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FIB - Scams 101
SELF SERVING COPYWRITER MACOLM SMITH PRESERVES AWAI TRADITION OF LIES & DECIET
Posted By: Tim In Response To: Re: 21 Things U Need To Know About AWAI Michael Masterson (Malcolm Smith)
Date: Friday, October 5, 2007, at 3:10 p.m.(pst)
SELF SERVING COPYWRITER MACOLM SMITH PRESERVES AWAI TRADITION OF LIES & DECIET
Malcolm Smith is married to the product development manager at American Writer’s and Artist Inc. Opps, he forgot to mention that… again.
In other words, the bold, selfless stand he’s taken to prop up AWAI… is a farce. It’s phony, disingenuous, dishonest, self serving and frankly... predictable.
The truth is, Malcolm Smith epitomizes AWAI failure. Here’s a guy who had advantages others could only dream of… actually having married into the business… and he’s still limping along… getting whatever scraps his wife can secure for him.
I talked to an AWAI employee who told me the only reason he gets any work at all… is because of who he married. And the jobs aren’t even copywriting jobs. Just misc. minimum wage low level projects that nobody else wants.
But after 3 years, he still entertains the hopes that someday his ship will come in. The problem is AWAI and their stupid copywriting courses cannot turn people with no writing, marketing and sales talent (such as Mr. Smith) into six-figure earners despite their ridiculous claims…period.
So much for their “Retire This Year and Still Make More Than Most Doctors” tag line.
So, in the longstanding AWAI tradition, Mr. Smith conveniently forgot to mention his connection with the company. That’s called deceit… as in not telling the truth… as in lying!
Just another example of how low these bottom dwellers are willing to go.
Another tradition is to pretend you are super successful when you aren’t. After all, nobody wants to hire a loser. So he lies about his career, his life, his income… the whole bit. Meanwhile he sits home all day waiting for the phone to ring… pretending to be a “much in demand copywriter”.
Still another tradition for these AWAI types is to defend Mark Ford (aka Michael Masterson) against all foes - in the hopes that Ford will noticed and reward them for their loyalty. Good luck with that one. You’ve been kissing up to the guy for 3 years and it hasn’t gotten you squat.
Here’s the scoop.
The truth is, AWAI has had the playing field to itself for a decade. Nobody challenged them so they were able to screw people out of millions with their overblown promises. They could say anything… and nobody was there to question them.
Then things started unraveling. People started digging. Looking for answers.
In April, this message board got going, in August Michael Masterson’s scandalous past bubbled up (see mail fraud, money laundering, phony rip off sweepstakes articles in message below), and the whole thing has snowballed. Now AWAI is hemorrhaging and Mr. Smith is worried his wife will be laid off and he’ll have to get up off the sofa and get an actual paying job.
That’s the sad thing about AWAI. It’s a form of escapism. You buy into their spiel, and it’s off to Neverland. It’s all so easy. After all, Michael Masterson said so. Your life might go down the toilet, but you are buoyed by the delusional hope that tomorrow will be better, all because Michael Masterson and the good folks at AWAI sold you $500 worth of copywriting “secrets”. Secrets that don’t exist.
As for Mr. Smith? He’s just one of a bunch of AWAI family/friends/employees/associates who try to counter bad comments online. These are all people who have a stake in keeping the scam alive.
Below is another of his feeble efforts from another board. AWAI managed to get the original message removed, but I had already saved it. So if you want to read more of little Malcolm’s delusional, self serving, cockeyed baloney, here it is.
Don’t hurt yourself laughing.
By the way, it is completely unedited, the exchange appearing exactly as was originally posted back in March ‘07. It starts with my brief little post.
Following Posted by: Jim Wilcox | March 12, 2007 at 06:00 AM
“Sorry folks but Michael Masterson is a con man. He basically sells get rich quick programs that are worthless. His copywriting courses do nothing but milk people out of their hard earned cash with promises he can't keep. Michael Masterson isn't even the guy's real name. It's Mark Ford. Avoid like the plague.”
Following Posted by: Malcolm Smith | March 26, 2007 at 12:30 PM
“With all due respect to Mr. Wilcox, I disagree with his assessment of AWAI's copywriting programs. Yes, Michael Masterson contributed to a couple of the programs... but so did a number of other very successful copywriters. Besides, considering his abilities, what aspiring copywriter wouldn't want to learn how Mr. Masterson does it?”
“As to the name, he's right. But so what? Lots of people use pen names. Mark Twain, for instance. Should we all avoid reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" because the author chose not to write under the name Sam Clemens? Pen names and stage names are as old as literature and the theater... And, as often as not, they're now used to protect privacy.”
“The fact is, I'm making a pretty nice living right now, thanks to those "get rich quick programs that are worthless" that Mr. Wilcox mentions. I've read extensively - Ogilvie, Schwartz, Collier, Hopkins, Schwab, etc. - since completing AWAI's program. I have yet to find another book or program that gives as clear and thorough an outline for writing direct mail letters as AWAI's program does.”
“And I'm hardly alone. I've met quite a few others who are making a good living thanks to AWAI's programs... And even top pros like Clayton Makepeace give AWAI's programs kudos.”
“Admittedly, I've only been at this game for about 2-1/2 years. But, right now, I'm earning more than I did after 8 years in management with a Fortune 500 company... and I'm working when and where I want. If that's because of a con, please con me more!”
“Perhaps Mr. Wilcox purchased an AWAI program thinking that mere ownership would somehow convey the benefits described in the promotional material. I really don't know. What I do know is that AWAI's programs work for me - and they're working for hundreds of other people out there who've used them to achieve their dreams.”
Following Posted by: Jim Wilcox | March 27, 2007 at 06:36 AM
“Of course, what Mr. Smith neglected to mention was that he is married to a Michael Masterson/AWAI employee. Only took a quick search and a phone call to discover that.”
“Which is exactly how this whole “get rich copywriting” thing works. It’s all done with careful omissions, half-truths, lies, distortions, deceptions, selective memories, phony testimonials, exaggerated claims, over-simplifications, forced conclusions, unsubstantiated “facts”, trickery, etc. It really is a remarkably involved and finely crafted charade that convinces people they can truly earn $100,000 a year after taking some poorly written, lame correspondence course or attending a silly 3-day rah-rah “bootcamp”… for a hefty price.”
“There is a new book coming out later this year entitled Copy Crooks which highlights AWAI and the Michael Masterson’s copywriting course as prime examples of direct marketing scam.”
“I’ve only seen part of the introduction and part of the table of contents, but it looks devastating. It ‘dissects him like a frog in a biology lab’.”
“As for Mr. Smith, my guess is that others connected to AWAI will join him in posting more phony success stories here. That’s how the game is played.”Following Posted by (name omitted) March 30, 2007 at 11:56 PM
“Why would an honest man running a business need a pen name? Unless he has something to hide. Don't most criminals use an aka?”
“How many direct mail controls has Mr. Smith written that can be verified? His critiques are a joke, like the AWAI course.”
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