Consumerist
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scams
"The Purple Horror" Monavie Group Blog
Remember the Monavie Acai juice Multi-Level-Marketing scam Chris Walters told you about a few weeks ago? There's a whole community blog set up where people can post their Monavie stories as moderator-approved comments at purplehorror.com. Here's one from a frustrated salesperson: "Our upline said that we weren’t pitching it the “right way”. Their idea of the right way was to lie. They didn’t think of it as lying, but it was... They would ask people if they had any medical conditions and whatever they said, the answer was always “Monavie can definitely help you with that." Note the word "upline." That's a common word multi-level-marketing schemes use to refer to the person directly above you in their modified pyramid scheme.
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scams
How The Modern Pyramid Scheme Stays Barely Legal
The modern pyramid scheme has undergone slight tweaks in order to stay just with the bounds of the law, and still keep the fun scam times going. When you strip away all the pretty foil and chocolate, though, a naked Ponzi sits in the center, laughing his ass off. More »
7:24 PM on Fri Oct 5 2007
By Ben Popken
11,931 views, 63 commentsLatest by mikagsd: For those of you bashing the entire network marketing industry, did you ever stop to think about the fact Warren more »
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ds-max
4 Typical DS-MAX MLM Scam Job Ads Found On Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder And Jobster
Using the names of companies accused of being DS-Max (now known as Innovage) subsidiaries/affiliates on Ripoffreport and a list on DS-Max The Aftermath, I did a search of Monster, Hot Jobs, and other job sites to pick out real ads that are out there and should be avoided. More » -
ds-max
How To Spot A DS-MAX Style MLM Scam Job Ad
Here are some of the qualities of a "business" operating under DS-MAX (now known as Innovage, though the same company owns both trademarks...) principles, an organization responsible for many complaints alleging scams, fraud, and general employee deprivation in a "sales-cult" atmosphere. More » -
brandwashing
Amway's Baaaaaaccck!
Like a sequel to a horror movie, the Amway brand name is bursting out of a shallow grave, reports ABCmoney:The move also was widely viewed as a way of helping the company shed some of the negative connotations the Amway name had acquired. The Quixtar name, however, never resonated with the public.
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sock puppets
Nu-Life Owns The Trademarks For Innovage AND DS-MAX
Nu-Life, the company so mad at us about "adversely" affecting its DS-MAX trademark, saying that old DS-MAX became Innovage and Nu-Life has nothing to do with the actions of old DS-MAX or new Innovage... More » -
quantum marketing
Man Escapes Working For DS-MAX-esque Charity Scam, Lives To Blogs His Tale
A reader who used to work for Quantum Marketing, one of the "Aftermax" companies, (the term for companies that old DS-MAX (now known as Innovage) spawned), wrote several posts describing how his company scammed people who thought they were donating money to D.A.R.E. More » -
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investigations
Consumerist Undercover At IDT Energy: Table Of Contents
In case you missed any of 7-part undercover report on IDT-Energy, Midtown Promotions, and the fabulous worlds of energy resale and multi-level-marketing, here's a recap: More » -
investigations
Consumerist Undercover At IDT Energy: The Confession
After only three days with Midtown Promotions, I could already tell that I'd wait weeks, maybe months or a full year before coming upon hard evidence of fraud, if I found any evidence at all. After leaving James and Doreen in the Bronx, I took the afternoon off and went to work on these diaries. More »
3:35 PM on Fri Jun 8 2007
By consumerintern
14,924 views, 49 commentsLatest by MargaretHapjo: ack! Just read this series of articles in its entirety, and to be truthful, It made me feel more pissed more »
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investigations
Consumerist Undercover At IDT Energy: The Meltdown
From the moment I met up with James, and Doreen, who was going our way, things began to fall apart. Eric told me to follow James, not Carl, who was going solo. I was to listen to James' instructions, follow his example, and go to wherever he decided we should spend the day. Today was Mt. Vernon, NY, almost 90 minutes from the offices of Midtown Promotions. More »
5:53 PM on Thu Jun 7 2007
By Ben Popken
16,282 views, 68 commentsLatest by Ben Popken: Mantari, never ever do that again. Thank you. more »
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investigations
Consumerist Undercover At IDT Energy: Status Report
If you're just now tuning in, we've been doling out daily pieces of our multi-part investigation into IDT-Energy. They're an energy reseller in the New York area and we've received multiple complaints about their salesperson's dressing as ConEd workers and doing other funny stuff at the door to get people to sign over. So we sent in Brian Fairbanks undercover to get hired at Midtown Promotions, a direct-sales marketing company IDT-Energy contracted to get subscribers. More »
3:11 PM on Thu Jun 7 2007
By Ben Popken
2,618 views, 24 commentsLatest by jurgis: Yeah, "the Meltdown" was posted yesterday after this... most of us did complain that it was fairly weak investigative journalism more »
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investigations
Consumerist Undercover At IDT Energy: The Meeting
Before the morning meeting started, I left my man-purse on a set of boxes right by the blackboard, with the microphone discreetly poking out of the pocket. More »
1:38 PM on Wed Jun 6 2007
By Ben Popken
14,942 views, 34 comments -
multi-level-marketing
13 Confession Of A Former DS-MAX Manager
This is almost everything you need know about DS-MAX (now known as Innovage), the super-shady multi-level-marketing group whose business practices seems to have inspired the Midtown Promotions office we're looking into. It's culled from an excellent post over at DS-MAX: The Aftermath: More » -
investigations
Consumerist Undercover At IDT Energy: Let's Get Juiced
I staggered into Midtown Promotions at 10am on Wednesday. Seeing as how people were only trickling in for the morning meeting, the receptionist and another office assistant gave me some papers to fill out and sign. (Note: all spelling errors/typos are as they appeared...) More »
12:51 PM on Tue Jun 5 2007
By Ben Popken
14,774 views, 40 commentsLatest by SisterHavana: I worked for a DS-Max company in the suburbs of Chicago many years ago. The company I worked for sold more »
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consumer alert
Door To Door Energy Resellers Fail To Deliver Promised Savings
The NY Post ran a good article looking into whether the savings promised by door-to-door energy resale reps like IDT Energy ever really materialize for subscribers:"I've had complaints from residents, as well as small businesses, who have unwittingly switched to a different energy provider and seen their bills go through the roof," said City Councilman John Liu (D-Queens).
One Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, IDT customer - a bartender who gave her name as Carmel - said her electric bill jumped from $40 to $70, and she is anxious to cancel.
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investigations
IDT Energy Starts At 7% Discount, Switches To Variable After 2 Months
While scanning the collateral Brian picked up in his investigation, we nearly choked on this gem buried in their terms and conditions: it says that you'll get 7% savings for the first two months, but after that, there's no telling whether your bill will be higher or lower than what it would be with ConEd (click to enlarge image). More » -
investigations
Consumerist Undercover At IDT Energy: The Day Of O
I sat in the offices of Midtown Promotions, watching the receptionist field calls from job prospects, still surprised at having been one of those callers not even twenty-four hours prior. More »
2:16 PM on Mon Jun 4 2007
By Ben Popken
14,662 views, 27 comments
multi-level-marketing
New York, 8:18 AM
Sun Nov 15
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