Is This Illegal?

Its not illegal, but you'll shoot your credibility to crap in record time. You can't base your claims on someone else's work, too many variables, which means too many ways for you to look like a liar, and then sooner or later someone is going to come back on you and say 'i only made xxxx amount of money, you promised xxxxxxxx amount of money, i want a refund'

Not to mention that if you guarantee it, and then they don't make that amount, they could raise issues with the FTC.

There's a reason that business opportunities always have a legal disclaimer. Why risk it?

What irks me a lot of time is "selling dreams" when the seller knows very well there is an almost zero chance of success for the buyer.

Does your friend feel that ethics are important?

Well it's not a problem if your friend can actually guarantee that.

This is what the FTC says:
Ads for Business Opportunities: How To Detect Deception
Advertising and Marketing on the Internet: Rules of the Road

Of course, everyone assumes you're from the US.

FTC? Meh.

...Can you guarantee those numbers?

It's easy...you earn $4,000 or your money back.

It's neither illegal nor immoral to quote a best case scenario...as long as SOMEONE has followed your method and hit the target.

One person.

Steve

The FTC will want you to prove it...based upon results of typical people.
Ask yourself this question is it something that the everyday ordinary
person can do. The internet is still beyond alot of peoples comprehension.

Even so called turnkey programs. Plus is the claim realistic or believable?
People are bombarded with these type claims on the net everyday....

If you give people something realistic they can believe you will have a better chance for success.

FTC is the most popular soccer club in Budapest

yeah, depends on the guarantee. If you leave it blank, i.e. just 'guaranteed', I wonder if a case could be made against you for the amount if the customer fails to make the sum 'guaranteed'.

I am pretty certain that if the wording follows:

With our product/service you are guaranteed to make $4,000 a month or your money back. (or we will refund your full price)...

It is perfectly legitimate.

It's probably illegal to make false claims about your product, but it is highly unlikely that any regulatory agency would take interest in your friend's business unless a) it became very large; or b) it involved outright theft or some flavor of ponzi scheme. It could happen, but I've seen a whole lot of highly questionable claims about IM products; and yet I can't recall a single time when a government agency intervened.

I think the greater issue is why your friend feels the compulsion to lie to his customer base. Is it because his products don't actually provide any value whatsoever and he knows it? Is it because he thinks his products provide value, but he can't prove it, so he came up with the $4000 figure to put something on his landing page? Or is it because someone has made $4000/mo with the product--and others could, too--but he knows that most who buy it will not have the follow-through to do so?

I wouldn't suggest it. "No guarantees in the western world ..." as the song goes.

This forum is full of vendors over-promising and under-delivering. Is it illegal? Probably not. Is it good salesmanship? It sure works!

For example, there is currently a WSO with the sales pitch

"The best part is that it is dead easy to set up and repeatable over and over again."
"Q.) Is it really as easy as you have made it sound? A.) Absolutely"
"Even if you have NO EXPERIENCE ONLINE AT ALL, this method will work for you."
"Even if you have never talked to ONE SINGLE BUSINESS OWNER, this method will work for you."
"Basically, if you follow the steps that I outline for you, this will work for you!"

I sent a PM to some people who bought it. Guess what? It's not that easy. They follow the steps, and it doesn't make money for them. They are faced with mounting advertising costs to "experiment" until they get lucky and find the right newspaper with the right advert. No, it's not easy.

I'm willing to bet that most people who paid for this WSO are not making a profit. Aside from the first few testimonials in the advert, no-one else is bragging about their profits in that thread. If they exist, they are in the minority.

I'm not saying that WSO is terrible, it's probably one of the better WSOs!

Successful selling = BS and hype, much of the time. Is it illegal? Nah, it's just a salesman's BS.

I feel that you can put a good headline on the salesletter in order to capture the attention of the visitors.

Even if the method works very well, I will personally put a disclaimer at the end of the website.

Just my humble opinion

Zack

I wouldn't say it's illegal but it's morally wrong. You will get a lot of these people trying to persuade others into joining their business by giving them a fake result.
There is no way someone can make 4 grand in their month unless you happen to be very lucky and worked non stop at it.
Building an income in a home based business does take time and the only way to reach $4,000 a month is to work consistently at it and make sure you have the right training and advice from sponsors who know what they are talking about.
A few months ago I did fall into a very similar trap. This individual promised me the world and gave me nothing, he wouldn't even want to answer my emails with great honesty or help me out to achieve the same results he did.
So beware of these kinds of people make sure you're working with someone you're comfortable with.

I would offer to refund their money if they don't make the target. It's entirely up to you, but I am guessing that is what your are guarantee'ing anyway. In anycase as long as you follow through with the refunds or partial refunds there is nothing wrong with it.

Off topic, but getting around the FTC issues is real easy.

First of all... just be open and transparent. Don't puff up claims.

Secondly, get your customer base to post their own testimonials on social media, and then link to those testimonials. You're not making the claim or testimonial, they are based on their own personal experience, and they aren't sellng the product, so they can say what they want.