Oh, there's cash to be made. And when Lisa in New Braunfels saw what a friend was bringing in: more than $7,600 a month, she was sold.
"She was 24 years old. I owned my own business and I wasn't taking home $7,600 a month. That's more than what most men make at a high paid job," said Lisa.
So, Lisa sold her company to become a rep for Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing, or FHTM.
Tom Mills, the CEO of Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing said,"A lot of companies are formed to market a certain product. We're formed to market products that are already being used." Mills claims FHTM has ties with major companies: GE Securities, Dish Network, A T & T, Sprint and others.
Here's how it works: You sell these products as an FHTM representative. You can sell them to yourself, or friends and family can order a service or a product from you. When they pay their bill, you get a percentage of that back as income.
But former FHTM employees have a different take on what Fortune Hi-Tech is doing.
"It's nothing but hype. They're all stories, there's no reality to it. There's no meat and potatoes in this deal," said Joseph Isaacs.
Isaacs was fired by Fortune's executives after he complained to the Kentucky Better Business Bureau.
Isaacs says when you read the fine print and attend the pricey seminars, you realize there's no money in selling the products: the big money comes from recruiting others.
Isaacs said, "If you're a regional manager and you're getting $200 every time somebody comes in the business, and you're getting 5 cents a month off their cell phone, what are you going to go do? You're certainly not going to go sell cell phones. The whole presentation that they give you--and I've asked that question- isn't this a pyramid scheme? Well, it can't be a pyramid scheme if all these Fortune 500 companies have agreed to do business with FHTM. They wouldn't do business with an illegal company. The problem is, they're not doing any business with FHTM."
The I-team has learned many of businesses had no idea FHTM was using their names or logos.
At least two attorneys general got wise to it all: South Dakota and Montana's top law officials have filed suit against the company for its deceptive practices.
Mills countered, "We can't control, even though we try, everything that's said throughout the country. So, we're going to end up doing some more concentrated training, and we're going to be back in business in both states."
Lisa said, "Once I started doing the numbers, I realized something was terribly wrong here."
Lisa found that out the hard way. She paid out thousands of dollars to become a top rep, recruited others, and got little in return.
"I was supposed to get a $40,000 paycheck. It never came," she said.
To file a complaint about this company, call 888-432-9257 or contact the Kentucky Attorney General's Office.
