Tea Party Pyramid

[wserra]

Any of you true-blue - er, true-red - teapartiers need money? How about "Get Paid To Stop Liberal Tyranny!"? Sound good? Well, have we got a pyramid sch - er, MLM - for you. "Make up to $50,000 or more a year helping raise funds to defend our freedom!" ("Up to"? "Or more?") Well, "Join the fight today, become a member of the (TeaPartyBizOpp), and get paid to fight for our freedom, and help stop liberal tyranny!" After all, "If your (sic) like most Americans your (sic)probably very angry at what’s going on in washington (sic) right now! Most American’s (sic) are waking up to the fact that their freedom is in jeapordy (sic), there (sic) starting to realize that far left radicals are now in control of almost every key decision making position in America, and there (sic) 100% committed to making the great United states (sic) of America a socialist country."

You need to hotkey "sic" when quoting this site.

Anyway, for only $50 per year you can get paid to recruit more people to . . . um . . . well . . . I guess that would be to recruit more people.

I think we know what that's called.

[Doc Bunkum]

I'm wondering if Sarah Palin had anything to do with writing the ad copy for that site.

I'm also glad they cleared up the question Is this a pyramid scheme?

But I'm still not clear what the product is though that makes it different from a chain letter scam that they keep insisting it isn't.

[wserra]

But I'm still not clear what the product is though that makes it different from a chain letter scam that they keep insisting it isn't.

They say it right on their home page: the company "pays each Independent Rep for their efforts to sign up other" independent reps.

It doesn't get much clearer.

[Doc Bunkum]

They say it right on their home page: the company "pays each Independent Rep for their efforts to sign up other" independent reps.

It doesn't get much clearer.

Oh, okay, I think I've got is now.

Just to be clear...

Lets set the record straight this is not a scam, this is not a pyramid scheme, this is not a get rich scheme, this is a legitimate home based business opportunity built around the legal network marketing model.

So it's not some goofy pyramid scheme - it's a legal network marketing opportunity.

The difference between the two being...

The difference between a pyramid scheme and a legal network marketing model is that a pyramid scheme offers no product or service when they ask you to join their opportunity, they just ask for your money remember the chain letter scams?

And the TeaPartyBizOpp "pays each Independent Rep for their efforts to sign up other" independent reps".

I'm glad we got that straight.

[Emet]

Wow! The "product" is a newsletter:

TeaPartyBizOpp.Info is a for profit fundraising company - Our mission is to help raise funds to finance conservative causes, that defend our freedom, and help fight Liberal Tyranny. There are two ways we do this one is selling subscriptions to our monthly newsletter (Stopping Tyranny), and the other is our home based business opportunity - where you get paid to refer others to become subscribers to (Stopping Tyranny), your subscription comes with a home based business opportunity. You get paid on your efforts and the efforts of everyone in your organization. (The business opportunity is entirely optional), and you can make money just by selling subscriptions to our newsletter, you don't have to recruit others into the opportunity if you don't want to - it's all up to you).

http://boingboing.net/2010/09/08/tea-pa ... -leve.html

[Nikki]

Any clues as to who's behind it?

[Emet]

Georgia Man Wants Tea Partiers To Join His 'Patriotic' Pyramid Scheme


http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.c ... scheme.php

[Pottapaug1938]

Welcome to 21st century America, folks. Anytime something new appears on the American scene, someone quickly develops a scam to take advantage of the moment.

[Doc Bunkum]

P.S. 30 days from now you can either be a month older, or you could be receiving your first pay check for your efforts of enrolling other subscribers -

So am I to understand that if I sign up, 30 days from now I won't have aged at all?

[Gregg]

If only "the 80 million plus Tea Party supporters joined in harmony and agreed to pay a small annual fee each year to help counter the Liberal Agenda they could easily raise $1 billion Dollars a year."

Umm, $12,500 each, and that's if you don't put any of it to your "marketing opportunity".

But then again, teabaggers don't strike me as a group of people who combine grade school arithmetic with critical thinking....

[ProfHenryHiggins]

Any clues as to who's behind it?

Hmm.

WHOIS data claims a "michael clark," but the tax records on the house
given as the address say that it belongs to a "PATTERSON CLARK A ETAL"

Looking up Clark Patterson of Crandall, Georgia, I find that he donated $30.00 to the Bush-Cheney '04 election campaign, and his listed occupation was (at the time) production manager for Fibro Chemical Inc.

I see that there is a "Michael C. Patterson" in Georgia, but cannot confirm whether this is the same man.

Hmm. Now this may indeed be the same person as the Teabagger nut:
http://omegaonenutrition.com/FUNDRAISIN ... RCHES.html
And it's a match.

Registrant:
mike patterson
674 Baxter RD.
Crandall, Goa 30711
United States

Domain Name: OMEGAONENUTRITION.COM
Created on: 15-Jun-09
Expires on: 15-Jun-11
Last Updated on: 03-Jun-10

Administrative Contact:
patterson, mike mikepattersonus@yahoo.com
674 Baxter RD.
Crandall, Goa 30711
United States
7062807985 Fax --

Technical Contact:
patterson, mike mikepattersonus@yahoo.com
674 Baxter RD.
Crandall, Goa 30711
United States
7062807985 Fax --

Domain servers in listed order:
NS37.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS38.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

[Doc Bunkum]

I see there are 3 membership levels you can join up under -

- Platinum ($12.00 Dollar a year)

- Silver Platinum ($24.00 Dollar a year)

- Gold Platinum ($50.00 Dollar a year)

Seriously.

Isn't that sort of like winning a gold medal at the Olympics and having it bronzed?

Whoever heard of gold or silver platinum.

[fortinbras]

I gather this scam is intentionally so cockeyed so that if a dissatisfied customer goes to the authorities and says that he paid money for "silver platinum", the authorities will think he's demented.

[JamesVincent]

I love the wiki. Pyramid scheme is " A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than from any real investment or sale of products or services to the public. Pyramid schemes are a form of fraud.[1][2] ". So if they are stating that they are paying solely for enrollement that seems like a big 10-4 on the scam scheme scene to me.