The first week of July was very busy. Many ISO teams that I work with were looking to get a jump on the month and were actively purchasing multiple types of data going into the July 4th weekend. Many of my clients are reporting back that they had deals funded this week at a time when many brokers and funders are taking vacation. This turned out to be a great time to get ahead of the competition. Here are a few things that I am looking at in the industry
Cherry SMS No Longer Offering Text Services
This week several of my clients received email notifications from Cherry SMS stating that they are no longer offering texting services. This is an issue as many teams in the industry have been relying on Cherry to help them with their SMS campaigns. A few weeks ago, I put an email out discussing that one of my contacts was in the process of launching an SMS platform I believe that is still something that will happen, but as he’s in the final stages of launch, we may be 2 to 4 weeks away from being able to offer this platform. In the meantime, Easify, www.easify.app, has been an option for some iso teams. I have not used the platform myself, but from what I’m hearing teams are able to deploy text messages in a similar way to what they were doing with Cherry SMS, I will keep you posted when I hear more information about platforms that are available.
MJ Capital CEO to Plead Guilty
This past week it has come to my attention that Johanna Garcia, the former CEO of MJ capital is in the process of changing her plea to a guilty plea in the $200 million Ponzi scheme she’s accused of running. A change of plea hearing is scheduled for July 9 and at that point we expect an announcement from the DOJ. The reason I post this type of news is I receive calls weekly from brokers who are raising money for their lending platforms. Many brokers want to become funders and are raising money to put out to merchants by either originating deals in house or from other ISOs. As I have discussed in the past if you’re planning on raising money for a Merchant cash advance platform or any other project, it’s imperative that you consult a securities attorney and make sure that the project is being marketed and sold properly. In many cases, the SEC and the DOJ are looking at these types of offerings as the sale of unregistered securities.
Anton Ewing Sues MCA Company 5 times for TCPA Violation
This past week it was brought to my attention that a well-known large Merchant cash advance company has been hit five times by the same serial litigator Anton Ewing. This is a company that has a reputation of funding, many deals and large dollar amounts. Anton Ewing has sued this company 5 times for TCPA violations and they continued to call, text and Robo dial him. If you are running a Merchant cash advance ISO, it is important that you buy your data from a legitimate source and re-clean your data regularly as merchants can add their names to the national DNC at any time. Keep in mind that each phone call or text is a $1500 violation. This means if you’re using a texting platform, and you text a Merchant who is on the DNC 10 times that Merchant can potentially sue you for 15,000 -1,500 per call or text. These are avoidable fines and fees if you take the proper steps.