Blogger sued for $20 million

Leslie Richard runs a small organic clothing store called The Oko Box. She was contacted by a TV production company called Vision Media Television. They told her they wanted to make a TV documentary that included her business.

After some conversations and emails, Vision Media Television told her they would need $25,000 from her upfront to include her in the documentary. Sound fishy? Leslie thought so. She did some investigating and concluded that Vision Media Televsion was not exactly what they presented themselves to be. She wrote the story on her Oko Box Blog in Scam Taking Advantage of Green Businesses in February of this year. This post describes what they told her and prints some of the email she received from them.

Read my full story at BlogHer today.

7 thoughts on “Blogger sued for $20 million”

  1. this was not a scam.
    so please stop saying it is…
    it is a business that skims the edges to get clients. to sell, you don’t have to be totally upfront about everything..she should have gotten legal advice before agreeing to anything or a contract.
    i have spoken to these people before. VMT..
    they say that you have to pay upfront for the fees after they do their pitch. you have to ask about the fees..otherwise they assume you will pay.
    they call us all the time trying to get us to do it. we just say no..
    sounds like Leslie did not listen to them.
    every business has a ‘catch’ that communicates via internet or phone.
    their site clearly states what they do.
    (and I do not work for them)
    stop playing victim and do research.
    i honestly don’t think they’ll get a penny from her..but she needs to consider removing blogs like this. she’s only making it worse to allow others to post more remarks on it. the lawsuit is not going to backfire on them..please..they’ve not got anything to lose here.
    a lesson to everyone.
    be careful of what you put on the internet that directly bad-mouths a person or business, read between the lines and don’t be a sucker..
    thinking that someone is going to invest in your local business and make it a national wonder is really silly. Like a one-in-a-million chance. She got stars in her eyes and then got mad when she realized she screwed up. hope she turns out ok..but she will have hopefully learned a lesson in internet etiquette.

  2. Just so we’re clear on this: I didn’t call it a scam and Leslie did not sign a contract with them. Follow the link to BlogHer to read the full post.

  3. I wrote about this at my WiredPen blog –http://wiredpen.com/2008/08/13/blogger-sued-for-20-million/

    I, too, teach (University of WA) and once was a web developer!

  4. Justsaying is going around finding articles about this and pasting and copying the exact same response to them. I smell a Vision Media Telivision rat.

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