Fortune Hi-Tech / FHTM Facts, News and Reviews

louabbott February 1, 2010 at 9:17 pm Like or Dislike: 5  2

From Karen Blaisdell, WV, an FHTM rep:

I really enjoy getting your email updates. I’m new to MLM and find it helpful. You posted information a few weeks ago about Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing having issues with attorney general in the state of North Dakota. Just wanted you to know those issues have been resolved. Hopefully you share information like that too.

The website is: http://www.fhtm.net/news.aspx with the statement from FHTM.

Thanks so much!

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Joseph Isaacs April 11, 2010 at 6:44 am Hot debate. What do you think? 4  4

I am sure many of you have noticed a huge change in the attitude that is here on Fortune Social in the past few weeks. It appears as if all of the NSM’s and Paul Orberson are trying diligently to hide the real truth from everyone about the real structure of the business as well as how and who really makes money.

When Fortune Social was originally conceived it was to be an umbrella for everything positive about FHTM. God only knows there was enough negativity in Google and the other search engines. Our primary objective was to help everyone build a profitable FHTM business. There is so much negativity in the search engines from the latest state actions that it will take years and a team of 1000’s to combat this. We refuse to expend the resources, as we are 100% unappreciated by FHTM owners.

The attitude of the administrators of Fortune Social changed when the Montana Securities Commission issued a cease a desist order not only against FHTM, Paul Orberson and Thomas Mills – but also all of the reps and managers in Montana and specifically Mike Misenheimer. When this happened, FHTM feverishly tried to sweep it under the carpet and merely asked all Montana reps to temporarily stop doing business there. We could not! I personally don’t intend to make Paul any wealthier at the expense of my family. I am also sick in tired of hearing that we are pissed because we FAILED. That is so far from the truth as you can get.

What happened to the dreams and financial freedom of all of those 1,600 somewhat reps that counted on Misenheimer and Orberson to eliminate their jobs and become debt free? Seems to me like all of those dreams have been crushed and all of those reps are forbidden from engaging in any FHTM business. Do they still get their residuals or have they been hung out to dry?

Our staff immediately began an in depth investigation into FHTM and discovered so many irregularities from what they tell you to what is reality. I know this is going to piss off so many of the cult like believers in FHTM and Orberson but if you are going to hang your family’s future and financial freedom on this entity – shouldn’t you all know the REAL truth?

First – they DO not have a single direct relationship with any of the products they represent (except the companies Paul owns or controls) *see attached analysis ~

Secondly – NONE of the CEO’s of any of the companies that FHTM represents ever went to Lexington to visit Paul or cut a deal. S0 many times prospects hear the phrase, “If GE, Verizon and DuPont can align with us – we must not be an illegal pyramid scheme – we must be real”. THIS IS SO BOGUS! Those companies are not DIRECTLY aligned with Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing and most have never heard of FHTM

Thirdly – Paul did not come out of retirement to help anyone other than himself. The pay plan is top heavy and if you read below you might understand why so many Stat Attorney Generals are going after FHTM with both barrels loaded for bear. Our research indicates that Montana was a cease and desist for not only FHTM but its officers and managers. What happens when they decide to issue a financial penalty against all of the ESM’s or NSM’s who purported this Fraud against Montanans’? Who pays this? I guarantee it won’t be Orberson!

Additionally other states have FHTM in their radar and are investigating them for the same things. Unfortunately, like addicts, most of the NSM’s are in total denial. They have to be or their business would disintegrate tomorrow. Have they created a huge nest egg from all of the revenues, or spent it on their new found lavish lifestyle?

There is a fine line between illegal scam and a real network marketing company. All of the administrators of Fortune Social are very pro legal network marketing – but we cannot seem to find any real data that supports the fact that Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing is NOT a scam and illegal!

Open your eyes folks. So many of you around the US and Canada got into the FHTM business to build a future for your families and get away from the JOB. The administrators of Fortune Social understand that more than most as they have been entrepreneurs and self sufficient for over 30 years. We hate to see so many hang their hats on a system that benefits 100 or so people and 99% of the rest invest, suffer, quit or get shut down.

Fortune Social will be adding some new tools over the summer and will try and keep all of its users fully informed as to the latest legal woes of the company so many refuse to quit. Just remember – when you get named in a state cease and desist or lawsuit – YOU ARE OUT OF BUSINESS IMMEDIATELY AND ALL REVENUES STOP! Additionally it may cost you more to defend the fines than you ever made.

It is also inconceivable that Fortune Hi-Tech management would even begin to blame fortune social and its creators for the issues they have in Montana and other jurisdictions around the country. We stopped drinking the kool-aid when we realized that fortune is nothing more than a recruiting machine. You make killer money as an RSM if you recruit-recruit-recruit. The residuals are a JOKE!

FORTUNE SOCIAL HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH FHTM BEING SHUT DOWN IN MONTANA OR THE DISTRIBUTION OF A BOGUS SUIT BY THE CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL. FHTM is looking for a scapegoat to blame their pyramid scheme issues on and it will not be us.

FORTUNE SOCIAL IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH FORTUNE HI-TECH MARKETING AND IS OPEN TO ANY NETWORK MARKETER.

If you are still not convinced that this is not a legitimate business, the North Dakota attorney general issued a cease and desist order against FHTM in December (it has since been lifted).

How to Identify a Product-Based Pyramid Scheme (“Recruiting MLM”)

© 2003, Jon M. Taylor, PhD

Multilevel companies that are based on profits from recruiting rather than retailing should be regarded as pyramid schemes or “recruiting MLMs.” This article describes five ways to distinguish them from “retail MLMs” in which the company pays generously for retailing products without recruiting a large downline. “Recruiting MLMs” typically display five features:

1. Recruiting of participants is unlimited in an endless chain of recruiters recruiting recruiters.

Ask whether unlimited recruiting is allowed. When a given market is saturated, and the program must move on to another location or introduce new products or divisions to continue, the opportunity for each new person to make money becomes less and less as the programs expands.

2. Advancement in a hierarchy of multiple levels of “distributors” is achieved by recruitment, rather than by appointment.

Ask whether participating “distributors” advance their position (and potential income) in a hierarchy of multiple levels of “distributors” by recruiting other “distributors” who in turn advance by recruiting distributors under them, etc.? If so, the result is self-appointment through recruitment to ascending payout levels in the distributor hierarchy. If the only way a person can profit significantly in the scheme is through recruiting to advance to higher payout levels (or to buy another’s downline), this strongly indicates a pyramid scheme.

3.”Pay to play” requirements are satisfied by ongoing “incentivized purchases.”

These are purchases of goods and services that are required to participate in commissions or to ascend in the distributor hierarchy. If they are required to participate in the “business opportunity,” then whether they are used, sold, given away, or stored is irrelevant. They should be considered a cost of doing business.

Ask whether prospective “distributors” are encouraged to make sizable investments (“front loading”) in “incentivized purchases” in order to take advantage of the “business opportunity” and later to continue qualifying for advancement or higher payout in overrides (commissions and bonuses). This practice, can result in large losses if the products cannot be resold. Also be wary of plans that require minimum periodic purchases (“pay to play”) to qualify for commissions or advancement. Do not sign up for continuing product purchases on auto-ship through an automatic bank draft or credit card, rather than making occasional purchases as needed. Such purchase requirements may be disguised investments in a product-based pyramid scheme or a clever attempt to disguise pyramid investments as product purchases.

4. The company offers commissions and/or bonuses to more than five levels of “distributors.”

Ask whether the company pay overrides to distributors in a hierarchy of more levels than are functionally justifiable. Even in major corporations, the entire world marketplace can be covered in five levels of sales management ­- branch, district, regional, national, and international sales managers. Paying commissions and bonuses on more than five levels in an MLM program primarily enriches those at the top at the expense of those at the bottom. You would be wise to avoid any program that pays overrides on more than five levels. Breakaway compensation systems are particularly exploitive, as payments are on a hierarchy of “breakaway” organizations of whole groups of participants, not just individuals — creating an extraordinarily high loss rate, except for those at the top of a “mega-pyramid of pyramids.”

5. Company payout per sale for each upline participant equals or exceeds that for the person selling the product, creating inadequate incentive to retail and excessive incentive to recruit — and an extreme concentration of income at the top.

Ask whether a “distributor” purchasing products “for resale” would receive about the same total payout (in commissions, bonuses, etc.) from the MLM company as participants several levels above who had nothing to do with the sale. If so, the company’s payments to the person retailing the product would be pitifully small, while those at the top of the upline can compound the small commission per sale by the sales of hundreds or even thousands of downline distributors. This is great for the upline leaders but lousy for those attempting retail sales. Avoid any MLM company that pays less than half of all distributor payout to the person actually selling the products to outside customers.

Never accept income projections of retail sales at full retail prices, especially for products that are overpriced and not competitive in the marketplace. Also be wary if you are asked to choose between two options or “tracks” — one for those who want to “retail” the products and another track for those who are serious about “building the business.” This sales pitch usually indicates that the incentives are heavily weighted towards recruiting

Where valid data are available, recent research has demonstrated that when all five of these red flags are found in an MLM, the percentage of participants who lose money is 99.9% — even worse than the loss rates for typical no-product pyramid schemes and for games of chance in Las Vegas.

BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF YOU HERE ON FORTUNE SOCIAL. WE HOPE ALL OF YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE, ALTHOUGH IT PROBABLY WONT BE IN FORTUNE HI-TECH.

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Joseph Isaacs May 21, 2010 at 7:17 am Like or Dislike: 3  2

WHAS11 news in Lexington just did a 2 part investigative report of FHTM.
Info here:

http://www.mlm-thewholetruth.com/network-marketing-news/fortune-hi-tech-marketing-fhtm-under-attack-again/

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