Most people have gray matter located somewhere between their ears. But some people are just plain dumb and dumber! Those who send $2,999 to CRCCAsai.com or ChinaSolutions.com are the dumbest - and even the New York Times agrees! These two companies actually call and convince people over the telephone and by email that will get hired by Fortune 500 companies as an intern but only if they pay their fee. They rely on really impressive websites, fake reviews that are self-created, testimonials form non-existent "satisfied clients" and smooth talking telemarketers packed into boiler rooms in Beijing and the U.K. Admittedly, they put on a good show. But we caught up with "Robert" a fellow from the U.K. who used to be an "agent" for CRCCAsia.com. This is some of what he had to say...
"There are never ever refunds allowed for any reason, even if a client gets hit by a car and is hospitalized."
"Less than 10% of the internships CRCC gets for people transform into a real job, and most are sales and marketing jobs - doing the grunt work for some Chinese companies."
"The owner of CRCC pays big bucks to get phony news articles published and they have a SEO guy that spams the shit all over the internet."
"The employees laugh and joke about how many "fish" they catch every day." (refereing to new clients)
" I have personally been in the U.K. office about 2 years ago when 3 angry students came in demanding a refund or they threatened to smash the place up. I am not sure what happened but they came back from China less than a month after they went there for internships. They got their refund."
"The telesales people are bloody well careful what they put into an email because we were all warned that email can be evidence. So they will say just about anything on the phone but they are very careful about what they put in writing."
"I heard the owner boast that he earns $30,000 a day, and I think he is telling the truth based on the volume of business being generated by over 50 telesales people."
As for ChinaSolutions.com, anyone can call them pretending to be an interested client, and after asking a few direct questions, you can quickly realize they do not guarantee any results and will even tell a high school drop out in Wisconsin that they are "qualified" become an intern agronomist in China! Their lies are the boldest by far, but people are so desperate for work overseas that they are eating up the BS with spoons in both hands. They are even taking real English teaching jobs posted on expat forums, taking half of the salaries and then offering the position as a "paid internship"!
Those being targeted are university students, California's unemployed and even lonely or bored soldiers who surf the internet and come across crafty ads promising careers after discharge. The scammers leave no stone unturned and one CRCC telemarketer is even known to offer online teaching internships to the elderly. Senior citizens on a fixed income can least afford to lose $2,999.Although there are many real and legitimate internships to be had in China and elsewhere (both paid and unpaid), these two operators will only provide high hopes and disappointments. When CRCC first started they apparently were legitimate according to Robert, but he recently said...
"Once the money started rolling in, greed grew faster than a mushroom in a rainforest, and all the rules and ethics fell to the wayside".
At first we thought "Robert" just might be a disgruntled employee， but no, he said he was actually treated and paid very well. When asked why he left in 2011, he just said "I have a conscience and wanted out before the coppers come a knockin at the door." It appears business is still booming for both of these companies with no apparent shortage of victims. Since the actual crimes are being committed on Chinese soil, we don't expect police action any time soon. After all... "TIC" (This is China).
For now, one can only warn others. Sound the alarm within your own circle of friends and maybe share this article with your favorite blogger or group. The below links were found after doing a quick google search as well as some old complaints from 2010...
http://www.abroadreviews.com/scam-alert-crcc-china-internships-are-fraud
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtBesb.DXUyYCeSQtg4NhRkjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20130520013320AAKutvN
http://chinascampatrol.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/china-work-abroad-scams-growing-blacklist-whitelists-now-being-compiled-your-help-requested/
http://www.degreepivot.com/9533/how-to-avoid-internship-scams#comment-2037
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/fashion/for-20-somethings-ambition-at-a-cost.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
This scam has been going on for years. You just noticed it now? Maybe you're the dummy?
ReplyDeleteThey burned me for a $300 deposit to hold a job that did not exist back in the summer of 2010. I was lucky enough to be tipped off by a ESL message board and they did not get another penny from me. They are smooth. Be careful.
ReplyDeleteHey man, this is China! Did you really expect to find some honest people here actually trying to help you? Have another drink.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who actually falls for this deserves to be screwed over. Some people need to learn a few lessons the hard way before they start paying attention.
ReplyDeleteInternships are a good way to get your foot in the door of the biggest and best companies - in any country. But I think you should at least know who you will be working with before you sign on the dotted line.
ReplyDeleteCISC Global is the only real legitimate internship company in China - and by far the best with no complaints and great service. I used them last year and highly recommend them. Check them out at http://www.ciscglobal.com/
ReplyDeleteI usedto work at CRCC and in cas eyou didn't know, the owner has a sister who works for the New York Times - in case you wondered how they got all those great plugs in the Times. She should be fired!
ReplyDeleteCRCC cheated me back in 2010. They did get me an internship as a teacher. The problem is I was paid 5,000 yuan a month and I found out from the Vice-Principal that they were collecting my 15,000 yuan monthly salary and pocketing 10,000 of it - in addition to the $2,000 fee they collected from as well! Can you say "greed"?
ReplyDeleteStop your whining! You got what you paid for - a good fucking!
ReplyDeleteI am really curious to know just how much advertising CRCC had to take out in the New York Times to get those great advertorials written by Chinese reporters? Smells like Chinese-style "guanxi" to me. (The reporter IS Chinese).
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly how companies get "pay for play" publicity in China on a daily basis. I am deeply disappointed that the Times allows their reporters to be compromised like this.
For all of your LEGITIMATE China internship needs please visit http://www.CISCGlobal.com No problems or complaints - fully licensed and registered.
ReplyDeleteStop the spam CISCGlobal - we saw your first plug. One is enough. As for the OP, this is a very sneaky scam that most anyone would fall for. Even the head hunters in China cheat people by running phony ads for jobs that don't exist. One of my friends use dto work for Antal and she says that her group would fabricate great jobs and post them online and they'd be flooded with 500+ resumes within 24 hours. Everyone seems to cheat in China. Its part of their culture. And those who stay here more than 2-3 years start to lower their moral standards just to be able to compete. What CRCC does is wrong but normal for China.
ReplyDeletePlease also add to your list: http://eslwatch.info/china-2/scams-or-schemes-in-china/8939-warning-crccasia-chinasolutions-com-are-internship-scams
ReplyDeleteOMG! - another Chinese scam. Wow, I am so surprised (yawn).
ReplyDeleteI did my homework and CRCC is violating China visa laws big time. It is illegal for an intern to collect a salary on an F Visa. All people who work in China must hold a valid Z visa and be sponsored by a company – NOT a internship company. CRCC has no authority to write invitation letters unless they are going to “employ” a person to work for them. It is 100% illegal for them to write an invitation letter for a person to go work for a third party. I also confirmed with SAFEA and the Ministry of Labor that as of March 1, 2012, Chinese SOEs (State-Owned Enterprises) are not allowed by Chinese law to hire foreign interns. Any company that blatantly violates Chinese laws must surely be a scam. I have no idea how many laws of other countries they may be violating. I think it is prudent to stay clear of this group no matter how much publicity they generate for themselves.
ReplyDeleteAccording to this post at scam.com, this CRCCAsia.com company (CRCC China Internships) is registered to a company that does not exist! http://scam.com/showthread.php?p=1339712&posted=1#post1339712
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they pay taxes anywhere or just pay bribes to Chinese officials to look the other way while they rob people?
Concerning ownership of CRCCAsia.com and the companies linked to them can be found here at http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=72672&p=168007
ReplyDeleteMy friend in China told me he worked for this company and made good money, but that he had a problem with a supervisor over what was a "white lie" and what wasn't. I don't really know all the details. He makes less money now teaching but he told me he was glad he left. I will send him this link in case he wants to comment himself.
Someone need to post the photos of the CRCC owners here - if you know who they really are? Also just found another "great review" which now makes 78 fake testimonials used on their website.
ReplyDeleteRE: Comments of Panda above...
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be many different registrations to different people and the non-existent companies mentioned at Scam.com but I spoke to a reporter and was given the name of Daniel Nivern (a Brit now living in Beijing). The same reporter told me this guy owns a $5 million home in a place called "Shunyi". She also said there is another Brit named Edward Pearce that is involved but she said she is waiting for a PI report to come back before she can publish the whole story.
Anyway, I did some googling and found that Daniel Nivern also has homes in the U.K. and San Francisco and is a pretty good writer who wrote this great article from 2010: http://www.helium.com/items/1866358-international-internships-intern-abroad-internship-abroad-china-internships-internship-in-china in which he promotes his own scheme mentioned in the OP. There are also many photos of him all over the net. So I think the question of "ownership" is a mystery no more. This China scam may not be Chinese after all.
I think these clowns use a hacker to delete all the negative stuff on the internet about them. Last week I found 29 complaints about them (mostly between pages 15-20 of a Google search) but this week the links are either gone or broken like this one here http://savedwebhistory.com/k/crcc-asia-scam.
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to hire a hacker to delete all the fake reviews and testimonials they spam all over the web!
So stupid - only a moron would pay money to work for free! They deserve to get taught a lesson in fraud 101.
ReplyDeleteWe are now aware that CRCC Asia may be a victim of a malicious campaign by a competitor to discredit our Award winning service through a coordinated strategy of posting inaccurate and defamatory information. Instead of pander to this distasteful attack, we see it as a platform to further show the key credentials that have made CRCC Asia the number one organization that provides internships in China, and we encourage all potential applicants to look at our website, speak with our 3000 alumni and read why the company received a British government award for the work that we do in furthering youth links with China.
ReplyDeleteCRCC Asia has been providing internships in China for eight years and we are the market leader in this sector, having arranged over 3000 placements for students from over 150 countries worldwide.
Awards: We have won two very competitive Awards for our program – The Cathay Pacific China Business Awards and The British Business Awards, sponsored by the UK government. - http://www.britishbusinessawards.cn/crcc-asia/
Media: We have had extensive coverage from various media including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Bloomberg, The BBC and many more. The links to the original articles can all be found on our media page - http://www.crccasia.com/about-us/media-coverage/ - and you can contact the publications directly to request a copy of the article if required.
Testimonials: We have numerous partnerships with universities around the world and we have alumni who would be delighted to be contacted to tell you more. We would also be happy to put anyone in direct contact with our partner universities who can tell you about our program and would happily provide references. Please see our testimonials, all of which can be independently verified - http://www.crccasia.com/testimonials-media/testimonials/
Visas: For anyone interested in information about getting the correct F visa for a China internship, which is what we issue to all of our interns, please visit the website for China's Embassy. There is a comprehensive article about business visas and you will find that they are suitable for internships for periods up to six months. In order to issue this visa an invitation letter from one of our host companies is required so all of our interns know prior to departure the name, address and information for the company they will be working for. We ensure that every single one of our interns is on the correct F visa and we are one of the few organizations that oversee this whole process on behalf of the intern. We recommend that any prospective intern researches this aspect of service to ensure that his or her chosen China Program provider is doing this process correctly.
Video: Our YouTube video clearly shows what our program looks like on the ground and is great to watch - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-QXLxhXfiI. Several members of our team are featured in the video and you can call any of our offices at any time to speak to them.
Global Offices: If you have any further concerns or queries, then please feel free to drop by or call any of our 8 global offices, in London, San Francisco, Pennsylvania, Beijing, Shanghai, Venice and Sydney. Offices are open Monday to Friday, from 9am to 6pm (in their local time zone) which means there will always be someone at the end of the phone who is happy to help. Due to our global offices, we can be contacted 24 hours per day, which allows parents or students to feel confident that there is always someone to talk to. You can alternatively contact us at directors@crccasia.com for any further information.
Thank you again for reading this. The original post is sadly full of incorrect and slanderous information which may very well be written by another organization that is envious of CRCC Asia’s success, popularity and growth. It is for this reason that we encourage any prospective candidate to fully research CRCC Asia against that of any other and we are certain that you will be happy with our service, credibility and background.
Best Regards,
Oliver Wilson
CRCC Asia
We are now aware that CRCC Asia is sadly the victim of a malicious campaign by a competitor to discredit our Award winning service through a coordinated strategy of posting inaccurate and defamatory information. Instead of pander to this distasteful attack, we are seeing it as a platform to further show the key credentials that have made CRCC Asia the number one organization that provides internships in China, and we encourage all potential applicants to look at our website, speak with our 3000 alumni and read why the company received a British government award for the work that we do in furthering youth links with China. This attack also strengthens our conviction that anyone who is interested in studying abroad or interning in China should fully do their research before choosing an organization, to ensure that they go with the most professional company available.
ReplyDeleteNice Try CRCC but I can't believe a word you say after learning that two of your own employees were caught making fake YouTube testimonials and that your company claims to be be operating since 2006 but Scam.com and Internet Registration records indicate you have only been operating a website since 2011! Also note that they operate 90 other websites and changed their domain 5 times...
ReplyDeleteReverse Whois:
"China Consulting Ltd" owns about1 other domains
Registrar History:
1 registrar
NS History:
5 changes on 3 unique name servers over 4 years.
IP History:
8 changes on 6 unique IP addresses over 4 years.
Whois History:
72 records have been archived since 2009-02-05 .
Reverse IP:
90 other sites hosted on this server.
Of th e90 other web sites owned by Edward Royce I traced 8 of them to "Internship Review Sites" which are supposed to be "unbiased" but which all give raving reviews about CRCC! 6 ther domains are linked to blogs about "Working Overseas" and guess what? They all plug CRCCAsia.com with links directly to their website!!! Gee, what a surprise heh?
I also noticed all the "404 Errors" that pop up now when people try to connect to the complaints about your company. Since I work for an IT company as a technician I am well aware you are using a hacker to clean-up your bad reputation on line by corrupting links. Hiding the truth is something you guys do pretty well. Rather than buy into your rebuttal, I think I will believe the facts I found here
https://www.ripoffreport.com/r/CRCCasiacom-aka-CRCC-China-Internships/internet/CRCCasiacom-aka-CRCC-China-Internships-Classic-Bait-Switch-Scam-That-Targets-Univers-1058346
http://www.abroadreviews.com/scam-alert-crcc-china-internships-are-fraud
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130520013320AAKutvN
http://chinascampatrol.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/china-work-abroad-scams-growing-blacklist-whitelists-now-being-compiled-your-help-requested/
In summary I think it is shameless for CRCC to now want us to believe an "envious competitor" is responsible for all their troubles and complaints. This is even worse than the last time in 2011 when they tried to blame "a disgruntled employee"!
This is what Scam.com had said about these guys...
Deletehttp://www.realscam.com/attachments/f8/4335d1371053204-beware-crcc-fake-china-internship-fraud-targeting-unemployed-university-students-nomaxim.jpg
A legitimate company has no need to change their name and web site address so many times, nor should they refuse to give the name of the owners. Today I called and politely asked for the name and mailing address of the company president to see if was Daniel Nivern or Edward Pearce but I was told to send an email to the customer service dept!
Viper is right - someone has been deleting negative posts about CRCC from the internet. This Google link is now broken and last week there were six comments at the site about CRCC and only one of them had something good to say;
ReplyDeleteJob Discussion Forums :: View topic - Beware of CRCC Fake Paid ...
forums.eslcafe.com › ... › China (Job-related Posts Only)
May 30, 2013 - 9 posts - 6 authors
Also, from the Google cache I was able to copy this post which was deleted from teflnet.com within the last few days as well;
Warning! CRCC Internship China Scam - CRCCAsia.com
by Sanchez » Sun May 26, 2013 1:20 am
My sister just got ripped off by these con artists and I want everyone to know that they cannot be believed. She paid $3,000 for an internship in China to work in "International Trade" as a broker and after paying another $1,100 for air fare and her visa and 1,000 for an apartment, she gets to China and is given a job handing out flyers on a street corner and then sending 150 emails every day for a Chinese company that has six different web sites and sells fake products on Ali-Baba! They told her "the company does over $3 million a year in international trade" and therefore she got her wish to work with an "International Trade Company"!!!!! I found this link an hour ago:
http://chinafraudpatrol.blogspot.com
I can think of better ways to lose $5,100 in China - like booze and hookers!
Re: Warning! CRCC Internship China Scam - CRCCAsia.com
by FranklyFrank » Wed May 29, 2013 12:13 am
Here is the only and best internship in China: http://www.ciscglobal.com/ It is called CISC Global and my best friend an I used them and had no complaints at all. We give them a 10!
FranklyFrank
Re: Warning! CRCC Internship China Scam - CRCCAsia.com
by Venus » Sat Jun 01, 2013 12:14 am
Frankly Frank, I think you are a spammer! Thanks OP for the alert. Here are some other links that suggest you may be right about the CRCC China internship scam,
http://www.esl-jobs-forum.com/viewtopic.php?p=13382
I agree with you Bulldog. If you call a company they should be able to tell you who the owners are straight away if they have nothing to hide.
ReplyDeleteCRCC and China Solutions are two different companies. I can't understand why anyone would pay money for an internship in China when they can just go to the Beijinger expat forum and find a real job in less than a week. I am shocked that companies like this can actually turn a profit.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this company is any different than any other Chinese company. They are all greedy and they bend the truth for the sake of sales. No matter what people say on line, they will pay some SEO guy a few dollars to make all the bad stuff disappear. The fact they gave been doing business so long proves my point.
ReplyDeleteTwo years ago I was contacted by some sale rep from CRCC asking me if I wanted a "free foreign intern" for my import-export company. Of course I was curious enough to read the material he sent me and I read the links and visited the web site. I was impressed with his presentation enough that I did some research on line. I found enough negative posts that killed my interest. Today I see most of those posts are gone and replaced with glowing "testimonials". Today it is too easy for companies to create their own buzz on line with fragrant rose posts and hide all that smells like dog shit.
Scams in China don't get shut down. They become a source of income for local officials. Bribes are just part of the cost of doing business over there. I worked over there for seven years and this reality became obvious to me in my first year of doing business. It is good to be back home in California.
Talk about audacity! In a time when unemployment is so high in the West, these greedy slimeballs are selling the privilege of working for free! Then to rub salt in the wounds of their gullible twit victims, they make them pay air fare so they can get screwed in a foreign country where there is no legal recourse. What a brilliant scam!
ReplyDeleteThis CRCC outfit is telling people to work on an F visa which is 200% illegal. Since the "F" visa will no longer exist as of July 1st, 2013, I wonder what they will be telling their victims then? But I must admit one thing... This is one of the most believable scams I have come across in my eight years in China. If I was a young university grad, I myself would probably have stepped in this bullshit too. Just like real shit, the older it is, the less it smells. The less it smells, the harder it is to find and identify. This shit from what I can tell is more than two years old. I guess in China we get so used to scams we lose our sense of smell.
ReplyDeleteMore deletions from the same web site:
ReplyDeleteAll in all the CRCC marketing people get an A+ for spamming their crap all over the internet but they get an F for the truth. They are clearly leading people down a gold-plated path paved with lies. The problem is their fabrications far outnumber the complaints online which people seldom see unless they dig past page 10 on their search engines. This is a bloody scam for sure.
.Top
Reply..Fri, 06/14/2013 - 10:56 #8 . By: Mel
Age: 28
CRCC Asia Scammers "Editing" Their Website Now For Convenience
What a convenient response CRCC! Just last week and for the last few years (according to other posts at the below links) you were advertising "paid internships" and just NOW after someone points out that is against China law to pay interns a salary, you suddenly claim you do not do it and delete your "paid internship" words from your website! Let's be consistent here - or at least try. Read these links and you will see that you have offered many illegal "paid internships" in the past to people and even the New York Times article says so!
Also, there are other more disturbing discrepancies point out by ScamAdvisor and Scam.com about where your company is located and who owns it. Read for yourself -
"Analysis Details:-
Although this website appears to be based in Germany there are other countries involved and you should review this information carefully and decide if it is as you expect.
Scamadviser has detected negative online feedback associated with this company so you may want to do further checks."
Above taken from: http://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/crccasia.com
And Scam.com says that the CRCC company is registered to a non-existent third party.
CRCC further tell people to get "unbiased reviews" at links they provide (all paid review sites full of their own shills. These sites will publish whatever you want so long as you pay them money) but they never tell you to go to yahoo and just search or you'd find this-
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130520013320AAKutvN
If you keep searching you may even find what U.K. students have to say at these links:
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/anyone-heard-of-crcc-asia
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=42899270&highlight=CRCC scam
Hey! A lot of people say a lot of good things about CRCC so stop bashing them. Here is someone who actually claims to have used them:
Deletehttp://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1726536&page=2
I was never happy with the internship. A lot of my fellow interns were not happy too. CRCC was powerless when it came to raising our problems and concerns with our employers. They also will keep you inside an invisible dome, away from possible opportunities in China. Others chose to remain silent, probably because their experience was so-so, or they belong to the 10% that probably found some meaning with their internships.
ReplyDeleteWe were given a survey at the end of our internships and most wrote they will never recommend CRCC. I think what is lacking is the amount of formal complaints.
Go Abroad China (GAC) are a scam internship company as well. Be very careful of them.
ReplyDeleteAnother bull***t "company" is Getin2China! I was dumb enough to pay the $300 deposit but after they failed to find me an internship I demanded a refund (it's included in their terms and conditions which I read after I waited 5 months for them to find me an internship) and to this day I am still waiting for my refund which they claimed to have paid "a long time ago". I can't take it up with PayPal because the payment cleared well over 45 days ago (in January!!!) but seriously don't ever bother with any of these China internship companies. It's better to go directly to a company to seek work than any of these scams. No matter how much they try to pour glitter over poo that's what they are - SCAMS!!!
ReplyDeleteBy no means is CRCC the only company being blasted with scam allegations. i-to-i and www.OnlineTEFL.com has received over 3 dozen complaints in the last six months alone. People need to be very weary about agents outside of China that are not registered inside of China where the law can go after them if there is fraud involved.
ReplyDeleteWe have 5 suggestions for anyone that wantsto do an internship in China...
1) Find an use an internship company inside of China that is registered and has at least a 5 year track record that is owned by foreigners - NOT Chinese.
2) Make sure there is a 100% refund policy if you do not get a placement within a reasonable amount of time.
3) Be sure you are not forced to take the first company that wants an intern. You should have at least a second choice.
4) Insist on knowing what is included and not included in your internship packages. Most surprises in China are unpleasant ones.
5. If you have a good or bad experience, please come back here and share it with others!
Hi, if they have so many people being trapped in their scam then why isn't there much feedback from them online?
ReplyDelete