I was going to file under another complaint, but since I am a victim too, I thought I should register my thoughts to try and disuade any one from believing the crap of this "Millionaire" and debunk some of the outrageous lies reported.
First, let me say, that just like so many others surfing the Internet, I am always looking for an opportunity to make additional income, or as his Dishonor, Mr. Allen, says "multiple streams of income". So, as I was taught many years ago by my wise old, dirt farmer, grandpaw, it's hard to cheat a person that is not greedy! Greed is the backbone of our world economy. That is not an indictment of evil, but a declaration of reason. Everyone is looking for something to draw prosperity to them. That is the basis for all the lies and deceit used to sucker you in to the slick tongued, silk suit garbage.
Robert Allen, etal, and those like him, tell half truths to get your confidence by getting you in agreement with the true parts of the spin, then sock it to your billfold with the come on. The old carney barkers of traveling shows used to sucker you in to the nickel and dime farces of the midway and have now graduated to computers, the Internet, and Congress!
I question the premise of Allen's claims of wild success that he can make successes of ne'r do wells, but it can happen, anything is possible. But the over $24,000 profit in less than 24 hours claim is undeniable horse apples! A very honest entertainer once said that he took him 7 years to become an overnight success! The truth has never been uttered more profoundly.By his own words, Allen spent years developing his "downline list" in preparation for spinning a proposal to them and getting almost immediate response. Come on Mr. Allen, do you really need more money from suckers that you would need to sell your soul for a lie!
I was suckered into believing that I needed help to succeed in building an Internet business. Being honest and fair minded, I wanted to develop a distribution outlet for a niche product line, and thought I needed paid instructional help in doing it.
I trully wanted to help the niche consumers by bringing
together a collection of tried and proven products to sell at resaonable prices, instead of making money selling rip-off how-to ebooks like so many Internet predators do. Allen's rip-off system was exactly as is protrayed in other posts in consumer complaintss, where you are passed on the phone to different parties whose job is to "sink the hook" and "reel in the sucker". The plan was to assign a mentor who makes weekly calls and "assignments" to followed prescribed lessons. All the time, the rip-off clock is ticking, because you were charged an upfront fee, a Website was setup and began charges immediately, and your fee balance was sold to PMG who started charging interest. All these charges, while the "mentor" cautioned not to get started selling immediately, but wait until we had done all the due-deligence investigating of the particulars and letting the Web-Master setup the Website. (Being a programmer myself, I know that you setup a template system, then use it over and over again, only changing the identifying keys. Should take very little time to duplicate, so when it took weeks, I wondered if they had that much business. No wonder Allen is a millionaire!)
Although any business has setup costs and setup time before producing income, the original bait led my greed into believing it would be minimal. Reality is that many surfers are seeking income opportunities out of necessity and don't have great capital resources to sustain the "Allen" system. Personally, I'm a stupid idiot for being suckered into the $5,000 worth of BS, but in many ways I'm to blame. But Allen bears some moral and ethetical responsibility. There is no personal resolution to this issue, save my attempt to influence others to stay away from this kind of scamming. Just like greed can have several meanings, scamming can too. There is the outright scam where there was never an intention to deliver the items sold, the selling of "how-to's" to produce income that only work for those selling "how-to's", and the more elaborate system of setting up all the bells and whistles for a legitimate operation, but being long on selling expectation and short on delivering results then setting you up for failure by supplying "un-expert" advice and making it appear that you are to blame for your failure. While it is true that you are to blame, part of the blame is that you fell for the bait!
The mentor was not at all familiar with the niche market chosen, seemed to be unprepared for all but one of the weekly calls, was preoccupied with something else on his end (probably his pursuit of his other streams of income) while talking with us, and usually taking a "cookie cutter" type approach to any questions we posed during our session. The information we were referred to and the system setup was a copying and compiling from other readily available sources for free, which granted, is a service worthy of charging for to people who are ignorant (unknowing, not stupid) of their availability. The "cookie cutter" approach of a 10 week course was designed as a deterrent to progress for a period, I surmise as effecting maximum charges for the Website and to satisfy time gaurantee limits The Website was complicated, partly because it was designed as a one solution fits all mentality, and partly because there always seemed to be some prerequisite for anything attempted so as to prevent you from ever getting a congruent input into place. The $39.95/month was high in comparison to other available websites, and under the "Allen" way, you had nearly $400.00 invested before ever making a public offering.
I am not an Internet guru, but I have made a living for 15 years in my own business dealing with computers, networking, programming, accounting, and consulting. So I am not a novice either. Most of the information, techniques, and knowledge offered by the Allen system is available for free or reasonable prices. My advice to others is to familiarize yourself with as much as you can about the workings of the Internet before plunging into that piranha filled water. There are enough predators out there to eat your lunch, steal your dreams, and take off your legs. They prey on your ignorance of facts, your hopes and dreams, and your greed. You can buy a lot of Internet savvy for less that $5000.
You used to be able to depend on the axiom that, "if an ad continues to post for a long time, it must be legitimate and worthy of consideration". With the advent of free ad sites and ease of email blasting on the Internet today, it doesn't cost predators anything but a short setup time to bombard you with ads, popups, banners, and emails. So it is very difficult to separate the "wheat from the chaff" of business offerings. I wish that I had 5% of every dollar I've wasted chasing pipe dreams and BS on the Internet. Maybe consumer complaintss will morph into a method of helping make the Internet scum crash and burn!
The old saying that one mentally agrees with, but seemingly doesn't internalize is still true and serious as a heart attack, "Investigate before you Invest!" Both words start with "I"! The consumer complaintss is a great way to inform you of problems other people have had that might give you insight into how to prevent your own rip-off!
Unfortunately, we have accepted the ideaology that marketing and sales don't have to be accountable to truth and integrity. It is seemingly, "Anything Goes". The old saying, "Buyer Beware", is not the security blanket advice that directs our paths when greed steps in to lead the way. I stand defined, but unconsoled by the "Mr. T" philosphy, "Pity the Fool!"
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