pocketrockets

For Release: 01/25/2012
FTC Permanently Stops Six Operators from Using Fake News Sites that Allegedly Deceived Consumers about Acai Berry Weight-Loss Products

Read the full details here:


Ricardo Jose Labra Labra’s $2.5 million judgment will be suspended when he pays $280,000 and records a $39,500 lien on his home.


Zachary S. Graham, Ambervine Marketing, LLC and Encastle, Inc. Graham’s $953,000 judgment will be suspended when he pays $110,000 plus most of the proceeds from the sale of a truck.


Tanner Garrett Vaughn Vaughn’s $203,000 judgment will be suspended when he pays close to $80,000 over a three-year period.


Thou Lee Lee’s $204,000 judgment will be suspended when he pays $13,000 plus the proceeds from the sale of a BMW.


Charles Dunlevy Dunlevy’s $143,000 judgment will be suspended when he pays an estimated $2,000 from frozen assets and the sale of a boat.


DLXM, LLC and Michael Volozin The $594,000 judgment will be suspended because of the defendants’ inability to pay.

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sumitdhawan

Hello friend,

That no seem so bad. One affiliate marketer make $2.5 million and only have pay $300,000 fine. Another make $140,000 and only have pay $2,000 fine. One make $500,000 and no have pay anything because already spend all money.

Good luck bro

skohh

I think you can still get away with using a editorial
that is basically an advertisement if you understand
how to not stick out like the 100 other cookie cutter
flog sites. FTC has made it clear it's a big "No No" in
the IM world. Would love to see some examples, I'm
guessing it's the typical advertorial site that has been
played out.

RIP

pocketrockets

Yep, they probably went on a spending spree to get rid of cash, lol.

The settlements also require that these defendants collectively pay roughly $500,000 to the Commission because their advertisements violated federal law. This money amounts to most of their assets.

The proposed settlements impose monetary judgments in the full amount of the commissions the defendants received for deceptive marketing through their fake news sites. Due to the defendants’ financial condition, the judgments will be suspended when the FTC receives the following assets from them. In all cases, if it is later determined that the financial information the defendants provided the FTC was false, the full amount of their judgments would become due.

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wayn3

People dont even talk about how ridiculously laughable it is that "the law" puts its own huge fines that people have to pay due to violating federal law over actually paying back damages caused.

The victims often receive nothing because its way more important that the money ends up in the feds hands.

Just call it taxes and quit pretending that you care about justice. Would at least keep the costs down a bit.

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jetto

o noes evils FTC is doing their job and protecting consumers. how unfair

Andrew Scherer

acai, wth is that

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papajohn56

The constitution makes no distinguishing remarks regarding commercial speech vs free speech.

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jeffrey

Too bad nobody in power seems to care what the Constitution says anymore.

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vinnythejinny

rebills are dead.

BigWill

fixed

IceToEskimos

thank you.

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eVandals

affiliates are so over

Dwight Schrute

Protip: If you're running an Acai offer, I highly recommend putting Dr. Oz and Oprah on your landers.

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"the only classes I did good in where english and business." - BlokBlok

papajohn56

as ironic as you're trying to be, it's very true

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jetto

You're right. Affiliates who rip off consumers are being oppressed by the evil govt. How dare they defend consumers? That's un-constitutional! I think you should contribute your line of defense to Jesse Wilms. It's winning.

excelerate

WTF has been going on recently? Seems like the government is swinging the axe HARD

sbailey013

Shit man, I know Tanner and never had anything bad to say about him so it sucks hearing this news.

When advertisers in our industry don't pay affiliates though there is nothing we can do except go to court. It is bullshit. Where is the protection for those who run a companies offers and never get paid?

FTC is just trying to stay busy to provide jobs to their workers and make examples out of people. You start to make money and the gov't would take it all and your teeth if they could get away with it. Now that our GDP is LESS than our national debt and all the foreclosures that crashed our market they audited to buy some time are starting to pop up we will see how many more of us they go after to make some quick cash.

The economy isn't done getting worse and our gov't is getting desperate to take cash and from us it is like taking candy from a baby.

TigerUK

these are fucking high rollers, they place their flogs in msn.com and shit and making a killing i think the average marketer would have a lot of trouble getting enough attention from the FTC even if he wanted to.

These guys sell hundreds of thousands, and get thousnads of complaints prolly.

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sbailey013

I think it would be best to stick with international traffic. There are less regulations. Free Trials are also a big red flag for the FTC. If the advertiser has a lot of complaints and charge backs it will also bring some attention to the FTC. And if they see you making cake then Debo is gonna shake you down.

monies

This. False advertising has nothing to do with free speech, it's a type of fraud.

It's ridiculous how irrationally defensive you guys get when people point out these scams. But hey, cognitive dissonance is a bitch.

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megatabbers

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"I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing," said BBDO Chairman Philip Dusenberry. "The first, of course, is ransom notes."

eVandals

I was jk PJ. I know the days of when every retard joe copycat could clone a rebill campaign and be an instant internet success guy are mostly over, and I can't say I'm sad about that. There is an obvious place for affiliation though, for diversity in what you can offer and upsell your customers and for additional growth as a marketing strategy. Many companies will be fine continuing to affiliate given they have some kind of worthwhile assets or technology that distinguishes them.

sbailey013

This should def be the FTC's new symbol

papajohn56

I didn't defend it - I stated a fact. Free speech is about protecting unpopular shit, like racism, not about protecting popular speech. Show me where the constitution authorizes the government to distinguish between commercial speech and free speech.

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guerilla

PJ, you need to read this

No Treason

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Change Your Life
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Thank you for your attentiveness,
the forward thrusters, engage on you busters,
I cut the mustard.

transistor

fake news sites? why doesn't the FTC investigate foxnews.com?

Cool1g

those judgements are many times based on gross revenues i believe not net profit so they could be paying out of pocket a fair amount.

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monies

I'm not attacking freedom of speech. When a product cannot meet the claims that it makes, that is fraud. You can pitch whatever you want as long as you can back it up. You can't back up that Lisa actually tried a acai and colon combo losing 20 pounds in 4 weeks. That is an intentional deception made for financial gain, which is fraud. No one is oppressing you from making grand claims, but you have an contractual obligation to hold up your end of the bargain.

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paulieg

this. 'fair and balanced' has got to be the most fraudulent tagline in the history of marketing

-p

paulieg

messing with 'caveat emptor' creates a population that isn't used to doing any sort of research about the shit they buy. this means apple can manufacture their shit in a way that kills people (eg sets them on fire) and still over 90% of respondents can't name a single negative about them in a survey, and the ones that can complain about their pricing.

the trouble is all of these things *seem* like common sense, good ideas which will help people. unfortunately, the unintended consequences end up being far worse. as far as acai, call it a tax on stupidity.

-p

monies

Who gave you the right to 'tax' the stupid against their own will? By your principal, thieves are just taxing those who are too lazy to buy a security system. Wouldn't the money go into other more benefiting products if stealing could be reduced? Wouldn't that $80 rebill cash be used for shit that actually works?

If apple actually set someone on fire with their product, and they intentionally misrepresented the safety of their product, they can also be sued. From some research it seems that people have had ipods overheating but unlike shitty rebills, no one has been damaged enough to find it worthwhile to sue them.

The problem with your logic is that you think fucking people over is a necessity to improve consumer awareness. But the problem is that these scams are why people need this type of consumer awareness. Obviously scams will always exist, but a reduction in scams will increase the willingness of consumers to purchase legitimate products.

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turbolapp

The constitution is dead.

turbolapp

Could one say then, that by this logic: No law ever made, applies to anyone, unless they signed a contract saying that it would apply to them?

danke

Bollocks, I haven't seen actual history on the History Channel unless it's Presidents Day, Thanksgiving, or Christmas since the 90's.

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theflash

guerilla

You ready to start drinking this early in the day?

'Cause that's where this leads.

Yes, you have it right. And yes, if one accepts this line of thinking, it opens up a big can of worms.

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Thank you for your attentiveness,
the forward thrusters, engage on you busters,
I cut the mustard.

paulieg

i used the word tax figuratively. besides, it's not 'against their own will', no one forced them to buy that ridiculous acai shit and yet they did, in droves. every day, qvc and hsn sell a huge amount of near worthless crap to stupid people. the fool and his money are soon parted.

i was referring to a whole room full of workers being killed at foxconn while they were polishing ipad cases. they were sanding them by hand with no protection or ventilation until all the alluminium dust in the air ignited and exploded. apple could insist on minimally safe working conditions in its contractors' factories, but they don't because their customers don't pressure them to.

no, the reason we as a society need consumer awareness is so that companies can be properly incentivized to do the right thing by people voting with their dollars. consumer protection laws may have been defensible as a matter of practicality in an age when researching a product was difficult or impossible (basically a third party performing research on our behalf), but in the absence of an information deficit the unintended consequence of fostering consumer apathy makes this an overall liability, imo

-p

paulieg

+1. i hate that too, i used to love the history channel, but no more.

-p

jetto

So I'm sure many of you got an email from P202Nana titled: "Dude! people are enraged about what you did". I knew what it was gonna be about before I opened it.

An interesting question is: why now? Nana did you just notice? LOL.

I think the answer is it's now because now there's a good chance of serious punishment (thanks to the FTC of course). That's the only reason. I remember back in the day (when acai just started getting big) when anyone who would even try to raise the question of ethics was laughed and insulted out of the room. Now it's "alrite" and everyone is acting like they're some wholesome responsible guardian of this industry. The new "in" thing. LOL.

And here's Nana's piece:

Come On! Is This Industry That Thoughtless and Short-Sighted?

monies

So your saying you've never complained about or returned a product in your life? By your logic it was your fault because you did not do your due diligence. Whats wrong with qvc or hsn? If their products were deceptive then people would have been sued them.

You have actually forced them against their own will. No one wants to scam themselves. By offering a product significantly different than the one described is forcefully taking their money away because if not, you would have delivered the product they bought into. But you haven't, so therefore you have taken their money against their own will.


In this case you are right. However the majority of society don't actually care about the manufacturing process of the goods but that is ultimately up to individuals to change their values. The apple consumers do have the right to return their products if they disagreed with the manufacturing process.

Consumer awareness for finding the most suitable product and determining whether a product is a shame are two different things. The first should be encouraged as it teaches people not to buy legitimate shit that they won't use. Legitimate is the key word because it is the consumers fault that they bought a particular product they found out they had no use for. The latter has no merit as having shit products is the sole reason this type of awareness is needed in the first place. And like I said before, the unwillingness to buy, created by the scams also affect legitimate products.

It's not about the practicality of research, it's about the delivering on the product. Your argument is actually the one that is using practicality as an excuse. As you're saying in this day and age everyone can find out if something is a scam. But even if that is true, which it isn't, it's not the consumer's responsibility to make sure the seller delivers on their product. The consumer's role is to decide whether the product will benefit them, it's the seller's responsibility to make sure they deliver on their own product.

This has nothing to do with consumer protection. This is not about restricting how you sell, as I also don't believe in that, it's about making sure that all parties fulfill their agreement in a transaction.

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JarredLv

That's right, because you like what the government is doing, it's okay if they are not authorized by the document they are sworn to support and defend. As long as the government fights for what you want, it's all good.

I would much rather see a few shmucks getting screwed over than the government usurping power is has no right to.

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goingviral101

How badly does this affect INTL running rebills?

Your_Pal

no worries till you ain't making millions atleast.

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jetto

LOL @ making consumer fraud a constitutional issue.

CitizenSmif

I was watching 'The Corporation' for the second time the other day. One part goes into how a couple of investigators/reporters were hired for Fox or CNN. <snip> Long story short - they gained enough evidence about Fox/CNN falsifying the news to take them to court over it, to which they found out it is not illegal to falsify the news.

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paulieg

merchants establish return policies because they're a competitive advantage.

leaving your violent assault on the english language aside for a moment, the most obvious deception is the '$99 value, but yours for $9.99, order now and get an extra one free.' beyond that, there's the basic issue of them selling crap. 'buy these earrings, they are wonderful and you'll look great in them', when as a matter of fact, they're gauche, tasteless and no one who lives in a more civilized country would buy them for their worst enemy.

no. these people were promised pills with acai berry extract. assuming the pills they got actually contained acai berry extract, they received the exact product they bought. the claims may very well have been deceptive, but it's up to the buyer to research claims, establish their credibility and determine whether he wants to buy the product on the basis of those claims and the conclusions he reached in his research. in the acai berry case, it's as simple as finding out what the supposed alkaloid in acai is and finding out if it was ever found to correlate with weight loss in a study.

the point is, the populace at large has been trained not to do things because 'the government takes care of that.' the 90 year old man who hit me in a car accident, when asked how in the world he came to the conclusion that he was fit to drive a car when he couldn't see well enough to sign his own name on the police report and could barely stand up, simply replied that 'the government hasn't taken my driver's license away', personal responsibility and judgement be damned. people don't think about foreign policy - the government tells them the evil russians invaded georgia for no good reason and no one bothers to think about it twice, even though georgians were responsible for two previous genocides against ossetians in the 20th century alone and the oecd fact-finding mission established what happened quite clearly; yet i would bet 99% of americans would still toe the us gov't line today, if polled. in the same vein, people have gotten used to not doing any research about the shit they buy, hence not knowing about the blood on their ipads.

the number one reason for people doing research on the stuff they buy is to make sure they'll be happy with their purchase. the major reason for being unhappy with a purchase is if the product turns out to be shit. if they get as used to the government policing that as americans have, they'll stop doing said research. consequently, companies that make products which aren't shit, but are manufactured in a way that harms the public good, will be able to get away with it. in fact, that is the state of affairs we have today, which is the point i'm trying to make.

-p

papajohn56

JarredLv is a lawyer, I do believe

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monies

I never asked you anything about a return policy and hurr I didn't know guarantees were a selling point durr.

My question was if you have ever been scammed before?



I am so sorry that I made that mistake. I have disappointed the masters of English literature. Please forgive me.

Anyway, you can't claim your judgement on something subjective as the beauty of a fashion accessory to be a fact. I'm sure you have purchased a certain product that others would label as "shit" or "overpriced".

Show me one berry lander that doesn't claim any weight loss benefits.

I actually have to admit that I was wrong to have accidentally defended the FTC. They do have no right to act on consumers' behalf.

This is still consumer fraud though, it's just that the FTC shouldn't be the one prosecuting the scammers.

You can't teach consumers how to research for the most suitable product by defrauding them. They are completely different things.

This is whole "it's for their own good" argument is just as wrong as the FTC acting on consumers behalf because you have no right to force people into learning a lesson. Even if you did, it still wouldn't make sense as you're saying "stealing is good because it raises the awareness of stealing".

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craigmc

Ok then let's look at Sham-Wow. Yes it does exactly what it says it does. So does a fucking towel ! And I've got a shit ton of those.

If the average consumer ever rubbed two brain cells together we would all be out of business.

Think about it. How many of you sell a product that is the next best thing to sliced bread?