877-265-0245

The company uses at least 3 different names: United Marketing Consultants, LLC;American Marketing Strategies, LLC; and "Debt Free Rights."  It operates out of Phoenix, Arizona.

If you are calling (or are being called by) this number for relief of your own debt, you will be screened for eligibility and then forwarded to a company called "Rise Above Debt Relief."  I know little about Rise Above Debt Relief, but I believe it is a legitimate debt settlement company.

If you are being called by this number to start a website business, be forewarned that IT IS A SCAM.  The company conducts aggressive marketing campaigns (via telephone) to sell "work from home" website businesses for hundreds to thousands of dollars that the company knows in advance will generate very little or no revenue.  The company has sold these scam business websites to probably hundreds of victims.  The bogus business websites are under the "debtfreerights.com" domain.  My "client," who was a victim of this scam, is an 82 year-old widow on fixed income.  She was persuaded to purchase a website business and advertising for over $4700 that did not generate a single dollar of revenue.  She paid, for example, over $2400 for advertising that the company turned around and purchased from another company (www.trafficexcess.com) for under $20.

If you have purchased a business website from United Marketing Consultants, American Marketing Strategies, or "Debt Free Rights" and wish to be involved in a possible class-action lawsuit, please email me at:
debtfreescam@yahoo.com
Information such as the amount you paid for your business (including advertising) and the amount of revenue (if any) that your business generated would be greatly appreciated.

You can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at:
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov
Please note that the FTC does not recover losses for individuals.

Facts for consumers about fraudulent internet business opportunities can
be viewed at:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec05.shtm

You can also file a complaint with your state attorney general.

To the people who keep getting calls from these companies, please report them to the FCC.  Keep a call long and report every time they call.  I have made two complaints so far, and if they call again I will get my lawyer involved.  He is a shark, and we have enough information linking them all together to sue.  United marketing Consultants, American Marketing Strategies, and Debt Free Rights are all affiliated together.  Start doing reverse searches on the company names in google.  You will see that its no coincidence that the address for American Marketing Strategies is 3033 N. Central Avenue, and the address for Debt Free Rights is 3003 N. Central Avenue.  You can always call the office number listed for these companies and ask them to take you off the list.  If they say they will but the calls continue, even better!  Keep a detailed log, and sue them.  With enough complaints they can be shut down.

I actually signed up for a website with this company, and after reading all the reports about it, I called them and asked to cancel my account. The guy talked me through what was happening in the news, what is happening with ripoffreport.com, and I think this has the potential to be legit. The website fits within all the standards of a good website; no popup ads when you try to close it, no trapping on the page, they have a terms of use and a privacy policy, a contact us form, etc.. Just be careful with how much you choose to invest, and don't let them sell you for thousands of dollars. Do your research, don't necessarily rely on the complaints of people who are disgruntled or even worse, investigated. Ripoffreport.com itself is worth investigaing. Check out ezripofflawsuit.com. And here's the other thing: if you don't have money to invest, then for goodness' sake, don't invest it. That's just common sense.

Hi, Laura,

I am the one who posted earlier (on July 14) about "Debt Free Rights" (aka United Marketing Consultants, LLC or American Marketing Strategies, LLC).  If you went ahead and purchased a website from them, I'd be curious if you ever make a dime from your website.  Please keep us posted.

My complaint is not that the websites pose problems for users who browse them.  My complaint is that the above company sells these supposedly money-making websites plus advertising for hundreds to thousands dollars
knowing full well that the people they sell them to will never get their money back.  I have heard from several people who have been taken for everything they have put into their website business, but I have yet to hear from a single person who has made even a dime from their website.  I concede that a few website purchasers might get one or two valid sign-ups on their site and make $25 or $50 (if the operators of "Debt Free Rights" actually pay out as they claim they're supposed to -- since they screen the sign-ups, there's no way to know), but out of probably hundreds who have purchased these sites, I doubt there is a single person who has made more than he or she invested in the website plus advertising.

I point out, too, that "Debt Free Rights" has violated both federal (FTC) regulations (see, e.g., http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec05.shtm
and note Example 3 in particular)
and state statutes for most states (including mine) in the way they sell their businesses.

I wish you good luck in your website business.  Again, PLEASE let us know if you make a dime of revenue from it, let alone any profit.

Follow-up to my reports of 14 Jul 2009 and 2 Sep 2009 above:

After I submitted a report about United Marketing Consultants LLC (aka "Debt Free Rights") to the Arizona state Office of the Attorney General, I was contacted by the company.  The company denied any wrongdoing and agreed to a settlement. Thus my "client" and I no longer have grievance with the company.

Rise Above Debt Relief will get you into a LOT of trouble.