Nebraska Attorney General Hilgers Files Lawsuit against Social Media “Influencers” for Their Involvement in “E-Commerce Automation” and Dropshipping Store Schemes

Posted:

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

LINCOLN -- Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers has filed a lawsuit against Nebraska social media influencer Elizabeth "Liz" Friesen and a Florida company she worked with called WiFi Money, along with several other entities and individuals, regarding their collaboration and involvement in various "passive income" schemes. The schemes were highly misleading and led to millions in lost savings for Nebraska consumers. The lawsuit seeks to recover funds wrongfully taken from Nebraska consumers and put a stop to the defendants' deceptive and unfair business practices.

According to the lawsuit, the defendants enticed Nebraskans to purchase "automated" e-commerce stores that would be run by "dropshipping gurus" on Amazon and Walmart.com. Nebraskans were allegedly deceived with empty promises of getting "paid to live" and "money-back guarantees," as well as misleading statements regarding the scheme's track record of success. The so-called "gurus" that consumers paid to "manage" stores repeatedly violated Amazon's and Walmart.com's policies, leading to mass suspensions and deactivations of the consumers' accounts. The consumers repeatedly experienced huge losses while the defendants pocketed the money and used it to finance their lavish lifestyles. The defendants continued to promote the scheme despite its many problems and track record of failure, and they continued to induce Nebraskans to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a scheme that had no chance at success.

Deceptive marketing and sales tactics were allegedly used to recruit consumers, including through Nebraska-based social media influencer Liz Friesen. The "influencers" named in the suit allegedly used the money they made off the scheme to fund their expensive lifestyles and promoted their lifestyles on social media to lure more consumers into their schemes. Instead of using Nebraskans' savings to make good on their promises or provide refunds, the defendants splurged on multi-million-dollar mansions, Lamborghinis, Cadillac Escalades, a private jet, designer clothing, jewelry, luxury vacations around the world, and countless other extravagances.

"This group of influencers manufactured lavish lifestyles on Instagram to lure consumers into a stream of 'passive income' schemes that were doomed to fail, then divvied up the money they took amongst themselves despite the schemes' total failures," explains Attorney General Mike Hilgers. "These highly deceptive 'passive income' schemes will not be tolerated in Nebraska under my watch. Our Office will fight hard to get Nebraskans' hard-earned money back and hold bad actors to account."

The lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Lancaster County, Nebraska. The complaint alleges violations of the Consumer Protection Act and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, among other laws.

The Attorney General is asking the Court to order the Defendants to fully refund consumers, stop their schemes and refrain from them in the future, reimburse the state for its legal fees, and pay civil penalties, among other relief.

Download Court Filing

Download News Release