My Cambridge Who's Who Story

I should preface this blog post with the disclaimer that it is a direct, legal exercise of my first amendment right to freedom of speech. I am authorised as a citizen of the United States of America to speak freely about my experience with the Cambridge Who's Who organisation and will not refrain from doing so here, despite legal actions the company has taken against individuals who have done the same, including one individual who has been sued by Cambridge Who's Who for US$7,000,000 after making a web page about the company. I am, however, watching my words as I write this so that I may not be guilty of defamation, or "the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressively stated or implied to be factual, that may harm the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government or nation." Instead of making any conclusions about the company myself, I am simply stating the facts and sharing my story. I will let you, the reader draw your own conclusions. Furthermore, in case I have accidentally mis-stated a number or other detail, I will make no claims to the authenticity of this blog post.

As an engineering student aspiring to attend a graduate school and/or enter the workforce within the next 12-24 months I understand the importance of social networking, and as a former member of an accelerated high school academic programme I have heard the hype about Who's Who organisations. So when I received a message in the mail not long after the new year which stated that I may be eligible for admittance into 'Cambridge Who's Who among Executives, Professionals, and Entrepreneurs' and that there would be "no cost to be included in the Registry," I quickly returned my contact information.

A few days ago I received a phone call from a "withheld" number. The lady on the other end informed me that she would need to ask me a series of interview questions to determine whether or not I would be eligible for acceptance into the registry. After the interview, without consulting a committee or reviewing the interview with anyone else, she told me that I had been accepted into the Who's Who database. She then went on to state the fees for membership (US$700 for lifetime membership, US$200 for 2-year membership, US$100 for 1-year membership). I explained that I would need some time to make a decision about a financial commitment and she replied stating that in order to accept my invitation into the registry I would need to make the decision during that phone call. Because it had been several weeks between when I returned the message in the mail and when I received this phone call, and under pressure of the moment I failed to remember that the initial contact information form stated that there were no fees for enrollment, and agreed to pay the fee for one year of membership, which would also give me one year to decide whether or not I wanted to upgrade my membership for a longer period of time. At the end of the phone call she mentioned that there were 250,000 members in the registry.

That night I visited Wikipedia to find that there had been no article written for Cambridge Who's Who. After Googling Cambridge Who's Who I found many blogs suggesting that the organisation is a scam. When I remembered that enrollment into the database was supposed to be free, I first notified my bank and then began calling Cambridge Who's Who to request a refund. After several phone calls and conversations with different employees I was able to speak with the man who handles cancellation requests. He told me that he had discussed the issue with the lady who initially entered me into the registry and they had come to the agreement that because I was a college student and probably did not have the financial stability to seriously commit to the programme, he would be able to offer me lifetime membership (which I had originally been told was a US$700-value and which he stated was a US$2000-value) for the US$100 that I had already paid. I told him that I greatly appreciated the offer but wished to cancel my membership nonetheless. After several more phone calls and conversations with many different employees I was able to get an e-mail stating that my membership would be canceled and my payment fully refunded. That weekend I received the reimbursement to my bank account.