I want to keep this post as brief as possible because this announcement is not one I consider “good news” but it was necessary given the amount of inquiries and information I have been getting regarding the infomercial company, “Incredible Discoveries”.

As a brief recap, “Incredible Discoveries” came into my life around June 20, 2007 when they wanted to talk to me about marketing my books with infomercials.  The conversations ultimately led to a $75,000 fee they wanted me to pay.  I was immediate suspicious and I declined the offer.

A disgruntled, ex-employee, Robert Danoff, and another individual made contact with me feeding me insights.  With my suspicions and their suggestions, I followed up on their insights.  I made a few more blog postings regarding Incredible Discoveries updates as it related to Robert Danoff.  I posted them because Robert Danoff gave me information that I thought might be of public interest.

To make a long story shorter, I eventually put an end to discussing “Incredible Discoveries” because I did not want my blog to become overrun with this story that really had little to do with me or my business. If you want to know more, go visit these posts.

• “Incredible Discoveries” Sets Up Phone Appointment
• “Incredible Discoveries” Makes First Contact
• Highly Suspicious of “Incredible Discoveries” $75,000 Fee
• More Thoughts on Infomercials & Complaints
• Incredible Discoveries Lawsuit against Bob Danoff - Part 1
• Incredible Discoveries Lawsuit against Bob Danoff - Part 2
• “Incredible Discoveries” Submits Alleged Written Retraction by Robert Danoff

However, since these posts last year, this blog persistently gets traffic on “Incredible Discoveries” which means many people are interested and someone is reading.  But I also continue to get emails and phone calls from people wanting my opinion on “Incredible Discoveries“.  I also get a few complaints.  But I am not the Better Business Bureau.  Nevertheless, I keep my ears open to what people tell me.

The straw that broke the camel’s back is when yet another person called asking me my opinion.  I told them it was up to them and it was their money.  It was like they wanted me to prove or disprove that “Incredible Discoveries” was a “bad” company.  Quite frankly, it isn’t my job to be responsible for others.

As a public service, I shared my opinions on the blog already and if you think you can part with $50,000 to $75,000 and take the risk, fine with me.  It is your money.  But I keep telling everyone that my internal radar says to spend your money elsewhere.  You can do a lot with $75,000 on your own plus I think a lot of the infomercial business is one that offends my sensibilities.  That is why there are so many complaints.

• InfomercialBlog.com
• InfomercialScams.com
• InfomercialRatings.com

In any case, I did get curious enough to do more fact-checking on “Incredible Discoveries“.  After all, why does this blog get so much interest because of “Incredible Discoveries”?  Obviously, a lot of people are searching for information on them which led me to do some searching on my own.

And so, I am trying to put this issue to bed.  I dug out more interesting information.  I had some interesting phone conversations from various past plaintiffs and defendants against “Incredible Discoveries”.  I found information from the Florida Attorney General’s Office and Florida Division of Corporations.

With all of this, I compiled my findings into “The Incredible Discoveries Information Page“.  I have tried to be fair and I am upfront of my biases.  I give commentary and information but it is up to the reader to draw their own conclusions whether anyone should do business with them.

If you have additional meaningful information or corrections, I will accept them.  But I am resistant to taking any more phone calls on Incredible Discoveries. I got better things to do than discuss them.

To those who care, “The Incredible Discoveries Information Page” is a free resource. The direct link is:  http://matthewchan.com/incrediblediscoveries-info.htm. To those who don’t care, you aren’t missing much.

This was first posted on The TurnKey Publishing Blog.

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When I first received my Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter on Monday, June 16, I took prompt measures to be proactive.  One of those proactive steps was to face this issue head-on.  I called the phone number 800-272-4170 twice and left one message.  My voice message was professional and courteous.  I was letting them know I acknowledged their letter and was quickly taking corrective measures.  I also told them I welcomed a call to discuss the situation.

Chloe Surdyk called late Wed. afternoon.  It was actually a cordial conversation.  I did my best to find common ground.  I understand their need to protect their copyrights and go after people but I did not agree with their tactics.

I told her I especially did not agree with her rationale that victims of Indian web designers should have to pay Getty Images especially when I contracted for a web banner, not specific images.  I also had little or no say in the selection of any images, only whether I liked a web banner or not.

She offered me a lower settlement (from the original $1,300) of $800-something.  I told her I did not agree with her and it was likely we would have to agree to disagree.  In the conversation, I told her I was not ignorant of the law and due legal process.  I have been to court many times to be a plaintiff and occasionally a defendant.  I was not simply going to “roll over”.  I told her I did my research on the Internet on Getty Images and I was informed of their upcoming tactics.  I told her I was not going to sit still and that I would likely publicize my interactions with her and her company.

My sense of embarrassment over this is substantially lower than my sense of outrage at their attitude.  Surprisingly, during most of the conversation, Chloe was cordial.  Even towards the end of the conversation, she said she would put into her notes to give me another 14-days to consider her offer.  Chloe even gave me her direct phone office line:  206-925-6779.

In my mind, there was no way I was going to “settle” with them.  I mentioned to her that she would likely have to sue my company if she wanted anything.  For now, I told her we would simply agree to disagree.

My next move is to get my “official reply” sent out by Certified Mail within the next couple of days.  I am biding my time as I continue to do more research.

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If you want to learn more about this case, visit ExtortionLetterInfo.com.

This was first posted on The TurnKey Publishing Blog.

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In light of my unwilling involvement with Getty Images, as president of my publishing company, I have decided to take the proactive and defensive measure and gathering and reporting information relating to the Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter.

In fact, this whole fiasco is so outrageous that I have named this the Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter Extortion Scheme.  I think this term truly fits what they are doing.  The information I am finding on the Internet is simply outrageous.

I have launched ExtortionLetterInfo.com so that my blogs don’t get overrun with the Getty Settlement Demand Letter discussions.  If you are interested in what is happening with this, go visit the website.

Today, I received a Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter basically trying to extort from me a payment of $1,300 for a bird image that was used on theintrepidway.com website.  If I pay that amount, basically they agree not to sue me or my company.  However, suing and winning are two entirely different issues.

TheIntrepidWay.com currently looks bare because I immediately took down all the web banner graphics to comply with the Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter.

For most of you reading this, you will be like me earlier today.  I had no clue what this was all about.  It would be many hours later until I discovered this extortionistic practice by Getty Images.  But, believe it or not, this issue is relevant to anyone who wants to put up their own website and intend to hire someone to design their graphics and images.

The “short version” of all this is that “Getty Images”, a photo-licensing company, actively sends out Settlement Demand Letters in the U.S., U.K., and Australia to unsuspecting website owners that have intentionally or unintentionally infringed on their copyrighted images.  ON the surface, this sound fine.

In my research, so many website owners are small-business people or companies that contracted web site templates and graphics from graphic artists/designers in India.  Well, apparently, the folks in India have a terrible reputation of stealing U.S. images and incorporating them in their web graphics and template design.

Unsuspecting U.S. website owners who want to improve the appear of their websites buy these web templates and graphics and use them on their websites.  However, months and years later, Getty Images sends this very nasty and threatening letter out essentially holding you fully responsible even if someone else did the crime.  I understand that employers are held responsible for many issues, however, what comes is on the verge of insanity and certainly not even close to reasonable.

If you are legally uninformed, I will tell you, it is a very intimidating letter unless you think this through carefully.  After I calmed down, I took the time to do a Google and Yahoo search on “Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter”. I think if you do the same, you will get a very interesting education.  It is actually devious because Getty Images do not do anyone the courtesy of a Cease and Desist Letter.  Basically, let people know that they did the wrong thing and allow them to correct the situation before you get nasty.

However, in one mailing, they ask you to remove all the infringing images AND ask you to pay this extortionistic amount so they won’t sue you.  What a great scam.  Start sending letters to anyone who made a mistake to correct the mistake but also demand a huge cash payment while you are at it in exchange for you to NOT sue them.  What a great way to make money.  Why bother going to court when you can simply instill the fear of a lawsuit into people?

And even if you have to go to court, there is this small matter of preparing and proving your case.  Is Getty Images (based in Seattle) really going to hire an attorney and sue me in Columbus, Georgia over $1,300?  Perhaps they will sue for more.  But for what damages?   Punitive damages?  You want to punish someone for doing something they did not intend to do or know it was even occurring?  Those attorney fees might get expensive trying to sue a corporation over state lines.

I have been to court many times as a plaintiff.  It is not easy to simply make stuff or puff your case up.  The judge is usually smart enough to temper a case and not let a ruling get too ridiculous especially in a small claims case.

If it sounds like I am being cavalier, I am not.  I am treating this seriously.  However, I am not simply going to roll over.  I also have a few tricks up my sleeve if they truly decide to push the matter into the court system.  I won’t get into specifics but let’s just say the word will get out very quickly and wide to people, companies, and agencies I have never communicated to before.

I felt the need to post this warning message to warn others.  There are many, many angry people who have received similar letters from Getty’s Images.  I suspect they will want one more web source to consult and discuss this situation.

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If you want to learn more about this case, visit ExtortionLetterInfo.com.

In moving forward, I have “retired” the scam-busting website, CobraCollectionScam.com.  While the site has been “retired”, it will not be deactivated or shutdown.  “Retired” simply means no effort, attention, energy, or thought will go into that website and the situation it reported on.

There is lot of negativity related to that site that is no longer relevent or pertinent to me.  And since it was a volunteer “public service” project in the first place, I have decided I have done more than my part.  The ultimate resolution of that situation will be in the hands of the Columbus Police Department and the follow-through of the plaintiffs.

It was an accidental project that had its purpose earlier this year.  Now it’s time is at an end.  If an arrest or prosecution is made by law enforcement, then I will revisit updating the site.  For now, there is nothing more to be done.

A public relations representative contacted my office today and claimed to have a written retraction by Robert Danoff.  Since I have never seen Bob’s signature, I cannot verify if it is actually his or not.  I am happy to post the letter if I can verify from Bob himself that he did willingly sign this letter and the conditions in which he is signing it.

The letter is direct and plain.  Having spoken to Bob in the past, it appears to be inconsistent with his writing style.  It looks like someone wrote a letter and, at best, told him to sign it.

After all the time and energy Bob has given, why a retraction now?  From my understanding, neither party is allowed to discuss it.

Having dealt with the court system myself as a plaintiff, it sounds like a settlement was reached.  The “only” thing Bob has to do is agree to sign to the contents of the letter which says he was a disgruntled employee and other descriptions and Incredible Discoveries would drop all lawsuits against him.  That is only an educated guess on my part and I had thought this might eventually happen.

Having learned a little bit about his personal situation over the past few months, I suppose it was inevitable this would happen.  After all, why would he want to continue to fight this?  He had very little to gain monetarily.  It is way easier to simply stop fighting.  And if that is the case, so be it.

To be clear, I have no dog in this fight at all.  What I dislike is having my time wasted and having someone or some company solicit my business and asking $75,000 from me with little more than an attractive website.  Are you kidding me?  It takes nerve to do so.  I also find it very suspicious that I have seen in Florida public records a variety of lawsuits filed against or by the parent company of Incredible Discoveries vs. various individuals.  Basically, I tend to think “where there is smoke, there is fire”.

Having spoken to an employee within a direct response publication, a fellow entrepreneur friend who was also approached by Incredible Discoveries, and a couple of other entrepreneurs whom I do not know that complained, other people clearly share a similar distrust and suspicion of the Incredible Discoveries operation.

In the interest of fairness, from my singular perspective, this is mostly my opinion.  However, it is not entirely unfounded.  I have found enough information in the Florida public records that would make me say to people “let the buyer beware” or “go find another company and listen to their pitch”.  I have also kept all the communications of those who have complained or communicated with me regarding Incredible Discoveries.

It also does not help when I ask the public relations person about whether other people were unhappy, she was in denial of it.  Clearly, she did not want to talk about it and basically I could care less because I don’t want to waste time digging.  So I let it go.  My antenna is up and my gut instincts screams loudly regarding them.

I have no interest whatsoever to dig or find any more information within the public records.  There is no reason for me to do so.  I did find the public relations woman I spoke to to be relatively professional, polite, pleasant, and respectful.  Good thing because I was expecting some ugliness.  I was happy I was wrong.  I must admit I did ask her, “Are you going to threaten to sue me now?”  I told her I half expected it.  She said they were not that way.

And so, I hope I do not have to write any more about Incredible Discoveries.  I know those folks have communicated to me that they would be quite happy for me to delete all postings relating to them.  But, they did contact me first even when I told them I wasn’t interested.  And I do document interesting business interactions.  They certainly qualify.

I may eventually remove my opinions of Incredible Discoveries and their disputes with others if things stay quiet long enough.

=========================

The latest information can be found on The Incredible Discoveries Information Page.

This is Part 2 of my commentary of the case of Immediate Capital Group Inc. dba Incredible Discoveries vs. Robert Danoff (filed in the District Court of Palm Beach County, Florida.

===========================

In looking over the Plaintiff’s Petition, I tried to keep an objective eye and see it from Immediate Capital Group dba Incredible Discoveries (ICG) point of view but it is difficult because I have such differing opinions and philosophy of doing business.

And I have to say, if ICG is a legitimate business as they claim, it strikes to me they are being a bit paranoid and pointing out things that, in my opinion, are very weak.

In reviewing the points ICG made, these are my impressions.

Point 2 - ICG appears to be playing the sympathy card by phrasing their employees as “50 Florida residents…. with their families.” Well, how are they different from any other company that have layoffs, downsizes, or goes out of business? Very few people talk about the family situations and it is not really relevant to the case. It is a sympathy play.

Point 3 - There is probably some truth to Bob Danoff being a disgruntled, former employee that happens to know how to use the Internet. However, it is a bit melodramatic to believe that any one disgruntled employee can bring down an entire company and business. If that is in fact the case, you have to wonder about how strong and solid the business was to begin with.

Having dealt first-hand with the Cobra Collection Scam, people give me credit for helping them shut down. And yet, it really wasn’t me alone. It was the waves of angry, disgusted, and frustrated ex-employees, ex-clients, and ex-debtors that came out and rallied around the website I had created. Likewise, I don’t think Bob is that “powerful” by himself. There has to be a lot of negative karma going on for Bob to have any real power as was the case with the Cobra Collection Scam. There was so much negative karma going on, it hit a boiling point. Is there negative karma going on with ICG / Incredible Discoveries? I simply don’t know.

Point 4 - There are negative comments for almost every established company and product in the Google search engine. There are also disgruntled employees in every company that has been in business any number of years. I have negative reviews on my books but that does not put my publishing company out of business. I have unhappy ex-tenants whom I evicted, sued, and garnished for non-payment. I also have some people who I have fired who might be unhappy with me.

Fundamentally, no one can please 100% of the people but I strive to run my business well. That goodwill and success more than offsets the small number of complaints I get from customers or ex-employees. I also issue credit or refunds if I need to unhappy customers. What I do is no different than what most reputable businesses do. But most companies will not be brought down by this small amount of negative karma. How can Bob’s lone comments (if any) on Google bring any one company down? Give me a break. If ICG has truly been damaged, they need to look elsewhere and not a scapegoat.

Point 5 - ICG is upset with Bob for asking for legal assistance on the Internet. So what? Asking does not mean he will get it. And if he does get the help he wants, we have to assume that Bob and the attorney agreed to it. If ICG is afraid of being perceived as litigious, then maybe they should stop suing so much.

Personally, I don’t mind having the reputation of being a bit litigious. It tells people I am not goofing around when I do business. If you do wrong by me, I will not sit back and be silent. I have sued and will continue to sue if it is absolutely necessary. I also do not like going to court but I do what is necessary to protect our interests.

In browsing through the Broward County Courthouse records searching “Incredible Discoveries” and “Immediate Capital Group”, ICG does seem to indicate they do sue a fair amount of people. But then again, so do we. We have successfully sued lots of deadbeat tenants and we win all our cases. It does not hurt our feelings that if it our newer tenants know we will sue anyone who does not pay. It keeps the deadbeat types away and the others in line.

Last thing, ICG wants to go after Bob because he does not want to list his home phone or cell phone publicly on the Internet? How ridiculous is that? If I was a private citizen and did not have a business, the only way I would want incoming communication is email. Giving out your personal phone number is too risky today. Too many kooks on the Internet. And who wants strangers to burn up their cell phone minutes or fill up their voicemails with junk? Certainly, not me.

Point 6 - I have nothing to say on that as I cannot even find Bob’s Myspace page. I am a pretty good Google user and I couldn’t find it. Again, I think ICG is being a bit paranoid here. Besides, who would seriously pay attention to the content on most Myspace pages?  I have seen many Myspace pages.  They are either goofy personal stuff or blatant advertisements.

Point 7 - This is the one most relevant to me as parts of my blog are being used as a court Exhibit. I do take exception to this as ICG never asked my permission to reprint the contents of my blog for use besides personal reading.  Do they not know that the contents of my blog is copyrighted?

ICG is most focused on the comment by “AndJusticeForSome”. ICG has clearly made the wrong assumption on the true identity of “AndJusticeForSome”. I know for a fact it is not Bob. It is a woman who contacted me through private email. And if it is Bob, he is one hell of an actor capable of a gender change. I have also compared the writing styles of Bob’s public articles and “Justice”. “Justice” writes very well. Bob simply writes adequately on the articles I have seen.

Points 8 to 11 - I have no specific comments on these items.

Bottom line: I think that ICG just needs to let this case go. They are spending way too much time and energy over one ex-employee that I believe has marginal impact on the world at large.  If ICG is supposedly as successful as they claim, one disgruntled employee should not be able to bring them down. They are being paranoid. And if one disgruntled employee can bring their business down, they need to see what is wrong with their business model and operations that is so vulnerable to a “few” customer complaints and negative comments.

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The latest information can be found on The Incredible Discoveries Information Page.

Yesterday, Bob Danoff, ex-employee of Incredible Discoveries, brought to my attention that parts of my blog are being used as Exhibits in a court case he is involved in. Specifically, the case of Immediate Capital Group Inc. dba Incredible Discoveries vs. Robert Danoff (filed in the District Court of Palm Beach County, Florida. This bothers me because everything on I write on this blog is copyrighted material and you are supposed to get permission to reprint or use it elsewhere.

Nevertheless, I was quite curious about how and why my name and words were being used as Exhibits in a court case.

Bob felt that I should be informed of an upcoming court hearing he had to attend because parts of my blog were going to be presented in a court case. I think Bob was concerned that if for some unforeseen reason I somehow had to go to court, I would be upset. As I am protective of my reputation, Bob would be right. It is strange because I have nothing to do with the dispute between Incredible Discoveries and Bob.

I have only written about my few interactions with Incredible Discoveries. As a whole, they seemed respectful and professional to me. The only reason I wrote about them at all was the fact that it seemed interesting that an infomercial company would want to talk to me. After all, I have no illusions of being anywhere close to a best-selling author (at least for now). At the end of the day, I am still very skeptical of the infomercial industry as a whole. And when someone asks me to pay money to the tune of $75,000, I am very, very wary and suspicious.

I happen to know a couple of people who were part of nationwide infomercials and I know they did not pay anything as the production companies believed in the individuals and the products they were selling. In any case, even if I was going to cough up that kind of money, I would use it as down payment to buy a smaller commercial real estate property in our local area, not spend it on an infomercial.

I asked Bob to fax over his paperwork so I could see how my name and content was being used. The fax included the Certificate of Service and Plaintiff Petition. Surprisingly, the documents were written in a direct, easy to read and understand format.

It appears that I have to set the record straight before this gets out of hand. First, it appears that the folks at Immediate Capital Group Inc. dba Incredible Discoveries (ICG ) appear to be giving Bob Danoff way too much credit for the alleged damage against Incredible Discoveries.

Second, I know very little about Bob to this day because he has been very guarded in what he says regarding Incredible Discoveries. He simply encourages me to do due diligence. Sometimes, when someone is very careful in what and how he speaks, it tells way more than anything he might say. However, if he is telling the truth, that is a whole different story. Bob clearly wants this conflict to end and he does not want to be accused of saying things he did not say. I cannot say I blame him.

I told Bob to not worry since his advice came too late. I have been naturally skeptical of the infomercial industry as a whole. And as a matter of course, I do a Google search on any company or individual I intend to do business with. I read what interests me and form my own opinions. If Incredible Discoveries feels I formed a negative opinion of them because of Bob, they are greatly mistaken. There were other sources involved.

In Part 2, I will give my comments on the Plaintiff’s Petition. It was very interesting reading.

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The latest information can be found on The Incredible Discoveries Information Page.