Scam

No matter how street smart you might think you are, I assure you that you are not immune from scammers.  Especially if you are not paying close attention, you can be taken advantage of.

Yesterday evening, the house phone rang.  My wife was on the phone and she got the call waiting beep.  When she answered it, the person on the other end of the phone told her that he needed to speak with me. 

It seems that he had called my mother-in-law and told her there was a ‘problem with her computer, and it was causing errors on the server’.  They needed to fix it for her.  Fortunately, my mother-in-law grew up in The Bronx and is not especially gullible.  More importantly, perhaps, both she and my father-in-law are not computer savvy.   She told the guy that her son-in-law (me) handles all her computer problems and told him to call me.

I told the guy off right away and then hung up on him.  Incredibly, he had the nerve to call my mother-in-law back and tell her that I said it was ok to talk to him.  I called her a minute later she told me he was back on the phone.  I told her to hang up on him immediately, which she did.

Interestingly enough, I got the same phone call from these guys a couple of months ago. 

I don’t really know what their game is.  Are they trying to steal their target’s identity or extort money?  Who knows?  I certainly am not going to give them the opportunity to tell me.

They prey on people who are not computer savvy with techy sounding words like server and virus and computer error.  If someone is unsuspecting, I am sure they could really get hurt.  The bottom line is, if you don’t know the person who is calling you on the phone, sending you an email, etc. you simply can’t trust what he is telling you!  Be wary, be street smart and be careful.

Soom Foods – Turning a Vision into Reality

I recently had the privilege to work on a project for Soom Foods, LLC.  A startup company, Soom is the brainchild of three amazing sisters.  Their vision was to bring a quality Tehina product to market in the US.  Tehina is a sesame product sourced in Ethiopia.  The seeds are shelled and pressed into a paste like substance which is a staple of Middle Eastern recipes.  It is a major ingredient in humus and can also be used in baking and salad dressings and a myriad of other foods.

I first met Amy (youngest of the three) at a networking event in Philadelphia.  Amy explained that she and her sisters were planning to engage a factory in Israel where Jackie (the middle sister) and her husband live and have the product shipped to Philadelphia.  Omri (the brother-in-law) has a good deal of knowledge about the product, having been involved in distributing Tehina since 2005.  Shelby (the older sister) came up with the concept and is the driving force behind starting the business.  Beyond the original concept, the girls had little idea about how to get started.

I worked with Amy to create a project plan to develop the Soom Foods supply chain.  The plan needed to encompass everything from website development to finding a warehouse.  We needed to navigate the importing process speaking with the FDA and Customs officials.  Fortunately, the factory in Israel was already certified by the FDA, thus minimizing the effort in getting the product approved.  Amy’s original plan was to bring in large containers and then repackage the product here.  Instead, we arranged to have the Israeli factory do all of the packaging and labeling there making the job here much less time consuming and stressful.

The Israeli factory agreed to handle all of the shipping requirements and deliver the product directly to the Philadelphia warehouse.  The product is then sold over the web as well as to local restaurants and ethnic food stores. 

In April, Soom received their first container and actually started selling their product.  I know that they are positioned to be a huge success.

You can check out their offerings at: www.soomfoods.com