Top 5 Companies in Utah to AVOID
Avoid the following companies like the plaque. Do not give them your credit card number or any other personal information, as you could become a victim of identity theft.
1. NuSkin - Provo, UT
This is just one of many MLMs (Multi-Level Marketing Companies) that are headquartered in Utah. In fact, Utah is the MLM scam capital of the world! There are more MLMs that originate in Utah than in any other state. MLM promises the opportunity to get rich quickly and easily. It appeals to the same mentality as gambling. Though you may put out a lot of effort at first, the expectation is that you’ll soon get to the point that others will do your work for you. You can then be on easy street for the rest of your life.
Jon M. Taylor, PhD says that “In one randomized survey, we found Latter-day Saints participating in MLM at triple the rate of the general population. This could be partly explained by powerful appeals to Latter-day Saints to get out of debt, to keep Mom home, to gain ‘time freedom’ from having to work long hours (allowing more family time) — which MLM promoters exploit.” For more information about the truth concerning MLM and the scam that they are, visit MLM the Truth.
2. Good Movies Online - Orem, UT
Good Movies Online sells DVDs for 50% higher price than what you can get them for from Amazon or DeepDiscount. They claim to include a free edited version with the DVD. They have less than a hundred titles available, and are essentially doing the same thing that CleanFlicks did until a July 2006 court ruling that prohibited companies to provide edited versions of movies. It is unfortunate that Good Movies Online is operating illegally (along with ScrapinToo, Family Movie Buff, and other Utah-based edited movie companies).
The ruling that shutdown CleanFlicks and CleanFilms was in the 10th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The 10th Circuit ONLY has jurisdiction over Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Circuit Decision acts as a pronouncement, and is therefore only binding over and upon the states within that Circuit’s jurisdiction (including Utah). Accordingly, it is not “law” and is not binding upon any company outside of those states. In other words, a company, not within one of those six states, that makes edited movies, will not be affected by the court ruling. However, edited movie companies operating within those six states are now considered to operate illegally.
For example, Family Edited DVDs is located in Texas, within the 5th Federal Circuit Court. The 10th Circuit ruling does not affect Family Edited DVDs. Courts do not make law, they interpret what the lawmakers (Congress) enact. So whereas the 10th Circuit Judge says that such and such practices are illegal, a 5th Circuit Judge may reach a totally different conclusion.
Family Edited DVDs is a very reputable business that has been around for the past 6 years (the longest of any edited movie company), but is now finally closing. It would seem to me that technology is changing and fewer people are using DVDs, but rather switching to Blu-Ray (which is currently way too expensive to edit). Besides, Family Edited DVDs even made a book on how to Make Edited Movies, which I have found to be quite informative, describing in detail the method they use. So obviously they have a desire to help families have clean entertainment in their home. Even after Family Edited DVDs, which is the last legitimate edited movie company, closes its doors, there is still the ability to edit your own movies following the instructions in their book.
3. United First Financial - Bluffdale, UT
This company uses what they call a “money merge account” to pay off your 30 year mortgage in half the time. Simply put, you spend $3,000 for access to their online software, which will tell you how much and what date pay towards your mortgage; and all without changing your current lifestyle and without refinancing your mortgage. However, this is nothing more than a scam.
Well, you can take a similar approach yourself for free. Your regular mortgage payments are made monthly, 12 payments a year. However, if you paid half your mortgage payment once every two weeks, that is 13 payments a year (there are 4.33 weeks in a month). Easy to do and no change to current lifestyle since a vast majority of people get a paycheck every two weeks. That “extra” amount of a monthly mortgage alone payment will reduce your 30 year mortgage down to 21-25 years depending on your intrest rate. There is no reason to spend $3,000 to do something that can be done for free.
4. Utah Web Services - Cottonwood Heights, UT
This is a SEO “Search Engine Optimization” or “Seach Engine Optimizer” and web development company. In fact, any SEO company is a scam. If a company can take your piece of junk web site and rank it high for keywords such as viagra, mortgages, olympics, then why would you think they would do it for you? They would do it for themselves and keep all the money. Let’s face it, there are only three search engines that are of any concern: Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Those three search engines make up 98% of the searches on the Internet; the rest are just hogwash and irrelevant. Besides, those top three search engines allow you to submit your own website for free. Want more information why this company and other SEO companies are scams, check out: Search Engine Optimization Scams.
5. StoresOnline - Orem, UT
They claim that they provide the tools and training that Internet merchants need to compete and win in the eCommerce marketplace to give you an advantage over average, online merchants. You buy websites to put together your own online store and have products dropshipped to the customer when you sell them.
Basically you attend their seminar to get a free lunch and a gift. Then an 8-10 workshop for $20.00 Then you get pressured into buying multiple websites for thousands of dollars. They are very deceiving in leading you to believe that you will make money right away. It doesn’t happen, so they sell you their marketing and coaching program to go with the website. In the end, you have spent thousands of dollars on websites that have not produced a dime in income.
The Money Merge Account is just an extra $3,500 for something that you can do yourself. All the MMA does is transfer money out of your equity into a line of credit (additional debt), then pays that line of credit with your income. It then tells you to use discretionary money (income - regular expenses = discretionary money) to pay off down the principle on your mortgage. So, bottom line, you can save yourself $3,500 as well as the trouble of opening a line credit and do it yourself by paying extra discretionary money towards your principle.