The person who was used to pimp “The Prodigy” for last year’s Firstline recruiting surge last summer speaks, and what he says affirms everything we already knew: He isn’t an agent of, or employee of, Firstline. Further, he’s so aggravated at the idea of his image being used to scam students that he’s threatening his own investigation.

Watch the video on MySpace.

Technorati Tags: Firstline, The Prodigy, false advertising, summer sales, student recruiting

Holy cow, folks. By now you all know the Firstline saga, but what you don’t know is how cult-like the sales ‘training’ was from on high. Weekly DVDs, setting everyone against each other, putting impossible goals in front of salesmen and then berating groups that underperformed — never mind that they were dropped into a city that had specific laws against selling security systems door to door.

Well, hold onto your hats, because this is incredible.

Chad Hudgens, a former employee of Prosper, Inc. a company which focuses on teaching students real estate sales techniques, is suing his boss and the company. His lawsuit accuses his boss, Joshua Christopherson of waterboarding him in front of other employees while they held him down.

Sounds incredible, almost fanciful, yes? The company is not denying it. They admit that it happened.

Get that clear: This company admits that they waterboarded an employee as part of a training session. From the Daily Herald:

Hudgens, 26, of Provo, said Christopherson asked for a volunteer for a motivational exercise in May 2007, but did not say what the exercise would be. Christopherson led Hudgens and the eight other members of the sales team to a hill outside the building and told Hudgens to lie on his back with his head facing down, Hudgens said.

Hudgens said Christopherson told the other employees to hold him down and not let him up, no matter how hard he struggled, then poured nearly the entire contents of a one-gallon jug of water onto his mouth and nose. Hudgens said he felt like he was drowning and struggled to free himself.

“I’m trying to squirm, get out of this, no one’s letting go,” Hudgens said. “What [Christopherson] said after that was, ‘Now guys, you see how hard Chad was struggling for a breath of air, how hard he was trying to breathe? That’s how hard I want you to go get back on the phones and make some sales.’

The company’s response:

George Brunt, a member of Prosper’s legal team, said Hudgens volunteered with full knowledge of what would be done and that the activity was not company-sanctioned. Brunt also objected to describing the incident as waterboarding.

“Waterboarding implies some form of torture, and this was a completely voluntary activity,” Brunt said. “It was explained to him.”

I don’t know about YOU, but whether Hudgens volunteered for an unknown sales exercise or not, waterboarding IS torture, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter whether you volunteer. Who expects their employer to torture them in a voluntary training exercise, after all?

And after all of that, and after filing a complaint with the company’s HR department, nothing was done. Not a frickin’ thing. Zero, zip, nada. An employee complains about abuse at the hands of their superior, abuse that is classified as torture, and the company does nothing?

There is a pattern that originates in Utah. A pattern of recruiting and then abusing college students to make money for the father company. There are stories upon stories posted in the comments to my Firstline posts about how salesmen were treated. There are stories of other companies, other abuses, other flagrant immoral, illegal activity that should not be tolerated or allowed to stand. Period.

Prosper describes itself as a coaching business. Waterboarding an employee is not coaching, it’s coercion.

What is it going to take to stop these clowns? Seriously, this is just beyond all comprehension.

Technorati Tags: Prosper, waterboarding, lawsuit, legal, torture, human resources

The Eldest and I were interviewed about a month ago for a KGO (ABC) investigative report on Firstline, along with duped customers in the Bay Area and other Arizona college students sucked into The Prodigy scam. From watching tonight’s video, it looks like they used most of the footage from the interviews their affiliate did with the students who are still in Arizona. Our interview was done by the KEYT-Santa Barbara affiliate, who also plans coverage of the Firstline Prodigy scam.

Part 1 of their report is here. Part 2 airs tomorrow. The eeriest part? Watching the reporter walk into the Firstline corporate offices and finding them completely empty. Even the security systems had been removed.

Screenshot of empty offices

Digg this and get the story out to anyone who might be similarly scammed.

Technorati Tags: Firstline, KGO, investigative report

For the past two weeks, current and former employees of Firstline Security (Orem, UT) have been leaving comments that Firstline filed for bankruptcy, but I couldn’t find any official confirmation of it.

Today, I have confirmation. From the Salt Lake Tribune via Bloomberg News:

Orem company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Firstline Security Inc., the Orem-based provider of customized home security products, has sought bankruptcy protection from creditors.
The company listed debt and assets of less than $50 million in Chapter 11 documents filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Salt Lake City. The company didn’t give a reason for the filing in court papers.
- Bloomberg News

This brief announcement follows a flurry of comments about their service center being shut down and employees sent home after they were unable to make their payroll obligations this Friday. One commenter left a copy of the email he received from Trevor Keyes, one of the founders and owners of Firstline (grammar notwithstanding):

“Firstline Employees: As many of you may have heard, several of Firstline’s largest creditors have taken informal and formal legal actions that have resulted in Firstline’s inability to sell customer accounts and generate operating revenue to pay its ongoing expenses.

As recent as this Wednesday, Jan 23rd, Firstline was required by court-order to hold all funds generated by the sale of customer accounts pending a final hearing for appointment of a receiver for the company. Firstline has diligently endeavored to resolve the issues raised by its creditors so that accounts could be sold and expenses paid, but has been unable to do so.

After considering the wide array of circumstances—including what is in the best interests of employees—Firstline has determined that it is necessary to seek federal bankruptcy protection under chapter 11. Firstline is confident that reorganization under chapter 11 will provide the best result for payment of employees and will further provide the ability to move forward as a company and continue to operate. The short-term ramifications of filing chapter 11 are unpleasant.

Until Firstline obtains permission from the bankruptcy court, it cannot pay any debts that were owed as of the date of filing. This means that Firstline will be unable to meet its payroll obligations to you today. The good news is, however, that the money owed to you as current wages (with certain limitations including a $10,000 cap) will be treated as a priority claim in the bankruptcy to be paid ahead of general unsecured creditors.

Additionally, all wages earned after the bankruptcy filing are treated as administrative expenses in the case and are also required to be paid ahead of all general unsecured creditors. This means those of you we seek help in rebuilding will have secured pay moving forward. Firstline’s immediate order of business in the bankruptcy will be to seek permission to pay priority wage claims early so that the burden on you will be lessened. This process may, however, can take several weeks to accomplish.

To facilitate reorganization, it is unfortunately necessary for Firstline to temporarily reduce its excellent staff to a group of core rebuilders who will begin the task of stablizing and rebuilding the business. The personnel on the attached list are those that we feel are necessary to accomplish this objective.

To those not on the list, please understand that you are valued and appreciated and that we deeply regret circumstances that have led us to the point that we must reduce our staff. We credit the successes of the company to everyone, and we hope that you understand that we will do everything that we can to rebuild, rehire, and, most importantly, to pay you in full for the excellent services you have provided. Please encourage the rebuilding team as they are all of our hopes for a brighter future and immediate potential for future jobs, future pay etc.

Please await further information via email and mail. We implore your support and patience. There is a quote from Mother Teresa that says: ―What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight – BUILD ANYWAY! People are unreasonable, illogical, and self centered – LOVE THEM ANYWAY!‖ Firstline Security, Inc”

This is tragic for the employees who weren’t paid today and certainly must be jarring to the customers as well. Right now those customers have no one to service their contracts. I’m not sure how the monitoring of their systems is done, but one way or the other, it certainly is bad news for everyone involved.

And this year’s Prodigy? I’m guessing my prediction was right — there wasn’t one, or at least no one was paid the kind of money they promised.

The rise and fall of Firstline is a classic picture of a pyramid scheme and a study in the art of deceptive hiring and sales techniques. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this story, so stay tuned. And to the students out there who thought they would see some sort of final payment next week for all their summer efforts, you have my sincere condolences.

More Firstline posts

Technorati Tags: Firstline, Trevor Keyes, Wright Thurston, Chapter 11, bankruptcy, pyramid scheme, summer sales

Your Guide to Google Click Fraud
In the spirit of calling a scam a scam and things too good to be true too good to be true, let me introduce you to the ad that has been spattered across free ads sites and paper ads in the Pennysaver and PennysaverUSA circulars delivered to your mailbox.

This scam comes to you courtesy of SSK eMarketing, LLC. Don’t bother with a Google search — you won’t find anything worth clicking. The only result worth clicking through is the one on Ripoff Report where some unfortunate person tried to buy their “free trial” for $1.85 and doesn’t receive his money back or his “marketing materials”, but he does have charges of $40/month to his credit card that they won’t stop.

Here’s another scam that is targeted toward work-at-home-moms, students, and others who are in need of flexible schedules and some extra money. While I could find no ‘official’ explanation of what a “Google clicker” might be, common sense says it’s this: You click on Google AdSense ads on assigned sites and they share the wealth. It could also be a site involved in scraping others’ content — there is a reference to “filling out Google forms”. What Google forms are, I have no idea. But creating scrape sites is another form-filling opportunity.

Here’s an excellent discussion of the cost of click fraud to Adsense advertisers.

Here’s a post that tells the story better than I could:

Helexia:

For example, I have numerous campaigns set up, 4 campaigns are in the > $10 per click range. I have a couple IP’s that click on just a few different ads, a couple times per day, a few times a week (never a conversion). My stats show this IP only visits the landing page for under 10 seconds each time and then leaves.

So this 1 IP, at the current rate of what they’re doing would cost me about $36,500 per year… FOR 1 IP! And I see a couple IP’s doing this.

I feel like my competitors at the end of the work day say “Oh before you turn off the lights and go home, don’t forget to click on everyone’s google ads”… pretty soon your going to see job openings in the help wanted for “Professional google clickers”

I’m not happy.

SSK eMarketing, LLC has a current filing with the California Department of Corporations, but it won’t tell you anything, beyond the date it was filed and the address of service, which goes to their proxy, Capitol Corporate Services, Inc., just as their web site registration goes to their private registrar.

Here’s the thing: Whether or not they actually instruct on how to commit click fraud or not, this is what they offer: A “free 14-day trial” of their “marketing kit” for $1.85 and your credit card. After 14 days, it will cost you $39.95/month.

Does that sound like a JOB to you? No, it didn’t sound like one to me, either. But they are evidently successful enough to spam their ads all over these papers in the hopes of grabbing someone naive and hopeful. And as we all know, this kind of scam works well on the uninitiated and the optimists. They’re making money one of two ways: Selling you a dog and pony scam show with “access” to their private web site for $40/month, or they’re really engaging in scraping and click fraud. Either way, it is a bad deal for anyone who decides to give it a try.

This isn’t just limited to Google. They also have some “get rich quick using EBay” scam they’re willing to sell you, too.

Here’s the thing: Click fraud is just that — fraud. Look at Helexia’s comment again — when people who are not interested in the product click to generate AdSense commissions without interest in the product, it is FRAUD. You are ripping off the advertiser. Whether or not this site encourages click fraud goes beyond the scope of what I know, since I’m unwilling to hand over my credit card or any other information to them to find out. However, advertising for Google clickers certainly doesn’t leave me with a high degree of confidence or esteem.

If you have had any experience with the site, the package, or the scam, leave a comment and tell your story.

Technorati Tags: Google, EBay, AdSense, fraud, SSK eMarketing, ultimate search guide, mail order, scams, google clickers

Although I did disclaim my last post on Lori Drew with the caveat that the MeganHadItComing blog could be an invention, I wrote as if it were truly from Lori Drew.

My gut turned out to be wrong; it appears that the entire blog including the post that I analyzed was an excellent example of Internet fakery, as Shelley said it was, in her post here. Whoever wrote it has a very clear understanding of how people can behave, particularly when they are behaving badly. It’s a pity that such talent is wasted on invention, but nevertheless, it certainly had me fooled and certainly has me owing a large correction here on the blog.

While I stand by my analysis of certain personalities who get overinvolved in their children’s lives and then deny any responsibility for the consequences that ensue, I acknowledge that applying that analysis to Lori Drew was incorrect, and that I should have been more careful to be more general and less targeted at her. I apologize for the title and content of that post as it relates to Lori Drew.

I have maintained from the start that I do not wish for harm to come to any member of the Drew family. There have been comments posted on this blog that I absolutely do not agree with, especially any that target a member of that family for retribution. However, I believe that the conduct she engaged in was wrong, whether or not it was done for the motives I projected onto her in that post, and I believe the laws we currently have on the books do have application in this case.

But I am not a lawyer and I really don’t think passing more laws is the answer here. The irony of becoming the willing victim of yet another impersonation hoax is not lost on me, and part of me is beating myself over the head about not being more skeptical. Discovering that I bared the truth of some of my most painful life experiences in response to a hoax feels a bit like being punched in my currently-unreliable gut. Impersonation is a big hole in Internet communities that tends to undermine their overall usefulness. I don’t have an answer for that problem. I never have, despite over 12 years of working in online communities. I want to believe that people are fundamentally good. It’s a character flaw of mine, I know.

At any rate, this post is not about me or online communities. It’s about admitting that I was sucked into a hoax (read the last post and related links here and here.) I am closing comments on that post but am leaving it up, because to pull it off now would look like I’m trying to hide my own stupidity. I just see no reason to invite more vitriol there. If you want to say ‘you told me so’ here, you’re welcome to do so.

Technorati Tags: lori drew, megan meier, internet hoax, lulz, rickrolled

I first wrote about Automotive Warranty Advisors in April and still see waves of new comments every couple of months (probably about the same time their scare-cards are mailed again).  Some of the stories posted in the comments to that post are worthy of note.  Some samples:

Mike:

The longer I talked to the rep the more pushy he became. He then put his floor manager on the phone to close the deal and he was even worse. The whole thing reminded me of the movie “Boiler Room”. When I told him I wasn’t ready to commit right now and that I would call him back, he said that if I hung up, the deal was off. That just solidified the fact that it was a scam. I’m glad I did not give him any of my information. I should have checked them out on the internet before calling. Beware of these guys.

Tom:

… so I asked him where they recieved their information from- He said they got it from the dealership. So I asked what the dealerships name was. He said that they did not have that information. I asked whos name was on the car/policy- He said that I had to give him the year, make and model of the car. I said no way, that they must be stupid to think that I would fall for that. Brian then started cursing at me saying that I must have mistaken him for someone who gave a s*** and that he had too many other people to call before the end of his shift to deal with me not purchasing anything from him and he hung up.

Anonymous:

Basically, they are keeping my 2000 dollars and I got nothing. They said I am not qualified to get any money back. I like to think I am a pretty smart consumer. I usually ask a lot of questions and check things out first before I purchase something like this but I guess I am not as smart as I thought.

Javier:

This time I pressed 1 to talk to a rep and as I was explaining my situation they hung up. All this time I thought it was regarding my 2004 toyota matrix. Now I know for sure this is a scam. I almost thought of calling my Toyota dealer and cussing them out. Anyway everyone should steer clear of this.

Manhattan:

I’ve received at least two “Final Notices” from them, and I have never even owned a car!

Out of 28 comments, one was positive, and that one linked back to their site, which means it was nothing more than linkbait anyway.

If you get a call or a card in the mail about your auto warranty expiring, do not give them your personal information over the phone.  If you are truly interested in purchasing an aftermarket auto  warranty,  stop by Edmunds.com and read their tips first so you know what you want and how to shop for it.  Buy it with your eyes wide open and after researching the warranty company thoroughly.

Keep in mind that the manufacturer’s warranty isn’t the problem.  What these folks want to do is sell you an expensive post-warranty warranty using scare tactics and loaded language to hook you into calling them and handing over your credit information on the phone.

One thing that we did with the Prius and the Scion was to buy not only an extended warranty through the manufacturer (Toyota), but also prepaid maintenance.  It’s really been nice, because all we have to do is drive into the dealership and leave the car for a couple of hours and the maintenance is done. Having the regular maintenance done goes a long way toward keeping the car in good running order down the line when the extended manufacturer warranty runs out.

More complaints here, here, here and here.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: automotivewarranty advisors, mail, scam, alert, aftermarket warranty, auto warranty

[Note: This post concerns Firstline Security, Inc., incorporated in Orem, Utah, NOT Firstline Security Systems headquartered in Anaheim, CA]

Commenter Paul, who is a first-year “Advertising Director” for Firstline Security in Washington State (Vancouver area), was recruited out of Texas A&M university and has been trying to convince me that my criticism of Firstline is unfair and unwarranted. In the process he challenged my contention that the sales pitch is deceptive because Firstline claims to provide “free” equipment in exchange for the placement of a yard sign and commitment to a 36-month monitoring contract at $45.00 per month. (Details are available on the GetFirstline website).

Firstline markets the Simon 3 wireless security system with the Alarm.com GSM security module. i was able to find the Simon 3 with the GSM module on sale at Safemart.com for $459.95. Monitoring was available through LiveWatch on a prepaid basis for $24.95/month with two free months, or $249.50 for a year. Assuming that years 2-3 do not have the 2 free month provision, that would work out to $850 for monitoring, plus $500 (with tax) for the hardware, or a total of $1,350.00.

The Firstline Security, Inc. package works out to $1620 for 36 months, including the “free hardware”, assuming a direct checking debit each month for the monitoring fee (if the credit score is high enough they will paper-bill but charge extra for that).

That’s a difference of $280.00. I am not sure that I had the exact hardware that the basic Simon 3 system Firstline sells includes, so I also went to HomeSecurityStore.com and tried to match the Firstline system exactly. I was able to configure a package with 2 keyfobs, a handheld wireless touchpad, GSM, and 2 “panic pendants” for $526.88, which when combined with the monitoring package available from LiveWatch.com, is still less than the Firstline package with the ‘free hardware’.

Paul also argued that Firstline is a company listed on the Inc 500. I was unable to find it listed, or any possible predecessors. I was able to find a 2001 listing for SafeHome Security, which has an association with Brandon Savage, a VP with Firstline through 2005 and also Sterling Barnes, President/CEO of Firstline through 2005.

It’s worth noting that the Inc 500 list is a ranking based solely upon growth. Given the aggressive sales tactics of Firstline sales reps, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them listed as a fast-growing company. Other companies listed in 2006 include social networking sites, internet startups, home mortgage companies, and medical/insurance based companies, sectors that have experienced growth both in public and privately-held arenas.

There’s a moral to this story. Firstline presents itself as a trusted company, proudly displaying badges from PBS Kids (presumably for the safety level of their website) and the Better Business Bureau. Yet, their website has no information about their corporate officers or leadership and they are training their “advertising directors” to sell an overpriced product using deceptive sales techniques. The invocation of the Inc 500 as some sort of revered benchmark, when there is no identifiable listing for Firstline through 2006 is further evidence of their deception.

Finally, I was reading through one of their contracts and happened across this provision:

“You understand and agree that in conjunction with employee training, quality control and the provision of services, we may monitor and/or electronically record video and audio related to monitored activity at your location, as well as conversations with you, emergency services providers and law enforcement personnel. Further, you understand that privacy cannot be guaranteed on telephone, cable and computer systems, and we shall not be liable to you for any claims, loss, damages or costs which may result from a lack of privacy experienced…”

The first part seems to be related to 911 emergency monitoring, which we should all know happens, particularly if you’ve heard a 911 tape played on your local news after some sort of crime. The second part, though, where I’ve bolded? Think about that in the context of the expanded FISA provisions that allow warrantless wiretaps and monitoring on electronic communication.

Install one of these babies and you might end up in an FBI file. Particularly if you’re not a big supporter of our current administration. Think it’s preposterous? Study what happened during the dark days of the McCarthy era and J Edgar Hoover’s FBI. It’s not at all unthinkable.

Technorati Tags: firstline security, simon 3, wireless monitoring, FISA, home security systems