by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
Hispanic Einstein "Customer" Providing " Testimonial" Was a Fiverr Actress Working a Paid Gig
The "customer" featured in a supposed review for Einstein Structured Settlements, a JRR Funding brand, was published on November 28, 2012, on the YouTube channel "Ryan Einstein," an alias for Ryan Blank from Owings Mills. This review, which falsely claimed that she sold her structured settlement to purchase oceanfront property in Miami and a Bentley, was still in use at the time of this post. The woman in the review is actually a paid actress named Fabiola Geremia, who was known as "pink koala" at the time of the video's release. She also created a 2011 YouTube video titled "How to Make Money on Fiverr.".
She donned the same outfit and hairstyle to hawk what seem to be Focal Fuel brain supplements as "Veronica" in one of the sample gigs on her Fiverr page at the time of posting, despite her assertion that she does not try lotions or pills. It appears Einstein chose not to pay the additional $20 required for her to wear a swimsuit. "Fabiola," "Veronica," or "Pinkkoala" also mentions that if you send her your product, she "will make an honest review about it for one minute, and for additional minutes, it's an extra five dollars." Elsewhere we found that Fabiola posts utilitarian videos on YouTube, dispensing advice on such subjects as how to cover up your "camel toe" and a PG-rated best way for ladies to shave their private parts, to the tune of K-Pop singer PSY's 2012 hit "Gangnam Style".
Another Einstein Structured Settlement "Testimonial" Was Bought and Paid For on BuyTestimonialservices.com
Another paid review for Einstein Structured Settlements is featured on both the YouTube account "Ryan Einstein" and the Einstein SS website. It showcases "Chip," who is also seen on a Dutch website "Buytestimonialservices.com." In video sample 5, the backdrop and jacket worn by "Chip" match those in the paid testimonial for Einstein, which reportedly cost $25.
Over two years since their publication, there has been no disclosure by the advertiser that the reviewer was a paid actor. This is curious given the clarity of the law.
A pertinent section of the Federal Trade Commission Act states:
"Connections between an endorser and the company that are unclear or unexpected to a customer must be disclosed. This includes any financial arrangement for a favorable endorsement, a position with the company, or stock ownership. Expert endorsements must be based on appropriate tests or evaluations performed by people who are experts in the subject matter."It should be emphasized that the paid "reviews" were first posted just a month after Einstein SS appeared on the scene and that the lack of disclosure applies to all relevant times that Einstein has been advertising its services, from which cash now pushers such as Fairfield Funding sought to benefit financially.
Einstein Structured Settlements has continuously posted the deceptive paid review on its company website review page for over 2 years and refers to the FIverr actress as one its "Hispanic clientle" (sic). Apparently Barbara Streisand was not available. She had enough triple blended consonants after "Yentl(e)"
Rescue Capital, a firm in the structured settlement secondary market at the time of publication, linked with Michael Upchurch of Delta Settlements, provided a contemporaneous commentary on December 13, 2012, on the Rescue Capital blog regarding what was revealed as "pinkkoala":
They wrote "Taking a look at the Einstein website under reviews, they have a video testimonial of a Hispanic client praising Einstein for their large lump sum. The young lady claims to have won the lottery but was just receiving $15,000 a month for life; Einstein helped her convert her payment into a lump sum so she could buy an oceanfront property in Miami and a Bentley.
At the end of the day individuals who sell their annuities, structured settlements and lotteries can do what they want with their lump sum, but gloating about buying an oceanfront property and a Bentley can hardly be considered a typical and noteworthy reason to sell your payments. This reason will certainly not satisfy the best interest determination by the judiciary across many States in the US".
Calls to Einstein structured settlements were being answered by Atlanta based Fairfield Funding and at times the voice mail of Fairfield Funding sales manager Rick Hazen earlier this year.
More information
January 10, 2013 Einstein Structured Settlements and Reasonable Doubt. "Ryan Einstein" (a/k/a Ryan Blank of Owings Mills Maryland) is presented as a Yale Law graduate with an LLM and in other postings flooding the Internet claiming he went to UCLA. His Dad, Barry Blank told me that he went to college in Charleston SC.
- Social Media Road Kill Museum | The Einstein Chronicles.
- Fake Structured Settlement Testimonials Could Be vIolating FTC Rules December 8, 2014
- To Buy Or Not Buy Video Testimonials Forbes Sean Rosensteel November 5, 2014. He says:
"If you’ve been in the market for video testimonials, you’ve probably spotted a few ads promising to boost your credibility by providing you with the best type of testimonial out there. So what’s the catch? Well, you’re going to have to lie to consumers – and pay anywhere from 5 to 80 dollars to accomplish it."
- Great article Are Paid, Fake Customer Testimonials a Good Idea for Your Business? by Marcus Sheridan. He has this to say about paid testimonials:
#1: They ain’t real: Call them what you want, but they ain’t real. A customer is a customer, an ‘actor’ is an actor….and in this case, an actor is a ‘fake’. Such a practice is the opposite of transparency in my opinion.
#2: How could a business owner be so desperate? In their ad copy ( in the linked article above), the company states that getting a customer testimonial is nearly ‘impossible’. If I may say in no uncertain terms, this is a total load of horse dung. In my 10 years of being in business, I’ve never had a happy customer tell me they weren’t willing to give a testimonial. There have been countless instances when my business partners and I have simply, in the midst of conversing with a customer, whipped out one of our little flip cameras and recorded a quick 60 second blurb. The effort, beyond actually buying the camera (these days you can just do it on your phone), is absolutely minimal.
#3: A rat smells like a rat: Consumers ain’t dumb. As humans, we all have a general ability to pick up another’s sincerity—or lack thereof for that matter. If you as a business owner elect to utilize fake testimonials, you very well may hurt your brand much more than you actually help it.
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