(Lincoln, NE) -- The Nebraska Attorney General's office is suing a social media influencer. Nebraska A-G Mike Higers says the lawsuit accuses Elizabeth "Liz" Friesen, a Florida company (WifFi Money) and others of being involved with passive income schemes, that used deceptive & unfair practices to dupe Nebraska consumers out of millions of dollars.
The lawsuit seeks to recover funds taken from Nebraska consumers and to stop what Hilgers describes as deceptive and unfair business practices.
The lawsuit claims 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.
The lawsuit claims deceptive marketing and sales tactics were used to recruit consumers, including through Nebraska-based social media influencer Liz Friesen. The “influencers” named in the suit allegedly used the money from the scheme to fund their expensive lifestyle, splurging 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.