ICF World Homes Scam

October 1, 2008 – 11:25 pm | by Shelley Penney - The MLM Diva

 A friend of mine is HEAVILY involved in this scam called ICF World Homes. This is one I had asked an acquaintance who owns a Network Marketing company in the mortgage industry to look into for me a while back. I felt it was illegal but my friend was insistent that these guys are working with government officials. (Bullhooey of course! LOL) But he won’t listen to reason.

I’ve spoken twice now with Canadian Government officials about ICF World Homes. My friend STILL won’t listen, but I hope by posting here, that some people will find it and think twice. IF after investigation, the Competition Bureau comes back and says ‘ICF World homes is ok’, which is unlikely, then I will post that info here. In the meantime, surfers beware! See my communications with Canadian Investigative Department below.

I am a network marketer. I’ve been successfully marketing in legitimate MLM / Network Marketing programs for a long time. One of my PET PEEVES are the numbers of scammers out there, and the numbers of people who WANT to believe because they want so badly to make money. Your willingness to participate in an illegal venture hurts MY business. To those who say "you don’t know much about investing" oh PLEASE do keep calling ICF World Homes an investment. That is the fastest way for us to get this program shut down. Securities fraud is an easy one for government officials!

To those who say "the ICFHOMES program works", that is a ridiculous statement. Pyramid schemes do work for people who can recruit, smooth talk, or get in early. The measure of legality is not whether YOU made money. As a matter of fact, that admission could send you to jail along with the owners.

I have a friend in ICFWorld Homes. He has tried to recruit me. I looked closely at it and said ‘no’. I know an illegal program when I see one. He told me that the owners of ICF World Homes were working with Government Officials at the competition Bureau to make sure they were adhering to regulations. I asked a lot of questions and of course some of it sounded fishy. So I contacted the Competition Bureau myself.

Here is the FIRST response

Dear Ms. : Thank you for the information you provided regarding 1227622 Ontario Ltd. ICF World Homes Inc. We have reviewed your information and determined that the matter you have raised requires further examination under the laws we enforce. We have not yet determined what action, if any, would be appropriate. A Bureau representative may contact you if further information is required. Should we determine that action is warranted, we can use a wide range of educational, compliance and enforcement tools to deal with false or misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices. These include issuing public alerts to educate consumers or businesses about certain marketing practices; contacting parties directly to encourage voluntary compliance with the laws we enforce; and pursuing legal action. The Bureau is required to conduct its investigations in private. As such, we cannot provide complaint status reports or comment further on this matter in order to protect the integrity of the investigative process. However, we invite you to visit our Web site, Page d’accueil | Welcome Page, to learn more about the work of the Competition Bureau and to access public information on case developments and general information about our programs and activities.

Thank you again for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention.

Name Removed

Agent du droit de la concurrence | Direction générale des pratiques loyales des affaires

Competition Law Officer |

Fair Business Practices Branch 1-800-348-5358 | télécopieur / facsimile 819-997-0324 |

ATS/TTY 1-800-642-3844 burconcurrence@bc-cb.gc.ca | compbureau@cb-bc.gc.ca Bureau de la concurrence | 50, rue Victoria, Gatineau (Québec)K1A 0C9 Competition Bureau | 50 Victoria Street, Gatineau, QuebecK1A 0C9

MY FRIEND FOLLOWED UP WITH ME AND SAID THIS WAS JUST A FORM LETTER AND HE LOOKED INTO IT AND HE IS MORE CONVINCED THAN EVER THAT THIS IS LEGITIMATE. A MONTH OR SO LATER HE CALLS ME AGAIN,AND HE IS PERSUASIVE, SO ONCE AGAIN I EMAIL MY CONTACT AT THE GOVERNMENT OFFICE. THIS TIME THOUGH, I RECEIVED A LETTER (AS BELOW) FROM THEIR LEGAL DEPARTMENT IN WINNIPEG. LETTER BELOW. DECIDE FOR YOURSELF. THE CANADIAN GVERNMENT IS INVESTIGATING. THIS GUY TOLD ME AS CLEARLY AS HE POSSIBLY COULD THAT IT WAS A BAD IDEA. OF COURSE HE CAN NOT SAY ANYTHING CLEARLY ONE WAY OR THE OTHER, BUT I GOT THE MESSAGE. MY FRIEND STILL HASN’T!

Dear D : Thank you so much for your recent reply. While you say that your department is going to look in to this, this company is saying they are working directly with someone in your department. How can I find out if this is true or not?? If this is indeed true and this company is a legitimate company I would like to look at it as a business to add to my portfolio.

Dear Ms. , thank you for your request for information. My name is NAME REMOVED and I am an Officer of Competition Law with the Competition Bureau in Winnipeg. I am the officer assigned to respond to your recent request for information. I have paraphrased your questions below.

They are: 1) ICF has said that they are working directly with someone in the Competition Bureau. Is this true?

2) Is this company legitimate?

My Response: Let me start by explaining what the Competition Act ("Act") requires of Multi-level Marketing Plans and also what the Act says about Pyramid Selling Schemes. Multi-level Marketing Plan ("MLM"): The Act defines a Multi-level Marketing Plan as a plan for the supply of a product (a product can be a good or a service) whereby a participant receives compensation for the supply of the product to another participant who, in turn, receives compensation for the supply of the same or another product to other participants. 1) at least three levels (generally one of these levels includes the operator of the plan); 2) a participant who is paid when product is supplied to another participant; and 3) another participant who is paid when product is supplied to another participant.

The Act requires that if any representations about compensation under the plan are made to prospective participants of the plan then compensation to be received by a typical participant must be made in a fair, reasonable and timely disclosure (at the same time). For example: If a participant in the plan stands up at a meeting and states that they earned $50,000 in the plan last year they must also disclose the compensation of a typical participant in the plan. The MLM plan must sell a legitimate product, in fact the more products that the plan has the better. By legitimate I mean that the product must be marketable - have value and must be wanted by both participants and non-participants of the plan.

Scheme of Pyramid Selling ("Pyramid"): It is important to realize that the Act defines a Scheme of Pyramid Selling as a Multi-level Marketing Plan with any of the following features:

1) a participant who has paid to participate in the plan has the right to receive compensation under the plan for recruiting others into the plan;

2) a participant who has paid to participate in the plan is required to purchase a product (except in the case where the required product purchase is sold at the seller’s cost);

3) a participant must not be supplied with product in commercially unreasonable amounts (inventory loading); and

4) the plan lacks a buy-back guarantee or a right to return product.

I also refer you to our Multi-level Marketing and Scheme of Pyramid Selling Information Bulletin that can be found on the Competition Bureau website, Competition Bureau - Home. The Bulletin contains additional information.

Answers to Questions: 1) I have reviewed the content of you request for information and it appears that your friend has stated that ICF has been working diligently with a person well respected by the Competition Bureau and Industry Canada. This person does not appear to work for the Competition Bureau.

2) My understanding of the ICF plan is that a participant must purchase a block or blocks to participate in the plan. Once enough of these blocks are purchased or accumulated the participant is entitled to a house. Compensation under the plan is based on the sale of blocks which are only purchased by participants in the plan. In this case, you should consider whether or not ICF might be a scheme of pyramid selling because: A) participants appear to have the right to receive compensation for recruiting other participants into the plan. It appears that the only way a participant can earn compensation under the plan is to recruit someone else who also buys the blocks; B) a participant who has paid to participate in the plan is required to purchase a block; C) there may be an issue with accumulating a product (the blocks) that don’t really exist except on paper. This could be thought of as inventory loading; and D) is there a buy-back guarantee? How does ICF refund all your money if a certain amount has been paid as compensation to other participants of the plan? I recommend that you examine the plan closely to ensure that the plan does not have any of the characteristics I have detailed above that might make the plan a scheme of pyramid selling.

Regards, M

PEOPLE FROM THE COMPETITION BUREAU ARE NOT ‘CLOSED MINDED’, THEY ARE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS. THEY DON’T CARE IF YOU THINK THEY ARE CLOSED MINDED. THEY DEAL WITH THE LAW.

When doing due diligence about a company, if you have concerns why would you trust the guy at the front of the meeting room to tell you this is a legitimate program? Why ask the owners. A couple of hours with the owners will NOT tell you if they are honest. Why don’t people do what I did. Email or phone the law office responsible for investigating these things. It’s not hard to do, and these guys aren’t making money by convincing me one way or the other.

If you can’t trust the people whose job it is to investigate pyramid schemes and prosecute, then I say you should go back to your McJob and use your money to put food on the table. There are many legitimate companies in MLM. None of them are "get rich quick" investment deals, and all of them involve consumers consuming products. All of them involve honest effort, and involve what most people consider "sales".

ICF World Homes is NOTHING like a legitimate program that I can see, and it appears on first glance that the Canadian Government agrees. When this house comes down, keep in mind that Canadian Law Officials have a history of jailing top money earners along with the owners. I am about as open minded as they come. I’m just not stupid!

If you would like to speed the investigation of ICF World Homes please call the Competition Bureau. Each call they get gives the case higher priority. If you want to join, but are not sure, then you WANT to speed the case. If they are legitimate, I am not joining until this case is closed.

Tags: ICF, ICF World Homes, scam

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Shelley Penney lives in her own world.... building a network marketing business from her home office, and writing about it in hopes that she can TRULY make a difference. Find her at http://www.shelleypenney.com
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Tags: ICF, ICF World Homes, scam