The spam lawsuits could go on for years!

> I feel it is time for me to speak up, and state some facts about this
> program. I have a friend who has fallen into the Emerald Passport pit. He
> continues to invest money, but does not have the initiative or salesman
> skills to sell this. I have done a lot of research, and here are some
> events you should know about before investing in this.

Thanks for confirming what many of us knew already to be true.

> 1) My friend received an email, stating that he could make 1 million
> dollars in 6 months.

He got spammed, and didn't know to delete it unread? Sigh... Mistake #1.

> 2) He investigated and found out it was Emerald Passport.

I've really got to put up my web site about these guys.

> 3) He contacted me, and asked me to look at it, and after I researched, I
> told him it appeared to be a pyramid to which he took the defensive, and
> said their product was webucation.

Hook,

> 4) He showed me the slide show, and showed me how they had been featured
> in Forbes magazine.

line,

> 5) He invested $1395 to become a distrubtor.

and sinker...

> 6) He paid for bulk email, and when I asked him how that went, he told me
> that they had given him old emails, and he had to re-invest in new ones.

He spammed. You got it.

> 7) He got leads, and spent hours on the phone, but to this date has no
> sales.

And he has to give the first couple away, even.

> 8) His bulk email said the same thing that he received, that you can make
> $1,000,00 in 6 months. To this date, he has made nothing.

Worse than that! He's started a FOUR YEAR ticking time bomb - the statute of limitations for spamming.

> 9) I asked my friend to find out why they don't post phone numbers, and
> his distributor (after research) came back and said it was because they
> would receive too many calls, because it is such a good product! (Makes
> you wonder!!)

They lie. Spammer's rule #1.

> Now here is some discussion.

> Firstly, Forbes magazine does NOT say anything about Emerald Passport, it
> simply talks about webucation.

True. Wonder why the marks don't read that far.

> Emerald Passport does NOT offer webucation to the public, it wants to sell
> distributorships to feed the pyramid.

Understood.

> Checks to distributors are sent via third party couriers instead of by
> U.S. Mail. Why? Because if this is ever determined to be a pyramid, then
> it is illegal, and all those compensated would be guilty of MailFraud.

Yep. Red flag #1.

> The company is incorpated out of Panama, thus sheltering itself form
> United States Regulations. (at least they think).

Maybe they are, but as pyramid operators, they are designed to be teflon-coated. However, the poor participant/victims are left twisting in the wind for FOUR YEARS waiting for their spam lawsuits to come in.

> Each person that sends emails, lies about how much they are making, as he
> did, and these emails are unsolicited emails, which are spam, which are
> illegal.

You got it. And the lawsuits are just now beginning 15 months after the 1UpAutomated spamgang was really started rolling. Dozens of them are being served with demand letters, and some of them never made a sale. But they are liable for $15-50,000 penalties in states like Oklahoma for their spamming. Most of the settlements I've heard about (the ones not sealed by confidentiality agreements) are in the four figure range.

Check out http://www.pyramidspam.com/

One of the four operators of the 1UpAutomated scheme (John McLeod - JDO Media) just had a judgement entered against him for $14.577M by Microsoft. I think two of the three others settled, and have consent orders to stay away from pyramid schemes forever.

> This company preys off of innocent people.

But they wrap themselves in such a cloak of "helping empower people to their fullest potential". :-)

> My friend is to embarressed to admit to a failure.

Can't help him with that. But he should be quaking in his boots about the lingering spam liability.

> I know people are making money, because you can sell anything over the
> net, even illegal scams.

An FTC staff attorney said a few years ago: "Any con artist not already doing business on the Internet ... should be sued for malpractice."

> Now I am curious what response we will receive from this.

Not too many fans of Emerald Passport here. We drove most of 'em away with hoots and hollers.

> You know the truth is that all pyramids eventually break down. Those
> people that are telling you they are making millions are telling LIES to
> keep the pyramid going.