of your hard work and success over the past year." Upon initial review of the email and website I thought perhaps it was a legitimate award platform and engaged with them for more information on what we had won specifically. It took three emails from me to find out the title of the award being offered our firm. I agreed to the award and expressed interest in their plaque and trophy marketing package. I was sent an email with an invoice and credit card processing information from another individual at their firm the day I departed for vacation. Upon return I did some additional research and responded to the email that I was not interested in proceeding with the marketing package. My research had revealed that this award process was a scam and that while the publication was legitimate, all this company does is award random companies, random award titles and then charge them for marketing packages in order to be recognized for their award. The publications have no legitimate publication material and are simply full of page after page of random awards every single month.
I was contacted back from my email stating that per there terms and conditions (which I was not explicitly provided until the day the invoice was sent) that I was beyond the 24 hour cancellation window and owed them 50% of the fee for the package if I wished to cancel.
This company has built a platform of exploiting companies by offering falsified awards in order to charge for marketing packages that it buries hidden terms and conditions within to guarantee collection of payment. A legitimate company would not force an unwanted service package upon their customers or have hidden terms to enforce payment for services not provided. They may have a legitimate business license but their practices are 100% unethical.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
This practice isn't isolated to the US. They are doing the same in the UK. The constant barrage of spam email from them, that you cannot opt out of and which wasn't requested, is just overwhelming. The company is wholly unethical on every level. They have even gone to the length of spamming out email from an account that you cannot block. The sooner this company is hit hard by lawyers the better.
What a lot of bull dust. If I get it right anonymous 9116 ORDERED the package, then when she got the invoice with the Terms and condition SHE DID NOT READ IT, then she pissed off and went on holidays while the company had ordered and paid for the production of her award, then she went on and read some more garbage online from more anonymous sources on the net that were enough to CHANGE her mind and then guess what? When she came back from holidays SHE ORDERED a cancellation. Well, Anonymous 9116 sounds like a temperamental woman who cannot make up her mind! And because she did not get her full refund after ###ING around (I wouldn't give her a penny back) now she posts anonymous complains to bag the magazine, so that more ### like anonymous 9116 will JOIN in the ###ing ground and supply more useless pointless talk that proves nothing. Well ladies, you missed two important things. Firstly the APAC insider Magazine has delivered multiple awards to Criminal Law Firms. Secondly none of you obviously read any magazine articles, that are full of positive and inspiring stories about business people succeeding in life. Of course that does not matter to you. You are poised to bag the company. Nothing else matters. Well, my experience has been a very positive one. My company got the invitation from the APAC Insider Magazine once. THEY DID NOT SPAM ME. We motivated our customer base to vote. They did. We got the numbers up, we built a case and got a wonderful award that we are very proud of. They gave us the option for a free of charge listing. We've opted for the FREE promo. It cost us NOTHING. Now that we've got the title we'll market this win and fully turn it to our advantage to make money, while you are thinking of the next ###ing line to write here. Well, good luck to you all!
Love it when people who work for a scam business counter posts like this with aggressive ridiculousness.
"Wealth and Finance International" contacted us today... we won am award!
But please pay for this marketing package!
I can't roll my eyes up far enough.
Thanks for this post.
My boss got an email today pretending like it was the second time they had tried to get her to accept or decline an award for our company from Wealth and Finance Intl when it was a first communication and absolutely spam. It was already fishy, especially with the overstated wording of how there is no obligation to pay for anything, but then there are these marketing packages... I went to work and found a few references to this nefarious swindle, but I appreciate you describing your experience, it solidifies my concerns.
No legitimate business would have a 24 hour cancellation clause in place on a scenario such as this and to pretend in the first communication that you have failed to return earlier contact is an old-school fraud tactic.
Thanks again.
I got the same scam ! Irritating company sending me invoice . This company need to be sued and brought to justice.
I wanted to reply to you directly regarding this post. As you are undoubtedly aware we firstly advised that you had been shortlisted for an award, you subsequently accepted this nomination by email and advised that you wished to be considered further. Your details were then passed to our research team along with all other nominated businesses. The research team then spent a number of weeks examining all nominated businesses to determine which is to receive an award based on a number of criteria (do advise if you would like more information regarding the criteria). We then contacted you to advise of the award you had won. In this contact we specified the free of charge options i.e. the press release and inclusion within our online winners’ list. At this point you opted for one of the packages that came at a cost and explicitly confirmed your acceptance of said cost, an invoice was then sent to you accordingly.
Throughout the entire process we have advised that there are free of charge items on offer and that no payment is required, an invoice was only sent to you when you opted for a package that came at a cost. We are surprised by your comments above as I can guarantee that this is not a scam, we have a dedicated research team of 6 (headed up by a former teacher) with a number of years of experience within the field collectively assessing all nominated parties before any winners are determined. We implore you to consider all facts at hand here and to reach out to us directly to resolve any disputes or concerns you may have.
Kindest regards
The Ai Global Team
It is a complete scam. Having seen first hand how they work, I can assure you that there is nothing legitimate about these awards. They simply collect or buy as many emails as possible before writing a phony 'you have won' email and mail merging locations, job titles and sectors. They then wait to see who replies and then Googles the firm in question to put together some bogus 'research'. The same email addresses are then passed on to one of their other publications and the process is repeated. There is no awards panel or judging process and, as far as I can tell, no ceremony or awards dinner, just overpriced trophies and badly written copy.
As a former employee of AI Global, I can assure you all that there is NO research done into these awards. They buy massive lists of email address with the person's position, link it to the email you ultimately receive and send it to you with the idea that you have won the award. Whoever you spoke to via email was lying when you were told that you had been selected by some sort of research and analysis. There is no ceremony at all, you have to write the articles yourself and supply any images, you get a PDF of your article emailed to you and if you want a printed copy (which they don't do anymore), you have to pay large amounts extra because they can only get them print in bulk.
It is incredibly unethical and a disgraceful business and I am glad to be shot of them. If you ever receive any emails from them, tell them were to shove their awards.
I am writing to you on behalf of AI Global Media. I suspect you were not with the business for very long as a number of points you make are completely untrue. AI Global Media are indeed a digital publisher, hence we do not print, a fact which we are open about. From time to time clients do request printed copied to be created for them specifically, such clients are aware that we do not circulate printed copies, those they have printed are for their own use. Currently we do not hold awards ceremonies this is correct, again another fact that we open about, our clients are made aware of this. Clearly you have little knowledge of the production department, we write a number of articles in-house and proof them back to the client and we conduct telephone interviews in order to gain client feedback to compose an article. We do offer clients the opportunity to respond to questions over email if suitable for them, their comments are then incorporated into an article which again is proofed back to them, a number of clients do take up this option. We do indeed have a research department, a team of 6 currently in fact. I am sorry to hear that you have had a negative opinion of the business, the directors would be more than happy to speak with you if you have anything you would like to bring to their attention.
Kindest regards
The Ai Global Team
I am experiencing this as well. I noticed something fishy as soon as I saw that the "award" was not correct - my company should NOT have won an award for the category that they claimed. I just blocked 2 different people who have been EXTREMELY persistent in emailing me, but maybe they will create new email accounts to continue spamming me. The "award" that I "won" was not even appropriate for the company that I am at! They are claiming that they are based in the UK, but who knows? Just because things are in Pounds doesn't mean anything.
Advice for those caught up in this scam.
Don't pay.
You will be bombarded with phone calls and e-mails offering you free advertising etc., the e-mails coming for weeks on a daily basis.
Eventually you will be threatened with legal action.
If you do not respond you will receive a solicitors letter giving seven days notice before legal action.
If you do not respond - they will go away.
My company went through the scam TWICE... Its exactly what most people have written here. you get selected for random awards... which most likely you don't even qualify for. DO NOT fall for their scam... they threaten you over emails and phone calls... and when you still don't respond to them... they disappear for a few months and then come back again with another new award and email address.
They have absolutely no authenticity... they are FAKE. Also read some more horror stories on glassdoor from their employees. they are hillarious and heartbreaking. sad that such people exist.
I got my certificate without any invoice
Thanks for your confirmation people! I got this email and smelt a rat straight away!
I am Rebecca, from APAC Entrepreneur, a strong media organization that helps entrepreneurs grow their business through personal branding, quality-networking, and collaborations. Over the past few years, we have featured many exemplary leaders from various industries for their leadership strategies, business acumen, and ability to lead their business to success in their own right.
In this annual edition of APAC Entrepreneur, we are all set to selected Claire Licciardo from Industry for outperforming your peers and making some valuable contributions to the industry and our editorial board was convinced that you are the right one to represent this vertical. This decision came after a thorough review of a series of women entrepreneurs from the industry, and you will be featured as the Women Entrepreneurs of the Year 2021- Industry
To your note: You are the only women entrepreneur selected from the and you will be featured along with the other women entrepreneurs representing various industries.
In this respect, our senior writers will write a two-page exclusive profile based on your entrepreneurial journey, highlighting the defining moments and people in your career that have contributed to your success. The profile will also talk about your company, management style, and the services that you provide to the industry. This will not only help you document your story as a women entrepreneur for personal branding purposes but also serves as a mission statement that inspires confidence in your employees.
Besides the two-page profile, the editorial team at APAC Entrepreneur will send you over a recognition certificate that officially recognizes you as the “Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2021.
To support this, we expect a standard sponsorship fee of $2500 US
The magazine looked legit: https://apacentrepreneur.com/magazine/
I asked a few questions there was a lot not right so thanks for your confirmation it was a scam!
Hi there,
Hope you are well, i'm afraid the business you are mentioning does not belong to us and is not affiliated with AI Global Media in any way.
Our APAC specific brand is, APAC Insider and our website is: https://www.apac-insider.com/
Kind regards,
AI Global Media
I am facing the same thing...
What should I do? They sent me a collection agency as well.
Advise urgently needed please.
I actually paid the amount for the package i chose and they never got back to me after. I am just a small business and i got scammed a hefty amount. Really sad.
Hi there,
I'm sorry to hear no one has gotten back to you would you be able to email our customer service account on: customer-services@aiglobalmedialtd.com and we will be able to resolve this for you.
Kind regards,
AI Global Media