Thank you, ezexpo!

[spydrman]

Since I see quite a few "Thank you" threads, I thought I would start my own. On this week a year ago, I cycled on the $500 cash matrix at ezexpo.com. I don't even care about that $500 anymore, I believe strongly that i'm entitled to my $157.50 that I paid to sign up for this list. This site was built upon lies and false promises. I was a pretty cautious person before joining this because we all know the internet is full of scams.

After reading ezexpo's message board, it was pretty positive at the time I signed up in February 2003. Then I went on to read their "terms of service," which is a joke to date. It stated that the site wasn't illegal, that should have thrown out a red flag but it didn't. It stated once you cycled, you are guaranteed to receive the free prize.

Well to date, that has been a complete lie. I cycled and never received my free prize or a refund. I think it's totally wrong and Shelby and Damion both should be working to pay back our refunds. They claim they don't have the money, but we all know Shelby collected money orders for the longest time before closing up all three of his sites, which he claimed he didn't own. ezexpo.com, nvexpo.com, and cyclenow.com (which never started, but was going to be another ezexpo clone just like nvexpo). Damion claimed he lost about $10,000. Well sorry to say, but you should be working to pay off a lot more than $10,000 for all the people you scammed. Shelby or Damion never offered refunds upon closing, and furthermore, Shelby left all the cycled people hanging upon closing his site. So much for his terms of service considering he committed fraud against all his so-called customers.

On to the lawsuits. I think it's prevented hundreds or even thousands of people from falling into this trap and being scammed. Without the lawsuits, Shelby would have probably found another merchant account to process credit card orders, and continue to collect money orders. That's the good part, the lawsuit made more people aware of what was happening and doomed ezexpo and many other matrix sites to eventually close shop.

The bad part about the lawsuit. It still hasn't helped us customers already stuck in this scam. We're still out the money we put into this thing. Besides, the hope of us people who payed by money order ever getting that back is very slim now.

Just a quick question, what ever happened to your claim of Shelby being considered a 'fugitive'? He's been long gone without a trace for quite some time, unless CantinaRec is in fact Shelby, the person on http://groups.msn.com/ezexpoinc - I can't imagine someone sticking up for this guy after he scammed everyone and then took off. Also, why isn't Shelby and Damion both being held personally responsible for scamming us?

So far, I haven't really seen any justice for all of us who were scammed by these people.

[concerned]

Maybe everyone that got scammed by matrix sites should be thanking ezexpo. Watchdog would have never started this whole campaign if the Ezexpo owners would have just made a small refund. I guess the greed did them in. In the end, I'm sure that someone else would have started this, but it wouldn't have grown into what it is today. I bet now that they wished they would have refunded Watchdog, because their scam could have continued just a little longer.

[MatrixWatch]

spydr,
You ask some great questions and point out some good issues. The lawsuits are still in their way through the courts (check out the 'Lawsuits' section of the forums page). The lawsuit against EzExpo and their various processors was dismissed by one judge in the Orange County Superior Court. The pay companies did not argue that the matrix sites were legal, or that the ebooks made them legitimate in any way. Rather, their illegality was assumed. What the pay processors DID argue against were the allegations in the lawsuit that they were liable for the matrix scam. This ruling is being appealled, and here is why we are optimistic about what will come out of the appeal:

1) Since the judge made that decision, two other motions to dismiss other matrix lawsuits were denied. In other words, the opposite of what happened to our EzExpo case happened with the VarietyMatrix.com case and the PayRequest.com case. This shows that this is a cutting-edge area of the law.

2) The reasoning for our so-called "weak" argument that the pay companies should be held responsible for the matrix scam has now been taken up in a recent FTC action against pay processors. If it is good enough for the FTC, it is good enough for us.

You had it right when you said we are in a better position now because of the lawsuits. There are several matrix sites out there that the customers decided not to take legal action against. The result is that the matrix sites have closed down and run off (just like EzExpo), but the customers left behind have little to no hope of recovering their losses..

The bottom line is that the matrix owners duped thousands of people out of their money through false promises and shady, misdirected advertising. Just as predicted by MSNBC, human history, and MatrixWatch.org the mathematics crashed the lists and the owners ran for the hills. However, those of us who were wise enough to band together and take legal action now stand on a strong case to recoup as much of our losses as possible.

Hopefully, this will be a testimony for those who are currently involved in a matrix sites which they think will last forever.

Don't get trapped in the matrix! Bail out now before someone pulls the plug on you!!