FTC Halts Bogus Business Opportunity Scheme

The Federal Trade Commission has banned 18 elusive marketers, who cheated consumers out of more than $10 million, from selling business or work-at-home opportunities under court orders. Most of the victims affected where seniors with limited income and savings.

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These orders resolve charges that the defendants conned consumers into thinking they could make money by referring merchants in their area to a non-existent money-lending service. The defendants, who began operating as “Money Now Funding,” tried to avoid detection by law enforcement by changing product names, office locations and merchant identities.

They falsely claimed consumers would earn up to $3,000 per month by referring small businesses to the defendants to obtain loans. After consumers paid up to $499 to buy the business opportunity and were told that in order to succeed they had to buy sales leads that cost tens of thousands of dollars but turned out to be worthless.

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The various judgments and settlements impose a ban on selling business or work-at-home opportunities on Lukeroy K. Rose, Leary Darling, Solana DePaola, Lance Himes, Cordell Bess, Cynthia Miller, Clinton Rackley, and Richard Frost, and 10 corporate defendants: Money Now Funding LLC, Rose Marketing LLC, DePaola Marketing LLC, Affiliate Marketing Group LLC, Affinity Technologies LLC, Global Network Marketing LLC, Precise Payroll Services LLC, Strategic Media Advertising LLC, Legal Doxs LLC and US Doc Assist LLC. Some defendants are also banned from telemarketing. In addition, the judgments and settlements include provisions that apply specifically to certain defendants, prohibiting them from engaging in the types of misconduct alleged by the FTC.