ITV Ventures Business Review… SCAM or LEGIT?
I have heard allot of talk about the ITV Ventures home business opportunity lately and wanted to shead some light on the business opportunity, from an outsider looking in. I am in no way affiliated with ITV Ventures at all.
If you are not familiar with the ITV Ventures business opportunity, it is basically a health product infomercial home based business lead by Donald Barrett. Mr. Barrett is also CEO/President of ITV Direct, a multi-million dollar infomercial company. The company also offers training materials recorded from Donald Barrett, Kevin Trudeau, and all the ITV Direct product line founders. Kevin Trudeau has also appeared on infomercials with Donald Barrett.
On September 11, 2006, Donald Barrett and ITV Direct announced that they had partnered with Trudeau. Trudeau also worked with ITV to create ITV Ventures, a new MLM group based out of ITV’s home office. As of December 2006, ITV Direct has pulled all information concerning both this partnership and Trudeau’s books from its corporate website; however, the infomercials have continued to run as of April 14th, 2008.Mr Barrett, has been involved in deceptive marketing practices in the past, which can be viewed here. Donald Barrett and Kevin Trudeau both have a long history of being professional con-men. You can find just a few of the claims made against the two men here from them Federal Trade Commission for just a few of their long list of infomercial scams.
ITV Ventures partner Kevnin Trudeau’s Background…
Trudeau is a convicted felon with criminal convictions in the early 1990s for fraud and larceny. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued him numerous times. A federal order currently restricts his ability to promote and sell any product or service.
In 1990, Trudeau posed as a doctor in order to deposit $80,000 in false checks, and in 1991 he pleaded guilty to larceny NS spent two years in federal prison. Trudeau had used the credit cards of eleven customers of the mega memory product to fraudulently charge approximately $122,735.68.
In 1996, Kevin Trudeau was accused of operating an illegal pyramid scheme. Kevnin and his partner settled with Illinois and seven other states for $185,000.
In 1998, Trudeau was fined $500,000 to be used for consumer redress by the FTC, relating to six infomercials he had produced and in which the FTC determined he had made false or misleading claims.
In September 2004, Trudeau agreed to pay $2 million ($500,000 in cash plus transfer of residential property located in California, and a luxury vehicle) to settle other charges
In 2007, The FTC has filed a contempt of court action against Trudeau yet again, alleging that Trudeau is in contempt of a 2004 court order by “deceptively claiming in his infomercials that the book being advertised establishes a weight-loss protocol that is ‘easy’ to follow.” Trudeau was found in contempt of the 2004 court order for “patently false” claims, yet again.
ITV Ventures CEO Donald Barrett’s Background…
In April 2004, Public Health Service sent Donald Barrett a letter about false or misleading claims being made on product bottles he was selling.
In June 2004, the FTC filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts alleging that Direct Marketing Concepts, Inc., ITV Direct, Inc., and their president, Donald W. Barrett had deceptively marketed products via infomercials.
In October 5, 2007, the FTC sued ITV Direct, Inc. and Donald Barrett for misrepresenting Kevin Trudeau’s “Weight-Loss Cure” book in the infomercial they produced to market it.
Now that we have been able to honestly say the founders of ITV Ventures are scammers and or con-men, what does that have to say about the ITV Ventures business opportunity? In my opinion, I would say far away from their so called business opportunity.
As with most other products by these two men, they are short sales that end in negative. ITV Ventures may offer a business opportunity for now, however I can not image these two men running a legit business since both have been in trouble numerous times for fraud claims.
Even though he ITV Ventures business sounds to good to be a scam, and it sounds like the perfect opportunity for some, I do not have much faith in a company which is lead by career criminals. Nor do I have much faith in products that are represented by a company led by men who have been in trouble many times for false claims and fraud.
I would highly recommend anything thinking about ITV Ventures as a home business, think twice. They may not have been proven a scam just yet, but I do not see this company having a strong future.
After reading that information, what do you think?
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June 24th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I heard that ITV makes money by selling you leads at $10 to $25 each!
I guess that’s how they pay for their commercials.
Roxanne
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June 24th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Roxanne;
You are right. After you join the business if you want leads, you buy them. So people see the infomercial and call. If you have bought leads calls are forwarded to you.
So you have to buy into the business and buy their leads. Without the people who see the infomercials, you have no business.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Wow, that is interesting, thanks so much for sharing that information.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I didn’t see any reference to him on their website, perhaps they’ve wised up. As far as a business opportunity, it seems like just another run of the mill “sign up, sell to your friend, blah, blah, blah”. I would steer very clear.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Anthony,
At one time his name DID appear on the ITV website.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Ditto to all above comments.
June 29th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Thanks for this, Tara. I actually have a friend in this business right now, she loves it. Thinks it’s the next best thing to apple pie. I’m definitely forwarding this to her, and hope she decides to quit, or at least stop trying to get me in on it, lol.
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July 17th, 2008 at 10:53 am
So let me get this straight? They charge you $299 to join, then charge you $10 to $25 dollars per person that calls in for the products? So when exactly does the person who paid the $299 get an income off this? Unbelievable…..
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 pm
If you think Barrett & Trudeau are the only criminals think again. The VP of ITV, Robert Maihous is a convicted drug felon that service years in prision! It’s beyond belief that people would buy anything from these sleeze bags.
July 24th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
David »
I am not familiar with Robert Maihous….I tried to do a search on Google and was not able to find anything.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
As an EX ITV IBO and sooo Happy to say “EX”! All above article TRUE TRUE TRUE! Thank YOU! Made my night been searching all night for the dirt and these DIRTBAGS ,Liars, PIGS((excuse me.. but I was screwed..without being even Kissed! ))Only Out $117.00 Many People MUCH More so Very Glad I bailed when I did! and btw I thankfully Never Fully enrolled into the HAP , They are going down as we speak
no calls no shows no getting thru to Corporate Office..~ Can you feel my anger towards these Creeps! I can Only say again I am so GLAD
to be OUT and I really FEEL for The IBO and Others who put trust/cash/time/faith on&on into this SCAM of the Century!
August 8th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
PS : ya think Donald & Kevin T. will get many visitors in the Slammer?? LOL ((*** I Couldn’t RESIST!**))
August 9th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Yes, they are closing everything down. Oh, but they say they will be back up in 30- days they are reorganizing…but they are going to meet for a week and go on a boat trip…and will get back to the IBO’s. Ok, so the rest of the money they took from us, is what they are using.
Not only did you have to pay for the leads of people to call, or leads to email and pay for them, you got charged $129 per month and that was just to stay an IBO, that was not the charge for the HAP program.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:29 am
I tried to get info on this business for about 2 months last year when I first heard about this. I called the number on the infomercial and the representative told me they would call me within 24 hours! They never called me during that 2 months. But after that a man named Matthew Haddad called me about the opportunity and I told him where he could put this business because of all the BS that they gave me!