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Tag: license plate numbers

  • Data Network Affiliates (DNA) Promoter Describes Program As ‘Cause’; References Walmart Parking Lot; Says Members Should ‘Snap’ License Plates With iPhones, Blackberrys

    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?’”

    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.”)

  • First Narc That Car, Now ‘PlatesRUs’: Promoter Says He Recorded 10 License Plate Numbers In Walmart Parking Lot And Earned A ‘Check’

    Part of the 'PlatesRUs' pitch for Narc That Car.

    Using a domain name similar to the famous ToysRUs brand name, a domain that has branded itself PlatesRUs.biz is promoting the Narc That Car multilevel-marketing program by telling prospects that earning $50 is a simple as going down to the local Walmart parking lot and writing down 10 license-plate numbers of WalMart shoppers.

    The PlatesRUs video pitch is similar to a pitch apparently put out by a separate Narc That Car downline group known as Team Trinity International. The Team Trinity promo included the logos of 30 famous companies, identifying their parking lots as places NarcThatCar members should visit to harvest plate numbers and record them in a database through a website NarcThatCar provides for a $100 start-up fee and a monthly fee of $24.95.

    A narrator in the PlatesRUs video for Narc That Car tells a simple story:

    “I went to Walmart,” he said. “It took me every bit of five minutes to write down 10 tag numbers randomly, go in my back office and log it into the national database through the company, and actually earn a check.”

    By paying Narc That Car the $100 fee, promoters become a “registered information consultant,” the PlatesRUs promoter explained in the video, noting he was “very excited” to have become one. The pitchman added that the program was “tremendously exciting” and “growing like wildfire.”

    No mention was made in the video of any privacy or legal concerns. Like the Team Trinity video, the PlatesRUs video did not instruct members on matters such as whether Narc That Car participants would need permission to enter retailers’ private property for the purposes of harvesting license-plate data from the retailers’ patrons.

    Viewers were given no instruction on what to do if a Walmart shopper — or a shopper at any other prominent business — observed his or her plate number being recorded and objected, perhaps demanding the paper on which the number was recorded so it could be shown to the store manager or even the police. The implication in both videos was that recording license-plate numbers raised no privacy issues at all and was a perfectly acceptable practice — even on private property.

    Like the Team Trinity video and a video put out by Narc That Car, the PlatesRUs video referenced the AMBER Alert program. The U.S. Department of Justice said this week that Narc That Car was not affiliated with AMBER Alert, despite promoters’ repeated claims that Narc That Car was tied to the AMBER Alert system.

    Some Narc That Car promoters have said the FBI and companies such as the Ford Motor Co. endorsed the Narc That Car program.

    The PatrickPretty.com Blog contacted Ford and provided a reference to the claim, which purports that Ford and two other prominent car companies “have already given their commitment to NARC. They have signed on as clients and will be there to use the database when it is ready. These companies believe in this idea.”

    Ford did not immediately respond to the inquiry.

    Among the claims online about Narc That Car are that it is helping “The US Dep’t of Homeland Security find terrorists” and that “NARC has integrated with Amber Alert to support and assist them in locating missing and/or abducted children.”