Who's Who At Biltmore Who's Who?

One of the recurring themes of social media and the internet is "how stupid are people?" Every week there's a new scam and a new group of idiots crying "I had no idea" after their money is transferred from their bank account or credit card, or months after they hired that consultant to change their life for the better.

I have little sympathy.

There are two reasons people get scammed - one, they don't want to know the "road to wealth" or "you have been selected" scam is a scam, and two, they don't take the time to do the difficult work of checking the company or faux consultant out. Today's world is a world of desperation for wealth and recognition, and dammit, if someone is going to sell me a plaque that tells everyone I am somebody, I'm writing the check.

Initially, the honorees receive a card saying they have been nominated for inclusion in Biltmore’s prestigious registry of successful business and professional people. Others get an unsolicited phone call. Once a sales rep gets the “nominee” on the phone, out comes the persuasive, scripted pitch listing Biltmore’s benefits: a personalized plaque, help with producing a professional profile, a listing in Biltmore’s hardcover book and on the company’s website, and having Biltmore issue a news release “to all major search engines, including Google” lauding the honoree’s accomplishments. Also: two round trip airline tickets to one of 40 locations.

Then, the money: A lifetime membership in the social network costs in the neighborhood of $800, according to various complaints. Less costly platinum and gold memberships are also offered, as is a trial membership, which can be upgraded later, for approximately $200

Sounds good, even if the person selling the plaque is a known scam artist.

Meet who's behind door number 1 at Biltmore Who's Who:

The social media company — headed by former commodities broker Stephen Margol, who was banned for life from trading under a settlement with federal regulators — did not respond to numerous phone calls and a visit by The Miami Herald.

[Margol] induced customers to invest with Risk Capital by making false and misleading material representations and omissions during sales solicitation phone calls,” the settlement said. Their investors ended up losing most, if not all, of their money — $16 million between 2001 and 2003. Margol created Biltmore in the summer of 2005 — a year before his commodities ban became official.

But wait, there's more:

Florida’s Division of Consumer Services, the Better Business Bureau and various websites, including RipoffReport.com, have heard from a long string of customers about pushy sales tactics and allegedly unauthorized credit card charges beyond the initial charge.

And as all liars on social media try to mask the truth:

The vast body of negative reviews prompted Biltmore to engage in some online damage control, both on message boards and on Twitter, where the company has written “Not a scam” in its description field. But even that wasn’t quite what it seemed.

The avatar on the company’s Twitter account — a smiling young woman in a yellow polo — is a model whose image is lifted off the All American Clothing Co. website.

People always ask me, as if I picked the winning lotto numbers: "how do you find out all these things?" (I didn't discover the Biltmore Who's Who scam, as I don't take calls from companies like that because I'm not desperately looking for recognition from anyone who will sell it to me.)

Yep. That's where we are. Create the scam, scam the internet, and then scam the internet some more when the truth comes out.

Sound familiar?

By the way, the super-secret way I find out some of these things?

Ready?

I use this: Link

Non-anonymous comments welcome. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

The Real Problem With Lawyers: Pure Stupidity

Today, a member of the Bar is giving a seminar on how to start and manage a law firm. His partial qualifications? He failed in private practice, had his license administratively suspended for failure to complete CLE requirements, had a foreclosure, and operates his business out of a UPS store.

There will be a room full of young (and old) desperate lawyers who have paid money to hear him, and are awaiting eagerly, like panting dogs, to hear all the secrets of success.

None of the people in that room know any of this.

Yesterday, a member of the Bar jumped on the ABA story that shocked the legal marketing world when it concluded that blogs, twitter, Facebook, or other forms of "you better get on the train or you'll get run over," marketing, are secondary to word of mouth referrals.

This member of the Bar stated that whenever there's a story on social media (seemingly where it disputes his claims that it is a requirement for the wanna-be successful lawyer), lawyers "from all over the world" call.....him.

Sure they do. And why wouldn't they? He practiced law for 8 months, really 6, got laid off, and then became a self-proclaimed rainmaker. He also lied, and continues to lie about his experience, saying he was part of a $450 million deal while a newly minted associate, when all he did was review documents. He brought in no business as a lawyer, ever, but if you pay him, he will teach you all the tricks. The Aussie legal community is apparently so impressed with his vast experience and personal success, they paid for him to spend a month down under spreading his knowledge to the legal community.

Another lawyer will soon speak on the ethics challenges lawyers face with cloud computing. Except the lawyer doesn't use cloud computing as part of any established law practice. Oh well, it'll all sound relevant.

Then there's the disbarred lawyer who lied about why he left the profession (he stole money from a trust account set aside for kids, among other things) and now sells a blog platform so you can blog for profit. Lawyers snap this up, without concern that they are putting money in the pocket of a disgraced liar. Nothing wrong with being disbarred, but in this age of transparancy (and the marketers cringe) an affirmative lie about your past should cause the discriminating lawyer to pause.

But why would we expect this? The largest group of people who fall victim to those Nigerian email scams? Lawyers.

We have become a bunch of blithering idiots, so desperate for money that we're willing to listen to anyone who pretends to have the ability to put some in our pocket, regardless of who they really are.

People ask how I know all these things, how I find them out? I look, I Google, I read. Why don't I link these people in this post? Because I'm tired of doing your work. I'm tired of the emails saying "oh my God, I had no idea, and I was going to hire him!" You look like idiots.

We live in a generation where lawyers have all but lost any reputation for high honor. Lawyers are viewed as liars, scumbags, thieves.

I'm just glad most don't realize how stupid we all are.



Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

Dumb Desperate Lawyers Reading E-mail

The State Bar of California issued a warning to attorneys to
beware of international Internet scams purporting to hire U.S. lawyers
to collect large debts.

You know, those typo-filled emails with screwed up email addresses offering money?

"This is an official requisition for your legal consultation services on
behalf of _________," one e-mail sent to the bar said. "We are presently
incapacitated due to international legal boundaries to exert pressure on
our delinquent customers in USA and we request your services
accordingly."

Yeah, some of us are falling for it.

In four separate cases since the start of the year, Bank of
America attorney customers lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from
counterfeit checks.

I think someone should start a website listing these moron lawyers who are too stupid to know these are scams. The website should be called www.donthiremei'mamoron.com.

California State Bar President Holly Fujie found herself having to say this to those with law degrees: "If you deposit a check for $500,000,
you had better have a clear idea where that money is coming from."

Let me write that down.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. Read his free ebook The Truth About Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer. Please visit www.tannebaumweiss.com