InfusionSoft cut off ILN for being “get rich quick scheme”
Readers began contacting BehindMLM late last week advising that Internet Lifestyle Network affiliates were locked out of their InfusionSoft accounts.
InfusionSoft play a critical role in the day-to-day operations of Internet Lifestyle Network (ILN), providing the sales and commission tracking for affiliates company-wide.
At the time, ILN were circulating the reason behind the lockout as server issues on InfusionSoft’s end. This appeared to be based on information provided to ILN management from InfusionSoft themselves.
Information I received pointed to InfusionSoft cutting off ILN due to concerns about the company’s business model itself, however other than reports from readers, I couldn’t find anything official from either ILN or InfusionSoft confirming this.
Quite obviously though, something was up between the two companies and finally, in a YouTube video uploaded by ILN co-founder Vincent Ortega Jr. yesterday, what exactly is going on was revealed.
Turns out InfusionSoft think ILN is a “get rick quick scheme”.
[01:59] InfusionSoft has a new policy over there, (where) they don’t allow companies like ours to work with their system anymore.
At first glance, it would appear InfusionSoft’s purported policy changes might prohibit MLM companies from signing up as clients, however this doesn’t appear to be the case:
[02:12] We told them (InfusionSoft) over a year ago that we wanted to go four levels deep, which turns it into a sort of affiliate network marketing company, and they were totally fine with that.
[02:24] It was just a couple of months ago they were telling us that they’ve changed their guidelines now to where they don’t want to do anything like that.
So now they categorise us as a get-rich-quick scheme.
Dismissing any due diligence InfusionSoft’s own compliance and legal department might have conducted into ILN, Ortega instead blames the shutdown on “scammers and spammers”:
[00:09] There’s people that target these companies to try to shut them down.
[06:24] For whatever reason, the scammers or spammers are really contacting InfusionSoft hard and trying to get our company shut down. And they’ve done a great job.
If Ortega is to be believed, InfusionSoft are completely incapable of assessing the business model of their clients. He instead contends that InfusionSoft populate their compliance and legal departments with mindless drones:
[06:57] All these people are doing, who’d say “hold on this account” or whatever, or “stop this account activity”, is they’re just people working behind a computer desk that look at statistic numbers and look at emails coming in and say, “Well, this is what we have to do in this situation and this is it”.
But if they don’t feel the community at whole, their heart, their spirit, their mind, their soul, what else do they have to go off of?
[05:34] All InfusionSoft knows, is a couple of scammers saying “Internet Lifestyle Network is a pyramid scheme”.
[09:15] All they know is that where you bring people in to make money. They don’t understand our products.
What ILN’s products have to do with regulatory compliance though, I have no idea. As per the May 2014 BehindMLM review of ILN, the company appears to have no retail offering whatsoever.
This means that all revenues generated by the company are sourced from affiliates. This same revenue is then paid out to ILN affiliates, primarily based on the recruitment of new affiliates.
In the video, Ortega reveals the extent to which ILN is receiving funds from newly recruited affiliates:
[04:35] Two months ago we did $500,000, this last month we did over $630,000 or something like that. It’s crazy.
Not withstanding “profit guarantees” featured on the ILN website and claims by Ortega himself that ILN generates money “on autopilot”. But uh yeah, as ILN’s payment processor, InfusionSoft couldn’t possibly give a crap about any of that… rogue “scammers and spammers” is obviously a more plausible explanation.
Whether or not any company funds have been frozen as a result of InfusionSoft shutting down ILN’s account is unclear, but as it stands now ILN’s business operations have come to a complete stand-still.
Ortega advises that he’s in talks with InfusionSoft to get their account opened back up, but evidently has little confidence in corporate negotiations. Instead, Ortega seems to think that getting that ILN affiliate-base to spam InfusionSoft might encourage them to reverse their decision.
Providing the email addresses of InfusionSoft’s abuse, sales and billing departments, along with that of Zachary Sverdrup (InfusionSoft tech support), Ortega urges ILN affiliates to flood the company with emails titled “Please bring Hoverson InfusionSoft application back”:
The app account in question belongs to Mark Hoverson, who is another of ILN’s co-founders. According to Ortega, Hoverson’s account with InfusionSoft is “ten years old”. The account appears to have been problem-free until ILN’s business model was attached to it.
Believing that copious amounts of spam might trump any due diligence InfusionSoft themselves conducted into ILN, Ortega suggests affiliates send InfusionSoft their “life-changing” stories.
[3:18] (InfusionSoft) need to see that we have products, that people’s lives are being changed and all that stuff that we promise. Um, because there are people out there now, that becuase we’re so big they’re trying to attack our system.
Ortega mentions that recently he had his YouTube account shutdown, and after getting his affiliates to flood YouTube with complaints, had the account restored. Success with YouTube would appear to be behind Ortega’s hoping that a repeat performance might work with InfusionSoft too.
And if it doesn’t, Ortega mentions that ILN were supposedly getting ready to dump InfusionSoft “anyway”:
We’re currently moving off of InfusionSoft anyway, (but) we need this to temporarily keep running so you all can stay getting paid through the transition.
Ortega’s mention of him personally “watching” how people react suggests that affiliate reactions to InfusionSoft’s move are mixed.
Stating that he loves ILN, Paul Darby recently put out a video announcing that he’s dropped the company from his co-op downline feeder platform.
On ILN’s Facebook page, Darby is credited as being the sixth highest earning affiliate for the month of May:
Darby, who blames InfusionSoft’s decision on “the Jerry Springer crowd”, claims that the shutdown of ILN will cost him “ten to twelve thousand a month”. Darby is no stranger to recruitment-driven schemes, having launched his own late last year.
YouGetPaidFast was a cash gifting scheme that charged affiliates $28 to qualify to receive $28 payments from newly recruited affiliates. When the inevitable recruitment slump hit, Darby launched “My New Internet Business”. This served as a $100 second tier to the original YouGetPaidFast scheme.
Noticeably frustrated, in his latest video Darby reveals the fate of both schemes:
[07:45] I had a program recently called MyNewInternetBusiness, it was literally my pride and joy. And we had some people go “oh they’re, y’know scammers”, and our merchant account got shut down and all the money got seized and it literally broke my heart.
And I had so many people, just thousands that just… and we lost our merchant account.
And as soon as they came back up, I put the other merchant account back on. And they go “Oh well if that merchant account shut you down then…”
So we went to lawyers and attorneys and I spent everything I had and borrowed everything I could, self-funded everything…
As I understand it, at the time of publication Darby’s YouGetPaidFast and MyNewInternetBusiness funds remain seized.
Sound familiar?
It should. In both instances (ILN and Darby’s companies) you have businesses with no retail activity taking place. Rather than acknowledge this regulatory red-flag though, the owners instead blame “scammers and spammers” and “the Jerry Springer crowd”.
Gotta love those MLM underbelly conspiracy theories…
Update 11th June 2014 – Less than 24 hours after this article was published, Vincent Ortega deleted the YouTube video referenced in this article. I haven’t been able to find a reason why.
Paul darby confessions of an internet scammer.
Can’t say that’s the case with ILN, but a lot of these come-and-go companies are mere data collectors in which folks pay a lot of money to be a part of a huge database of mailing addresses which are then sold to other companies/marketers many years down the line. The “income opportunity” is usually a front.
The big clue is when they get shut down by third party providers and/or they claim they’re having technical issues which are hardly ever resolved to anyone’s satisfaction.
Hopefully, folks don’t’ get hurt with ILN.
Not sure what the point of your article is.
In one point you mention no product… Humm funny not only is there one product but many.
I am no spring chicken to the MLM/Affiliate scene so deciding the ride the ILN bandwagon for me was never to recruit for the sake of recruiting.
The training is priceless and the blog hosting platform is by far far and above any other on the market.
SO the point of this article is what? Looks a lot like articles from the late 50’s and early 60’s and then again in 90’s slamming Amway just for the sake of wasting ink on paper.
Look forward to your positive article after the Infusion-soft issue is resolved.
PS As for “so called marketers” like Paul Darby and others – met tons of them they usually crash and burn in their own crap while companies like ILN continue on without them.
wow this will hurt a few people and the industry is getting a bad rap from companies like this. But to be honest this company is just like empower network. No “real” product
ILN is a company that has integrity, vision and great training and products.
First, for only $37/month you get unlimited blogs. 2. You get over-the-top training on personal development, proper mindset, effective attraction marketing methods and leadership skills. 3. We have a Private Travel Club, saving us thousands of dollars.
ILN delivers it’s core philosophy of learning how to create and live the Internet Lifestyle. This is no scam! The value is obvious when one looks into it.
To Quote Mr. Vincent Ortega Jr’s most recent Facebook Post:
Ladies and Gentlemen: Vincent Ortega Jr. is an amateur, a fake, a pretender, and a master of brainwashing techniques.
Silly mistakes have been made that are the work of a true amateur. First of all, it’s against the Visa, Mastercard credit card association rules to have a merchant account for a ‘Make Money Fast’ or ‘Quick Money’ program.
Hence, why would you utlize First Data credit card processing with ILN as the shell company and ‘Speed Wealth System’ as the products that are being sold?
First Data will most likely issue a bank freeze and reversal of all monies in the companies bank accounts. Don’t think they can do that? Read the First Data processing contract.
In that merchant account agreement, First Data has the express authority to put a ‘Hard Freeze’ on any bank account associated with a merchant account that has violated the Visa/MC Association rules.
First Data is a gigantic international company which processes through Wells Fargo payments and has agreements with all FDIC banking institutions and when a merchant account is setup with First Data and your bank, First Data acts as an ‘Authorized User’ that can perform all actions on your account.
Secondly, it’s clearly in the terms of service that Infusion Soft does not allow:
Yet ILN setup their commission and affilate processing with Infusion Soft. That’s amateur. That’s silly and just asking for trouble.
Only an amateur posing as a ‘7 Figure Earner’ would make those mistakes and setup an MLM or Quick Money Scheme on the platforms mentioned above.
Plus, I find it odd that the Vincent Ortega Jr. Article from TheDirty.com which explained that Ortega was actually still living out of his mothers mansion, mysteriously disappeared from the web a few weeks ago.
No 20 something internet marketing rockstar is going to furnish his ‘mansion’ with floral print drapes and ‘old lady’ furniture.
It’s time to stop lying and playing the ‘God’ Card… You have a lot of people fooled Vincent, thousands of people are following you and your vision and you’re fooling them. That’s not ‘Godly’, that’s being a false leader.
This is a classic case of other services (i.e., Infusionsoft) exerting control over a program. I really don’t care what their reasoning is for why they pulled the plug, the bottom line is that businesses are being hurt by their little stunt.
Luckily, ILN has already had big plans to make a lateral move to a new platform which, as I understand it, will allow them to retain much more control. I’m looking forward to the migration.
Time to make lemonade with the lemons.
Article updated noting Ortega’s deletion of the YouTube video cited in this article.
@Forrest
Nothing is available at a retail level. Furthermore, selling WordPress (which ILN do not own the rights to) and then training on how to use WordPress? Riiiiiiiiight.
And all the GRN feeder stuff? Providing access to someone else providing access to someone else’s travel discounts isn’t a valid MLM product either.
Of course not, you recruit for the sake of getting paid. That’s the only way to make money in ILN.
It’s WordPress. Of course it’s the best on the market.
As for being priceless, yo it’s free. So is all the training you could want on how to use it.
To report that InfusionSoft booted ILN for being a get rich quick scheme. Duh.
@Loretta
WordPress.com offer free unlimited blogs for… free.
If you want to replicate ILN, download WordPress yourself and set it up for multi-user. Cost you a hell of a lot less than $37 a month.
Is anyone but affiliates buying this?
You don’t have anything. You provide access to another company who provides access to other companies travel discounts.
Access to access to discounts is not a viable MLM product.
The only thing ILN are selling is qualification to recruit new affiliates and to get paid for it.
@Matt
Do you know what happens to payment processors who turn a blind eye to the business activities of their clients? Especially when it comes to MLM?
You as a guy who’s just looking to get paid to recruit people into ILN might not care, but surely you can appreciate why InfusionSoft cut ILN off. Or do you honestly expect them to put their entire business at risk so you can earn a quick buck till ILN implodes?
As for ILN moving to their own service, I wouldn’t be surprised if they hitch their wagon to iPayout. Despite staring down the barrel of no less than three class-action lawsuits and regulatory fallout from the TelexFree bust, they’re still providing financial services to a number of questionable businesses.
Everything from these ILN posts scream illegal pyramid.
ILN already have ipayout as the ewallet. Infusion soft track everything, host the site, the videos etc.
ILN have plans to incorporate more physical products which they already have begun producing.
I mentioned in the last article that they do have a retail option of the apprentice level and GRN. The training is not just for WP, there are many topics covered.
Mark Hoverson has made nearly 20 mil in his internet marketing career and has a wealth of experience in which he normally charges much more than what he charges inside ILN to take his courses and events. So the value of the products cannot be denied.
I realise it steps into dangerous territory when you slap a compensation plan on anything but ILN are not some fly by night program, Mark Hoverson has spent big money on it and he wont let something small like this cause its demise when they have so much more to offer.
Lol! iPayout already have their thumbs in every dodgy looking scheme before you can call them out on it.
Their actual products or more third-party affiliate deals?
GRN or WordPress aren’t owned by InfusionSoft, so what exactly is being retailed by the company?
No doubt. But it’s a means to an end. That end being sign new affiliates up and earn money.
Renaming IM ebooks “training” doesn’t make it so.
Which only makes ILN’s recruitment-driven business model even more alarming. He should know better.
And how much of that 20 mil was made selling products to non-affiliates? If that’s what he’s teaching… then the question of value becomes moot.
Only when said compensation plan is recruitment driven, as it is in ILN. There’s nothing dangerous about retail orientated MLM comp plans.
As I pointed out earlier… it seems none of your ILN Cult followers have read it or care to read my previous post.
This ‘Legitimate’ ILN Business and it’s ‘7 Figure Earners’ are illegally using First Data and Infusion Soft to run their so called legitimate ‘Speed Wealth System’
It’s AGAINST The Visa/MC Rules. Why do you think Empower Network’s First Data account got shut down in the beginning (remember??)… so now EN uses an offshore 3rd Party merchant account where they pay HUGE fees.
It’s not a matter of “IF”, but only a matter of “When” First Data pulls the plug, reverses all the deposited funds, and turns the account over to a fraud analyst.
So Vincent… If you’re reading this and disregarding what I’m saying, i’m just being straight forward. First Data WILL shut down the merchant account if they haven’t already.
Man, Vincent and Mark… You guys have some HUGE Balls putting together a business like ILN while completely ignoring and blatantly turning your nose to what are clear and hard US Compliance Laws and FTC Regulations.
Simply put… ILN Does not operate legally. End of story. It does not subscribe to the laws of the United States Of America. It violates them. I just think it’s very risky and puts you (Vincent) in a very vulnerable and ‘Exposed’ position to be posting your house, your family, your location, your everything basically except for what color underwear your wearing.
The FTC doesn’t mess around. First Data doesn’t mess around that’s for sure. Infusion Soft quite clearly doesn’t mess around at all. Do things right and good things will always follow.
It’s hillarious how you blame SPAMMERS and Paul Darby blames ‘The Jerry Springer Crowd’ for whats happened with ILN.
That’s not the case AT. ALL. It’s because ILN is operating illegally and with blatant disregard for US Compliance laws and regulations.
I got ripped off with ILN. Billy Bigelow is a recruiter. He lied to me and i have the entire fbook cnvo saved. He said upon signing up with ILN i would go viral instantly. Turns out its just a bunch of painfully long videos!!!
love this article!
One of ILn’s training is how to spam market on facebook.
well another company with a bad name sad
I can attest to this. Since ILN was created, I’ve been receiving TONS of messages from random people:
“You seem like a cool guy…”
“I was playing with Graph search and I found you…”
“I like connecting with like-minded people…”
The common denominator of course was ILN.
That new platform they’re rolling out (the one Ortega and master scam artist, Mark Hoverson like to claim is a “$10 million investment”) is an off-the-shelf, MLM back end software, which Mark’s former scam-partner, Jonathan Budd, used to launch his last ponzi scheme gone wrong “Ripln”.
So now the ties between these amateur scam artists get closer and closer. And it won’t be long before they’re shut down, and operating under a new name.
After all, their touted success stories include people who were terminated from Empower Network, who just moved their whole group into ILN. And then there’s Anji and Ben, and the group they moved in from YTubeExplosion.
So the Speed Wealth Tire Kicker System is nothing more than a game… and the game’s about to come to an end.
there are certain companies you just can’t put your name and reputation on…
Wonder if the “new platform” is aware of this case:
Source:
http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/06/payment-processor-agrees-give-more-1-million-settle-ftc-charges
PPBlog
Joe, that would include virtually every single MLM.
The line of interest to me from the FTC is the company “…knew, or consciously avoided knowing, key facts about the illegal conduct….” This should be a wakeup call to every single MLM that is looking the other way, on a variety of issues.
Minor update: Paul Darby’s YouTube account has been