Tag: cell phone

Have DataNetworkAffiliates and its multilevel-marketing sales force finally gone too far?

Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump now have company on the list of famous names DNA promoters claim have ties to the firm — and this time the name is bigger and has even deeper pockets than Oprah or The Donald: Apple Inc., the inventive, Steve Jobs-led electronics behemoth that brought the world the Macintosh, the iPod, the iPad, iTunes and the iPhone.

A video on YouTube asserts that DNA is offering a branded iPhone dubbed the “DNA iPhone.” Meanwhile, the video asserts that DNA is the “ONLY Network Marketing Company With Branded iPhones.”

The video provides no substantiation of the claims and does not show such a branded iPhone. Regardless, a URL at the YouTube site encourages viewers to register for DNA and “JOIN A FREE BUSINESS AND MAKE INCREDIBLE RESIDUAL INCOME.”

It is far from clear that DNA has any business relationship at all with Apple, despite the claim it was selling DNA-branded iPhones. A separate YouTube video that appears to have been posted by another DNA member implies that DNA not only has an iPhone, but that the iPhone comes with a “No Term Contract” for $10 a month.

“You are Not in Kansas Anymore!” the second video screams. “This is Global Baby!”

Apple, which is known to defend its brand and intellectual property vigorously, did not respond immediately to the PP Blog’s request for comment. It

is not believed that DNA, which uses a domain registered in the Cayman Islands and has conducted customer service for months with a free gmail address, has any licensing agreement with Apple for cell-phone marketing, pricing or the use of Apple’s intellectual property.

Images of iPhones, however, appear in the YouTube promotions and on DNA’s website. A picture of an iPhone G3 and other phones is featured prominently on the DNA site, below a headline of “Introducing UNLIMITED Talk, UNLIMITED Text with UNLIMITED Data Plans: DNA Cellular Begins Full Service May 2010.”

Neither Winfrey nor Trump’s organizations responded to requests for comment from the PP Blog when contacted in February to determine if either celebrity had endorsed DNA or authorized their images to be used in promotions for DNA. Images of Winfrey and Trump appeared for 10 continuous minutes in a YouTube video for DNA.

One DNA promoter claimed during a conference call earlier this year that the company had “certain people on speed dial that’s incredible.”

Apple was made aware of the DNA iPhone claim on YouTube by both email and telephone earlier today.

The iPhone claim in the DNA promos is included among a series of claims — all of which raise questions about licensure, the use of trademarks and other intellectual property and the often seedy or disingenuous practices of multilevel-marketing (MLM) companies and affiliates who attempt to attach their names to famous entities and individuals to create legitimacy by osmosis.

DNA, which has been in business for only months, did not even start out in the cell-phone trade. Rather, the company told members that it was in the business of recording license-plate numbers for entry in a database that potentially could be helpful to law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program.

Claims that DNA could help the U.S. government and law enforcement locate abducted children were made despite the fact the company uses a domain registered offshore and conducts support through gmail, apparently by using an autoresponder.

In a bizarre response to concerns about the Cayman Islands domain, the company said it had chosen “privacy” protection on the domain for $5 “to prevent management from having to “put up with 100 stupid calls a day,” a member told the PP Blog.

Virtually overnight the company morphed into a purported cell-phone business, declaring “GAME OVER – WE WIN” and bragging “DNA goes CELLBALISTIC with TALK & TEXT Unlimited $10 Monthly with FREE PHONE . . . D.N.A. HITS 100,000 SIGN UPS in 60 DAYS . . . D.N.A. GOES CELLBALISTIC WORLD – WIDE . . . A TEN BY TEN EQUALS MORE MONEY THAN YOU CAN SPEND . . . If you thought finding ten people to write down 20 plates was easy . . . wait until you offer TALK and TEXT UNLIMITED FOR $10 A MONTH WITH FREE PHONE.”

Within three weeks of making the claim that it had conquered the cell-phone business, DNA admitted it could not offer unlimited talk and text with a free phone for $10 a month. Incredibly, the company said it researched pricing only after announcing the $10 plan.

DNA then sent members a pitch for a product known as the “DNA Sleep System,” offering “50% off” a purported price of nearly $2,000.

“This sleep system has 400% Deeper Penetration than it’s predecessor with new ‘Three Dimensional Magnetic Fields’ The First of Its Kind with Patented Technology!” DNA said.

“The D.N.A. OUTFRONT Magnetic Sleep System is 400% more powerful than anything currently in the marketplace. Out of everything under the D.N.A. Opportunity this is one of the most exciting and more profitable items which will be listed with DNA CONNECTS.”

Members of DNA continue to promote the $10 plan and to make liberal use of the names of famous people and products across the web.