A blog dedicated to exposing and publicizing companies and cowards who deliver virtual low blows and sucker punches.
I’ll begin with my “favorite” for the title:
Push Traffic Inc. and its owner John P. Raygoza of Los Angeles, CA.
Raygoza owns a number of companies, most of which perpetrate the same “phishing” or “vishing” scams on unsuspecting, aspiring, internet marketers.
Push Traffic’s MO is to have an employee contact customers of a “respected” internet marketer. The unfortunate contact has, at some point, provided telephone contact information. This, of course, opens the question about how reputable the marketer was, and how Push Traffic got your information from him?
Push Traffic’s caller identifies himself as the marketer from whom (you) made the purchase. You have no way of knowing the caller’s real identity. If you question it, he’ll tell you whatever he thinks you’ll accept in order to allay any doubt – in my case “the online video (marketer’s name) is an actor hired for marketing purposes.”
That settled, the caller begins showing concern for your online business efforts, and when you indicate you’re struggling for lack of knowledge mainly, as he’s already sure you are, he offers his personal “help.” All of this is happening in a very pleasant and relaxed chat with your “new buddy.”
Now the questions about your ability to access the credit you’ll require “for expenses like advertising” are slipped in. If you give him the number of your credit card, he will put you on hold while he checks with the bank whether they would extend your credit a little if necessary. (he has an “in” with the banks, you know) On his return to you on the call, he confirms that the bank will be happy to cooperate.
His next real “move” is to tell you what he will help you to do, but that there are 2 conditions because he needs to protect himself, and he certainly deserves some payment!
First the “PROMISE”!!! You’ll be making thousands in no time, and must promise that when you’ve made your first $50,000, you will send HIM a check for $5,000 – now that seems VERY fair, eh?
Second condition is that in order to protect his trademark material and methods you will have to sign a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement which his general manager, Ted Molina, will email or fax for you to sign and return. This must be done quickly since it’s near the end of the day and the office staff will be leaving for the day soon.
All right! All that remains is for you to confirm your agreement with the guy who will call in the next few minutes, and talk with a woman named Christian tomorrow, who will get the process started. And of course, your buddy, the caller, will also be talking with you tomorrow! The fellow who calls to confirm has an accent so thick you can barely understand him – but, he clearly states that you will be responsible for the maintenance of your own sites. Hell, that’s no problem, and he must have said little else you didn’t already know.
You’re feeling a bit uneasy about the whole thing for some reason, but looking forward to getting started. Because you notice, when you look more closely at the agreement, that your credit card information is on it, you decide that it might be wise to check with the bank whether there have been any charges to your account.
Surprise! The company whose name is on the agreement has put through a number of smaller transactions which total more than the credit limit on your account! When you tell the customer service type that those charges shouldn’t be there, he says nothing he can do – talk to the company – they had your number and that was all that was required – didn’t even matter if the name wasn’t the same as on the card. When you ask them why they raised your credit limit without your permission, which is illegal, he says they didn’t – you’re in overdraft and will be paying overdraft charges each month.
Now you’re beginning to see just how royally screwed you may be, and how seriously you’ve likely erred in trusting the guy who called. Still hopeful of a “happy ending,” you give them the opportunity to call and discuss what’s happened, thinking it can’t possibly be as bad as it feels. But it is.
Christian DOES call; she wants you to choose one of 3 mickey mouse templates, which she will alter for you, and you now have to pay Push Traffic $118 “bi-annually” (not monthly – a reader pointed out my error) to host the ready made site for you! When you say “sorry but that’s not what was promised, and I have already purchased domains, hosting and autoresponders – plus I have financial concerns, ” she pauses, then says “well, you have to choose a site so I can start working on it for you.” You say no, you need to talk to your buddy. She says she’ll talk to him and he’ll call.
You wait another 18 hours – no calls; by now you’ve read the “agreement” more carefully, and realize that the only way out of this expensive mistake may be to comply with the refund terms spelled out in the agreement you signed (85% if cancelled by registered mail within 3 business days) and cut your losses. You do that.
What you don’t know, is that it wouldn’t matter what you do or don’t do. Push Traffic’s GM Ted Molina, owner John Raygoza and their scumbag lawyer Fitzpatrick are conmen who have no intention of refunding anybody, even when they promise to – their dispute of your chargeback demand is on the grounds that you received services, knew what you were getting and didn’t comply with their terms – ABSOLUTE LIES AND THEFT.
- I RECEIVED nothing
- I cancelled when I found out what they were offering (after they had taken my money)
- I sent a cancellation by registered mail within 48 hours
You will pursue the refund that is owed you for months, without so much as an email in response. Does a scammer admit he defrauded you, then happily return your money? Not very likely. There is more to the story, but the end result is the same. You’ll likely be “whistling in the wind” for what’s rightfully yours.
One thing you can do is read on HIS PERSONAL BLOG the bragging this jerk does about how he spends the money he has stolen from all of us (52 that I know of personally, at last count).
February of 2011
Raygoza’s personal blog, as well as all his business sites with the exception of “SalesMango,” have been taken down – replaced by who knows what?
This is a work in progress. I’m hoping others who have been scammed by ANY online company or individual will comment or contact me to contribute a post. There are MANY out there who will take your money and give you garbage, or nothing, in return. Reputable companies (and there are also many of those) will work with you to see that you’re satisfied with their products or service, or failing that, will honor their money back guarantees . If you tell me how I can help – if only by getting your story “out there” I’ll try to work with you.
READERS’ COMMENTS:
Ann 2010/10/04 at 22:01 | In reply to roger.
Roger, I hope you’ll get in touch with Jonathon Levy ASAP. He’s representing many of the people Raygoza has scammed, using the method you describe – multiple transactions on your account when you haven’t knowingly given him permission. Helluva way to make money – thousands of dollars for nothing but maybe an hour on the phone!
A despicable little creep!
roger 2010/10/04 at 17:41
This guy on the phone called me about setting up a online business – he said I will make you so much money, blah blah. He was the best phone scammer I ever heard; he must have worked in some serious boiler rooms. Anyway, he said he was not charging my card – just needed to know if it was good in case they wanted to do business. Soon as he got the # he hit my card 5 times in 5 minutes. I hung up and was suspicious so I called the bank and they said yep he is trying to hit it over and over. I told them the story and they put a stop to it. These people are ugly rip offs and totally deserve to be burned at the stake.
Hi Ann, fantastic post. I have been away for awhile so I haven’t visited your blog. I must say, you deserve a medal for pushing forward on this.
As I read your posts and the comments I am in awe that John Raygoza, David Sipes and the like are still operating. Every story gets more and more bizarre. I cannot even view his blog…it makes me want to vomit. John Raygoza and his criminal friends are going to really have their 15 min of fame when they are carted off to jail.
As you know John Raygoza’s victims are now fighting back with a lawsuit. I think I might even head down to LA just to see these bastards hand cuffed. I CAN HARDLY WAIT! Keep up the great work. Sandy
Ann July 13, 2010 at 21:42
Hi Sandy, thanks. Unfortunately since it’s a civil suit for damages, I don’t think there’s a question of handcuffs yet LOL
But with any luck there’ll be a bailiff standing by at the end of the suit (when we win it) to take these crooks into custody on criminal charges.
Gene July 5, 2010 at 21:24
I too had a promising future if I went with incfortune and success rate. The latest extraction of funds was based on the premise that I did not have to do anything because I was paying for their services and that I would be receiving cheques in the mail ‘within a couple of weeks’. It was also stated that at that time I will pay back ‘their’ portion (matched contribution) at that time also.
Don’t get me wrong and judge me when I said I did not have to do anything, I had every intention (and still do) to get things done with my new found knowledge that was shown me when I met with Raygoza and gang. This was 2 months before Christmas 09. I had already paid once at this point and I will admit it was good value. Fast forward a couple of months, I lose my mother to cancer as well as undergo a hernia surgery and I have to make accommodations for my father to live with me which was a significant change. It was at this time that I got a second call from one of incfortune’s rep’s.
It hasn’t even been a full year yet, I am now ready to get going, I go to log in to my members area at successrate.com and it is not there anymore. Can anybody explain that to me? I can’t seem to get any response to my inquiries. Can somebody else enlighten me please?
During all this trouble that I had just mentioned previously, I had still managed to pay down some but not all of the debt incurred paying for my initial training and mentoring with incfortune. Then I received another phone call and the sales rep had all the goods on me, ie. who I was, credit card numbers, how much I had spent to this date and what I had accomplished thus far. I had clearly stated that I was not in a position yet to actively pursue any time table in order to establish my on-line presence as I still had some family issues and loose ends to take care of.
That was when I was promised that I did not have to do anything this time around, everything was going to be done for me, all I had to do was cash the cheques and pay off my debt even before there were any interest charges. Needless to say, I am still paying down my debt today.(It was only a HIGH 4 figure amount this time)
Douglas 2010/06/07 at 19:24
Like so many people I was scammed to the tune of several thousands of dollars by this crook and his gang — and they continue.
A few months ago, I received a call from Raygoza’s office that things would change for the better as I was being promoted from VIP status to some type of partnership with Raygoza.
Three times the caller stopped the conversation to meet with Raygoza. Finally the caller said it was approved–except for one detail–I was to pay $30,000 more for the promotion.
The man is dishonest; his salespeople are horrendous liars. Hopefully the current LAPD investigation will stop the fraud and put John Raygoza and his phony companies. i.e. Push Traffic and Inc Fortune, permanently out of business.
Debra 2010/03/03 at 10:00
I too was ripped off by the Pushtraffic scam for the amount of $18,000, in April 2009. I did receive a small amount of coaching from one of their mentors (joke), suddenly he was no longer with the company and they went to webinars which were suppose to be with JP Raygoza himself, but he was too busy vacationing to run the webinar so he has turned it over to David Sipes.
What my complaint is, is the lying that they have no problem with doing to get your money. I was promised a website that they would push traffic to, which never happened. As of now I have a half assed webpage because my coach was fired. JP Raygoza himself called my house night and day to see if I could give him some credit card numbers, (I had told him I didn’t have them with me and I was going to have to contact the bank to get new cards.) He had Harwood Hamilton, Rob Marino, and Robert Tarentino calling me daily also. This went on for about 2 weeks.
JP Raygoza personally promised me that I was going into a joint venture with him and that he did not want to lose money, so he would make sure I would not lose money. Like a fool I gave them 3 credit card numbers and on the first they went over the limit by $2400, on the other two they maxed the cards out completely, all the while I repeatedly said no more than $10,000.
I recently contacted Mr. Raygoza to find out what happened to Pushtraffic, he was very rude and asked when I signed up and I told him and he said well your six months are up, it’s not my problem. I then told him that his contract stated that they would work with me for a year or until money invested was recouped. He did not like this and we argued and he hung up on me.
I refuse to let this go without a fight and have contacted the Computer Crimes Division and reported the scam Raygoza is selling. He has his own Boiler Room setup (his favorite movie by the way). I hope that those of you out there also scammed by this monster will do the same. My heart goes out to all his victims because I know personally how devastating it is to be so deep in debt.
Donna 2010/03/03 at 00:59
Yes, I was scammed – 3 times in a few weeks. They just kept saying that the services would be better each time and that PPC advertising would be included. I didn’t even get the website they promised. I was supposed to get newbie training but the first 2 questions I asked the coach he couldn’t answer. He told me to look on the internet for videos of instructions! Why would anyone pay $15,000 and then be told to get answers from somewhere else? I demanded my money back, but they refused.
I reported them to the Los Angeles Police Dept. The detective told me he had already received about 50 complaints about them and that there was a criminal investigation. So he gave me the email address for the Computer Crimes Division who are doing this investigation. Please pass it on to everyone who reports this. They have lots of companies doing this scam – all owned by John Paul Raygoza. They are Push Traffic, Inc Fortune, Dotintel and Success Rate. The email to report them to the police is 30146@lapd.lacity.org
Chris 2010/03/02 at 18:54
I truly hope your website helps the cause, Ann.
not important On July 28, 2011 at 00:12
Ann On July 28, 2011 at 08:05
). I’ve used a couple of the methods and they do work. He also has a scam section where we filed a report on the Raygoza scams.
Raygoza's Low Blows and Sucker Punches 