Re: Leads Vendors

> The MLM pyramid-shaped industry depends on a never-ending supply of
> suckers infected with the gullibility virus, and leads vendors are
> sometimes paying for their advertising like this. Some of the bottom
> feeders use spam, which is why you often see spam with similar "fill
> out this form" formats and no opportunity gets named. But there are
> some high-end leads vendors who can afford generic TV infomercials. Your
> data on those forms can be worth $200 over a year as it's sold, resold,
> and further resold.

> I've stung many of those forms with distinctive names to see who buys the
> leads and track backwards to see who sells them. Infomercials aren't
> illegal, but the vendors very often have a mixture of leads to sell, and
> the cheap ones often come from spam. So I like to keep tabs on all of
> them.

> Who was buying a lot of the expensive ($5-50) leads? The usual big-ticket
> ($1000-3000 buy-in) 2-up program members - Coastal Vacations, Concorde,
> EPI, LL. Mid-level leads (aging somewhat and going for $1-5) were bought
> by members of a dozen or so $300-500 operations or the $40-60/month
> nutraceutical/vitamin supplement MLMs. After 3-6 months, my contact
> information was being sold for 1-20c in batches of hundreds of leads to
> the cheapie MLM hopefuls.

> When they called and I told them how often my (false) information had been
> sold and traded, they often opened up and admitted they had been getting
> disillusioned at the miserable reception they had been getting when
> calling those leads. They had been yelled at like they were common
> telemarketers. I advised them they *were* at that point common
> telemarketers, cold calling telephone numbers that may even be on the
> federal do-not-call list. Federal regulations say that a phone number on
> the do-not-call list can be called only for 90 days after an inquiry,
> which protects a consumer against being called forever after they ask a
> mortgage broker about a refi, for instance. For 90 days, the broker gets a
> free pass to call you, under the pre-existing business relationship
> exemption. That expires in 90 days, and you can enforce your rights under
> the do-not-call list after that.

Thanks to everyone that responded. Simply eye-opening!

Ojon