As an impulse buy. you might plunk down a few bucks for a Shamwow. an Aluma Wallet or a Shake Weight. But would a TV infomercial persuade you to part with thousands of dollars on a get-rich-quick scheme?
There are many thousands who would and do. If there were no suckers. there wouldn’t be so many get-rich ads on TV.
The persuasiveness of infomercials works
 They often appear on reputable financial news channels. giving them an air of respectability and. perhaps. giving naive viewers a sense they are either regular programming or geared to the “insiders.”
At a time many Americans are out of work and overextended by debt. the prospect of a streamlined path to wealth can be an easy sell. The offerings promise lucrative earnings and back up those testimonials with satisfied customers bragging of stellar successes.
As is so often a rule to live by:
If it sounds too good to be true. it probably isn’t. No amount of celebrity endorsements or alleged success stories can change that when it comes to infomercials.
Broadly speaking. this subset of infomercials whatsapp data creeps along the fine line between common advertising hyperbole and outright misrepresentation. For the most part. these are not fly-by-night con artists or overseas spammers. Many of the familiar faces in infomercials have been at it for years. There really are books. charts. DVDs and mentoring services. as promised; the catch is that you won’t always get them by calling a phone number or attending a free seminar. The deal you see on TV is typically no more than a means to hook you into buying added materials that can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars over time.
And as for those promised results echoed in
Rose-colored testimonials. they are often either exaggerations. aberrations or outright lies.
Last month. the Federal Trade Commission went after one prominent infomercial king and joined forces with Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to take the uncommon step of going after a woman who offered a testimonial.
Russell Dalbey. CEO and founder of the company behind the “wealth-building” program “Winning in the Cash Flow Business” is charged by the FTC with defrauding consumers with what were described as “phony claims that they could make large amounts of money quickly.”
“When someone is selling a program designed The Tricks BehindÂ
To help people make money. they have to accurately describe how much consumers can expect to make and be truthful about how quickly they will be able to do so.” says David Vladeck. director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “None of that happened in this case. and people who bought the program paid the price.”
To the FTC. “millions of consumers nationwide” The Tricks BehindÂ
saw infomercials for Winning in the supercharge your hvac business: proven lead generation strategies Cash Flow Business hosted by TV personality Gary Collins. The program claimed to teach customers how to find. broker and earn commissions on seller-financed promissory notes — privately held mortgages or notes often secured by the home or land that is the subject of the loan.
“You’ll be amazed at just how easy The Tricks BehindÂ
It is to generate a stream of extra income every month. Build financial freedom and a better quality of life in just minutes a day. Or even retire earlier than you ever dreamed possible. Order now and you’ll be ready to profit in minutes.” one of the infomercials claimed.
The complaint says consumers spent china leads approximately $40 to $160 on the initial program and were later encouraged to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars more on additional products and services.