civ2k1 said: magika said: mquirk said: Let me give you some background about myself - maybe that'll serve to build trust. Prior to accepting my position with Referdia, I was an English professor at a large university in Ohio (my areas of scholarly expertise are modern American poetry and the postmodern American novel, ftw). I have never been - in any way, shape or form - associated with the MLM industry prior to my employment at Referdia. In fact, I probably felt about it the way most of you feel. Still, I'm glad I decided to go for this job, because it's served to clear up a lot of the misconceptions I had that resemble some of those posted here.
I really don't think mentioning your past career does you any justice - it means you either weren't in a tenured position or actually left a tenure (or tenure track) job go to join an MLM. In the later case, thats the definition of a insane career move. In the former case, given the seemingly endless numbers of English adjuncts who will never get a full time teaching position...it doesn't speak very well about your credentials.
Michael Quirk (original username mquirk before changing to deleted_2510619) was an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Akron until 2011. He has been with Referdia since 2011.
Changing your name and not returning questions doesn't build trust, Michael Quirk! We were looking forward to engaging with you.
He also only has a MA in English:
Education
The University of Akron Masters, English 2006 – 2008 Activities and Societies: Literary Guild Castleton State College Bachelors, English, Philosophy 1996 – 2000 Activities and Societies: Men's Rugby Club, Phi Eta Sigma Honors Society, President of Castleton State College Literary Club, Contributing Editor of the Vermont Literary Review, chosen as one of the presenters at the "Stephen Butterfield Memorial Poetry Reading: Two New American Poets"
Interesting. Well, not that it really matters I suppose, but claiming to be a "English Professor" when really you were just doing an adjunct gig at the same school you got your MA from is VERY misleading.
The real professors I know (PhDs with tenure or tenure track) don't even call themselves professor unless they earned it (professor being the final rank after assistant and associate professor).
Are you saying that referdia, edited by former assistant lecturer Michael quirk, is a scam? And that invado, formerly led by Damon Mintz, is also a scam?
mquirk said: After high school, Mr. Thompson declined an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy to pursue a career in engineering. While pursuing his studies, Mr. Thompson successfully brought to fruition several entrepreneurial opportunities, most notably owner and president of Advanced Homes, a custom home building company. During his 14 years in this position, Mr. Thompson was one of the youngest licensed contractors in the State of Florida. His company twice won the award for "best home" in the Charlotte County Parade of Homes. How insecure does someone have to be to include the fact that he declined to go to the Air Force Academy? Oh, the same kind of person who is an assistant lecturer and calls themselves a professor.
BostonOne said: mquirk said: After high school, Mr. Thompson declined an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy to pursue a career in engineering. While pursuing his studies, Mr. Thompson successfully brought to fruition several entrepreneurial opportunities, most notably owner and president of Advanced Homes, a custom home building company. During his 14 years in this position, Mr. Thompson was one of the youngest licensed contractors in the State of Florida. His company twice won the award for "best home" in the Charlotte County Parade of Homes. How insecure does someone have to be to include the fact that he declined to go to the Air Force Academy? Oh, the same kind of person who is an assistant lecturer and calls themselves a professor.
Mr. Thompson wasn't the same as Mr. Quirk. That being said - similar types of people.
If someone declined to goto the USAFA, they made that decision when they were 17 years old. I don't brag about anything I did when I was 17 anymore.
SUCKISSTAPLES said: How are these people founders if the mintz boys were the founders?
And what's up with these brothers? It's like the mintz boys and Thompson boys like to keep the scamming in the family
How about Andre Maronian? He was a real crook mquirk said: imbatman said: mquirk said: MilleniumBuc said: What is the current relationship between Invado, Referdia and the Mintz clan? Who is in charge at both of those companies at this time?
I can't comment on the relationship between Mr. Mintz and Invado simply because I don't know. I can tell you that he left the company in May of 2012. At this time, we're led by CEO Mike Thompson, a prominent mid-western businessman; COO Chris Thompson; and President Shawn Inks. If you like, I'd be happy to include their official bios here.
yes please
Mike Thompson CEO and Chairman of the Board
An accomplished entrepreneur, Mr. Thompson has founded approximately 30 businesses since 1975, including a collection of 15 extremely successful auto dealerships across Ohio. In addition to being the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Invado International, Mr. Thompson is also the CEO and president of MAG Management Corporation and associated Montrose Auto Group dealerships and marinas, MTA Investments, MC Automotive, Inc., Montrose Ford Insurance Agency Corporation, and more. He is the managing member of numerous other businesses including Montrose Real Estate, Computer Technology Management Services, Montrose Wireless, and sits on the board for several Cleveland-area dealerships and construction companies.
Mr. Thompson has built an impressive portfolio of awards from the automotive industry, including numerous service excellence awards from Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Mitsubishi, and Toyota. He was also the recipient of the Mazda President’s Award (2009-2011), Mitsubishi Diamond Chapter of Excellence award (2004), and the Toyota President’s Award (2001), among others, and is the former president of the SW Florida Mitsubishi Advertising Association. Before founding his business empire, Mr. Thompson served in the U.S. Army, and is a Vietnam War veteran.
Shawn Inks Co-Founder and President of Referdia
Mr. Inks is Referdia’s creator, co-founder and President. The driving force behind Referdia, Mr. Inks envisioned and developed Referdia’s innovative marketing platform. He is now responsible for cultivating company and product visions, while also overseeing the progress and performance of Referdia’s programming and development teams, managing the customer acquisition processes, and building and maintaining a secure operating environment.
Prior to conceptualizing Referdia, Mr. Inks gained investment experience serving as the Projects Manager of I & R Properties, Inc., developing investment proposals and working with prospective buyers, sellers, investors, bankers and attorneys to resolve accounts. In addition to his experience, Mr. Inks also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Entrepreneurship with a concentration in Finance from the University of Dayton.
Chris Thompson Co-Founder and COO
Mr. Thompson is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Referdia. His primary responsibility is leading the day-to day operations of the company. Additionally, Mr. Thompson designed, built, manages and updates all of the online representative support systems, including the enrollment processing and compensation programs.
After high school, Mr. Thompson declined an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy to pursue a career in engineering. While pursuing his studies, Mr. Thompson successfully brought to fruition several entrepreneurial opportunities, most notably owner and president of Advanced Homes, a custom home building company. During his 14 years in this position, Mr. Thompson was one of the youngest licensed contractors in the State of Florida. His company twice won the award for "best home" in the Charlotte County Parade of Homes.
An avid pilot, Mr. Thompson received his first private license rating at 17 years old, the youngest age permissible by the Federal Aviation Administration. Most recently, Mr. Thompson earned the type rating for an Eclipse jet, one of the highest ratings available to civilian pilots. Mr. Thompson's innate sense of adventure and entrepreneurial spirit make him the perfect fit for an exciting start up like Referdia.
I guess he must have gotten into trouble at the company, because he deleted all this info from his post. He was probably just doing what he was told ("Fix our reputation"), and never asked if he could post this online thinking his company was on the up and up. So he probably just copied and pasted from his server, without knowing that the info would not match what was posted before.
BostonOne said: How insecure does someone have to be to include the fact that he declined to go to the Air Force Academy? Oh, the same kind of person who is an assistant lecturer and calls themselves a professor.You can't pursue engineering at USAFA?
imbatman said: BostonOne said: mquirk said: After high school, Mr. Thompson declined an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy to pursue a career in engineering. While pursuing his studies, Mr. Thompson successfully brought to fruition several entrepreneurial opportunities, most notably owner and president of Advanced Homes, a custom home building company. During his 14 years in this position, Mr. Thompson was one of the youngest licensed contractors in the State of Florida. His company twice won the award for "best home" in the Charlotte County Parade of Homes. How insecure does someone have to be to include the fact that he declined to go to the Air Force Academy? Oh, the same kind of person who is an assistant lecturer and calls themselves a professor.
Mr. Thompson wasn't the same as Mr. Quirk. That being said - similar types of people.
If someone declined to goto the USAFA, they made that decision when they were 17 years old. I don't brag about anything I did when I was 17 anymore. Wasn't implying that they were the same person, only that the same type of insecure person would work for Invado International, a company that seems like it's a scam. I probably could have been more clear. Anyway, is *not* matriculating at a school something to 'brag' about? In fact, it's kind of selfish since you took one of a limited number of nominations from a member of Congress and then decided not to go.
deleted_2510619 said: I'm wrapping it up for today, but I'll check back tomorrow morning. I hope what little we could cover was somewhat insightful to you. Thanks for being so polite, also. I was pretty nervous about doing this, but I feel it's important to tackle these sort of things head on.
So, from your lie above about coming back days ago, trying to delete your posted messages, and renaming your account name to try to cover your tracks, can we assume that invado is a scam? Can we also conclude that referdia is a scam?
I think it's clear that Referdia is a scam. Referdia, scam, is part of Invado International, which is also a scam. They may or may not be led by CEO Damon Mintz, who has been part of many a scam.
JacksonX said: deleted_2510619 said: I'm wrapping it up for today, but I'll check back tomorrow morning. I hope what little we could cover was somewhat insightful to you. Thanks for being so polite, also. I was pretty nervous about doing this, but I feel it's important to tackle these sort of things head on.
So, from your lie above about coming back days ago, trying to delete your posted messages, and renaming your account name to try to cover your tracks, can we assume that invado is a scam? Can we also conclude that referdia is a scam? He got fired He got scammed Referdia is a scam Invado is a scam
This thread doesn't come up on the first results page for a google search for "referdia". Could use some more references to Referdia as well as linking of the name Referdia to Invado (considering Invado and Referdia are linked, and Referdia appears to be a subsidiary of Invado). Searching for "Referdia scam" gets this thread on the first page, but it's probably more effective if searches for Referdia by itself give you this thread on the first page.
Honestly, I feel like Mr. Quirk was given rather light treatment regarding Referdia, and I'm disappointed that he took such drastic measures after a cursory set of questions that would be asked regarding any business opportunity.
OverMachoGrande said: Honestly, I feel like Mr. Quirk was given rather light treatment regarding Referdia, and I'm disappointed that he took such drastic measures after a cursory set of questions that would be asked regarding any business opportunity.
I agree. For the most part, I thought we were pretty gentle, willing to allow him to dig his own hole. He probably figured out there was no chance he could defend the company and maintain his integrity at the same time ... so he bailed.
Referdia 2.0 September 2012 to Present Team Members: Dan Inks II, Michael Wujnovich, Rachel Staats, Shawn Inks, Judd Mintz, Mike Mendoza, Jonathan Inks, John Thompson, Andre Maronian, Barbara Towns Referdia 2.0 is the next generation in social media. It is social commerce allowing businesses to monetize profits through advertising in social media."
Funny how this guy started working with them September 2012, but has all the list of scammers working on this project.
Are we so sure referdia is a scam? Just because it's a subsidiary of Invado, which we know to be a scam around here, does that automatically make referdia a scam? Has anyone done their due diligence on whether referdia is a scam?
I wanted to bring to everyone's attention that the "invado travel club" (ie pay $40 a month for a Travelocity search engine- look back in the thread) is no more.
If you google invado travel, you'll get hits, but when you choose the main link to get to invado main page, it's not there anymore. So one out of three of their scams have already folded, it seems.
So, to recap;
Invado travel was a scam. Invado energy is a scam. Referdia is a scam Invado is a scam! Mr. Quirk... Is likely unemployed. Maybe he is reapplying to work at the ski shop at killington in Vermont again? It was the most legitimate job he's had...
JacksonX said: I wanted to bring to everyone's attention that the "invado travel club" (ie pay $40 a month for a Travelocity search engine- look back in the thread) is no more.
If you google invado travel, you'll get hits, but when you choose the main link to get to invado main page, it's not there anymore. So one out of three of their scams have already folded, it seems.
Glad you found out Invado Travel is missing. Interesting... I'm sure they have some positive spin on it, but of course they won't be coming here to share that information. It looks like the signup page is still there: http://www.invadoinc.com/travelsignup so pretty sloppy on their part to only remove the reference off the main page but leave up other related pages.
They also haven't tweeted on their Invado twitter since Sept 7, 2012, and only have 11 Twitter followers ... rather sad. Even my elderly next door neighbor has more twitter followers. And the Pope has tweeted more recently.
I guess they aren't truly serious about "making it to the top"
I haven't stopped by FWF in a while, but I'm glad to see one of my favorite threads did get a much higher class of shill. And by higher class, I mean able to write English. His length of stay was consistent with the others.
As a side note, I do love how when an FWF visitor tries to cover their tracks, the diligence shown in exposing that person increases by a factor of at least 10. All of you continue to provide by far the best infotainment site on the Internet.
deleted_2510619 said: I agree, and I'm doing my best to push for greater transparency with the public. The only thing I can say is that you can expect these issues to be corrected soon. It's my job and I take it seriously.
So much for greater transparency. And possibly not his job anymore.
There's an irony with the fact that the official corporate MLM folks won't engage here (or run away once they try and are asked simple questions).
If they were legit, and could document/prove it, this would be a great audience to prove it to. This forum is generally a financially savvy group, with funds to invest in a business venture that makes sense, and geographically spread out enough that we could spread the word of their business and participate in it's growth.
The sheer fact that they won't engage (or run away) makes one think:
Are Invado and Referdia, led by CEO Mike Thompson, President Shawn Inks, COO Chris Thompson (formerly CEO Damon Mintz, and other executives such as documented criminal Carlos Rey, and Andre Maronian) scams?
imbatman said: BostonOne said: mquirk said: After high school, Mr. Thompson declined an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy to pursue a career in engineering. While pursuing his studies, Mr. Thompson successfully brought to fruition several entrepreneurial opportunities, most notably owner and president of Advanced Homes, a custom home building company. During his 14 years in this position, Mr. Thompson was one of the youngest licensed contractors in the State of Florida. His company twice won the award for "best home" in the Charlotte County Parade of Homes. How insecure does someone have to be to include the fact that he declined to go to the Air Force Academy? Oh, the same kind of person who is an assistant lecturer and calls themselves a professor.
Mr. Thompson wasn't the same as Mr. Quirk. That being said - similar types of people.
If someone declined to goto the USAFA, they made that decision when they were 17 years old. I don't brag about anything I did when I was 17 anymore.
I could have applied to Harvard, but declined to submit an application.
I'm wondering if some legal action took place to get the username changed... If one's initial username can more or less uniquely identify someone, then the mods are pretty accommodating in allowing one to change it. I know, because back in the day, they did it for me (I was a bit nervous some of my crazier Hot Deals posts were going to get me blacklisted).
Wow I'm saddened because Michael Quirk's lack of stamina in fighting for his company's reputation makes it seem even more that Invado is a scam and Referdia is a scam within a scam.
And here I so wanted to believe in Invado and Referdia!
Blurb added about Referdia in the QS. I figured if we get people coming here from Referdia searches on Google, they better not need to read the whole thread to answer their questions about whether Referdia is, like Invado, possibly a scam.
DoctorDeals said: LordB said: Can you even change your username?
I'm wondering if some legal action took place to get the username changed... If one's initial username can more or less uniquely identify someone, then the mods are pretty accommodating in allowing one to change it. I know, because back in the day, they did it for me (I was a bit nervous some of my crazier Hot Deals posts were going to get me blacklisted).
Your profile ID number is really the unique identifier in the backend, the display name that the mods can change is just for us. Interestingly enough the new display name for our most recent shill is "deleted_<profileID#>", so what SIS says about could have been a legal request makes a bit more sense.
My guess on having to involved a mod to change your username is so the forums a bit more coherent. It threw me for a bit of a loop the first couple times I noticed someone who posted a lot with a custom icon but different username. Just noticed one today actually.
While it isn't FW, there is "Referdia.com Reviews - Legit or Scam?" on the front page of a Google search. Two of the three reviews conclude Referdia is a "scam" and "pyramid scheme", while one is a shill.
VicVinegar said: While it isn't FW, there is "Referdia.com Reviews - Legit or Scam?" on the front page of a Google search. Two of the three reviews conclude Referdia is a "scam" and "pyramid scheme", while one is a shill. And one is awesome " X in nj January 17, 2013
Hi Michael- Why haven't you returned to answer our questions on fatwallet, and actually tried to edit some of the replies you left?
It is quite obviously a scam. Grow some morals and stop ripping people off. "
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