The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged three people and nine businesses with bilking over $125 million from thousands of consumers. The internet marketing scheme, called MOBE (My Online Business Education) aka My Own Business Empire, claimed that the business education program would enable people to start their own online businesses and earn substantial income. The defendants claimed to have a proven 21-step system for making substantial sums of money quickly and easily from internet marketing, which they promised to provide to those who join their program.
According to the FTC complaint, “most people who buy into the program and pay for the expensive memberships are unable to recoup their costs, and many experience crippling losses or mounting debts, including some who have lost more than $20,000, the FTC alleges.”
The FTC complaint is against the following individuals and companies:
- MOBE Ltd., also doing business as MOBE, also doing business as My Online Business Education, also doing business as My Own Business Empire, a Malaysian limited liability company
- MOBEProcessing.com, Inc., a Delaware corporation
- Transaction Management USA, Inc., a Delaware corporation
- MOBETraining.com, Inc., a Delaware corporation
9336-0311 Quebec Inc., also doing business as Business Education Training, a Canada corporation - MOBE Pro Limited, an United Kingdom limited liability company
- MOBE Inc., a Panama corporation
- MOBE Online Ltd., a Mauritius limited liability company
- Matt Lloyd Publishing.com Pty Ltd., also doing business as Matt Lloyd Publishing, also doing business as Home Business Builders, an Australia limited liability company
- Matthew Lloyd McPhee, also known as Matt Lloyd, individually and as an officer, member and/or manager of MOBE Ltd., MOBEProcessing.com, Inc., MOBETraining.com, Inc., 9336-0311 Quebec Inc., MOBE Pro Limited, MOBE Inc., MOBE Online Ltd., Matt Lloyd Publishing.com Pty Ltd.
- Transaction Management USA, Inc., Susan Zanghi, individually and as an officer, member and/or manager of MOBE Ltd. and MOBE Processing.com, Inc.
- Russell W. Whitney, Jr., individually and as an officer, member and/or manager of MOBE Ltd.
I can’t say that I personally was aware of MOBE until some contacts of mine started posting about it, and how one particular conference was being shut down. Then, several others began posting it about it, and I started to look into it. There does appear to have been actual materials and a course that people would purchase, I am concerned that there apparently are people who have lost more than $20,000.
For several days, there were complaints that the MOBE website was down, even messages from the owners of MOBE that it was a technical issue. Now, the MOBE.com website shows a message about the lawsuit, from Mark J. Bernet, Receiver.
As a reminder, there are a lot of great resources out there to learn SEO and internet marketing. You don’t have to pay for a course to learn internet marketing. I’ve covered some of those internet marketing resources in the past, and plan on writing a post soon about the trusted online marketing and internet marketing resources–highlighting the free ones.