5 ms·

Why are there so many stupid ads on the internet? Because idiots keep clicking on them. Why are there so many "scamsultants". Because idiots keep hiring them.

by edw519 12y ago

Why are there so many stupid ads on the internet? Because idiots keep clicking on them. Why are there so many "scamsultants". Because idiots keep hiring them. Nice piece, Jacques. In my younger days, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you. (And I still agree with your major point: Don't do this!) By now in my jaded older days, when I see so much clashing between the ideal and what's really happening, I'm not so sure. I've spent a career cleaning up the messes of scamsultants. And you know what happens to them? They move on and make bigger messes. And more money for themselves. Sometimes, a lot more. In just the past 5 years: - My accountant fired his IT guy for fraud. When he told a half dozen of his associates, every single one of them asked for the IT guy's number because they couldn't find anyone. They didn't care about the fraud. - A scamsultant for one of my customers ripped them off for over $2 million. They decided not to sue him because of the bad publicity (and embarassment). He now has a new company name, a new website, and one of his testimonials (fake, of course) is from the company he just ripped off. - Another scamsultant convinced one of my enterprise customers to hire 80 more people into their IT department because "lack of resources" was their biggest constraint. 2 years later, they fired most of those people (who came from the scamsultant's own agency and couldn't do the job). The scamsultant is now doing the same thing to 2 other enterprises in other parts of the country. - A scamsultant tried to split the commission with my co-founder on her side hardware business. She told the customer who immediately fired the scamsultant. I just saw him driving a new Mercedes SUV into another local customer's parking lot. - A scamsultant set up the software to (believe it or not!) funnel every 5th customer credit into his own bank account. It took the auditors 2 years to unravel this. He was promptly fired, but never prosecuted (embarassment, I presume). Now he's selling new e-commerce software to new suckers. - Another customer hired 20 .net programmers through a scamsultancy. After 2 years, they had produced nothing. They were all fired. I stayed in touched with quite a few of them. They are all still working. As long as people value money over ethics, this shit will always happen. Don't do this, but don't be surprised when others do and get away with it.

valevk 12y ago
This is really horrifying. But as you say, as long as there are people to pay for it, it will continue. How did you get into your "cleaning" type of job?
Joeri 12y ago
> As long as people value money over ethics, this shit will always happen. Usually, it's a matter of short-term thinking. It is a human tendency to discount long-term benefits against short-term costs. Where it's not, it's because people want to be "nice" and not be the bad guy. They will go along with people who don't mind being the bad guy. And then there's my personal belief that in any given job role, a large percentage (possibly the majority) of people are not competent. By competent I mean that any situation which may arise as part of their job and involves a professional decision can be handled by them in a competent way. Most people aren't actually able to do their job without someone guiding them from above and supervising them in that job. This applies also to the people hiring and supervising them, which in the average case are not able to hire and supervise competently without supervision. This chain continues all the way to the top of a company, and as a result most companies are not actually able to do their job competently without constant adjustment from their customers or shareholders in the form of complaints, lawsuits, etc... That's probably why many consultants are not competent, and why they still get hired, because the people who hire them are not competent in hiring consultants. Never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
dschiptsov 12y ago
> - Another scamsultant convinced one of my enterprise customers to hire 80 more people into their IT department because "lack of resources" was their biggest constraint. This is why I have brought a carbon copy of The Mythical Man-month after reading pirated pdf.)
rupert_murdaaa 12y ago
>A scamsultant set up the software to (believe it or not!) funnel every 5th customer credit into his own bank account. It took the auditors 2 years to unravel this. He was promptly fired, but never prosecuted (embarassment, I presume). Now he's selling new e-commerce software to new suckers. It's like the tray at the 7-11. You take pennies from the tray, right? We just do it from a much bigger tray, millions of times.

by edw519 12y ago

valevk 12y ago

This is really horrifying. But as you say, as long as there are people to pay for it, it will continue. How did you get into your "cleaning" type of job?

Joeri 12y ago

> As long as people value money over ethics, this shit will always happen. Usually, it's a matter of short-term thinking. It is a human tendency to discount long-term benefits against short-term costs. Where it's not, it's because people want to be "nice" and not be the bad guy. They will go along with people who don't mind being the bad guy. And then there's my personal belief that in any given job role, a large percentage (possibly the majority) of people are not competent. By competent I mean that any situation which may arise as part of their job and involves a professional decision can be handled by them in a competent way. Most people aren't actually able to do their job without someone guiding them from above and supervising them in that job. This applies also to the people hiring and supervising them, which in the average case are not able to hire and supervise competently without supervision. This chain continues all the way to the top of a company, and as a result most companies are not actually able to do their job competently without constant adjustment from their customers or shareholders in the form of complaints, lawsuits, etc... That's probably why many consultants are not competent, and why they still get hired, because the people who hire them are not competent in hiring consultants. Never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.

dschiptsov 12y ago

> - Another scamsultant convinced one of my enterprise customers to hire 80 more people into their IT department because "lack of resources" was their biggest constraint. This is why I have brought a carbon copy of The Mythical Man-month after reading pirated pdf.)

rupert_murdaaa 12y ago

>A scamsultant set up the software to (believe it or not!) funnel every 5th customer credit into his own bank account. It took the auditors 2 years to unravel this. He was promptly fired, but never prosecuted (embarassment, I presume). Now he's selling new e-commerce software to new suckers. It's like the tray at the 7-11. You take pennies from the tray, right? We just do it from a much bigger tray, millions of times.