Living Lean review: Product never received! 181

I ordered a trial size tea. I then canceled my order after receiving the trial offer and have been billed 3 times for tea I have not ordered. I have requested a refund on the initial charge and their is a second charge to my account this week.

I ordered Wu-Yi tea and started noticing additional charges on my credit card of $19.95 a month. And I've been unable to reach any one but I've never purchased any thing from them.

Was charged $19.95 but I did not authorize it.

I JUST RECEIVED A UNOTHERIZED CHARGE ON MY CARD ON THE 22ND. OF APRIL FROM A COMPANY LIVING LEAN.
NEVER HEARD OF THEM.
BOB PALMER

To stop the charges you need to contact your credit card company. There has been a security breach from the wuyitea company. This seems to be the common tread. The credit card company needs to re-issue you a new number and you need to follow their directions so you can get your mis-charged money's back.

Unauthorized charges from account. I ordered the Chinese diet tea cancelled it within time limit and I am still being charged.

http://ftc.gov/opa/2010/12/iworks.shtm

Jeremy Johnson FTC lawsuit is valued over 500 Million dollars.
- Jeremy Johnson and Todd Vowel are actively involved in money laundering. Jeremy Johnson, Todd Vowel, Jason Vowels, Bryce Payne, Jason Peterson, Paul Ford, Duane Fielding, Ryan Riddle are all MAIN TARGETS in a criminal investigation from the FDIC for money laundering and processing casino games.
- Jeremy Johnson has over 10 million hidden in the mountains of St George
- When Jeremy Johnson is finished scamming his victims from millions, he than sells the consumers credit card information to Jason Peterson in Tampa Florida.
- Jeremy Johnson has illegally paid Mark Shurtleff thousands of dollars through various “ shell companies” along with Cory Pulsipher the active sheriff.
- Jeremy Johnson has lost over 15 million gambling at Wynn Las Vegas.

Contact: Jeremy Johnson directly: [protected]
FTC Contact: Collot Guerard: [protected]
AG Contact: Mark Shurtleff [protected], [protected]
Senate Contact Bob Bennett: [protected]

For Release: 12/22/2010
FTC Charges Massive Internet Enterprise with Scamming Consumers Out of Millions Billing Month-After-Month for Products and Services They Never Ordered
Defendants Allegedly Created 51 Shell Companies to Carry Out Deception
The Federal Trade Commission is taking legal action against a far-reaching Internet enterprise that allegedly has made millions of dollars by luring consumers into “trial” memberships for bogus government-grant and money-making schemes, and then repeatedly charging them monthly fees for these and other memberships that they never signed up for. The FTC seeks to stop the illegal practices and make the defendants pay redress to consumers and give up their ill-gotten gains.
“No consumer should be sucker-punched into making payments for products they don’t know about and don’t want, ” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.
The FTC’s complaint alleges that the defendants offer consumers bogus money-making and government-grant opportunities. They claim that the offers are “free” or “risk-free, ” and that they will charge customers only a small shipping and handling fee.
According to the FTC’s complaint, the operation, doing business under the name I Works and controlled by Jeremy Johnson and nine other individuals, uses websites that tout the availability of government grants to pay personal expenses or pitch various money-making programs. The websites offer “free” information at no risk and ask consumers to provide their credit or debit card numbers to pay for a small shipping and handling fee such as $1.99. When consumers provide their billing information, though, I Works proceeds to charge them hefty one-time fees of up to $129.95 and monthly recurring fees of up to $59.95 for the grant or money-making programs. I Works charges them additional monthly fees for one or more unrelated programs that consumers did not agree to.
The FTC’s complaint alleges that this scheme has caused hundreds of thousands of consumers to seek chargebacks – reversals of charges to their credit cards or debits to their banks accounts. The high number of chargebacks has landed the defendants in VISA’s and MasterCard’s chargeback monitoring programs, resulted in millions of dollars in fines for excessive chargebacks, and prevented the defendants from getting access to the credit card and debit card billing systems using their own names. To keep the scam going, the defendants tricked banks into giving them continued access to these billing systems by creating 51shell companies with figurehead officers, and by providing the banks with phony “clean” versions of their websites.
The FTC has charged the defendants with violating the FTC Act by misrepresenting that government grants are available for paying personal expenses, that consumers are likely to obtain grants by using the defendants’ program, that users of their money-making products will earn substantial income, and that their offers are free or risk-free. The complaint also alleges that defendants failed to disclose that consumers who pay a nominal shipping and handling fee will be enrolled in expensive plans that charge consumers fees until they cancel, and that the defendants charged consumers’ credit cards and debited their bank accounts without their consent.
In addition, the FTC alleges that defendants posted deceptive positive reviews and used deceptive testimonials that misrepresented the benefits of their grant services. Finally, the FTC has charged the defendants with violating the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E by debiting consumers’ bank accounts without their signed written consent and without providing consumers with a copy of the written authorization.
As alleged in the complaint, the defendants gained access to the Visa and MasterCard systems through many entities. The banks included Wells Fargo, N.A., HSBC Bank USA, First Regional Bank, Harris National Association, and Columbus Bank and Trust Company. The payment processors the defendants used included First Data, ECHO, Global Payment Systems, Litle & Co., Moneris, Payment Tech, Trident, and Vital, as well as independent sales organizations, including CardFlex, RDK Inc., Merchant eSolutions, Pivotal Payments, PowerPay, and Swipe Merchant Solutions.

The FTC complaint names 10 individuals, 10 corporations, and 51 shell companies as defendants. As alleged in the complaint, the lynchpin of the enterprise is Jeremy Johnson, the sole owner and officer of I Works Inc., which has done business under numerous names. The FTC’s complaint names Johnson and nine other individual defendants: Duane Fielding; Andy Johnson; Loyd Johnston; Scott Leavitt; Scott Muir; Bryce Payne; Kevin Pilon; Ryan Riddle; and Terrason Spinks. In addition, the 10 corporate defendants are: I Works Inc.; Anthon Holdings Corp.; Cloud Nine Marketing Inc.; CPA Upsell Inc.; Elite Debit Inc.; Employee Plus Inc.; Internet Economy Inc.; Market Funding Solutions Inc.; Network Agenda LLC; and Success Marketing Inc.
The 51 shell companies named in the complaint are Big Bucks Pro Inc., Blue Net Progress Inc., Blue Streak Processing Inc., Bolt Marketing Inc., Bottom Dollar Inc., doing business as BadCustomer.com, Bumble Marketing Inc., Business First Inc., Business Loan Success Inc., Cold Bay Media Inc., Costnet Discounts Inc., CS Processing Inc., Cutting Edge Processing Inc., Diamond J. Media Inc., Ebusiness First Inc., Ebusiness Success Inc., Ecom Success Inc., Excess Net Success Inc., Fiscal Fidelity Inc., Fitness Processing Inc., Funding Search Success Inc., Funding Success Inc., GG Processing Inc., GGL Rewards Inc., Highlight Marketing Inc., Hooper Processing Inc., Internet Business Source Inc., Internet Fitness Inc., Jet Processing Inc., JRB Media Inc., Lifestyles For Fitness Inc., Mist Marketing Inc., Money Harvest Inc., Monroe Processing Inc., Net Business Success Inc., Net Commerce Inc., Net Discounts Inc., Net Fit Trends Inc., Optimum Assistance Inc., Power Processing Inc., Premier Performance Inc., Pro Internet Services Inc., Razor Processing Inc., Rebate Deals Inc., Revive Marketing Inc., Simcor Marketing Inc., Summit Processing Inc., The Net Success Inc., Tranfirst Inc., Tran Voyage Inc., Unlimited Processing Inc., and Xcel Processing Inc.
The Commission vote to file the complaint was 5-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.
NOTE: The Commission authorizes the filing of a complaint when it has “reason to believe”
that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendants have actually violated the law.
The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP [protected]). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1, 800 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Public Affairs
[protected]
STAFF CONTACT:
Collot Guerard
Bureau of Consumer Protection
[protected]
(FTC File No. 1023015)
(I Works)

I have the same problem, I have been trying to get my money refund for 3 weeks now. They are a scam and a fraud. They took $75.00 from my account for nothing! I am going to report them to IFCC.

I just called an got a refund from this company, we had ordered tea over 1 year ago if not more and then all of a sudden we notice this living lean charge on our account. they had a phone number on our accont next to the charge so I called and they said they are giving me a refund, I reported this to the better business bureau.. Please do the same! The phone number I had for living lean was [protected]...Stay on them and Be FIRM.. But PLEASE TURN them in..DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THIS...

The parent company of Living Lean is:
Iworks, 249 East Tabernacle, St. George, UTAH 84770,
Tel [protected],
Email ryanriddle@iworks.com

You can report them to www.ic3.gov and file a complaint at www.FTC.gov

CPA Upsell
Google Money Profit
Fit Factory
Network Agenda
Grant Resource Center
Living Lean
Everyday Legal Forms
Funding Accelerator
Rebate Millionaire
Express Business Funding
http://iworks.com/products.html

Raven Media companies:

Express Business Funding
Grant Search Assistant
Grant Writer Pro
Grant Master
Easy Google Profit
IWORKS
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/raven-media/3/977/528

Dear Customer,

For Summer and Fall of 2008 we offered customers a free trial for "Living Lean" along with our Green Tea Supreme trial offer; "Living Lean" provided health and fitness services such as customized diet software, e-books, and live health specialists to answer your questions and help you improve your diet and workout. By signing up for the Green Tea Supreme trial you also signed up for a 10-day free Living Lean trial and needed to contact them and close your account if you did not wish to pay for their services.

We ended this partnership in the beginning of Winter 2008 and no longer offer their services to our customers.

If you have any questions or issues please contact our 24/7 customer service center at [protected].

Devin
Customer Service Manager

P.S. We do not ship outside the United States so the post from the gentleman from Australia is incorrect; he must have us confused with a different company who makes a similar product as we do not ship to other continents.

This site is not affiliated with Living Lean. Living Lean is WuYiSource.com and/or EasyWeightLossTea.com. These are both the same company. OfficialWuYiSlimmingTea.com is not affiliated in any way with Living Lean, WuYiSource.com or EasyWeightLossTea.com.

This company is awesome... great customer service.. I talked with a young lady who was very re-assuring and helped me in every way possible. She passed me over to Judy who had me helped every way possible.

someone stole my C.C and Judy was so understandable and immediately gave me a full refund.

I

I just checked my bank account for the past 3 months, and my account has been charged for this living lean deal after i cancelled more than 3 months ago!

I just called the toll free number and after complaining for quite some time I got them to agree to refund my money - here's hoping it really happens. My advice to all is to get a manager on the phone and be persistent about getting a REFUND.

I am having the same problem, but to make matters worse I am in Australia and am having difficultly even being able to ring them, I can't work the exact area codes. Can anybody help me with this? I have [protected]

I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING THAT WAS SUBMITTED, I HAVE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH LIVINGLEAN BEING CHARGED TO MY MASTERCARD AND I DON, T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS, THEY REFUSE TO CANCEL IT, TELLING ME TO CALL BACK ON THE 19TH OF SEPT. I REALLY DON, T KNOW WHAT TO DO, THIS COMPANY IS A BIG RIP-OFF.

I was paying for my wife's package that she ordered not knowing that it was a scam, when we finally discussed it figured out that it was a scam and cancelled. I cancelled and was offered one months worth, insisted on sspeaking with a manager who offered three months worth of charges. Be persistent.

I too have been charged $19.95 for Living Lean, what the heck is it? I have spoke to someone last month and they said they would take off the charge, but of course I keep getting charged this amount. Can we dispute with our credit card to take off the charges and not get charged again?

Same thing has been happening to me. I signed up for the tea, canceled after the first shipment. Never was aware that somehow it included this Living Lean stuff. Called to cancel that too. Got the out of service number. Got ahold of Wu Yi and they said they would cancel LL for me but I should call also and gave me the same out of service number. There was yet another charge this month on my checking account. Has anyone actually gotten this to stop or gotten any refund?

This has been happening to me for the past 6 months, they have taken 120.00 of my hard earned income. I have written them, called etc with no results. My bank has just started to offer a refusal of payment for recurring charges for cancelled, not ordered merch. It only is effective for 6 months but hopefully this company will get the message if not I think It is time for us, the consumers, to file fraud charges.

The same thing happened to me. I called the toll free number and insisted on a refund. They gave me a confirmation number and said I will get a refund. But I had to insist vigorously.

Correction: Mr. Ryan Riddle's cell phone is [protected] with Raven Media which handles some customer service for Living Lean.

MUST READ MUST READ MUST READ.

Living Lean #[protected], Eileen Schmidt, the only customer service rep, eileen@selfhelpsworks.com. Spoke with her few times now. Owner is Mr. Lou Ryan.

Raven Media, #[protected] ext 108 Laura, customer service rep who helped me. Her Manager Mr. Ryan Riddle #[protected] cell phone.

Supreme Brands #[protected], Judy Ito, account supervisor, who stopped returning my calls and would not help me. Never can get a live person for this company. Always have to leave a message and call you back and number will not show on caller ID.

I bought green tea from Supreme Brands back in april 2008. I used the tea and never noticed a difference and canceled with supreme brands. Then I received an invoice from Men's health magazine and cancled that without a problem. Then I noticed a charge for Living Lean at end of april for $19.95. I thought it was Supreme Brands charging me atfer I canceled and called them and they said it was a a different company for weight loss management I had signed up for and would have to call them. I called in April 08 and it went to a recording telling you what to do if you think there were fraudulent charges on your credit card. You had to do this and that and was not worth the hassel. No charge in may 08 and then one at end of June of 08. Now, I was angry and re-called Living Lean and someone actually answered. I spoke with Eileen schmidt and she refunded one month the first time I spoke with her at end of june 08 but would not refunded the 2nd charge of 19.95 saying I have to take responsibility for my actions and the I checked to sign up for free 21 day trial of living lean. I still was not happy. She gave me a number for her boss Mr. Ryan which I don't remenber what it was and left a message and he has yet to return my call. I spoke with Eileen yesterday 7-10-08, and she would sill no refund my 2nd charge and Mr. Ryan is a very busy businees man, ya busy scamming people. She insisted I checked a box for living lean ans sent me there ad and the box was unchecked. I went onto supreme brands and pretended I was ordering tea again and to see where there ad was. It was on the second page below where you enter you creidt card, which was not displayed unless you scrolled down just a bit.Depending how your computer monitor displays the page, you have to scroll down and hit submit for the green tea. Well the living lean box is automatically checked for you and til his day Eileen insists it is not checked.

I found the number to Raven media and saw it was some how connected to Living Lean. I called Ryan 'cell phone which I found on an ad he wrote and left a message just a few days ago. Laura called me back yesterday. Well Raven Media handles different products for different companys. It handels one product for living lean, but not the one that I was automatically signed up for. Laura was great, she said she would call Living Lean and talk to them, but didn't know if it would do anything.

As before Eileen Schmidt retured one charge for $19.95 and it did hit my account. I received an e-mail form her yesterday saying she is giving a full refund and sorry for any problems caused.

This is the new age for internet marketing for getting you trapped into things you never heard of when you go online to purchase a specific product.

Best weight loss program is BODY FOR LIFE BY BILL PHILLIPS. Buy the book at target or somewhere similiar. I personally did the 12 week program and went from 186 to 168 and 14% Body fat to 5.9%. Check out Bodyforlife.com.

Thanks for the info. I will change my bankcard, as these guys hve deducted from my account for the past 5 months.

Same old story as everyone else! Two months of charges for $19.95 from Living Lean.
Call [protected] which is the customer service line and raise hell. The first person I spoke to only offered to credit me for one month. NOT good enough! I spoke to her supervisor and I got my money back for both months. Don't let them get away with these ridiculous charges for a program that you're "automatically" signed up for!

I got zapped by Living Lean also. I order the tea and after thinking about it decided to cancel the order. Guess what the number they provided a disconnected number was. I immediately contacted my credit card provider. I returned the tea when it arrived and initiated the paper work necessary to stop the charges. I got my tea money back minus the expense of sending the stuff back. Then these $19.95 charges started showing up and I thought my wife had enrolled in some program as she does from time to time. After a couple of months I asked her how it was working out. That is when I found out she did not know anything about Living Lean. This started me thinking about the tea business and what a scam I thought that was. The Living Lean name seemed familiar to me so I went to Google and searched Living Lean. Thanks to the comments I read on this web site, I discovered Leaving Lean was just another scam from the tea folks. I called customer support and got a confirmation number from someone who does not speak English very well for a return of 19.95. I also cancelled my membership. I am out two charges of 19.95 and not a happy camper. I am going to contact my credit card provider and turn up the heat.

Thanks to all you folks out there who wrote comments and good luck to those who have been scammed.

I too was charged for tea and some living lean..I cancelled my card.. and filed a dispute with my
credit card account...If you don't cancel your card they will keep sending and charging you. They never call back ..

I, unlike most of you, luckily noticed a small charge of 1.95 on my account from living lean. So I was able to cancel it BEFORE i got charged 19.95. The lady on the phone was very rude and kept telling me they didnt already charge my card and I should keep the program. I could barely understand what she was saying.

And I actually did read the agreement and saw nothing about it, so to the one out of 50 people who tried to make us all look like idiots, don't feel proud of yourself. Everyone got scammed the same way here and you're obviously the exception, not the rule.

So look out for the 1.95 charge! It can prevent you from getting charged further! and get the conf. number!

Today, June 20th, I was shocked to find this charge on my credit card account. I looked back and it had been charged 2 previous months. I cancelled the three charges with the credit card and then went on to call Living Lean. Spoke to Gian (in the Phillipines)who transferred me to some one named Rose who supposedly was a supervisor. Phone call was conveniently dropped. Called again, spoke with Carla again transferred me to Holly, who said my husband was told he would be billed for a website. Nooooooo... he never ordered it. He ordered the tea, within 30 minutesof his order, he cancelled the tea. I spent probably 2 hours getting this thing resolved. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is trully resolved. I am going to keep track of it, daily! I am also going to contact better business bureau and fraud bureau locally.

I did the same as Maria. I called [protected] talked to a cust. service rep named James got nowhere so I too told him I was calling the Better Business Bureau and for some reason I got a supervisor named Adam. He gave me 2 months credit. They had already billed my acct. a second time. I was on the phone 45 minutes. Do not let them tell you it can't be removed it can and it should be. Good Luck!

I am having the same problem, this company Living Lean keeps debting my account for $19.95.

I tried several times to contact them. I was on hold for several minutes and then got disconnected or I got a rep. and they would pretend there was a bad connection and hang up. I finally reached someone and canceled and was given a reference number. After reading alot of comments about this company I think I'm going to change my account number so they can't take anymore of my money.

I have been charged 19, 95 plus an extra fee for being in australia from these ### The bank is investigating but you guys in america need to take it to your government officer to investigate them Thay have takeN millions it seems and everyone is complaining DONT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT AMERICA DO SOMETHING NOW!

How can I get my money back that was taking out without my permission?

Ladies call this number [protected] or [protected] demand your money back and tell them if they don't refund you will call the Better business bureu. that worked for me.

they had the nerve to tell me that when I ordered the "trial sample" of the tea that that signed me up for the living lean program. I told them I already belong to a gym why would I need or sign up for one online. I also told them they tricked me into it because I do not remember signing up for any program online. All I wanted was to try the tea...which is not actually free at all...

will be the last time I buy something like this online...beware, companies are doing this alot now..and making mega bucks off people who don't complain...

I checked the wu-yi website where I ordered the tea and no mention is made about the living lean program...after checking around to find a link to the living lean, I found it way at the bottom of the webpage under a small title "about us" that is where I found the number to cancel. another reason why this is a scam, they do not provide a phone number on your bank statement, or easy information to cancel on the website...

wu-yisource.com

GOOD LUCK ALL...

I am also being charged the same thing and cannot find a number for the companywho is charging me. I am going to try calling the Wi-Yu tea number since it was through their website this started happening. I will post a number if I can find one otherwise I am going to put in a complaint to have it stopped somehow.

Be careful of Wu Yi Tea and Living Lean!

I too was caught in this scam and thought having a nice cup of tea would be a harmless
way to drop a few pounds... instead, consumers will end up "dropping" $20.00 a month from
their credit cards - without authorization. I called [protected] and had to brow-beat the depressed young man who took the call into giving the last payment back. Get a confirmation email and beware
of "free trials" on the Internet. I have a Ph.D and I fell for it, so don't feel badly BUT do call and get at least some of your money back.

I have a slightly different problem--I checked my online statement and it just says "Living Lean" but not for $19.99. They are trying to charge me $59.94. I called the company everyone here is talking about, and they told me they have no record of my information and that their products are $19.99. So, apparently I'm getting unauthorized charges from some other company with that name or someone charged my card using that name.

i DID NOT AUTHORIZE ANY MONEY TO BE CHARGED TO MY ACCOUNT.

How do you stop getting charged? I am also being charged every month