BEWARE DROPSHIPPING SCAM – Fraudsters JANA JAROS and JACKSON CAPPER run scams under HOME BUSINESS CENTRE, HOME BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, HOME BUSINESS NETWORK
A friend of mine got caught up in a dropshipping scam called Home Business Centre. They operate under other names too, but for simplicity I will refer to them as HBC on this webpage. We managed to find several other people who’d been duped as well, and started a group chat to help each other gather evidence. Some were muzzled under a non-disclosure agreement, but we were still able to build up a sufficient pile of evidence from the ones who weren’t. I’ve published our findings on this webpage to warn people about this con, so that other people might be spared from falling for it.
We have HARD EVIDENCE to back up everything stated here (recorded calls, emails, screenshots etc.), which we will be taking to the appropriate authorities. Watch this space for updates on our progress.
Scam history
The people behind HBC are named Jana Jaros and Jackson Laurence Malcom Gary Capper. Capper is grandson of the infamous Larry Pickering, a known fraudster (though better known as a cartoonist) – so the scumbaggery evidently runs in the family. In 2017, Jaros and Capper were convicted by ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) for running a boiler room financial scam. They were imprisoned but then were immediately released with a good behavior clause, but obviously they didn’t learn a goddamned thing, and went right back to scamming people.
They now operate a dropshipping scam, hopping around under different company names, so that they can start again with a fresh reputation when people start catching on. Each shell company has a new name, new ABN, new website, and new Facebook page (and they pay bots/shills for likes and positive reviews). So far, we have found them operating under the following names:
Home Business Centre (ABN 20629061267)
Contracel Enterprises (ABN 20629061267)
Home Business Network (ABN 70616179241)
Home Business Direct (ABN 70616179241)
MYTYM PTY LTD (ABN 70616179241)
Home Business Enterprise (ABN 70616179241)
Enterprise Plus (ABN 99609894662)
Rossi Agency (ABN 99609894662)
Home Business Express (ABN 99609894622)
Home Enterprise Network
Social Home Business
Enterprise Direct
Intel Business
Hair LA Natural
Rapid Deals
About HBC
HBC is a make money from home/get rich quick scheme. Their angle is that they have a secret “system”/formula that will make their clients lots of money through dropshipping on eBay, Amazon etc. HBC charges between $3000 and $10000 AUD for a package which is supposed to include a full-time premium mentoring service, 1-3 eBay store subscriptions, and a video training course, among other things. They advertise a money back guarantee, saying that they will refund the cost of the package if you do not make your money back in 6 months.
How the scam works
Obviously, nobody is able to make their money back in 6 months, since their “system” is a ruse. They simply do not honour the money back guarantee, and instead offer a “settlement” that is a fraction of what the victim paid, pocketing the rest. They make you sign non-disclosure agreements upon purchasing the package and upon receiving the settlement, to make sure that nobody can warn anyone else about the scam, or post information about the scheme on social media. The settlement contract also makes it impossible for victims to take any further action against HBC to get the rest of their money back.
Pressure sales tactics
When you speak to the sales representatives over the phone, they tell shameless, bold-faced lies with a lot of confidence and charisma. We pretended to be a potential customer and recorded their sales pitch, as hard evidence of their intention to deceive.
They have a constant “discount campaign” running at all times, making it look like the package has a higher base price. When they talk to you on the phone, they tell you there is about a week left before the sale ends. But the sale never does end, and is advertised for 24/7 on all of their websites. Victims have reported seeing the same discount campaign running for 8 months.
They have also insidiously taken advantage of the coronavirus pandemic, targeting people who were laid off and are now looking for legitimate ways to make money online. The front page of their websites are plastered with articles about how the pandemic has lead to a boom in online sales.
The “System”
The story that they spin is that their company was founded by a millionaire named Ryan. HBC refuses to give you any information on this character or his online presence, so we very much doubt he is a millionaire, if he even exists at all.
In the sales pitch they say that the mentors are hand-picked and personally trained by Ryan himself. Later, one of the mentors told us he was merely a contractor who had little to do with HBC, but we are not sure if we believe this – we think the mentors could be in on the scam too.
The salespeople tell you that you’ll make money from day one. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON in the group chat made money from day one. It took weeks or months for victims to make their first sales, many of which were items of only a few dollars in value.
Additionally, they use the eBay logo in their branding, which can be found on their website and on the physical packaging of the materials they send you, leading many to believe that their system is officially affiliated with eBay.
EBay only allows dropshipping along strict guidelines, and HBC’s system directly contravenes these guidelines. HBC also tells you to ask your friends to leave positive reviews on your eBay account, which is a another violation of eBay’s terms of service. HBC explicitly tells you to lie to eBay to get around these breaches, but refuse to take any responsibility if your account is shut down because of this.
The mentor service
The premium mentor service is glorified ad nauseum in the sales pitch. This is where the majority of the deception lies, because what is promised is so far removed from what is delivered. The sales rep laments that the mentor will “hold your hand every step of the way”, and will be in regular contact with you in order to coach you to get the sales you need. You are told that mentors are always available to you, even outside of business hours.
In reality, the mentors give very little direction. They are aloof, often unavailable, and do not answer questions properly. During one victim’s six month period, they only managed to secure one short phone call with their mentor. The mentor only skims through emails, providing very brief /stock replies, or ignoring questions entirely.
The video course
The video course is another part of the package, which basically consists of eBay and Amazon tips and tutorials. There are a few handy hints but nothing you couldn’t find on YouTube, and certainly nothing that could make you the money you need to recoup the package cost. Videos are added and removed without warning!!! This allows the mentors and admins to gaslight their victims about not properly following the steps of the program, moving the goalposts wherever they like.
EBay store
Another of the selling points of the package is that you are supposedly provided with 1-3 (depending on your package price) “eBay Stores”. Once you have paid for the package, HBC deny you the promised Store, stating that what they mean by “eBay Store” is actually just a regular, unpaid eBay account. EBay’s own definition of a Store specifically refers to the subscription-based premium account type, so this is willfully deceptive. Additionally, HBC outright lies about this in the sales pitch – in phone call we recorded, they confirm that you are supposed to get a paid eBay Store subscription.
The items for sale
The sales pitch makes the products to be dropshipped sound like good quality, popular items. They say they are in “high demand and low supply”. They name reputable brands as examples of products that you will be selling. They say you will be provided with a “hot niche products” list that will be specially selected for you, and unique from their other dropshippers. Of course, everyone in the group chat got the same list of products – it’s all cheap Chinese garbage from Alibaba and Banggood. There are about 40 products on the list (despite requiring you to have THOUSANDS of listings). Half of those 40 products are also constantly out of stock. They say that the list is constantly updated with new products, but during my friend’s 6 month period, it was only updated once.
In the sales pitch they assure you that you do not need to sample any of the products or keep anything in stock in order to dropship, as the products are all market tested and the mentor will be able to answer any customer queries about the products. However the training videos put an emphasis on sampling the products and keeping the items in stock, which if you don’t do, they use as a reason to say you have not followed advice to expand your business.
The work involved
HBC tell you that you can get rich by putting in just one hour of work a day. The salesperson will tell you that the work involved is simply fulfilling customer orders. They advertise their package as a “turn-key business”, saying that all the products are there ready for you, and that all you have to do is sell them. Since the aforementioned list they provide is useless, filling orders is only a tiny fraction of the work required to make sales, since you also need to research many thousands of new products to sell. The mentors, of course, do not provide any support in finding new products.
Before you sign up, you are told that you will be able to make plenty of money even with just 200 product listings. But a training video stated that, actually, you need to have 4-5 thousand listings.
It is simply not humanly possible to manage that many products and fill out all your orders in an hour each day (not to mention the monumental amount of work involved in finding so many new products to sell).
Shipping
The sales rep very confidently told me that shipping would NEVER be late, and that their priority couriers set them apart from the rest. She claimed that if an item ever was late, the mentor would organise express shipping to the customer. In reality, they use a courier company that is actually renowned for being slow and unreliable, and because of the mentor’s total lack of help in this area, victims have to eat the costs to refund unhappy customers.
The money back guarantee
I inquired about the money back guarantee during the sales pitch call, the rep assured me that, first of all, I would never have to claim the MBG because as long as I was not lazy, their proven system would not fail. She said less than only 1% of people ever try to claim the MBG. Well, we know this is not true either based on the fact that 100% of people we’ve talked to have wanted their money back!
The MBG stipulates that you will be provided with a full refund if you have made even ONE DOLLAR less than the cost of the training package at the end of your contract. The rep made it sound like the process would be easy, and that it’s just a simple form to fill out. In reality, the form is 16 pages long, and obviously drafted in a way that will make it impossible for anyone to get their money back. Many of the questions relate to things that were never mentioned at all in the sales pitch, in the training videos, or by the mentor. The questionnaire requires you to give subjective answers, giving them plenty of room to argue that insufficient answers were given.
The general sentiment that they give their victims is that they only have themselves to blame – they gaslight them and tell them that they have not followed the program correctly, or simply not worked hard enough. Even if you work extremely hard and follow all of the mentor’s instructions through the entire process, and fill out the MBG form properly, they still refuse to give your money back.
Some victims had been told that HBC could not give the full amount back, because the mentors had already been paid and they can’t get the money back from the mentors. There had never been any mention of mentor fees being deducted from the refund amount – in any other mention of the MBG, it is made clear that you are supposed to receive a FULL refund.
Conclusion
It is clear that these scumbags will continue to scam innocent people as long as they can get away with it. They have violated Australian Consumer Law in so many ways with their lying and deception. As I mentioned, we have hard evidence to back up all the claims on this webpage. We are currently looking at our options in using this evidence to convict Jana and Jackson for fraud.
If you have any additional information on the scam or the people behind it, or have fallen victim to this scam yourself, please email us at dropshippingscam(at)protonmail(dot)com, and give us as many details as you can, so that we can keep this webpage updated with relevant information.
You can also help by sharing this page to social media, and giving information and evidence to the following Australian regulatory bodies:
ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission)
ACC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission/Scamwatch)
ACSC (Australian Cyber Security Centre/ReportCyber)
Australian Federal Police/Crime Stoppers
