Comments on: The FTC’s attack on business opportunity scams

By: free classifieds directory

free classifieds directory — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:41:59 +0000

Business opportunity just like multi-level marketing should require license to conduct business. Internet users should also be educated about it.Sincerely,Alexander

By: Felix Chesterfield

Felix Chesterfield — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:24:57 +0000

Does this refer to companies like cearner or ECAOS ?

By: michael webster

michael webster — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Felix;Business opportunity fraud is a great way to understand investment fraud in general. The elements of the fraud are easy to replicate, but every year people in North America lose hundreds of millions of dollars in these schemes – despite the disclosure requirements being over 30 years old.What is fascinating is the the FTC continues to rely upon disclosure as the main weapon to defeat fraud, when there is no evidence that this works!Indeed, in the last 10 years I have worked with victims of business opportunity frauds, both as an attorney and decision theorist, virtually all of the people saw red warning flags – and drove through them anyways.The psychological compliance tricks used by con criminals like Vitale have to be better documented so that we can develop simple responses to these pitches.The FTC is currently doing some behavioral research, finally. But they are focusing on framing effects and not compliance tricks, which will probably make the study less than helpful.

By: John Hooper

John Hooper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:39:33 +0000

Going after the originators of the scams is great – but to make a real dent in this onslaught of online “business opportunity” / “work at home” scams – the FTC needs to go after the affiliates creating the fake blogs /fake news sites and the CPA affiliate networks which act as middlemen. It is these two groups which give the scams the oxygen they need to spread like wildfire across the internet.If you visit wickedfire.com you will find these shady characters discussing their promotion of said offers and if you visit findaffiliateoffers.com or offervault.com and enter google into the search box you will find a list of the CPA affiliate networks promoting these so called bizopp offers on behalf of their clients.Affiliates get a bounty of around $40 for each “free trial” sign-up they recruit.So there are actually three guilty parties involved in the deception – affiliates (responsible for some of the worst examples of misleading advertising), CPA affiliate networks (middlemen) and the company with the offer.Same thing and same people behind Acai offers, Govt Grants, resveratrol, work from home offers, etc.Until Attorney Generals and the FTC crack down on the affiliates and the CPA networks, rather than just the original companies or individuals behind the offers, these fraudulent deceptions (and misleading websites) will continue – as CPA affiliates and networks just shift their focus to the next offer…Many CPA affiliate networks often encourage their affiliates to use fake blogs /news sites, use fake testimonials etc – so it’s not just a case of a few rogue affiliates but rather widespread acceptance of unethical and illegal methods within this sector of the affiliate marketing industry as “the norm”.