Complaint Review: William or Bill Thompson TV Inc. Beverly Hills Infomercial Scam complaint Inside Edition Business Week - Clearwater Florida

William Marvin Thompson, William M. Thompson, or Bill Thompson, infomercial producer dba TV Inc, infomercial production company. This 64 year old man is a seasoned and experienced con artist and very slick talker who represents that he will create a fantastic infomercial for anyone. He claims that he will help you make millions of dollars. In reality, he will slap together an incompetent, almost worthless shoddy infomercial that will be so poorly produced that is will likely NEVER get any orders and never go on national TV. He will do this to you after taking whatever amount of money you may have, be it $1,000 or $60,000 +++ of your life savings from you, as I confirmed he did with other victims as well as me.

Thompsons history of FRAUD and deceiving unsuspecting Victims goes back some 20 years, when, in May 15, 1990, the FTC charged him and his tiny, one-man company, TV Inc. with Fraud: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/predawn/F93/beepollen7.htm

William Thompson and Ira Smolev, who was charged with mail fraud numerous times, are evidently friends. Word is that Ira Smolev introduced Bill Thompson to a future client/victim. Thompson then scammed his new client/victim out of tens of thousands of dollars with a hideously incompetent cheap infomercial.  The 3 actual infomercials I found which he produced were shoddy and of low quality, using antiquated technology from 15 years ago. No wonder the products were total flops and Thompson's Clients lost TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars.

He [falsely] claims that he is a very rich TV producer, good friends with Sean Penn, famous Hiphop artists, Sean Connery, and other celebs, that he hangs out at the Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner (as seen on his facebook and Twiiter page,) and that he has done hundreds of infomercials for clients. In fact, he cannot prove any of this. Oddly enough, this flashy, shady character does not have a single picture of him hanging out with all his [imaginary] famous pals, as anyone would have if they really knew celebs. He must be an undercover rich person, as he lives in a $450.00 a month 45 year old rental apartment in Clearwater, FL, (similar to others from which he was evicted for non-payment of rent.)

Although he has dozens of [alleged] clients listed at his website, oddly enough, he cannot provide the names of happy, recent clients. This apparently is why you cannot find a single example of his video production work at his website by this self professed alleged "expert" in DRTV (Direct Response TV). Two months ago, I spoke to several of his past clients, who he had conned out of tens of thousands of dollars by slapping together a worthless "infomercial." Each of them instantly labeled him as a "thief," "con man," and "absolute liar," etc.

Thompson's favorite false statement is that he is the force behind the success of the Bose table Radio and that he produced the commercials for Bose, and devised their marketing plan. When he was asked to provide any proof whatsoever of his most popular claim, he could not a shred of proof of this, primarily because another company actually produced the Bose infomercials. He tells people this "Bose" story like a mantra, yet cannot prove a single word of this story. In reality, Thompson had nothing whatsoever to do with the Bose table radio success, commercials or marketing plan. But since virtually everyone has seen the Bose commercials, he selected that one to [falsely] claim as his baby, as a clever ruse to create the illusion of being competent and credible.

Thompson is a master of deception, and tries to impress unsuspecting Victims with numerous false credentials, including having lush offices all in 3 expensive areas, and phony credentials that lead a prospect to believe he is a bona fide expert:

He [falsely] claims to have offices in Beverly Hills, New York, and Sweden. Again, upon thorough investigation, none of these alleged office locations could be found in any database, or verified. It is safe to assume this is also part of his stack of lies. His only confirmed "office" is his tiny, 45 year old, $450.00 month rental apartment which he rents - similar to other units from which he was evicted.

Another significant Thompson deceptive strategy and outright lie is this one: Thompson claims he is a member of the Associated Press, and that he pays AP dues of $3,000.00 a year. Calls to the Associated Press (AP) in NYC and Miami confirm that once again; Bill Thompson is a complete liar. The AP never heard of him or TV Inc. The reason he [falsely] claims this AP affiliation is so he can then deceive his Victims further with this lie: because I am a member of the Associated Press, if you hire me (for $50,000.00 +) to create an infomercial for your product, I will easily get massive publicity for your product, which will make you rich very quickly.

In order to further gain your confidence so as to rip you off, until recently, Thompson had other phony credentials at his website, indicating that he was also a member of the Electronic Retailing Association, and the Direct Marketing Association. On information and belief, the legal departments of these two credible trade associations recently contacted Thompson and demanded that he remove these false and misleading credentials from his site, or face legal consequences. Only then did Thompson comply and remove the offending false credentials from his website. Too bad for Thompson that in early October 2010, I took, then preserved, scores of evidentiary screenshots of every page of every site on which he has fraudulently promoted himself and broadcast tons of lies about himself.

Perhaps Bill Thompson needs professional psychiatric care and long term treatment. He recently conned his way onto 30 seconds on Inside Edition which ran a segment about Secrets of People Who Say They Never Get Sick. He tries to convince viewers that he has not been sick in 27 years, because each morning he dips his face into a bowl of water with hydrogen Peroxide and iodine, which cleanses the area around his mouth and nose and eyes. Of course simply wiping ones face with alcohol will accomplish the same momentary and temporary benefits. Within an hour, bacteria obviously will again become present and flourish on ones skin. As always, this is just another flim-flam attempt at publicity, based on wholly unsubstantiated, absurd claims. How would Inside Edition ever verify how long it has been since someone has a cold?

BTW, in the 30 seconds featuring Thompson, one will notice it was filmed in his beat up 45 year old rental kitchen with a 1960s era stove where this self-proclaimed millionaire actually lives. Interestingly enough, Thompson told me he was "fighting a cold" when I met with him this summer. His Inside Edition appearance was just another absurd lie and desperate attempt at publicity from veteran scammer bill Thompson.

Too bad Inside Edition did not first check out the Pinellas County Court records on this con man: William M. Thompson. Searching for the name William M. Thompson on the Pinellas County Court records confirms that William M. Thompson (Jr.) has a long history of lawsuits against him, evictions from $450.00 a month, very old rental apartments, divorce, and a DOMESTIC VIOLENCE record, and Emergency Protective Orders issued against him, which should explain his divorces:

Link to domestic violence record etc:

http://pubtitlet.co.pinellas.fl.us/servlet/pcg.wsclient.servlet.CivilDocketServlet?CS__CASE=97004265FD&CS__RESULTS__KNT=10

To view all the results of just those people who had to sue him (which does not count all of those he has ripped off for the past 20 years), copy and paste this:

http://pubtitlet.co.pinellas.fl.us/servlet/justice.crosssystemnamelookup.GEVA

I am forwarding the overwhelming evidence of the criminal scam he perpetrated against me, in which he ripped of thousands of dollars from me using a scheme involving false, deceptive material representations over the telephone, etc. to the appropriate Law Enforcement agency in only a few days for prosecution. He needs to be incarcerated so as to protect the public.

I have learned a lot about the infomercial production business and that there are many expert con men like William Marvin Thompson in this business. However there are some professional and honest producers out there, if you can find them. Rather than risk getting ripped off, and to save tens of thousands of dollars, my advice is to actually create your own infomercial. Go to http://www.productionhub.com/directory/ for list of people to hire for each part of the production. (Beware - Thompson/TV Inc. is listed there also). In all cases: 1. VERIFY ALL references by speaking directly with them, 2. insist on seeing verifiable examples of recent work, 3. get a contract, and 4. NEVER pay more than a part of the fee for each individual part of the production in advance! In other words, pay for the editing part in part when it begins, then the full amount after you are fully satisfied with the editing process etc.