Who's who publications

[Monkey]

Recently I received a letter to tell me I have been selected for inclusion into Who's who as a young eminent business leader. The letter also indicated I could enhance my profile into whos who (tell them more about myself, career and family) and place a pre-publication order for a reduced price.

I should be excited - right? However, being cynical I doubt my business achievements would warrant a mention in anything except for entertainment value (am a very small fish). So I checked into this.

(ref UK base) There is a Who's who - produced by Oxford University Press (OUP) and they have no relationship to Who's Who Publications Limited (inc 1998). Looking further into the latter (who were the ones who sent me the letter), I find that there appears to be an association with westwon (inc 2004) and whatswhat who do - company profiling; credit info; and marketing lists.

I cannot find their publication on Amazon, only the OUP version. Have any other forumers who are freelancers or company directors got one of these letters recently? And do you know if it is real? Or is this just more phising?

[wyweb]

I was invited to join one earlier this year. They pulled my contact information from whois information. The reason I know this is because they used an email address that could only have been found in whois data. I decided I'd pass on it.

I was tempted to join though. For 29.95 I probably could have got a neat "Who's Who" t-shirt. For a few bucks more maybe even a "Who's Who" coffee cup. I guess I'll never know.

[LifeinAsia]

Maybe the book should be called WHOIS Who? :)

[encyclo]

> I should be excited - right?

No. These companies make money by charging you for "enhancing" your entry, and then they make more money by selling you copies of their book. No-one else apart from those listed actually buy them. All this is perfectly legal, of course, but the publications only exist because they are feeding off people's vanity... and almost certainly to send you a whole bunch of other special offers tailored to your profile which you have so kindly paid to give them. :)

[jsinger]

I get 'em pretty often. Funny how many online resumes you'll find that include those junk listings.

I have a star named after me. It's listed in a book in the International Star Registry in a Swiss vault.

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You know the Hollywood Walk of Fame? Just learned that to get a sidewalk star the honoree has to pay $25,000.
[en.wikipedia.org...]

[Syzygy]

Hmm, this sounds familiar. Ah, wait, here it is - from nearly a year ago...

[webmasterworld.com...]

Syzygy

[Monkey]

Thanks all for confirming my suspicions.

Hey jsinger - awesome you got a star named after you ;o)

[Monkey]

Have checked on Whois - but my details are not there (hid them when I first created my domain)......am wondering if they'd gone through "Companies House" (UK holding of all companies) and took a random selection of small companies.

(checked out from their database search on a couple of names)