Effen Ads, LLC
Also known as: iCloudWorx, Secure Home Profits, Paydays At Home, Home Cashflow Club, Home Cash Code.
The FTC alleged that Effen Ads used spam with forged news-organization sender lines and fake Warren Buffett and Suze Orman endorsements to sell a $97 work-from-home program, generating more than 50,000 sales, then sold buyers contact details to telemarketers.
Resolved. Refunded, settled, ceased operating, or the claim did not hold up. Kept for the record.
Identity
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- Registrations
- FTC v. Effen Ads, LLC, et al. (FTC case 172-3202, D. Utah, orders entered December 2019)
- Locations
- Nevada
- Jurisdictions
- United States (federal)
Spam that claimed to be CNN
Effen Ads, a Nevada company owned by Jason Brailow and Brandon Harshbarger, worked with an affiliate marketing network called W4 LLC to push a work-from-home program by bulk unsolicited email. The emails carried “from” lines falsely claiming to come from news organizations such as CNN or Fox News, and “subject” lines falsely suggesting the opportunity was endorsed by Warren Buffett and Suze Orman.
Clicking through led to sites displaying fake news stories and false celebrity endorsements, and from there to Effen Ads’ own sales pages. The program typically cost $97 and ran under at least thirteen brand names, among them Secure Home Profits, Paydays At Home, Home Cashflow Club, Home Cash Code, Home Payday Center, Snap Web Profits, Complete Profit Code, Global Cashflow Center, Global Payday System, Your Income Gateway, Home Payday Club, Web Payday Center and Home Payday Vault.
The spam generated more than 50,000 sales.
The second business, which was the buyers themselves
Effen Ads also made money selling its customers’ contact information to third-party telemarketers, who then sold those same people business coaching services costing thousands of dollars. One of those telemarketers settled with the FTC separately in 2018.
The FTC further alleged the company used shell companies and straw owners to obtain merchant accounts for processing card payments, a practice known as credit card laundering, which lets a merchant evade the card networks’ monitoring programs.
Beyond the FTC Act, the defendants were charged under the CAN-SPAM Act for misleading header information and subject lines.
The settlements
W4’s chief executive Jason Walker pays $1.3 million and is permanently banned from marketing or selling any work-from-home program, and from supplying affiliates with ads containing false claims about celebrity endorsements, objective reviews or news-source affiliation.
Effen Ads, Brailow and Harshbarger face an $11.3 million judgment, suspended on payment of $25,000 by Harshbarger and $121,948 by Brailow for inability to pay. They are permanently banned from selling business opportunities or business coaching, and from CAN-SPAM violations and credit card laundering.
In June 2020 the FTC sent full refunds of $97 each to 2,931 people, totaling more than $284,000.
What is not established
Stipulated final orders resolve allegations without any admission or finding of wrongdoing.
Sources
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- Enforcement action December 30, 2019
- Enforcement action June 30, 2020
- Enforcement action June 30, 2020
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First recorded December 30, 2019 · Last updated June 30, 2020