Yesterday I received a call from a company that claimed to be able to improve my business and reduce my taxes at the same time. Normally, I would have told a telemarketer like this to pound sand, but I was very interested to see what they had to offer. They asked if they could stop in sometime on Thursday and I said “sure!”
So today, a representative from International Profit Associates stops by. I will call him SAM. SAM proceeds to tell me that they will perform an analysis of my business. It will take a day and a half and they will reduce my taxes and improve my business overall. If they do not, I do not have to pay them. If they do, I owe them $950.
I repeatedly said that this sounds to good to be true. It sounds like a magic bullet. He responded that I had nothing to lose. Well.. After 14 years in business, I have heard that before so I told him that I would like to research his company and that I would need references. SAM absolutely refused to provide me with references. He said it would violate his privacy rules and break non-disclosure agreements. I said that surely if he had helped so many other businesses that some of them would be happy to sing their praises. He still declined.
At that point I told him that I would be in touch. I thought that he was going to put the hard sell on me but he shook my hand and left.
I immediately went to Google and did a search for International Profit Associates. Click below for the results:
If you click on the 4th one down, the one that starts with Ripoff Report you will see what I found. Click below to see that:
It certainly appears to be some sort of a scam and it looks like I dodged a bullet by declining this guy’s “Nothing to lose offer.”
So if SAM from International Profit Associates calls your small business, send him to my blog.
