Vision Solution Marketing LLC

Buying the list of people who already fell for something

This operation did not find its own customers. It bought the contact information of people who had already paid under $100 for work-at-home programs online.

Those cheap programs typically encourage the buyer to call an “expert consultant” or “specialist” to see whether they qualify for an “advanced” coaching programme. Calls went to these defendants’ telemarketers.

The FTC’s releases name the sources directly: the defendants used contact information obtained from Internet Teaching and Training Specialists, LLC and Bob Robinson, LLC, both of which were themselves the subject of FTC enforcement actions settled in 2017 and 2018. The same buyers were sold to twice.

What the coaching cost and contained

Up to $13,995, usually charged to a credit card, for a programme the complaint says provided information largely available for free on the internet, plus thousands more for other business development services. Buyers often received little more than basic instruction on listing products on sites like eBay.

One recorded sales call, submitted to the court as an audio file, has a salesman pitching a $10,000 programme and claiming it was “almost impossible” to make less than $3,000 to $5,000 a month, adding: “we don’t have any students we’ve built the business for that have ever failed. There’s just, there’s literally no way to fail.”

The corporate credit claim

After the coaching sale, the defendants often pitched a further business development programme, claiming special access to lenders who could provide corporate credit the buyer would not be personally liable for. Instead, buyers were passed to more sales calls from companies that simply helped them apply for personal credit cards, which carry exactly the personal liability they had been told to expect to avoid.

The outcome

The scheme began in 2014, ran from offices near Salt Lake City, and took $8.4 million from consumers. Most buyers did not end up with a viable business, earned little or nothing, and ended up heavily in debt.

Settlements approved in October 2018 permanently ban the owners from selling business coaching or development services. One imposes $8.4 million against Jared Rodabaugh and his companies, the other $6.75 million against Justin Larsen and his, both partially suspended on surrender of assets including the remaining funds in the corporate bank accounts.

In July 2019 the FTC mailed 1,177 checks totaling more than $380,000.

What is not established

Court-approved settlements resolve allegations without any admission or finding of wrongdoing.