In local weekly papers, “pennysaver” newspapers, and leaflets taped onto lampposts, various entrepreneurs are offering “work-from-home” jobs, promising considerable earnings to those who are interested. Sometimes they speak of “thousands of dollars” per week. Usually they have subcontracted with advertising initiatives, and the work typically involves stuffing envelopes with flyers and coupons.
These activities attract many housewives with young children in school, and retired persons and invalids who want to kill some time while simultaneously supplementing their stipends. However, the substantial earnings advertised are often only decoys. These unfortunate victims fill up all their time with frequently monotonous work, and the earnings, if they exist at all, are laughable.
The New York State Attorney General’s office in Albany recently received reports from about 70 people who complain of having been cheated by work-from-home companies. Darren Dopp, spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said that these types of fraudulent practices seem to be even more widespread than is fully known, considering the recent wave of complaints. Dopp added, “It is imperative that consumers inform themselves about the company they would like to contact before they make any commitment. In many cases, these work offers require the payment of a registration fee and offer very scant earnings, and in the worst cases, they don’t pay a single cent.”
Attorney General Spitzer decided to sue the companies Magnum Marketing and Promotions, based in Syracuse, and National Marketing Network, based in Rome, NY, to the NY State Supreme Court in Albany. Magnum is accused of having falsely promised, in newspaper advertisements, weekly earnings of $500 to $3,000 for the preparation of promotional packets. Those who have denounced Magnum note that the company asked them to pay a registration fee of $40, and then instead of sending them the envelopes and the publicity materials with which to work, they sent instructions for how to publish in newspapers —at their own expense— more advertisements to recruit new participants.
The owner of the company, Frank Russo, Jr., of Rome, relayed through his spokesman, John Leonard, that he had no comment.
National Marketing will appear in court to answer charges of fraud, false advertising, and deceptive commercial practices. According to Spitzer, the company advertised in newspapers, even at a national level, a work-from-home job that promised weekly earnings of $2,000 to stuff envelopes with publicity materials for insurance companies. The company asked those who were interested for a registration fee that ran from $38 to $50, but then only sent back various forms containing inaccurate and useless information.
Reporters have attempted, in vain, to contact Robert Bruno Castellini, owner of National Marketing. Castellini’s home telephone number is not listed in the phone book. Eliot Spitzer noted that “none of the people who have turned in their reports to the Attorney General’s Office ever received the attractive earnings that were advertised by this unscrupulous company.”
