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Molly’s Brother Investigates A Late Night Don Lupre Infomercial
By Molly's Brother | January 15, 2007
From time-to-time, curiosity gets the best of me and I’m compelled to pick up the phone to find out the details. Some months back, this happened after I saw a CashCall or CheckIntoCash or Unethical Lenders ‘R Us commercial. After spending summers during my childhood watching these commercials run on daytime television, I had to find out what the catch was for this “fast” cash. (If you missed it the first time, you should read my post detailing my call to a predatory lending institution.)
Tonight–well, it’s actually way past four in the morning as I write this–I couldn’t sleep. Flipping through the channels, I stopped at an infomercial. I’m addicted. I love their low production value. I enjoy their transparent attempts at pulling the wool over consumers’ eyes. I rejoice in my own ability to reject their capitalist advances, even though at four a.m. my guard is as far down as it ever will be.
I particularly enjoy when knives are being sold. It’s fun watching things being cut and chopped and sliced and diced in the wee hours of the morning. (Vacuum cleaners come in a close second. Watching them suck up all those nuts and bolts is fun, too.)
I landed on an infomercial declaring that “this company” has already “paid out millions to people just like you.” (The name of the company, mind you, was never mentioned during the infomercial.) A woman promised that, if I signed up for this offer, I would be seeing checks roll in to my mailbox for $500, $1000, or even $5000.
These were some hefty promises. Not for one second did I think these promises were true.
I lingered and watched some more of this colortini creation. At the very least, I wanted details about the product being offered. But she droned on. Two minutes later, the program cut away to paid actor–umm, I mean “actual customer”–testimonials. Each actor–sorry, “customer”–talked about receiving checks upward of $1000. I waited again, eagerly to see the product so I could relish in the fact that somewhere in America tonight, people were picking up the phone to buy that.
But the product never arrived. With only minutes left on the program, I picked up the phone and called the toll free number. (Yeah, I know. It gets better.)
While on the phone, I had to go through ten minutes of a recording detailing the same information that I had been listening to for the past 30 minutes. I would have hung up out of pure frustration, but–trust me on this–I had nothing better to do.
Finally, at the very end of the call when I am invited to press one to order the product, I am told that upon paying $35 for an initial set up fee, I could jump at the chance to sell vitamins. Vitamins. Also, in the fleeting moments of the call, I heard another “customer” testimonial mention the name of Don Lupre.
Totally curious as to what is being offered, I got out of bed and turned the computer on. I Googled “Don Lupre vitamins.” Google found over 94,000 possible hits. The first item on the first page details the entire scam and blows the cover off of Don Lupre’s promised miracle tonic. Furthermore, it shoots holes in the basic financial/economic feasibility of the promises made on his infomercial. It’s amazing that the snake charmers and medicine men can still squeeze a buck from someone, isn’t it?
It’s troubling, though, to think that people actually called the number tonight and paid their $35. And more will call the number and pay the fee in the nights to come. Only to plop down $35 bucks for a website that looks identical to 22,000 other sites already on the web.
Although, oddly enough, it took me less time to find out from Cash Call that borrowers end up paying $25,000 interest on a $5,000 loan. (Still haven’t gotten over that one, either. Talk about a cocktail party conversation piece…)
Anyway, mystery solved.
January 16, 2007 Update: Actually, the plot thickened. I came across the infomercial again as I was preparing to watch back-to-back reruns of Blind Date at 3 AM (insomnia, party of two, you’re table is ready…). I noticed that a different 800 number was listed. I called the new number and listened to another recorded ten minute pitch. The pitch provided the thinly veiled and disgusting details of multi-level marketing (MLM) all over it. I bet, though, there are thousands of people down on their luck or upset with their financial situation to pick up the phone and give this “program” a try. And probably without even researching it.
Topics: Personal Finance |
October 22nd, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I too got ripped off by Don Lupre and his slicksters. Do you know where can go from here. I’m out several thousand dollars as many others are. Any help would be appreciated.
Wayne
October 29th, 2007 at 4:03 am
[…] I posted a couple of articles relating to Don Lupre and his late night infomercials. Read up on my Don Lupre research to get acquainted with who this guy is and what he does to separate people from their money. (I […]