The Texas State Securities Board and the district attorney's office of Collin County, Texas, prosecuted Edward Digges Jr. A jury imposed a 99-year-prison sentence.
A Texas jury has thrown the book at Edward S. Digges Jr., sentencing the Collin County man to 99 years in prison for fleecing 130 investors in a securities-fraud and Ponzi scheme.
Digges, 63, formerly was an attorney in Annapolis, Md. He was disbarred in an overbilling scheme, convicted of mail fraud in 1990 and spent two years in federal prison. After his release from prison, he continued to clash with law-enforcement agencies, including the SEC, regulators in Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB).
Most of Digges’ victims were “elderly,” prosecutors said.
The 99-year sentenced imposed in Texas evolved from Digges’ operation of an entity known as the Millennium Terminal Investment Program, which sold securities that purportedly generated profits from point-of-sale terminals used by merchants to process credit and debit transactions.
In truth, investigators said, Millennium operated in the red out of the gate, was in deep “financial turmoil” not disclosed to investors, was making payments to old investors with money from new investors and lied about having a “reserve fund” to shore up the program.
Digges collected at least $10 million in the scheme by promising investors annual returns of 12 percent, prosecutors said.
“Edward Digges has a long history of defrauding some of our most vulnerable citizens, and this sentence ensures he will never again do so,†said Texas Securities Commissioner Denise Voigt Crawford.
She noted that victims will not be made whole.
“The conviction will not return money to investors,” she said. “This case highlights the importance of checking the background of any financial professional you choose to do business with, and the importance of obtaining full disclosure before investing.â€
Digges deliberately targeted senior citizens in newspaper ads, prosecutors said. At the same time, he did not disclose his criminal conviction and did not tell clients about a $3.6 million civil judgment against him in the overbilling case.
TSSB and the district attorney’s office of Collin County prosecuted Digges on the criminal charges. Collin County is a suburban county in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area.
SEC civil charges against Digges were brought in Florida.
UPDDATED 2:26 P.M. ET (March 5, U.S.A.) A YouTube video promotion for the Narc That Car multilevel-marketing (MLM) program appears to use celebrity footage produced by Appian Way Productions, a production company owned by actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
The PP Blog attempted to contact DiCaprio for comment through the Screen Actors Guild Friday night. The office was closed for the weekend.
The Narc That Car You Tube promotion references a downline group known as Team Trinity International, and appears to splice in content from a Public Service Announcement (PSA) produced by Appian Way in 2008 that urges Americans to vote.
It was not immediately clear if DiCaprio, his production company or the other celebrities in the PSA approved of the use of the footage in what effectively was a commercial for Narc That Car. Several celebrities appear in the Narc That Car promo.
At the moment, the Team Trinity promo is at this URL:
The PSA has nothing to do with MLM. The footage potentially at issue in the Team Trinity video begins at about the 3:40 mark in the PSA and the 0:11 mark in the Narc That Car promo. The PSA’s theme is passing along to friends the worthwhile message of going to the polls, but the Team Trinity video applies the theme to passing along info about Narc That Car.
“I need you to take this and send it to five people,” Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry says in the PSA, referring to sharing the message of going to the polls. Berry says the same thing in the Team Trinity Narc That Car video, but in the context of sharing the Narc That Car message.
Other celebrities who appeared in the PSA are spliced into the Team Trinity MLM message for Narc That Car. The Team Trinity video fades to the Team Trinity logo after comedian-actress Sarah Silverman appears.
In an earlier video, Team Trinity used the logos of 30 famous retail companies, positioning their parking lots as good places to capture license-plate data.
Team Trinity also has referenced the AMBER Alert program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department denied that Narc That Car had any affiliation with the famous child-protection system.
Narc That Car, which says it is building a database for companies that repossess automobiles, is the subject of inquiries by the Dallas BBB and the district attorney of Henderson County, Texas.
UPDATED 12:15 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Without raising the issues of propriety, safety and legality, a promoter for the Data Network Affiliates (DNA) multilevel-marketing (MLM) program has produced a sales video that instructs members to “snap photos” of the license plates of cars.
The video is 8:40 in length, and appears to be an upline promotion that is available to DNA downline members in a specific group. A “Join For FREE Right Now” button appears below the video, and the link resolves to a DNA registration page that may be on an insecure site. The sign-up link is on an “http” page, as opposed to an “https” page, although the URL includes the word “securesite.”
“The company’s going to pay you $25 to do this,” the narrator said in a YouTube video. He recommended Walmart parking lots as a source of plate numbers, and also “malls, shopping malls, shopping centers, grocery stores, banks” — and “anywhere” there is a group of parked vehicles.
The PP Blog became aware of the video after the link for it was used in an ALL-CAPS sales-pitch spam attempt at the Blog. It was not immediately clear if DNA, whose domain is registered in the Cayman Islands, had a policy that prohibited affiliates from spamming to drive business to the company.
Also unclear is the process by which recipients of email and forum spam from DNA promoters would contact the company to report affiliate spam. A “Contact Us” link at the bottom of DNA’s website says, “Information is coming soon!”
DNA has been in a state of prelaunch for weeks, twice postponing launch dates in February and moving the launch date to March 1, according to a countdown clock on its website.
The link to the video was at a URL of a domain registered in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The narrator said he had “personally sponsored” more than 400 DNA members in two days.
Screen shot: This DNA sales pitch was sent to the PP Blog at 10:05 p.m. (ET) yesterday. It included an ALL-CAPS promo and a link to a video by a DNA promoter. The video site included a link to register for DNA.
In the video, the narrator described DNA as a “cause” that sought to involve “millions of people” and put “millions of eyeballs” in the business of recording license-plate numbers. In various audio recordings by DNA, pitchmen have referenced the AMBER Alert program, although a recent recording by the company says DNA is not affiliated with the national child-protection system administered by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In this story, the PP Blog describes a DNA audio recording in which a pitchman shared a vision of an America in which DNA members would record the plate numbers of cars as they moved from destination to destination during the day.
A hypothetical “red corvette” could be spotted at Walmart at noon, at a “doctor’s office†at 1 p.m. and somewhere else at 4 p.m. — with DNA members recording the plate number at all three locations, according to the recording. Meanwhile, in this story, the PP Blog reported on a DNA audio pitch that described “church” parking lots as a source of license-plate numbers.
In the YouTube video posted on the Myrtle Beach domain, the narrator instructed viewers to “stop whatever you are doing.”
“This is huge,” he said. “This is truly the wave of the future.” During the video, the promoter described his experience of recording plate numbers. He motioned as though he were snapping photographs, while instructing prospects to do the same.
“Now, there’s people out there that will pay big, big, big bucks for this data, OK? ” he said. “And that’s the reason that these people (DNA) are willing to pay big bucks.”
He did not disclose the names of any companies for which DNA was collecting data. Nor did he describe whether permission needed to be obtained from retailers to snap photos of their patrons’ license numbers or how DNA members should behave if confronted by retailers, patrons or police.
Many retails chains have policies that limit or prohibit solicitation on their properties. The video provided no guidance on whether individual DNA members should increase their insurance protection or advise local authorities that they were canvassing the parking lots of doctors’ offices, churches and stores to record license-plate data.
A Dallas-based MLM business — Narc That Car — has a similar program involving the capture of license-plate numbers for entry in a database.
UPDATE 11:59 A.M. (See comment below that explains there are two versions of the DNA promo video on YouTube, one that is 8:40 in length and one that is 8:48. The longer version includes this narration about DNA promoter Jeff Long’s experience recording license-plate numbers in a Walmart parking lot:
“People looked at me kinda weird. But I didn’t care. You kind of do it inconspicuously. . . . because . . . you know, everybody, ‘Why are you taking a photo of my car?’â€
The narration in the 8:48 version continues:
“Who cares what people think? Who cares what people are going to . . . look at you weird? Whatever. Because as you do this, and you record 20 license plates, the company’s going to pay you $25.â€)
UPDATED 12:54 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) An airplane reported to be “small” has crashed into a seven-story building in Austin, the state capital of Texas.
NBC affiliate KXAN is reporting that at least two people have been injured, that the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are on the scene, and that an office of the Internal Revenue Service is located in the building.
The building is known as the Echelon Building. Firefighters are on the scene. The crash occurred in North Austin.
MSNBC has a live feed of KXAN’s coverage. The station is reporting that the plane was flying “very low” at a high rate of speed.
CNN, quoting a “federal official,” is reporting that the suspect in the case set his home on fire this morning, stole the plane and crashed it into the building.
UPDATED 9:47 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) Coincidence? Part of the new partnership the FTC announced yesterday with Craigslist that urges consumers to be on the lookout for scams when responding to job and business opportunity ads online?
Messages urging caution are appearing in Craigslist ads for NarcThatCar, the Dallas-based company that says it is building a database for companies that repossess automobiles and is using a multilevel-marketing program to attract thousands of members.
Warnings were observed at the top of NarcThatCar ads on Craigslist in several cities this morning. The warnings appear at the top of the pages of individual postings and are highlighted in yellow, with a red lead-in:
“Avoid scams and fraud by dealing locally!” the lead-in warns. A “More info” link appears after a general warning about money scams, and the link resolves to a page that includes information on how to contact the FTC.
Screen shot: This Craigslist ad for NarcThatCar in Baton Rouge was one of several that included a warning message that linked to information on how to contact the FTC.
An Atlanta Craigslist ad for NarcThatCar with a headline of “Start Your Own Business! – $125 (Worldwide!)” includes the warning message. The ad calls NarcThatCar an ‘investment.”
“Make over $5000.00 a month with a $125.00 investment! Go to jnelson.narcthatcar.com!” the ad reads.
A NarcThatCar ad on Craigslist in Houston also includes the warning, which appears above a headline that reads, “Earn Extra Cash!… Collecting Data! (www.extracash4plates.narcthatcar.com).”
Meanwhile, a Craigslist ad for NarcThatCar in Oklahoma City also includes the warning. Its headline is “Data Entry/Networking.”
The warning also appears above a NarcThatCar ad in New York’s Craigslist, above a headline that reads “Make money by reporting license plate numbers” and a sales pitch that begins, “What would you do if you could get paid over $2 for every license plate number you write down?”
What once was an ad for Narc That Car on Craigslist in Austin, Texas, does not include the warning. Rather, the ad includes this message, “This posting has been flagged for removal.”
Elsewhere, a NarcThatCar Craigslist ad in Baton Rouge includes the warning, above a headline that reads, “The Simplist Homebase Marketing Job on the Planet! (Baton Rouge).”
The body copy of the ad says (in part), “Learn how to turn information into income NARC (National Automobile Recovery Company) ThatCar.com
“No Selling, No Products or Inventory
“100% Return on Investment as fast as 24 to 48 hours.
“Job Duty: Enter 10 random license plates per month to help create a National real time database that is used by: Police Department(criminal involvement), FBI(Amber Alert), Military(Terriorist), Banks, Car Rentals, Car Dealerships (RePo), and Major Business for marketing purposes.”
A sworn affidavit filed today by AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin appears to make claims that are the polar opposite of claims he made in a sworn affidavit witnessed by a notary public and filed in federal court Sept. 15.
Separately, Bowdoin’s lawyer, Charles A. Murray, filed a brief that may be the opening volley in a bid to challenge the Constitutionality of the government’s forfeiture case, suggesting the U.S. Secret Service had no “probable cause” to seize tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin’s bank accounts in August 2008.
Murray also said that Bowdoin had not received fair notice about court rulings and did not challenge the rulings previously because of an email glitch that affected Murray’s computer between Nov. 10, 2009, and “early January” of this year.
“I experienced as yet unidentified computer/server issues, wherein multiple email messages apparently never loaded to the firm’s Inbox,” Murray said.
Bowdoin, 75, now flatly claims he was told by a former defense attorney that, if he submitted to the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars, he would face no jail time if criminal charges were filed in the ASD Ponzi scheme case.
He did not name the attorney in today’s filing, referring to him obliquely as “prior counsel.” In an earlier filing, Bowdoin identified his counsel as Stephen Dobson.
“I was assured by my prior counsel that, if I released my claims in this [civil-forfeiture] action, I would not be facing any incarceration,” Bowdoin claimed today. “My January 2009 motion to withdraw my claim . . . was solely based upon prior counsel’s unilateral mistaken belief that my release of claims would unequivocally assure that any subsequent criminal sentence entered would not include any prison time.”
Today’s filing was witnessed by Florida notary public Joe B. Cox of Lee County.
But in a sworn affidavit Bowdoin signed Sept. 15 before a different notary public — Patricia C. Sanson of Lee County — Bowdoin repeatedly said Dobson had said only that there was a possibility Bowdoin would not be sentenced to prison if criminal charges emerged.
In the Sept. 15 affidavit, Bowdoin repeatedly swore that Dobson had not promised him no jail time.
These are among the phrases Bowdoin swore to in the Sept. 15 affidavit (emphasis added):
Dobson represented to me that I could possibly avoid prison or get a reduced sentence if I agreed to disclose details concerning ASD and releasing the assets.
I also signed a document stating that I would release my claims in the abovecaptioned civil in rem forfeiture proceeding, again thinking that necessary for a possible avoidance of a prison term.
I did all of this on the understanding that by cooperating I could possibly avoid a prison sentence.
I agreed not to exercise my rights in the civil forfeiture proceeding, anticipating from representations made by Dobson that this could possibly keep me out of prison.
Dobson lead [sic] me to believe that if I cooperated there was a possibility that I would not be incarcerated or imprisoned.
I believed that my cooperation would still result in a criminal sentence that could possibly not include imprisonment or incarceration.
I slowly came to understand what I understood from Dobson not to be the case: that my agreement to cooperate provided me no benefit in the criminal matter except the possibility of a reduced sentence if the judge desired which would still be a life sentence.
Bowdoin’s filing today leads to questions about whether he deliberately chose to appear before a different notary to swear to the affidavit. At the same time, it leads to questions about whether Bowdoin somehow was unaware that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer already had cited Bowdoin’s Sept. 15 sworn affidavit in a major ruling that Bowdoin no longer had standing in the case.
On Nov. 10, Collyer noted Bowdoin’s repeated use of the words “possibly,” “possible” and “possibility” in the Sept. 15 affidavit when referring to the advice Dobson had given him on the matter of jail and and finding that Dobson had behaved responsibly while representing Bowdoin.
“Such an approach from counsel could be seen as the norm when the Government’s evidence is strong,†Collyer said. “What Mr. Bowdoin hoped to gain from his release of claims/early acceptance of responsibility and his debriefing with the Government was a promise of no jail time. When that was not forthcoming from the Assistant United States Attorney, Mr. Bowdoin balked and tried to back up, as if he had not already released his claims and talked to the Government.â€
Willoughby Farr: Source: Florida Department of Corrections
An inmate operated a collect-call “cramming” scheme from a Florida state prison by hiding his ownership of three firms, federal prosecutors said.
Willoughby Farr, 46, of West Palm Beach, has been indicted on six counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud. He faces a maximum prison sentence of 160 years, if convicted on all counts.
Farr already faces a $34.5 million judgment in a civil case filed by the FTC. Customers were billed for calls they never placed, and many callers paid the charges because information about the calls was buried on the last page of their telephone bills.
“This type of scheme steals from hundreds of thousands of
Assistant Attorney General Tony West
consumers who inadvertently pay toll charges that appear on their phone bills without authorization,†said Assistant Attorney General Tony West. “We will not hesitate to prosecute financial crimes of this nature, but this case stresses the need for consumers to carefully review their telephone bills to make sure fraudulent charges are not included.â€
It has been a busy day for West. Earlier today, he participated in an FTC news conference announcing a crackdown on employment and work-at-home fraud.
The indictment in the cramming case against Farr was unsealed today.
Prosecutors said he used three West Palm Beach firms — Nationwide Connections Inc., Access One Communications Inc. and Connect One Communications — to fleece customers.
In the 2006 FTC case, investigators said Farr billed for calls that never occurred, including “phony collect calls” and calls to telephone lines dedicated to modems and fax machines, and to homes and businesses where no one was present.”
The calls typically cost unknowing customers “between five and eight dollars each,” the FTC said.
The Federal Trade Commission has announced a major sweep involving numerous companies and defendants — and a new partnership with Craigslist, Microsoft, Monster.com and CareerBuilder to combat employment and work-at-home fraud.
Meanwhile, the agency said it was working with AARP’s Legal Counsel for the Elderly to keep America’s senior citizens’ pocketbooks out of the clutches of scammers.
Dubbed “Operation Bottom Dollar,” the sweep includes seven new civil cases against the operators of deceptive and illegal job and money-making scams, 43 criminal actions by the Department of Justice and 18 actions by state attorneys general.
A separate action by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is part of the sweep, and the FTC announced updates in four previous cases. “Operation Bottom Dollar” specifically targets “con artists who are preying on unemployed Americans with job-placement and work-at-home scams,” the FTC said.
“Employment and business opportunity fraud causes terrible hardship to those who are suffering the most in these difficult economic times,†said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Tony West. “The Justice Department is committed to prosecuting those who defraud through false promises of employment or financial success.â€
The days of getting away with posting bogus job and money-making offers online are coming to an end, said David C. Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Using terse language, Vladeck said scammers should not get too comfortable with the money they’ve stolen.
“If you falsely advertise that you will connect people with jobs or with opportunities for them to make money working from home, we will shut you down,” Vladeck said. “We will give your assets to the people you scammed, and, when it’s appropriate, we’ll refer you to criminal authorities for prosecution.â€
Monster.com, Careerbuilder, Bing and Craigslist will display FTC consumer education material to people who are using the companies’ Web sites to look for jobs, the FTC announced.
Charged in Operation Bottom Dollar were:
Government Careers Inc. – Jon Coover; Richard Friedberg; and Rimona Friedberg. Abili-Staff, Ltd. – Pamela Barthuly; Jorg Becker; and Equitron LLC. Darling Angel Pin Creations Inc. – Shelly R. Olson and Judith C. Mendez; d/b/a/Angel Pin Creations.
Entertainment Work Inc. – Jason Barnes and Racquelle Barnes; d/b/a Resource Publishing Co. Independent Marketing Exchange Inc. – Wayne Verderber, II, d/b/a National Data Management, N.D.M., Global Mailing Services, G.M.S., Independent Mailing Services, Independent Mailing Services Inc., I.M.S., Independent Shoppers Network, Independent Shoppers, Success At Home, Success-At-Home Mailing, IMEX, IMEX, Inc., and Continental Publishing Company.
Preferred Platinum Services Network – Rosalie Florie; d/b/a Home Based Associate Program and PPSN, LLC. and Philip D. Pestrichello, individually. Real Wealth, Inc. – Lance Murkin; doing business as American Financial Publications, Emerald Press, Financial Research, National Mail Order Press, Pacific Press, United Financial Publications, Wealth Research Group, and Wealth Research Publications.
“What makes job scams particularly insidious—and what makes today’s efforts so important—is that these scams most often exploit honest consumers who are trying to make an honest living,†said Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray.
“Instead of making money, victims end up losing hundreds if not thousands of dollars,†Cordray said.
Other agencies involved in “Operation Bottom Dollar” include AARP’s Legal Counsel for the Elderly; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Tampa Field Office; Better Business Bureaus of Southern Arizona, West Florida, New Jersey, the Southland (Southern California), and Coastal, Central, & Southwest Texas; U.S. Attorneys offices for the Southern District of New York, New Jersey and Western District of Missouri; the attorneys general of Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service; Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division; Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs; Ocean County New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs; and the Tucson Police Department.
UPDATED 12:01 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Has the pressure of being challenged on multiple legal fronts led to a split in the extended family of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin?
The depths of any split are unclear, and it is believed that Bowdoin has the continued support of some members of the Bowdoin/Harris family.
But interviews conducted by the PP Blog and information obtained through sources suggest Bowdoin is unable to travel internationally, no longer is living in Quincy, Fla., does not enjoy the uniform support of the extended Bowdoin/Harris family and has been blamed by some for engulfing them in the flames of a legal nightmare.
At least one family member has contacted federal prosecutors, according to a source. How prosecutors responded to the overture, which was said to have been made in the summer of 2009, is unclear.
On Saturday, numerous vehicles were parked at a Florida property associated with Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, according to a source. Edna Faye Bowdoin is the mother of George Harris, the reputed co-owner of Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises and the AdViewGlobal autosurf, as well as the head of ASD’s purported “real-estate” division.
Several women were present, but Bowdoin was not seen, the source said.
A second source knowledgeable about the Bowdoin/Harris family described the family as a “family divided.” The PP Blog interviewed the second source in August 2009, and has not published comments from the interview until today.
The source spoke with the PP Blog on the condition of anonymity, and demonstrated knowledge of the family by voluntarily answering questions posed by the Blog prior to the interview and during the interview. The Blog was satisfied that the source could offer insight into the thinking of certain family members.
“There is already an unbelievable amount of friction in the family right now because of everything that Andy has done,” the source said. “This is very much a family divided.”
Less than a month after the Blog conducted the interview, the state of Florida revoked the corporate registrations of ASD and Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises Inc. because neither company filed annual reports despite the continuing presence of active litigation involving both firms and despite being given a five-month window to file required documents.
Neither Bowdoin nor family members explained why the corporate registrations were permitted to lapse. Only four days prior to the revocation, which could have been prevented by the simple filing of papers, Bowdoin told ASD members in a conference call that he had big plans for ASD.
On the same date Florida revoked the corporate registrations — Sept. 25, 2009 — federal prosecutors turned up the heat on Bowdoin by accusing him in court filings of trying to lie his way back into the federal forfeiture case against ASD’s assets.
Prosecutors made a veiled reference to AdViewGlobal in their filings, saying Bowdoin perhaps “was just buying time while searching for a different exit strategy that failed to materialize. Maybe Bowdoin thought that before the government brought its charges he (like some of his family members) could move to another country and profit from a knock-off autosurf program that Bowdoin funded and helped to start.”
Three days later, on Sept. 28, prosecutors turned up the heat again, filing a Secret Service transcript of an ASD conference call and advising a federal judge that Bowdoin was telling her one story and members another.
In the weeks that followed, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that Bowdoin no longer had standing in the case. Bowdoin then attempted unsuccessfully to have Collyer removed as the judge.
Collyer has granted the government’s forfeiture petition in a case filed in August 2008 involving tens of millions of dollars. Bowdoin now is seeking a reversal of that order, claiming it came as a result of judicial error. Prosecutors, however, said the judge did not err and that Bowdoin’s arguments are “impenetrably illogical.”
Purportedly headquartered in Uruguay, AdViewGlobal, which crashed and burned in June 2009, had close family, membership and promotional ties to ASD.
In the August 2009 interview, the source described George Harris and his wife, Judy Harris, as “very worried.”
“Judy heard that the Secret Service was staring to investigate [AdViewGlobal,]” the source said.
Certain family relationships are fractured beyond repair, the source said.
“These relationships are done,” the source said. The source said that paranoia was gripping certain family members and that there were efforts to compartmentalize knowledge and limit use of the telephone.
“They became very shady,” the source said.
Andy Bowdoin led family members and members of ASD and AdViewGlobal down the primrose path, the source said.
AdViewGlobal was described by Bowdoin as a “wonderful idea,” the source said, noting that Bowdoin described the successor autosurf as ASD with tweaks.
AdViewGlobal launched after ASD’s assets were seized amid Ponzi, wire-fraud, securities fraud and money-laundering allegations.
Andy Bowdoin wanted to proceed with AVG, according to the source, “because, with a few little tweaks, this company can make it.”
In June 2009, less than a year after ASD’s assets were seized, AdViewGlobal announced a suspension of cashouts, exercising its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause.
How much money the surf collected and how much it paid out are unclear.
UPDATED 10:53 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Its domain name registered in the Cayman Islands, Data Network Affiliates (DNA) envisions an America in which members will record the license-plate number of the same cars multiple times a day as the vehicles move from destination to destination, a recorded company pitch says.
Meanwhile, the DNA countdown clock on its website now says the launch has been delayed. The countdown clock previously said the program would launch today, a date that was changed to a later date in February and now has been changed to March 1.
At the same time, the recording speaks glowingly of AMBER Alert, after an earlier recording suggested the famous child-protection system managed by the Justice Department was wasting taxpayers’ money. In the new recording, a pitchman says DNA has no affiliation with AMBER Alert, although the company continues to use its name in sales pitches, suggesting that DNA could provide AMBER Alert a helping hand.
“That’s a great, great system,” the pitchman said of AMBER Alert in the new recording. “We have no association with AMBER Alert.”
In an earlier recording, the same pitchman said, “I’m pretty sure you heard of AMBER Alert. It saved over 497 people. But guess what? AMBER Alert, I think, costs about over $100 million a year or some kind of astronomical number.â€
Walmart, Target, Doctors’ Offices
The new recording includes remarks that the company’s aim was to create a database that tracked the movement of cars. A pitchman talked about a hypothetical “red corvette” being spotted at Walmart at noon, at a “doctor’s office” at 1 p.m. and somewhere else at 4 p.m. — with DNA members recording the plate number at all three locations.
Other pitchmen in the recording said DNA had soared to more than 25,000 members in only days and expected to recruit “millions.” One pitchman said he had sponsored more than 700 members and had an organization that contained more than 4,000.
Earlier in the recording, a pitchman also talked about recording plate numbers at Target, another major American retailer. He suggested that members “open up” their eyes when leaving stores to see a “couple hundred” cars parked in the lots.
His voice quieting briefly, the pitchman talked about writing down plate numbers in the parking lots, suggesting that some members might prefer to return to the privacy of their own cars before recording the numbers.
“If you want to be inconspicuous . . . you can do that, too,” he said. “Just look around you. Be more vigilant, and just take some information. If you can read and write, that’s it. Just jot down a license-plate tag.”
Recording license-plate numbers in the parking lots of major retailers, he said, “can lead to some serious financial wealth for you.”
No mention was made about whether DNA members needed the permission of major retailers or physicians to record the plate numbers of shoppers or patients.
The Narc That Car multilevel-marketing (MLM) program has removed the name of AMBER Alert from a promotional video.
Narc That Car’s removal followed on the heels of denials by the Justice Department and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) that the Dallas-based firm was affiliated with the AMBER Alert system.
On Feb. 3, NCMEC, which manages the secondary AMBER Alert program for the Justice Department, expressed concern about the program’s famous name being commercialized. It was not immediately clear if either the Justice Department or NCMEC asked Narc That Car to remove the reference.
Also unclear is whether Narc That Car advised its members about the removal and whether members have been instructed to cease using AMBER Alert’s name in promotions.
Narc That Car promoters repeatedly have referenced AMBER Alert in sales pitches. The program is named after Amber Hagerman, 9, who was brutally murdered in Texas in 1996. Some Narc That Car promoters have created .org domains that traded off AMBER Alert’s name to drive business to the company.
A domain titled AmberAlertHelp.org now appears to resolve to a blank page. Meanwhile, other Narc That Car promoters’ references to AMBER Alert continue to appear online.
