Narc That Car ‘Not A Part’ Of Secondary AMBER Alert System; National Center For Missing & Exploited Children Official Says Integrity Of AMBER Alert Name ‘Needs To Be Protected’
UPDATED 2:39 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Narc That Car is not affiliated with the AMBER Alert Secondary Distribution Program, an official said yesterday.
Robert Hoever’s comments followed on the heels of a denial by the Justice Department that Narc That Car was affiliated with the AMBER Alert program — despite repeated claims by Narc That Car promoters that participation in Narc That Car benefited AMBER Alert.
Hoever, associate director of special projects in the Missing Children’s Division of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), manages the Amber Alert Secondary Distribution Program for NCMEC and the Justice Department, and 120 Amber Alert coordinators throughout the United States.
“Narc that Car is not a part of the AMBER Alert Secondary Distribution Program,” Hoever said.
Given the inarguably high stakes when a child goes missing, Hoever said it was common for people and organizations to try to get involved and help — “[s]ome by pulling AMBER Alerts off the internet and posting them in various places.”
But he cautioned that brand dilution and public desensitization can occur when AMBER Alert’s famous name is commercialized.
“As you might imagine there can be accuracy issues as well as timeliness concerns,” Hoever said. “The integrity of the AMBER Alert program needs to be protected so that we do not over saturate the public, but rather send messages to targeted areas defined by the investigating agency. We do not want to desensitize the public by sending alerts that are commercialized, that do not apply to the recipients, are not completely accurate, or are not timely.”
Promoters routinely reference AMBER Alert in sales pitches for the Narc That Car multilevel-marketing program, which charges participants a $100 fee up front and a website fee of $24.95 a month to become “independent consultants.”
Narc That Car’s consultants are instructed to write down the license-plate numbers of 10 automobiles and enter the information into a database Narc That Car maintains. Participants get paid for entering information in the database, and are paid additional commissions if they recruit others into the program and minimum thresholds are met.
Clients such as major automobile manufacturers, banks, automobile-repossession companies and others are interested in purchasing information from the database for $99, according to Narc That Car.
Promoters routinely drop the names of AMBER Alert and make references to “law enforcement” in ads for the Narc That Car program, but the company does not publish a list of clients.
Google search results include references such as this: (Italics/bold added.)
“This program is supported by all the major vehicle manufactures, FBI, law enforcement and financial institutions to help locate and in some cases reclaim vehicles. Just having an address does not work, people ‘hide’ their vehicles and we provide a pattern of these vehicles movements. We recently allowed the Amber Alert program access to help in their cause when there is a need to track down a vehicle quickly that might be in the National data base.”
(URL for above still current as of Feb. 4, 2010.)
Here is another claim (italics/bold added):
“This is an excellent business opportunity, very very simple, and very lucrative. It is a new business that gathers license plate numbers for various companies.
Such as:
*Major Auto Manufactures
*Private Lien Holders
* Banks
*In House Auto Dealers
*Commercial Vehicle Companies
*Missing Persons
*Law Enforcement & Government Agencies
*Amber Alert
(URL for above still current as of Feb. 4, 2010)
Meanwhile, a Google search result includes this claim (italics/bold added):
“I got my first check from Narc That Car. This is fun and easy, and I’m helping Amber Alerts!”
UPDATE 2:39 P.M. The screen shot below is a miniaturized version of a logo that appeared today on a site called “FindThatCar.org.” The logo included an appeal to “Help us,” as though it were collecting money for a charity.
No, the “product” has been shown to have little or no value. How do you know they have sold the data to other companies? Is this fact or conjecture?
No, virtually everyone associated with this obvious pyramid scheme have been shown to be involved with other pyramid schemes.
No, the plan is obviously to turn this into a pyramid scheme. Why else would they rope in MLM “experts” like Jeff Long?
Have you checked with Pepsi if they are really interested in the data? Why would a cola manufacturer want this data? Is this another fact or conjecture?
No, by their own admission, they are paying old commission with money from new sales. This is the definition of a ponzi scheme.
Do you mean that they are not currently a “professional” system? What are they now? A bunch of amateurs?
On the BBB page it says “Business Management Additional company management personnel include: Josh Truitt”. I’m sure it is pure coincidence that on the list of top performers for December 2009 is “Josh Truitt”. Also on the list is “Jim Truitt” – any relation? Then there is “Brent Derrick” and “Lilly Derrick” – are they also related?
http://licenseplategoesmlm.blogspot.com/
What other companies operate a pyramid structure to gather data?
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They have already removed data from their Website relating to the Amber Alert programme and other stuff – maybe as a result of the comments flying all over the internet?
Perhaps it was not clear that the They I referred to were NarcThatCar, not the Texan authorities. The company has changed the content of its website several times recently, and removed references to several of the possible recipients of the NRC info. The source? I and many others have seen the site and the changes that were made recently with our own eyes.
They have yet to provide any client list that includes well known or large companies, nor testimonials from them – in fact they yet have to produce anything more verified than hints about “interest” from household name businesses and suggestions that they may become future clients, That is not verified evidence of a client list. Anyone can visit any business to sell them their product and call them potential clients. They are not clients, however, until they sign on the dotted line. When and if there is evidence of a client list sufficient to maintain the payouts promised by NRC, and NOT using new members money, it will dispose of the ponzi argument, but not before
I would question that thte product has intrinsic value. In fact, a random list of car plates, at the rate of 10 per person is insufficient material to build up a data base of real consequence, and even less because it is not available in real time. The Government already have a far larger and more real time data base of all vehicles registered in the US for the use of their police forces and other authorities. No claims of its usefullness have been made by any NRC non-member/retail-only client that we have been made aware of, and, judging by the fact that NRC and its promoters are not exactly backward in coming forward, its absence indicates they they dont have any clients who believe it is so useful
It has even been suggested that the time lag between taking down a number plate and it being added to a data base could in practise hinder an investigation into a child abduction, should NTC (or DNA) data be used by the authorities ,as it could lead them to misleading data and wild goose chases, detracting from their objective of tracing a child.
Lastly, the situation with the BBB is slightly different that the one you suggest. NRC WAS on the BBB “approved” list but has been taken off. The additional commentaries they make on the new entry and exceptionally explicit and are not typically found in such explicit terms on the majority of the businesses they rate.
There is no witch hunt, just a lot of red flags and unanswered questions.
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RA,
I trust that you saw my post regarding the intrinsic value of the data that is being gathered by NTC. If not, the capsule version is that it can be shown that mathematically that the NTC data degrades in value over VERY short periods of time, becoming worthless or having a NEGATIVE value to possible customers such as repossession companies. Unfortunately, for the Amber Alert program, the NTC data is very dangerous, and worse than worthless. It is a real mathematical fact that the NTC data could even endanger an abducted child, rather than help locate the child. The math is pretty unforgiving — if you know anything at all about probability theory and about the real world resource constraints of every organization, including law enforcement agencies looking for an abductewd child, you would recognize the very real danger of the NTC data. If not, let me spell it out very clearly. Law enforcement using the NTC data is more dangerous to the hypothetical child than if law enforcement does not use the NTC data and instead uses their normal sources. Now, you might think this is hyperbole, but the math does not lie. I have laid out the math; it is now your turn to rebut, but rememeber, you better bring data nad facts and logic. While you are at it, take a crack at disproving the analysis that demonstartes that NTC is an unsustainable pyramid. I would reference the Black Box analysis of ASD, which mathematically is virtually identical to NTC — both can be analyzed in the same way…..good luck!
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You have to have the horse and the cart to sell to larger corporations, so you still have to have the data to sell, hence the people to gather the data, etc.
Pepsico:
Headquartered in Purchase, New York, with Research and Development Headquarters in Valhalla, The Pepsi Cola Company began in 1898 by a NC Pharmacist and Industrialist Caleb Bradham, but it only became known as PepsiCo when it merged with Frito Lay in 1965. Until 1997, it also owned KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, but these fast-food restaurants were spun off into Tricon Global Restaurants, now Yum! Brands, Inc. PepsiCo purchased Tropicana in 1998, and Quaker Oats in 2001. In December 2005, PepsiCo surpassed Coca-Cola Company in market value for the first time in 112 years since both companies began to compete – Wikipedia
It’s not just “Pepsi” anymore.
I’m sorry alasycia, it’s Sunday, and you are hurting my head, lol. It doesn’t matter whether you or I consider the information of value-only those who purchase that information. I also love your writing style, but maybe I just don’t get the point you are trying to make-my apologies.
Tony H – The only two statements I see that you any support for are based on Jeff Long, Instant Capture page and whether or not they pay the money from their own pockets or from the proceeds of the distributor sales. Could you please let us know more detail on both of these points, and where you obtained the information, as it seems that it is written down somewhere. I wouldn’t personally consider the comment fields from other blogs as legitimate, however verified statements from Narc would be, and it sounds like you did indeed find a statement saying they are using the proceeds and have no cash-this would be interesting information to everyone.
I have read some things about Jeff Long, and don’t want to fry him up or serve him for breakfast here, but perhaps you can give a good reason why this person has developed a permanent record with you that he could never enter into an MLM business again and be successful in it. You may have very legitimate concerns, and I respect that and am completely open to hearing the facts.
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It is a pleasure to hear the opinions of the group here, and I also feel that websites like this serve a very good purpose-after all, a scam is a scam, but it has to be a scam and not some tool to extinguish any MLM that starts up with a new concept (and you would have to admit the license plate idea is new). I’ve eaten a hat before, that’s ok, just try to bring accurate info to the table-preferably without emotion or the lynch-mob mentality. No one here may actually do this MLM, but other’s will, including myself, and I haven’t been burned yet, nor have I heard of anyone else getting burned. IF they in fact DO blow it, then you definitely have “I told you so” information for the future and kudos to you if you do-just make sure it’s fact and not just opinion.
Again, I’m not attacking your intelligence, I’m sure you are more knowledgeable and seasoned, I’ve invested time and money in this but have no intentions of misleading anyone-it’s a small world. I’m just not convinced that they are a scam.
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You’re feeble, alleged history lesson about ‘pepsico’ is meaningless and irrelevant. Please post the known, verifiable outside sources of income that allow apparently many people to get paid and make this not a ponzi. I’m sure you did investigate that before jumping in right?
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Entertained-
I can only answer by scenerio, as I’m not a math major. I would think that a person obtaining a license plate that was registered with the Code Amber system, and tracked to a particular parking lot, would offer a greater trail than to not know where the vehicle was and would present no danger to the child-you don’t want to know where the abducter was? so, you can’t follow them? That is a “trail” and bounty hunters or law enforcement officials would consider that valuable information.
anyway,
I don’t want to plug this into an equation, because it is a variable and not a constant due changing values (i.e., future moves, etc.), and statistical data is imperative to analytical success, but that’s also why they have labs and field research because only plugging real-life scenarios into equations doesn’t bring about empirical data due to the very nature of our changing world. (look, I hurt my own head with that one) That being said, if I wanted to find a vehicle, and it left town, and someone found that license plate in another state, or city, and I could notify the collectors of that area that the vehicle was seen there on such-and-such a date, the odds of me finding it are significantly better than if I had NOTHING, and I don’t need to put that into an equation to figure it out-it’s common sense. They pay good money to get vehicles worth tens of thousands of dollars back, that alone would be a business.
Look up crowdsourcing.
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I’m sorry alasycia, it’s Sunday, and you are hurting my head, lol. It doesn’t matter whether you or I consider the information of value-only those who purchase that information. I also love your writing style, but maybe I just don’t get the point you are trying to make-my apologies.
Then I’ll spell it out in simple language. For an mlm to be legal they must have customers – that is people who buy the product (the data base) and a propertion of them must be non member customers. NTC have been asked to demonstrate that they can verify that they do have these customers, or any customers for that matter. They have NOT given this information and until they do, there are red flags flying all over the place, because that means the members income comes from other members payments and THAT IS ILLEGAL.
You say you have facts about NTC – please share them with us, with the supporting information.
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Whip, I love a good snap! Let’s see what cooks up in the next few weeks or month, and re-analyze what Narc is up to. I would dedicate more time to this-you ladies and gentlemen are fantastic, and I appreciate the opportunity to joust with you. I have spent no time with my family today (sorry not meaning to be a cheap bow-out) and I have guests-I love the fact that you all stick to your guns and will be able to answer in more detail with a bit more time behind us…please accept my apologies until then.
Ciao!
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One point on the issue of child abduction. By the time the promoter of NTC sends in the number plate data to the company and it is entered on the data base, it will be out of date. A unsuspicious car driven by a child abducter, parked in a Mcdonalds on an interstate highway for 15 minutes, will be long gone by the time the NTC promoter has even reached his computer. By the time it is entered on the data base it could be one or two states away. The information collected by the NTC members is not sent to the police in real time. (The NTC member will have no idea that it could be any different from the other 9 car plates that he is taking down in order to earn his $$s and has no reason to rush home to post it – he may even spend half an hour eating his own McDonalds before leaving.)
As it has been established that neither law enforcement nor the Amber Alert programme or its secondary programmes use NTC, how on earth can any information collected by NTC help them or Code Amber? Code Amber, IF they really are associated with NTC, will receive out of date information and may send the police on a wild goose chase, unless they make it quite clear that it is out of date. Law enforcement needs real time information to catch child abducters on the run. The owner info about a car is something they already have anyway.
I am one hundred percent with Entertained on this issue. This is not a product that could possibly add any useful information to that which Law enforcement already have, in the case of a child abduction.
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How about putting the cart before the horse?
I would suggest that in order to make this not a ponzi, using your example, the people gathering the plates are investors trying to build a database to sell their novel product. And if the product is a success, the “investors” will then be compensated when there is money from customers to pay the initial investors.
I wonder how many people would donate their time and efforts for a position in this company without a guarantee of return? Would they feel the same about the value of the data base that is so easily corrupted by inaccurate info?
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It’s already too late. The question was what you found out in your own due diligence that you did before jumping into a scam. Your lack of a simple answer to that (after all, it would be righ t on the tip of your tongue already) proves you did none, nor have any proof it is not the ponzi that it is right now. and right now is even too late to try and make a ponzi ‘legit’.
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RA,
Thanks for the admission that you know nothing about the mathematics as to why the data from NTC is virtually worthless, or in the worst case, dangerous. Promoters of NTC rely on people not knowing the reality, much like you. They pitch something that seems plausible, but the underlying reality is different (exactly like ASD btw). You are spewing words with no meaning in your response, although you actually do touch on the central issue. You mention that the data changes over time, a “variable” in your terms. That’s precisely why the data ends up worthless! OK, so here goes…..YOUR child is abducted. By some incredibly long shot, the license plate of the getaway vehicle is noted, and somehow happens to be in the NTC database. Problem is, the car was spotted by a NarcThatCar Ponzi player 100 miles away from your home (and let’s just say by coincidence, 3 blocks from the home address of the owner of the car). Further, the car plate was entered 6 months ago into the NTC database. YOUR child’s life depends on the following answer. The authorities have limited resources, so YOU have to choose for them……search in the vicinity of the gas station, or search in the vicinity of the house 3 blocks away. Hope this helps clarify. The very real situation is that the NTC data can very well be very, very dangerous. I appreciate that you may not have the mathematical werewithal to understand the math, but it is real, and I hope that you at least understand the folley of NTC (but probably not). Even if you do not, hopefully at least others can think for themselves and avoid this illegal, and dangerous, pyramid scheme you are promoting.
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You fellow haters of free enterprise as well as the media always want to make a big deal out of innuendo and unsubstantiated rumor. If a person makes a statement out of ignorance you haters love to rub it in their face and then make a 15 minute news production out of pure lies. Narc Technologies is a perfectly legal as well as ethical company. The problem with your article is that you don’t have your ducks in a row. Narc isn’t involved with the Secondary Amber Alert System, however rather the CODE AMBER NEWS SERVICE which anyone can see displayed right on their web site. Check it out for yourselves, http://www.narcthatcar.com. I don’t doubt that there has been someone out there in the ranks of our team members that have mistakenly tied Narc to the wrong entity but that still doesn’t change the FACTS and it doesn’t excuse your article of balderdash. If you’re that anxious to make a “buck” selling trash, call me and I’ll introduce you to an amazing opportunity that you can do so without having to fall in the sewer! By the way, I’ve received a check and it was also REAL!
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Rick,
Why are people who purport to provide Narc That Car “training” making statements out of ignorance?
I now see that Narc That Car has removed the reference to AMBER Alert in its video. I’ll do a story on that.
Do you know if the Justice Department or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children asked Narc That Car to remove the AMBER Alert reference?
And do you know if Narc That Car is able to determine how much money it received as a result of its own reference to AMBER Alert and the repeated (and continuing) references by its promoters to AMBER Alert?
Did Narc That Car send an email to all members informing them that the AMBER Alert reference had been removed and instructing all members to stop using AMBER Alert’s name?
Why would they not tie it to the wrong entity when Narc That Car itself was using AMBER Alert’s name?
This Blog contacted both the Justice Department and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to determine if Narc That Car was affiliated with AMBER Alert. The answer was no.
Balderdash? Hardly.
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Quick note:
Story on Narc That Car’s removal of AMBER Alert’s name from a video pitch:
http://patrickpretty.com/2010/02/16/narc-that-car-removes-reference-to-amber-alert-in-sales-video-after-justice-department-denied-link-to-mlm-program/
Patrick
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Again your argument doesn’t hold water. Code Amber News Service is an entirely different organization than the one you rant about. As I said, visit their web site and view what’s displayed there yourself. It only takes a couple of seconds to do that. You’ll see the Code Amber News Service ticker at the bottom of the page.
I’m certain that all people make blunders and errors and speak things that they’d like to retract. I KNOW you’ve done the same. So, that “ignorance” thing is a really big club Patrick. I respect your rights to free press and speech as well as my own. However, don’t throw gas on something that you purport and publish for your own self-exhalation. You profess to be a network marketing “hater” and thus make war on anyone or anything that is associated with your own personal interpretation and/or understandings. None of that changes the real facts and truth.
Let’s keep this simple. Here’s a quote I love that I’ll close with. It’s completely self explanatory:
“Some people are just too smart to take a risk so they stay safe, secure, and broke.”
Rick
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Rick,
Do you somehow not know that Narc That Car referenced BOTH AMBER Alert and Code Amber, that one NTC promoter after another tied AMBER Alert to NTC, that NTC promoters started .org domains using AMBER Alert’s name and positioning NTC as a charity (including appeals such as “Help us”) — and that both the Department of Justice AND the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which administer AMBER Alert, denied any affiliation with NTC?
Do you not know that the sales pitches for NTC got so impossibly butchered that one rep issued an appeal to help AMBER Alert find repossessed cars?
And some people are so concerned about not being broke that they start .orgs and tell people that joining Narc That Car is like giving money to a charity — while they’re trying to pocket commissions by leeching off the AMBER Alert program, a national treasure named after a 9-year-old girl who was riding her bicycle, abducted and brutally murdered.
Patrick
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Rick, since NarcThatCar started to promote itself through MLM, there have been lots and lots of adverts, in various forms, including promotional videos that have stated quite categorically that NTC’s was tied up with Amber ALERT, even after the DOJ and NCMED denied the relationship. It was one of the key factors used to induce to people join NTC as they would be supporting a good cause as well as earning money. It was untrue. Furthermore, the national up to date data bases used by Amber Alert have little to compare with anything that NTC could even think of producing.
The relationship between NTC and Code Amber is also unclear.
The current video says that NTC CAN be used by
Law Enforcement Agencies
Government Agencies
Missing Persons
Code Amber
It doesnt clarify if it is actually being used by them (and why a missing person would use it is beyond me. lol) What we do know is that the DOJ and other missing persons related Government Agencies are not using them, because they have stated as much. We have not, as far as I am aware, received any clarification from Code Amber either, though I may be wrong here.
So all we have is a series of misleading insinuations from NTC and their promoters.
I know they say that, when you cant answer questions with verified data, the best form of defence is attack – and you are certainly doing a good job trying to discredit Patrick and other posters – but you have yet to provide any verified proof of your claims . It is highly unlikely that many of the posters here would join a scheme like this, but there are many readers who come here to find out what NTC is all about, as Patrick’s blog frequently shows up on Google when one is looking for a scheme by name. What they must make of this lack of information and series of personal insults by promoters of NTC is anybody’s guess!
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Patrick
I’d like to make certain that my “personal” opinions aren’t confused. My personal view about Amber Alert and Code Amber are both the same. They are excellent organizations which assist our law enforcement establishments across the country. I wholeheartedly support them and their efforts. I personally also support the constitutional right of free speech and press whether I agree or disagree. I appreciate the opportunity to express myself freely and also that you print those views as I originally wrote them, unaltered.
My debate isn’t about whether someone did or didn’t say the wrong thing about the Amber Alert Service. I certainly can’t speculate what someone else thinks or prompts their personal decisions. What I DO know is that this is a very legal and legitimate business, one of many who all experience a few growing pains. My debate is with anyone who attacks a company or business or person with the intent to cause undue harm for profit. That would be you. I mean we get it….you hate network marketing…that’s the way you make your living…..the exact same thing you accuse Narc of doing….next subject.
As was once said before: “It is finished!”
Rick
Alasycia,
Thanks for your reply & comments. You said “but you have yet to provide any verified proof of your claims”. However you must have missed this in my previous emails? Simply go to http://www.narcthatcar.com and you can see the Code Amber Ticker and Logo right on their web site. Anyone could interpret that in almost anyway they desire. I nor you can be responsible for someone else and their misinterpretation or rightful interpretation.
So, I guess the best thing is just to agree to disagree. My best….
Rick
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Promotional material on a website is hardly the same thing as independently verified information.
Sadly, there are far too many unscrupulous businesses on the internet who do use unauthorised company or organization logos. So the presence of a logo is not authentication of an association between two organisations. Don’t forget that, previously, NTC was using the AMBER Alert name without any authorization whatsoever.
Equally, it is very presumptious to assume that people write here with the intent to cause undue harm for profit. especially when that couldnt be further from the truth. The only thing that people stand to gain is the possibility that there are a few less victims falling for a scam. Unless NTC can produce some plausible verification of their claims, I would suggest that any harm done to it is very much due
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[...] a Feb. 4 story on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s denial that the secondary AMBER Alert program was affiliated with Narc That [...]