Complaint Review: Prosavvy - Englewood Colorado

Here is a letter I send to Visa/Washington Mutual fraud investigators about ProSavvy: From: An IT Consultant Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 7:04 PM To: Visa Fraud Investigators at Washington Mutual Bank Subject: ProSavvy claim Fraud Investigators, I've filed a claim with Visa/Wamu for $4,530 against ProSavvy. I signed the affidavit at the Union Park branch of Washington Mutual today faxed you my affidavit along with some documentation. I authorized ProSavvy to deduct $4,530 from my account on January 2nd 2003 in a signed contract. ProSavvy deducted the full amount over four months at this rate: January 6th 2003 $1,135.00 February 5th 2003 $1,135.00 March 12th 2003 - $1,130.00 April 4th 2003 - $1,130.00 ProSavvy is an online company that claims to bring clients and consultants together. ProSavvy is a fraudulent and deceptive company that has been scamming consultants for years. I first came across ProSavvy through Google advertisements and banner ads. By clicking through the ads I was directed to www.prosavvy.com Over the next month I was regularly contacted by Eric Thier, a ProSavvy sales representative. He send me lots of emails with IT projects that he said I could have bid on if I were a ProSavvy affiliate. The projects were promising and were exactly the kind of work I do as an IT Consultant, so I signed up with ProSavvy in January. Over the next few months, I bid on several projects on ProSavvy's website. When I bid on projects, the client was always kept secret from me. The website stated that the contact information for the client including name, phone number, address and email address was confidential. I never got a response from clients to any of my bids. I got no feedback from ProSavvy as to why I was never being contacted by clients for more information about my bid even though I explicitly requested this. After winning 0 projects in 3 months, I became suspicious and began researching ProSavvy. I came across Alan Smith's website: http://www.execcareer.com/#ProSavvy There I met dozens of consultants with similar experiences. Here's an example: http://www.execcareer.com/prosavvy_program.htm I quickly realized that there was something very wrong with this company and send ProSavvy a demand letter on May 8th 2003 for a full refund within 10 days. I clearly stated that I would take several steps against them if not issued a refund including filing a complaint with the BBB, IFCC, FTC's Consumer Fraud Unit, National Fraud Information Center of the National Consumer League and Florida's Attorney General, Charlie Crist. I also stated that I would report them to local and national media and file a lawsuit against them if not issued a refund. ProSavvy and I tried to resolve the issue for 1 month. I was in communication with several people at ProSavvy, including Barry Sun, Melissa Sibley, Dustin Poos, Lolly Stewart and Eric Thier. ProSavvy said that a refund would not be issued because there was no clause for a refund in the contract. I wanted proof that ProSavvy was a real company and them to answer questions such as: - What is the closing rate for consultants on all projects? Like 1 out of 10 projects. - What percentage of consultants close at least 1 project? How many close enough to recoup their initial investment? - I was told by their sales rep via email on Dec 3, 2002 that there would be reduced competition at 4-6 responses per project. What exactly happens if there are 30 responses to a particular project? ProSavvy told me that they could not answer these questions because they did not keep track of such data. This made me very concerned since it was such vital data. Over the next new months, I continued investigating ProSavvy and filed official complaints against them with the Denver BBB, RipOffReport.com, Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) which is a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection, National Fraud Information Center of the National Consumer League, Florida's Attorney General, e.t.c. I am currently exchanging information with investigative media to expose ProSavvy to the public. Several media organizations are interested including NewsProNet which has done stories on employment scams before. In November of this year I filed a small claims case in Orlando, FL against ProSavvy for $4,530.00. I am actually seeing the judge tomorrow for a pre-trail hearing. I have been in contact with several people and can produce 20 witnesses who will testify against ProSavvy with similar cases of thousands of dollars lost. I have a full list of these people with contact information and phone numbers. I know people who bid on nearly 70 projects and were not awarded even one. These are very competent and experienced consultants that close almost every project they otherwise bid on. I made a website exposing ProSavvy at www.prosavvysucks.com but have temporarily taken the website offline according to a request from ProSavvy's lawyer. I have been in contact with other individuals and a law firm specializing in consumer fraud regarding a class action lawsuit against ProSavvy and its management. I suspect ProSavvy of many wrongdoings, including: - Posting ghost projects on its website that don't exist simply to attract consultants like myself - Posing tons of fluff pieces from their primary and secondary sites to saturate a search response with self created praise and positive looking hits on search engines like Google. - Silencing protests in a public discussion forum with threats of severe legal action and taking possession of any protest websites by registering them in their own name. For example, www.prosavvy-classaction.com which was started by a couple of protestors on the yahoo ProSavvy Users discussion group is now registered by Industry Innovations Inc. from Nov 11, 2003 to July 31, 2007. The administrative contact is David Arnold at ProSavvy Inc, [email protected] - Getting consultants to sign up under duress. They will offer a 2-3 day special offer to get consultants to sign up by a deadline, but there's always another special offer a few days later. - Localization of projects. I suspect that many posted projects are fake and are localized. Meaning only consultants living in a tiny geographic region can bid on it. If ProSavvy knows that none of its affiliates are in a town in Nebraska, they may post a fake project requiring that the consultant be located in that town to win the project. - ProSavvy seems to have no set fee they charge consultants. Others I've spoken with have paid varying fees from $3,000 - $7,000. I suspect their sales representatives charge the consultant whatever they feel the consultant is capable of paying. It they feel the consultant is rich, they may raise the sign up fees by thousands of dollars. - Pretending to be someone else and posting under aliases in private discussion groups to disorganize a resistance against them and secretly uncover what others are planning against them. As you can tell, I am serious about seeking justice in this matter. I understand that Visa's policy of disputes states that disputes must be made within 90 days of the charge appearing on one's monthly statement. However, the nature of this fraud is such that it takes about 90 days before one can become conscious of the fraud. Also, fraud changes the rules. In a small claims case, the judge has the power to rescind the contract if it was signed under fraud or marketed by deceptive sales practices. Likewise, I believe that the presence of fraud in this case could give Visa the authority to dispute the case with ProSavvy's bank even after 90 days. I have full documentation on my experience, including what my sales representative told me during the sales presentation, all emails ever exchanged between ProSavvy employees and myself, literature, contracts posted and why they were not suitable or valid, and testimonials from web sites and newsgroups about ProSavvy. I can FedEx you my full documentation as soon as you'd like. Please let me know how you would like to proceed. An IT Consultant,