Heavens to Murgatroyd! Offshore scams? Who'da thunk it?
Posted By: HomeAlone on 2009-04-01
In Reply to: Indian call centre credit card 'scam' exposed - Tli
All my illusions have been shattered.
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MT scams
I too am in the same boat as you. I have been doing this for over a year now, mind you it was part-time. Before I started with them I went to college and became a Office administrative assistant/medical. I wanted to do transcribing and thought it would be good to do it from home on my days off work. I work at a drug store as well. Well, needless to say I have not yet passed a test. The last one I did, I had one letter wrong. Anyway, I went into the BBB site to check up on them and they are not even a member. I emailed my trainer last night and so far I have heard nothing in response to that letter. I showed her what BBB had to say about the company. I am not even sure if my foot pedal will be universal if I should apply for another transcription job. If you know of the article or what is was called in the Parents magazine please let me know. I want to have as much ammunition to show this company. I guess before you complete the course you have to pay them something. This is one thing that they forgot to tell me. MMMMMMMMM Well, if you can get back to me on this I would appreciate it as I am in the same boat as you.
Patty
There are a lot of scams on Craiglist. If you
see a post for a "free" anything and it also has img after the post instead of pick it is 99.99% a scam and I wouldn't even open the post.
It is a good site to get your feet wet if you are considering E-bay. CL hasn't quite caught on in a lot of places yet, but with e-bay prices keep going up and people tired of pay outrageous shipping, I'm sure it will get bigger quickly.
Kristen Pineda scams
Kristen has been operating on a Rick Pineda ebay account. Someone has to stop her, she has bilked myself and anther gentleman out of money also. The local police know her well. She must think she is to smart for anyone to figure out how to stop her. The Oklahoma Attorney General may have to jump in and get involved and lets get her in jail where she belongs.
Lets start here:
Oklahoma
US v. Lansford
On January 19, 2000, Christine Lansford was indicted in the United States District Court, Western District of Oklahoma, on 14 counts of mail fraud for allegedly offering Beanie Babies on Internet auction web sites, accepting payment and failing to deliver the goods. Lansford allegedly used numerous aliases to perpetrate her scheme.
This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, Fort Worth Division, and prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Oklahoma.
Contact:
Joe Heaton, Assistant United States Attorney, Western District of Oklahoma, 405/553-8772
Work At-Home Scams
Sorry, I put this on the Biller and Coder Board by accident.
Has anybody clicked on the add that comes up on the top of this page from time to time that asks you if you want to make major money working part time at home. I clicked on it and it said something about Rebate Processor Positions. I figure it is another scam and I should not have clicked on it, but I am getting sick of making pennies per line for the past 10 years doing medical transcription and getting no where. Anyway, I was just curious if anybody knows anything about this potential scam??  Thanks!
Please post offshore topics on Offshore Concerns board. (NM)
Thank you.
Goldbird
Accreditation matters. It helps to avoid scams, but not always. sm
Pick a good school. It is extremely difficult to get hired immediately, even when graduating from an accredited school. It is a hard row to hoe. Most companies require at least 2, usually 5 years of time on the job. They just don't have time to train new MTs.
Merciful heavens! nm
x
Good Heavens!
If you were an employer and you had an employee who wouldn't quit even though you paid them less and less every year for 20 years, well, must I finish the sentence?
How can you NOT do both? How can you NOT take care of kids and do this? Heavens!
Why try to scare off any potentials mothers who want to do this? The first poster says she "neglected" her kids, and next time around would have movies or something for them to do. What did she do with her poor kids? I don't think I want to know, but its a no-brainer to have things organized to amuse the kids, etc. I think there are just some mothers who have no "instincts" so to speak - their kids survive by the Grace of God. But there are LOTS of mothers with good instincts and organizational skills, as in multitasking. I, too, started in this industry with my 6 month old daughter on my lap literally. It was challenging, and I did it full time, but my kids, all 3, were raised while I was MTing. They are FINE, and we are a closely-knit family. I'm not saying it wasn't challenging but that was THE WHOLE POINT OF working at home. Lots and lots and lots of MTs do it for just that very reason - OUR KIDS. However, they're not usually on this board wasting time! I think the position here is too skewered - anti-kids, anti-husbands, anti-work, anti-bosses, anti-authority, anti-Indians. While every single other MT board is swarming with happy MTs who are thrilled to be home with their kids, and balancing work with kids, and doing it well! It can be done, and it can be done very well, and it is the #1 REASON most MTs in their childbearing years transition to this career! And it WORKS!!
Good Heavens!! Do you have a life?
nm
Good heavens! Where is this hostility
What makes you think MTs are slobs? My goodness! Now I remember why I don't visit this board often.
I truly hope something good will happen for you and you will feel better. It is obvious that you are hurting deep inside. Good luck to you, and I mean that sincerely.
For heavens' sakes. It's not all those Canadians SM
--and others--doing work for US companies that makes the future so questionable for us. It's whether healthcare dollars should be invested in our work at all; and if a narrative-style record is retained, how much of one? We have a new administration coming in Washington in a few weeks already expressing a commitment to saving healtcare dollars by forcing an accelerated move to a nationwise EHR system. Will our work be in it at all? ? ? I've said it before, all it would take would be Medicare announcing in future it would no longer reimburse narrative-report costs to do away with most of our jobs within months.
I'm not saying this WILL happen--a narrative record is very important to communication. A list of A, B, and Cs just isn't the same. AND, speech recognition means it is becoming much more efficient, thus cost effective, to produce, which I'm hoping will be the salvation of at least some of our jobs.
But if I were you, I'd stop worrying about strange-looking boogymen with funny accents in far lands and start worrying about economic realities and revolutionary changes going on right in front of us right here at home.
But AFTER the holidays. Wishing you happy ones. :)
Heavens, no. A computer is personal, like a toothbrush! They have their own. nm
x
Heavens no, but in this business the pay is falling as we speak
I have been outsourced twice, once in 90 making almost 60 thousand a year to a 20 thousand dollar decrease for another job and then outsourced again to VR. I used to work extra, overtime, etc. but now I NO LONGER HAVE TO. I can hit over $20.00 per hour, only working part-time, my choice and if other people want to do differently, that is them. I owe no one anything and I do not work harder, if anything easier for me, I love it, I am happy. It may not be for everyone but I don't have to worry about where my next check coming from like in the past. If others do not want to do, let them choose otherwise. The VR I do is an excellent platform, most have very little editing to them and others should get out of MTing if they think they will not be able to afford to make a living doing it.
Heavens, now you're popping in about NOT having kids. You've sure been quiet for a while!
If you read the whole thread and all my comments, I said that MTing is a big career choice for women in their childbearing years when they want to work at home. We ALL know that, though some of us want to refuse that reality. It always has been the #1 career choice for women who want to work and be home with their kids. Period. Of course, there are a lot of other women who choose the career or fall into it for different reasons. Its like the #1 job new moms or wanna-be moms look into. You all sure blast them when they post on here with a few innocent Qs on how to get into the industry. You don't have kids by choice - good for you! You and I have crossed paths many, many times before. Its a great choice for you, and I totally respect it. At least you aren't having kids and dumping them in day care centers! That I just do NOT get, and never will, especially when you could have them home with you - at least the choice is there. And as for moms not being able to control their kids, you will NEVER be able to control them when you just ship them out. No one ever seems to post an argument on that one. Yeah, I couldn't control little Johnny and Sara. They never wanted to just entertain themselves, or play with each other. All they did was fight and scream and demand MY attention, so...off they went to day care, and now its SO much better when they're home. They get along beautifully now, and just LOVE each other, and no more fighting...Nope, the only peace is the 8, or 10, or 12 hours a day that they are absent from their home. Sooo sad. And the poor day care workers and teachers - they get to deal with the disastrous kids whose own mothers can't stand them underfoot, but at least they get paid $$ for it!! Maybe I'm in the wrong profession.
You do know that they offshore, right?? Despite what they tell you -
about the hospitals asking, other hospitals have no idea that the accounts are being transcribed offshore!
They offshore and looking to do more. I have
nearly 20 years' experience in acute care, can do even the most difficult ESLs and they offered me 8 cpl, 8.5 cpl over 18,000 lines/pay period.
does not offshore
AccuStat Carolinas does not for any of their clients
They offshore. nm
Try not to offshore.
They might get it done faster/cheaper, but it is going to look like crap. How happy would your clients be then?
All About Offshore
Sending the work offshore can and does work for a couple of reasons.
Firstly the time zone difference, while the US sleeps we are transcribing and the reports back on the specialists' desks, so to speak, when they arrive at work the next morning.
I do not take issue with the fact that you want to keep the work on your shores, but I do take issue with the fact that you think the rest of the world is Third World and incapable of producing work of a high standard. Believe me, there is a world out there and its name is not the US, contrary to what you might think.
A.
Even if they never offshore....sm
when their contracts renew they will be competing against the offshoring companies and the companies offshore already who will bid them under the table and they'll lose the account.
There are several interesting threads, articles, and blogs across the internet concerning the dying industry of the small MTSOs because of not having the capital to keep up with the technology and equipment needed and the decreasing line rates and increasing turnaround times that the facilities are demanding - and big national companies can offer them these things, so they can blow the small MTSOs out of the water.
There is no such thing as security in any job, but the MT industry is on even shakier ground. When your small MTSO has to sell out or loses their contracts and you lose your $36/hour client, you will find that very hard to replace when you go out into the new world of MT and try to find a comparable job today... there just aren't many out there and those that are have hundreds of MTs applying for them.
Now that's getting real...
Offshore
This is sooooooo not true. I work an afternoon shift and have friends/coworkers who work the midnight shift. Despite, this, even during the day shifts, the company we work for is sending all of the easy work offshore, leaving us domestic suckers to do ALL of the ESLs and otherwise hard work. This work was being stripped off daily, in ever increasing amounts --- now it is gone completely. Most of us do not mind doing all of the work as it comes --- but it absolutely sucks that we are being treated this way.
Offshore VR (sm)
I would think so. Personally, I think VR is better suited to newbie MT's and non-English-speaking transcriptionists because VR has a tendency to get the medical words right while totally mangling sentence structure, grammar, proper nouns, and other nuances of transcription that are more easily picked up by novices. Since the medical words have a better track record in VR, it thus becomes easier to bring in low-paid trainees.
Are you offshore?
Your grammer is soooooo bad, I can't take you seriously.
Oh, I have too, for offshore ads. But not U.S.
Oh so you are another offshore supporter?
Sounds like YOU may be the creep.
Offshore Ad on this site?
I was just over on the State Boards forum and saw an Ad for AAAMT saying they charge 5.9 cents per line. Unless they have monkeys working for bananas, they must have offshore workers because we could not put bread on the table for what they would have to pay after Charging 5.9 cents per line. They offer everything that the big MTSOs offer at 1/3rd to 1/4th the price so I think we can be sure they are not hiring US MTs. I believe MTSOs usually pay the MT around one-third what they charge so at 5.9 cents per line, we would be making around 2 cents a line. Ads like this make me question this site's loyalty to US MTs. 
You are offshore and got caught.
/
Nope, even more would end up offshore.
//
They also offshore to Trinidad.
y
Transcend does not offshore
but they are going to voice recognition which has a lot of bugs along with a paycut to about 4 cents a line. There are some other posts on this page about good companies because somebody else asked about them and they made a decision about it. It is probably your best answer. Sorry about the job loss. Why do things always happen around the holidays? Good luck to you.
Don't they offshore big time?
I've never worked there, but I've heard they will undercut American MTs just to send the work overseas.
I beg to differ, OSi DOES offshore.
Or, trying to kid, it is a very well known fact that OSi offshores.
They OFFSHORE and are wanting to do even more.
Pay not that good. I have 20 years' experience in acute care, can do ESLs and was only offered 8 cpl.
Which companies do we know do NOT offshore?
x
re: Which companies do we know do NOT offshore?
Transcend.
Amphion Does Not Offshore
www.amphionmedical.com
They offshore, pay is average. nm
Cymed-offshore
Well, thank you! You just answered a question I asked Cymed.....and they never answered! 
offshore crap
P
If all they had was the offshore companies
to transcribe, do you know how unhappy the M.D.'s would be. They are already complaining. There would be enough jobs if no one worked for the offshoring ones. Idealistic? Yes, but.............
Offshore concerns
They are smart , and that is why the jobs are going to them! Jobs don't make people smarter; smart people do their jobs well. If you don't believe this then you must question the wisdom of the American MTSOs and companies that outsource. As I have said before, all Indian MTs are not bad and all US MTs are not good. I've seen excellent quality from India and poor quality from the US - that's the other side of the story which none of you wants to see, let alone admit.
This is why I call US MTs insular. If you will only look outside of your own town/state/country you will see how the world has changed and the so-called developing countries have advanced in many ways.
The problem with the US is it has been functioning too long in a cocoon, sheltered and protected. But with the coming of the global age, competiton has become fierce and jobs are moving overseas and it is now finding it difficult to cope in this new business climate.
You say "sadly" because it affects you but have you ever wondered how Indians like it when American companies dump poor quality goods on them and Indian businesses have to shut shop because they can't bear the competition? Of course most of you would not have heard that pesticides were found in bottles of a premier American brand of soft drink sold in India!
Instead of treating "offshoring" as some terrible phenomenon, it is high time US MTs learned to accept the situation because this is the New Age Economy where everything is decided in competition.
if they use the BOS on offshore sites.
If so, the AAMT must be making a killing.
Offshore telemarketers
I had one call for Direct TV. I answered the phone and he was having a conversation with his buddy in their native language. I said hello about 3 times before he said hello. I said hello again and he hung up. I called the number on the caller ID back and another foreigner answered, asking if he could help me. I told him I didn't know, they called me. "Well your number has been selected to receive a free system. How many TVs do you have?" I told him I wasn't interested. "Is it because you have cable?" I told him no. Then he asked if there was any particular reason. I paused a minute and said no, not wanting to be mean. But I think the next time, I will be getting the number for the corporate HQ and contacting the company directly and filing a complaint.
And you wonder why people offshore...
"As soon as company has to place these kind of restrictions they will need to bite the bullet and hire employees"... when people get to be too much a pain in the a--, they WON'T bite the bullet and hire employees, they'll hire Indian MT's. Do you know what a PAIN it is to do the government forms that come with employee status? YIKE.
I never heard of that! For a while, offshore
companies weren't welcome to advertise, but I have never heard of MTs not being welcome here, no matter where they are from. Perhaps you are thinking of companies and advertising, but that was a while ago.
Offshore Can Work
Dinosaur,
You are also making an assumption that this is a US/Asian thing while it is not. I am in fact an English-speaking South African. The fact is we do not run sweatshops, I earn more from my own doctors here than I do from the US clients I work for. There were various posts, I was not singling out yours, that inferred things like "pseudopsychologists", "sweatshops" and the like. In fact, there were posts that referred to the poor quality of work. I really do think that one of the big reasons offshore does work is because of the time zone difference - and that's not a bad thing if patient's can get back their reports timeously. Is it so foreign an idea that we could possibly work harmoniously together?
AnnieK
Offshore can work? Obviously it can and does....sm
But once again you're missing my point. Yes, the time zone difference makes it advantageous to send work offshore! Yes, it is a good thing to get patient records in as expeditious a manner as possible! I'm glad your not running a sweatshop, however, I never said that offshore transcription companies were running sweatshops! Yes, I am guilty of assuming (based on previous responses to my postings that you were from an Asian country.) Mea Culpa! Sorry, just an incorrect assumption on my part.
But, you are missing my point! Americans cannot compete on an equal basis with countries whose economies make it possible to live well on what is well below the poverty level here in the US. Just a plain, unpalatable fact! As an American I am asking other American transcriptionists to make our Senators and Congressmen (and women) aware of the complexity of offshore outsourcing in all fields. While it has it's benefits it also creates unemployment. America cannot survive if all jobs that CAN BE done by professionals overseas are outsourced. Furthermore, other than the time zone difference, the only reason work is being outsourced is money. Money that is going back into the coffers - not to build up the company, not to expand, but, more and more often only to be placed into the hands of the CEO's. CEO's that get "golden parachutes", CEO's that get fired for mishandling the company and take their 100 million dollar "parachute" and leave - only to take another CEO job that may or may not be good for the company. There is no pre-requisite in their contract that the company make money or do well! That's why we're being nickeled and dimed to death here. Greed and avarice!
I don't believe in socialism, I am a firm believer in democracy. However, I believe in taking responsibility and doing what is not only good for "me" but what is good for the country. Old fashioned and out of date, maybe, but I think if America is to succeed in the 21st century we need to start thinking about what America and Americans need and not just "get mine while the getting is good".
So, I have no problem with working harmoniously with any group of professionals. But I do have a problem with the fact that Americans are losing jobs due to economics. Especially since I believe that the factors leading up to the economics is due to greed and mis-management.
Keystrokes does not offshore
x
There was an offshore forum before
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