David Athey: MLM Spammer Wins Prizes

david athey spammer

Is spammer David Athey stupid?

Who is David Athey?

That’s a good question. I’ve had no dealings with David Athey until today. David Athey is the MLM / network marketer who spammed my inbox today with his flopportunity.

David Athey Spam Email

Here’s the text of the spam email received today from David Athey. I’ve redacted only contact info from it.

——– Original Message ——–
Subject:     Michael Young?
Date:     Mon, 22 Aug 2011 04:13:18 -0500
From:     David Athey <david@2020national.com>
Reply-To:     david@2020national.com
To:     [the Internet lawyer I was dumb enough to spam]

Hello Michael

My name is David Athey, I am contacting you from my home in Pagosa Springs Colorado.  For about nine-years I have run my own home business, and I have a question to ask you.

If there was a business that actually made sense, you could earn $20-$50K in the next 6-12 months working part-time from home; you didn’t have to stock, sell, collect money or deliver products, there is no large investment, no strings, and absolutely no one can get hurt, would you be open to learning more about it?

The company is an established online catalog shopping company with competitively priced, environmentally friendly household and personal care products.  They handle
all the details and pay us on every order, every month, for the life of the customer.
Personally, we have about 200 customers who have been with us since that first year.

In addition to that, our group has a specially developed leads system to keep our business partners supplied with quality leads, up to 400 qualified network marketer leads per-month at no cost to you  – we give them to you to help you grow.

My first year, I worked hard and made about $70K from home with a computer and a telephone – no hotel meetings.  We did not have the leads program then, and I paid for leads.  For the past few years, my wife and I have been traveling in a luxury RV, we love the life style and love working with like-minded people all over the US and Canada.

Please understand, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme, initially it will take hard work and consistent effort, but if you are willing to learn, and work hard it pays very well
on a residual level.

Do you have 15-minutes so I can give you the details, and you can do your due diligence?   Naturally, there is no obligation, and you would never send me a dime in any event.

Michael, is (***) ***-**** still a good number to reach you at in TX?
So you know, your info came to us from a website you may have had, or a company directory, somewhere in the public domain.

Please reply to this message, I hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you for your time, and have a great day!

Respectfully,

David Athey
970-731-1571

This email was sent as Business-to-Business correspondence from David Athey POB-3862, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147, in compliance with the CAN SPAM act.  If you no longer wish to receive correspondence from me, please reply with   No Thank You  in the subject line.   Thank you again for your time.

Deceptive David Athey

David Athey apparently scraped my email address and phone number from some site and then pretended this was a Business-to-Business (B2B) communication instead of unsolicited commercial email (UCE), a.k.a. spam for his network marketing flopportunity. Note to David Athey — replying to your spam is an invitation for further spam from you and other jerks like you who swap and sell email lists.

David Athey also plays cute with income claims. Note the weasel words used to imply that one “could earn $20-$50K in the next 6-12 months working part-time from home; you didn’t have to stock, sell, collect money or deliver products, there is no large investment, no strings, and absolutely no one can get hurt, would you be open to learning more about it?” Name one MLM / network marketing company where these claims are typical for the average person who joins?

Prizes Won by David Athey today

  • Inquiry to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about David Athey’s violations of federal law.
  • Inquiry to the Colorado and Texas Attorneys General about David Athey’s violations of state law.
  • Inquiry to the Texas Comptroller and Texas Secretary of State about whether David Athey has qualified to do business in the state.

Congratulations to spammer David Athey. He’s hit the jackpot by making the decision to spam an Internet lawyer.

Will you be sued by these trolls?

Web lawyer trollAs both a Web lawyer and an Internet business owner, I hate spammers. There’s one right now (initials G.A.) who has become such a pain in the butt that my emails now go through a new filtering process to get rid of the 3 to 5 pieces of garbage he tries to send daily to my inbox. Unsubscribe from one list and he’s got you on several more you never opted into.

Clients and friends learn about him so he’s costing himself a lot by being a jerk.

Unfortunately, Internet-related laws can be abused too. In this case, I’m talking about a type of Web lawyer who sets up businesses designed to profit solely from suing entrepreneurs like you. They’re out there trolling for new lawsuits to file.

Spam Troll

One guy went to law school so that he can sue spammers (even those who don’t intend to spam but do so accidentally). He subscribes to lots of lists and then sues the list owners when they violate California spam laws. By suing in small claims court under state law, he’s able to rack up a lot of wins because few Internet business owners want to deal with it. They either pay a settlement to go away or end up with a default judgment against them for not fighting lawsuits.

Copyright Troll

The second lawyer set up a company that looks for articles and photos that have been posted on websites without permission of the copyright owner. He then goes to the owner, buys up the rights, and sues the infringer in Nevada. The person who posted without permission usually settles rather than face legal fees, a court fight in Las Vegas (gambling!), etc. This lawyer has branched out from suing website owners for infringement into suing people who post copyrighted material without permission on other people’s sites, in forums, blog comments, etc.

Moral of the story?

Understand that in addition to the government cracking down, there are new profitable legal niches being created that involve suing Internet business owners for violating the law…whether or not they intended to do so. Yet another shining example that there’s a difference between law and justice.

Talk with your Web lawyer before doing something that could land you in hot water in a shakedown lawsuit.

To your online success!

-Mike the Web lawyer

Website Attorney: London Internet Scams Falling Down

london bridge scam website attorneyJust got this stupid e-mail from an Internet spammer who apparently didn’t read my August newsletter warning about the scam (or has a sick sense of humor and sent the e-mail because of the article). Dumb bunny trying to con a Website attorney? Ha!

From: Mary Stone [mailto:gabsgrami@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 6:50 AM
To: gabsgrami@yahoo.com
Subject: Sad News!!!

Hello
I am in a hurry writing this mail to you, I had travelled to the UK to visit a new researchers complex in Wolverhampton (Imperial College, Gallery Section, UK) and unfortunately for me the hotel i lodged got razed by fire. I am so confused right now, I don’t know what to do or where to go. I didnt bring my phones here and the hotel telephone lines were disconnected during the incident. So I have access to only emails.

Please can you lend me £960 today so I can return home. As soon as I get home I would refund it immediately.all you have to do is to transfer through Western Union Money Transfer to my name.below is the details you require.

NAME-MARY STONE
ADDRESS-FOX HOTELS(118 SCHOOL STREET)HARBOUR VIEW RD.
CITY-WOLVERHAMPTON
COUNTRY-UK
ZIPCODE-WV30NR

Once again i want to assure you that your money will be refunded as soon as i get back home.immediately you have the money transfered,please help me scan or write out the MTCN Number given to you at the western union outlet.i will be waiting anxiously for your positive response.
Please I need you to get back to me as soon as possible.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks and Regards,

M.E. Stone

Note that this scam is now being used on Twitter and Facebook. Accounts on social networking sites are being hacked and same type of requests are being made to online friends. If you get a request for money, double or triple check ID before sending anything. Chances are you’ll discover your friend is nowhere near the location where the ‘tragedy’ occurred and that it is just a con artist trying to steal from you.

Speaking of con artists, just waiting for the day when this crime gets tweaked with a hidden continuity program. And if one pays the initial amount will there will be an additional upsell soliciting more funds. This type of con generates plenty of calls for a Website attorney to do something to the scammer.

To your success!

-Mike the Website attorney

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