3RD UPDATE 11:30 A.M. ET U.S.A. A female senior citizen from the 434 Area Code in South-Central Virginia dialed into a Dec. 10 “Achieve Community” conference call, according to an audio recording of the call playing on YouTube.
She explained that she had a heart condition, that she had trusted in God and joined Achieve and that her 86-year-old husband of 53 years had been “in the hospital for a full year and six months in the nursing home.
“And it took every penny of money that we had and could get together just to be able to pay those bills and live. For four years, we haven’t been living. We’ve been existing. We did not have enough money to pay our bills, to buy medicine, food, gas . . .”
The woman explained that she had been paid by Achieve, had “nowhere to go” and “couldn’t get this kind of return on my money even if I could.”
One of the hosts then said her tale was “very inspiring,” that he hoped things worked out with her husband and that (italics added):
“I think your attitude is absolutely fantastic. You are exactly the type of person that the Achieve Community is built around and for . . .”
Area Code 434 services Lynchburg and other communities in the Western District of Virginia.
The office of U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy of the Western District of Virginia had no immediate comment on the call. The RealScam.com antiscam forum was the first to publish a link to the recording of the call. The PP Blog listened to the call and then contacted Heaphy’s office, which handles the Lynchburg area.
Achieve Community, a money-cycler “program,” may be operating from Michigan. The purported co-founders are Troy Barnes and Kristi Johnson. Achieve enthusiasts Rodney Blackburn and Mike Chitty appear to have been the lead hosts on the call. Johnson briefly was on the line at the beginning of the call.
The call demonstrates that Achieve Community, which purports to be an international company, is driving business in the United States by reaching across state lines. Callers on the Dec. 10 call were identified by their respective Area Codes.
One female caller came on the line from Area Code 615, which serves the Nashville, Tenn., region. Another woman came on the line from Area Code 504, which covers Greater New Orleans in Louisiana. Yet another woman came on the line from Area Code 702, which serves the Las Vegas region in Nevada.
The woman from 702 complained that Achieve, which claims that $50 turns into $400, was being elusive and capricious.
Also on the line was a man who said he was from Baltimore. He raised concerns about problems Achieve had been having after reportedly losing the ability to use the Payoneer payment processor more than a month ago.
Next up was a man from the 347 Area Code in the Greater New York City region. He complained that a “position” purchase he made hadn’t been credited. The elderly woman from 434 described above then came on, followed by a man from the 407 Area Code in the region of Orlando, Fla. The call concluded with a woman from Area Code 718 in the New York City region coming on the line.
Achieve Community targeting is wide, covering twenty-somethings to eighty-somethings. One of the call hosts said Achieve money could be used to build churches, take care of families and pay off student loans.
See the RealScam.com post with the YouTube video attributed to “washable jones,” who may be an antiscam activist.
Also see Dec. 9 report on the PP Blog, plus PP Blog reports on Dec. 7 and Dec. 2 and Nov. 17.