Member Exchange Helps EO Member Avoid Possible Scam
David Ryan
EO Ottawa member David Ryan wanted to be cautious about his business plans. Before he got his new company,
Electronic Time Capsule, off the ground, he wanted to first make sure he husbanded his resources.
"I sold my other business to fund this one," he said. "I'm 31 and the father of two— I can't afford to throw US$85,000 down the well."
As it turns out, US$85,000 was the amount an infomercial company wanted in exchange for marketing his product. "They said their researchers had found me," he said of the unexpected call he got one day. "They sold me on their business, and they did a good job. They sold it well."
So well, in fact, that David was very close to paying them for their service. Wanting some assurance that it was a wise decision, he leveraged the EO network and put in a request to Member Exchange. He asked if anyone had heard of the infomercial company, and if it was legitimate.
"Later, I got a call from a friend of a YPOer who had gotten my request," he said. The caller told him that the infomercial company was a con. "He said, 'You give this company so much as one dollar, and you'll never see it again.' I got three calls like that!"
So, with a certain sense of relief, David dropped the idea and kept his money. "I'm still not 100 percent sure that the infomercial company wasn't legitimate," he said, “but I can't afford to take chances like that."
In the end, David is grateful that he was warned off the infomercial by other members through Member Exchange. "I've used Member Exchange five or six times," he said. "Sometimes I get no responses, other times it has helped a lot. You have to keep trying it out. It's a tool, a useful tool, one of many that I have access to as an EO member, and in this case it certainly came through for me— it saved me almost a hundred thousand dollars!"
To learn more about Member Exchange,
click here.
