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FIB - Scams 101 - Ye Olde Archives
Posted By: Mike In Response To: International Candle Corporation (Carol)
Monday, 22 November 2004, at 2:37 p.m.
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DISCLAIMER BY LESLEY FOUNTAIN, BOARD OWNER:
Attorneys are coming out of the woodwork right now (they come in spurts), threatening lawsuits if all negative comments about their client's companies are not removed from the board. Well you know what? This board would quickly become worthless if no one was allowed to speak their mind or share any negative information. THEREFORE...
It should be noted that NONE of the following statements have been verified. They could all be true, there could be some truth, OR THEY COULD ALL BE FALSE (as in "sour grapes"). I have NO personal knowledge about this company (ICC or Candle Brokers), and I do NOT claim to know whether their opportunity is legitimate.
This message provides one person's point of view (that of the individual who posted it). It is up to you, the reader, to CONDUCT YOUR OWN RESEARCH -- and YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO DO SO. You are ALSO encouraged to read the attorney's statement which I inserted into Carol's message because, again, I have NO personal knowledge which would lead me to believe the attorney is not telling the truth.
Again, CONDUCT YOUR OWN RESEARCH and MAKE YOUR OWN DECISION -- and I advise you not to dismiss anything you read until you have conducted a THOROUGH INVESTIGATION.
Finally, please read the LEGAL NOTICE at the bottom of this page. The owner of this board does NOT claim to have verified the content of this message. It represents ONE PERSON'S OPINION (Mike, IP#68.12.167.240), and in the U.S. of A., people are still allowed to express their PERSONAL OPINIONS.
The following OPINION written by "Mike" (IP#68.12.167.240) does NOT reflect the opinion of the owner of this board, who has no information to prove or disprove its validity.
Has everybody got that?
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International Candle Corporation did used to be called The Candle Brokers. The company changed its name to International Candle Corporation in late Spring of 2004, because many complaints were being made against it on The Boston Better Business Bureau.
After changing its name from Candle Brokers to ICC, ICC secured a candle manufacturing contract with makers in Guatemala. They did this to obtain a better quality product than previously had when they were The Candle Brokers. Initially, these candles from Guatemal never reached the first couple waves of newly signed distributors, because the candles were held up in customs for many weeks. ICC, facing this problem, decided to replace these detained candles, unknowingly to the distributors, with "Max's Waxes," a domestic candle manufacturer.
ICC cannot be labled a complete scam, because some distributors do get what they pay for, but the majority, my guess would be 85-90% of those who sign up as distributors, never recieve anything close to what they pay for.
ICC uses many questionable sells tactics. Any prospective distributor will be told that they are to recieve a "Protected Territory," to operate their business from. This is a lie, because ICC has no problem putting numerous distributors in the same area...Henderson Nevada is an example. ICC was using a fraudulent product placement company to secure store locations for new distributors. Back when ICC was The Candle Brokers, they used a product placement company called Divine Marketing. When numerous complaints were made against Divine Marketing, The Candle Brokers began using The Norwood Group, supposedly a different product placement company, even though Divine Marketing and The Norwood Group were the same company. Now ICC uses a different product placement company, even though the product placement company they are using is the same company as Norwood and Divine.
ICC claims that a majority of their revenue is made when their distributors reorder candles from them. The truth is that ICC makes nearly all of their money from the investment fees the distrubutors pay to buy into the business. 10% of that fee goes to the salesperson (area coordinator) who gave the distributors the 45+ minute sales pitch. Another 10% goes to "The Closer," the man who helps the new distributor fill out, step by step, the agreement with ICC. When ICC was the Candle Brokers, the man in charge of closing the vast majority of deals with new distributors was Brian Tyson. The individual closing the majority of deals with ICC is Brian Conners, who is the same man as Brian Tyson, although Jeremy Smith and Bill Vanstry are now closing some deals. The remaining 80% of the investment fee is divided up amongst the owners, most notably a man named Jay Campbell, though this is not his real name...I don't know his real name. Only a small percentage of the investment fee is put back into the company for growth.
Also, ICC claims they operate from a high rise office building in Cambridge Mass, overlooking the Charles River. ICC really does have an office on the 18th floor of this building, though no work is ever done there. ICC has simply rented out a posh office in a good area of town for show. The bosses, managers, and employees of ICC really operate out of a basement office in East Boston. The address to this place of operations is 46 Bremen Street. All one has to do is walk down the steps to the entrance of the building, open the door, and the first office they see is where Jay Campbell and a couple of the customer service employees work. If one winds down the hall a bit, one will come face to face with the actual room where the calls are made. This is also the room that Brian Tyson a.k.a Brian Conners closes deals with new distributors. This office is located only a mile away from Logan International Airport. ICC also uses a call answering service...there is no secretary at ICC directing your phone calls, even though it appears like one is.
ICC, as mentioned previously, is not a complete scam, because some people do get what they pay for. The real problem with ICC is simply incompetence on behalf of the owners (most notably Jay Campbell), and the management(Brian Tyson). Jeremy Smith and Bill Vanstry are relatively innocent employees being manipulated by the owners, so they cannot share the same level of blame that Jay Campbell and Brian Tyson share, eventhough legally they all probally share the same burden. Eventhough incompetence resulted in the unfulfillment of distributors orders, the management and owners of ICC are pocketing enormous sums of money for themselves. With the amount of money they have pocketed, it would be very easy for any of them to pack up and disappear if things ever became too thick. I hope this information is useful to anyone who has been scammed by ICC and The Candle Brokers.
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| PLEASE READ THIS LEGAL NOTICE CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU FILE A LAWSUIT OR EVEN WASTE TIME THINKING ABOUT IT. It has been done before, but never successfully. In fact, the last dodobird who tried it ended up being ordered to pay more than $77,000 in attorney fees ($65,000+ to my attorneys and $12,000+ to my co-defendant's legal advisor).
If your attorney is worth his salt, he's going to tell you that the expense of filing a lawsuit you can't win is a whole lot worse than any "damages" resulting from messages posted on this insignificant little chunk of cyberspace. NEWS FLASH: I didn't just climb down off that ol' turnip truck yesterday. I'm well aware that expressing a negative opinion, relating one's personal experience, and restating provable facts are all legal in this country and do not constitute libel, slander, or defamation -- so you don't want to play games with me, and you sure don't want to start something you aren't prepared to finish. I don't take threats lightly, and I don't accept bribes (or did you call it a "mutually-beneficial arrangement"?). I'll turn you in faster than you can yell, "ARREST ME, I'M SCUM!!" Do yourself a favor and turn your legal team loose in greener pastures. Although we may, from time to time, monitor or review discussions, postings and the like on the Friends In Business (Scams 101) Message Board, we are under no obligation to do so. We are not responsible or liable for any claim arising from the content of any such discussions or postings or for any error, defamation, libel, slander, omission, falsehood, obscenity, pornography, profanity, danger, or inaccuracy contained in any information contained within such locations on the Site. You are prohibited from posting or transmitting any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic, or profane materials or any material that could constitute or encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law. You are likewise prohibited from posting any false claims against any company or individual. We will fully cooperate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity of anyone posting any such information or materials. By posting messages and/or content on the Friends In Business (Scams 101) Message Board, you give permission for Lesley Fountain/Friends In Business/Shoestring Success Publications to display, distribute and use the posting and content for publication, advertising, promotion, excerption or example. You grant Lesley Fountain/Friends In Business/Shoestring Success Publications complete, perpetual, but non-exclusive rights to use, archive, reproduce, adapt, modify, distribute, sub-license, repurpose, rework, compile, or offer for sale or resale the messages, postings or content appearing on this site in whole or in part, throughout the world and universe, on a royalty-free basis without remuneration. If you cannot accept or agree with the terms of service for this website and discussion board, you are advised not to post on this board. In closing, I would like to remind you once again that it is still legal, in this great country of ours, to express a PERSONAL OPINION, as long as it is presented as opinion and not as fact. And finally, all you scammers out there will do well to remember that TRUTH IS AN ABSOLUTE DEFENSE against charges of libel, defamation, and slander... so if you're operating just a hop, skip, and jump ahead of the law, you might want to think twice before doing anything stupid... (AND SHAME ON YOU!!). |