The Multi-Level Marketer and Non-Borderline Support
I have been running a new pay-per-click campaign on Google, so I tried to type in some phrases that would generate one of my ads. When I typed in “borderline personality disorder,” I got the usual suspects: Tami Green, McLean Hospital, Amanda Smith’s Organization (Florida Association for BPD), BPD Family… and I got one other ad that intrigued me. It was entitled “Surviving With Borderline” and it linked to a site www.toborderlinepersonlitydisorder.com. I clicked on the ad and was presented with one of those marketing sites that promise to provide you with “The 10 secrets you MUST know about Borderline Personality Disorder.” The site is starts out:
Dear Friend,
If you have a loved one with borderline personality disorder, then this is going to be the most important letter that you have ever read.Hi, my name is David Oliver. In a few minutes I am about to tell you how I discovered the 10 secrets to helping and supporting a loved one with borderline personality disorder.
10 key secrets that NOBODY else will tell you.
…and is of course ridiculously long and repetitious, imploring you to sign up today for a FREE gift of this newsletter (or whatever). So, I got interested in this David Oliver guy. I did a “whois” on him and found out the site is run by a company called “The Leverage Team, LLC.” Off to Google to find out what the deal is (of course Google knows – haha). It turns out that this “supporter of BPD” is a multi-level marketer. I found this profile of him:
David Oliver is the president of The Leverage Team, LLC. and has over nine years of combined experience specializing in giving his clients network marketing tips, multilevel and referral marketing tips. Mr. Oliver has written several books, including “The Ultimate Home Business,” which details the benefits of multilevel and network marketing, and “Get Rich Quick Schemes Finally Exposed.” Mr. Oliver graduated from Yale University, with honors, with a degree in Sociology with a concentration in Economics and completed his senior thesis titled: “Visionary Capitalism: A Study of the Network Marketing Phenomenon.” Mr. Oliver is familiar with multilevel marketing companies including: Herbalife, Mary Kay, PartyLite (Blyth), NuSkin, Amway, Arbonne, Pampered Chef, Quixtar, XanGo, Pre-paid Legal, Eniva, USANA, Shaklee, FreeLife, Isagenix, and NewWays and many startup companies. Mr. Oliver sells up to $28,571.42 a month of products, putting him in the top .5% of the multilevel and network marketing industry.
He just makes all the real people, who are honestly trying to help non-borderlines, appear like scam artists and marketing a-holes.
It turns out he also runs a bipolar support board and has posted many articles about bipolar support. To me, he just looks like another guy trying to rich with Google, so please, if you need a marketing expert, make sure to check this page, to find the best marketing strategies.
13 Comments
B Grace
The same David Oliver is claiming to be an expert on schizophrenia and to send out a lot of free infor mation if you just pay the shipping charges. I replied asking about his qualifications as an expert on schizophrenia and got no reply – I suppose he might claim the same bipolar mother that qualifies him to be an expert on Borderline Personality Disorder which is a completely different condition. I am going to warn all the consumers and family members at our local schizophrenia society and mood disorders association about this scam and suggest that everyone else do the same to protect vulnerable people.
Mickey
This guy is setting his hooks into people, including us. He gives away free things, just pay s&H. You must give him card information to do so, and what do you know? There is a monthly fee taken from your account. His outfit calls it a subscription fee.
We are trying to cancel it and they say they have and will refund one month. That email arrived weeks ago and no credit posted yet.
He seems to have a small of horde of flacks working to further his internet schemes. His sites have top placement in google searches as well. Any legitimate site will even have his ad on it, placed by google.
I wonder if there isn’t some agency that can check into this guy, for he is victimizing people all over the place I suspect. Not just bipolar–schizophrenia, borderline–any way to make a buck, basically.
Any negative post in blogs is answered by new members who defend him and extol his virtues.
Actually a clearer picture emerges if his name is googled with mlm. How he makes tons of money using the internet. That is all he is about.
Rob
Same problem.. Keeps charging me $19.97 per month and cant get anyone to cancel it. DONT GET INVOLVED !!!
Jessica
It is a scam, a shameful scam exploiting the despair of people living and trying to cope with a SZ person, or a Bipolar person, or Borderline, etc.
Get your „postage only news letter for free” and you land up with $ 19.95 taken as automatic debit from your account.
This guy should be sent to work in a salt mine in China!
Brydee Carrier
I’m glad I read this first I have been doing a great deal of searching for help on recovering loved ones from schizophrenia and I was just about to purchase.
Sure glad I saw this first.
L.J.
SCAM! SCAM! SCAM! Never, ever, give your credit card # to these people. You can never cancel their “service” (once you discover how useless their help is) because they never respond. You will have to cancel your credit card and get a new one before their charges stop. Report them as well to Consumer Protection agencies.
Gman
Appreciate all your postings – very good insight – you saved me !
mamav
I ordered from his company called The Leverage Team. It was a one time order but the product has still not be received and it’s almost 4 weeks later! I’ve left multiple phone messages and emails and no response from them. What else can I do to get my credit card refunded?
Bon Dobbs
Who knows. I know nothing about his company except what I presented here.
julia moynihan
Thank you. Was going to get caught by this scam. I suppose if it were genuine would be able to buy from Amazon.
Odette
I just read it and I am disgusted that this man is trying to make money of illnesses that take peoples’ lives. I would like to report him to some sort of authority, as I believe he is doing so much harm to the cause of getting people to take bpd seriously. What do I do? Do I report him? I hate the idea of someone falling for this. I have bpd and if I was to order this and realised I had been scammed and made a fool of, it could definitely trigger a low and we all know where those can lead.
Bon Dobbs
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/search/david%20oliver%20bipolar He’s got 7+ ripoff reports.
Patty
My husband replied to a scammer once so I reported his credit card stolen (which in essence is was) so that stopped any further money being taken from us. Fortunately he were only out $4.99 and he did get the product. It all smelled fishy to me so I researched this company on the Internet and sure enough they would have deducted money every month – that was in the “fine print” my dear husband did not bother to read. So in a week he got a new credit card and all is well.