Boardsi - A Scam Geared Towards Professionals
The ad seemed genuine enough. Posted on LinkedIn, it offered a portal for paid board of director seats. Intrigued, I scheduled a 20-minute interview.
LinkedIn, for those unfamiliar with it, is THE place to have a professional profile. It’s inhabited by professionals of every stripe, discipline, and industry, and is for business networking only.
So here was this ad from Boardsi, a firm I’d never heard of. But I got busy and had to cancel the meeting…plus something just didn’t “feel” right.
So I did a bit of research, only to uncover hundreds of posts about what a scam this company is supposed to be.
Well, you know the old saying about where there’s smoke…
Apparently, this firm (some argue it’s the same company as ExecRanks and AdvisoryCloud, though Boardsi’s CEO says this is untrue) posts ads like the one I’d seen, offering $30,000 per year or equity to sit on a board. To gain access to their database, you’re charged $200 per month…and many of the jobs probably don’t even exist.
One review after another talked about Boardsi’s lack of communication and an unceasing drive by their sales team to separate you from your credit card number.
When I learned this, two old sayings suddenly jumped to mind: John Bridges’s “A fool and his money are soon parted” and W.C. Fields’s “Never give a sucker an even break.”
So I extricated myself from a situation that appears to be unethical, illegal, and unquestionably intolerable.
And though the temptation was to just move on with my life, it struck me that a column like this carries with it a responsibility to alert the public to what seems to be fraudulent behavior.
With an eye towards full disclosure, I will say here that I have heard (twice so far) from Boardsi CEO Martin Rowinski, who insists Boardsi is legitimate. Whether that is true I leave to the individual to do their own research and make up their own mind.
However, in the interests of doing my daily good deed, I’d like to also encourage you to be increasingly vigilant about the shysters, scam artists, and other nefarious efforts to separate you from your hard-earned money.
Because whatever business you’re in, odds are good there’s someone targeting you at this moment with a questionable offer. It may be a “Who’s who in your industry?” book, or an award as the best (fill in the blank) in town.
Perhaps not coincidentally, they all seem to have a price point of around $200 in common…too little to sue over, but enough (in volume) to net them a tidy sum.
And remember…if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
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Meet a straight-talking communications professional at www.marketbuilding.com.