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Fake "award-winning" ID firms and there are SO MANY of them!
// with various insiders' contributions
// 1 September 2023, 8:45PM UTC +8h (updated)
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An equivalent scale of a vanity award ceremony. (Image: Shutterstock)
When you come across award names like Super SME, TOP100, People's Choice Award, etc. (not their actual names) they are indeed sounding impressive. So just before you thought those awards qualify any firm to be called "award-winning", you could be so wrong.
There were articles back in 2015 about vanity awards - awards that are "purchased" in exchange for marketing services and publicity, networking, brand exposure, advertising, etc. - and such awards existed way before 2015, and are still happening today. Those companies mentioned in 2015 have since changed their websites, and company names, and seemingly either renamed and remained under the radar or incorporated a few more other company names and re-designed the old awards.
Let's be honest, sounding good is part of selling. How many salespeople have you come across that tell you the bad features of the products they are selling instead of just the good ones? But look here, only telling the good things still didn't sound worse than faking and telling lies, right?
"The disturbing concern is the number of businesses that disregarded the very basic ethic of integrity and chose to obtain such awards to falsefully impress their customers. There is no reasonable explanation why business owners are unable to differentiate legitimate awards from those selling awards in the name of advertising and networking, other than principally wrong. There are only 2 sides of a coin, whether to be honest or otherwise. It was equivalent to a child lying to his parents that he had gotten a praise in school where he didn't. In this case, this child had purchased a forged report card"
These vanity award schemes involve businesses receiving awards not based on merit, but rather for the sole intent of using the plaque and award emblem as baits for advertising and public relation activities. Ranging from a few thousand to more than $10,000 depending on the level of media exposure and publicity.
Scam? No, certainly such advertising or publishing companies are not scammers. Scammers create plots to cheat monies and vanish, these "advertisers" don't. They are indeed legitimate businesses like what Mr. Alex Yeo, chief executive of the Singapore Enrich Group said in the 2015 news report entitled "Business awards not scam, says organiser". More related links to various reporting are available at the end of this article.
Mr. Yeo further acknowledged that the business of creating awards may be seen as controversial, but he noted that the award winners knew they were paying for publicity. He also defended that the demand came from his customers (the award recipients), that they wanted more awards to be created so that it wouldn't be the same awards displayed on the wall every year.
Through our research as of November 2022, there are 27 such awards across all industries "sold" by award-selling businesses like Mr. Yeo's
Just like any business selling products and services. In Mr. Yeo's business, the products are a variety of awards, certificates, and publicity deliverables. The services are social media ads, interviews, and networking chances with businesses that have similarly purchased their seats for the award ceremony gala dinner. Part of the perk is the photo op with the Guest-of-Honour, often an MP (Member of Parliament) at least, who gives additional credibility push. All these efforts cost resources to organise, it's a business after all.
The image on the right puts 3 awards in comparison. One legitimate award was chosen, followed by a simple and quick search on Google using the name as the search keyword.
Two suspicious awards surfaced over the search click. Let's call them the alternative awards since they are named so closely to the award handed out by the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) - Singapore Prestige Brand Award vs Singapore Prestige Class Award vs Singapore Prestige Class AwardS - (The capital "S" is not a format error).
Click image to view the full comparison table
A point to note in this comparison is that these alternative awarding firms usually have a small paid-up capital. Throughout the 10-minute search done over Google, we found at least 10 of such firms whose paid-up capital ranges from as low as $100 to $20,001. The median amount is $10,000. Some fishy facts that tickles our curiosity and nerves to want to search deeper (which didn't happen) were things like "number of officers: 0" (does that mean a defunct company?) and big incorporated name using the word "Group" but with a paid-up capital of $10,000.
Another nonlengths-related example to the above comparison is this other awarding business. Go to their website and navigate through, and ask if it raises any red flags; the vague and generic description of their objectives, poor website layout, and lack of award information.
As mentioned above, it is principally wrong, whether how these bosses got convinced or sought after these vanity awards to boost their branding, it reflects clearly their business values and the intended purpose of going to great lengths to impress their customers. This itself already crosses the line of advertising and branding and no business can sufficiently justify such an undignified method.
There are just too many awards in such form in the local context. According to SGPBusiness.com business directory, there are more than 7,700 businesses incorporated under SSIC code 74191; interior design services, as their primary or secondary business activities.
Do a random search to see how many of them boast about themselves blah blah, probably a lot. Zoom in to those who are so loud with their accolades and probably those who are the most active promoting everywhere (according to our experience, the louder they are, even those appeared to be the leaders of the interior design industry, the more questionable they are, actually).
Perhaps before dropping the big bill, discerning property owners ought to spare due diligence when evaluating their renovation and interior design candidates. Be sure many are sweet talkers, and if any of them found to be faking their accolades, ask yourself if this is a poor display of integrity? if you could trust anything else said by them? After all, low integrity and dishonest not necessarily mean bad corporate governance and bad customer experience.
Widely reported by news media and anti-fraud agency, yet this is still widely available
(Each article opens in new tab)
The Straits Times - Industry Awards: Farce or Fortune?
Aegis Interaktif Asia - Business Excellence Awards Sham or Scam
The Online Citizen (TOC) - It was a scam, says businessman of "sham" awards
1 September 2023
We have been "nominated" as well 😅
