SkyBiz Redress Program
Tuesday
May 22, 2007
Close to a decade ago, several of my dad’s high school friends who migrated to the US came home to the Philippines for a reunion of sorts. They were here to introduce a new web-based business system they were part of, called SkyBiz. This was actually a multi-level marketing system for selling web space and web builder packages (remember, that was the late 1990′s; think Web 0.9). We bought in, thinking of the great opportunities. I was, after all, techie-oriented. Dad was business-minded (ten years after, we’re a little of both!).
It turned out the business was a scam–a classic pyramid scam. True, a great number of MLM and direct-selling based businesses are legitimate (and big business worldwide), but this was just not one of them.
Distribution of $20 million dollars in consumer redress will begin in the near future for victims of SkyBiz, an alleged massive international pyramid operation based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The money for consumer redress is part of a settlement between the pyramid’s promoters and the Federal Trade Commission, which charged that their scheme violated federal laws. The settlement also bars the defendants from participating in pyramid schemes in the future, and bars them from misrepresenting business ventures. It bars one defendant from engaging in any multilevel marketing programs for life and bars three others from engaging in multilevel marketing programs in the for periods ranging from seven to 22 years.
I had actually forgotten about this for a few years, until I got curious about my online dealings in the past and Googled up a handful of names I could remember. SkyBiz was one of them. And the first few results were about the class action suit for SkyBiz. So I signed up. I couldn’t remember our actual account numbers and names, but the people over at the law firm were glad to help us get our needed information (we gave our full names, addresses, telephone numbers at that time, and the few keywords we recalled from our account names).
I then shelved the idea of receiving funds from them since we were advised it might take long to process.
So I was surprised to receive email just a few minutes ago that the SkyBiz Redress program was already sending out funds in the form of Mastercard debit cards. I’m not expecting a big amount, but the thought of justice being served, and that we were part of some benefits package, is comforting. I’m thinking the refund amount would at least cover for some hosting/domain expenses, and hopefully a full tank (or two) of gas! 
But it’s in US Dollars, so I do hope establishments here won’t have a problem processing transactions with the card. Nonetheless, I do hope we get our cards soon!
My brother B.A. ran into some persistent callers a few months back, and he found out these callers were part of MLM business trying to recruit him. I advised him that there are legit MLM businesses, and I’ve actually tried these (another company, not SkyBiz), and there are scams. I posted a couple of comments because the comment thread had turned into a flamewar zone, I had to intervene (supposedly neutral, but hey I’m opinionated).
I quote a paragraph I wrote there. This is how I do business, the Web 2.0 way.
True, business almost always entails networking. But some people misconstrue “networking†to be the ol’ pyramid/binary type recruitment where you have to recruit at least two people, who would have to recruit two each and so forth. To me, networking means connecting to people, and connecting people. You don’t necessarily have to have business dealings with anyone. But the fact that you’re connecting–as friends, associates, business partners, colleagues–builds up your reputation and your network of people. You will almost always find people to help you out this way.
If any of you guys are part of the redress program, congrats! Tell me if you’ve received your gift cards already.
J. Angelo Racoma is a technology journalist and blogger. See more of his blog posts here at racoma.com.ph, commentaries at racoma.net, and Twitter feed at @jangelo.
Comments
jhay
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:53 am
Now that is justice. But imagine if this were handled by the Philippine justice system?
Anton
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Had a similar experience – all the way in South Africa. Hope I can use the dollar currency – was thinking of paying for overseas mags via the Visa card.
sasha
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:15 pm
There’s justice in this world
Major Tom
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:25 am
This is a very good thing, the wheel of justice turning right in front of our eyes. How I wish our local judicial system could be similarly expeditious on like cases considering we have many situations like that in our country and the victims not receiving any cent so far.
ba
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:56 am
Wow. Libre!
J. Angelo Racoma
May 25th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Yes, it’s good that justice has been served. Even if the value of the money invested has been diluted over time (10 years of inflation!!), I feel satisfied.
rachel
May 28th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I received my mastercard in Jerusalem, Israel, yesterday, curtesy of FedEx. Of course I had to email Robb Evans to find out my claim number in order to activate the card (who ever thought it was worth keeping that claimnumber?) Am waiting for the claim number. Still not 100% trustful that I will get any money out of this.
J. Angelo Racoma
May 28th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Haven’t got my card yet. But I do have our claim numbers. We got this info via email a couple of months back, when Robb Evans was emailing people to inform that claims are about to be closed.
Ayn Rand Saguil
May 29th, 2007 at 7:14 am
I just received my card and I can’t find my claim number. Can anyone help me get in touch with Robb Evans? Whats his email address? thanks.
J. Angelo Racoma
May 29th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I got this response via email from a subscriber:
To Ayn Rand Saguil
Go to the skybiz-redress website and there is a FAQ about how to activate your card, etc… Robb Evans contact address is in this under a question about getting your claim number.
lithiumg
May 31st, 2007 at 10:05 am
Has anyone received their card and checked the balance yet? If so, what percentage is it compared to what you had put into SkyBiz? I’m still waiting on my cheque and am curious if it’s going to end up being just a few dollars or something more substantial.
Paige
June 3rd, 2007 at 2:28 am
I received my Card today and I went to the site they tell us to register our cards and Guess What!!! the 3 digit number on the back of the card does not work. Monday morning I will be in touch with the FTC. I have seen this before with another simular company. If anyone can let me know who I need to talk to I would appreciate it?
Thanks
rachel
June 3rd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
I requested my claim number from Robb Evans (as directed by the website FAQ) and received a formula letter telling me no new claims were bing registered. I replied that this was not a new claim (I have my mastercard). Watch this space. Can’t wait to find out id anyone actually gets any monay back out of this.
Mark
June 4th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Hey there i have also received 2 gift card but also had to e-mail for claim number and still have had no reply dont know what avenue i can try next to get claim number … hope others have better luck then i am having .
rachel
June 4th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
After my second letter to Robb Evans in reply to the auto-reply saying that no new claims were being processed; guess what – I got the auto-reply again. I am beginning to think that Robb Evans is one big hoax – certainly he’s not actually reading these emails. I sent him another letter but I’m not hopeful. There seems to be no other way of getting my claim number. Another commenter says his claim number didn’t work anyway. I had to send Robb Evans my card number – do you think he’s using it himself? HAS ANYONE ACTUALLY FREED ANY MONEY FROM THESE MASTERCARDS?
J. Angelo Racoma
June 4th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
We received our packages via FedEx just this afternoon, and I’ve been able to successfully activate one of the cards (the other one is still unopened). Apparently, we got the full amount of the initial investment we put into Skybiz. I have yet to try using it for point-of-sale transactions or thru Cirrus ATMs.
On a sad note, though, a relative of mine who invested a couple of thousand dollars into the company wasn’t aware of the redress program. Neither was I aware that he put money into Skybiz. So he wasn’t able to file his claim!
J. Angelo Racoma
June 4th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
BTW, Robb Evans is the name of the law firm handling the claims. I believe I have the contact info of one of his staff who helped me find my account number. Do email me privately if you need more help on contacting Robb Evans’ staff.
Elizabeth Navarro
June 4th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Hello! I would highly appreciate if you can help me get my claim ID Number. I e-mailed them 2x but up to this point all I get is an automatic response e-mail. I see that you have the contact info of one of their staff. Thank you so much.
J. Angelo Racoma
June 5th, 2007 at 12:47 am
I’ve been getting these in my Gmail (from readers who have subscribed to the comment threads via email):
From Rachel (actually an email I sent to her):
Hi Elizabeth,
This is the reply I got from Angelo. I haven’t tried it yet but I will tonight. I hope it works.
Hi Rachel,
Yes, this is Angelo Racoma. Actually, the email address the staff used
was also skybiz-redress@robbevans.com . But the staff identified
herself as Ms. Nicole Lanna. I checked their site http://www.robbevans.com,
and apparently you can also contact them at 1 (818) 768-8100. Their
direct email address (non-Skybiz related) is rea@robbevans.com .
Cheers,
Angelo
From Paige:
Hi Elizabeth
I will try to help you with getting your claim Number. If I do not succeed here is the numbers to the FTC.
Media Contact
Mitchell J Katz
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2161
James E Elliott
FTC Southwest Region, Dallas
214-979-9373
Mark
June 5th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Hey there guys so greatful that you all are posting messages i just rang robbevans on this number (818) 768-8100 and ask for contact number they said there is no direct number that i had to e-mail them which i have done she said the are getting thousands of e-mail so it might take a weeks or so to reply so now just a waiting game wooohooo
rachel
June 5th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I emailed Nicole Lanna yesterday bu got no reply. OK, so it may take weeks. I don’t mind waiting but it’s a shame they couldn’t put a different auto-reply letter up saying that they will get to our requests eventually (if indeed this is the case – who knows). Anyway, it has been a great help ‘sharing’ all this and pooling information so thank you Angelo and everyone else.
REA-Skybiz Redress Admin
June 6th, 2007 at 2:02 am
June 5, 2007
I want to take this opportunity to let everyone know that we have received over 2,500 emails thus far and are responding as expediently as possible. All emails received will be answered provided the answer is not addressed in the auto-response or on the website http://www.skybiz-redress.com.
We ask that you do not send multiple emails as they are bogging down are system. Also, all emails will receive the auto-response message. We are currently revising the text to make it clearer.
Rest assured that we will provide your claim number to activate your card but please be patient.
Thank you,
Robb Evans & Associates LLC
Redress Fund Administrator for Skybiz
J. Angelo Racoma
June 6th, 2007 at 2:36 am
Thanks for this response. I guess this post on my personal tech blog has turned into a forum of sorts discussing the Skybiz redress fund. I do hope everyone’s concerns get cleared up soon.
Sally Asay
June 7th, 2007 at 6:22 am
I immediately sent a response on the Skybiz Redress site, getting the same response that everyone else has – an automated email reply. Like others, there is no satisfaction here, and I’m wondering if the response they gave about answering each ‘within a few weeks’ will actually drag on until the cards have expired! Anyone no the jurisdiction under which this edict of redress was issued? Perhaps we could lean that direction for more immediate help…….
I’m just a little old gray-haired lady, a rookie at this, and am anxious as everyone to find some kind of retribution…
Good luck, everyone!
Sally
lithiumg
June 7th, 2007 at 8:26 am
A couple of months ago I e-mailed the skybiz redress address (their system had been stipping the letters out of my Canadian postal code), and I was just as frustrated at the auto-reply messages. I did get a response after a couple of weeks though, so I’m hoping it works out the same way for everyone else now.
I received my Stored Value MasterCard today and successfully activated it via their website. The value is the exact amount in US dollars that I originally spent on SkyBiz (I never received any money from them while they were in operation, not sure if that would have changed the result or not). Mind you, the US dollar isn’t nearly as valuable now as it was then, so when translated to Canadian funds it works out to just over 2/3 of my original payment (not counting inflation), but this is everything I could have hoped to receive. I haven’t tried using the card yet (trying to figure out something to buy in US funds so I don’t have to deal with MasterCard’s currency conversion charges), but I have no reason to suspect it’s not legit.
I hope it works out for all of you people still waiting!
Valérie
June 9th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Hi Everyone,,, here is The Good News….I was lucky, me and some members of my family to have our ID claim number through a friend.. we were all able to activate our Master Card, that we got JUne 4th and I just came back from my local bank in Québec Canada, ,,, so you can go to any bank you want all around the world or any country and do it, and it did work,,, and we got the $125. 00 as promised… so sorry for those who dont have their claim number…. but just wanted to tell you all that IT WAS TRUE…..and Justice was done Good luck…
Jenny
June 9th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Rachel,
You need to email your card number with your other details ( for.e.g address, name , phone) for them to expedite the process.
http://gogoupdates.com/?p=7
i just send my to them this morning, hope they will reply asap
J. Angelo Racoma
June 10th, 2007 at 3:43 am
Got this from Sally via email:
The first thing I did was send them required info -asap! Upon receipt of
the automated reply, I then asked for my claim number, which I no longer
have. Corresponsdence from them has been automated, no matter the course I take to reach them..wishing us ALL luck!
Diana
June 12th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Hi from Bulgaria, Europe. I have received via FedEx 3 Master Cards and fortunatelly I have my ID claim number. After activating the Master Cards I tried today to take cash from an ATM working with Master Card at the bank near my office but it displays “card rejected. pls contact the bank”. I have send an e-mail but there is no answer. By checking the account via SkyBiz redress Internet site my account is active and the billance was not changed (it shous that the money are in the account). Has anyone the same problem and can you give me an advise what to do?
Valérie
June 13th, 2007 at 2:59 am
TO DIANA……. I suggest to you and everybody to go to any local automatic both… I dont know the word in english… I am french and go once… and take tout $120.00.. because it will leave 2. 00 left after the transaction… it cost 3. oo each time you use the card… outside U.S.
Did someone else got their money like I did… Valérie
Brad
June 13th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Diana,
Did you key in the PIN u created or your claim ID when you withdraw from ATM ?
I emailed both HSBC USA & my local HSBC to ask about the charges and how i can withdraw from local ATM, yet to get any reply from them.
Im just afraid that my card will get stuck and there is no way they can identify if the card belongs to me.
I think i’ll just spend it online.
there is this site addressing the same issue where they can’t withdraw, maybe you want to check out http://www.gogoupdates.com
Valérie
June 13th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Hey every one you dont have to go to ATM or HSBC Banks in …. in US.. or Canada… it works everywhere… this is the last time I write to tell you that I use a bank from Canada its called Caisse Desjardins here in Québec… I used it with the automatic guichet… counter you know outside the place or inside … and I had my ID claim number and when you activate your card you creacte a PIN number….Its very easy… TRY
Rosalyn
June 15th, 2007 at 4:14 am
I received my card and now I am waiting on my claim number, will I ever receive it?
Lana Irons
June 15th, 2007 at 6:19 am
folks…i’ve been trying for a week to get a reply about my missing claim number and have gotten nowhere. I also spoke with Robb Evans office directly and was told to be patient that it might take awhile for a response. By the grace of God I came across my claim number in an old email dating back to August 2005. This was emails that went out to say my claim had been accepted and gave the claim number and password to track status. I’ve activated my card. It was for the exact amount I invested in Skybiz and I’ve drew it all out at the ATM 10 minutes ago. I did charge a fee of $2.50.
I feel pretty certain if you cannot find your claim number you may be out of luck as someone mentioned above…your expiration date may get here before you get a response. If you’ve kept old emails…take a look back to summer/fall of 05…you might come across it like I did!
Best of luck to you!
Lana
Paul Aspochio
June 15th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Robb Evans is a con artist worthy of investigation. To think that a system was not put in place to retrieve claim numbers after four years is nothing more than a scheme to release him and his office of notifying claimants. Where has this twenty million been for the last four years? What happens to the money that is left in the accounts after September 27th?
Call his office and you get an outsourced (Indian) staff that has been hired to steer callers off into oblivion. The guy is a legal asshat with over forty years in banking, and surely knows how to move money around. I threw the damn cards in the trash and suggest you do the same! Talk about adding insult to injury, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me! Enjoy your retirement, Evans, you jerk!
Mark
June 16th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Hey Everyone i Have received my claim number and activated card just waiting to go to atm … So Robb evans are doing there jobs like they have been for 5 years have patience and it will come …. hope every one else start receiving there claim number soon.. THANKYOU ROBB EVANS and ASSOCIATES (just so you know it took nearly 2-3 weeks to get claim number)
Marcus
June 16th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Hey Paul, be patient dude and go get those cards out of the trash. Follow the instuctions on the website and send them your full name and email address. I did it 3 weeks ago and was sent my claim number last night. Just got back from an ATM (use the ATM loacator on the redress website as not every ATM works). Use the withdraw from saving option. I just got $330 back. About time, seven years later… Good luck to all of you.
Rechelle Q.
June 20th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Mabuhay!
Has anyone from the Philippines already used their activated Skybiz Redress debit card? Kindly post how and where did you used your card.
Thanks!
Ayn Rand Saguil
June 21st, 2007 at 3:16 am
I’ve already received my claim number but the thing is I can’t seem to activate it in the said website. It just keeps on saying “No Matching Account Found”. A friend told me that instead of login, why not try sign-up. Unfortunately, there’s no sign up button. Can anyone help me figure this out?
William
June 22nd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
FYI – I received my card on June 2, 2007, but did not have my claim number. I emailed Robb Evans for my number on June 2, 2007, and received an email back with the claim number on June 18, 2007. My balance shows $110.00!!!
Margo
June 22nd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
After all these years and never hearing anything re SkyBiz, I threw out everything when I moved 3 years ago. When they emailed me (fortunately I have never changed my email address) regarding a claim, I had no info to provide. Maybe I provided info years ago but can’t recall. Nonetheless, they sent out the debit cards which went to my old address and fortunately was not “returned to sender” by the post office. Luckily my friend who lives at that address brought me the mail. That’s the good part!
However, I have no claim numbers nor any of the other info that Robb Evans requests (user ID and tracking numbers) but I have filled out their form several times and received the same automated reply that all of you have received. I went to the bank and they are clueless and can’t help. So I am waiting like the rest of you and am considering sending a certified letter to Robb Evans at least as proof of having attempted to make contact. I can be patient but my concern is that the card expiration date will be here before we get a response from Robb Evans and are able to use the cards. From all your posts here, it sounds like Robb Evans is innundated with emails. I am glad to hear that some of you have been successful in getting your claim numbers have activated your cards and that there is value in those cards.
It would be nice if the Robb Evans auto response would include a message indicating how much time we can expect before getting a real reply from them. Hope they are reading this!
Margo
June 23rd, 2007 at 4:30 am
This is an update to my first posting. I called the phone number for Robb Evans in California today and was told that they have received over 2,500 emails and are getting to them as fast as they can and to just have patience. I spoke to the person who answered the phone who said that there is nobody connected with the SkyBiz issue that I could talk to and this job has been outsourced. Also they can’t spend any money to have more people work on it because all the SkyBiz money has been distributed to all of us via the debit cards. No point writing a letter to the Robb Evans firm either because it goes nowhere, she said. I was told to wait another week or so. Seems like we have no choice.
Margo
June 24th, 2007 at 2:15 am
A few hours after my last posting, I received an email with my claim numbers.
This morning I called HSBC bank and was told there are no ATM fees to withdraw the money at their bank. I went to their bank to use the ATM and you can only withdraw in increments of $20 with the highest amount being $100. After withdrawing $100 per card, I received a printed receipt showing they had charged a surcharge fee of $2.00 per transaction for cash advance. Bank employee said now I have $8 balance per card. I went to a store and tried to purchase using the $8 balance per card and cards were rejected. I have now logged on to the skybiz-redress website to check balances and see that there is an additional $2 per card was charged by the bank for ATM use so the balance is $6, not $8. Had I known about these fees, perhaps I would have used the cards to buy groceries, gas, and go out to dinner.
If you plan to use an ATM to withdraw the cash, make sure you create your pin number when you activate your card on line. You will need that pin.
Also, do not throw away your claim number because you will need this to log on to the skyBiz-Redress web site to check your balance and this is the only way you will know how much money is left on the card. If you use your card for purchases and the purchase amount exceeds the balance on your card, you will need to tell the store the balance on the card to use towards your purchase–they cannot read the balance on the card. Most stores will deduct the balance on your Skybiz card from your total purchase and then you pay the remaining amount due with another debit/credit card or cash–but you must know the balance on your Skybiz card.
It would appear that if you spend all your debit card money on store purchases you will avoid the fees I just paid by withdrawing the cash.
Do not throw your card away if you have used it for store purchases on any goods you might return to the store. They will only put the credit back on the card you used for your purchase. For this reason you might consider using your card for gas and groceries.
Hope this info is helpful. Good luck to everyone!
Wazza
June 26th, 2007 at 2:18 am
Received my card on Saturday morning – had no claim number
Sent an email Saturday afternoon requesting details
Received an automated response back immediately advising receipt of my request
Tuesday morning received an email back with the claim number – activated the card immediately and checked that there was a balance
Next step is to withdraw the money
No problems yet
Wazza
June 27th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Update – went to the ATM and withdrew the approx amount (in AUD$) of the value of the card
No problems – cash paid immediately $350.00
Came home and checked the balance – $11.54 (A AUD$3.00 fee was applied to the withdrawal)
Had a phone bill due soon so used phone pay by credit card and used the rest of the funds available – no problems – all taken and approved
Balance of account now is $0.06 cents
I think I will leave that for the administrators
Salvador T. Valbuena
July 11th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Dear Mr. J Angelo Racoma
i received ID claim number. i was able to activate my card and saw my account balance.. i have not used it yet though.. but i would like to share with you is that i know that i invested more than P 24,000 pesos or $521 at today’s conversion then. what only appears in the balance is $125 only.. i wrote them a letter telling them this fact.. i will await there response and hope you can also help me in this regard… may i know wheter there are some investors who experienced this and may i know how were you able to recover your full investment.
thanks
salvador valbuena
wordy
July 28th, 2007 at 3:14 am
–I had bought four SkyBiz sites.
–I recieved two Mastercard debit cards only.
–I recieved tracking numbers each of the four sites I purchased.
– I recieved only one claim number, and only one password for all of the sites?
I tried to activate on line, but the site does not recognize the 3 digit security code from the back side of the ‘debit’ card.
How many failed activation attempts do you get to try before they request a visit to the bank as other ATM cards protocol require. I am now afraid to continue attempting to activate my cards.
What have you experienced with your reimbursement?
Margo
July 28th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Wordy–you need to email skybiz-redress. You are supposed to have a different claim number for each card—-well, at least that’s what I got. Then I had to make up my own password online and I used same p/w for all cards. Once you compose your password, you can use ATM b/c it requires p/w. You can use debit cards for store purchases without password but of course you need to be able to activate the card first to get it to work and to check balance.
When you email to the sybiz-redress, it will take a while for response–2-3 weeks perhaps and time is getting critical so move fast on this. In your email give both your card numbers and request claim numbers–just maybe they sent you wrong claim number.
Good luck!
wordy
July 28th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Any one else recieve fewer debit cards than the number of sites purchased?
Big turn around. Today I was able to activate only one of the two cards I received (see #47 above). It contained 360 us dollars. Morale: If you can’t activate first try wait for a day.
Went Atm and with drew 360 cads in error leaving a balance of 28 and change. currency exchange oops, in the card. Was unable to withdraw the 28 cads in consequent efforts.
Will try to activate the remaining card asap. and report the event.
thankx to Margo for coming to my assistance.
Margo
July 28th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Dear Wordy–
Glad to hear of your success! I received a card for each site purchased. I used ATM at the bank that issued the cards. Was told they would not charge a fee for ATM use but they did. They called it a cash advance fee. I used remaining balance for store purchase–no fees. ATM would only allow withdrawals in specific denominations which can keep you from withdrawing the exact remaining balance but you can spend it at a store leaving zero balance. Don’t know how this works with currency exchange. Some ATMs give a maximum amount in one day so you might get balance on different day.
By accident, I also found that I could use the balance on my cards to purchase a gift card at my favorite store (no expiration date) and then spend the gift card.
Maybe more cards are in the mail to you. Each one was mailed in separate envelope in my case anyway. If you don’t get more cards soon I would email them.
Hope to hear that everything works out for you!