Thread by @awilkinson

1/ The CEO of RevenueWire is the chair of @Viatec, Victoria's local technology council.

On Friday, the FTC alleged that she and her shareholders made millions facilitating "online tech support scams", while being lionized by the local business community:

timescolonist.com/news/local/6-7…

2/ She and the company are paying a whopping $6.75M settlement to the FTC to compensate the victims of the alleged scam...

3/ Before we dig into what they allegedly did, let's just take a look at the company's Core Values (from revenuewire.com/about/).

Note #3, Integrity 💔

4/ Here's how FTC alleges the scam worked...

- The company "used software that was designed to trick consumers into thinking there were problems with their computers" - people lacking technical knowledge like your mom or grandmother

5/ - "Added bogus warning 'pop-ups'" which "deceptively claimed to have detected computer infections, froze consumers’ computer screens, and directed consumers to call toll free numbers to fix the supposed problems.”

6/ - "Subjected them to high-pressure and deceptive sales pitches for tech-support and services to fix non-existent problems"

- “Tech support would address the pop-up as a legitimate warning and attempt to sell the consumers their tech support packages."

7/ - "The name "SafeCart,' a dba for RevenueWire, would appear on consumers’ card statements, presumably so people wouldn’t know what it’s for"

8/ - Then "attempted to hide from its card networks the fact it was submitting payments generated by call centres by coding those sales as software store sales" and "laundered their transactions through the credit-card system"

9/ - “In this matter, RevenueWire was at the center of the deceptive business model, and knew that the call centers and telemarketers were making deceptive statements.”

10/ While it was allegedly perpetrating these scams with their partners, RevenueWire and its CEO, Bobbi Leach, won multiple accolades and awards, both locally and internationally...

timescolonist.com/business/bobbi…

alacritycanada.com/2019/09/25/int…

douglasmagazine.com/revenuewire-ce…

11/ The worst part:

A lot of people talked about this.

For years, I heard rumors of aggressive, sketchy tactics. Elderly customers being taken advantage of. Etc.

Yet they were still welcomed into the tech community at large.

From their Glassdoor:

12/ I hope that the board of @ViaTec will do the right thing and cut all ties immediately and that RevenueWire's shareholders (Elton Pereira, Adrian Pereira, and Don Wharton) will do the right thing and shut the company down and use their resources to do right by the victims.

13/ CC Viatec Board: @robertecooper, @ScottDewis, @csnaps, @rasoolr, @LimbicMedia, @DoubleJumpHQ, @AshtonGTScordo, @mwilliams20, @justin_d_young, @bradwilliamseas, @AlacrityCanada