The FTC has just confirmed that they have reached a settlement with ‘get-rich-quick’ scammers who used affiliate marketing to promote their activities. They claimed that participants could earn significant amounts of money using their ‘secret codes.’ The defendants, Ronnie Montano, Hyong Su Kimg, and Martin Schranz, along with their related companies, had scammed consumers out of many millions of dollars with their false promises.
Additionally, the FTC alleges that the defendants violated the CAN-SPAM Act by sending commercial email messages that included misleading subject lines, failed to identify themselves as ads, included no valid physical address of the sender, and did not offer recipients a way to opt out of future messages.
They promoted Mobile Money Code products that claimed to be able to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. All these codes did was provide simple software that the consumers could use to create mobile-friendly websites.
In the settlement, the defendants agreed to a $7 million judgment, which will be suspended once they pay $698,500. The money will be used to refund the scammed consumers. In addition, the defendants are banned from marketing or selling any type of money-making software as well as from making any misrepresentations while promoting any goods or services. Also included in the settlement is an agreement that they will not violate the CAN-SPAM Act. If they violate this agreement, they will have to pay the rest of the $7 million fine.
The FTC approved this settlement with a vote of 5-0, and will go into effect once approved by the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division. It is expected this will go through without issues.
You can read the full announcement from the FTC HERE.
