Fake profiles and Quack pot Doctors

I was going through the list of candidates on oDesk and I am quite surprised that many claimed to be Doctor of Medicine by just with 3 years in university in Pakistan or Philippines. Don’t they have any integrity within themselves to know that MBBS or MD takes at least 7 years of training, despite 3.5 years of theories. There is somewhat a very wrong sense of belonging when the provider don’t check who the candidates are and some are still in the undergraduate stages and would be the equivalent of the second year, and already claim they are a Doctor just because they can deliver babies.

 

What is wrong with the market here anyway? Where is the checking? Now I have the deep resentment against these people tarnishing the professionalism of the life saving industry. Someone can get killed just because of these idiots. Homeopathy Doctors are NOT MEDICAL DOCTORS. They are just the same as a Chinese Traditional Medicine Practioner. Even I don’t call myself a Medical Doctor as I am just a Military Medicine Medical Practitioner, despite having done my PLAB and houseman in the UK and served 2 years in the front line.

 

Where is the sense of pride here? Please …someone answer me?!

How can you work with such....

I have been in the media and online technology field for almost more than 10 years and the recession do take it’s toll on things. I have attended many trade fairs in the region and I have seen the drop in participation and provisions to the industry, namely the pampering to the media industry.

 

Key trade players are not putting their advertising dollars and sense forward and the exhibition organizers are cutting corners. This week alone, I attended a few and there were a real letdown to my own standards and I am not speaking representing the media agencies or crew but it really feel that we are not needed anymore.

 

Why I say so is that the lack of coverage of the press about the events in forums or feeds such as LinkedIn or even ‘chatter’. And that shows a lot when even the RTM was not present at the opening ceremony of a key exhibition in Kuala Lumpur Convention Center or KLCC which shows there is something wrong with things or there was a lapse with the appointments made by the organizer and the honeypot provided to the media crew. Being KLCC is in the heart of the city center, and notoriously everything is expensive there. Parking is a real murder and even with a media truck make things harder to park and very costly. Many now hire freelancers to pick up the slack due to cost cutting measures or lack of manpower or resources to go there (mainly because there was no incentive for these editors or anchor people to be enticed to be present.. ie: Money and Time) so we do our best but when there was NO MEDIA ROOM and there was NO MEDIA PRESS KIT.. then something is really amiss. All I took back was a pen drive which had a virus in it (spyware) and a press release paper and that was that. No feeds, exhibitor profiles or even brouchers / leaflets for us to write about, in terms of new technologies and this and that. And no coffee. There was times that do happen at some expo because of lack of space, they allocated a small area to utilize the network and coupons for our food and drinks at the café (which serves terrible food btw!). Only cold water was served!

 

So it’s heck of a leg work for me, going about the booths to see what is there to write on and only ONE DECENT exhibitor was attentive enough to approach us to provide information to what they were supplying and providing which was SATO LABELLING WORLDWIDE. Despite being a small player in the Malaysian health market, they are doing their best in making medical errors a thing of the past such as patient label bands, Printout stickers for the IV and medicines and stuff. I do appreciate what they do because as a medical professional, we make many mistakes which causes death and every little bit especially in good labeling and instructions (for the patient , after discharge) are key to survival and recuperation .  Honestly, it’s a simple thing, but with good labels and barcode tagging (or RFID), mislabeled baby swap jokes are something of the past or wrong prescription dosages (TDS be QDS etc). It also cut on time and money since everything is accounted for and there should be no expired medication running about and killing someone for that matter.

 

Despite them enticing me with a possibility of winning an iPad if I go to their product seminar, I had to give it a miss since I was up on time, but the gesture is much appreciated. Their male sales staff are very attentive and always have an eagle eye for details to spot where their next sale will be is something I have to comment on, with high praises. I would have tried my luck and stayed put but I had an interview during that time with a delegate so it’s something I do remember by and I was hoping to win an IPAD (just for fun…they could give me one though!) Their quality in their product bag was THINK QUALITY, THINK SATO and they are showing the best in their quality. I just hope the Ministry of Defense would use that system instead as the current system is a real pain in the back and with every label printed means one item less on stock and we have accurate stock keeping and accountability. Their pricing is not dear at all. Far cheaper than the Australian counterpart.

 

As for our Malaysian sector, only the Malaysian Health Ministry Department of Medical Tourism are so eager to explain on what they do and the whole nine-yards. Compared to SIRIM and others, I’m so sorry but they really fail the yard stick this time round.

 

So what I think of xxxxxx Expo held on 28-30 March? A real disappointment due to the bad running of the show by the organizers.

 

Better luck next time with the media ok?

Bankruptcy issues in Malaysia

Many don't know that bankruptcy is not the end of the world. Many people still carry on with their life despite their run of bad luck as many in Malaysia are made bankrupt due to silly mistakes like bad car accidents or being a co-signer (guarantor) to car loans.

Of more than 1.7 Million bankrupts in Malaysia, there are more than 90,000 civil servants of the Malaysian government that are made bankrupt just because they failed to pay on their car loans or being a guarantor to one.

This is especially sad as there are no discharge from bankruptcy even after many years in Malaysia and for just RM30,000 , one can be made a bankrupt for that small matter. That amount works fine 20 years ago, but now anyone having an income of RM1,500 earmarked as the living below poverty line, it does not make much sense when cars are sold for RM90,000 for a Proton Inspira compared to RM20,000 when the Saga made debut.

What I propose is for the amount to be raised to RM100,000 as even that is insufficient to buy a small house being that a low cost home is valued at RM220,000!! In itself, that does not solve the stigma and problems of the borrower and creditor.

Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Act in the US Legal Code states that if someone declares under this Chapter, then he is to be stopped from being harassed so that he can catch up on payments and with no interest charged. This is inline with the Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA) rulings in the UK where a debt can be written off, or heavily discounted to the extent of the creditor of getting some sort of capital back from the debtor.

Many businessmen and women operate out of the concept of law in Malaysia when they are already made bankrupt. They use proxies, fake documents or even secondary identification documents to leave the country such as Indonesian Passports or the such. Using proxies are a thing of common doing where someone else lends their name to act on the Cash & Carry business, Signing Cheques and stuff for the company.
Some even use OFFSHORE ACCOUNTS such as Gibraltar , Cayman Islands and along those lines to launder their funds. It's a lose-lose situation for the debtor and creditor as no money will ever be paid.
Chapter 7 is where one has the whole slate wiped clean upon satisfactory regular payments to the Official Receiver / Assignees. Singapore practices this system where you get a wipe down after 3 or 7 years, depending on your debt. Many countries such as UK practice this method and is not a burden to the creditor too as they get some sort of payment back.

Since doing work on oDesk , I came across many technical knowledge on Chapter 7 which gives me insights to the business Legal Issues. So do check these sites out and learn how you can get your finances back on track. What we need to do is to learn from our mistakes and not to make the same thing again.

A real life question and dilemma...

This question was posed to be by a close friend, whom I know personally and find it disturbing.

 

Thing is that she works in a small bank, more of a community bank in the area with just 4 branches and she had her run of endless bad luck. Her son and husband were caught in a bad traffic accident thanks to a drunk and made her husband unable to work due to the spinal injury. That made him lost his job at the local yard. Her son was also badly injured and required much medical assistance. That bumped her finance off track, raking up over $80,000 in bills alone.

 

Now that the credit crunch is still about and with her meager pay as a Front Desk Officer (aka Teller+Customer Service) of $2200 a month before tax, made her unable to keep up with the minimum amount due. The interest thanks to Capital One, American Express , Diners Club and a few others are just as bad as borrowing from ” Richie the Loanshark” at over 39.9% APR (I bet even the mob will have some sort of humanitarian sense and not smack her that high of a rate) . So she intends to file for bankruptcy in the state of Michigan. The charge cards which were initially used to secure the medical services are charging her 12% PER MONTH in interest alone! This is despite her complex healthcare benefits and medical insurance who guaranteed payment. The biggest lenders won’t even consider listening to her.

 

Being a small town, this has been the talk of the town. The big boss (aka the CEO of the Bank) has got wind of it and the HR Manager has been told to let my friend go at all cost. Many were not happy with the decision and the HR Dept are telling him otherwise. So what should she do and the HR Manager do instead? Give her severance and let her go or help her out? Her work has not been that great ever since her family had that terrible accident, and almost literally broke her down in bits and pieces.

 

I know this situation happened to someone back where I worked in London, England and the guy was lucky enough to be working for an Islamic Finance & Amanah company, and that the company bought over the loans, and that the chap had to make a signed agreement to cancel all his other unsecured facilities and credit including his mortgage to the Finance Company where they assist him in the repayments and canceling a huge chunk of the credit card debt as this was part of their Credit Community Service (well, they just yank off any money held under the mosque trust fund's profits as it's part of the agreement to help the needy). But here in Michigan, my friend has no luck with that kind of thing as that don't exist in our society.

 

It's like telling her to get ready to stay on the streets and I am really crying my heart out for her and the family. $80,000 is heck of a lot of money. She is a God fearing Catholic family and even the local church can't help her out.

 

With regards

Is the Japanese disaster affecting YOU?

This is a touchy issue since many of us are on the web and I have seen severe outages in routes for the North East Asia crossing comprising of Pacific Internet, Global Crossing, SingTel Internet eXchange (STIX), AT&T, Cable & Wireless. I’m facing serious problems thanks to the fiber optic outage issue on the northern Asian region as the packets are diverted off to South Pacific and other gateways.

Heck even Google Web Cache service is giving me problems. I had to resort to TMNET DIALUP SERVICE to ensure some connectivity to the South East American hub like Texas, Florida and UK sites which are seriously lagging. Not to mention that I have data stored on my European Clouds… these are loading slower than a 28.8kbps dialup!

 

What a real drag! I thought we learnt our lesson during the last Taiwanese disaster? DURGH!

 

Doing some work...

Finally, a first job on the ODESK by the Hour.

Please feel free to check out these website forums and register.. I’m just helping to promote them…

 

Bankruptcy and issues of the Chapter 7

Care Givers and Old People’s Issues  - A MUST READ!

FREE LEGAL ADVISE forum – useful for immigration and stuff!

 

Do check it out and chip in.

 

For those going for my PENNY PER HOUR JOB.. please read the post order properly.

Fake Jobs and Scammy Offers

Of late, we read many fake job opportunities which offers more than the market rate. Forget the Mrs James and Such a name, this is more elaborate and made by so many people, a syndicate I believe.

One of them is that someone will offer you 25% of the sales from any EBAY Auction generated through your userid. Some even offer $150 and they claim that they will ship first, pay later. Don’t be fooled.

I was fooled once and ebay took away my privileges. Took me 3 weeks before I get my account back online. I asked the person for proof of ID and Address and he can only give me a sanitized US Passport. If you compare the details properly, the second line of the MICR does not add up. It’s simple to know if the person is dodgy. Even if you are in another country, then a stamp on the passport will do fine. Someone who is born in 1985 sure look as if he is 40 years old and US don’t issue 10 year passports anymore!

The first line should read <P<USAHANSELL<<PETER<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< not USA<PETER<HANSELL ..there is no way in hell someone is using PETER as his SURNAME and be addressed as Mr Peter.

Other examples of real passports are from SINGAPORE such as PASGPTAN<<AH<KAO (Mr Tan Ah Kao) or P<SGP<MUHAMMAD<<BIN<ABDULLAH (Mr Muhammad Bin Abdullah) or PASGPSINGH<<GURMIT< (Mr Gurmit Singh aka Puah Chu Kang).

In Malaysia they will be P<MYS<MAHATHIR<BIN<MUHAMMAD< as they don’t use surnames for Muslims.

There have been much scam going about, from Victoria, Australia to New Jersey USA and even as remote as Hainan in China. All these can be derived from the email address and headers.

Emails from Yahoo have headers, and so with Hotmail.

Someone said they are in London are actually emailing from KOREA:

X-Originating-IP: [210.204.160.140]

Authentication-Results: mta1292.mail.ac4.yahoo.com  from=tiscali.it; domainkeys=neutral (no sig);  from=tiscali.it; dkim=neutral (no sig)

Received: from 127.0.0.1  (HELO expo2012.or.kr) (210.204.160.140)

  by mta1292.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with SMTP; Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:40:45 -0800

Received: (qmail 7175 invoked by uid 1000); 7 Mar 2011 15:28:29 -0000

Received: from madikiza@tiscali.it by SpamBarrier by uid 1000 with qmail-scanner-1.16

                        (Spam Barrier 1.1 Processed in 0.974033 secs); 07 Mar 2011 15:28:29 -0000

Received: from unknown (HELO User) (119.110.80.26)

  by mail.expo2012.or.kr with SMTP; 7 Mar 2011 15:28:28 -0000

This is a clear cut that this email was sent from ITALY using a machine mimicking EXPO2012.OR.KR and infiltrated email account of MADIKIZA . You can always ask if these are scams or not to me…as I can smell them a mile away.

Some recruiters even fool the University and Ministries to allow them to interview candidates at embassy premises. This is rampant with Middle Eastern countries. I have a confidential list…and if your recruiter is legit, ask the document to be signed and stamped by the Department of Business Commerce or a Court. Legalise the document and verify at the embassy immediately.

I got conned ….while on JOBSTREET. Costly for me….so can I sue JOBSTREET?

What is COMPREHENSIVE INSURANCE in the United Kingdom

What is a COMPREHENSIVE CAR INSURANCE (UK) and How does that work?

Introduction

Car insurance varies in the United Kingdom which also covers Northern Ireland , the Balwicks of Isle Man, Jersey and Guernsey and the Republic of Ireland as a whole. Also known as First Party Insurance, the vehicle is covered for accidents while in the possession of the Owner, Insured or Authorised Drivers and also to any other parties, such as motor vehicles, public and private property and liability to third party as a result of the accident caused by the named persons.

Comprehensive insurance also covers damage to your own vehicle if it was hit by a drunk, Hit-and-Run , Uninsured or of your own fault such as loosing control and hitting the center divider for example and no other party was injured or damaged. Some even cover you while driving other people car at THIRD PARTY RISK, meaning damage caused to other parties.

There are many conditions of COMPREHENSIVE attached to a comprehensive first party insurance which includes, Social , Domestic , Leisure and Pleasure Use, Commuting SDLP, Business Purposes and Public Liability (Private Hire) coverage.

Should you buy COMPREHENSIVE INSURANCE?

The answer is Yes if your car is worth a lot of money should you run into an accident. In terms of ECONOMICAL SENSE , if the costs of a repair is more than the worth of the vehicle, then it is a CAT C write-off, for example a Proton Persona  which is 4 years old or any motor car which is more than 5 years of age does not warrant repairs should it be in a road traffic accident as repairs will cost more than the car itself. Rule of thumb is that any car whose value is less than 4 times the premium or $3000 is not worth insuring at First Party, unless the cost of First Party Insurance is less than a Third Party Insurance.

The answer is also YES if you are under 27 years old or had a license less than 5 years clocking less than 30,000 miles. These also applies if you tend to drive not just one car at a time such as driving your mom to her weekend activities on her own vehicle.

Comprehensive insurance are usually restricted to just the OWNER , POLICY HOLDER and AUTHORISED DRIVERS so do watch out for the fine print.

Benefits of Comprehensive Insurance / First Party ALL RISKS

The car insured are fully covered against theft, damage to other people , vehicle and property (public and Private) along with own negligence such as driving through BLACK ICE and smacking onto the sidewall of the motorway. Among other things include the following:

-          Driving other people / car at THIRD PARTY RISK (OWNER & POLICY HOLDER ONLY)

-          Theft of Motor Vehicle at Home

-          Theft of Stereo and Belongings inside the vehicle

-          Accident caused by UNINSURED or HIT-AND –RUN drivers

-          Vehicle Recovery (Tow Truck) from accident scene to your home or garage.

-          Green Card Coverage (European Union – Schengen States) Third Party Insurance

-          Complimentary Courtesy Car should your car goes into a garage

-          Outward Bound Passage – gets you to where you want to go from the accident scene to either your home or destination (EU-Home only) by any means possible

-          Discounts at many outlets.

-          Comprehensive Coverage in the British Isles, Balwicks, Ireland.

-          Windscreen cover should your windscreen breaks as a result of a flying rock on the motorway or in an accident.

-          Legal assistance.

These are not comprehensive and dependant on any additional premiums by the insurer. The AA and RAC includes most of these as standard if you take on to be a full member.

What to watch out for in a COMPREHENSIVE INSURANCE

READ THE FINE PRINT. Usually, the excess coverage is usually stated, from $300 to $2000 per accident. Some would say your NO-CLAIMS-DISCOUNT(bonus) NCD/NCB would be protected if you pay an additional premium. It is not wise if you banged up someone else and put a claim in if the repairs are less than the premium and excess combined. The premiums will drastically rise up on your renewal.

Drivers not named on the insurance policy are NOT COVERED BY THE POLICY and thus you may be out of pocket. Automatically, the Motor Insurance Bureau will have to cover the other party(or more) for 3^rd party liability.

Look out if it covers COMMUTING. If you park your vehicle in a public car park at a train station and you take a train to work, and realise that someone had nicked your car, then it is not covered as it was not declared to the insurers that you use it to commute to work. Many drivers and riders were caught out in the cold on this technicality. Don’t pinch the additional $30-$70 premium to cover yourself on the commute.

How to buy a COMPREHENSIVE INSURANCE?

There are many ways to get yourself insured. Have your details handy such as the cover note of your last insurer (or current) with the NCD, Vehicle Logbook or Registration Card and details of your drivers such as your wife and those who will be driving your car.

Getting to a nearby underwriting shop is simple but they don’t necessarily mean the cheapest rate. Students get the brunt of the insurers with skyrocketing premiums. Buying online has been a very good sense since you can check out all the relevant premiums and compare them. Don’t go for the Comparision Websites as they don’t normally give the best bargains.

One advise I normally give is to give a job title to yourself to lower the premiums. Students are costly but if you state you work in McDonalds or a local Pizza Hut, then the difference is huge as much as 70% difference. Company Directors, Doctors, Medical Professionals are charged the lowest with Actors, Drivers, Couriers (UPS, FEDEX, DHL) being the highest risk and in that category includes any GOVERNMENT CIVIL SERVANTS, Military Personnel and Police (the like).

How to find the CHEAPEST QUOTE?

CHEAPEST DOES NOT MEAN BEST VALUE FOR MONEY.

That is the actual fact. Check the value of the perks if you wish to compare them properly. These are offered by The AA, Liverpool Victoria, RAC, SWINDON and many more. Some offer cashback. I offer as much as $20 for every premium taken out to my Charity shop.

Evaluate how you are going to use the policy. Are you going to chug away daily in the car and clocking huge mileage? Is 4000 miles enough or about 20 miles daily? Are you going to drive to France on the ferry for the cheap food, booze and fags weekly or monthly?

A third party quote may be just saving you 30% off a Fully Comprehensive Cover and many people don’t realise that. Pay a little more for that extra sense of security.

 

(note: this article is submitted to a customer without payment. This is still my copyright)

Working freelance

One of the best things in town is to work freelance at your own pace and time, just as how Blogging for Money and MLM. However, of late, I have seen the stream of fraudsters targeting EBAY work. This is really a staggering cause for concern since many have been conned. I got conned back in 2005 and I did time at HMP Belmarsh for that. A customer paid me with dodgy checks which are guaranteed with a guarantee card and verified. It’s a nightmare.

 

How can you prevent yourself from being conned?

 

One of the key concern is KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER which is commonly said to identify them using normal KYC standards and as such you commit to a due diligence. If they ask you to post for them advertising, ask yourself, will you get stuck with the fees etc if the deal goes sour?  EBAY FEES are about US$5 onwards, as a rule of thumb, 2% of the gross sale.

 

ASK FOR SECURITY DEPOSIT. If they are LEGIT, they will pay you by PAYPAL, and make sure the email address matches the one they are using to communicate with you. The name must match, otherwise you can lose money. I typically ask from $100 to $2000 depending on the size of the deal and with your best bet is MONEYBOOKERS since they can’t claw back.

 

ASK FOR PROOF OF IDENTITY. ASK FOR COLOR COPY OF PASSPORT + LOCAL IDENTITY such as Driver’s License. CHECK THE PASSPORT. Make sure it is not PHOTO SHOPPED! Compare the details to your own passport. The CHEVRONS MUST MATCH, no blanks in between. The photo must face you directly, not at 45* angle as it’s only used for Green Card.

Comparable Identification are:

UK DRIVERS LICENSE (ask for counterpart..will show he got speeding tickets or not) , NOT IDP (GREY BOOK)

MALAYSIAN MYKAD (ask for License or bank passbook/Maybank Savings statement to confirm)

SINGAPORE NRIC *PINK COLOR (FRONT AND BACK, ask for a CLEAR THUMB PRINT or SINGPASS verification such as CPF statement or Voters roll)

UK VAT  Registration Certificate, Singapore or Malaysia Company Registration Certificate. Verify from SSM or ACRA (fee apply)

 

ASK FOR PHONE NUMBER, NOT JUST A MOBILE # so you can call him. Use SKYPE to make a quick call. Talk to the person. Google the phone number if you feel it’s not real.

 

I’m just poofed now..so I will add more after I move my systems to port my blogs in.

 

 

 

 

WHOOPS!

I really mess it up this time when I modified the data path files to my SQL SERVER, and yikes, I am in deep trouble.

WHAT DID I DO? Well, as a start, I had issues with some applications writing data to the MySQL Server and I have 2 instances , one MYSQL and MS SQL 2008 installed on the same frigging machine. It’s bad enough with no MOD REWRITE_RULES installed on my Windows Server 2008 R2 (LornHorn??) which is a pain in the backside. I am trying to understand where in the entire devil is the APACHE MSI files for MSWINx64.

 

Oh Well, my Outlook 2007 is also giving me pain..what the hell. Bear with it