The complaint against the Thrive defendants also includes a credit card factoring charge. In addition, the lawsuits charge the defendants with collecting consumers’ financial information under false pretenses. In fact, the FTC says that the overwhelming majority of people who bought the defendants’ business coaching services were never able to establish a business. If anything, the only “coaching” they got was basic info about online auctions and PayPal accounts – pointers available for free on eBay. According to the lawsuits, most people didn’t get the advertised services or the promised earnings. The FTC alleges in two separate complaints that Guidance, its predecessor Thrive Learning, and two of the sales floors – Discover and PLI – violated the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule. Once people signed up – the initial cost sometimes topped $10,000 – the FTC says the defendants blitzed them with pricey upsells. In other words, put it on plastic, pay it back with the big bucks you’ll rake in from the program, and then pocket the profits. If consumers appeared interested, they were transferred to a “closer” who encouraged them to use their credit card to pay for the program as part of the OPM (“Other People’s Money”) strategy. ![]() Under the guise of screening to see if consumers “qualified,” telemarketers probed for their story – their financial status, personal hardships, or other circumstances the defendants referred to behind closed doors as the person’s “pains.” The defendants then used that information to tailor the sales pitch and to set the price where a prospect was likely to bite. According to the FTC, telemarketers pitched the coaching services as an exclusive one-on-one program of business know-how and specialized market research available only to a limited number of qualified people. The pleadings includes details of other tactics the defendants used to recruit customers. Before that I never owned a computer, I never touched a computer.” Right behind me, this laptop, I bought this to start my online business. I’ve got a whole stack of orders over here to prove it. Here’s an example from a videotaped testimonial of the kind of claims the defendants used to get consumers on their team: “I’ve grossed over $12,000 last month alone. According to the FTC, based on misleading promotional materials and testimonials supplied by Guidance, telemarketers used a host of deceptive practices to get people to pay thousands of dollars on the false promise that the services would enable them to start their own successful internet businesses. The complaint alleges that a Utah-based company called Guidance hired telemarketing outfits – “sales floors” – to pitch its supposedly personalized business coaching services. One notable feature of the cases is that it took two pages just to list the interconnected companies and individuals involved in the operation, but it boils down to this. But according to the FTC, marketers of “business coaching” services took consumers for millions by using offside sales tactics that will likely disqualify them from the Truth-in-Advertising Hall of Fame. Behind every sports dynasty, there’s a legendary coach. ![]() About the FTC Show/hide About the FTC menu items.News and Events Show/hide News and Events menu items. ![]()
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