I first saw Tribewanted on Digg.com, and thought it was a pretty cool idea -- in fact I was considering participating. But after spending an hour on the Tribewanted Web site, I realized that I wasn't really sure what I would be getting into, and the site seemed like it was purposefully vague in several key areas. That's when I first suspected that it might not be legitimate; after two days of research and a brief email exchange with the woman handling PR for Tribewanted, I felt that there were enough red flags to warrant an article on the matter.
To save you from having to read the marketingspeak on Tribewanted's site, here are the basics. You pay anywhere from US $220 to $660 to stay from one to three weeks on Vorovoro, a small island in Fiji (a small, very recently democratic, Pacific island country). Currently this island is mostly undeveloped and privately owned by a native Fijian family. The owner now wishes to turn his island into an eco-tourist spot, which is strongly supported by the Fijian government.
Once you purchase your place in the tribe, you will be allowed a stay on the island commensurate with the price you paid -- one, two, or three weeks over a period of one, two, or three years. Your weeks are not guaranteed, and must be reserved in advance. Once on the island, you're encouraged to "help" in some way -- what way that might be is not specified, but the Tribewanted owners are asking for people with a wide variety of special skills to join. The tribe does not form unless 5000 people sign up before September of 2006, and if that goal is not met, Tribewanted promises to give you your money back; this is the only way to get a refund from Tribewanted.
Speaking of the owners, they are Ben Keene and Mark James, two British men in their mid-20s. They formed Tribewanted, a UK-based limited company, to collect money from tribe members and manage the tribe's infrastructure.
The pre-paid tribe members congregate in an online forum on Tribewanted.com, which is supposed to be the basis for the future island community. And that's where things are as of this writing. If you've got your head on straight, you're probably at least somewhat suspicious of this ambitious business venture. In light of that sentiment, let's examine some of the reasons why Tribewanted reeks of "scam."
Read over the Tribewanted Web site and see if you can determine exactly what it is, who is paying for it, who is profiting from it, what happens if the company goes bankrupt, and what happens if people with the requisite island- and community-building skills don't sign up. What happens to people who refuse to leave the island when their allotted time is up? If the Fijian government requires a five-year business plan for a commercial land lease, then why is Tribewanted only offering tribe time slots for three years?
If you think that those are good questions to ask before you shell out hundreds of non-refundable dollars to these two guys in England (plus at least several hundred more for travel expenses), then you've got your head on straight.
It looks like most of the critically important issues are to be decided when and if 5000 people pre-pay to join this Internet tribe. So you pay in advance, then someday you get to help decide how a privately owned island is developed over a three year lease to a company that you've paid to be a part of. Then you go and stay there (where? In a tent? In a hut? On a boat? In a hotel?) for anywhere from one to three weeks if there's room for you on the roughly 200 acres of land when you're available to go. While you're there, you're expected to "help out" in some way, with services and jobs unknown. What will you have to do? What will happen if few or no skilled people sign up? There are so many unanswered questions that you'd have to set aside your internal scam-o-meter to buy into this.
Speaking of money, look at how much they're charging: US $220 for a one year membership, which entitles you to one week on the island, and as much Internet forum drama as you can handle. That week is not, however, guaranteed -- so you could theoretically pay the fee and not be able to stay on the island. There is a two year/two week plan for $440, and a three year/three week plan for $660.
In the Tribewanted FAQ, the project leaders state that your membership does not start until September 1, 2006, and even then only if 5000 people join. Tribewanted of course promises that it will refund your membership fees in full if the tribe does not form. However, the FAQ also says that once you sign up, you can't get your money back: "Tribal members cannot cancel their membership once they have joined and there will be no refunds in any circumstances. If a tribe member decides not to take part in the online community or visit Adventure Island their membership fee will not be refunded."
These restrictions suggest that the Tribewanted organizers may be using the advance payments for their own purposes. If you pay your fees in advance, but can't get a refund for any reason, that could mean that Tribewanted is not unwilling, but unable to refund your money, potentially because it is being invested or spent elsewhere. If the tribe does not form until 5000 people join, why must you pre-pay? Every reputable online retail store does not charge your credit card until the merchandise ships or the service begins, so why would you pay so far in advance for a tribe membership that may not happen, then trust two guys on the Internet to refund your money?
If this deal goes belly-up, who will pay for the Web site design, server fees, network costs, office costs, travel expenses, and lawyer's fees that Tribewanted has no doubt accrued since its creation? Who will pay the publicist for her work? Where will this money come from? Out of the pockets of the two Tribewanted owners, who claim that they spent the last of their savings on a return flight from Fiji to the UK a few years ago, or out of the membership pre-order money? Would it surprise you to learn that Mark James and Ben Keene -- Tribewanted's owners -- can't be held personally responsible for any of Tribewanted's debts?
I am not a lawyer, but for this article I spent an afternoon reading up on British business law and how it applies to Tribewanted. That doesn't qualify me to make any definitive statements about legal liability, and the below paragraphs are only my opinions based on a novice understanding of UK business law. If you're so inclined, look up these issues for yourself.
Tribewanted Ltd. is a limited company based in the United Kingdom; this is much like a limited corporation in the US. The limited part of limited company means that the business is a separate entity from the owners, and the personal finances and possessions of the owners or shareholders of the company cannot be used as collateral for debts that the company owes. So Tribewanted Ltd., being such a company, can get itself into unfathomable debt and the only liabilities the owners have is equal to the value of the company shares each of them own. They could also take the membership money for themselves as salary, then when 5000 people don't sign up, declare bankruptcy for Tribewanted Ltd. and legally walk away with however much they collected in member pre-payments.
To put it in simpler terms: it looks like the Tribewanted owners can take all of the members' money, spend it or take it all for themselves (and may be doing this already), get Tribewanted into debt, go bankrupt, and not have to pay anything back to the tribe members. Similar scenarios happen all the time with startup companies and investor capital -- it's what the "dot com" bubble was all about. To the people who have millions of dollars to bet on a risky business investment, this is merely the cost of doing business and the downside to the risk. But the people who are signing up for Tribewanted are not investors; they do not get any company shares, and there is no expectation of a financial return on the money they are giving to Tribewanted Ltd.
If Tribewanted's organizers were really concerned with creating a community business in order to profitably develop an eco-friendly resort island, each tribe member would be a shareholder or an investor or in some other way an owner -- like in a traditional timeshare venture -- not a customer. Your membership fees would buy you shares in the company, making you actively responsible for its success. Why are two owners taking all of the money -- and company ownership and control -- for themselves, when clearly there was a more community-oriented way of forming this company and accomplishing its goals?
I'm not accusing Tribewanted Ltd. or any of its officers of fraud; I'm merely saying that they have created a scenario in which a scam could be easily executed while more ethical, safer ways to form the company were available to them. Well, safer for the tribe members, anyway. The manner in which the company was established is not in line with Tribewanted's community-centric philosophy.
A questionable financial situation could easily be excused if the owners seemed like honest, trustworthy people -- or at least sound businessmen. After all, the original "confidence man" scammed his victims by asking, "Have you confidence in me to trust me with your watch until tomorrow?" Inevitably that watch was not returned. Tribewanted asks if we have confidence in the owners to trust them with our membership money until September. Will their offer of a tribe be made good if the goal is met, or will they return your money in good faith, or will you be left out to dry? Ben Keene doesn't seem to be as publicity-hungry as Mark James is, so I can't say much about his personality. James, however, reeks of "scam artist." The first example I'll give is this forum message in response to a Tribewanted skeptic:
"OK. We are looking for dreamers who believe that fantasy can be turned into reality NOT pessimists who are out to always believe the worst. Dreamers, check out www.tribewanted.com and lets work together to see dreams become reality!"
This is textbook con-man language. Scams are always marketed to dreamers and risk-takers, and if Mark James' short diatribe doesn't sound like a carnie on an infomercial, I don't know what does. All that's missing are the parts about "this exciting opportunity" which is only available "for a limited time offer," and then, "but wait -- there's more!" These three phrases are the staples of high-stakes sales pitches and fly-by-night scam operations. You have to buy now, because if you don't you'll "miss out."
It shouldn't surprise you that those phrases are not actually missing from Mark James' various other public statements; they're just not as obvious or as close together as they are in a standard carnie spiel. The "exciting opportunity" is re-labeled as the journey of a lifetime, the "limited time offer" has been morphed into limited to 5000 tribe members and must sign up before September 1, 2006, and the added value is that you're helping to save the environment. If you'd like to see Mark James do more of his carnie act, check out his Tribewanted MySpace page, which is overflowing with effusive superlatives and exclamation marks. The blog includes such marketingspeak gems as:
When someone tells you that your dreams will come true if you give them some money, the needle should be buried on your internal scam-o-meter. It seems more like Mr. James is asking us all to give him some money so that his dreams of being rich and/or famous can come true. Ask yourself this question: if this is such an awesome adventure with so much excitement and opportunity, why is he trying so hard to sell it? An honest brew makes its own friends; if Tribewanted is so great, it should sell itself without all of this advertising. If this is a legitimate business, then why does he sound like a con man? Why do you have to be a "dreamer" to accept the terms of his deal, and what exactly does living on a Fijian island for a week have to do with people's dreams (other than Mark James's)? Even some of the Tribewanted members have their doubts -- or rather, their friends and family members have warned them that this sounds like a scam. But anyone on the Tribewanted forum who voices their doubt about the project -- or people peripheral to them who express doubts outside of the forum -- are immediately accused of being "negative" and written off as not being "the right type of person" for the tribe. By definition, people who avoid scams are not the "right type of person" to accept one.
Secondly, how is this a "history-making" event? Marco Polo sailing to unexplored parts of the world is a history-making adventure. The first moon landing is a history-making adventure. Flying across the Atlantic ocean for the first time is a history-making adventure. Put into the proper perspective, 5000 mostly white, middle-class Westerners paying $220 to camp out on a Fijian island for a week is neither history-making, nor particularly adventurous.
I've personally dealt with hundreds of public relations specialists in a variety of fields. I've seen the good, the bad, and the horrifically ugly -- the latter being only the rarest of cases. With few exceptions (Apple Computer, the SCO Group, Macromedia Inc.), public relations representatives are generally hungry for good press. When a journalist asks a PR representative for more information about the company they represent, and the PR person refuses to offer anything, you can bet that something is horribly wrong. Sometimes honest mistakes are made, and sometimes impending product releases or company announcements compel the PR and marketing departments to remain close-mouthed on certain issues. Sometimes they're overworked and underpaid and need follow-up calls and emails to get their attention. Even in these cases, though, they never want to leave you with a bad impression -- they tell you they can't talk about it right now, then tell you approximately when they can talk about it, apologize that they can't help you with your article, and offer to give you any assistance that you may need with other projects. You're usually asked if you'd like to be added to the press release mailing list. They never want to end the conversation on a sour note; PR exists only to present a positive company image to the rest of the world, usually via the press.
The person handling PR for Tribewanted is Imal Wagner, a one-woman PR machine who represents a few other questionable businesses. Wagner's other clients include authors that have books with the following titles: The One Minute Millionaire, Multiple Streams of Income, and Cracking The Millionaire Code. She also does PR for Alex Tew, the "million dollar homepage" guy. The only other two clients listed on her site also have high scam potential, though they could very well be legitimate -- an adoption-related site headed by a former news broadcaster; and a Christian-themed charity organization that deals in donated boats and cars.
The concept of ethics in public relations is at best a gray area, and at worst a complete joke; PR people are often called upon to lie to or mislead people. I'm not sure if this is necessarily unethical in a business of negotiable ethics, but Wagner seems to have a business partnership with at least one of her clients -- and it looks like yet another carnie act. A quote from her Web site's index page: "Imal & Mark and their team of experts will be revealing what they've done to become multimillionaires and create millionaires. Will you be one of the lucky ones who gets to attend this limited event that will teach you the SCIENCE OF SUCCESS used by these masters?" If Ms. Wagner is a multimillionaire, surely she could have afforded a more skilled Web designer than the one who made her site. And why is she still in the PR trenches instead of happily retired?
I wrote to Imal Wagner to try to get a better understanding of what Tribewanted was about. When I wrote these email messages to her, I didn't suspect any foul play at Tribewanted -- I merely wanted to get the details nailed down so that I could think about querying some travel magazines to do an article on it. It was only after her email responses and a visit to Wagner's Web site that I started to become suspicious of the entire operation. Here's the four-message exchange:
Jem Matzan: I'm interested in writing about the Adventure Island project, but I've found the tribewanted.com site to be light on information. Do you have a more in-depth press kit that I can look at? Or is there someone available for either an email or telephone interview?
Imal Wagner: Hi Jem, I am the publicist for Tribewanted. The Jem Report is not in my data base and a search on the internet lead me to http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/index.php which had a button for Software reviews, Tech book reviews, articles on technology and movie reviews. Your comment on ' light on information' is confusing. Please E-mail me a list of questions and they will answered via e-mail by Tribewanted.
Regards,
Imal Wagner
It's not often that someone in PR will question my viability as a journalist when all I'm asking for is a press kit. I was puzzled by many oddities in her reply. Why did she list off the kind of reviews I do? What's the deal with the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors in her message? Is she really confused by the term 'light on information,' or is this one of those PR tricks where they ignore your question and pretend like nothing is wrong? Here's what I wrote back:
JM: The Jem Report gets more than 150,000 unique visitors per month, and is generally aimed at technology news and reviews. That is probably not where I would publish a story on Tribewanted, though. I freelance for a variety of publications, and have written four books. I hope that assuages any concerns you had about my career and/or viability.
What is the Tribewanted project, exactly? Who is profiting from it? What will participants be building on the island? Where will they stay until the infrastructure is built? What security measures will be enacted to protect participants from harming one another? Before I can query serious magazines, I need to have some clear information on what's going on with Tribewanted. Do you have a press kit that clearly explains what this is, who is profiting from it, and what participants can expect? The Web site appears to be purposefully vague in these and other key areas.
IW: Hi Jem, Thank you for answering so quickly and frankly. We have given an exclusive to a major National Magazine for coverage and they will be traveling to the island with us. Their interview process has already begun and I must keep my word . Regrettably that means I must pass on an interview with you at this time.
Regards,
Imal
I don't think I said anything that would be regarded as "frank," specifically -- all I did was ask some very basic, obvious questions and make a second request for a press kit. Her refusal to send me one says that there probably aren't any pre-made press materials, and even if there are, they're probably just the same dog-and-pony show that the Tribewanted Web site offers. I wondered why she couldn't tell me which "national magazine" had the exclusive. Exclusive interviews always tweak my ethics meter in the wrong direction -- they make me think that the PR people have selected a journalist or publication that is most likely to believe their story or just print what's in the press release, and the least likely to investigate or dig deeper into the situation. Sometimes publications pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for "exclusive" interviews, but this only happens in the rarest of cases, and is again in an ethical gray area because it is essentially a business deal masquerading as legitimate journalism.
What really pushed my suspicion over the edge was the fact that she agreed to answer my questions only until she found out what they were, then said that she was unable to give me any answers. While it is possible that in the few hours between our email messages, the "exclusive" media deal was solidified, I think it is more likely that the nature of my questions -- specifically the ones about money -- scared Imal Wagner and Tribewanted. I don't need her -- or anyone else's -- permission to write about Tribewanted anyway; it's just very strange that Tribewanted's PR was so uncooperative. It makes me think that they are trying to avoid media scrutiny.
The only decent PR coming from Tribewanted Ltd. is Mark James, who prowls the Internet looking for blog posts and news stories on his business venture, and posting comments on them. I don't do comments on The Jem Report anymore -- article discussion is all in the forum now -- but I sincerely look forward to reading Mr. James' impassioned sales pitches that will no doubt punctuate this story.
Is Tribewanted.com the work of two scam artists, or are the owners just sloppy and inexperienced in matters of salesmanship and business organization? Or is there more to this story that I didn't discover? This article is merely the result of the research I did into the details behind Tribewanted/Adventure Island. It is not meant to provide definitive answers; it exists only to raise the right questions for prospective Tribewanted customers, and to serve as a starting point for other journalists or concerned citizens to do their own research into the matter.
If you're worried that Tribewanted/Adventure Island could be a scam, but like the ideas that they present, there are myriad other, less risky vacation adventures to go on. You might call a few of your local travel agents to see if they have specific packages -- often you can get some great travel and accommodation deals. If you're looking for suggestions, here are some good ones, some of which I've done myself:
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Copyright 2006 Jem Matzan.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. |