Too good to be truly existing.

January 9, 2007 2:30 AM

How do you tell if an organization is legitimate?

I've been granted an interesting opportunity by a non-profit, but I cannot tell for sure if they are legitimate or not.

Some things that seem off:

* They mention partnerships with other organizations and people on their website, but I couldn't find anything on those organizations' and people's websites to back them up

* They seemed rather vague about the opportunity

* The head of the non-profit does exist, and he is who he says he is (a lecturer at a Singaporean university). However, I couldn't find many references for the other people involved.

* They didn't show up on a Network For Good search, or an IRS search, though they did show up on another nonprofit search. (Charity Navigator, I think. Or I'm confusing them with NFG.) Thing is, I'm not sure those searches are completely reliable, because another non-profit I'm closely involved with doesn't have much info on those lists either, so I'm not sure.

* I can't find any third-party references to said opportunity; only Craigslist postings, PRWeb press releases, a MySpace profile, and a mention in a blog or two.

How else can I verify their legitimacy? They claim to be PayPal and eBay-verified. Is there a way to check this?

(for those who want to investigate: I'm referring to this, hosted and organized by this.)

posted by divabat to Grab Bag (13 answers total)

Looks scammy to me. I can't imagine that a real beauty pageant would charge a registration fee.
posted by Malor at 2:32 AM on January 9, 2007

Note that in addition to spending the $75 'registration fee', you're expected to:

sell 5 pageant event tickets of $25 each.

So it ends up being $200/contestant. If they can talk just 65 women into competing, they break even, and everything after that is profit.

Note that the prizes are also 'scholarships'... but they don't say that they're fully paid or anything. It might just a money-off coupon on some college that's overcharging to begin with. So it may a pure profit thing... a worthless prize they charge you $200 to try to get.

I think the way you win this Beauty and Brains pageant is by having the brains not to enter in the first place. :)
posted by Malor at 2:36 AM on January 9, 2007

Definitely scammy-looking. The lack of search results cinches it, I think. You'd think there'd be publicity if it were legit.
posted by sleeplessunderwater at 3:23 AM on January 9, 2007

I hate to advocate judging a book by its cover, but the out-of-the-box Wordpress installation - complete with the menu hover buttons that don't align with their dividers correctly - gives me pause ...
posted by jbickers at 3:45 AM on January 9, 2007

Being PayPal verified is an utter triviality. It just means (at most) that someone can receive snail mail at a nominated postal address. Likewise eBay.
posted by polyglot at 4:01 AM on January 9, 2007

To answer your question, divabat, you do exactly what you are doing... called 'due diligence'. Things are often not what they seem.

Were I interested in this, and suspicious, I'd be on the phone to the directors and the people they say are involved. If at any time I uncovered an inconsistency or bad feeling, I'd follow it up to conclusion.

I once had a client who attempted to scam a lot of people and who claimed he had a PhD in biomechanics from Cal Tech and a lot of patents. In my town, he bolstered his creds by interconnected name dropping... e.g., "I'm working with Dr. X over at the Z Clinic', and to Dr X he's say, "I'm working with Dr. Y over at L Clinic". He'd inherit their mutual credibility, confident that neither would check.

I uncovered each of his lies by simply getting on the phone, and saved a good friend from a disasterous investment. Another guy wasn't so lucky, and not only lost his $, he was found shot and dead in the back of a car about a year later.

Point is.. trust your instincts and verify before writing out a check. It ALL looks good on the internets.
posted by FauxScot at 6:28 AM on January 9, 2007

Also falling into the "scammy" column --- $15,000 in scholarships is nothing for a pageant that claims to be national in scope (notice that they have "regional pageant directors"). I'm curious where the pageant gets its funds, and what its budget is. Maybe it's funded by entry fees? Maybe 95% of what they bring in goes to paying hefty salaries for their staff?
posted by jayder at 7:13 AM on January 9, 2007

Ask to see a copy of their 501(c)3 status letter. All approved non-profits will have one.
posted by non sum qualis eram at 9:58 AM on January 9, 2007

The previous scholarship award (not pageant) they mention on the front page seems legit enough unless you count it likely that the AFI and ACM were in on a scam.
posted by juv3nal at 10:13 AM on January 9, 2007

they must also make their IRS Form 990 available to anyone who asks - it is a complete rundown of their finances and mission, as well as highest paid employees etc. Alternatively, you can go to www.guidestar.org and get it, although it may be a year or so old on there.

guidestar says they were founded in 2004 and have no full time employees...their 990 seems to be missing from guidestar...i'd ask for it
posted by Salvatorparadise at 10:55 AM on January 9, 2007

Response by poster: I did enter, on a whim (didn't pay any money, and haven't), and got accepted within a day. Just made me go "hmm!".

jayder: The original entry fee was $300, which now seems to have transferred into ad money. When I asked, they told me the entry fee funded the scholarships and some pageant materials.

juv3nal: I couldn't find anything on the AFI website to back them up, which made me wonder.

Salvatorparadise: that's the website I found the info from! (My notes above were a bit confusing.) The reason that confuses me is because the NPO I'm involved with, while totally legit, doesn't have updated information on there. And sites like Network For Good and Charity Navigator don't list everyone.

thanks guys! I couldn't find anything that says they were a scam; it was rather inconclusive. I've also never really entered a pageant before (this one was mainly for the lulz) so I couldn't tell what was typical and what wasn't.
posted by divabat at 11:45 AM on January 9, 2007

For those of you criticizing the pageant itself: it does seem retarded, and not at all a good idea, but often these gala events can be quite expensive to run, so it goes beyond the $15,000 scholarship price tag (probably at least twice that if they use paid staff rather than volunteers). Also, if the goal is to raise money for the organization, then obviously it makes sense to gather a lot more than just the scholarship amount.

What are they using all of this raised money for? Their page suggests some kind of research. If you really want to explore this angle, a good place to start would be their "partnership" with USC. If you e-mail their research address on the org page, they should be able to provide you with their "contact" at USC, who can explain the partnership further and maybe even provide you with evidence of what they're really doing.

My gut tells me that this is a legitimate organization, just not one that does a lot of good. Plenty of organizations are just set up as a way to employ a few people, not make any real money, while making whoever founded it--in this case, Newton Lee--feel good about themselves. Newton Lee also is the founder of ACM Computing in Entertainment journal, which is part of ACM which is a very legitimate organization which features mostly academic journals on computing, again supporting the idea that this is a legit organization.

These days, many rich people want to start their own foundations rather than just donating to existing ones, and they want to do good whether or not the "good" being done is, well, good.

For a wonderful read on the problems in international development in particular, you have to read Despite Good Intentions by Thomas Dichter. Really powerful read.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:57 AM on January 9, 2007

Response by poster: Hi everyone,

I doubt anyone's expecting an update, but I've been receiving emails from various people that just emphasize the scamminess of the whole thing.

A few people who work at pageants have told me that their approach is highly atypical. The fees raised the biggest suspicion.

Also, I have received emails from potential participants that rang them up and only reached voicemail, which was just as fishy.

I suppose all that can be done is to wait till June!
posted by divabat at 4:49 AM on April 13, 2007