Speak Asia: Your money down the drain?

When there's an easy way to earn money, it almost always is or eventually will turn out to be a preposterous scam. It's surprising how people still don't realize it. A (well educated) friend of mine very enthusiastically called me saying he'd signed up for Speak Asia. "You have to invest Rs 11,000 and you get Rs 4000 every month. All you have to do is answer two surveys a month." Now, that's Rs 48,000 you'll earn in a year for an investment of Rs 11,000; a whooping 336 per cent return for just a few clicks!! For a financial journalist who loves Sherlock Holmes; this scheme had scam written all over it, or shall I say Ponzi written all over it (elementary dear Watson). So I did some bit of sifting through various agency reports on the scheme and rewarding, it was.

For all those who haven't yet read about the investigation by the Headlines Today. Its report reveals that the leading integrated market research agency (Speak Asia) has been peddling a pack of lies. The company claims that it conducted surveys for top MNCs in India. There were reports that during a trade fair in Goa, the company's marketing team had claimed that ICICI, ING Vysya, Bata, Airtel and Nestle were its clients. However when Headlines Today contacted these companies, they refused any business links with Speak Asia.  The future of the company remains in a cloud after the various allegations that have been launched against Speak Asia.

Not surprisingly, most investors in Speak Asia are mainly Indians (we are such a gullible lot, aren't we?) The company claims to be established in Singapore (and some say Malaysia and others still say Indonesia), there seems to be hardly any investors there.

Indian officials, of course, have realized that a quick-buck scheme is RED ALERT, but nothing can be done about incase the scheme falls through most authorities claim.

An MCA official told livemint.com, that the ministry could do nothing because Speak Asia was not registered in India as a company under the law. The RBI and Sebi have also said they cannot investigate the company.

An RBI spokesperson said that Speak Asia does not come under its purview because it is a marketing-cum-chit fund company and "gives users some kind of service in exchange for money".

A Sebi official said Speak Asia does not come under its regulatory purview because it has issued no securities till date. "This is a marketing company which has just sold a software through its website for a price."

Now, they also have a foolhardy plan so that no one can be pinned by authorities.
Firstly, the company operates on franchisee model so on the face of it you make no direct payments to the company "Speak Asia", instead it's routed through its franchise (bank account) that investment amount further is passed to other investors who are entitled to some per cent of the investments . Sounds complicated? Well, that's the idea!

Now, if you suddenly stop getting your "assured" returns and Indian authorities do probe in to the entire sham; you will find that the company can easily bail themselves out. Why? Well, simply because you haven't made direct payments to Speak Asia as an entity but instead to a franchise that has  only been paid a certain percentage to forward it to the main distributor and who then further passes it on to someone else (yes, that whole complicated routing) . Ergo, the only person you can pin it on to is the investor himself (Surprise, that's you!!). Sadly, you also happen to be the victim of this whole scheme. Long story short, you were just made a BAKRA!!