SortMyList – again…

I’ve written about this incredibly helpful free online tool before.

If you do a lot of data manipulation and need a quick and dirty yet fairly robust tool to do things like trim white spaces, change delimiters that a list is sorted by, remove dupes, sort name and address lists…and most importantly…allow you to instantly write text backwards:

Blue
Green
Red
Yellow

eulB
neerG
deR
wolleY

ʇǝu˙ʌɹǝɥs ǝʞıl sǝʇıs ʇɐ ǝlqɐlıɐʌɐ slooʇ ƃuıʇıɹʍ uʍop ǝpısdn ǝɥʇ sɐ ǝʌıssǝɹdɯı sɐ ʇou ʎluıɐʇɹǝɔ s,ʇı ɥƃnoɥʇlɐ

M.O.R.E. Inc. BBB Advertising Review

A very long time ago I ordered a product from M.O.R.E. Inc. called “Dialing for Dollars”. It was a pretty decent product – especially for the time – about using automated answering machines as part of a 2 step direct mail sales process.

It included information about risks involved and was pretty well laid out step by step.

However, immediately after that I remember getting bombarded with direct mail from M.O.R.E. Inc. that made some extremely outrageous claims. I’m going from memory here, but I think one had to do with making a bunch of money just by “mailing two letters” and another had to do with becoming a list broker (which requires a lot of specialized knowledge to do correctly).

Apparently the outrageous claims haven’t stopped according to a recent BBB review of M.O.R.E. Inc.’s advertising practices:

Advertising Review

The company has failed to substantiate advertising claims when requested by the BBB on December 21, 2007 and February 7, 2009.
The business claims the following through mailings and faxes:

  • Average customers have earned between $20,000 and $100,000 per month
  • $10,000 can be earned in the first week prior to “know(ing) anything;
    and
  • the referenced bonous gifts are worth $97,760.

The business has also sent out mail and fax communications stating that their firm is having “big problems” and asking the recipient to assume an equity position in their firm. The BBB requested that the business clarify the nature of the problem and they failed to do so.”

Before proceeding I should mention that I don’t know the exact procedures that the  BBB uses to verify that advertising pieces are actually from the company in question and haven’t been modified or created by a third party.

Also, considering that that company has been in business for 15 years, the complaint history

If this BBB report is accurate, then obviously those are some pretty bizarre claims, not to mention that if M.O.R.E. Inc. was truly offering an equity position in their firm they would possibly be violating SEC regulations on private offerings:

“B. Private Offering Exemption

Section 4(2) of the Securities Act exempts from registration “transactions by an issuer not involving any public offering.” To qualify for this exemption, the purchasers of the securities must:

  • have enough knowledge and experience in finance and business matters to evaluate the risks and merits of the investment (the “sophisticated investor”), or be able to bear the investment’s economic risk;
  • have access to the type of information normally provided in a prospectus; and
  • agree not to resell or distribute the securities to the public.

In addition, you may not use any form of public solicitation or general advertising in connection with the offering.

The precise limits of this private offering exemption are uncertain. As the number of purchasers increases and their relationship to the company and its management becomes more remote, it is more difficult to show that the transaction qualifies for the exemption. You should know that if you offer securities to even one person who does not meet the necessary conditions, the entire offering may be in violation of the Securities Act.

Rule 506, another “safe harbor” rule, provides objective standards that you can rely on to meet the requirements of this exemption. Rule 506 is a part of Regulation D, which we describe more fully on page 24.”

You can read the full BBB report on M.O.R.E., Inc. here

Other sites hosted on the same IP address as MoreIncorporated.com (I have not verified ownership) are:

  • 1-800-487-0023.com
  • 100killerprograms.com
  • 18004870023.com
  • 24hourorderdesk.com
  • 3magicrules.com
  • 5freeprograms.com
  • 60in90.com
  • 60thousandin90days.com
  • 7freeprograms.com
  • 7freesecrets.com
  • 879secrets.com
  • Areyouruthless.com
  • Auctionclearinghouse.com
  • Becomeaplatinummember.com
  • Cashin48hours.com
  • Club20.tv
  • Drnwealthcollection.com
  • Ebookdiv.com
  • Ebookdivision.com
  • Free2990gift.com
  • Free4485gift.com
  • Freegiftdivision.com
  • Freeinfoon.com
  • Freeinternetmarketingcourse.com
  • Freewebsitesofthemonth.com
  • Freewebsitesofthemonthclub.com
  • Getallthesecrets.com
  • Gmwdtracker.com
  • Goesselsnackfood.com
  • Heytj.com
  • Hotrealestatesecrets.com
  • Internetcoachingcenter.com
  • Jointhedrn.com
  • Mailingcoop.com
  • Meetcustomerservice.com
  • Morecommerce.com
  • Moreinc.biz
  • Moreinc.net
  • Moreinccomplaints.com
  • Moreincorporated.com
  • Moreincorporatedinfo.com
  • Moreincorporatednews.com
  • Moreincscams.com
  • Nonegativity.com
  • Parttimeinternetwealth.com
  • Prospectmanagerpro.com
  • Ptiw.com
  • Recessionproofwealthsystem.com
  • Ruthlessmarketing.com
  • Secretinterviews.com
  • Securedataprocessing.net
  • Temporarymembership.com
  • Terencestormpublishing.com
  • Thedrn.com
  • Tjrohledercomplaints.com
  • Top150ebooks.com
  • Top50ebooks.com
  • Ummsystem.com
  • Unmlm.com
  • Wealthurl.com
  • Whatshotrightnow.com
  • Worldseasiestwaytomakemoney.com
  • Theunmlm.com
  • Threemagicrules.com
  • Tjrohlederinfo.com
  • Tjrohledernews.com
  • Tjrohlederscams.com
  • Top100ebooks.com
  • Top200ebooks.com

StoresOnline.com agreement with the Washington State AG’s Office

I can’t believe I missed this press release as I’ve been following this companie for years now, wondering how it was getting people to hand over so much money despite the large volume of existing complaints and what seemed to me at the time questionable business practices.

From the News Release:

“Kristi Chadd, of Clarkston, paid more than $5,500 to StoresOnline after attending a sales presentation in Spokane. A car crash left the former traveling nurse with a back injury that limits the type of work she can do and the number of hours. Although she doesn’t even have an e-mail address, Chadd was convinced by the sales agents that she could start a successful online sales company. She said they told her she didn’t even need a product to sell; they’d help her find one. She said they showed her a video where children and a woman who could barely speak English talked about the money they were making online.”

One person who claims to be a victim of the StoresOnline business has posted about her experience with StoresOnline.com here and put together a list of other companies she claims to be related to StoresOnline at this blog. (Note: I haven’t verified her story or the accuracy of the list of sites she posted).

You can read the original Washington State AG’s press release here.

Important information for people over 65 (this is something I hadn’t seen before):

“Tassi said today’s agreement should help ensure that any consumers contacted by StoresOnline in the future understand what they are – and aren’t – getting for their money. State law allows consumers to cancel a purchase made during a seminar at a hotel, for example, within three business days. The state’s agreement extends those refund rights to ensure that all consumers have at least a full weekend to examine the StoresOnline product and that consumers 65 or older have 15 days to rescind a purchase.”

I haven’t checked to see if any of the other states offer similar extensions for consumers over a certain age.

I don’t mind broken promises…

To quote one of Jack Handey’s Deep Thoughts:

“Broken promises don’t upset me. I just wonder, why did they believe me?”

Here’s the promise the companies have made in their agreement:

“The companies, which cooperated with the investigation, also agreed to restrictions that prohibit them from engaging in deceptive business practices in the future.”

We’ll see…