I agree it’s a waste of money, but I don’t see how it differs much from the old Who’s Who books where you have to pay to be listed. I’m glad you’re pointing out that it’s not worth the money, but if this is as bad as they get, well, I have a hard time working up a good head of steam over someone playing to vain people’s vanity.

Thanks for doing the research on this. A client just called telling me she “won” this award. We were both immediately suspicious that it was a vanity scam. Sadly, as I searched for information (and found this posting) I saw several press releases from companies announcing that they had won a prestigious industry award.

So, what’s worse? Companies who believe the award or perhaps want to take advantage of it, or the public who will believe that companies they work with are industry leaders when they are not?

Mr Hathaway,

I appreciate you taking the time to research this and similar marketing scams. I first received the email that we had one this “prestigious” award late one evening; I was elated and looked to share the news with our team.When I began to review the email the following morning to see which of our valiant efforts had allowed us such an honor it was disappointing to find nothing but insubstantial verbiage exposing their ploy to make a buck.

I am thankful for your research and hope that others have the prudence to do a little investigation prior to misleading the public with this “prestigious” $79.99 award.

HEY MY RESTAURANT RECEIVED THIS AWARD FOR 2 YEARS IN A ROW NOW!! I’M THRILLED BUT SINCE ITS NOT REAL DOES IT HELP ME? WE KNOW THAT ANSWER. WHATS SAD IS THAT WE DO WORK HARD FOR SOME RECOGNITION IN OUR COMMUNITIES AND GETTING THESE “AWARDS” JUST HURTS KNOWING ITS BOGUS. WE WERE SO THRILLED LAST YEAR THAT WE SENT OUT AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO OUR CUSTOMERS UNTIL WE FOUND OUT IT WAS NOT ON THE UP AND UP. I DID SEND AN E-MAIL TO THIS ASHLEY TO FIND OUT HOW THEY DERIVED AT THIS SELECTION AND WHO THE THIRD PARTIES WERE. NEVER GOT A REPLY AND I WAS THE WINNER. A YEAR LATER I’M STILL WAITING FOR THE REPLY AND NOW I WON AGAIN !!! WHOOPIE !!!

HI AGAIN, I POSTED EARLIER TODAY AFTER I RECEIVED THE 2ND AWARD FOR MY RESTAURANT IN 2 YEARS. I WORKED HARD FOR THIS AND FRANKLY AFTER I POSTED HERE ON THIS BLOG I DECIDED TO CONTACT ASHLEY AS I BEING THE THE WINNER AND SEE IF THEY WOULD IN FACT CONTACT ME. WELL SHE DID AND SHE GAVE ME A VERY PROFESSIONAL EXPLAINATION AS TO HOW THIS WORKS AND OF COURSE THERE ARE “CONFIDENTIALITY” CLAUSES WITH SOME OF THE COMPANIES THAT REVIEW THE DATA OF BUSINESSES IN A GIVEN AREA. I MUST SAY THAT I DID NOT EXPECT A REPLY SINCE I DIDN’T GET ONE LAST YEAR. BUT PERHAPS THERE WERE TOO MANY INQUIRIES. I DON’T KNOW THAT ANSWER. THE BIG QUESTION IS DO I THINK THIS IS REAL? I WOULD LOVE TO SAY YES WITH CERTAINTY BUT I CAN NOT IN FULL. AM I PROUD TO HAVE RECEIVED THESE AWARDS 2 TIMES IN A ROW NOWING NO OTHER RESTAURANT IN THE ARES WON? YES I AM. AM I AM IDIOT- PROBABLY BUT A PROUD IDIOT I MIGHT ADD. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.

You do not have to pay to be listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who. Sure, they want to sell you the book, plaques, etc. But you will be listed whether or not you buy them. I know, as I am listed in several editions of Marquis’ Who’s Who. There are, however, other providers of Who’s Who that ARE bogus.

Yep, we got it too. here’s some more great info from the BBB.

Recent emails notifying businesses that they have won prestigious awards from a national association appear to be part of a widespread scheme designed to get companies to pay for “vanity” awards and plaques.

The group behind the “awards” program is the U. S. Commerce Association of Washington, D. C. The association has been sending out news releases in recent months to businesses nationwide, telling them they have been selected as “outstanding local businesses” and offering them an opportunity to buy one or more awards to mark the honor.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) urges that area businesses exercise caution when dealing with this group or a related organization called the U. S. Local Business Association.

On its Web site, the U. S. Commerce Association says the award program was “created to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of businesses and organizations in and around (targeted area named here).”

Other than the material on its Web site, there seems to be little publicly available about the U. S. Commerce Association. The site says its offices are in Washington, D. C., and a representative of the BBB that covers the area said that office has begun receiving inquiries about the association in the past several days. A recently updated BBB report says that the association’s Web site is a match to the Web site of an association with a similar name – U. S. Local Business Association. Both groups identify Ashley Carter as chair of the associations’ selection committees. And both groups report virtually identical award programs, the BBB says. The Washington, D. C. – area BBB office gives U. S. Local Business Association an “F” grade and warns that persons contacted about awards must be sure the recognition is not, “in fact, an attempt to obtain access to a company’s information or to elicit funds by an entity that may not be what it represents itself as being.”

An internet search of corporate records uncovered little additional information on the association. An email to the office (there is no phone number listed on its Web site) went unanswered.

In a link provided in its email to Joshu, the U. S. Commerce Association provides a list of several hundred award winners from 2008. Among the winners were a discount driving school in Maryland, a tattoo removal clinic in California, a bagpipe player in Arizona and a “laser tag family fun center” in Louisiana. Other award winners were in categories such as “astrologers,” “disc jockeys,” “tanning salons,” and “artificial waterfalls.”

The BBB offers several tips to avoid losing money in a “vanity award” program:

· Learn everything you can about who is giving the award. If it is coming from a mystery company, chances are it simply wants your money.

· If you didn’t apply for an award or the group cannot tell you how you were nominated, chances are the award is not legitimate.

· Most legitimate awards do not come with costs for the recipient. If there is a cost, scrutinize it even more closely.

· Ask specific questions about how your company or organization was chosen for an award and find out how many similar awards are given each year.

· Check BBB reliability reports at http://www.bbb.org or by calling 509-455-4200 or 800-356-1007.

I got it too. It said I was picked for the 2009 Best of Pottstown Award for photographers. I became suspicious that it was a scam as soon as I found out I had to pay for it. A quick check of the Internet confirmed it. What’s even scarier is this, Once these people have your credit card numbers, where does it go from there ? It could be a credit card scam.

I got an email too, such a scam. No different than the William Shatner scam at “Heartbeat of America”(google it) that I got a couple years back. F*cking b*stards should be shot for deceiving consumers the way that they do. As far as this commerce association(us-ca.net), don’t true associations url’s end in .org’s?

If you want to provide a service, especially one that recognizes an achievement, then be honest about! Don’t try and hide behind this factitious award and pretend to honor someone when the only reason you’re out to do this is make a buck on exploiting the naive!

The old Who’s Who scam. I was wondering what happened to that. There was one in the Bay Area (San Francisco) which put awards on food items vetted by a testing squad and listed chefs in a book, which they then sold to recruiters.