Much to my surprise, the Federal Trade Commission appears to be taking action against Pre-Paid Legal Services (NYSE:PPD) for making misleading representations in connection with its Identity Theft Shield and Affirmative Defense Response System products.
The company is named, along with CEO Harland Stonecipher anbd Chief Marketing Officer Mark Brown. The FTC seeks not only to take away the money Pre-Paid Legal made on these services, but also permanent injunctive relief.
Of course, the company’s press release made no mention of all the work done by Robert FitzPatrick of Pyramid Scheme Alert and Barry Minkow of Fraud Discovery Institute, who both worked vigorously to expose the frauds being perpetrated on consumers by Pre-Paid Legal.
You can read more about the work of both Robert and Barry, which I participated in, on this blog.
Now we can only hope that between the SEC and the FTC, we will have “Justice for all”. Are you aware of PPLS’s recent “Hail Mary” pass to prevent their implosion, the unbelievably lame Blastoff Network, which appears to be sinking faster than a speeding bullet? While not a blogger myself, I have been posting on the following sites, including, when appropriate, information about PPLS:
http://blast-off-scam.com/pre-paid-legal-needs-their-own-services/
http://blastoff-sucka.com/?p=32
At the very least, this should warm your heart:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2009/10/15/the-undiscovered-madoff/
BTW, are you aware that Mr. Minkow has parked his PPLS website?
Wow!, 30 min ago i was at a gas station by my house and started chatting with the store clerk and a random guy that was in line. His name was Jeffrey Bean. He asked me to come outside so he could talk to me. I was like wtf?..ok. So he introduces himself and says he is from pre-paid legal services in. and says he thinks i seem like a smart guy and wants to offer me a job. He gave me a dvd and everything. I get home and google the company and this is what i find..lololol too funny.
Yeah, it is just a lie that these folks say their primary purpose is not to recruit. Wilburn Smith, one of the top DAWGS at the company says “recruit, recruit, recruit, and don’t get em out of order. I was standing in line at wal-mart waiting to check out when the person in front of me tried to recruit me. They will say you only get compensated when you sell the product. When they do recruit you to sell, you rapidly learn that your compensation is directly related to the number of people you get to “sell under you.” The focus then becomes not so much to sell the product, but to recruit, an illegal pyramid scheme that has gone on for too long and should be shut down. Oh by the way, I know several people in this area that were recruited and the executive director told them that they should vote republican. Imagine that. I guess they were afraid that their Madoff type company would fail should they face any scrutiny and it will fail. I hope that when the chips you do fall, that government enforcers look at criminal rather than civil charges for the perpetrators.
Unfortunately, MLM’s still operating “successfully” have shaped the laws through their lobby, the DSA. They all use recruiting as the major way to make money. But they sell potions, lotions, or “legal plans” to avoid being an illegal pyramid scheme. Instead, they are legal pyramid schemes where the only people making any money are the creators and the 1-3% of their minions at the top. The rest end up losing money, destroying relationships, and creating hardship, debt, and heartache.