Tuesday, July 18, 2017

IPro Network (IPN) and the MLM Game of Telephone: garble up the message to sound better

Recently I came across a comment about IPro Network on BehindMLM.

First, what is iPro Network? Some generic discount network based on some generic altcoin they are billing as some fantastic e-commerce opportunity, you should buy into the currency despite there's no proof that it was widely adopted (since there are tons of altcoins out there). It's so fantastic, there is absolutely NO TRACE of the CEO on the internet (other than on their own website), who wears a clearly wrong size shirt (he can't even button his collar), despite claiming "15 years experience".

Anyway, here's the comment about why is the review so hard on a "legitimate" opportunity.

"Bill Antonio": "Oz I appreciate you trying to protect marketers from scams but why is it that you seem to criticise every business opportunity and preventing people from making money online from legit companies. IPN has been endorsed by Scott Warren a most sought after MLM Lawyer as IPN has met all the compliance guidelines and has also being endorsed by well-known entrepreneur Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank who is highly respected in the business world.They also have sought after motivational speaker Jay Abraham who is in the same league as Anthony Robbins. These people will never be involved in any scams.

Okay, there are a couple things to note:

1) Did Scott Warren, an MLM lawyer, "endorse" IPro Network?

2) Did Kevin Harrington (Shark Tank) endorse IPro Network?

3) Does Jay Abraham work for IPro Network?

Not surprisingly, the answer is "no proof of such" in each and every case.

This is like the game of telephone, where somehow message was distorted into whatever the promoter wanted to say, instead of the REAL content.


So what is the truth? Let MLMSkeptic lead you to some discovery.




So, let's begin...

1) Q: Did Scott Warren endorse IPro Network?

All research indicates that while IPro Network did hire Scott Warren for legal counsel, this is NOT an endorsement by the named attorney.

Please also keep in mind that two of the biggest scams in recent years, TelexFree and ZeekRewards, hired the biggest MLM attorney at the time, Gerald Nehra and his firm, Nehra and Waak.

Nehra was heavily touted by both ZeekRewards and TelexFree members who proclaimed the same: with him onboard, Zeek Rewards and TelexFree cannot be illegal. In fact, Nehra appeared at a TeelxFree event, and stated specifically "[TelexFree and its associates] are on very solid legal ground" at a TelexFree company event in July 2013.

Yet both Zeek Rewards AND TelexFree were shut down by regulators as huge ponzi schemes.  Nehra was sued by the ZeekRewards receiver for 100 million in damages caused. Nehra ended up paying 0.1% (1/10th of a penny on the dollar) i.e. 100000 dollars in damages total, as they are basically bankrupt.  TelexFree case is still pending.

The ONLY thing to take away from this is exactly what it says: IPro Network may have hired Scott Warren as its legal counsel. This does NOT mean in ANY WAY that IPro is somehow now completely legal and beyond reproach. You cannot judge a company's trustworthiness by the attorney it hires.

A: No, Scott Warren was retained by IPro Network. That does NOT imply an endorsement.

2)  Q: Did Kevin Harrington, formerly of Shark Tank, endorse IPro Network?

So far, the only sign linking Kevin Harrington to IPro Network is a 1:19 video on Youtube where he will be the keynote speaker about an online platform for transactions for the "Launch Event" for IPro Network in July 2017.

There is no mention whether he was being paid for his appearance.

While I am sure Mr. Harrington is an upstanding guy, there are mentions back in 2015 that any one can buy an appearance with him to the tune of 25000 dollars and "be on public TV" with the semi-celebrity.

So, in conclusion, that is NOT an endorsement by either Kevin Harrington nor IPro Network to each other. Any one claiming so is fibbing, Just like the statement with Scott Warren, there is no endorsement.  He was paid to appear as a speaker, nothing more.

A: No, Kevin Harrington was scheduled to appear at an IPro sponsored marketing event. There was no endorsement.


3) Q: Does Jay Abraham work for IPro Network? (i.e. IPro Network "have" Jay Abraham?)

There is no mention of IPro on Jay Abraham's website. The only link between the two was Jay Abraham had appeared as a featured speaker at IPro Network's Launch Event along with Kevin Harrington in July 2017.

Jay Abraham is available for booking if you pay enough. In fact, if you have enough money, you can book Tony Robbins himself as a speaker.

It's also worth noting that Vemma, a verified pyramid scheme that was shut down by FTC and ordered to reorganize, had at least two celebrity motivational speakers... Bob Proctor (who had his wife and daughter in high positions in Vemma too, and is a personal friend with Vemma founder BK Boyreko), and Eric Thomas, who charges 10K to 20K per appearance, appeared multiple times at Vemma events.

A: Jay Abraham appeared at ONE IPro Network event as a featured speaker.  There is no evidence of long-term employment.


THREE OUT OF THREE ARE TOTAL EXAGGERATIONS. 

Basically, the IPro Network promoters are committing "Association with Authority Fallacy" aka "name-dropping". And they cannot even do so accurately.

Instead of "IPN hired Scott Warren as legal counsel", it went through "telephone game" and emerged as "Scott Warren endorses IPN (therefore IPN cannot possibly be a scam)".

Instead of "Kevin Harrington will be keynote speaker at IPN Launch Event", it went through "telephone game" and came out as "Kevin Harrington Endorses IPro Network (therefore IPN cannot be a scam)".

Instead of "Jay Abraham will appear as featured speaker at IPN Event", it came out as "IPN hired Jay Abraham (therefore IPN cannot be a scam)"

WTF, folks. WTF. LISTEN to yourselves. You're worse than tabloids reporting Elvis is an alien or something.

And just to be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR...

I NEVER SAID that IPro Network is a scam.

I simply question the logic of people who use "association with celebrity" fallacy as "evidence" that IPro network cannot possibly be a scam. That's not evidence. That's inventing something that's not there.

And based on the history of people desperate enough to invent something that's not there, in order to justify their own actions... This does NOT bode well for IPro Network.

(Friendly suggestion for IPN: rein in your affiliates from making bogus statements like "endorsements" before these celebrities find themselves annoyed enough to sue IPN for causing damage to their reputation... Remember what happened to Nerium and Ray Liotta...)



6 comments:

  1. You don't have the faintest clue about any of this. I was there at the formal company launch event on 07/17/2017. I personally spoke with Abraham, Harrington, and Warren (each separately, obviously). All three of them were very supportive of iPN, and two of them are now members (although I won't tell You here which two, because I'm sure You would twist that somehow).

    I wouldn't use the Word "endorse," but mainly because I don't think it is a strong enough description of what they think of iPN - and I actually KNOW what they think about it, because I spoke to them personally and asked them point-blank what they thought about it. In addition, I actually heard first-hand their over-an-hour-each presentations to the people gathered there.

    Also, just fYi, Scott Warren is the attorney of record for iPN. While I suppose that just being an attorney for a company does not in and of itself mean the company is legitimate (as in Your example above, which I am taking at Your Word), Scott Warren is the leading MLM attorney in the world (for good reason) and is not in the habit of working for scams. He has recently begun sending out Cease-and-Desist letters to people (both inside and outside of iPN) who are conveying inaccurate information about iPN, and he is also sending letters to iPN members who are doing anything unethical, illegal, or otherwise unacceptable to warn them that they will be expelled from the company if they do not stop. He has a new book coming out titled "Schemes & Scams," and it might do You good to read it and actually learn what a real scheme or scam is.

    Finally, iPN is an education company. They are not a securities offering or an MLM company or a cryptocurrency company or anything else. iPN specializes in facilitating commerce thru online activity. They sell software and training that accompanies that software. If a person wants to learn how to open an ecommerce store or how to trade commodities or how to publicize an app on behalf of a retailer or how to empower businesses to accept cryptocurrency, then iPN is the best source of training in the world. They do not sell coins...their business model is not MLM-centric or marketing-centric (although there is a network marketing component available to iPN members if they choose to access it, but it is a very small portion of the overall opportunities made available to iPN members and the vast majority of iPN members never get involved in any of the MLM activities of iPN).

    As an education company that happens to use a marketing system to grow its own internal membership, no one (whether they are an iPN member or not) needs or has to purchase anything from iPN to either purchase or sell PROCurrency (iPN's cryptocurrency - not to be confused with Pro Coin, which has nothing at all to do with iPN and about which I know nothing beyond that) on open exchanges including Cryptopia or CoinMarketCap (two of the leading American exchanges) or to use iPN's free PRO Rewards app (which works, by the Way, EXACTLY as advertised and regarding which i personally know hundreds of people who have received rebates from Walmart, Kohl's, Target, Best Buy, Groupon, and thousands of other major retailers).

    So, I am happy to provide some actual Truth here from first-hand knowledge of the events of which You are ignorant and to set the record straight on various issues that You were clueless about.

    If You have questions about iPN in the future, just start by asking me, or otherwise You might consider keeping Your cluelessness to Yourself (if You care about Your reputation at all or being exposed as another anti-MLM fool)....

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Asking the promoter is NOT a good way to get unbiased proof of ANYTHING. It's just a good way to get PR copy, and I can get that from the company itself, rather than some distorted version from its minions (such as you).

      I don't doubt IPN provides some rewards. Indeed, did I mention rewards ANYWHERE in the post? Nope. YOU brought up something IRRELEVANT.

      As for which two endorses / joined IPN, you failed to provide any publicly viewable proof of such. I'll gladly post a retraction once such proof is provided and can be independently verified, maybe a press release by IPN? But no, I don't know who you are, I'm surely NOT going to take your word for it that so and so joined up, when the company didn't bother to make such information public.

      Delete
  2. LOL..."Your comment will be visible after approval"...Yea, right

    You're never going to actually post my spot-on rebuttal to what You said, because it would make You look silly.

    What kind of a scam are You running here?

    Maybe I'll start a website aimed at taking You and the "BehindMLM" guy down....

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL yourself. Not the first time some drive-by commenter claim to have "spot-on rebuttal". All you got are claims not backed up by any publicly viewable proof. It's always some secret calls and whatnot.

      Delete
  3. Here's the thing. Putting asside your comments on Abrams and the attorney for a second or better yet even stipulating you are correct. If you watch the Harrington Video he is doing more than pitching. He is clearly endorsing and further he is "aligning with the company" So.. I think Procoin Network has 1 out of 3 for sure and time will tell on the other 2. Not sure you can infer anything else from the video other than express endorsement. Watch it and dispute what I am saying.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yet there is NO OTHER SIGN of him endorsing or aligning or anything else with IPro other than that one video, is there?

      Delete