A Florida-based operation has settled federal charges that it misled consumers about how much money they could make stuffing envelopes in their homes. The settlement includes a $110,000 payment.
According to the FTCs complaint, since at least August 1997, the defendants and their agents set up numerous post office boxes and commercial mailboxes in the greater Miami area that they used to sell work-at-home mailing opportunities to consumers through flyers and mail delivered to consumers houses.
The supposed business opportunity consisted of two or more "tiers," with instructions for consumers either to recruit a second or third generation of buyers using flyers or to market the defendants book reports on how to make money from home.
The defendants flyers claimed that consumers could earn $5,000 Weekly! simply folding and sending the flyers, which they called catalogs. Consumers could supposedly make $1,000 to $5,000 Every Week, including $10 for each catalog they mailed ...[with] Paychecks mailed to you every Wednesday.
The defendants allegedly also claimed that the paycheck was One hundred percent GUARANTEED!, and that consumers would be paid in advance before you are required to mail any of the reports. For defendants business opportunities, consumers paid between $20 and $139, plus shipping and handling. The FTC contended that many of the consumers never received materials to mail, and none made the $5,000 per week earnings that the defendants promised.
The action announced today settles all FTC charges against the following defendants: Vinyard Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Comfort Castle Enterprises, a Florida corporation; Sunshine Advertising & Marketing, Inc., d/b/a Dynamic Data Services, a Florida Corporation; Ray A. Thompson, as an individual and officer of one or more of the above-mentioned companies, also d/b/a Dynamic Data Services, Dectura Direct Service, and D.D. Service; Judith Livingston, as an individual and d/b/a Direct Business Services and Dynamic Data; and Jason Lunan, as an individual and d/b/a Dynamic Data Express and Comfort Castle Associates.
The stipulated final order contains injunctive relief, barring the defendants from marketing any work-at-home business opportunity in the future. It also prohibits them from assisting anyone else in violating Section 5 of the FTC Act and engaging in the illegal conduct alleged in the complaint.
The order further requires the defendants to pay $110,000 to the Commission, with a monetary judgment of $4.1 million that would immediately become due if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.
