Members

I absolutely agree with Mr Prabeer Nair. He is potraying the exact BPO scenario in India. If you people had read, one MR IYER has cheated around 450 Service Providers to the tune of 50 Crores. I am one of the Victim of the same. I alerted the Forum when my Cheque got bounced no one paid attention apparently in the next week, he is absconding leaving all the Service Providers crying. Indian GOVT is sleeping and NASSCOM which is supposed to be APEX body as far as IT & BPO is considered is very busy marketing India in Abroad. I blame NASSCOM & other Organizations turning blind eye despite frauds each and every day of massive amounts.

GREAT NASSCOM and GREAT INDIAN GOVT.

WhistleBlower

Hi,

IMP: I like Safe investment

Just came to know about your project while searching some information on outsourcing. We are very much interested to join few of the project like this. We have a very Good set up as well as sound position to invest, good infrastructure, all the way technologically perfect for any sort data conversion and data entry.

suresh yadao
DATA MANAGEMENT, Ballarpur (m.s.) INDIA
09822466749 / 07172321416
svs121006@rediffmail.com
data_1959@yahoo.com

Call it the great Indian wire trick. If you’re a start-up, sputtering and wriggling in the BPO jungle, you’re bound to get noticed. Watching your every move is the omnipresent ‘consultant,’ with a line-up of ‘customers.’

The popularity of business process outsourcing has given birth to a new breed of conmen. Here’s the trail: Often, entrepreneurs starting a BPO are faced with a major handicap — the lack of customers. The reason customers do not want to give work to a start-up is because they only want to outsource to a company with a track record of handling their work. This chicken-and-egg situation has left a number of call centres and BPO companies struggling for that first big assignment. The phenomenon is so widespread that a new breed of consultants has emerged to ‘solve’ these problems.

The modus operandi is multi-pronged. Typically, the consultants offer a large project with a job potential of a 1,000 to 2,000 agents in a call centre. All the entrepreneur has to do is open a letter of credit (L/C) in the name of the consultant as a deposit in order to begin the project.

Another method is for the consultant to suggest that the entrepreneur begin a pilot project with, say, 50 seats, to be followed by a larger contract. Again, an upfront payment to the consultant has to kick off the process.

Yet another trick is to offer work converting Acrobat PDF files into word document files. Here, the consultant even gives a specification in terms of quantum of work and of course, the number of seats.

The scamsters mostly operate in small cities like Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Roorkee, Nashik and Jaipur. The consultant approaches entrepreneurs with an ‘offer’ from an MNC, which is supposedly planning to set up operations there. Entrepreneurs, in turn, often invest in new buildings or in converting an office facility into a call centre/BPO. The consultant naturally wants upfront fees before ‘introducing’ the MNC company.

Another variant of this is the medical transcription scam, which has been on for some time. In this case, the consultant offers the conversion of a medical journal from paper to an online format.

Industry observers point out that the way to identify a fraud from a genuine contract is to check the due diligence and time it takes to even consider a company for a contract.

In large contracts involving more than 500 seats, the level of due diligence is very rigorous, and officials from the company are directly involved.

Though these scams have become common, industry bodies such as the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) are yet to take up the issue.

Prabeer Nair
pnair@supportscape.com
Director - Operations