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How did Russ Whitney’s book Millionaire Real Estate Mentor rank so high on Amazon’s list by John T. Reed

Employees ordered to buy books then get reimbursed
On 4/26/03 I got an email from a person who said they were an employee of Russ Whitney. They further said that on 4/18/03, Russ had all his employees go on Amazon.com and buy two copies of his book between 1PM and 2PM. The employees then turned their Amazon “print this for your records” receipt into accounting and got reimbursed for the full amount. Some were reportedly urged to buy five copies.
The purpose of this exercise was to drive the book sales ranking up to number one. The book reportedly was number one in the “Business & Investing” category and achieved number two overall on Amazon—at least for one hour. Whitney now brags about his high Amazon ranking on his Web site. I checked on 4/29/03. The overall Amazon ranking of the book was 276, not 2.
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can corroborate or disprove this.
Send you to Amazon
I note that when you try to order Whitney’s book at Whitney’s Web site, you are sent to the Amazon site. I am a book publisher. It is far more profitable to sell a book direct than to sell it through Amazon. Whitney sells his other books at his Web site. No publisher in his right mind would refer a book buyer to Amazon when he also sold his own books from his own Web site—from a profit standpoint. Apparently, Whitney is more interested in achieving a high Amazon ranking than optimizing profit on the book.
Special deal for outside customers who bought between 1 PM and 2 PM on 4/18/03
In addition to ordering his employees to buy the book between 1 and 2 PM EST on 4/18/03, Whitney also urged his customers to buy it from Amazon.com during the same one-hour time period offering them “11 FREE Special Reports (valued at $29 each, a total of $319).”Whitney stated openly that the purpose of this was to “…drive Millionaire Real Estate Mentor to the top of the Amazon.com Best Seller List.”
I am flabbergasted at Whitney’s ethics. By definition, a best-seller is supposed to be a book that is bought in arms-length transactions and is popular with those who bought it because of its content. Whitney appears to be unclear on the concept, as the saying goes. He seems to regard a best-seller list as some sort of game. That’s not surprising when you read his books and see that he talks about misleading lenders as “playing the game.” See my article on his “overfinancing.” He seems to believe that all that matters is being on the list—that how you got on the list is utterly irrelevant. Based on all the research I have done on him, I would say that sums up what Russ Whitney is about as well as any single sentiment can. Real achievement means nothing. Only the appearance of achievement matters.
Book or brochure?
I have often noted that, nowadays, many books written by real estate gurus are really just advertising brochures designed to generate leads for the guru’s telephone boiler room sales operations that try to pressure you into signing up for his expensive seminars. I have not yet read Whitney’s latest book, but some who have told me it is nothing but an advertising brochure for his seminars and mentoring services.
I note that the back cover says he was a self-made millionaire at age 27. According to my research, he was no such thing. Not even close. See my articles on Whitney’s claims versus my research and on his “first fortune.” If he was not a self-made millionaire at age 27, putting that on the back cover is illegal for both Whitney and his publisher Dearborn Trade Publishing. It would violate the Federal Trade Commission Act 15 USC §52 and California Business & Professions Code 17500 among other laws.
In addition, if the reports I got that he had his employees buying multiple copies with Whitney’s money and he was bribing customers to buy it during a one-hour period is true, those are “material facts” which the Federal Trade Commission Act and the California law require disclosure of in any ad bragging about the Amazon ranking of Whitney’s book.
The book may be a best seller other than on April 18 between 1 PM and 2PM EST, but the fact that it had relatively high sales numbers of Amazon during that hour means nothing. Essentially, Russ Whitney’s book was popular with Russ Whitney during that hour. Other, real customers may buy it later, perhaps because they hear it is a “best seller.”
Copyright 2003 by John T. Reed
Last update 6/7/03
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John T. Reed, a.k.a. John Reed, Jack Reed, 342 Bryan Drive, Alamo, CA 94507, Voice: 925-820-7262, Fax: 925-820-1259, Email: johnreed@johntreed.com

CONSUMER WARNING NOTICE: I recently saw Russ Whitney on a late night TV infomercial and then attended one of his "free" seminars. Unfortunately I believed all of their LIES and FRAUDULENT CLAIMS and I paid thousands of dollars to go to his "training camps". Needless to say I was clearly ripped off, cheated and lied to by Russ Whitney and his employees (band of thieves). My mistake was not searching the Internet to find out more about Russ Whitney and his company's HORRIBLE reputation for fraud, deception and illegal activities. Had I searched online I would have found out about THOUSANDS of customers being cheated, HUNDREDS of investigations by the Attorney General into the fraud of Russ Whitney and his company's, and that Russ Whitney himself is a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON and spent years in PRISON. I saved the cached pages from the major search engines of the John Reed lawsuit with Russell Whitney and the TRUTH and FACTS that Reed discovered during his investigation of Whitney. I am posting this information on real estate discussion boards so other people do NOT get cheated and ripped off like I did.