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Tag: DNA Mortgage Reduction System

  • BULLETIN: Data Network Affiliates Gets ‘F’ From BBB After Purported Data Firm Did Not Respond To Complaints

    BULLETIN: The Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida and the Caribbean has given Data Network Affiliates (DNA) an “F” rating after the company failed to respond to complaints.

    DNA, a purported multilevel-marketing (MLM) firm, publishes a street address in Boca Raton, Fla., on its website. The BBB’s file on DNA lists the Boca Raton address.

    DNA now joins Dallas-based Narc That Car, also known as Crowd Sourcing International, in the lineup of purported license plate data gathering firms to have received an “F” from the BBB. The “F” rating is the BBB’s lowest on a 14-step rating scale.

    Separately, bizarre events at DNA continue to occur. Earlier this year, DNA purported to be in the business of gathering license-plate numbers to assist law enforcement in locating abducted children. In a conference call, a DNA pitchman criticized the AMBER Alert program, claiming it had a bloated budget. The same pitchman recommended that members gather license-plate data at “churches” and “doctors’ offices,” triggering concerns that DNA’s business model could lead to untenable invasions of privacy.

    It is far from clear that DNA has any capacity to help law enforcement locate missing kids. The company’s domain name is registered in the Cayman Islands. Earlier this year, DNA claimed the offshore address was arranged through a domain registrar so company executives would not have to put up with “stupid” calls.

    DNA later declared itself the world’s low-price leader in the cell-phone business, before acknowledging that it had not studied pricing before announcing it could offer an “unlimited” plan for $10 a month, including a free phone.

    DNA later said it also had ventured into the businesses of selling a purported spray to be applied to license plates that would prevent motorists from getting tickets if they ran a red light at an intersection equipped with a camera — all while purporting to support law enforcement.

    The company also announced it had ventured into the mortgage-reduction business, claiming churches had the “MORAL OBLIGATION” to support the program.

    In July, DNA asked existing members to pretend the company had not launched in March, asking them to “Make believe that July 26th, 2010 is the LAUNCH DATE for DNA…”

    DNA than rescheduled the make-believe launch to Aug. 9. It is unclear if the imaginary launch occurred as advertised.  A countdown timer set for Aug. 23 now appears on the website.

    Meanwhile, the company appears to have renamed its Business Benefit Package, which once used the acronym BBP, to the BBB. BBB is the acronym used by the Better Business Bureau.

    DNA regularly employs capital letters to stress sales points in pitches to members.

    “Please attend our next WEBINAR it will CHANGE YOUR LIFE,” DNA said in a recent email, which also included a pitch for products described as the “DNA Photo Blocker & The DNA $5.95 TELE-FAX BOX.”

    It was not immediately clear if the product advertised as “DNA Photo Blocker” was the same product previously advertised as “DNA Protective Spray.”

    Visit the BBB site.

  • EDITORIAL: MLM’s Great Race To The Bottom? While FTC, SEC, CFTC Warn About Affinity Fraud, Data Network Affiliates Says Its Mortgage-Reduction Program Is A ‘Church Fundraisers DREAM Come True’

    Apparently tithing, bake sales, quilting bees, church-sponsored dinners, flea markets and car washes by Christian teens to raise money for projects have gone the way of the dinosaur.

    Building on an earlier claim that churches have a “MORAL OBLIGATION” to pitch its purported mortgage-reduction program, Data Network Affiliates (DNA) now says the program is a “Church Fundraisers (sic) DREAM Come True.”

    Some DNA members are describing the program as a “Crusade to Help American Families Keep their Homes.”

    Just when you think you’ve seen it all in MLM, the company also claims it has been asked to sell “Funeral Caskets MLM”-style. In a pitch to members, DNA compares itself favorably to “FACEBOOK, GOOGLE & WALMART…”

    The company says churches can benefit from its bid to rid the mortgage world of “toxic” assets, defining its “exciting DNA Mortgage Reduction System” as the “ONLY ONE OF IT’s (sic) KIND” — one that allows “DNA to pay out $300 on The Front End in a TEN LEVEL PAY PLAN and up to $1600 on The Back End in a TEN LEVEL PAY PLAN.”

    “The line for DNA introducing products and services will be just as long” as the lines at Walmart, the company says. “Yesterday we got a call to sell Funeral Caskets MLM…”

    We wonder if selling human body parts MLM-style will be next — and we wonder if livers, kidneys, hearts, lungs and skin will be positioned as a moral imperative for clergy to hawk and wonderful products for churches to sell after registering as “PRO” affiliates for an opportunity to pocket commissions 10 levels deep.

    Although DNA has been pitching the mortgage-reduction program for only days, two testimonials from customers who purport to be happy DNA campers suddenly have materialized on the company’s website.

    “I was lost, and thought I had no where to go,” writes “Trish” on the website. “I was out of options then my real estate broker referred me to your program DNA Mortgage Reduction.”

    “Trish” did not identify the purported broker. Nor did “Trish” explain the purported broker’s affiliation with DNA and how DNA apparently was able in just days to gather her information, get it in the proper hands for a legal review of her case, study it for potential “DEFECTS,” conduct a “Forensic Audit,” draft the paperwork to be mailed to the lender being petitioned to write down her mortgage, wait for the lender’s presumably favorable response after assessing the value of the property and its legal position after being slapped by DNA’s paperwork, arrange for new loan documents to be drafted and vetted by attorneys on both sides, attested to by a notary and formally signed by all parties.

    Regardless, “Trish” described her DNA experience as a “miracle,” claiming that “I now have a new mortgage and my home is $24,000.00 lower principal balance. I am saving over $300.00 a month.”

    Before concluding her testimonial Trish made sure she thanked “Principal Mortgage!” It is unclear if “Principal Mortgage” is the name of DNA’s vendor.

    Meanwhile, in a testimonial purportedly authored by “Nichole,” the “DNA Mortgage Reduction” program and a person named “Mike” were given credit for saving “Nichole’s” home after she “prayed” about the matter.

    “I owe a lot to DNA Mortgage Reduction,” wrote the purported “Nichole.”

    “I now am secure in my home with a affordable mortgage and my kids do not have to move,” Nichole offered.

    Things apparently happened quickly for “Nichole.”

    “When I had gotten letters from the attorney that was going to my bank and copies from the bank responding I knew I was going to all right,” Nichole wrote. “They did exactly what they promised and lowered my principal balance and interest rate.”

    DNA has been pushing the purported mortgage-relief program for only days, including over the long July 4 weekend into which a U.S. banking holiday was sandwiched — and yet both “Nichole” and “Trish” claim their reliance on DNA has resulted in new mortgages with favorable terms.

    Incongruously, DNA’s own website says the process “takes 90 to 120 days.

    “The Lender will have 20 business days per RESPA to respond to the written request and 60 business days to resolve/settle this matter,” DNA says.