Complaint Review: Empowr.com Michael Pousti and Brian Woosley and Just Answer - San Diego California

     Over 165 days ago, I opened up a credit card with Paypal and I began to receive emails from Empowr.com.  I did not open up any emails because I thought the emails were spam.  Approximately three weeks ago, after I opened up an email from Empowr.com, I was surprised to see that my email address had been used without my consent, knowledge, or permission to create an account at Empowr.com and to post.  I was somewhat relieved after reading that Empowr.com had a partnership with universities.  According to a video at Empowr.com which was on the website in mid February, the concept of Empowr.com was co-founded by several universities.  I was relieved to have read this

information as I worried that my photo would be posted on a porn website.  After seeing photos of kangeroos on Empowr.com, I felt relieved.  Because the Customer Service Office of Empowr.com most likely would not open until morning, I thought I would try to reset the password.  I managed to get onto the feed and I discovered that a guy named Anthony who lived in New Jersey created the account using my email address without my consent, knowledge, or permission to have done so.  After I read some feeds from a Mr. Stone, who turned out to be an employee at Empowr.com pretending to be a consumer, I logged out.  I was not able to log back in.  In the morning, I tried to

contact the company directly, but I got ahold of a third party answeresing service called, "Just Answer."  The company called, "Just Answer," told me that for a fee I could have my questions answered about Empowr.  I wanted to complain that I did not create the account to begin with. The company "Just Answer," claimed not to have been hired directly by Empowr.com  I found a link online where the logo for "Just Answer," sits directly next to the Empowr.com logo.  After getting nowhere with the 1800 number listed on Empowr.com to contact its Customer Service department to have the account deleted, I found on the Empowr.com website a link entitled, "Meet Our Advisors."  After I got

ahold of a few professors listed along with name of the university, I was told by 3 professors that they showed up years ago to only one meeting of Empowr.com.  A professor gave me the email of the President of Empowr.com to email my complaint to.  The professor profusely apolgized to me stating that she hoped that Brian Woosley did not get mixed up with something he should not have.  After I emailed Brian Woosley, I received a highly offensive email back from Mr. Woosley.  Out of 15 sentences contained in Mr. Woosley's email to me, there were 6 sentences using the phrase, "protecting you."  I was also threatned with a libel suit with the following, "Such a case will no doubt be

costly for you, something that will follow you around and you will likely spend a lifetime working to pay off."  Mr. Woosley accused me of creating the account myself.  I immediately emailed back to Mr. Woosley stating that over 165 days ago, that neither myself or anybody that I knew created the account.  Based on numerous consumer complaints that I read online about Empowr.com, I realize that numerous people have complained about Empowr.com using their emails to create accounts at Empowr.com.  Based on the concidence of numerous people complaining about their Paypal account being debited without their consent, I wondered if Empowr.com had intelluctually stolen the credit card

information from people who had opened up a credit card account at Paypal. Because I could not get Empowr.com to admit that an account was created without my consent, knowledge, or permission, I filed a police report for idenity theft. 

  Several professors that I spoke to regarding Brian Woosley's email to me which offended me told me that they had emailed Brian Woosley to have their name removed from the Empowr.com website.  Because I did not want people to become duped into a signing up with a company that could not even admit that it used my email address without my consent, I contacted the Higher Learning Commission which has power to decide standards of accredited universities.  My concern was that Empowr.com was using the authority of professors to raise its own credibility.  A lady who works at the Higher Learning Commission viewed the Empowr.com website and stated that the website called, Empowr.com

needs to be blocked.  I filed an informal complaint wtih the Higher Learning Commission regarding the use of accredited universities to shield con artists.  I found on the Empowr.com main website images of women being bidded upon with captions that read, "Bid 1 on something in the photo."  The photo was picture of a young lady.  Next to the photo, I found another photo of a woman's purse, a rock, and a long strap to the woman's purse with the same caption:  "Bid $1 on something in the photo."  There are feeds dating back to 2016 with adult content on Empowr.com.  It is an unsafe website for any postings of any woman to appear on especially without the woman's

consent. I also took print screens of the content which also contained images of minors and the idea that minors could be sold.  Human trafficking is a serious offensive which is deplorable.  After I did some online investigating, I found that Empowr.com has a fan base in Nepal.  Nepal has a high rate of human trafficking.  I spent $252 dollars at Fed Ex making copies of the print screens to mail directly to the Legal Department of each University listed.  I spent about $100 to mail the information to each University because I found the content deplorable and inhumane.  Human traffickers often attempt to make friends with Judges, Magistrates, political and/or influential people to make a human

trafficking operation run smoother.  People who get duped into trusting people like Michael Pousti might unknowingly give their power to unintentionally run a smoother human trafficking operation.  Professional con artists can be very convincing.  Even Einstein got duped at least once during his lifetime. I did extensive research on Empowr.com.  I discoverd that in a short time period that Empowr.com has undergone several different name changes.  Empowr.com used to called Fanbox.  Before Fanbox, the company was called SMS.AC.  Before SMS.AC, Michael Pousti owned a company that filed for bankrupty protection called, "CollegeUp."

  If you go online as of March 1, 2018, then you will see that the Empowr.com website no longer lists its link called, "Meet Our Advisors."  Recently, I read a San Diego news story dated February 27, 2018 entitled, "Inventor of Virtual Currency Embraces Blockchain."  In the bottom of the news story, the story states, "A collaboration between top U.S. professors and seasoned Silicon Valley technologists, empowr is the the world's first platform to seamlessly integrate a next-generation social network, maketplace, virtual currency, and educational and poltical systems." To have a partnership with an accredited university, the university Legal Department would have a contract on file between

Empowr.com and each named University.  I believe that no such contract exits between the Legal Department of each listed University and Empowr.com. Cryptocurrency is often associated with the sale of drugs, prostitution, human trafficking, and other criminal uses.  There are many SEC reports of recent crackdowns on cryptocurrency. Our future depends on people having adequate resources to combat not only consumer fraud, identity theft, but also human exploitation such as, human trafficking.

Please use the zoom button/icon to zoom into the caption located below each of three photos.  The caption reads: “Bid $1 on something in the photo.”  Notice the image in two of the photos contain only a female in each photo.  In the photo of the girl in the red, I am not sure if she is even 18 years- old.  Do you?  In the photo in the middle, there is a rock, a woman’s purse, and a long strap to the purse.  The imagery suggests violence against women can be bought for a price.