Archive for the “General” Category

In a recent participation of a LinkedIn discussion forum, I ran across a pretty audacious posting that immediately raised my suspicions.  If it had only been posted once, I probably would have disregarded but it was posted 3 times in a forum where there were quite a few inexperienced people interested in publishing.  Her bio and book description screamed of red flags.   Her bio read like this:

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Ari is on a mission. She is traveling around the country empowering people with jobs and peace of mind.

Ari created 30 eBiznesses that will create millions of jobs, raise confidence and save millions of street children.  All of Ari’s books are the stuff that dreams are made of; her books create jobs, quick income and profound peace of mind.

For the last decade, Ari C. Hinnant has reached millions of people through her 30 books, radio network, speaking engagements, workshops, column, social networks and articles. Ari is a guest host on (Rumor Mill News Radio) that has over 1.2 million listeners and 17 million monthly visitors.

Ari is donating twenty five percent of every book to empower homeless street children.  Yes, there are literally 150 million plus children (Age 1 month to 18 years old) living on our global streets. Tonight while you are in your comfortable bed with a kitchen full of food, there are millions of children hungry, alone, exploited, sleeping in drainage ditches, under ground in abandon railroad shafts and buildings. No adults, no food, no safety, no love and no future.

Ari will be speaking everywhere!  All events benefit street children and women around the world. All events will supports the following organizations: Global Angels, City of Joy Foundation, Oprah’s Angel Network and Habitat for Humanity in empowering homeless women and street children.

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Her book description reads like this:

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The Author’s Guide to Selling 100,000 Books in 12 Months
(GUARANTEED OR MONEY BACK!)
E-Book by Ari C. Hinnant

Twenty five percent of ‘The Author’s Guide to Selling 100,000′ books profits will be donated to empowering homeless street children.

Ari’s newest book, The Author’s Guide to Selling 100,000 Books in 12 months’ will ignite all writers to release their formidable powers to create a masterful product and effortlessly sell over 100,000 copies in 12 months.

You may think 100,000 books is allot of books, but, Ari has sold and donated over a million books.  Jack Canfield has sold 144 million books and he was told he wouldn’t make it as a writer. My goal is to make your path of a writer effortless, profitable and fun.

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This is one of the posts minus all the “accomplishments” that was listed prior. Will sell 2 million books from someone I couldn’t find on Amazon.com or barely find on Google search?

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Sell 100,000 Books | Free gift to the amazing community

Namaste,

I’m a successful author. I expect to sell 2 million books next year. I would love to gift this amazing community with one of my best selling books.

The Author’s Guide to Selling 100,000 Books in 12 Months
http://changeyourlife.org/authors.guide.free.download.htm

My intention is not to spam this group, just to help other authors and speakers.

LOL, ari

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Bottom line, I did a quick Internet background check and website review.  This is what I found on changeyourlife.org and Ari Hillant.

I suspect Ari Hinnant of making questionable business claims and not who she says she is. I have done some checking out of sheer curiosity and audacity of the claims.

There is no solid realistic photo for this Ari whether you look at Ari’s Twitter or Facebook account. A Google search reveals no particular history for Ari Hinnant except that she is a 46-year old woman living in Louisville, KY. Anyone with such an extensive list of accomplishments and philanthropy would have some kind of Internet listings, records, and media news coverage.

For an author who has written 30 books and sold 1 million books but isn’t listed on Amazon.com or BN.com is very suspicious to me.

The twitter account has entirely spam-like messages with hard-to-believe claims.

And everywhere you go to pay on the changeyourlife.org website, it is either a Western Union cash payment, a suspended AlertPay’s Alertrax account (big red flag!), or some other obscure alternative payment company. Where is her merchant account as most reputable vendors use? Or even Paypal? Or Google Payments?  The Amazon payments I see is a very new service so we will see how long she keeps that service.

Curiously, nearly all testimonials are from gmail addresses or “free” email accounts. Not one testimonial email address comes from a paid domain?

And on the contact information, where is a mailing address? No street address or even a P.O. Box for such a successful person?

The whois record for changeyourlife.org is listed to a Bella Lenta at 860 Global Gate in Roswell, GA with an email address of coolzenist@gmail.com. However, Fulton County GA Property Records shows it is owned by Victor Stevenson. According to movoto.com, the house has been listed for sale since 2/3/2009. Can it be Victor who is stupid enough to pull this scam off? Or is he simply a victim where his street address is being used?

The IP addresses of her recent email to me and blog comments by HappyCarole indicate she is based in Louisville, Kentucky.  It is consistent with what I found in peoplefinders.com.

A Google search on “Bella Lenta” reveals no information of any real meaning so I am guessing it is also a fictitious name.

I don’t buy it. Lots of red flags in this very simple background check anyone can do on Google. I do not believe there is an Ari Hinnant that has written 30 books, sold 1 million of them, and is a philanthropist, coach, and author. Although I am not 100% certain, it smells like a fake and scam to me. And I have screen shots on my computer to back up this report even if the website gets taken down or “corrected”.

Let the buyer beware.

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On the night of September 23 at 12:07am, I received an email allegedly from Ari that said this:

Would you like to chat?  So, you can see I’m real.  Would like to see my 130 personal pictures of me and my family on Facebook?  I wonder why people take the time to spread hate and lies?

I will call you tomorrow.

Blessings,  ari

The email header which that email came from says this.

Return-Path: <SRS0=pYjU1Y=FO=changeyourlife.org=ari@yourhostingaccount.com>
Received: from psmtp.com (exprod7mx231.postini.com [64.18.2.184])
by new.ascendbeyond.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with SMTP id n8N47MGr009962
for <matt2@ascendbeyond.com>; Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:07:23 -0400
Received: from source ([65.254.254.73]) by exprod7mx231.postini.com ([64.18.6.14]) with SMTP;
Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:07:23 EST
Received: from mailscan08.yourhostingaccount.com ([10.1.15.8] helo=mailscan08.yourhostingaccount.com)
by mailout05.yourhostingaccount.com with esmtp (Exim)
id 1MqJ8T-0006VH-TA
for matt2@ascendbeyond.com; Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:07:21 -0400
Received: from impout02.yourhostingaccount.com ([10.1.55.2] helo=impout02.yourhostingaccount.com)
by mailscan08.yourhostingaccount.com with esmtp (Exim)
id 1MqJ8T-0005R2-N9
for matt2@ascendbeyond.com; Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:07:21 -0400
Received: from authsmtp06.yourhostingaccount.com ([10.1.18.6])
by impout02.yourhostingaccount.com with NO UCE
id k47M1c00207rVmq0000000; Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:07:21 -0400
X-EN-OrigOutIP: 10.1.18.6
X-EN-IMPSID: k47M1c00207rVmq0000000
Received: from 74-128-166-84.dhcp.insightbb.com ([74.128.166.84] helo=hptestPC)
by authsmtp06.yourhostingaccount.com with esmtpa (Exim)
id 1MqJ8T-0002Z2-9m
for matt2@ascendbeyond.com; Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:07:21 -0400
Message-ID: <A68C2C6F15A740BD88D17FAE168D4DFD@hptestPC>
From: “ari” <ari@changeyourlife.org>
To: <matt2@ascendbeyond.com>
Subject: Hi Matt
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:07:02 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”—-=_NextPart_000_001F_01CA3C46.5C4E40D0″
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6000.16480
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6000.16669
X-EN-UserInfo: 6645f217cc3689b91bbe6894aae1add7:44f492f8fc0bfc25a88f45ac2ce9676d
X-EN-AuthUser: ari@changeyourlife.org
Sender: “ari” <ari@changeyourlife.org>
X-EN-OrigIP: 74.128.166.84
X-EN-OrigHost: 74-128-166-84.dhcp.insightbb.com
X-pstn-neptune: 0/0/0.00/0
X-pstn-levels:     (S:30.41648/99.90000 CV:99.9000 FC:95.5390 LC:95.5390 R:95.9108 P:95.9108 M:97.0282 C:98.6951 )
X-pstn-settings: 1 (0.1500:0.1500) cv gt3 gt2 gt1 p
X-pstn-addresses: from <ari@changeyourlife.org> [db-null]
Received-SPF: neutral (new.ascendbeyond.com: 64.18.2.184 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of SRS0=pYjU1Y=FO=changeyourlife.org=ari@yourhostingaccount.com) receiver=new.ascendbeyond.com; client-ip=64.18.2.184; helo=psmtp.com; envelope-from=SRS0=pYjU1Y=FO=changeyourlife.org=ari@yourhostingaccount.com; x-software=spfmilter 0.97 http://www.acme.com/software/spfmilter/ with libspf2-1.0.0;

Although certainly not a crime or even a red flag in itself, what I find interesting is that she is using a free email program Windows Mail 6.0.  For such a “successful” person, one would think she would use something else.

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At 12:13am, I received a comment from HappyCarole:

Author : HappyCarole (IP: 74.128.166.84 , 74-128-166-84.dhcp.insightbb.com) E-mail : happy.carole32@gmail.com

Whois  : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=74.128.166.84

Comment:

Sorry Matt…  I have known Ari for five years.  She is real and doing amazing work.  Her whole family is on facebook.  I have read two of her books and have taken one class and she changed my life.

Her goal is to help homeless children around the world… what have you done to make the world better?

I feel sorry for people like you.

Happy | happy.carole32@gmail.com

If you look at the original email header from Ari and compare it to the comment sent by HappyCarole, you will find that all the messages come from the same IP Address at the same ISP, Insight Communications Co.  If there wasn’t proof before, I have now received more evidence that there is something fishy.  Both Ari’s email and HappyCarole’s comments come from the same IP address 74.128.166.84?  Very fishy indeed.

OrgName: INSIGHT COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY, L.P.
OrgID: INSIG-7
Address: 10200 Linn Station Road
Address: Suite 125
City: Louisville
StateProv: KY
PostalCode: 40223
Country: US

ReferralServer: rwhois://rwhois.insightns.com:4321/

NetRange: 74.128.0.0 – 74.143.255.255
CIDR: 74.128.0.0/12
NetName: INSIGHT-COMMUNCATIONS-CORP
NetHandle: NET-74-128-0-0-1
Parent: NET-74-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS0.INSIGHTNS.COM
NameServer: NS1.INSIGHTNS.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 2006-04-07
Updated: 2006-05-17

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At 12:13am, I received another comment from HappyCarole:

Author : HappyCarole (IP: 74.128.166.84 , 74-128-166-84.dhcp.insightbb.com) E-mail : happy.carole32@gmail.com

Whois  : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=74.128.166.84

Comment:

One last thought.  How can Ari be a scam artist if she provides a 100% money back guarantee on all her books?  I think Matt is jealous…. how many books has he written? How many children has he helped?

So so sad…

Please note the same IP address.

Also note that all 3 messages occurred at 12:07am, 12:13am, 12:19am.  What is the likelihood that there are actually 2 different people posting 3 messages from the same IP addresses withing 6 minutes of each other?

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Because of the recent discovery of the ISP and IP address Ari is using, according to peoplefinders.com I will admit that Ari C. Hinnant does appear to exist but seems to be based in Louisville, Kentucky.

Also note the writing style of this person and compare it to my writing style.  Would you say there is a bit of a contrast in style and sentence structure?  I don’t even consider myself a professional writer!  For such an allegedly successful author, Ari and HappyCarole have very similar writing styles.

This article was first posted on Matthew S. Chan Blog.

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Last week, Mary Krchma of Webster University’s Alumni Programs unexpectedly contacted me via email asking if I was interested in submitting my titles to their Alumni Authors Program.  Being a graduate of Webster University, I was eligible for this benefit.

I asked her how she found me and how she knew I was a Webster University graduate who had published and authored books. After all, there are literally tens of thousands of alumni and I have never made any effort to stay in contact with them.  She says that they find out about alumni who become authors through a variety of ways such as doing searches on Google, referrals, or word-of-mouth.

I suppose it benefits the school’s public image to know that many of their graduates have gone on to publish or author books. Seeing this as a mutual benefit, I agreed to join the Webster University Alumni Authors Program. The additional exposure can only help my publishing business.

This email came at a time when I was preparing for the dual announcement of my newly released books, “TurnKey Publishing” and “TurnKey Publisher’s Audio Publishing Handbook”.

I have been invited to their Alumni Author Book Signing Event in St. Louis on October 9, 2009. I told her I have not decided whether I would attend but I would seriously consider it. She tells me it is a fun and great networking event. I am leaning towards going because it will be an all-new experience for me.

Welcome to the brand-new TurnKey Publisher’s Blog!

Because of the fast-moving nature of the publishing industry, this blog will allow me to better comment and update you on my views of the publishing industry.

Also, as my new educational products are published, this blog will allow me to keep those products current.

As this blog is being launched, I am working on the 2nd draft and revision of my TurnKey Publishing book manuscript.  I had planned on printing and publishing the book by the end of June 2008 (2nd quarter) but it won’t happen.  Because of new events and information I have learned, I have to once again go back into the manuscript to update and freshen it up.

If there are any ideas or suggestions you have regarding improving the quality of this blog, I would welcome them.  Feel free to email me.