How Bill Gates Inadvertently Assists Fraudsters — And How To Fix It…
BACKGROUND
This is a true story. As you probably already noticed — several exciting Climate Change announcements have been recently made. For example:
· Amazon — “In June 2020, Amazon announced The Climate Pledge Fund to support the development of sustainable and decarbonizing technologies and services that will enable Amazon and other companies to meet the goals set by The Climate Pledge. This dedicated investment program — with an initial US$2 billion in funding — will invest in visionary companies whose products and solutions will facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy”
· Microsoft — “In July 2020, Microsoft Corp. said the first investment for its US$1 billion Climate Innovation Fund will be in venture capital firm Energy Impact Partners. The software giant’s US$50 million investment will bolster the VC firm’s backing of new technologies for greener energy and transportation systems”
Years earlier, in 2015 to be exact — Bill Gates established Breakthrough Energy — “a coalition of private investors concerned about the impacts of accelerating climate change. Breakthrough Energy supports the innovations that will lead the world to net-zero emissions”.
And this is how a truly innovative US$1 billion Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) was born: “an investor-led fund focused on building the new, cutting-edge companies that will deliver on that promise. Our strategy links government-funded research to a patient, risk-tolerant capital so that more transformative clean energy innovations get to market faster”
It is worth noting that while Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund offer a simple form to submit an inquiry — BEV doesn’t…
Worse yet, BEV openly discourages any open inquiries through its unforgiving Unsolicited Proposals Policy:
“Breakthrough Energy Coalition (BEC) and Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) do not accept or consider unsolicited ideas, suggestions, information, or materials of any nature whatsoever (“submissions”) and we request that you don’t provide submissions to us. The purpose of this policy is to avoid misunderstandings and disputes when BEC’s and/or BEV’s products, services, technologies, or business are similar or even identical to your submissions.
If despite our request, you provide submissions to us or any affiliated entity or individual, regardless of any statements made in connection with such submission, the following terms apply:
1. BEC and BEV will consider the submission to be non-confidential and non-proprietary.
2. BEC and BEV will have no obligation of any nature whatsoever relating to the submission.
3. The submission automatically becomes property of BEC and BEV and BEC and BEV may use, disclose and distribute the submission in any manner and for any purpose without compensation to you or any third party”
PROBLEM
For one reason, or another — BEV can’t be contacted. There is no Contact Form to fill and there is no phone number to call. However, BEV’s Team Members are proudly displayed on its website. There are 32 names and photographs — for all to see.
Of course, there are no emails to contact the Team Members either — which creates a huge problem of a possible: IDENTITY THEFT, FRAUD & IMPERSONATION. This is a true story of such a case that I recently encountered. You’ll be shocked…
Over the last few years, I published over 75 posts on LinkedIn and tweeted ~8000 tweets. So, it was not a big surprise to be contacted by an individual, let’s call him “S” — who invited me to join the newly created Breakthrough Energy discussion group on WhatsApp. Shortly after joining the group, the “S” called and congratulated me on some of my recent renewable energy posts.
So far, so good…He also introduced me to his associates at BEV, that I will call “J” and “E”. And on the following day, I had a conference call with J, E, and S — to discuss the BEV’s interest in some of my ground-breaking renewable energy proposals.
Naturally, I checked the BEV’s website and saw J’s picture among its team members. I didn’t see S’ picture there — so I checked the LinkedIn info page about the People at BEV. Both S & J were right there — smiling at me…
After a few more WhatsApp interactions, phone calls, and emails — I was informed by “J” about the following:
“BEV’s rule about funding is strict, that’s the way Gates’ wants it, and that’s the way it has been, but if any startup manages to make it through, they get the full support of BEV and that’s something every startup wants on their side.
Now, to be funded by BEV, you have to be part of the coalition… that’s compulsory. But before that, you’ll be given an NDA to sign, then you’ll be connected with the Board and they’ll tell you what they want from you.. then comes the Due Diligence and then the Joint Venture Agreement signing… good so far?
Great… now about The Breakthrough Energy Coalition. It is a P2P ecosystem of Green/Renewable Energy startups and companies who are teaming up under the Breakthrough umbrella to invest in each other to help foster the advancement of Green tech and solutions. In other words, you would be advised to invest into one of the portfolio companies of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. After which you will join the Coalition and be eligible for fund raising in the Coalition in no distant time.
Still, a token investment will be required from your company to join the Coalition. That happens after you’ve signed all documents. And a little tidbit of information… I’m not supposed to say but I want you to rest easy, the little token of investment that the board will ask for isn’t as much as you think, usually between $30,000-$50,000 nothing more. Have a great day. My team is preparing the necessary documents…”
The next day I received the duly signed MNDA from J and a message: “Hello Mr Oleg, just sent you a MNDA to be signed… please return at your earliest convenience. Have a great day”
Well, the request for $30K-$50K turned the red light on. And since I couldn’t contact and confirm anything at BEV’s website, my preliminary Due Diligence strategy was as follows:
· Contact the “J” and “S” on the LinkedIn page and ask for confirmation — to find out if someone stole their identity and tried to… impersonate them
· Contact the Managing Director at BEV via LinkedIn — and ask for additional confirmation. After all, he was the one who “signed” the MNDA sent to me
· Validate the email address of “J”
Low and behold, nobody at BEV’s LinkedIn site confirmed the emails I received. And I discovered that the email address included: “@bt-energy.org”, instead of “@b-t.energy.org” — not a good sign. So, I contacted another individual at BEV that I did interact with just a few years ago. He confirmed that “@bt-energy.org” is not the right email address…
At such point, I collected all the WhatsApp logs and all the copies of the emails that I received from the fraudsters — and forwarded such to the FBI for an investigation.
SOLUTION
It is hard enough to avoid fake websites, scams, and increasingly sophisticated ways to steal identities and defraud the unsuspected public. And we do not need additional barriers to the common-sense identity verification. So, who is BEV exactly aiding and abetting by doing so? — the imposters, of course.
It took a closer look into the domain name of BEV to realize that “b-t.energy” email address has been replaced with “bt-energy” — a minor detail, which is not always easy to notice. And although such manipulations are often a clear giveaway that you are dealing with a scammer — the ability to simply contact BEV via email to complete the verification process would have avoided a lot of aggravation.
Besides, checking https://www.breakthroughenergy.org/ website at https://ca.godaddy.com/whois confirms the site’s legitimacy — while https://www.bt-energy.org — doesn’t even exist…
So why can Amazon and Microsoft provide a contact form, while BEV cannot? Well, perhaps it is because of Bill Gates’ concern as to how BEV is going to handle a large number of inquiries? Maybe, but do you REALLY think that Amazon and Microsoft will have to look at fewer emails than BEV?
As I recently wrote in my LinkedIn post: The Wisdom Of Intelligent Advice — And How To Turn Gatekeepers Into CEO’s Greatest Asset, you don’t have to be a great singer like Ella Fitzgerald to relate to her iconic lyrics of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”. Occasionally, all of us are equally dumbfounded to see how much such words apply to the reality around us …
How else can you explain the arrogance of not hearing back even a single word from a CEO of a struggling enterprise after approaching him/her via email & proposing a viable solution to get them out of their predicament?
A similar situation exists in the world of VC/CVC and Private Equity. Most of their Managing Directors (MDs) won’t return your call, or an email, and will not look at a pitch or a business plan without a warm intro. For years they presumed that if the entrepreneurs aren’t clever enough to figure out how to be introduced to them via a third party, then surely they don’t have what it takes to be successful as an entrepreneur in the real world.
But here is the rub: a good CEO or the MD at VC/CVC/PE fund — should never be overwhelmed! Such leaders must have learned years ago how to delegate. And if they didn’t, oh, well… So, instead of IGNORING good advice or a pitch — a progressive CEO should rely on a competent staff member and AI technology — to separate a cold call from a warm one.
When a warm call is made, it usually follows prolonged research on CEO’s challenges. It proactively identifies the pain points and explains a good fit. Based on the caller’s knowledge and experience, and the AI tools utilized in such research — the CEO fits the profile…
Next time, if you don’t hear back — assume the following: you’re dealing with an incompetent narcissist or with the mediocre organizational structure. And I’m not even sure which one is worst. My advice: move on …
After all, there is no excuse for ignoring a warm call or an email. There are plenty of good AI tools available today to transcribe the voice mail and then use NLP to identify the value proposition. CEOs & MDs not doing so, are negatively impacting their company’s brand and a potential success …
So, to all those that are still waiting for Godot — I would like to offer simple advice. Good counsel or an excellent pitch may still reach you via a referral, but such a gene pool is not too impressive. Learn how to use AI to separate the wheat from the chaff — and the world is your oyster…
So, its time for the BEV to add the Contact Form to its website. Have faith in Microsoft, Bill Gates — and its AI prowess. And all the email inquiries linked to identity checks — should receive the highest priority!
IN CONCLUSION
There is simply no excuse for not providing the most rudimentary ways to combat cybercrime and stolen identities. The ability to contact the legitimate entities and to ask for the identity confirmation of its officers — is paramount.
To make things worse, I can envision situations where some of the entrepreneurial companies are swindled by fraudsters and end-up losing significant amounts of money. In such cases, they might even sue the organizations such as BEV — for depriving them of the ability to expose the perpetrators.
Equally important is the ability to respond QUICKLY & WITHOUT DELAY to all the fraud-related inquiries. Urgency is the key — so make sure that you can prioritize your responses to the verification questions…
So, my message to Bill Gates is as follows: please rectify the situation, ASAP! You have done so much good for the planet and will be remembered for doing so — for generations! Inadvertently aiding and abetting identity thieves is an unfortunate oversight that should be resolved without delay. Hire more screeners, more competent advisers to MDs, or even ask the AI engineers at Microsoft to install more of Cortana’s bots at BEV. They might even do so… free of charge for you 🙂
I’m at that stage in my life where I don’t care about BOD politics and water-cooler gossips. Nor do I offer fake flatteries to CEOs. All I care about is how to solve CEOs’ problems & deliver results. So, I am in the business of joining Advisory Boards/BODs of the most innovative companies all around the world. And as one of the ultimate BusinessAI™ veterans on the planet w/ over 30-yr hands-on AI expertise, I also bring supreme business savvy to separate the wheat from the chaff…
