RPM Information Systems Software Complaint

[pandy]

Originally Posted by cardinalsfan

I had to check it out for myself. Amazingly, you are right, Mike Warren is still in business! I'm wondering if it's actually him or if it's just somebody using his name.

Mike Warren Lasky, his real name, who knows with this guy. He started the Psychic Friends Network (remember with Dionne Warwick?). He's had all sorts of lawsuits and complaints filed against him and his phoney business ventures, yet apparently he made a lot of money, even though some of his scams went bankrupt.

Apparently a few years ago he was selling some bogus course for $995 that was supposed to teach people how to make money off of judgements, liens, and options, or some crazy thing. The people got the course and there was nothing to it so they filed for the "guaranteed refund." Only then did they find out that there was a $150 "restocking" fee. There'a always a catch with Lasky.

Amazingly, I don't think Lasky has ever been in jail.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/199...sky-harbor-inn

[betovernetcapper]

I just looked at their site & they have 80 software programs & 86 paper & pencil methods for sale. Amazingly all are easy to use, & win HUGE profits as if by magic.

[Pensacola Pete]

Lasky, aka "Mike Warren" has been around since the early 1970s. He started selling horse racing systems and a horse racing selection service. When sports betting got big in the early 1980s, he, Eddie "The Professor" Horowitz, Stu Feiner, and of course Jim Feist all opened boiler room operations with multiple service names that touted sports picks.

Warren played the inverse pyramid scheme with a base of 512 marks (suckers): he looked for games that figured to be volatile and would easily cover for one side or the other. Warren didn't' care which side won as long as the score covered easily for one side or the other. He gave out both sides to different customers: half to one, half to the other. The first pick was free; the second was free to the losers and a nominal fee to the winners. The double winners would be charged a bit more for the third pick, triple winners more for the next, etc. Those who were fed a large number of winners could usually be milked to pay for another selection. The unlucky last guy who had 8 straight winners would be socked for a good piece of change for the next "lock," and the mark would be socked as long as he kept winning. Five-figure payoffs weren't unheard of.

Horowitz operated differently; he didn't double-side games. Instead, he had 10 to 20 fictitious companies, all in the same boiler room, touting games. If a company had a bad record with a mark, the mark would be sent to another company brand, who would assure that mark that the previous "company" was a dud, but that their company was hot. If the mark finally had enough and wouldn't shell out any more, the name was sold to somebody else. Horowitz was a heavy cocaine user, and so were most of his salesmen. The coke flowed freely in the boiler rooms, courtesy of The Professor. He'd be about 74 today, and I haven't heard a word about him since at least 1998, so I would assume he's long since passed on. Horowitz was a horrible handicapper and is purported to once lose over 60 straight baseball plays.

Feiner was a fast-talking hustler who actually tried to make his clients money. To that end, Feiner paid noted sports handicapper Bob "Mr. America" McCune (McCune won the Mr. America title in the late 1940's) $1,500 per month for McCune's sports seletions (McCune normally charged clients $300), with the understanding that Feiner could then tout 3 of McCune's picks as his own, per sport, on a given day. McCune ordinarily hit about 57-58% against the spread (52.5% was roughly break even against a 20 cent -110 line then) and would make about 8% profit against the baseball "dime line." Feiner had the same arrangement with other handicappers and did quite well. Apparently he's still around.

The king of the sports touts was unquestionably Jim Feist, not so much in ability to pick as in ability to market. Feist took the best of Horowitz's multi-company marketing, Feiner's sales pitches, and the surge (in the late 1980's and pre-internet 1990's) of 1-900 number branding, and spun an aura of solid reputation. In reality, Feist was the worst handicapper on the planet; he never had a winning record in any Hilton NFL contest. Most of the guys who worked for him didn't do much better, Dave Cokin being an exception, and few had records that exceeded the 52.5% needed to break even. Feist also had a deal with bookies (probably those based in New York and Miami). If the books were getting clobbered on one side, Feist would make the other side his Best Bet of the day. The Best Bet had a long track record of about 42-45% against the spread, and many high rollers would purchase it so they could play the opposite.

Lasky/Warren moved from sports betting to get-rich-quick schemes in the new millennium and had pieces of various infomercials. He still runs a sports selection service, and who knows how many other things.

[pandy]

I know that many people don't want more government control but the gov't should not allow these types of businesses The tout service where they give out both sides to two different groups of customers, a common practice, is fraud. It was easy to prove and the FBI could have easily signed up for their service and caught them in the act. I don't understand why the Feds allow people to get scammed so easily in this country.

Another thing that shouldn't be allowed is these short term high interest rate loans, such as the one that Montel Williams hawks on TVG. You can get a better rate from a loan shark. But, finally state governments are doing something to protect consumers.

This year N.Y. state joined 14 other states in limiting the amount of interest rate a lending company can charge. Some of these companies charge 500 to as high as 750% interest annually! The new law prohibit these companies from operating in N.Y. , and other states as well.

[Pensacola Pete]

Originally Posted by pandy

I know that many people don't want more government control but the gov't should not allow these types of businesses The tout service where they give out both sides to two different groups of customers, a common practice, is fraud. It was easy to prove and the FBI could have easily signed up for their service and caught them in the act. I

A reverse pyramid is almost unheard of nowadays, because social media makes it too easy to bust the scammers. It was very common up to about 1995 (when the internet as we know it began to get popular). Oddly, it came to a virtual end in 1996, when two high-rollers were sitting at the Mirage sports book and talking about their bets. They found out that their "lock of the year" was opposite sides of the same game from the same source, and they raised a big stink about it, and it made it to Usenet. More people complained of the same thing, and this version of a reverse pyramid faded from view. The touts who wanted to continue the practice gravitated to double-siding single games, usually those between top teams on national TV, and the double-side from separate brands/companies.

Double-siding wasn't usually done under a specific brand name. Warren didn't use his own name. His boiler-room touts did it under various names, with Warren organizing and orchestrating the process.

[pandy]

I know that one of the characters in the movie Two For The Money is based on Brandon Lang, but I can't remember who Al Pacino was supposed to be.

[dartman51]

Originally Posted by pandy

I know that one of the characters in the movie Two For The Money is based on Brandon Lang, but I can't remember who Al Pacino was supposed to be.

I'm thinking, Walter Abrams.

[NorCalGreg]

"Another thing that shouldn't be allowed is these short term high interest rate loans, such as the one that Montel Williams hawks on TVG. You can get a better rate from a loan shark. But, finally state governments are doing something to protect consumers."

I thought people wanted LESS Govt involvement in their personal business?

The terms of these loans are CLEARLY spelled out--the Govt should protect people from THEMSELVES? There are sharks everywhere looking to separate a fool from his money--that's just the way life, society, and human nature is.

They gladly enter into these loans--then scream "predatory lender". Yes, they are usually a low-income group---but I suspect they are also generally a "low-IQ" group.

I don't apologize for NOT being a whiny liberal with handouts--everyone is responsible for themselves in my world.

-NCG

EDIT: I DO apologize for the content of this post--it doesn't actually belong in this thread

[thaskalos]

Originally Posted by NorCalGreg

"Another thing that shouldn't be allowed is these short term high interest rate loans, such as the one that Montel Williams hawks on TVG. You can get a better rate from a loan shark. But, finally state governments are doing something to protect consumers."

I thought people wanted LESS Govt involvement in their personal business?

The terms of these loans are CLEARLY spelled out--the Govt should protect people from THEMSELVES? There are sharks everywhere looking to separate a fool from his money--that's just the way life, society, and human nature is.

They gladly enter into these loans--then scream "predatory lender". Yes, they are usually a low-income group---but I suspect they are also generally a "low-IQ" group.

I don't apologize for NOT being a whiny liberal with handouts--everyone is responsible for themselves in my world.

-NCG

EDIT: I DO apologize for the content of this post--it doesn't actually belong in this thread

The government is coming into our cars to force us to "buckle up"...and you are talking about the evils of "government involvement"? If our leaders can't protect us from predatory loan practices...then, why do they pretend to care about us in other, INSIGNIFICANT ways?

[pandy]

Originally Posted by NorCalGreg

"Another thing that shouldn't be allowed is these short term high interest rate loans, such as the one that Montel Williams hawks on TVG. You can get a better rate from a loan shark. But, finally state governments are doing something to protect consumers."

I thought people wanted LESS Govt involvement in their personal business?

The terms of these loans are CLEARLY spelled out--the Govt should protect people from THEMSELVES? There are sharks everywhere looking to separate a fool from his money--that's just the way life, society, and human nature is.

They gladly enter into these loans--then scream "predatory lender". Yes, they are usually a low-income group---but I suspect they are also generally a "low-IQ" group.

I don't apologize for NOT being a whiny liberal with handouts--everyone is responsible for themselves in my world.

-NCG

EDIT: I DO apologize for the content of this post--it doesn't actually belong in this thread

You have to have government oversight because there are too many unscrupulous people out there. And don't forget, not everyone who falls for these things has a low IQ. How about senior citizens? Shouldn't they be protected? My mom turns 90 in a few days and although she's doing pretty good, she wouldn't have a clue if a company was trying to take advantage of her.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

The government is coming into our cars to force us to "buckle up"...and you are talking about the evils of "government involvement"? If our leaders can't protect us from predatory loan practices...then, why do they pretend to care about us in other, INSIGNIFICANT ways?

Ticket fodder.
Got to pay for those cops sitting in wait all the time.

[NorCalGreg]

Originally Posted by pandy

You have to have government oversight because there are too many unscrupulous people out there. And don't forget, not everyone who falls for these things has a low IQ. How about senior citizens? Shouldn't they be protected? My mom turns 90 in a few days and although she's doing pretty good, she wouldn't have a clue if a company was trying to take advantage of her.

But pandy,thask---I'm NOT the guy that was bitching about Govt Drones in the sky. Hell, I want MORE DRONES..I want to go outside to get my paper, and see a friggin' drone in the sky.

I'm absolutely not against our Govt--yes, there are people who sign up for these loans that need protection...also people that don't wear a seatbelt, dont wear a helmet on a motorcycle, and a million other "poor decisions".

So we pick and choose now, our personal choices of govt overseeing?

Norman Rockwell died a long time ago---it's time to face the reality of America today.

[Southbaygent]

In agreement here, NCG. "Personal responsibility" no one wants any part of it anymore

[thaskalos]

Originally Posted by NorCalGreg

But pandy,thask---I'm NOT the guy that was bitching about Govt Drones in the sky. Hell, I want MORE DRONES..I want to go outside to get my paper, and see a friggin' drone in the sky.

I'm absolutely not against our Govt--yes, there are people who sign up for these loans that need protection...also people that don't wear a seatbelt, dont wear a helmet on a motorcycle, and a million other "poor decisions".

So we pick and choose now, our personal choices of govt overseeing?

Norman Rockwell died a long time ago---it's time to face the reality of America today.

The citizens need to be protected FROM the government. Leave the people alone, I say...and stop pretending that you "care" for them...even as you have your hand elbow-deep in their pocket.

The government is the ENEMY...and any "power" and "wealth" that the government has, it steals from its citizens. Those drones should be used to keep an eye on the politicians THEMSELVES.

[Pensacola Pete]

Let us now turn to page 44 of our hymn book and sing "Bringing in the Sheaves."