This company sends you a certificate in the mail indicating you've won a prize. Upon calling them you are asked to purchase a batch of extremely overpriced promtotional items (customized pens or keychains, for example) in order to be eligible for your cheesy prize. Very high pressure pitch.
If you bite, they'll come back for more, this time promising large cash prizes of $10,000 to $40,000 if only you'll purchase more outrageously priced promotional goods for your business.
I lost $6,000 to these folks in 1996; many others have lost thousands as well. For full details, see my Web site:
Background information
I have created this as a public service to alert small business owners to the existence of a company that could affect them as adversely as it has affected me. I will explain how representatives from JGB Enterprises coaxed $6,000 out of me while assuring me for endless months that I would soon get "good news" about an ultimately mythical cash prize that ranged from $10,000 to $50,000.
After 24 years in business, this Las Vegas-based company has perfected what can only be described as a legal swindle. JGB clearly knows the law and is careful to stay barely within it. This is all the more reason to exercise extreme caution when dealing with this company.in my research I learned that at least one state, Connecticut, filed a lawsuit against JGB Enterprises for sweepstakes fraud in July 1996. I have been unable to discover the disposition of this case, but I doubt they were able to make any charges stick.
Another large watchdog organization, the Better Business Bureau, posted a "Fax Alert" in October 1996 in which an insurance company's client reported he had received a prize certificate from JGB Enterprises — but the prize came at a price. He said he was asked to purchase merchandise to be eligible for the "prize." This certificate (see image below) is the bait I swallowed when I had my first encounter with JGB.
JGB Enterprises does briefly note on the back of its initial prize certificate that "there is no express or implied monetary requirement, " but I do not recall any such statement from the lips of the JGB reps who spoke to me on the phone. However, someone who first read the warnings contained on this page called JGB and reported the representative indeed stated that no purchase was required. This was followed by the same long-winded, high-pressure sales pitch that convinced me I needed to buy something to be eligible for one of the four prizes described on the certificate.
This appears to contradict the intent of the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, which became federal law in August 1994. Under this Act, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted the Telemarketing Sales Rule, effective as of August 1995.in explaining the rule, FTC documentation states:
"A legitimate prize promotion does not require any purchase or payment of money to participate or win. If a purchase or payment of money is required to be eligible to win a prize, it is not a prize promotion; it is a lottery that is generally unlawful under federal and state lottery laws. Therefore, the Rule requires sellers or telemarketers that offer prize promotions to tell consumers that they are not required to purchase anything or pay any money in order to participate in the promotion or win a prize."
The FTC defines a prize promotion as including " (1) any sweepstakes or other game of chance, and (2) any representation that a person has won, has been selected to receive, or may be eligible to receive a prize or purported prize. A prize is anything offered and given to a consumer by chance."
Unfortunately, contradicting the intent of the Rule is not a violation. So JGB Enterprises remains with us.
JGB says in the various printed documentation it sends to its "customers" that it can afford to give away substantial "cash bonus awards" because it does not advertise. Maybe.
What is JGB Enterprises, you may ask? It is an "advertising specialty" company; that is, it sells promotional items to small businesses. Basically, JGB imprints your company's name, address and phone number on all sorts of inexpensive giveaway items (pens, calendars, mugs, key chains, etc.). Nothing odd about that. However, JGB charges approximately 3 times the actual retail value of the product, and sometimes more depending upon the item. We're not talking about a reasonable profit margin. We're talking about 22 oz. Plastic thermal mugs costing $16 each, which should yield a profit of, well, you do the math.
If you've just received a certificate like the one below, do not call the phone number and save yourself a lot of trouble. If you're already in the same boat as I am, be sure to check out the helpful links I've included at left. I've also created a page of e-mail letters written to me by other visitors to this page.
For those with the stomach for it, the details of my personal experience with JGB can be found here.
DISCLAIMER: Be advised that more than one company named "JGB Enterprises" exists and this page refers ONLY to the one based in Las Vegas, Nevada.in particular, the JGB Enterprises of Liverpool, N.Y., which manufactures flexible hoses for industrial and military use, has no connection whatsoever to the operation in Las Vegas.
I'm sure there are several others; I accidentally discovered another JGB Enterprises in my home state of Maryland! To all these other companies, I extend my sympathies. It's unfortunate that legitimate businesses might suffer because of the actions of one disingenuous company.
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