Bala Pillai's Modus Operandi

Bala Pillai keeps trolling various social networking sites like Orkut, Ryze, Hi5, OpenBC, LinkedIn etc. looking for prospective victims. After identifying one, Bala scraps / messages that person as if he is a know-all in some particular domain by throwing in names, organizations etc. Additionally, his profiles are also geared towards making people visiting them think that he is an individual with far reaching goals and ideals who has already achieved quite a lot of success in his life. Obviously, the intended victim gets intrigued and he proceeds to post the "quantum invention" question. Many of the victims fall for the bait and write reams on this. He then asks them for your GTalk/YM id and tries to "synergise" with them. Those conversations usually go nowhere. Finally he ends up talking about money and whether the victim were to be willing to invest in some snake oil "mind colonies" venture of his. He used to do the same thing in this so-called "Tamil*" orkut community and the minute somebody replied with answers that opposed his line of "thinking" they were summarily deleted and banned!

He keeps tom-tomming about his "internet ventures" to his intended victims. It has already been determined that he was basically a cyber-squatter hoarding the sydney2000 games URL rights and he was sued all over by the Australian government. A separate blog post has already been made on this.

All in all, he is just a failed businessman trying to make a quick buck through gullible people on Orkut and other social networking websites (especially living abroad) by talking fancy jargon and making himself look like a social crusader.

Of course, nobody needs to believe these observations. Please see these videos linked below and let us know through your comments if you understand ANY of the gibberish on "mind-colonies". If so, we are more than willing to change our opinions of this person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQXKVdrGnp0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SE-nktTG6w

From what can be perceived, he is trying to start a Quixtar / Amway like business (Multi-Level Marketing). Be careful and have all ur antennae up when talking to him.

Bala Pillai's Sydney 2000 Myth

Bala Pillai trumpets his purchase of the Sydney2000.net domain as something of an achievement, and his Orkut profile's albums has pictures of various magazine articles relating to that. Any person who has been using the Internet for an extended period of time immediately spots the unethical nature of the purchase. It is termed as 'domain hijacking' or 'domain squatting'. This refers to the unethical practice of purchasing domain names knowing fully well that some other parties would be interested in it in the future. A shortcut to make money from those other parties in the future, this is recognized as the one of the most unethical practices in the cyberworld. Unfortunately, the law with respect to cyber squatting differs from country to country.

Since the Government of Australia was involved deeply in the organization of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, it was just a matter of time before Bala Pillai had to face legal action with regard to this squatting. Misleading people who view his profile, Bala Pillai conveniently manages to hide this fact. However, a little bit of Googling led us to unearth this mail on a newsgroup:

http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/199705/msg00048.html

Bala Pillai's APIC was sued for domain hijacking and had to stop giving out domain space or email ids belonging to the Sydney2000.net domain

More mail exchanges proving that Bala Pillai had detractors who were completely justified in their comments even in those early days:

http://www.apnic.net/mailing-lists/apple/archive/1997/05/msg00070.html

http://www.open4success.com/Olnews/mbox.cnj/1196.html

http://www.open4success.com/Olnews/mbox.cnj/1212.html

Quote from the above link: ...that he is using this intentional violation of their trademark as a means to publicize himself. This is no better than the behaviour of teenaged hackers who vainly imagine that they should be praised for breaking into systems by guessing passwords. Sucking up trademarks is nothing new. It is simply one of the many classic examples of how individuals with nothing of value to offer on their own are able to capitalize on the value created by others....

http://www.open4success.com/Olnews/mbox.cnj/1235.html

The above mail has been posted by an ex-employee of Bala (agreed he may have had some personal grudge, but Bala'a present activities only tend to prove the ex-employee's accusations). Quoting from that mail here: ...Bala always uses other people, their ideas, and anything, anyone he can to try any get his picture somewhere. He knew almost nothing about the Internet until I joined his company and built his ISP from the ground up and got barely any recognition or thanx for it. When it came to the crunch, and he no longer needed me to keep the company running, he disposed of me like anything else he no longer has
use for...

http://www.open4success.com/Olnews/mbox.cnj/1240.html

The above mail is from Bala Pillai himself. Observe how he tries to do a cover-up instead of coming clean with the facts before the public. Tends to make any person suspicious, to say the least.

The facts have been placed in front of your eyes. The rest is for you to decide!

Evidence supporting Bala Pillai's insolvency in Singapore

Try this:

1. Goto this Singapore Govt. site : http://www.isis.gov.sg/
2. Select "Individual Insolvency Search" and click "Enter".
3. Then, after the disclaimer screen, give "Bala Pillai" as full name and search.

It finds a single record, which means at least that somebody by the name of Bala Pillai was declared insolvent in Singapore. Further details can be had for S$ 6.00.

Of course, there is a small chance that the Bala Pillai being referred to over here is a different from the one we're talking about. But keep in mind that Singapore is very small country. And there is plenty of evidence to prove that Bala Pillai spent a significant portion of his life in Singapore. And most importantly, Mr. Pillai refuses to respond to these claims. We have asked him these questions time and again, and all that happens is that he deletes our messages, as if they didn't exist. The fact that he hasn't even issued a nominal denial, is, we think, significant.

Asia Pacific Internet Company

Now if you visit Bala Pillai websites, one thing he keeps tom-tomming about is that he is the founder of the APIC (Asia Pacific Internet Company). See his profile on his website (http://new.ryze.com/view.php?who=bala) where he makes the above claims. The link supplied by Mr. Pillai - as the homepage of APIC - is http://www.apic.net. These days this link simply redirects to Pillai's mindcolonies website.

A bit fishy, eh? Why would somebody take down a company homepage? And what lies inside the cupboard? Yet another skeleton. Thats what.

APIC has been liquidated. It doesn't exist anymore, and hence, neither does the website. Check out the liquidation related document listing over here:

http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=071_279_135&juris=9&hdtext=ACN&srchsrc=1

Click on "COMPLETE DOCUMENT LISTING" if you want to see a brief history of APIC's inglorious existence.

Now Mr. Pillai, as can be seen from his profile and his webpages, is not a great believer in the virtues of a low profile. He is definitely not self-effacing, and the adage "action speak louder than words" comes nowhere near close to describing him. Yet, he fails to mention the failure of his company. Hmm ... makes one think, what?

We have some uncomfortable questions for Bala Pillai:

• Why did APIC fail?
• Was it due to financial fraud?
• Why is it such a well-kept secret?
• What about APIC's Indian arm? (TELEINDIA Pvt. Ltd.; See http://blonnet.com/businessline/2000/02/04/stories/150439m2.htm) Has this company has gone down the drain too?
• What is it about Bala Pillai's companies that they can't survive even in a major economic boom?

We'll try asking these questions to the great man himself, but we expect no response and a speedy deletion of our posts/scraps. But, if I were you, there's one thing I'd be sure of: Keeping my money away from Pillai or his communities.

What is Bala Pillai Upto?

What is Bala Pillai Upto?

In the opinion of many people, Bala's ultimate aim is to swindle people's money. He hopes to achieve this by forcing people to invest in his mind colony / halls without walls venture. Since he can't force people to join the venture by force, he tries to con them into thinking of him as an intellectual leader out there for the betterment of the Tamils. By kindling communal sentiments and passions, he sways the people's minds and in a sense, 'hypnotises' them into joining his mind colonies.

He is a radical and revolutionary, if you could call it that. He is an atheist and anti-Brahmin to the boot. His views on these are clouded by such extreme hatred that he doesn't respond to any arguments. All this is fine! But he crosses the border when he tries to use his anti-Brahmin sentiments to ignite people's minds.

Has he done something similar in Singapore for which he is banned? When will we know the answer?

Is Bala Pillai a Criminal?!

Reformers need not be perfect. But when people with a bundle of skeletons in their cupboard suddenly start spouting supposed words of wisdom, people will be forced to take all that with a handful of salt.

The point is this :

Bala Pillai (supposedly an ex-employee of DBS Bank, Singapore [from his CV on Ryze]) was disenfranchised and deported from Singapore and banned from further entry. This can be easily verified by Googling. Now, he can claim that to be his personal problem. But then he is a reformer whom others have to look up to.

And Singapore would not take such a drastic action of revoking somebody's citizenship and debarring them from further entry unless they committed a BIG criminal act.

Only the following crimes entail such sentences:

1) Huge financial fraud. Basically equivalent to stealing money.
2) Rape
3) Contraband - i.e. smuggling things like electronics into the country in huge quantities.
4) Sedition or plotting against the government.

Moreover, disenfranchisment in Singapore ALWAYS comes after jail time AND LASHING with a cane. (for eg. for rape its like ~ 100-200 whippings).

Bala Pillai has served jail time in Singapore and gotten lashes.

For what criminal act was Bala jailed? Will Bala come clean? If not why should the world listen to a the words of a CRIMINAL?

Reference: (ctrl+f bala) APM Forums

Why?!

Welcome to this BlogSpot!

The objective of this page is to educate you about the nefarious designs of Bala Pillai.

You might have come across his 'sales' pitches on many of the networking sites around. If it weren't Orkut, it would probably be Ryze or hi5!

Not only that, our protagonist runs his own websites and has a mailing list, in addition to the usual Yahoo Groups.

He tries to pitch in the concept of MIND COLONIES to you by talking incessantly about these things abstractly and nowhere to go. His ramblings have an obvious financial motive (its more like HLL or Amway or Quixstar, but only more fraudulent) and he exploits the good will of the innocent Tamil people who REALLY believe that he is out there to change the world. Moreover, his talk about caste system, "no SIGNIFICANT ('quantum' as he calls) INVENTION from Indians since 1400's " etc. which are obvious tripe to any sane person. Any cross-questioning, and our protagonist responds with the standard 'Thanks for engaging' reply, but evades the questions.

Obviously he tries to be a clever person, by concealing his business motives with10 layers of bullshit. Fortunately, it doesn't take long for an intelligent person to see through his designs.

The rest of the blog postings will aim to expose the nefarious designs of this person, and help people realize his actual intentions.

Comments are welcome.