In November of 2022 I first told you that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)  sued DK Automation, LLC and its principals, Kevin David Hulse and David Arnett alleging they promised huge returns to trick people into buying business opportunities and training programs through which they said they would teach you how to operate fantastically profitable stores on Amazon.  According to the FTC, those claims were deceptive or outright lies and most people who bought the programs never made any profit and often lost money.  According to the FTC DK Automation also sold bogus cryptocurrency investment training programs for as much as $85,000 that also were worthless.

Now the FTC has settled its lawsuit with the defendants turning over 2.8 million dollars to the FTC which it is refunding to victims of the scam.  For more information about the refund program go to the opening page of Scamicide.com to the section titled “FTC Scam Refunds.”

TIPS

The sale of business opportunities is regulated by the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule which requires the sellers of business opportunities to provide a one-page disclosure document outlining important facts about the offering including informing you about any legal actions in which the sellers have been involved. The disclosure also has to provide you with details as to any refund policy and provide a list of references. Additionally, as is always the case with these types of scams, if they make claims about how much money you can earn through their scheme, they must provide you with an Earnings Claim Statement that indicates in detail the specifics of those claims and the opportunity to see written proof of the claims.

Before considering any kind of business opportunity, you should have a lawyer review these required disclosures and if the person offering you the business opportunity does not provide these documents, you should consider that a red flag that this is a scam. You also should investigate the people behind the offering as well as the particular type of business opportunity.

You also can do a Google or other search engine search of any company from which you are considering making a purchase in which you type in the company’s name along with the words “scam” or “complaints” and see what you come up with.

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email address on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”

#businessopportunityscam #ftcrefunds