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Another Wisconsinite acts as a one-man truth squad at Russ Whitney ‘free’ seminars

Recently, I published an article at this Web site about a Wisconsin state official and well-known TV consumer report, Glen Loyd, who followed Russ Whitney’s “free,” come-on seminar crew around the state for a week. He told prospective Whitney customers at each stop about Whitney’s unsatisfactory Better Business Bureau rating. Loyd said he had a “lot of fun” appearing at Whitney’s seminars and that “it was exciting.”
Turns out that he was not the only Wisconsinite to get that idea and have that fun. After reading the article I posted about Loyd, another Wisconsin man told me of his similar adventure. Here are excerpts from his email.
On 5/13/05 7:21 AM, [name withheld by Reed] wrote:
hi john,

Read your excerpt on the wisconsin man following [Whitney’s “free” seminar presentations].…I too [employed] this tactic. I live in central wisconsin and have been attending the witney free seminars. Well, let me put it this way-they dont like me either!

At one point…when it came to the break, I proceeded to hand out fliers that I made. First to the people outside who were on their smoke break ( so the staffers wouldnt see what was coming), then worked my way back into the building. I then directly confronted the speaker, who was a VERY smooth talker as he was coaching people who were signing up at the table. I asked him very blunt questions in a VERY loud voice, to which he could not say anything except get red in the face. After most of the people heard me and realized what this…really was (and i only say most because there were still some suckers there), I proceeded to watch nearly 80 people literally file out of the building. It felt great because I had people coming up to me thanking me. Before the cops were called, whitney staffers literally tried to rip the leaflets I made out of my hands.

P.S. I noticed that this guy is bragging about properties that he bought "just last year" as he says and showing them on the slides. Funny thing is that I attended a seminar literally 4 years ago. I have a good memory and he was talking about the SAME properties. Of course his sales pitch hasn’t changed whatsoever.

Just wanted to let you know about this! I have also been trying very hard to get area news stations to expose this….

I am rooting for you!

P.S. I made no mention of your name or handed out any information from your website. just thought you might like to know this.

Thanks

On the public street
A couple of comments. My article recommending the truth squad tactic says to do it on the street outside the seminar. If handing out flyers inside the seminar is against one of the rules set forth by Whitney at the outset of the seminar, I do not recommend doing it.
You still have freedom of speech, but that would be for outside on the street in a public place. Whitney has rented the seminar meeting room from the hotel, so he has the right to control what goes on inside the room.
No disruption
I do not recommend disrupting Whitney’s seminars. The audience is there to hear the advertised program. True, most probably want to hear the truth about real estate investing and Whitney and many will be grateful for your saving them from giving Whitney seminar tuition, but that doesn’t change the fact that Whitney paid for the room. The fact that you believe the advertised program is improper may give rise to a moral right to expose it, but the legal right to do so stops at the private property of the hotel whose meeting room Whitney has paid money to rent.
Effective tactic
The fact that nearly 80 people filed out is further evidence that the “truth squad” is a very effective tactic for fighting back against him.
A woman in Southern California also told me that Whitney staffers told her they had the right to take flyers out of her hand and she was standing out on the public street at the time. In my article on acting as a truth squad against Whitney I recommended having at least two people. One would video tape the other and anything that the Whitney staff did to the other person, like trying to grab their flyers. You might want a third person some distance away videotaping the videotaper in case someone tries to interfere with the on-scene videotaper. As a practical matter, I would recommend having additional flyers in the car to replace quickly any confiscated by Whitney staff.
The fact that Whitney staff might try to use force to grab flyers out of a person’s hand is further evidence of how effective the “truth squad” tactic is. As I said in my article on using the truth squad tactic, the speakers are independent contractors and are getting paid $450,000 to $600,000 a year apparently on commission. If you cause all or most of the attendees to walk out without signing up for the paid seminar, the speaker’s income for the evening may drop to zero or near zero. That is why they are reacting in the extreme by calling the cops, engaging in flyer snatching, photographing the demonstrator, and trying to intimidate them verbally.
False stories
I have had a number of reports that the Whitney speakers prohibit recording of their free seminar. If it’s free, why prohibit recording? You would think they would want it recorded and played often to get more people to come to the paid seminars.
I have also heard that the speakers talk so fast and remove overhead projector slides so fast that you cannot catch where the property was or exactly what the speaker said. One guy said his name so fast that people were having trouble getting it. Another guy said his name and helpfully wrote it on the overhead projector, except he started to write a totally different name than the one he said. Then he erased it and wrote the one he said.
The prohibition against recording seems more likely to be designed to prevent anyone from recording the claims made by the speakers. Recording would enable the claims to be checked by outsiders. This Wisconsin guy’s experience—hearing four years apart the same stories about property “I bought just last year” is additional evidence that the Whitney speakers may be fudging their background, experience, success in real estate investment and who knows what else.
John T. Reed
Copyright 2005 by John T. Reed
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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.