Sequence Inc. Fraud Files Blog

FTC taking action against Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc.

19 Nov 2009

Much to my surprise, the Federal Trade Commission appears to be taking action against Pre-Paid Legal Services (NYSE:PPD) for making misleading representations in connection with its Identity Theft Shield and Affirmative Defense Response System products.

Consumers looking for the “good” MLM

09 Nov 2009

2 Comments

Robert FitzPatrick of Pyramid Scheme Alert is bombarded every week by consumers who want to ask him, “What about this MLM?” You see, the marketers of multi-level marketing companies have gotten very savvy. They know that plenty of us have figured out their con game. They now have consumers convinced that theirs is “one of the [...]

UFF Agents don’t understand basic math and concepts related to debt

28 Oct 2009

4 Comments

We have discussed at length all of the reasons why the United First Financial Money Merge Account (UFF MMA) program is a waste of $3,500. In fact, we’ve even proven how even if the software was FREE, consumers are better off not using it. The evidence which supports these assertions is based in simple math. A [...]

United First Financial: Don’t believe the hype

20 Oct 2009

22 Comments

More than a year after I started to write about the evils of United First Financial, its representatives are still trying to dazzle the crowds with bogus claims of factorial math. It’s become clear that the primary method for selling consumers on this ridiculously expensive software that the consumer doesn’t even own ($3,500) is by confusing [...]

Does this describe your MLM?

14 Oct 2009

5 Comments

Kevin Thompson hires himself out to multi-level marketing companies to give them legal counsel. Supposedly he knows his way around the legality of MLMs, just like my buddy Gerry Nehra supposedly does. So I was perusing Kevin’s website and came across this interesting diatribe about what separates “legitimate” MLMs from illegal pyramid schemes. I’ve written a [...]

The secret to recruiting for ShopToEarn

29 Sep 2009

0 Comments

Recruiting for multi-level marketing companies has become a game of strategy. How many times have you been invited to hear about “an opportunity,” but the person inviting wouldn’t tell you the name of the company? We’ve all heard about this tactic… The recruiters don’t want anyone to “pre-judge” or show up with opinions before they’ve [...]

Medifast and Take Shape For Life: Weight loss pyramid scheme?

14 Sep 2009

0 Comments

Earlier this year, Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute railed on Medifast, a company with a weight-loss plan being marketed with a multi-level marketing plan. The company was built primarily through marketing of the weight loss program through physicians. The Medifast executives realized that the MLM structure was their golden opportunity.

Mona Vie: Don’t use our name in your URL, unless you’re Wikipedia (and we’re doing the editing)

03 Sep 2009

13 Comments

Earlier this week I wrote about the MonaVie lawyers going after bloggers who do unflattering critiques of the company. Their premise was silly: You can’t use our name in a URL. Here’s exactly what they said in their threatening letter to blogger “Lazy Man”:

Here come the MonaVie lawyers…

01 Sep 2009

4 Comments

When will companies learn? Trying to silence critics of them with bogus threats of legal action just isn’t effective. We have something called “freedom of speech” here which guarantees us the right to speak our minds, so long as we’re being truthful. Yet that doesn’t stop multi-level marketing companies from trying to bully their critics.

The Pink Truth about Direct Selling and the economy

06 Aug 2009

1 Comment

All year long we’ve been seeing news story after news story about how “direct selling” (the name meant to disguise multi-level marketing and confuse consumers about the true intent of the companies) is a great option for making money during difficult economic times.

Archive | Pyramid Schemes & MLM RSS feed for this section

FTC taking action against Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc.

Consumers looking for the “good” MLM

UFF Agents don’t understand basic math and concepts related to debt

United First Financial: Don’t believe the hype

Does this describe your MLM?

The secret to recruiting for ShopToEarn

Medifast and Take Shape For Life: Weight loss pyramid scheme?

Mona Vie: Don’t use our name in your URL, unless you’re Wikipedia (and we’re doing the editing)

Here come the MonaVie lawyers…

The Pink Truth about Direct Selling and the economy

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