Pony Of Prey Blog

If you are a consumer looking to run your own business perhaps you have gone online and reviewed the many options out there? Perhaps you were over whelmed with the choices. Choice is good in America and one of the many hallmarks of free enterprise. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) realizes this and routinely checks to make sure that the sellers of Business Opportunities or “Biz Ops” are toeing the line and not committing any fraud.

Occasionally these Biz Op Sweeps do catch those who are less than ethical in their business dealings to protect your money and all consumers of business opportunities. Here below is an excerpt of the enforcement actions taken by the FTC;

“Biz Op sweeps many with other federal and state law enforcement partners, to combat persistent business opportunity scams violating the Franchise Rule, such as those involving the sale of E.g., Project Telesweep (1995); Operation Missed Fortune (1996); Project Trade Name Games (1997); Project Vend Up Broke (1998); Project Bizillion$ (1999); Project Busted Opportunity (2002); and Project Biz Opp Flop (2005). In addition to joint law enforcement sweeps, Commission staff has also targeted specific business opportunity ventures such as 900 numbers (Project Buylines 1996); vending (Project Yankee Trader 1997); seminars (Operation Showtime 1998); medical billing (Project House Call 1998); and Internet-related services (Net Opportunities 1998). vending machines, rack displays, public telephones, Internet kiosks, and 900-number ventures, among others.”

Some Biz Ops such as vitamin sales have said that the FTC only goes after them due to the strong Pharmaceutical Industry Lobby. Other sectors in the Biz Op Industry complain about similar attacks. Nevertheless, the FTC’s job is to foster competition in the market place while protecting the consumer and we all hope they will live up to their promise. Consider all this in 2006.

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According to recently released UK government statistics, the
number of mortgage repossession orders in England and Wales has
risen by 66% compared with the same three month period in 2004
(”Mortgage possession statistics”, publ. UK Department for
Constitutional Affairs, 2005). This is equivalent to 20,000
repossession orders over 3 months. The DCA figures are based on
twice yearly statistics produced by the UK’s Council of Mortgage
Lenders.

Since the slowdown in house prices in 2004, there has been a
commensurate increase of the number of owners being taken to
court for mortgage arrears, rising by over a half to nearly
30,000. Most regions of the UK experienced a decreased rate of
growth from an average of over 20% at the start of 2004, to just
over 2% at the beginning of 2005. Many economists believe that
that this gloomy economic outlook is not as bad as it seems,
because the underlying economic factors such as unemployment are
still strong, leading to a housing market slowdown rather than a
crunch. Consumer confidence is also high, helped by a Bank of
England reduction in UK interest rates to 4.5% in August.
However, concerns about debt and the housing market still
remain, due to the effects of the five successive interest rate
rises between the period of November 2003, and August 2004. It
should be borne in mind though, that not all court repossession
orders result in a real repossession because the homeowner can
still often negotiate a deal with the lender. However, the CML
has forecast that at least 10,000 homes will be repossessed
before the end of 2005.