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Reasons To Hesitate On Zer01's Unlimited Mobile Offer
alphadogg writes with an excerpt from Network World that might save you some money: "Imagine downloading a two-hour HD movie in three minutes to your new cell phone, then plugging the phone into your TV to watch the film. Make unlimited phone calls, surf online as much as you like and send unlimited text messaging for $70 a month, without a contract. Sign up to sell the same service to other people and get $10 a month for each person you sell to.
That's what a group of related companies including Zer01 Mobile, Buzzirk, Global Verge and Unified Technologies Group are promoting heavily online and at industry trade shows. The offer is attractive enough to garner coverage in top business and technology publications, at least one positive review from an analyst and even a 'best in show' award from a magazine at the CTIA wireless industry trade show earlier this year. Does it all sound too good to be true? If so, that's because it probably is. What little information is available about the services is technically inconsistent, and doesn't match up with public records."
They had me at pyramid scheme.
Surely email has taught us that we can absolutely trust anything offered for sale by someone u51Ng 1337 sp34k! Shame on you.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
They want to speak with someone over at Zer01, something about "exceeding sane limitations of the electromagnetic spectrum".
An HD movie in 3 minutes? Even if they are calling "480p" HD, there is no way in hell that is transfering wirelessly in 3 minutes to a cellular device.
Trying to sign everyone up as a sales associate just proves it is a scam.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
From TFA
One key player in the network of companies is Mark Petschel. He's the CEO of Global Verge, the multilevel marketing firm...
Whenever MLM (multi-level-marketing) rears its ugly head, that's a good sign for me to avoid company like the plague.
That makes it multi-level-marketing (read: "legal pyramid scheme"), which should be an instant clue to anyone to avoid it.
Also, reading the article, it's a $70 initial fee to do the MLM part, and $40 monthly fee, which means if you sign up 5 people, it will take 7 months to break even.
You can probably make money faster by picking up loose change.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
It sounds like all this guy does is set up ponzi schemes and then the state shuts him down, the circuit court rules that he must pay fines, but all he does is move on to the next ponzi.
So, where do I sign up and give him my $70?
Does this remind anyone else of the phantom. An electronic device that sounds too good to be true gathering investment money, the people who were supposed to be developing the thing have "offices" which are not really there.
Of course in this case, one of the guys involved already has a record. At least with the phantom no one was outed as a known fraudster beforehand.
I'm guessing that in 10 years, Zer01 will come out with a handy device to hold your phone up to your ear for you.
How, on the one hand, society makes it ever harder to escape your past(even shit entry level jobs can come with background and credit checks, never mind trying to get cleared, or the whole sex offender registry thing) while, somehow, certain people just seem to float right through, skipping from one scam to another, seemingly impervious.
I wonder how it works. Is it the charm that sociopaths are known for that allows certain people to do it? Are the rules different in certain areas? Are most of the barriers actually illusory/psychological? Why doesn't an attempt to legally incorporate a new business include a "do any of your officers have a background in crime, particularly white collar crime?" check?
Just throw the CEO in jail already...
Enzyte, despite the conviction of the founder and his mom for fraud, is still in business. They are still heavily advertising on TV, and apparently they are expanding and hiring. So there doing quite well for a company whose business model was proven unlawful in court.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Is this one of those multi-level marketing (a.k.a. pyramid) schemes? I cannot WAIT for my neighbor with the jacked up Humvee to scrape the "MONA VIE" crap off his back windshield and replace it with a bunch of l33t h4x0r jargon. :-)
You can have a two hour movie at 1080p resolution in 1Mb of data if you're not too fussy about image quality.
Resolution is one thing, bitrate is something else.
No sig today...
Interesting that he can get salespeople to pay him to work for him. All that crap they taught me in school about wages and salary obviously was backwards.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
You don't want me to sign up so that when it turns out to be AWESOME later on, you can get 10$/mo for referring me.
I'm on to your scheme, I WILL BUY A DOZEN!
He's not selling to technical people who can do the math.
He's selling to people who will hear the pitch and think, "Holy shit, people will line up around the block to get HD movies on their cell and plug it into their TV! I've GOT to invest in this right now, and get in on the ground floor."
Look at what he's got already: postive reviews, awards, and a front page on /. I guarantee you that the next rounds of adverts in an investment magazine will have these awards highlighted.
"Holy shit, not only is this a great-sounding idea, but it's won a CTIA award. It's... fucking legitimate! Cut this guy a cheque, and do it before some other asshole does!"
The system requires travelling to other dimensions with different physics in order to work, but other than that, it's a great idea.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Rarely do fake pyramid scam companies collect real income in a recession with the increasing number of sufficient savvy consumers increasing. Therefore they must get their employees to pay the company instead of paying their employees. Its a law of reverse proportions scams (I made that law up).
Step 1 Create fake miracle product.
Step 2 Hire employees as product advocates swearing by the awesome majesty of imaginary hardware/service.
Step 3 Convince employees to pay employer instead of being paid themselves.
Step 4 PROFIT!!!!!!!!!! and Create a new identity to hide from the multi-state angry mob of rightfully vengeful customers.
Oh great. You had to do it didn't you? You've just provided them a citable reference that they can use to claim "Out of this world service".
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
Fundraising organizations that help schools, churches, etc raise money for projects are equally as bad as MLM. They are essentially getting FREE labor, and not paying into Social Security, Medicare, providing benefits or anything. Many times the schools have to pay up front for a certain amount of product, and if they don't sell it they are stuck with it. There is almost no risk for the fundraising organization while the school or Church or whatever shoulders most of the risk or shares the risk with the parents of the underage labor pool. Meanwhile, the corporate campuses of some of these outfits are just insanely lavish and huge. Their only real cost of business is sending people out to beat the drums at the schools and churches.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Let me help you out. You see, his attorney actually went to law school with the judge. His son is dating the DA's daughter, and a generous contribution to his campaign for re-election has recently been made by an anonymous donor.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.