The Arizonia Republic reported a company that relies on get-rich-quick schemes.
A Tempe company has agreed to pay $250,000 to the Arizona Attorney General's office to settle allegations of misleading customers about the amount of money they could make on Internet companies.
The attorney general's office received about 20 complaints from customers of Smart Advertising Solutions LLC, which sells business opportunities that allow people to work at home selling various products and services, said Andrea Esquer, press secretary for the attorney general's office.
"They were most concerned that they were sinking money into the business and weren't making the money promised to them," she said.
The company claimed that customers could earn up to $10,000 a week or more, she said.
Bill Fautsch and Thomas Kelly, principals of the company, declined to comment.
Under the settlement, the company agreed to pay the attorney general's office $225,000 in civil penalties and $25,000 for the cost of the investigation and to stop claiming customers can earn a certain amount of money unless they can prove they have customers who earned that much.
Smart Advertising Solutions began sending luring potential customers through direct mailings that began in February 2004.
Esquer said people need to be wary of mailings and signs on streets advertising opportunities to make lots of money on the Internet.
"There is this idea you can make quick money, and the Internet is this gold mine. You really have to understand the Internet to make money. They (such companies) prey on people who don't understand how the Internet works," she said.
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