Is This A Boiler Room?

[arkom]

I was just offered a job by a company whose office are in Times Square in Sukhumvit. They said that they are a recruitment company based in the UK for corporations like Shell, O2, BP, Rolls Royce and Merrill Lynch ect. They said that I wold be cold-calling consumers in Europe to "persuade" them to use their financial services, and we wold not be selling anything.

Now they part that makes me start to wonder if its a boiler room, is that they did not tell me the name of the company are "representing" and their office has no company name on the door, just the unit number. Anther thing is the email they used was [reason for edit email removed], very similar to [reason for edit email removed] that I later found out was a boiler room. The script I was given was also similar to ones that I saw on the internet, that were used in boiler rooms.

My gut tells me that it is a boiler room, but I woulkd like to get other poeple's opinon about it.

Thanks!!

[changnaam]

Sounds suspect to me.

If I have read what you are saying correct "You thought it was a recruitment firm recruiting for blue chip global companies now they want you to cold call European companies to sell financial services"

Work Permit?

Basic salary?

I am sure you can guess what my advice would be.....

Be interesting to hear what happens

[steelepulse]

Work Permit?

Salary?  

I'd say highly doubtful on both fronts and it's 100% commission based and they will churn through recruiting classes and employees very fast.  I once saw one of these in Phuket many years ago and that was the situation then.

[arkom]

Sounds suspect to me.

If I have read what you are saying correct "You thought it was a recruitment firm recruiting for blue chip global companies now they want you to cold call European companies to sell financial services"

Work Permit?

Basic salary?

I am sure you can guess what my advice would be.....

Be interesting to hear what happens

You pretty much got it right, but they want to call European consumers to "generate" warm leads for them. But what threw me off a bit was they were only hiring Thais which I am. The script they wanted me to read was pretty generic, and I've seen Boiler Room, so red flags went up in my head.

Yes there is a basic salary. But think I'll pass on this job.

Thanks for the input!!

[arkom]

Work Permit?

Salary?

I'd say highly doubtful on both fronts and it's 100% commission based and they will churn through recruiting classes and employees very fast. I once saw one of these in Phuket many years ago and that was the situation then.

Only hiring Thai nationals, and there is a basic salary.

[changnaam]

Apologies I made the wrong assumption on the "Work Permit" thing.

Says a lot about your written English though, I am sure you will find something much better with your language ability.

All the best

[TheVinylMan]

Apologies I made the wrong assumption on the "Work Permit" thing.

Says a lot about your written English though, I am sure you will find something much better with your language ability.

All the best

Totally agree........ when i initially read the OP i thought he was a farang and not a thai ........... With your command of english you can get a much much better job than cold calling europeans and being told to <deleted> off on the telephone every 5 mins

[arkom]

Apologies I made the wrong assumption on the "Work Permit" thing.

Says a lot about your written English though, I am sure you will find something much better with your language ability.

All the best

No worries!!

[arkom]

Apologies I made the wrong assumption on the "Work Permit" thing.

Says a lot about your written English though, I am sure you will find something much better with your language ability.

All the best

Totally agree........ when i initially read the OP i thought he was a farang and not a thai ........... With your command of english you can get a much much better job than cold calling europeans and being told to <deleted> off on the telephone every 5 mins

Thanks for the compliments, and yeah think I'll have too pass on this job.

[quiksilva]

More like every minute no doubt! and agreed. Good English speakers are hard to come by here, no doubt some better jobs available (from those who are still recruiting!)

Ya know, it could be just a telesales call center. There are a few more here now and they seem to be growing. They tend to rent cheap offices and hire Thai nationals to keep the costs down, as they are outsourced service providers after all.

Telesales can include high pressure sales scripts, to 'get that meeting', much like boiler rooms but that does not mean that they are not the same thing.

Boiler rooms con people into buying non existent stocks, I get these guys calling me quite often and in every case its almost always a Westerner based in some distant country. Telesales (Cold calling) is almost always some element of high pressure sales techniques.

Outsourcing a firm to do a huge volume of cold calls so that their clients sales people get lists of 'warm leads' makes sense, be it for recruitment or financial services, it could still be legit, and if it is a call center the nature of the product / service you are selling could vary.

The natural question is why don't they do this in India / Philippines instead? Well they do, but it doesn't always work out even with a large population of English speakers. Some of the firms I have dealt with also have a presence India, speak of terrible rates of staff turnover.

[steelepulse]

There is a real high turnover in the telesales and leads industry. Notable call centers and lead generators are as previous posters said from India and the PI where English is widely spoken.  I'm surprised that someone would choose BKK over either of these other two countries for this.  

To the OP, if I may ask, what was their "Basic" and what did you have to do to earn it?

Funny thing this reminds me of from the movie Boiler Room " You want leads" then boom a phone book gets thrown down, " There's your *** leads now get to work"

[thaihome]

Only reason I could see for the lead generators in Thailand is the farang guys/girls that are willing to work very cheap here.

TH

[arkom]

There is a real high turnover in the telesales and leads industry. Notable call centers and lead generators are as previous posters said from India and the PI where English is widely spoken. I'm surprised that someone would choose BKK over either of these other two countries for this.

To the OP, if I may ask, what was their "Basic" and what did you have to do to earn it?

Funny thing this reminds me of from the movie Boiler Room " You want leads" then boom a phone book gets thrown down, " There's your *** leads now get to work"

25k a month, from what I understand pretty much what they call set up appointments, no selling. But the leads we are supposed to generate is for financial services, and they supposedly have a list of people to call already.

[DarwinK]

I was just offered a job by a company whose office are in Times Square in Sukhumvit. They said that they are a recruitment company based in the UK for corporations like Shell, O2, BP, Rolls Royce and Merrill Lynch ect. They said that I wold be cold-calling consumers in Europe to "persuade" them to use their financial services, and we wold not be selling anything.

Now they part that makes me start to wonder if its a boiler room, is that they did not tell me the name of the company are "representing" and their office has no company name on the door, just the unit number. Anther thing is the email they used was [reason for edit email removed], very similar to [reason for edit email removed] that I later found out was a boiler room. The script I was given was also similar to ones that I saw on the internet, that were used in boiler rooms.

My gut tells me that it is a boiler room, but I woulkd like to get other poeple's opinon about it.

Thanks!!

Hi Arkom, I'm wondering if this is the same entity that contacted a friend's girlfriend. If you don't mind, could you pm me the two email addresses that were removed? That might help convince her to stay clear.

[caughtintheact]

If possible, please PM me with the name of the company.

[midas]

" They said that I wold be cold-calling consumers in Europe to "persuade" them to use their financial services, and we wold not be selling anything."

lipstick on a pig comes to mind

[ukinbkk]

If you're looking for a telephne based job where you can speak English and Thai give me a private message with your contact details as the company I work for is looking for decent people right now. Has a basic plus commission. Based at Asoke, Sukhumvit.. International company with over 40 offices worldwide, great prospects to move around the world if you wanted to travel further down the line.

[eljeque]

If they are asking for you to arrrange for meetings to sell financial services, they are cheats.

Steer clear, or wait a week or two and contact the police and see about getting a finder's fee.... if possible?? :-)

If they company does not have a name, and they changed the job offer from recruitment to financial services, they are in the business of getting people to "invest" and they will walk away with the investment.

They are thieves and should be in jail.

[aussiebebe]

reading this thread I'm just curious why any company would employ staff to call Western firms from Bangkok, why not go to a cheaper country like India or the Phillipines? out of interest, are there are legitimate companies operating in Thailand?