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Ezymounts Email #2

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Jul 21st, 2019
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  1. Thanks for responding,
  2.  
  3. When are you available for a call, Tomorrow (Thurs) perhaps?
  4.  
  5. I added a few more details in the complaint regarding the lack of any social media activity for this company (do they have that good of a mailing list?). That website of Josh Brown's successful startup, https://ezymounts.online, was barely registered two or three days before the article was published. Marketing for the website is also copied from a completely different company, so this doesn't look legit(?) but is now somehow syndicated overseas as "fact" that he can post on his next website.
  6.  
  7. I've been researching why Alibaba/Ecom is such a big short these days and the lack of financial transparency surrounding that entire industry. I wouldn't call it the next crash, but it's getting along the lines of Josh and his friend luke also seem to be starting a dodgy Ecom mentorship https://bizwithluke.com/hellotest.
  8.  
  9. This is concerning because these e-commerce stories are very problematic overseas, because once the expert is "big" enough with their fans and course sales, they're ridiculously hard to complain about and criticise openly, even to regulators (situations to avoid like what I will spell out below) since these guys will point to their previous articles as "fact" and manipulate the media and complaints in their favour. It becomes harder to prove anything the further along the obscurities go.
  10.  
  11. Whois:
  12. https://www.whois.com/whois/ezymounts.online
  13.  
  14.  
  15. A Business/Media Situation to Avoid:
  16.  
  17. Disclaimer: I was a part of a group that researched/questioned Iyia Liu's "Girls in Business" claims [from a redacted article] in October and complained last year to the Herald and Press Council.
  18.  
  19. Iyia's coverage in the media, promoting her method for women to get involved in business, is a known example where turnover and profit are lost in translation. A highlight to her success is that she sold her businesses for "millions" and enough to build a $3.5 million house which can mean various things. Hypothetically she could have sold this business for $100k, and we will still only hear $3.5 million. Apparently, Bambi Boutique did $8k a week, but still sold for only the amount it had left in stock.
  20.  
  21. My firm/colleagues work in finance and regularly take down dodgy businesses (similar to influencer fuelled app, JetSmarter). In this case, when $6k to $3.5 million stories kept floating around as proof that Iyia's method and courses work (advertising for Girls in Business and her influencer marketing strategy), I armed a few women with facts and a long paper trail of corporate transparency after watching the continue on with rumours and legal threats. This was to assure them that they wouldn't be sued by Iyia for complaining about their poor experiences or blamed for Death Threats/Hate Mail.
  22.  
  23. Sometimes a group of 20,000+ women will go overboard when almost daily posts of new complaints continue to flow in. They first went overboard about if the company was a copy... not a huge deal since that's just business as usual. But Iyia, of course, tried to blame the competition, Sweet Boxes for the rumours and threatened to sue her defamation. These girls were frightened because they thought Iyia "with her millions" was going to ruin their business/livelihood. Once those claims were questioned, it was confusing/frustrating why the questionable facts were still being promoted. Iyia uses this as leverage for every new dispute with her businesses, it happened with Waist Trainer, it will happen with whatever new business she does. And for those she can't get at personally, she'll have her "contact" in the media help track down where the info (despite it being public) came from and pinning us for sending threats among other things.
  24.  
  25. From here, TVNZ among others wildly reported her property and assets without verifying. TVNZ (before correcting the error), stated Iyia was building her second mansion... where was the first? Turns out, it wasn't hers. In fact, the only property she did own was tied to her mother's dodgy property scheme through shareholdings and a "second-mortgage" caveat naming her specific shareholdings. The scheme was a re-make of a prior scheme that lost $100 million in investor money through fraudulent mortgages.
  26.  
  27. NBR took the best approach, report and wait for other facts. They were only redeeming what they had missed before, which was why the whole story didn't add up and why she wasn't clear about her assets, despite promoting them for her business. But others still kept promoting the turnover and the "mansion" as if this was the whole "fact" about her business.
  28.  
  29. Long story short, her family amended shareholdings through the companies office over the next month and called us liars sending in false screenshots and accounts:
  30. https://fyi.org.nz/request/9626/response/33161/attach/html/4/26032019094841%200001.pdf.html
  31.  
  32. Where we are now, as of last night, is dealing with a female associate having their intimate photos posted on fake dating profiles and being bullied on Instagram, again (supposedly by German-based Instagram accounts, maybe someone took note that my email service of choice is German).. so this is still an ongoing issue. Proceeding after another Net Safe complaint, so this almost predictable behaviour at this point. Hopefully, this NZME employee, whoever they are, is not involved or still corresponding about what's discussed in the above link, we were already forced to start proceedings against Iyia and her associates once before in December.
  33.  
  34. -Howard
  35.  
  36.  
  37. Mar 27, 2019, 2:40 PM by duncan.bridgeman@nzme.co.nz:
  38.  
  39. Dear Mr Kanner,
  40.  
  41. Re: Formal complaint about eCommerce business reporting
  42.  
  43. Thank you for your letter dated March 13 in respect of Chris Keall’s article. This was referred to me and I'm sorry it has taken so long to reply.
  44.  
  45. The NZ Herald appreciates your feedback and takes your concerns very seriously.
  46.  
  47. The article you refer to was based on an interview with Josh Brown.
  48.  
  49. The headline states that an Auckland student creates a $1.2m company within months.
  50.  
  51. It is common to describe business size by turnover. Neither the headline nor the article inferred this was the annual profit, or value of the company.
  52.  
  53. In regard to your point about the line that a fortune can be made from your bedroom, the next few sentences provide a caveat to that by describing how his first few ventures were unsuccessful.
  54.  
  55. In fact the article clearly states that he lost $15,000 over a four month period.
  56.  
  57. I don’t think the article was misleading but I’d be happy to discuss this further with you.
  58.  
  59. Please give me a call to talk more about this.
  60.  
  61.  
  62.  
  63. Yours sincerley,
  64.  
  65.  
  66.  
  67. DUNCAN BRIDGEMAN
  68. HEAD OF PREMIUM BUSINESS CONTENT
  69.  
  70. M: 021­ 376046
  71. E: duncan.bridgeman@nzme.co.nz
  72. The New Zealand Herald
  73.  
  74.  
  75.  
  76.  
  77. ______________________________________________________________________
  78.  
  79. NOTICE
  80. This email and any attachments are strictly confidential and subject to copyright. They may contain privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. You should not read, copy, use, change, alter or disclose this email or its attachments without authorisation. The company and any related or associated companies do not accept any liability in connection with this email and any attachments including in connection with computer viruses, data corruption, delay, interruption, unauthorised access or unauthorised amendment. Any views expressed in this email and any attachments do not necessarily reflect the views of the company or the views of any of our related or associated companies. NZME Ltd / NZME Holdings Ltd / NZME Publishing Ltd / NZME Radio Ltd / NZME Educational Media Ltd / GrabOne Ltd
  81.  
  82. ______________________________________________________________________
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