gojog
11-09-2005 16:22:53
I wasn't sure where to post this, so feel free to move it.
I am convinced that there are a number of sites, and individuals, who are engaging in outright fraud through their referral sites. It is vitally important that we, as a community of consumers and concerned citizens, prevent these individuals and sites from scamming. I was looking at Missouri's statutes that would apply to these situations, and I found the following.
Per section 407.400(5) of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, the following is subject to prosecution
[quoted71dd93dd8]Any plan or operation for the sale or distribution of goods, services or other property wherein a person for a consideration acquires the opportunity to receive a pecuniary benefit, which is not primarily contingent on the volume or quantity of goods, services, or other property sold or distributed or to be sold or distributed to persons for purposes of resale to consumers, and is based upon the inducement of additional persons, by himself or herself or others, regardless of number, to participate in the same plan or operation.[/quoted71dd93dd8]
Further,
[quoted71dd93dd8]Unconscionability. The courts will refuse to enforce a contract or any of its clauses if it finds that the contract or any of its clauses are unconscionable. Unconscionable contracts or clauses are generally indicated by 1) one-sided terms and 2) the agreement is the product of unequal bargaining power.
Y. Fraud. A contract in which the agreement of one party was induced by a material misrepresentation by the other party will not be enforced by a court.[/quoted71dd93dd8]
If anyone else is from Missouri, here is a link to file a complaint with the Attorney General
http//ago.missouri.gov/consumercomplaint.htm
Here is a list of every state's Attorney General contact person for Cyber-Crime and Consumer Complaints.
http//www.naag.org/issues/pdf/cybercrime-ccpc_list.pdf
theysayjump
11-09-2005 20:37:44
move from the trading post.
hehehhehe
11-09-2005 20:50:33
You guys should report that ipod shuffle lottery scam, for example. A scam as blatant as that will surely be investigated if there are enough complaints.
PoPoJiJo
12-09-2005 08:59:20
well your second quote is pretty general law and it doesn't really apply here basically if I remember correctly it basically means that a contract will be found to void if a person was to say if you don't sign this I will kill you daughter, burn down your house (those are pretty extreme examples but you get the point) or if one of the partys was intoxicated, or if it was you will give me your business and in return I will give you a pencil, either way the law is stated in such a way that they would only determine whether the contract is valid or not and im not sure how they would work out...I guess they could say that they would have to reimburse us for the offer costs but regardless the legal costs of hiring a lawyer and hashing this out would be alot more then it would be worth...
by they way this is what I can remember from a law course I took a long ass time ago so I could be wayyyyyyy wrong
doylnea
12-09-2005 09:14:08
I'm not sure who the OP is trying to sue, could you be more clear?
As for the quoted text, whether the MO Statute applies is a question of whether signing up for a trial offer is valuable consideration (and IMO probably isn't). Further, you'd have a hard time convincing the Court that there's a contract even present between the site-owner and anyone who signs up for the site, again IMO, so it would then be impossible for any of the fraud, duress, undue influence, incapacity, intoxication, etc defenses to apply.