Is Kasamba a scam? Yes and No

[cat1011]

Kasamba is not a complete scam, but it is a very dangerous place, especially for young women! Buyers need to beware! Parents needed to watch out for predators on the Kasamba site. Do not expect Kasamba to vet these experts at all, or even to remove someone who has proved to be verbally abusive to minor-aged women.

I'm a stay-at-home mom who homeschools her teenage daughters, and I really wanted some extra income. When I saw an ad for Kasamba, I joined up. Now I really need a forum to vent my concerns as a mother.

So is Kasamba a scam?

Here are the reasons the answer is "yes":
> Kasamba ignores complaints from customers about sexual harassment and threats of physical abuse. I know that some Kasamba customers have been threatened with physical violence of a sexual nature if they didn't give their "expert" a good review. And, that so-called "expert" is **still** a Kasamba expert! The women involved have complained to Kasamba repeatedly, with no response at all from Kasamba. I know, and they know, that Kasamba keeps transcripts of all correspondence, so they have incontrovertible proof that there was wrong-doing, but Kasamba ignores it. This site is used by minors, and this kind of conduct not only is reprehensible, it really scares me.
> Male experts on Kasamba often ask female clients on dates or ask sexually suggestive questions. I know this because once they are hit on, they come looking for a female tutor. Again, not only is this reprehensible, but for grown men to hit on under-age girls is really disgusting.
> Kasamba doesn't vet their experts in any way. I have a Masters degree and 20 years of experience in my field, and teaching experience to boot, but Kasamba makes no effort to verify what someone tells them.
> Kasamba experts are often not really experts. I often get requests from other Kasamba experts who need help in answering customer questions. As an example, one of the experts wanted me to help him with a statistics formula that is very basic to statistics. Out of curiosity, I looked up the formula in my old statistics textbook, and it was on page 57 of a 700 page text. It is completely impossible for this man to have never heard of this procedure if he had ever taken a college-level statistics class, and he’s on Kasamba helping people with their statistics homework.
> Kasamba does edit the ratings, throwing out unusually bad ratings. Also, if you are so disgusted with an expert that you refuse to pay, then your rating is thrown out automatically. Both of these bias the entire rating process to the positive side. Bottom line: If the expert has anything less than a 4.5 star rating, you should avoid that person. Read the comments people have left and make sure you are hiring someone reliable.
> On the ethical side of things, I often get requests of "please do my homework for me." Tutoring is one thing, but having a way out of your homework (if you have the money) is a bad thing. Most Kasamba experts have no problems with doing someone else's homework instead of trying to help them to do it on their own.

Here are the reasons the answer is "no":
> I average $200 a week working from my computer, working part-time, and basically working when I want to work.
> I do get paid by Kasamba after they take their 30% cut from my fees. The percentage seems high, but it's still $200 a week in my pocket that I would not have otherwise.
> The people I help seem very genuinely happy to have received my help. (I've had no customer complaints against me personally.)


My advice ---
Read the customer reviews. Make sure the expert you choose will be reliable. Don’t give out any personal information to the experts until you’ve developed a relationship with them and you’re sure you can trust them (this includes your email address).

I have met many nice people through Kasamba, both as clients and other experts on the site. If you have the skills that people are looking for, then Kasamba will provide a way for you to get in touch with people who need your help. You have to be persistent at the beginning to build up a client base just as with any other kind of service business, but there is money to be made for the right person.

By the way, when I do a web search on Kasamba, most of the complaints are about the psychics on Kasamba. I can't speak at all as to whether or not any of the psychics are real or not. I am not a psychic, but an expert listed under "education and tutoring," so I can only speak about non-psychic experts on the Kasamba site.

Hoping you always find the right expert,
Cat

[KasambaIsAScam]

Kasamba...is a total rip off.

1) I have a balance on my Kasamba account and have requested numerous time for a refund. Kasamba does not respond to my requests for a refund. They will not give me my money back. I have made six refund requests for this issue.

2) Their experts are dishonest. I was working with one expert for about the last 3 months. In that time, four other people have posted their names and pictures on the same account. Per Kasamba guidelines, each account is to belong to one person only.

Ex: The same account had the following names attached to it at one point or another in the last two months: Psychic Sharona Dave, Maggie, Psychic Kenny Schmick, Psychic Kat, and now Psychic Love Emperor.

3) I paid $4000+ to one expert. She did not do the work promised and I did not get what was promised. She took my money and ran. At one point, she blocked me from being able to talk to her in chat and in email. She then blamed it on a "technical issue by Kasamba." It was not a tech. issue. She did this on her own.

She is a fraud...fake. See #2 above to see who I am referring to.

This same expert promised to give me a $2000 refund over a month ago. She lied and did not give me a refund; not even once cent. When contacting Kasamba's support department, they ask for details and then you never hear back from them.

4) Kasamba might have some experts on there that are legitimate, but there is no way of knowing which ones are. Kasamba lets anybody off the street sign up and "claim" they have credentials.

5) kasamba is based out of Israel...not Oregon. http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?...ticles%5El1483

[jed]

Interesting. I just joined myself and searched for Kasamba and came upon 2 fair comments here.

Before I deal with such a site, I usually give them a hypothetical case
and ask for a simple answer to see if I can tag the correspondent and
the site as genuine - as I did in this case.

I checked in w/ the good Dr. Ron and tried my best to get a handle on the man. After 3 or 4 tries, I had to give up. Finally I did a check on the site (which I should have done first) and found some interesting stuff (same as you probably did) at ripoffreport.com.

Sorry, I'm not into psychics and such but what I saw was enough. I
just wonder how these sites can get away with this kind of thing -
the scamming, I mean.

The 2nd post here is interesting as well, as it mentions Israel as
home base. I suspected as much.

Somehow I came across startupisrael.com and checked Kasamba
credentials there. They described it as a wonderful new startup in
glowing terms. This made me suspicious and wonder about all the
other 'wonderful starups' the latter site listed. By inference,
startupisrael.com became suspect nr. 2 on my suspected scammers list.

So I decided to check it out too via Google. But aside from a few
self advertisements I found, there was nothing much else to be
had. A really clever outfit, I thought.

Following that, I applied to register at forum@crime-research.org
in order to research the matter further. All went well until I posted
my message (given later below).

The message was rejected immediately as "possible advertisement"
or something like that and thereafter I disappeared immediately
from their registry. It was impossible to get back in or to re-register.

So, unless they are using some really lousy filtering software, I
suspect that either Kasamba or startupisrael has an administrator
there in their pay - or perhaps this is even one of their phony
setups, a typical ploy by such outfits. Clever buggers.

Now I hope I don't get the same treatment here (so far so good)
for that would really make me suspicious. These groupies may have
tentacles everywhere.

Let's see what happens when I submit this post, including the
following duplicate of what I'd sent as my 1st post to
forum@crime-research.org :

-----------------------------------

Hi all!

Am new to this http://forum.crime-research.org forum. Came here via google, searching for a list of "scam companies".

Seems to me, such a list should be maintained somewhere but no luck
so far. This should include questionable websites as well. If there's no
such reliable source, it might be a good idea for a new website started
by someone here (hopefully one with honest intentions and with some
experience on the issue).

There are 2 companies, or, rather, websites, I have questions about:

1 - www.kasamba.com
2 - www.startupisrael.com

I researched the 1st co. and among others, found that www.ripoffreport.com has dozens of damning reports on this co.

As for the 2nd co., there is essentially no denigrating data to be found on
it via google. However, the 2nd co. lists and praises the 1st as a
wonderful new startup. Consequently and by inference, the 2nd co. also
becomes suspect as falsely supporting and advertizing possibly a whole
slew of such scam companies.

I would appreciate it if someone here could provide me w/ more info
on co. #2 and/or on where I might find a reliable scam company listing.

Thank you in advance for your support,

Jed...

------------------------------------

Well, I fail to see where I was trying to "advertize" anything via the above
query - and the offer still remains open to anyone here. I would like to
get to the bottom of this pile of crap companies and if it's as dirty as
it looks, make some reports to the appropriate authorities.

I am going to post this to both senders of the 2 posts I see here and
also as a new topic - if I can...

Appreciate any and all info from members here on the issue.

Thank you,

Jed...:surprised:

[jed]

Well I guess there's really no reason to send a 2nd reply to 2nd poster here as
looks like both can see this one, if they care to. No guest readers tho' at moment.

Oddly enough, it took ages to see the 'preview'. Server time expired. Got it on
2nd try, tho'. Same thing happened when I finally posted. Had me worried there
for a while.

Jed...