Hoyt
Cypress,#2Consumer Suggestion
Mon, September 19, 2005
Paul, you are truly "missing the boat" here, but thats ok...i still wish you all the best. ANYONE can be duped period, and the victim(s) is/are not the one(s) you should be venting your frustration out on per se. the point to my post(s) are obviously NOT out of embarassment, or why would i even mention anything about this company, etc..? the POINT is to HELP others who are potentially at risk or have already been victimized by this SPECIFIC company period. if i can actively help one other person, if not many, vicariously, i feel this "thread" was well worth the time its taken me to write and inform others. i am sorry you have been taken for "ride" by one or many scams, and you are venting your hostilities in the wrong direction here. i do hope your credit rating is restored and you get whatever justice you "seek" here, apart from "attacks" on other victims. you would do well to aim your frustrations at the right sources, either the scam artists who took you for what you were worth or the law enforcment authorities out there supposedly trying to help you and others. anyway, this WILL be my last post to you, and hopefully you will see things more clearly at some point in your life, maybe after you get that ever elusive "law degree" of yours (smile). best wishes, Paul, and once again, sorry to hear about your unfortunate rip off experience and overall frustration. re-direct your passion and you will feel and accomplish alot more than you are doing here...trust in that, even though my shift key is perfectly operational and i have no plans of certifying any class action suits herein (smile). once again, my only motivation in filing my report to this site is because it appears very helpful to most and i wanted people to know that even a licensed attorney can be temporarily defrauded by some of these scam artists. thus, all innocent victims should not point the blame at themselves like you suggest, but should KNOW how to locate the criminals, fight back legally, and learn from their experiences. so, good luck, Paul, and i hope your misdirected, negative spirit/energy fades soon.
Hoyt
Cypress,#3Consumer Suggestion
Mon, September 19, 2005
Paul, obviously you are entitled to your opinion, and it should be respected for what its worth, regardless of how generalized or rhetorical it may come across, especially to those looking for REAL help in personally or vicariously locating, fighting and eliminating SPECIFIC criminal enterprises at large and online that prey on innocent persons looking for legitimate investment or business opportunities ( whether in or out of their "field" per se). thus, both sides of this healthy "debate" are valid and can help others who have been innocently ripped off by scam artists learn to fight back effectively and steer clear of at least KNOWN online criminals still actively in "business". Paul, hopefully your life remains "perfectly scam free" now and forever,as it apparently has in the past, and thanks for your part in trying to "educate" the consumer masses out there in the very best way you know how to go about doing it. your input here has been helpful, informative and appreciated, at least by some readers i'm sure. however, anyone wanting active notification on current KNOWN scam artists STILL at large, or help beyond Paul's general, but educationally "assertive submissions" (for lack of a better phrase), please feel free to use the information in my initial post to LEGALLY fight back by identifying the culprits, reporting them to the proper public/private authorities with jurisdiction, and getting your money back period. thereafter, learn from your unfortunate experience(s), as Paul so passionately writes about in his posts. However, do not stop trying to better your life simply because a few "rotten apples" are plaguing otherwise legitimate business ventures or investments being offered out there. simply BE MORE CAREFUL and make sure your investment amount is fully protected from fraud if you do decide to take some educated chances in life for yourself or your family. the most important fact to always remember is NEVER invest what you cannot afford to lose period, in the event of anything going wrong, criminally or innocently. best wishes to all readers, and hopefully you will NOT fall victim to this PARTICULAR scam group that was the ON-POINT subject of this complaint in the first place. However, if you do, or fall to ones similar, just know there are legal ways to protect you ahead of time and/or get your money back immediately, like i did. Further please keep identifying active, at large criminal enterprises and continuing to help others thru your reports HERE, as well as in other HELPFUL forums specifically designed to help YOU, the INNOCENT consumer, get justice, before or after the fact period. beyond simple "education" per se, do NOT simply allow the criminal element to continue to run rampid or unchecked, simply because YOU did not "educate yourself" beforehand. continue to help others vicariously at least, and never stop fighting for your rights or putting these criminals out of business and behind bars where they deservingly belong. God bless.
Paul
Los Angeles,#4Consumer Suggestion
Mon, September 19, 2005
I'll preface my remarks, which may seem less than sympathetic, by admitting that I have also been taken by more than one good con job in my life -- one of which about five years cost me my credit rating and which I'm still dealing with today. I don't think these dumb crooks ought to get away with their schemes. I guess I'm a little bit concerned that a "licensed attorney" could be taken in by this rather obvious and over-run scam. Ever hear of due diligence? Google? And is your practice, for which you presumably invested tens of thousands of dollars and years of your life to become proficient in, really so non-remunerative that you had to jump into this cheezy internet "business opportunity?" And does your computer keyboard not possess a functional SHIFT key for capital letters? I suspect that much of your outrage is not so much at the "injustice" of the con as due to your obvious embarrassment at having been taken in. This is common in these sorts of things -- many victims never report in these cases simply because of the embarrassment. In short -- thanks for the heads up, but I think it's unrealistic to expect any kind of compensation beyond what you've already received (if you did receive a refund in full as stated, you're very lucky.) It seems that you're gearing up to launch some kind of class-action suit, perhaps going after the "deep pockets" (and more easily reachable) targets such as PayPal? I guess that's probably going to be a more remunerative "business opportunity" for you than the websites for profit thing. Maybe I should get a law degree . . .
Paul
Anaheim,#5Consumer Suggestion
Mon, September 19, 2005
Fraud has been going on since time began. I don't think it's possible to completely stop it. Remember the old saying don't take any wooden nickels? People used to carve out slugs made from wood. A little grease or dirt, and they'd have themselves a passable coin. Know why the edges of coins are serrated? To keep the filers at bay. Coins used to contain good metal. Today, they're pot metal. But, when they were silver, you could file down the edges and still pass the coin. Over time, you could collect a nice chunk of silver that way. Tradition is why we still have serrated edges. Nobody files coins anymore. According to your premise, Hoyt, we should focus solely on the con artist responsible for the deception. That allows the victims to blame the big, mean con man. What occurs when that happens? The victims change nothing in their behavior. So, they are prey for the next scam and probably the next dozen after that. But, by educating a victim to spot and avoid fraud, he has now learned a life skill that will hopefully prevent him from ever being victimized again. The key to stopping fraud is by stopping the resources that fund it. The victims. And, you do that by educating them to spot and avoid fraud. With effective education, the funding dries up, and the fraud simply ceases to be profitable anymore. This site is not about prosecuting the criminals. Do you see any district attorneys here, taking facts and filing case numbers? Look at what is presented here. Facts or explanations about individual frauds. Those statements allow potential victims to become aware of the fraud before they step in it. Education. That's the key!
Hoyt
Cypress,#6Consumer Suggestion
Sun, September 18, 2005
this response is to Paul's post. your points are valid, but only in some respects. the main point that you are missing is that the innocent victims are not the ones deserving of blame here. ANYONE can fall for fraudulent lies, especially if well packaged, regardless if its a "business opportunity" or something else. i am sure even YOU have fallen victim to a scam artist(s) at some point in time, if not in the future as well. so, lets keep the blame focused on those the most deserving of it...the criminals at large. also, remember, hindsight is always 20/20, but if one is not fully aware of a scam, and if responsible and trustworthy institutions like paypal, stormpay, etc...are allowing criminals to continue illegal fraud operations because they are profitting from the scam as well, then THESE are the persons/entities that should be held MOST responsible and legally liable for allowing consumers to BELIEVE that these fraudulent businesses are legitimzed to at least some degree based on them being allowed to operate thru otherwise legitimate companies mentioned supra. an analogy would be, just because YOU personally do not KNOW all the laws in place to protect you as a consumer, does not mean that it is YOUR fault for believing in your attorney per se handling your case, especially if said attorney is authorized and sanctioned to help you with your case by reputable, legitimate entities like the state bar association, etc...you would have to show some form of trust based on the appearance of legitimacy per se. so, once again, its not a good idea to condemn the innocent victim and simply ignore the criminal culprit based purely on the concept that "the consumer should know better". you are missing the point here, and essentially undermining the efforts of what this website is about...prosecuting criminals, not victims. so, you may want to help in this manner rather than taking a seemingly self righteous standpoint. bottomline, for you to know certain scams out there would presume the fact that you were indeed one of the scammed victims. thus, you should be empathized with rather than condemned. think about it. anyway, thanks for your opinion nonetheless, and best wishes in whatever endeavors you venture into....as they say sometimes, "nothing ventured, nothing gained". Attorney in Los Angeles
Paul
Anaheim,#7Consumer Suggestion
Sun, September 18, 2005
There are a million or more losers running this scam. Clearly, the key to spotting the con is not in memorizing each end every name that this running it. Instead, the whole key is to understand that nobody would build a profitable web site and hand it over to a stranger. If anyone ever made a winning site that attracted a lot of traffic and generated great revenue, they would never sell it to you for chump change. They'd keep it and run it by themselves. Remember this simple concept. ANYTIME someone is selling you something, what you get is worth LESS than what you're paying. For example, when you walk in and buy a hamburger meal for $7, the restaurant obviously has less than $7 in it. They are probably making a buck or more, after expenses. That's their profit. It's the same way with web sites. Nobody is going to set up a profitable web site and do all the labor involved and then just hand it to you. Why would they do that? For the $600 you paid them? Hell, if the site was making good money, your $600 doesn't mean anything. The company would be much better off to keep the site and make THOUSANDS in profits from it, rather than selling it to you for a lousy $600. Right? But, it never works like this. The web site is always worthless. It will never make thousands. Or even hundreds. Usually, they make little or nothing. You never end up getting the original $600 back that you paid for the site to begin with. But, because beginners don't know this, they actually believe that the internet is going to make them rich. A few people HAVE actually made money using the internet. That started the whole myth. Because of those few winners, a huge army of followers have tried to do the same thing. Unfortunately, the followers never have the skills necessary to make money using the internet. That's where the con artist comes in. He or she offers to do everything for the sucker. But, in reality, making money on the internet is difficult, and in some cases, impossible to do. So, all the con artist can offer you is a worthless site that will make little or nothing. They hype it up to suckers who don't know the difference between a search engine and a fire engine. The moral of the story here is to stick to things that you understand thoroughly. You're an attorney, right? Make your money by doing attorney things. Leave the internet for the internet entrepreneurs. The best way not to get suckered is to stay the hell away from things that you don't understand.