Troy Dooly Moves Data Network Affiliates Out of Scam Status

Note: Troy Dooly has stated on his blog that he has an upcoming post about Data Network Affiliates. I read through the current posts about DNA and it was not 100% clear to me what his current thinking is about it.

However, that is actually secondary to the point of this post as you will see…

Troy Dooly’s MLMHelpDesk is one of the places I routinely send people to when they have questions about MLM (Network Marketing). I will continue to do so. The other places I tend to send people are MLMWatchDog {Rod Cook), EagleResearchAssociates (Lynndel Edgington), MarketWaveInc, the banned programs list at BlogQuik, and Patrick Pretty’s blog.

In other words, I don’t consider myself to be qualified to give an opinion on MLM opportunities. I turn to the experts like Troy Dooly and the others that I’ve mentioned for their opinion.

However, one thing does puzzle me about when Troy Dooly at one point moved Data Network Affiliates out of Scam Alerts are these two statements that he makes:

“From the very beginning we have voiced huge concerns over the use of an MLM compensation structure by DNA or any other company, when paying their “distributors” to collect license plates; this concern has not changed, however Data Network Affiliates has made some major strives to show the direct selling industry their goal is to create a viable long term MLM business opportunity for the average distributor, as well as the full-time MLM professional.”

Along with the earlier statement he made this post about Data Network Affiliates on March 13, 2010 in which he stated:

“Although, I have asked some hard questions over the last week, I will also be the first one to yell from the tree tops, if Data brings out a viable business for distributors, which will not bring the regulators calling.”

A lot more discussion has gone on about DNA  in this April 27 discussion at MLMHelpDesk since these two statements, but  still don’t understand this sequence of statements conceptually.

If Troy believed that the original business model of DNA would “bring the regulators calling”, but the latter business model wouldn’t how can that qualify a company to come out of scam alert status?

I asked my good friend Lynndel Edgington who runs EagleResearchAssociates.org this hypothetical question about a hypethetical company:

“Can a company in the MLM industry start out as a scam and then later go legit and have no impunity?”

After he gave the answer to the question I realized how dumb my question actually was. Here’s what he said:

“That would be like saying a bank robber isn’t liable for previous crimes because they no longer robs banks.”

Related:

WarriorForum is down

The popular Warrior Forum has been down for a while today. Not sure what to make of it. I Skyped Michael Brown who is good friends with Kevin Riley – who is quite popular at the WarriorForum.

So far now news about why the Warrior Forum is down. I’m sure quite a bit of people are concerned about Allen Says, the owner of the forum.  I thought it had only been down for about an hour, but according to this post about the Warrior Forum being down says:

“Can anyone else access the Warrior Forum? I’ve been trying to get on it all morning, but it tries to load for about a minute before giving a ‘not available’ error…”

If you want to keep updated on the status of the Warrior Forum, I’d suggest using various real-time search engines.

Here are a few:

Bankcard Empire is accused of fraudulently selling work-at-home Web sites

According to ABC news (see video below) authorities have served warrants on 2 Arizona telemarketing offices.

“Federal and local authorities raided the offices of a Valley-based telemarketing business Tuesday on search warrants issued for forgery and fraud.”

According to AZCentral’s story here:

“Leslie Mersky, 69, the father of Bankcard Empire President David Mersky, was arrested on 25 counts of forgery and one count of fraudulent schemes and artifices.

Leslie Mersky could not be reached for comment.

In 2001, Leslie Mersky was sentenced to 42 months in prison for his role in a massive money-laundering scheme that bilked $60 million from thousands of victims, including singer Dionne Warwick. No other company executives could be reached for response.”

Of interest is that BankCard Empire themselves filed a complaint against against individuals for posting false and defamatory statements and then posted that complaint in a publicly accessible area on their website here (which I stumbled onto through a Google search).

7/26/2010 – NOTE: The Judge ruled in the defendants’ favor in this case and awarded them attorney’s fees.

Click here to see the link to the outcome of the case confirming the above statement

Click here to see the details of the ruling in favor of the defendant’s awarding them attorney’s fees.

Apparently there is some concern that readers might not have understand what a complaint is. A complaint DOES NOT mean that the allegations are true.  In fact one of the defendents has reported in the comment section:

BBB Summary of Types Of Complaints Against BankCard Empire:

“Complaints filed by consumers allege refund and sales practices. According to information in BBB files, customers purchased a business opportunity for $100 to $500 plus an additional $19.95 per month for a personal website.  Customers indicate that after the product was purchased, they were then contacted by affiliates of Bankcard Empire and were offered advertising campaigns for costs up to $60,000.  Bankcard Empire typically responds to complaints by stating they are not responsible their affiliates’ actions and that Bankcard Empire and their affiliate’s charges are non-refundable.  If you have an unresolved dispute with this company, please contact the US Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455.”

Other charges against Bankcard Empire:

February 2, 2010:

“On February 2nd, 2010 “On February 2, 2010, the Securities Division entered a Statement of Charges and Notice of Intent to Enter Order to Cease and Desist against AIG Promotions, LLC, and Davidan Corporation, d/b/a Bankcard Empire (collectively “Respondents”). Respondents are sellers of a business opportunity that involves the leasing of merchant credit card processing machines. The Statement of Charges alleges that Respondents offered and sold this business opportunity to at least one Washington resident while not registered under the Business Opportunity Fraud Act of Washington, RCW 19.110. The Statement of Charges further alleges that Respondents failed to provide material information and disclosure documents regarding the business opportunity. The Securities Division intends to order the Respondents to cease and desist from violating the provisions of the Business Opportunity Fraud Act of Washington. Respondents have a right to request a hearing on the Statement of Charges. the Washington Securities Division”.”

Click here to view the statement of charges the Washington Securities Division filed against AIG Promotions, LLC (d/b/a Bankcard Empire)

Other News Coverage of United States Postal Inspectors’ Raid Of BankCard Empire:

4/13/2010 coverage on Fox 10 News:

Investigative Reports About BankCard Empire:

January 25, 2010 ABC News Report:

Related:

Other similar news:

Advertisements and Commercials for BankCard Empire:

Google Adwords Advertisement For BankCard Empire On 4/20/2010:

Adwords Advertisement For BankCard Empire

Adwords Advertisement For BankCard Empire

Is it significant that BankCard Empire didn’t get hit by the Google Adwords Ban? After all, Google banned many advertisers they considered to be engaging in questionable business and/or advertising practices. So why didn’t they ban BankCard Empire?