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CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
CONTENTS:
- What
the Author will respond to
- What
the Author will not respond to
- The
address
- About
the Author
- DONATIONS
for PSA's Legal Defense Fund
1.
The author WILL NOT respond to the following:
- Questions
about whether a particular firm is running the scam mentioned
in this site.
When a court or regulatory agency
determines that the company is running a scam, then it's a scam.
I am not equipped to make such a determination and will not open
myself up to legal liability with mere suspicions. This is why
it's so important for those who have been defrauded to take action!
- Requests
for sources.
Many are already sourced. All are public. Look them up. Quote
them as you please.
- Requests
to mirror this site.
I
grant my permission in advance and appreciate it. Feel free to
notify me of the mirror url.
- SPAM.
This will get you reported to your ISP and regulatory authorities.
Don't even try it.
- Complaints
from pro-MLM writers.
I am against MLMs that misrepresent their opportunities
to their participants. I've done my best to make it clear
where I stand and why. I guarantee I've heard your defense before.
If you disagree, put up your own website AND DON'T BOTHER
ME. If you still can't read and want to write
to complain, you are agreeing that I may post your message
in a future "Hall of Shame", no exceptions. (Bill &
Janet Orr of Primerica Financial Services, please get reading
lessons.)
2.
The author WILL respond
to the following:
- News
about lawsuits.
If it's public record, I may post it to the site.
- Requests
for updates, corrections, suggestions.
If something needs fixing, I'll fix it. Nobody's perfect.
- General
comments, questions.
Feedback regarding the site is appreciated.
- Offers
of legal help for readers.
I'll post your contact information for readers. Note that under
no circumstances do I accept any sort of referral fees
from attorneys.
- "You're
talking about my company! I'm going to sue!"
Don't be paranoid. I'll negotiate
removing specific information if you can prove how it
hurts your specific business, but this site targets no
specific company. Show me a judge's ruling saying the source
is a liar and I'll be happy to note that on the site, but I am
not keen on removing information just because you claim it's a
lie; I can bet the other side is going to claim you're
the liar and I will not enter that argument. And don't bother
filing a frivolous lawsuit because you'll only end up paying my
attorney and court costs in addition to your own. This constitutes
my reply to any and all "cease and desist" letters.
GUIDE YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.
3.
Now, IF YOU
HAVE READ ALL OF THE ABOVE and STILL WANT TO EMAIL ME...
click below. A Javascript-enabled browser (such
as Internet Explorer) is required to email me.
4.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I don't identify myself by name on this subsite because my identity
doesn't lend a shred of credibility to any of the information I
am imparting and would only open the door to idiot scammers making
ad-hominem attacks to distract from the content imparted; THIS SUBSITE
IS ABOUT ITS CONTENT, NOT ME. The main site is all about me me me
but I don't link back to it because it's got commercial elements,
and I won't be accused of using this
subsite's content to generate profit for the main site.
It's the other way around, folks; my commercial endeavors on the
main site make it possible for me to provide this subsite (and others).
You're free to find your way to the main site, but it's completely
unrelated. I'm
no longer in any MLM nor the financial services industry and can't
be accused of being a competitor out for financial gain. I'm not
part of any "conspiracy" out to get any particular company;
nobody has paid me a dime to put this site up. In short, I
do not profit in any way from this subsite; it is a labor of love
for those who might otherwise be victimized.
5.
DONATIONS:
IF
you find the information imparted by this site helpful and feel
compelled to help or donate, remember that many consumer advocates
have been victims of frivolous lawsuits by those they've exposed
and some still need the help in paying down the legal fees. Attorneys
who wish to donate legal services are surely also appreciated. I
do not accept donations myself and benefit in no way from these
referrals; I have been
a victim of such a lawsuit in the past and could be yet again*,
so I merely sympathize with their plights. Robert Fitzpatrick's
Pyramid
Scheme Alert website maintains a Legal
Defense Fund whose
aim is helping consumer advocates who have been victimized by frivolous
lawsuits by companies attempting to financially pressure them into
silence. You may donate to PSA for general
defense of people needing it as well as PSA's efforts in lobbying
for better consumer protection laws.
Click here
to donate to PSA's Consumer Advocate Defense Fund.
*Oct./Nov.
2009: Well,
speak of the Devil! After being on the Internet for years, this
site was suddenly threatened with two
lawsuits courtesy of two loosely related companies within one month
of each other. The first company, Trilogy
Financial Services (TFS)**, claimed I called them
a scammer when I hadn't (see the Cease
& Desist letter for yourself), and I was forced to once
again retain a lawyer to defend myself against utterly frivolous
and untrue allegations. I'm curious if Judge Andrew P. Banks noticed
the missing page 17/28, which contained the very clear disclaimer
above the list of companies. All Trilogy's 2003 lawsuit did was
forbid me from speaking their name for two years and slap a permanent
injunction (included in the aforementioned C&D letter) on me
against doing things that are already illegal to begin with, none
of which I ever did, but I agreed to the injunction because it was
the cheapest way out and I had never heard of SLAPPs
before; in fact all it could accomplish was draining me financially.
I don't control what people search for on the Internet, and some
200 people per month type "Trilogy
Financial Services SCAM" into Google
(a few stats: Aug,
Sept,
Oct)
such that my Alexa.com
"keywords" showed it was the top search term that
hit this entire website as of November 11, 2009. I didn't even know
about it until I received their Cease & Desist letter and wondered
why they were the only company who (up to that time) had bothered.
Removing their name as requested did not work, and they opted to
sue anyway, so I've restored their name to this site and the judge
can sort it out. The
second company, whom I and the president
of Trilogy worked for around 1995 IIRC,
Independent Capital Management, Inc***, emailed
me: "I am suggesting you take this site down immediately.
You are breaking the law and we will be using our resources to go
after you if you don’t voluntarily take this site down within
10 days. I am sure you can not survive a legal battle so I do
not recommend starting one. I have notified our lawyers of your
site and we intend to pursue our rights under the law."
ICM's subsequent C&D
letter sent by what appears to be that company's COO/CIO's lawyer
brother Seth Gerber (page
15) cited their reasons as words
that were never spoken by me to begin with
(see Section
230.c.1 of the Communications Decency Act) and
that came with clear
disclaimers (green)
that only the utterly illiterate could misread. In fact this second
[illiterate] company actually had the gall to accuse me of soliciting
donations to personally profit on this site! I personally
have accused neither of running the scam detailed on this site,
nor ANY companies, as I learned in 2003 the price of financially
defending specific truths. However, there is no crime in
pointing out how their own behavior of protesting far too loudly
brings far greater suspicion upon themselves, and in letting readers
decide for themselves what
their motivations really are. Face it, companies
who are not running the scam have nothing to fear from this site.
Update
Jan 2010: Judge
Andrew P Banks did indeed sort it out. He issued a judgment
against Trilogy Financial Services
and owner Jeff Motske,
I.E. he ruled in my favor.
Update
May 2010: Trilogy Financial
Services and owner Jeff
Motske continue refusing to pay for all attorneys'
fees and court expenses they caused me to incur, despite my generous
offer to remove all mention of their lawsuit from the site if they
simply return me to parity by doing so. (Due to a deplorable gap
in the law I was unable to fight that case as a SLAPP.) I have also
restored Independent Capital Management's
and Ross Gerber's
names to this site, as my attorney advised me I never should have
felt intimidated and removed their names to begin with as their
case WILL be a clear-cut SLAPP
suit in which I'll be entitled to all attorneys' fees and court
costs (and other damages) if they choose to pursue it.
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