Hi all,

Well, it seems that all predictions seem to be off with Thrive. Yea, they’re still within their first five years that it takes to really make a business operate (but still will probably end up failing). Utah’s Department of Consumer Protection don’t seem to care about the way, we the people, were hung out to dry by Thrive and their lying sales floors. Glen Minson, so called investigator for DCP knows who they are and what they do, but apparently having to contact and deal with Thrive’s PR person over and over again for so long, seems to have struck up quite a friendly relationship. Anyone who’s had to deal with this Glen character knows what’s being said here. Thanks Glen, for bending over, stringing along and throwing these innocent people under the bus while you were supposed be getting paid to protect them. The most recent news is that they've gotten out from under that Utah Business Opportunities Act by simply changing their contract and cutting a deal with the state (called "settling out of court"…Oh yea, that's right, the Utah Attorney General already took his donations, didn't he?)

Which means, outside of some embarrassment, Thrive gets to skate…and get back to the business of scamming people as usual. Of course, they can pay the best designers they can find to hawk their wares and a marketing division which does nothing but game the search engines…and top it all off with a complete lack of customer service(weak videos and worse coaching). They don't understand how real commerce works, only how to scam - so their promotion, marketing and delivery sucks because their customer service sucks (what a vicious circle).

What really sucks is that they seem to get away with it. Of course, this really means that when you get right down to it, it's only you and me and other people we know that can shut these crooks down - either they get out of the business (unlikely) or they have the sales floor and learning under the same roof where they have to take more responsibility for what they deliver. Customer service is number one in keeping a business alive…and they don’t have any of it.

In case you didn’t notice most all the people who had personal blogs have mostly disappeared from the scene. After some research it turns out they were made to sign a little note which probably doesn't have any real legal weight behind it - but no one has the money to take it to a real lawyer to check it out. Look what I just found…http://antifraudintl.org/showthread.php?p=77435#post77435

What are people doing to get back at Thrive(who don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to this) ? Simple, They just dig up the poop Thrive left lying around in public areas(forums and blogs) and then copy and post it to their blog. A lot of this information is actually in the forums. More can be found by simply looking up Google's cached copies (or checking with other people in the various forums to see if they downloaded those pages.)

Dave Rasumussen has tried to go nearly invisible by hiding his wife's blog. Eric Largin has similarly locked down his LinkedIn pages so that no one can actually network with him (so why does he have a LinkedIn page then?) Colton Moody still has his picture up on facebook with his wife. Zach Bradshaw has been either too busy or too embarrassed to put his real face or info up anywhere - and he'll never want to do this, unless he moves out of Utah or even the country (way to go, Zach - you just blew any chance to enjoy the Internet like the rest of us...)

But a lot of stuff has been exposed on these guys and there is still a lot more out there.

The reason these blogs disappeared is that they tied the personal lives of those scammers. Their actual family, friends, community (as well as the local Chamber of Commerce) don't know what they do. Just like sneaky politicians, they can't stand the spotlight. So, they easily buy off those complaining customers by refunding them - and think nothing about infringing on their First Amendment Rights and getting them to sign them away. Again, it was hard not to notice all the blogs and comments removed from forums and the rest of the internet in the last five months.

Now with this being an election year, we can actually have some fun with the candidates by asking them the real questions about what their stand on the Utah scams are. Then post any response to the forums, where others can see, comment, and do their own emails and calls to these offices. Then ask their own questions like, “how they are going to act (or not) on the illegal activities that Utah is becoming known for. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is running against Bob Bennett in the primary. Be sure to give Bennett all the info you have about Shurtleff's campaign contributions...

These forums have been the most effective work in forcing Thrive to reform. These posts don't go away (except where they made taking down forum posts as part of their paper agreement/payoff deal) as long as they are factual. As long as they are true they won't be taken down by the moderators or administrators.

These forums are an open invitation to recover and post the data from those now-missing blogs. And so, people would then be able to simply have all the real, publicly-available information to quote and post on their own blogs.

The simplicity of setting up a blog is nearly as easy as creating a forum post. So it's a no-brainer that if we could simply get in touch with all these people who have given up on their refund and then had them scrape, copy, and post the information found (making sure to link back to where they got it, of course) - these people could get their refunds a lot faster.

Of course, nobody is saying we should organize or anything like that – (we don't want to stoop to racketeering like Colton Moody, Eric Largin, and Matt and Dave Rasmussen). This post is only bringing up ideas that should be made known to anyone who is posting in these forums.

If you want your money back fast, you start a blog and spill the beans. That's just a fact.

Now, what we on this forum and those few who still have blogs out there are really doing is trying to educate the public on how to use the Internet.
(Same thing the scammers are doing, but they cost a lot more for that education...)

So the suggestion here to anyone interested in stopping Thrive and getting their refund, is:
• Copy this post and repost on the forums from time to time(especially if it was removed)
• Contact everyone they can on the forums to see if they are interested in setting up blogs.
• Find people who have the publicly-accessible information on these individuals (which had been posted on blogs and forums before and now have disappeared)
• Get that info recovered and posted to the forums (all of them, if possible) so that this data will always be publicly-known and readily available.

That would mean that everyone has to get several other people blogging before they put up their own blog. Thrive didn't just get those informative blogs removed, they also made that data disappear on the forums. Their strategy was to pick off the hardest working and most dedicated, pay them, and force them to take down all their hard work…all vital public information.

Saundrak is still around and so is Kona - both of whom are willing to work with anyone on getting started with their refund cycles. (And if you want to help these two, visit their blogs and post comments there - it starts ranking them above Thriveli.com.

Thrive Learning Institute is set to go under if they have to start paying off too many refunds (they only make 10% out of every sale), and would have to pay back the rest (which they can’t get back from the sales floors). They've probably already spent the money they did get ...serves you right.
Their other option is to declare bankruptcy and start over. However, the same truthful yet negative information will still be in those forums when they surface again.

I'm asking everyone on this forum:

What do you think of that plan? Do you think it’s possible? Do you think the people in this forum (and others) will get behind this and get everyone blogging to get their refunds?
Personally, hopes are high…but, I don't think that it will actually get rid of scammers totally. PMI Inc and some others like Pacific Webworks have been around for some ten years. Nobody has ever shut them down and their scamming ways still continue. They are only a little better than Thrive…but only because they have a better business plan (mostly because they generate their own leads and cut out the middleman).
But… what we can do is start picking up people who have been discouraged into quitting and getting these guys to simply put up a blog so they can get their money back.

So, what do you think?!?

I am another victim of Thrive Learning Institute. Here is my story.

I clicked on link that said "Google Ad works", it took me to one guy's testimonial about the way in which he is been earning "2000 to 3000" dollars per month from home. I hesitated for a long time and clicked the link which asked me to put my name and address in it. And the web site asked my for my credit card number to send their exclusive package. The web site said it would cost me $1.95 which would be used for mailing charges or something. This is it. I did not know that this is the worst thing I could do to myself. Few days later, I got a call from a telemarketing company named "ABS"(Accelerated Business Solutions). I really don’t know how ABS got my information. A person named Phil from ABS told me about the Thrive e-Learning program. He told me about drop shipping, OPM and how good internet marketing is. All the this time I was thinking that ABS was related to Google Ad Works. He sounded so genuine and I did believe what he told me. He even made me write a business plan. He forwarded me talk to his "Program Director" Brandon Clark. Brandon promised me that it would return all money back in 2 months ( or 8 weeks) and it is proven, and in 12 months I would at least make 2 times my initial investment. He told me that it is "Drop Ship" program. He told me that I need to put some initial investment in order to get more money back. He also told me that Thrive will spoon feed me with all the information, and all I need to do is to follow the instructions. He used some high pressure marketing on me, and took $6625 from me on the same day.

I fell into this trap. Then I was assigned to a team called "Team 1A" which had 4 coaches. Somebody named Nate called me on the first day, and introduced me to their student web site www.thriveli.com. And he also told me that there will weekly calls, live chats and I needed to spend 5-10 hours going through their material. He talked as if they are available 24 by 7 to for me.

In less than 2 weeks I realized that the content that they are providing was not at all useful in starting any kind of internet business. Also, I did not get any “world class” coaching from the coaches. These “coaches” gave me useless information about drop-shipping and were not available 24 X 7, not even respond to me when I call them.

Not only that, these people drove me into other companies which took more money out of me. The coaches started pushing me to buy services from another web site called “gogodropship.com” for a listing of drop shippers. ( like a Yellow pages for drop shippers). They made me pay another $97 for nothing.

Another company named “IMAX” started approaching me for a Merchant account. At this point I said, no more and started asking for my money back from Thrive. And I tried real hard to reach the people responsible for paying back. They simply ignored my calls and emails.

At that point I approached my credit card company to start the refund process, and I also complained about these companies (ABS, Thrive and gogodropship.com) in Better Business Bureau (BBB), FBI, Federal trade commission(FTC) and Utah’s Attorney general’s office. I am still working on my case.

So, I suggest all of you reading this post to be very careful about such companies, and never sign up ( Or sign a contract) for these Internet Money Scams.

I also created a <a href="blog to help the victims like me. Feel free to use the information I provided there. And also caution others from doing the same mistake.

http://scammedbythrive.blogspot.com

During the course of my traumatizing experience with my Thrive Learning Institute process, I was also sucked in to a big mess with a merchant business account to be able to accept credit cards for orders online. I was contacted by a person with Thrive (or so that’s what I thought). She went on to talk about a merchant account (online credit card possessing) and that I should sign up to begin accepting credit cards for online orders. She told me they would wave the setup fee for a limited time and that the offer would not last long (more tricks of the trade).I signed up on 3/11/09 thinking that I could still get a website going and salvage this program. A 35$ per month charge was to be in effect after activation of my account (so I was told). To my delight, Kayla, asked if I needed an appointment with their web builder. I agreed and she informed me that they were busy right now and that the soonest available appointment would be 3/30/08(almost three weeks). I agreed, even though I was frustrated at having to wait so long. I tried to continue my progress and anxiously waited for the web builder’s call. On the 3/30, after waiting all day, I received no phone call. This was the last thing I was willing to stand. After trying to make a go of this so called system (again and again) and working to pay off my upward spiraling debt, I realized, it would be impossible to complete this business. In late May 09, I realized on my bank statements that this company has charged their $35 fee for the last two months even without activation. I called customer service and (without asking for the two months totaling $70) I asked to please cancel the account and they informed me there is a $250 cancellation fee (which was never discussed or mentioned before I signed the contract). I never used this account and in fact never even activated it. After the initial shock of this and expressing this verbally, He told me the fee is negotiable. After a brief break from our conversation so he could talk to his manager, he returned to the phone and informed me they would be willing to go down to $150. I told him I would call him back and hung up disgusted. They have, as of July 1 charged me for June as well. I called to cancel the account on July, 9, 2009 and refused to pay a cancellation fee. I called my bank to place these charges in dispute and ask for a charge back to my account. My bank informed me they can only do a charge back for no longer than 60 days. I could only get the month of June and May placed back on my account. I was willing to leave it at that and chalk this up to a business loss. On July 29, 2009, I received a letter from the merchant account collection dept. stating that I owe a balance of $120 due by 7/31/09 or face further collection action. In addition, a report of the past due amount will be reported to credit bureaus. I disputed the charge asking them to wave the amount due and refund what I was charged for in total from them. I sent them a brief explanation of my negative experience with Thrive along with my complaint and a copy of the State of Illinois cease and desist order against Online Data Institute/Thrive Learning Institute. I faxed all this info yesterday at 2:15pm. I received a call from the collections department rep. around 3:15pm telling me they received the info; they will look it over and call me back tomorrow.
They spoke and listened to me as an equal. They were punctual about their actions. They took the time to look over and understand my problem. The next day (just as they said) at 9:45am they informed me that not only were they waving the amount due, but they are going to refund my money in full. Now That’s Customer Service!!! Are you listening Thrive… That’s how you attain unsurpassed customer satisfaction!!!

I signed up for Internet training on eBay and was sold a bill of goods. The problem is in their aggressive sales techniques - and they are responsible for the call centers they contract to sell for them. Thrive Learning promises you can make your money back in 2-3 months, but in fact they have a success rate which is about 1 in 10, 000 actually doing so - and that's ever, not just within 3 months.

I complained after the training was complete, because I didn't actually learn anything that I hadn't already known. Their training at that time mostly consisted of how to set up their proprietary sitebuilding software - which can take you weeks or months to actually build your site on a part-time basis. You are charged additional monthly fees for site hosting and programs - but can't actually move your site without rebuilding it again. There are several free programs that come with most web hosts that you can use for site building - much better than Thrive's version.

As well, all of the training that Thrive offers can be found on the Internet for free. So being charged several thousand to be "coached" and another $40 per month for site hosting is excessive.

The scam continues as they sell you add-on programs and "services" such as credit-card processing, site marketing reviews, and PPC advertising. Some have even been offered the creation of a Montana S-corporation. I've read of people going into $30-$50, 000 in debt with nothing to show for it. (I was "lucky" in this regard.)

They do not have their refund policy stated on their website and it is not covered in their telemarketing pitch. This is an FTC violation. As well, Thrive Learning is a "fulfillment center" for at least 20 other scams - and so could be investigated under RICO statutes for racketeering.

Utah call centers contributed around 1/4 of the Utah Attorney General's election campaign - but are not being prosecuted for known complaints. The manager for Thrive Learning is also associated with these other Utah call centers.

All of this is publically available information.

Another tactic they use is to string you along until your credit card company is unwilling to do a charge-back (usually about two months). While Utah requires any company to refund within a 3-day period, often your training doesn't start until after that time, so you won't find out you're scammed until the State can no longer enforce that statute.

If anyone is approached by Thrive Learning, the best thing to do is to hang up immediately.

I have had terrible experience with Thriveli.com i signed up january 2008 and i still havnt made a dime. I have had many problems let me start with step 1.
1- they never let me know what all was included in making a websit all the steps to sucess. They said 60-90 days to put up a site im going on one and a half years.
2 i never got my signed documents or final papers.

3. When you nedd help its hard to get in contact with any body it takes 1-3 days or more. at tech support and when you do some tech dont know what there doing or are not good support.

4. when you do get answers to move on it is so hard when you fix one thing and something else goes wrong.

5. Or when you get your directions to fix your site one person will say one thing and another says something else.

6. It has taken way to long

7. i was told if i be positive and keep at it i would make my $$ back and if not i would get my $$ back.

8. I was talked into signing up even though i said no im not interested more than once.

9. i was told they would help me make double my $$ back within 1 year.

I am so made i could keep going on i need some m, ore support from those who are mad at thtrive i want thrive omni business soultions to go down.

Thank You Erin Feldman

[email protected]