Tuesday 13 September 2011

Speak Asia Online : Genuine or Scam (Fraud)? Read Here!

Hi All,

Well a few months back a friend of mine approached me to become a part of some Survey company who is paying INR 1000 per 2 online surveys (takes 20mins) and one had to invest INR 11000 upfront. Being on the internet for more then 12 years now from the face of it looked to me as some scam as who in the world will pay Rs.1000 (thats around 25$) for some 20 mins that too for a survey. That time I didnt even cared to ask about the name of the company.

Recently it again caught my attention by seeing the "Speak Asia" ads frequently in middle of IPL. I am sure you all have also seen Speak Asia advertisement how its now easy to make money online by filling surveys and the whole family is happy. So the deal seems to be getting more sweeter by the day for everyone joining in and they are not only making money for the participants, and for themselves too to buy advertising spots in IPL matches and also run a few TVC kind of ads on Imagine TV where the anchor is Rakshanda Khan.
The funny part was that the only qualification you need is that you should be above 18 year old and should know English + basic internet to browse. You dont have to do anything except filling surveys. If you want to make more money you can either sponsor someone or get a few friends of yours under you and make some % of their earnings too. A typical multi-level-marketing scheme where the more you climb higher the ladder you earn more.

It may be a marketing strategy to get more people signed up and that is absolutely fine. But they are all joining in joining in to make money from filling surveys and not for the "E-Zine" that the company says that they are selling as subscription. Honestly speaking the e-zine is not worth anything.

But the basic thing that I was still not clear was that does survey pays that well and I asked so few marketing and research experts and all said that the pricing is too steep to sustain. There are FMCG companies which does researches from time to time for their different products but they also not spending that much and the ones who pays premium (not anything in range of what Speak Asia pays) also seeks people to meet certain qualification like an investor or some academic qualification etc.

So that made me suspicious to dig further:

a) Company Background:

The company name is: SpeakAsia Online Pte Ltd.
formerly known as : Haren Technology Pte. Ltd.
formerly known as: PAN Automotives Pte. Ltd.

(Compliance rating for this company is Non Compliant currently)

Prior to this name they were operating under:

HAREN VENTURES PTE. LTD.
f.k.a HAREN AUTO PARTS PTE. LTD.
f.k.a HAREN MULTICONSULT TRADE SERVICES PTE. LTD.

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