Tell Mel: A can't lose opportunity, but only for the boss

Written by Melanie Payn

Earlier this month, Don Gross, an 82-year-old retiree in Cape Coral, signed on with a work-at-home business called Global Fortune Network. 

"We're on a fixed income and could use some extra money because we have a tight budget," Gross said. "I thought this might be an opportunity."

I know it takes money to make money, but I think Gross wasted $275.
Global Fortune Network is an online business. According to Justin Rahn, the director of Global Fortune Network LLC, Gross' investment was for a website that funnels people into the company's third-party debt settlement business. The deal: Gross would make money for every client who came through his website and then used Global Fortune's debt settlement services.
But the only way to get people to Gross' website, and subsequently to Rahn's, was for Gross to, "market his business," Rahn said.
And how does he best do that? By purchasing leads from Rahn. And paying Rahn's telemarketers to work the leads for him.
That's why after Gross signed up for the business opportunity, Global Fortune Network called to sell him the leads.
"They suggest that it takes $2,000 to advertise. They don't tell you that from the beginning," Gross said.
Gross then Googled Global Fortune Network after he paid money and found numerous complaints. He also found one person claiming to make $135,000 a year with Global Fortune Network.
Rahn told me his highest paid affiliates make $2,800 a month. That's not bad, but I really question how much these people invested in the lead generation to get that kind of return.
Also, Rahn said, it's not required that you buy leads from him or use his telemarketing services. A person could do it himself, he said.
An unrealistic expectation for Gross, I'd say, considering he had difficulty forwarding me an email.
Global Fortune Network has been in business for two years, Rahn said, but the business opportunity part started just a year ago.
Yet, already, the Better Business Bureau rates the company as an F (the scale is the same as a report card) with 54 complaints.
Rahn blames the BBB for that. He said it won't send him the complaints electronically, and the mail for their office is often mixed up and lost. So he gave up trying to resolve the BBB complaints.
Rahn said he has tried to join the BBB, but claims they won't let him. It might be because, as Rahn himself points out, "We are aggressive telemarketers."
One has to wonder, then, why Rahn would need an 82-year-old intermediary. I'll tell you what I think: Rahn makes the bulk of his money not in the debt-settlement business, but by selling people such as Gross the website and leads.
And, unfortunately, people such as Gross are forking over their precious dollars to invest in a "business opportunity" that will cost them more money than they will ever make.
— Email Melanie Payne at tellmel@news-press.com, call 239-344-4772 or write to "Tell Mel," 2442 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Fort Myers, 33901. Read more at news-press.com/tellmel.