The Federal Trade Commission halted an operation that allegedly lured consumers into spending thousands of dollars for Web sites and advertising by misrepresenting that they could make money by linking the sites to major retailers.
North American Marketing and Associates LLC, according to the FTC's complaint, charged fees ranging from $100 to $400 to build and host Web sites for consumers, who would earn commissions when Internet users clicked through the consumers' Web sites to make purchases from "Fortune 500" retailers such as Walmart, Best Buy and Starbucks. The defendants also claimed consumers would get free, full-time marketing expertise to help them make profits.
The court ordered a stop to the defendants' practices and froze their assets pending further litigation.
Instead of the free marketing help they were promised, consumers received a follow-up sales pitch from the defendants, who tried to get them to pay even more money for an advertising package that typically cost from $5,000 to $20,000, the FTC alleged.
The defendants claimed the package would help generate sales of $3,000 to $20,000 per month, depending upon the size of the package consumers bought. However, according to the agency, the advertising packages did not generate any significant sales commissions, and some consumers who complained to the company were sold thousands of dollars in additional advertising services.
When consumer complaints mounted, the defendants shut down operations and renewed the deceptive business opportunity under new business names.
The corporate defendants are North American Marketing and Associates LLC, NAMAA LLC, TM Multimedia Marketing LLC (Nevada), TM Multimedia Marketing LLC (Arizona), National Opportunities LLC (Nevada), National Opportunities LLC (Arizona), World Wide Marketing and Associates LLC, Precious Metals Resource LLC, Guaranteed Communications LLC, Superior Multimedia Group LLC, and Wide World of Marketing LLC, also doing business as WWM LLC.
The individual defendants are Kimberly Joy Birdsong, Tracy Jerome Morris, Sarah Lynne Stapel, Alyisse Maloi Tramel, and Daniel Vigil, and Joseph Wayne Lowry, also known as Joey Lowry and Joey Lowe.
The defendants are charged with violating the FTC Act and the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).
