Elaborate Scam Had Several Working For Global Design Agency That Didn’t Exist

Photo 167386583 © Vladimir Stanišić | Dreamstime.com

In a wild plot akin to a designer’s version of Netflix’s Tinder Swindler, the BBC investigated a sophisticated con that had professionals exploited—or in its words, “jobfished”—a misdeed deemed unforgivable considering how helpless the pandemic has left the workforce.

In 2020, as the COVID-19 situation aggravated, dozens of vulnerable people found a potential career turnaround in Madbird, which advertised itself as a “human-centered digital design agency born in London, running worldwide.” They were recruited via a Zoom call attended by 40 other people, many of whom the publication later discovered to be non-existent.

The firm was led by a man (whose name and face have been published by the BBC) described as “intense, charismatic, even appearing caring.”

Under multiple aliases of slight variances, he convinced candidates he’d spent years working as a creative designer for Nike at its Oregon headquarters, where he supposedly met the agency’s cofounder.

His elaborately crafted LinkedIn profile, with accompanying testimonials, seemed to corroborate these claims.

Madbird soon expanded globally, listing advertisements for sales staff, designers, and managers in Dubai, Uganda, India, South Africa, the Philippines, and more.

The agency’s focus on remote work was ideal for its international staffers, several of whom had lost their jobs during the coronavirus outbreak. The charismatic founder even persuaded some to leave their jobs.

With Madbird as their saving grace, workers were fully committed and went above and beyond to pass their six-month probationary period. One of them was awarded the title of “Employee of the Month” for pitching the company as the right web design or development studio for 10,000 potential clients.

Most employees were promised £35,000 (US$47,580) incomes—but that was if they succeeded their probation, which only entitled them to a commission from every deal they negotiated. Those living in other countries had more to hope for, having been convinced that a visa and sponsorship to relocate to the UK were within reach.

For reasons only made obvious today, all of the pitches made by the employees fell through and nobody earned a cent.

Unfortunately, some still held out because they were led to believe that a yes by clients was within grasp.

“The longer you worked at Madbird, the harder it became to leave,” BBC investigative reporters Leo Sands, Catrin Nye, Divya Talwar and Benjamin Lister empathized. “What if one of the big deals you’d been working on came through next week? Plus, in the middle of the pandemic, jobs were hard to find.”

Workers assumed their contracts were unique, so they kept their problems to themselves. It was only until London designer Gemma Brett looked up her possible commute to the office post-pandemic did the bubble burst. She found out that the address listed by the company—a residential address, as she had learned after entering it in Google Street View—did not match the vibrant global headquarters depicted in pictures. A check with a local estate agent, along with verification from the BBC, validated her fears.

Brett turned to another employee, Antonia Stuart, who was hired to lead Madbird’s Dubai offshoot. Worried about the anonymous figures running the scam, the pair sent out an all-staff email under the name “Jane Smith,” accusing the company of “unethical and immoral” practices including stealing from portfolios of real design studios and misappropriating headshots from people on the internet.

So launched a year-long investigation by the BBC, who noted that Madbird had not been “shipping products and experiences locally and globally for 10 years” as claimed. Rather, it only started operating on September 23, 2020.

The news outlet also traced fake headshots of a graphic designer, brand growth manager, and marketing manager to “a Lebanese doctor, a Spanish actor, and an Italian fashion influencer.”

Nike confirmed to the publication that Madbird’s founder never worked as its “creative lead.”

And when alerted by the BBC, London design firm Hatched was surprised to discover that one of its pitch presentations—plus some personal bios—had been plagiarized word-for-word by Madbird.

Video via BBC

The BBC’s journalists eventually tracked down and confronted the man at a west London street, who argued that he was simply “[creating] opportunities for people” during this difficult time. He also “got angry” and defensive when the reporters accused him of stealing identities and work.

The man insisted Madbird had an office, but when presented with concrete arguments, he responded: “You don’t really have to have computers and stuff, right? It’s a digital company.”

You can read about the strange crackdown in full here.

[via BBC, cover photo 167386583 © Vladimir Stanišić | Dreamstime.com]