Avoid Telephone, Direct Mail, Mail Order, and MLM Promotion Company Scams
She would claim refund tell me she got a call from Montreal and that all she had to do was send $2500.00 to get her big prize. I would call Readers Digest and the Canadian Government’s scam hunters and then tell her not to send any money because it was a scam.Therefore, I conclude that Respondent is engaged in conducting a scheme for obtaining money through the mail by false representations in violation of 39 U.S.C. § 3005 and that a False.
The Nigerian Scam goes like this. Abdul Mahogany sends you an e-mail and tells you that his great uncle was a government official who died in jail. His uncle held large amounts of cash in a Swiss bank. To get the money from the Swiss account, Abdul would have to travel to Switzerland and have the money transferred to an account in the United States.
Abdul will give you half of the zillion dollars if he can transfer the money to your account. All he needs is YOUR BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER AND THE TRANSFER NUMBER TO YOUR BANK (which he can get on his own once he has your bank account number)!
Abdul does not go to Switzerland (except for skiing on his winter vacation). Abdul does not have money transferred INTO your account. Abdul does transfer money out of your account into his. ABDUL EMPTIES YOUR ACCOUNT. You are furious and humiliated. You call your bank, the Chamber of Commerce, the police, and even the FBI. And what are they able to do? NOTHING! You have been had. The Internet is full of sites covering the Nigerian Scam. There is a good cartoon at http://tinyurl.com/ke3qq
Direct Mail Scams
One thing about mail scams is that the United States Postal Service takes action against such scams. For example, see http://www.usps.com/judicial/1982deci/12-118d.htm where the Service took action against Group One Communications of Jensen Beach, Florida. The Service took almost every line of their mail promotion and declared it false advertising. Here is the final judgment: “
Representation Order, substantially in the form attached, should be issued against Respondent.” I got a letter one time with an offer and I asked the local postmaster if the offer was legal. He said that legal or not the offer would not bring income to anyone. They do not pursue every complaint. They go after the big guys.
I questioned an MLM program once on its legality and I was told that because the monthly fee was so small ($7.00) that the program would be too small potatoes for the federal government to investigate in the near future. They are working on the big stuff.
Some MLMs are scams in themselves. I was in one once where the federal government shut it down as a simple pyramid. The operators were required to pay back the money collected. However, the operators were allowed to pay the money back in merchandise. This was good for them because they could buy a fishing pole from China for $3.95 and get $150.00 credit for providing the merchandise.
The particular MLM was one of those Right Leg / Left Leg varieties. My Right Leg was growing like crazy but I could never get enough new members in the Left Leg to make one penny. So who was getting the monthly profits from the Right Leg? Why the big shots at the top. They could keep the program solvent with that money.
I’m in an MLM now that doesn’t have that kind of payout. Still, you can lose your shirt by paying promotion companies to promote for you.Thus if they owed you $300.00 they could give you a fishing pole and a cheap pair of binoculars worth a total of $13.95. How in the heck they got away with that I’ll never know.
A friend of mine told me he used a promotion company to get him new members in an MLM. He paid over $800.00 for the promotion company to make a mailing of 1000 for him which they did. He got 10 new members. That is a 1% return and any direct mail operator can get rich on such a return if he charges enough for his service or product. See [http://tinyurl.com/s6xf8]
Then my friend paid the promotion company to mail 4000 more. He expected 40 new members. Nothing happened!Many people who could have made it in an MLM or Direct Mail programs have lost their capital before they could really get started.
He told me that he contacted the promotion company and they first told him that he had “missed the mailing” (a group mailing). Next they told him that the mailings were “actually made” but the return was zero. Instead of getting 40 new members as expected, he lost over $3500.00. I’ve advised him to contact his state’s Attorney General for restitution and to see what the Small Claims Court requirements are in his state.
A good rule for MLM and Direct Mail operators is this: Never pay a promotion company or a print and mail company to make mailings or place classified ads for you. You have no control over what happens after you pay them.
Making a First Class direct mailing yourself cost about $600.00 per thousand. Promotion companies and print and mail firms make money by charging you above the mailing cost. They typically charge as much as twice the actual mailing cost.
The mailings are often sent by Third Class and some seldom send out mailings when they say they will. You can wait for months for your mailing results instead of two weeks from you own First Class mailings.
Some promotion companies may be making more money on their promotion activities than in the MLM they are supposedly working. However, they are gaining members at your expense so they are successful on two fronts, the MLM income and their promotion income.
Promotion companies are in the same program as you are. They are your competition. Never give your competition a break by paying for their leads. Promotion companies are actually curtailing your promotion activities by draining your capital.
