Inflated Income Claims & Fake Testimonials Marketing Fraud Nets 17 1/2-year sentence

28 replies
Marketing fraud is serious whether online or off, getting this marketer 17 1/2 years in prison, for utilizing inflated income claims. This one is offline but could have been marketed online too, with the same results. The people giving fake testimonials received prison sentences of 57 months and 41 months.

Click Here to read the details of the story.

Have you run across any Internet marketers, without naming names, using inflated income claims or fake testimonials?
#1 or 2year #claims #fake #fraud #income #inflated #marketing #nets #sentence #testimonials
  • Profile picture of the author laurenswuyts
    Wow that's some sick story, thanks for informing us. And yes I see a lot of people using fake testimonials.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
    Originally Posted by bobsilber View Post

    Marketing fraud is serious whether online or off, getting this marketer 17 1/2 years in prison, for utilizing inflated income claims. This one is offline but could have been marketed online too, with the same results. The people giving fake testimonials received prison sentences of 57 months and 41 months.

    Click Here to read the details of the story.

    Have you run across any Internet marketers using inflated income claims or fake testimonials?
    Bob...

    The real question is have I run across any internet marketers
    who aren't using fake income claims... lol

    Tsnyder
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    If you knew what I know you'd be doing what I do...
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  • Profile picture of the author Caleb Spilchen
    They should have taught them to put them in schools .{the machines}

    Instant sell out



    But seriously, thanks Bob for posting this huge eye opener.

    Caleb
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    Canadian Expat Living in Medellin, Colombia

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  • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
    Levinson's fraud left a path of financial devastation in its wake, causing some people to lose their homes, their life savings and their children's college funds, argued Allan Gordus, a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Consumer Litigation.
    I'm sorry if this sounds nasty, but I have no pity for people who are dumb enough to dump their life savings into something they don't know anything about.

    Yes it was bad for the guy to mislead people, but if you can't afford to lose the money you shouldn't be investing it in stuff like this in the first place. People need to learn to put their retirement savings into things like T-Bills. Sure they don't get as much interest as a lot of other options, but they are guaranteed by the government and are about the safest investment possible.
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    • Profile picture of the author bobsilber
      Originally Posted by Christian Little View Post

      I'm sorry if this sounds nasty, but I have no pity for people who are dumb enough to dump their life savings into something they don't know anything about.

      Yes it was bad for the guy to mislead people, but if you can't afford to lose the money you shouldn't be investing it in stuff like this in the first place. People need to learn to put their retirement savings into things like T-Bills. Sure they don't get as much interest as a lot of other options, but they are guaranteed by the government and are about the safest investment possible.
      What about the people spending their few last dollars, believing the latest Internet riches blueprint income claims? You know, the ones who are just trying to find a way to make a few dollars to pay their past due bills?
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      • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
        Originally Posted by bobsilber View Post

        What about the people spending their few last dollars, believing the latest Internet riches blueprint income claims? You know, the ones who are just trying to find a way to make a few dollars to pay their past due bills?
        This is truly unfortunate.
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      • Profile picture of the author Meharis
        Originally Posted by bobsilber View Post

        What about the people spending their few last dollars, believing the latest Internet riches blueprint income claims? You know, the ones who are just trying to find a way to make a few dollars to pay their past due bills?
        You could add an other ingredient to it.
        If newbies come to the Warrior Forum and just read, understand
        and learn from all the Free info available over here, there will be
        less people like the ones described by Bobsilber.
        Few minutes ago, I saw a post asking if someone wanted to share
        his/her PayPal account.
        The sad part is there was some of them willing to do it.
        Writing a Free WSO about "What Newbies Need To Be Aware"
        will be beneficial to new warriors.
        Maybe someone could take me up in this one.
        I'm not a writer but, I'm willing to help.
        Meharis
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      • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
        Originally Posted by bobsilber View Post

        What about the people spending their few last dollars, believing the latest Internet riches blueprint income claims? You know, the ones who are just trying to find a way to make a few dollars to pay their past due bills?
        That's the exact same thing. If you blow your food money on some ebook that guarantees $10,000 "or your money back", then you're asking for it.

        If I had some super method that would convert $10 into $10,000, do you honestly think I would be sharing it? Hell no. I would leech it for all it's worth and walk away a millionaire. Yet there are people who create ebooks and programs and such for $50 here that claim this exact thing.

        I understand the desire for money, we'll all here because we want to make it. But when you cross the line of using your expendible cash to using the money that feeds your family for some random product, then you are just asking for trouble.

        Yes it sucks if you don't have money, we've all been there. So rather than spending the $200 that will feed your family for a month on some ebook, spend a week or two doing gigs on Fiverr and freelance sites to earn the money to buy the ebook in question (or better still, cash out and do something nice for your family instead).

        Money is nice yes. But starving, losing your home, and ruining your life are not worth it. All because you had to buy some stupid product that waved a carrot on a stick in front of you.

        EDIT:

        Now if you have $200 extra cash and want to spend it, then by all means go ahead. But don't go whining when you've suddenly lost your home because you thought spending money on some wonder product was better than paying your mortgage.
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        • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
          Originally Posted by Christian Little View Post

          That's the exact same thing. If you blow your food money on some ebook that guarantees $10,000 "or your money back", then you're asking for it.

          If I had some super method that would convert $10 into $10,000, do you honestly think I would be sharing it? Hell no. I would leech it for all it's worth and walk away a millionaire. Yet there are people who create ebooks and programs and such for $50 here that claim this exact thing.

          I understand the desire for money, we'll all here because we want to make it. But when you cross the line of using your expendible cash to using the money that feeds your family for some random product, then you are just asking for trouble.

          Yes it sucks if you don't have money, we've all been there. So rather than spending the $200 that will feed your family for a month on some ebook, spend a week or two doing gigs on Fiverr and freelance sites to earn the money to buy the ebook in question (or better still, cash out and do something nice for your family instead).

          Money is nice yes. But starving, losing your home, and ruining your life are not worth it. All because you had to buy some stupid product that waved a carrot on a stick in front of you.

          EDIT:

          Now if you have $200 extra cash and want to spend it, then by all means go ahead. But don't go whining when you've suddenly lost your home because you thought spending money on some wonder product was better than paying your mortgage.
          Dude... don't be so cynical. It's one thing for people to make
          bad decisions based on completely truthful information. Quite a
          different story when the decision is based off total lies.

          Tsnyder
          Signature
          If you knew what I know you'd be doing what I do...
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          • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
            Originally Posted by Tsnyder View Post

            Dude... don't be so cynical. It's one thing for people to make
            bad decisions based on completely truthful information. Quite a
            different story when the decision is based off total lies.

            Tsnyder
            I'm not being cynical, I'm being blunt.

            Can you honestly say without any reservation that every single WSO posted here will deliver exactly what they promise? I'm looking at the first page of the WSO forum right now and can tell just from the titles that about 75% of them will not deliver what they are promising.

            'completely truthful information' is a very relative term. If you go to the website of all these sites offering wonder products and say how you can make thousands/millions online, have you ever read the earnings disclaimer which is usually burried at the very bottom of the page in very small font that is purposely hidden from plain sight?

            Yet the owners of the those sites will flock to those disclaimers when there is a problem with a customer and say "we don't actually guarantee you'll make money, just most that use our system/product do" (again, "most" being a very relative term).

            edit: my spelling blows today lol
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve Faber
      Originally Posted by Christian Little View Post

      I'm sorry if this sounds nasty, but I have no pity for people who are dumb enough to dump their life savings into something they don't know anything about.

      Yes it was bad for the guy to mislead people, but if you can't afford to lose the money you shouldn't be investing it in stuff like this in the first place. People need to learn to put their retirement savings into things like T-Bills. Sure they don't get as much interest as a lot of other options, but they are guaranteed by the government and are about the safest investment possible.
      Yes, people do stupid things all the time, and their investment decisions are no different. Few people do enough due diligence when investing their hard earned money. That being said, it is flat out wrong to to lie to people and con them out of their money. That guy should serve time in the slammer.

      On the other hand, the sentencing guidelines are completely out of whack in this country when you can get 17 years for bilking people out of a few K, but walk in 10 for homicide. That's ridiculous.
      Signature
      For Killer Marketing Tips that Will Grow Your Business Follow Me on Twitter Now
      After all, you're probably following a few hundred people already that aren't doing squat for you.....
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      • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
        Originally Posted by Steve Faber View Post

        On the other hand, the sentencing guidelines are completely out of whack in this country when you can get 17 years for bilking people out of a few K, but walk in 10 for homicide. That's ridiculous.
        Agreed. The interstate fraud statutes are unbelievably severe. Due to the inherent nature of the Internet virtually any "fraud" online carries these severe risks.

        I've had a saying for years: "Every case is a fraud case." Just think, one little 5-letter word often means no insurance, years in prison, and no bankruptcy relief.
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        • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
          Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

          Agreed. The interstate fraud statutes are unbelievably severe. Due to the inherent nature of the Internet virtually any "fraud" online carries these severe risks.

          I've had a saying for years: "Every case is a fraud case." Just think, one little 5-letter word often means no insurance, years in prison, and no bankruptcy relief.
          Kindsvater,

          You are a real attorney?

          If someone, online, establishes a business on lies and deceptive practices, and then goes on to publicly recant, can there be consequences? Should there be consequences? Does it 'depend' on a variety of factors?
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          • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
            As real as they get - you should know that by now. No one said there shouldn't be consequences.

            Apparently, you disagree with the earlier post about whether someone who commits financial fraud deserves a longer prison sentence than someone committing homicide. I don't.

            The more important point being, as noted by the story, is that fraud carries with it the potential for extreme sentences. Since online activity will trigger interstate fraud statutes, such as wire fraud, potential severe consequences abound.

            And perhaps I should have explained more ...

            Fraud is generally considered an "intentional" act. Often that means insurance is not going to cover you (because by law it is illegal to cover an intentional act) and declaring bankruptcy will not wipe out your debt (because by law debts created by fraud and intentional acts are usually excluded from being eliminated in bankruptcy).

            So if you are defrauding people in a WSO, or by selling bogus vending machines, the severe ramifications go even further than what was noted in the story.
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            • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
              Were you quoting me and responding to me here (there was no quote attached).

              I wasn't taking a stance on that issue...not sure where that came from.

              Thanks for your response though.

              Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

              As real as they get - you should know that by now. No one said there shouldn't be consequences.

              Apparently, you disagree with the earlier post about whether someone who commits financial fraud deserves a longer prison sentence than someone committing homicide. I don't.

              The more important point being, as noted by the story, is that fraud carries with it the potential for extreme sentences. Since online activity will trigger interstate fraud statutes, such as wire fraud, potential severe consequences.

              And perhaps I should have explained more ...

              Fraud is generally considered an "intentional" act. Often that means insurance is not going to cover you and declaring bankruptcy will not wipe out your debt.

              So if you are defrauding people in a WSO, or by selling bogus vending machines, the severe ramifications go even further than what was noted in the story.
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  • Profile picture of the author bobsilber
    Originally Posted by Caleb Spilchen View Post

    Check out the #1 rule of the forum, no naming names, so please don't ask us to, or post your own names... It's against the rules, flat out.

    Caleb
    Good point, actual names we don't need.
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  • You know, I've always been very upfront with our clients regarding their income potential when buying our products and services. To the point of sending them down the road.

    So many newbies want an Internet business that will make them $2000 a month or more, and they want it to happen in a month. With our offer we don't ever tell anyone that. The most driven client we had was making over $600 a month from Adsense after 6 months into the process, but they were adding content to their business blog like crazy and doing guest blogging like crazy - they were very smart, and had two and three writers working on it.

    I know that many offers claim that you can make much more than that in six months, and maybe (just MAYBE) that is the case, but we focus on a safe white hat build up of traffic, so that the domain owner will never lose their rankings.

    Now we also have many clients that never work hardly at all, and there is nothing we can do about those folks. I tell you though, when we get an email from a excited and happy client that just go their first Adsense check it makes it all worth while. My wife and are over the moon when those emails come in.
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    Adsense screenshots - Finally make a serious income with your own business blogs - we write your content and get you started and OUT OF THE GATE the RIGHT way! No gimmicks. Clean and safe work process.
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  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    Originally Posted by bobsilber View Post

    Marketing fraud is serious whether online or off, getting this marketer 17 1/2 years in prison, for utilizing inflated income claims. This one is offline but could have been marketed online too, with the same results. The people giving fake testimonials received prison sentences of 57 months and 41 months.

    Click Here to read the details of the story.

    Have you run across any Internet marketers, without naming names, using inflated income claims or fake testimonials?
    Bob,

    Since names can't be mentioned here, I sent you an email.

    I hope you will take the time to read what I had sent you.

    Thank you for posting this.
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  • Profile picture of the author DanielleLynnCopy
    It really irks me when people purposely deceive others, and then end up ruining lives...

    I feel for the people and their families that lost their homes/savings due to that vendor's fraud.
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  • Profile picture of the author Always-A-Warrior
    with all due respect to WarriorForum staff and members and sorry to be harsh but what about those who create WSO. Are they using fake testimonials and skyrocketed fake sales to gain repeated sales?. I mean I'm sure there's atleast one or two a month. No forum is perfect. so do they go to jail too?. ... well atleast some kind of a temp ban or something.

    All hail Red Bull. great drink. My surfing sponsor.
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  • Profile picture of the author Richard Tunnah
    Originally Posted by bobsilber View Post

    Marketing fraud is serious whether online or off, getting this marketer 17 1/2 years in prison, for utilizing inflated income claims. This one is offline but could have been marketed online too, with the same results. The people giving fake testimonials received prison sentences of 57 months and 41 months.

    Click Here to read the details of the story.

    Have you run across any Internet marketers, without naming names, using inflated income claims or fake testimonials?
    Thanks Bob. Great...it would be good too take out some of the online scammers as at times it gives us all a bad name. It's unfortunate that only the other week a wso was removed for using fake income screenshots!

    Rich
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  • Profile picture of the author WholesalerJoe
    Well also the article stated he kept selling after Red Bull pulled contract so there is the element of taking money and not delivering.
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    We Wholesale Jewelry Clothes and Many Other Closeouts NEW DAILY DEALS!
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  • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
    Nearly five-years for aiding in the fraud scheme? I bet he's out in 24 months because of good behavior. As for the guy who received 17 1/2 years? I don't believe he'll be in that long either.

    Regardless, when it comes to business lying is a very bad idea. Doesn't matter if your selling ebooks, vending machines, or shilling pillows in southern california door to door.
    Signature
    You're going to fail. If you're afraid of failure then you do not belong in the Internet Marketing Business. Period.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nisip
    Banned
    let's send to jail some IM big liars who are making IM industry to shame
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
    The vending machine industry has always been full of fraudsters. If you ever check some of the legitimate vending industry publications, you'll see scores of ads in the back where people who got taken are trying to sell the machines they bought. It looks like the average victim here lost $25,000.
    _____
    Bruce
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