Narc That Car’s ‘F’ Rating Remains Intact As BBB Closes Inquiry; Firm ‘Failed To Provide Specific Information’ To Allay Pyramid Concerns

By 3:30 pm May 28, 2010

Various claims about Narc That Car "training" have appeared online, as have videos of checks and even the postmarked envelopes in which the checks were enclosed.

Narc That Car, also known as Crowd Sourcing International, did not provide the Better Business Bureau “specific information which would eliminate the BBB’s suspicion of the existence of a pyramid promotional scheme,” the BBB reports on its website.

The BBB has closed its inquiry into Narc, leaving the company’s “F” rating intact and saying Narc also “admitted that they could not substantiate the claim that any major motor manufacturer was a client of Narc Technologies.”

An “F” is the lowest rating on the BBB’s 14-point scale.

Claims appeared online that Narc was working with Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Co. Narc blamed the claims on affiliates who violated its advertising policies, saying it had a process to weed out false claims, the BBB said.

Although Narc claimed to have hundreds of clients for its database product, the company had not substantiated the claim as of May 25, the BBB said.

Narc, whose Crowd Sourcing International identity often is referred to by the acronym CSI, had been the subject of a BBB inquiry since January. The company purports to be in the business of paying people to record the license-plate numbers of cars for entry in a database used by companies that repossess vehicles.

For its part, Narc says on its website that it is getting a bum deal from the BBB.

“America was founded to create new opportunity,” the company said. “Our government created the Small Business Administration (SBA) to help new businesses. Over 2,000,000 people lost their jobs in 2009. New businesses create jobs. New businesses accounted for 70% of job creation over the last 10 years, stated by President Obama on March 17, 2009. Yet, the BBB penalizes new businesses.”

Read the BBB report on Narc (Crowd Sourcing International) as of May 28, 2010.

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4 Responses to “Narc That Car’s ‘F’ Rating Remains Intact As BBB Closes Inquiry; Firm ‘Failed To Provide Specific Information’ To Allay Pyramid Concerns”

  1. Tony H
    May 28, 2010 at 4:35 pm |

    Another Narc-ed update from a ponzi/pyramid supporter:

    Why did the BBB give CSI an F?

    BBB Rating ?
    posted by Billy Forester at 05 May, 2010 10:00 AM

    In light of the recent media interest concerning CSI in the Atlanta and Los Angeles markets, we are providing the following information that relates to our communications with the Dallas Better Business Bureau.

    We initially met with the BBB in February of this year and provided them with information and materials describing our business and the opportunity. That was followed over the next few weeks by telephone conferences in which the BBBrequested further detail and explanatory data, most of which was provided to them. Nevertheless, the BBB’s highly negative early report and low company rating was published at that time when their Advertising Director concluded that our Company was not “cooperating” with their investigation.

    The BBB has asked for the contact information for our “clients”. This information is proprietary to both us and to the clients, many of whom prefer anonymity. Clients may be private investigators, skip tracers, attorneys, or repossessors who do not wish to have their identities and/or business affairs publicly disclosed ( i.e. in a BBB report). Our privacy policy required us to obtain consent from any clients whose data would be disclosed to the BBB. Nearly all of our hundreds of clients failed to respond to our request for written consent. During March, while we were seeking the client consents, the BBB further lowered our report rating to “F”, again citing non-cooperation, even though the Advertising Director’s email messages to one of our Attorneys concluded with the sentence “Thank you for your continued cooperation.”

    Currently, we have over 50,000 Consultants nationwide, representing a potential of more than 500,000 pieces of license and location data available to our clientele every single month. With continued growth, our database will become even more attractive for the many large commercial clients that we seek to serve. We believe that in the weeks and months to come, we will reach an understanding with the Better Business Bureau on the validity and market potential of this innovative Company. In the meantime, we ask all our Consultants to focus on pursuing their business in a positive fashion. It is low risk, easy to do, and offers a competitive long-term opportunity for those willing to put in the time and effort needed to build a substantial organization.

    I don’t know if it’s the same as what is spewed on their web site, I haven’t checked.

  2. Lynndel 'Lynn' Edgington
    May 28, 2010 at 5:14 pm |

    Just an observation. Interesting that when “promoting” Narc, no-one has a problem bragging about the parties who are customers of Narc; but when it comes to providing this information to the BBB, amazingly they claim privacy issues are required. I guess they haven’t discovered how you can dedact information of a privileged nature, without harming the information needed by the BBB.

    Give this one another 2 months at most before it crashes and burns, or the feds/state move first.

  3. Tony H
    May 29, 2010 at 2:59 am |

    [off topic] Patrick, you might like to make a story about this:
    http://www.baynews9.com/content/9/2010/5/28/623995.html?title=Man%20accused%20in%206-continent,%20$70M%20Ponzi%20scheme

    The U.S. government has accused a former Canadian resident possibly living in the Philippines of bilking some 40,000 investors spanning six continents of $70 million in an Internet-based Ponzi scheme.

    Authorities say Smirnow’s “Pathway-2-Prosperity” lured investors with what the complaint termed the hallmark of a high-yield investment scheme _ claims of low- or no-risk investment plans, in this case supposedly yielding annual returns of anywhere from 546 to 17,000 percent. Investors were offered their choice of seven-, 15-, 30- and 60-day plans.

  4. admin
    May 29, 2010 at 8:47 am |

    Tony H: Patrick, you might like to make a story about this:
    http://www.baynews9.com/content/9/2010/5/28/623995.html?title=Man%20accused%20in%206-continent,%20$70M%20Ponzi%20scheme

    Thanks, Tony:

    I got a couple of notes about this from readers. Could not get to the story right away because I was the assistant grill chef at a family function yesterday afternoon and into the evening.

    Here is the P2P story I just posted:

    https://patrickpretty.com/2010/05/29/nicholas-a-smirnow-pathway-to-prosperity-p2p-operator-a-convicted-burglar-robber-and-drug-dealer-who-fleeced-at-least-40000-people-in-international-ponzi-scheme/

    Patrick

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