Looking for a Few Good Saps

With unemployment in the Northwest continuing to be higher than the rest of the nation, many people are becoming desperate to find a job, ANY job. Knowing this, there are businesses, far too many of a questionable nature, ready to pounce upon desperate job seekers. I've discovered one such organization -- Linda Christas (LC).

Actually, I didn't discover THEM; they discovered me. Since I'm looking to change careers, I've posted my resume on several internet job sites. While I hope this helps me land a job in the field of social services (my vocation during the 80s), I've come to realize that it also makes me a target for many dubious outfits.

Here's the initial email I received from a "Sarah DeSoleil":

One of our School's human resources volunteers (They are retired good people with HR backgrounds who donate hours of free service to the community) has referred your posted resume to our office. He believes you are a viable candidate for the Academic Advisor position we currently have open in your area.

The resume was sent to Ben Bernard, one of our General Partners.

The Academic Advisor position we are recruiting for serves the function of briefing families of middle school and high school students regarding the Linda Christas programs, either in a seminar format or one-on-one. (The method of delivery will depend on your personal preferences and style.)

I was encouraged to check out this organization's website to learn how I could become an Academic Advisor. Unfortunately for Ms. DeSoleil, she had sent her email to a person who possesses not only a degree in journalism but a person who has worked as an investigator. It took me little time to quickly realize this smelled like a scam!

For starters, the Academic Advisor (AA) turns out to be a euphemism for SALESPERSON. The AA's primary function is to sign-up families for LC tutoring and internet-based middle or high school programs. With price tags ranging from $2400-$6500, the programs offered are only manageable for families of a certain financial standing.

In order to become one of the chosen Academic Advisors, the applicant must pay $400 to enroll in an online Professional Administrative Services Credential (Tier II) course. This program is taught by independent educational consultant "Dr. Ann Voisin" who, when Googled, only returns one solitary entry...Linda Christas.

The $400 course fee is refundable (giggle, giggle) provided the applicant meets several criteria, all benefiting LC. One of these criteria is that, after completing the online course, the unwitting sap (oh I'm sorry) the applicant must complete a practicum which consists of making 7 sales (sorry, again) I mean, 7 educational consultations which result in sign ups for LC programs.

Now, once the 7 consultations plateau is reached, then LC will generate mailings to prospective families FOR the AA, PROVIDED the AA meets a monthly quota of 5. Of course, prior to becoming a full-fledged AA, the applicant must shoulder the total costs of sending out mailings themselves.

From my vantage point, this is a very clever system. LC does a great job emphasizing the perks of the position while, simultaneously, doing a splendid job of covering up and masking the inherent costs. I'm sure they pull in a good number of desperate people who only realize they've been had once it's FAR too late.

Here's what I think is a likely scenario: Desperate job seeker is contacted via email by LC "volunteer". If the job seeker bites the hook, we now have an applicant. The applicant visits the web site and is dazzled by the seemly great pay for little effort.

To wit:

[section deleted] Explanation: Linda Christas is so FEARFUL of criticism that they filed a DMCA complaint alleging a copyright violation, this DESPITE the fact I indicated I was quoting THEM. Supposedly, according to law, you can quote somebody else's work IF you are commenting about it or criticizing it.

Now I could have decided to fight their complaint, but chose not to. Why? Because I'm a poor schmuck and Linda Christas is a multi-million dollar corporation. I'm sure THEY had this fact in mind when they filed their silly complaint.

Think about this for a minute. Why should this huge corporation feel so threatened by one blogger? Could it be they don't like having their own deception thrown back in their face?

The applicant thinks, "Wow. $500 or $1000 and appointments only take about 1 hour. Sign me up". So, the applicant spends $400 to enroll in the on line course.

Once the "course" has ended and the applicant enters the practicum stage, I bet most people come to realize that this is going to cost them far more than they thought AND that making the 7 required sales will not be easy at all.

For starters, as mentioned earlier, the costs -- postage and printing -- for the initial mailings to approximately 10,000 students must be borne by the AA who, conveniently, is an Independent Contractor. As someone who has worked for many years in nonprofit fundraising, I've calculated that said costs could be upwards of $5,000!

In other words, before seeing one penny in compensation, it is quite likely that the sap, I mean, the applicant will be out $5,000 or more. If the applicant struck it rich and signed up 7 families for online courses, this would mean a pay out of $7,000.

Unfortunately, as indicated above, the AA is an Independent Contractor. Therefore, self-employment taxes would be owed on that $7,000. Using rough figures, let's say the $7,000 is subject to a 30% tax reduction. This means the $7,000 becomes only $4,900 and, instead of having a big pay day, the applicant basically breaks even. (Note: If all of the 7 sales were for turtoring or a mix between tutoring and online instruction, the applicant comes out in a hole possibly a fairly deep one!)

But this result is based on the assumption the plebe ACTUALLY makes 7 sales. Anyone who knows anything about fundraising KNOWS that "cold call" letters generate a very negligible response rate of 1%, 0.5% or less. Consequently, 10,000 letters mailed would, at best, generate 100 people who are mildly interested. Of that 100, only a fraction will become seriously interested and of that small fraction an even smaller fraction will buy the product.

An average person could easily spend 100 hours to make 1 sale. If it took an average Joe or Jane 100 hours to generate 1 sale, they would soon realize their pay rate is less than minimum wage!

It's at some point during this practicum that I believe most people will realize they've been had. So, they will drop out of the program. Because they did not successfully complete the practicum, their $400 course fee becomes nonrefundable. And, since the person is an "Independent Contractor", they are also out however much money they spent on recruiting and marketing efforts during the practicum period.

From the way this operation has been cleverly put together, I believe that LC hopes that the vast majority of saps DO, in fact, drop out. It's an incredibly easy way to pocket hundreds (if not thousands) of $400 payments. Not only that, but LC most likely gets thousands of dollars of free advertising from applicants mailing out prospectus letters at the applicant's expense!

It would seem that ALL the benefits of this program favor Linda Christas and all the liabilities fall on the potential Academic Advisor.

To read more of the continuing saga, go here.

[If anyone reading this has had any dealings with the many faces of the Linda Christas programs, I'd be very interested in hearing what you think about them.]