UPDATE 6/4/09

I have been advised to make some changes/updates to this post. I will be editing any/all instances where one could construe my opinion for fact, and placing the word alleged, or allegedly in a very clear manner.

Furthermore, I do apologize if anyone in the course of reading this article took my opinion as fact.. Please note that the only fact is that after watching the video, my first instinct was to do a google search for Bob Reina Scam or Talk Fusion Scam which turned up enough results for me to be concerned for my friend who paid for this service and was trying to get me to join.

Here is a list of things you should consider checking into before purchasing/joining the Talk Fusion solution/team. In no way am I insinuating that these questions are representative of fact… you should ask yourself these types of questions before making a decision to purchase any type product, or becoming a business “partner” with any company!

Do they accurately represent their product in their selling points? Does their refund policy provide me with any protection if I do not like the service? Does the Patriot Act require me to give out my Mother’s maiden name? Does this company have a solid reputation? Can I really make a million dollars if I do this? What would Jesus do?

UPDATE 6/3/09

I have been contacted by the Talk Fusion Attorney’s requesting that I remove this post. Attached is the letter from his Attorney, as well as the rebuttal by Mr. Reina. I will not be removing this post unless I have a court order, but I will be updating it accordingly as things progress.

I do find it interesting that they find it necessary to call me at work and include my employer in the letter address… they could have easily gone to http://whois.sc/jakebohall.com and obtained my personal contact information.

Later – Just in case anyone was wondering, I received a “video” email that had a screenshot of this page with a link (to a page very similar to this one) – http://app.talkfusion.com/talkFusionStudio/answer/viewsolution.asp?OTg5NA==_332001_1 I’m using a different page so as to protect the innocence of the “agent” who initially brought this to my attention.

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UPDATE 6/1/09

I received a call from Bob Reina today. He was trying to give me a friendly warning/chance to remove this post, as he claims it to be slanderous to his name/business. In all fairness, I think it is important to say that I personally have no knowledge/proof that this is any type of scam, and I wrote the script above as a satirical piece strictly to express my opinions.

FYI to the world.. this is my blog.. this is my opinion…

Bob informed me that one of his 2 attorneys will be sending me a letter to take it down, and that will be followed by a suponea to appear in court in Florida. I did invite Mr. Reina to leave any comments he wishes on this site, and to please correct me in any area that I may be wrong.

Since I do think there are aspects of Talk Fusion that are questionable.. such as the fact that they allegedly don’t actually send a video email, and thats what they allegedly claim to do… and they seem to be allegedly pushing some type of MLM.. and they ask for your Mothers Maiden name (which Mr. Reina explained he has to do by law under the Patriot Act) I’m leaving this article here to encourage anyone researching this topic to do some digging on their own.

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Original Post

So, to explain the cat video from Friday.. I was contacted by a client/prospect who’s son had just allegedly signed him up for Talk Fusion, and I was trying to explain the concept of clicking a link from an email, and landing on a webpage. I was going to create a video to prove my point, but decided that it wasn’t worth my time.. and I failed in trying to upload it :.(

I thought it would be fun to share the script we wrote though, just for the hell of it. Please note that I think the simplicity in using Talk Fusion to upload a video, and quickly send out a link to a formatted page with the video embedded is pretty cool. I just have major beefs with the entire money side of the business.. the whole MLM (multi-level marketing) and Pyramid scheme alleged nature of Talk Fusion and Bob Reina. I wish they would relaunch/rebrand the service, or sell it to a company like iContact so the simple nature can be used without all the alleged negativity being associated with it.

Here’s that transcript (if someone wants to make the video, I’ll post it):

HI !!! my name is Jake, and I’m here today to tell you how easy it is to send out video emails.

Some of you may ask yourselves: “Why would I listen to you, Jake, when I can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars getting a service like Talk Fusion to create a video for me?”

The short answer: my way is free and doesn’t involve having to ask everyone you know if they want to be part of an alleged marketing scheme.

There are no upfront fees, no monthly fees, and no crippling guilt that keeps you up at night wondering how things went so horribly wrong.

So how can something so complex as sending a video email be done for free? Simple… YOUTUBE.. this groundbreaking technology allows users to upload and host videos for FREE. McDonalds is in business today because nobody has started a burger joint that gives the sandwhiches away for free…

What is more amazing is that youtube has a proven duplication technique that allows your friends and their friends to upload their videos for free as well.. the exact same strategy that Ray Crok used to build McDonalds… hell, even strangers can do it.

You may be asking yourself.. why would I use this FREE Youtube service which is the largest video hosting site on the internet and owned by major business giant Google instead of paying money to use a service allegedly owned by Bob Reina, who has an alleged reputation of scamming people?

Another short answer… because its smart.

How easy is it to signup for youtube? Just give them an email address and password. How easy is it to sign up for talk fusion? Just give them your name address, social, mothers maiden name, and credit card number… why do they need your mothers maiden name again?

What about those pretty landing pages that Talk Fuzion gives you that lets you put your branding around the video? Youtube doesn’t have that..

You’re right, youtube just gives you the ability to put the videos on your own website, or frankly wherever you want without having to send traffic to a talk fusion website.. oh youtubes, thats so smart.

But talk fuzion is allegedly about sending video emails…. right?? WRONG.. talk fuzion allegedly sends a picture that looks like a video, and when a user clicks on it, it takes you to a webpage that hosts the video… This is because you cannot send video in an email… they are allegedly lying.

If you aren’t a technical minded person, or if you’re not familiar with how marketing schemes work, you might think this is a business opportunity waiting to happen.. i tell my friends, they send me money, and in 8 months I have a million dollars.. The only person that works for is the person at the top of the multi-level marketing scheme, everyone else gets screwed.

So.. what do we do now? Well, you can stop sending out these alleged fake video emails, and you can try to protect your friends from being victims by raising awareness. If you send this video to your friends, you won’t make any money, but you might save your friends some.

Lastly, remember the rules of a pyramid/mlm scheme.. If you pay money so you can convince other people to pay money, and in the process you are giving away something that can be had for free… you are a part of this broken, and often criminal system.

You may have heard of systems like ASD Cash Generator, and Bernie Madoff’s system that made many people millions of dollars. What do they both have in common? People paid in to the scheme and some people made a lot of money, but others didn’t.

They have one more thing in common, they both have faced criminal charges in court.

If you still love Talk Fusion, let me point your to their refund policy. They allegedly offer a full refund (minus fees of course) if you cancel within 3 days.. It is important to note that they alledgedly require 5 days written notice to cancel the service.. So, if you just curious, send in a cancellation letter, and then 2 days later signup for the service… WTF?