5 November 2008

Rhiannon Leetham and the mouth of madness

| johnboy
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[First filed: November 04, 2008 @ 09:33]

This isn’t a story I’d usually pursue. But seeing as the mother is hawking a media release I reckon it’s fair game.

The above video is Rhiannon Leetham, 12, of Canberra explaining how wonderful it is being a young entrepreneur.

Sounds great I hear you say. But what is this young business person selling?

A learn to be psychic course, of course.

Because you’re never too young to sell dreams to the gullible.

Credit where it’s due the website is extremely well written for a 12 year old. Sure it’s heavy on block caps and large fonts, but this isn’t a product aimed at a discerning audience.

At the top of the page Rhiannon suggests that signing up to her course might grant such powers as:

    How about having the ability to PREDICT THE NEXT WINNER at the races? Or HEAL sick animals and relatives, using just the power of your mind?

    MAYBE you’d prefer to spend your time flying around places you’ve never even visited – past, present or future. Or tune your ESP to know things you always wanted to know.

    OR JUST PERHAPS you’d use your secret powers to attract love and wealth into your life, without ANY effort whatsoever!

More importantly is the message just down the page in large red block caps: PSYCHIC POWERS ARE COMPLETELY SAFE.

Let’s see how safe you are after lifting $10k off a bookie who finds out you were cheating. Oh wait, maybe they’re safe because they don’t work?

At $99.95 (USD) it’s not cheap, but the website informs, in large letters no less that it’s “GUARANTEED”!

In my opinion it’s bad enough that Charly Leetham, who issued the media release, is profiting from selling moonshine to the public. But throwing a 12 year old out in front of the scam really is a bit much.

UPDATED: Thanks to poptop for digging up Charly Leetham’s website.

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Seems the IT world is treating your favourite Leetham with contempt. She needs a little help it would seem ;). Glad I study networking instead … I’m not likely to be the “Right Resource”.

Mind you I’d question CIT internal vetting procedure for advertising material.

and I quote:

“Attention: To All student

Business Name: The Leetham Trust (trading as ask Charly Letham).

Charyl Leetham is seeking personnel to assist in the delivery of work to clients over the Internet.

they would prefer that successful applicants have their own ABN and act as
subcontractors to our companies although, we may consider a traineeship / cadetship if
the right resource presents itself.

For successful applicants, the work is anticipated to be on an ongoing basis.

Please forward your applications to: charly@aest.biz with Subject Line: CIT – Application For Web Development

Or for any enquiries contact Charly Leetham on 0411 573 983 “

I’ll spare you the attatched mangled docx content for the three positions, needless to say I’d want six figures to work across several European and US timezones …

give her a call if you’re interested …. lol

All I can say is that all the psychic power, MBA study (from which Institution remains a mystery), mentoring and other foolproof methods don’t appear to have kept this family out of financial harm’s way.

So what’s the lesson?

Selling their house to end up with a debt of $300K, no wonder the family chooses to believe in fantasy.

Skid – I think your suggested article titles are much better ; – )

neanderthalsis12:07 pm 12 Nov 08

She obviously prefers to use her own blog to answer the criticisms levelled at her by us Rioters, that way she has control over replies and will only allow the gushing praise of her sycophantic cronies to remain on the site.

At least she fixed up part of her biography, the woman / women bit; the resoning behind the Americanised spelling was a rather poor attempt at reasoning though.

Oh noes.

Charly seems to have read the site, and be responding to our comments on her own website (and then deleting comments by anyone who isn’t immediately overflowing with praise, or running their own sham website, I guess ‘being able to deal with criticism’ isn’t a requirement of good Internet Marketing)…

Her last four posts since the Press Release have been:

06Nov (Australian time):
Why encourage a child to sell crap to gullible people

07Nov(Australian time):
Even though you’re an Australian and would ordinarily use an S, its easier to give into peer pressure and sacrifice your identity instead of arguing with Americans over a Z.

09Nov(Australian):
How I got my MBA (its real, honestly)

11Nov(Australian):
We’re better off not being bankrupt. Whatever our accountants might tell us, they’re wrong, because we’re setting a good example for our kids by living with and mooching off my parents even though we’re 40.

These are all clear divergences from the theme of previous articles over on http://charlyleetham.com/

Skidbladnir said :

Wow.
. . .Apparently Charly also recommends a PROFIT GROWTH SYSTEM where ANYONE can make US$200,000pa just by sending this one guy either $495 cash or donating directly to his church, then attending this seminar in one of a dozen nearby hotels, and he will reveal how we can be at LEAST as successful as he is, so long as we give him a share of any EASY INCOME FOR LIFE we earn though it.
All we need to do a few SIMPLE HOURS of work ourselves at first, then sign up a few friends once we show them how SIMPLE and EASY it is, and put them to INCOME EARNING work for us, for only a few SIMPLE HOURS each week. . .

That should sort out the Family Debt in NO TIME AT ALL.

Coming Soon!

“How to make Mommie Dearest look like Winnie-the-bloody-Pooh!” by Charly Leetham

Wow.
I’m amazed.
Simple internet searches reveal just how many times these people either join scams, or try to build their own hype around whatever scam they’re involved in at the time.

Apparently Charly also recommends a PROFIT GROWTH SYSTEM where ANYONE can make US$200,000pa just by sending this one guy either $495 cash or donating directly to his church, then attending this seminar in one of a dozen nearby hotels, and he will reveal how we can be at LEAST as successful as he is, so long as we give him a share of any EASY INCOME FOR LIFE we earn though it.
All we need to do a few SIMPLE HOURS of work ourselves at first, then sign up a few friends once we show them how SIMPLE and EASY it is, and put them to INCOME EARNING work for us, for only a few SIMPLE HOURS each week.

She’s also got all of her children involved in this other SIMPLE, PROFIT MAKING ENTERPRISE.

Further to the above, the “[for me]” is put in by me, because otherwise the parents really do need someone to sit down with them and explain how debts in their names are their own debts.

Also, see earlier comments about dodging debtors, and the tax situation.

This comment of Rhiannon’s roughly sums up how it works:
http://rhiannonleetham.com/blog/?p=1

I first came online around 1 month after my mum did and I started off with a recipe blog… After that my mum and dad decided it was time [for me] to get a blog that makes money. So my dad I went and looked for an affiliate program that catered to my interests and eventually we found the best product and we joined up as an affiliate. In the next two days my site was up and my mum had helped me write a sales page. Now that site is up and it is, thatpsychicgirl.com.

So not actually Rhiannon’s idea for a business (it was her dad’s), it wasn’t actually her choice to go into business (it was both her parents), the motive to generate a profit isn’t hers (again, her parents, and that Bradley Thomson guy), the content there wasn’t just hers (mum ‘helped her write’ it), and its not actually hers or Charly’s press release (its Jenny Ford’s, all they have done is edit the original ever so slightly. See these Google results for “financial educator and mother of three, Jenny Ford”).

So, Trinity Christian School… Are they big into children dealing with demons and the occult, especially for personal profit?
http://www.thercg.org/questions/p163.a.html

Because personally, I’d think it was just a bit outside their Values, Purpose, and Statement of Christian Faith.
http://www.tcs.act.edu.au/General/Values
http://www.tcs.act.edu.au/General/Purpose/document_view
http://www.tcs.act.edu.au/General/StatementOfFaith/document_view

Well, I surely know what I want Santa to bring me. A nice Learn to be Psychic course! Oh the thinks I could think!!

Sign me up, Rhiannon!

I believe in you. I trust you. I know you would never part a little old lady from the hard earned savings from my war widow’s pension. You have such a cute, innocent, sweet little face.

I have never gambled in my life, but I’m sure I’ll be good at it after I get my hands on all your wonderful hints and tips and mystic goodies.

That way I’ll be able to stop the bank from foreclosing on the family home that I settled in with my late husband nearly sixty years ago, before he died in the war. This is my last chance, and I’m desperate!

Cheers Skid. I thought it all seemed a little too advanced for an 12 year old but too basic for a real flash marketer. What a warped way to instill values in a kid.

and on their own sites, they promote “fighting back”. i have lost money on the stock exchange. my super shows neg growth. I am not running a website saying fight back – help me pay my isp via a donation. I just work a little harder in my now 2 jobs. these people need to suck it up, this begging from the population is as bad as a dole rorter.

I am sending emails out for people to support my mo.

BerraBoy, its all boilerplate from the original site, who they are reselling\pyramiding for. A man by the name of Bradley Thompson, who also tells people all kinds of useless crap, but here’s his catalogue:
http://www.selfhelpstreet.com/selfhelp/
So no, it wasn’t written by a twelve year old, or a woman, or even an Australian.

But doing some cross-matching on dates across the few blogs, young Rhiannon started taking an interest in, and selling psychic powers roughly a) nine months after her parents realised they were broke, but soon after her mother b) told Rhiannon that she had psychic powers and c) the week before her mother openly admitted on DTAlpha that she had been encouraging her innocent\gullible children to invade forums and in true pyramid scheme style, sell crap to the more gullible people (roughly half way down, post #47).

This media release seems to be an even more desperate attempt to boost sales, and keep the parents’ debtors at bay, by getting income in the children’s names.

I agree with JB. The parents put this kid in the public domain and they have to wear whatever comes of that… the good, the bad, and the ugly. I spent some 10 minutes of my life (that I’ll never get back) looking at her website last night and it obviously wasn’t written by a 12 year old. In fact, I thought the use of a stereotypical fortune teller lurking behind a crystal ball in the header showed a real lack of marketing/advertising smarts. It screams SCAM.

Lets face it, if anyone in the family had done the course and it really works, they’d know there would be negative vibes coming her way over this vid.

If your seriously concerned, call the authorities;)

The poor little girl will happily take your USD$99.95, MWF. The ‘Bindi’ thing is no joke. Her target audience is children, many of whom are young enough to be taken in by this con and old enough to have access to the money.

Also, show me where the child has been ‘vilified’. That’s extremely strong language. Can you substantiate that claim?

Really MWF?

Charly(tan) would know that her little possum is being ridiculed on these pages and yet she does nothing about deleting the video? Shame on the mother.

johnboy said :

MWF, the video was linked to from the mother’s media release. They’re the ones who’ve put it out there.

It’s staying.

I think it is pretty mean to magnify the villificaion a child in such a small community as Canberra. A child who has no say in it, at all. The child’s parents may not care that their kid is “out there” and being ridiculued. However, I do. Poor little girl.

MWF, the video was linked to from the mother’s media release. They’re the ones who’ve put it out there.

It’s staying.

As distatseful the parent’s online scams are and, as distateful and horrid the fact that the parent is using her children to spruike her pryramid schemes may be, let’s not forget that the victim here on this site is this 12 year old child. It is her image in the original post and she had no legal say in it. Is it possible for the editor to remove the video of the child in order to maintain her privacy? Her parent may not give a toss, however, all children have rights to privacy even when their parents ignore this right.

It may well be that we worked for the same company (especially after the ‘teaming up’, if you get my drift).

Say no to Polygamy. Just no.

It could become the new family business.

Mr Evil was referring to mum

No, I meant at one of those ‘no-questions-asked-about-your-age’ kind of establishments. 🙁

Mr Evil said :

If she got a job out at Fyshwick she’d pay the family debt off in no time.

Evil, seeing as she’s only 12, I’m hoping you’re talking about ‘bob-a-job’ type arrangement at say, Frisco or Bunnings?!

If she got a job out at Fyshwick she’d pay the family debt off in no time.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

It seems, from reading the linked blog, that their businesses didn’t make enough $$ to cover the costs, and by the time they extricated themselves they were significantly in the red.

one of the donation numbers is $666. number of the beast anyone?

Perhaps someone should notify child services. Surely this is a form of abuse?

Great… Canberra’s own Bindi Irwin.

Be a good girl Rhiannon and go and chase that ball onto that very busy highway.

And at 40% commision, why wouldn’t you do it?

http://www.be-psychic.com/psychic/affiliate.aspx

By the way, its not her idea, she’s just reseller.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22unique+EIGHT-STEP+FORMULA+for+unleashing+your+intuition+%22&hl=en&filter=0

They would appear to be in a pyramid scheme for psychic powers.

tylersmayhem12:31 pm 05 Nov 08

Good grief…can someone PLEASE silence her?!

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy12:12 pm 05 Nov 08

Ha! Glad I left that place. It was amazing how you could get such a disparate bunch of people in the one organisation.

Indeed I do.. hehe.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy11:40 am 05 Nov 08

@RAGD. That’s interesting, as she was always nice to me, although the company I worked for did have a culture of people being selectively nice, depending on which team you were in.

It may well be that we worked for the same company (especially after the ‘teaming up’, if you get my drift).

@VYBerlinaV8_the_on , I have also worked with Charly before. I don’t think she is as “dodgy” as some people here have put it. However I didn’t think she was particularly “cluey” either… and to be honest she was never seemed like a nice person.. she was never nice to me anyway.

So, how much tax does a child pay when supporting her parents’ debt?

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy11:13 am 05 Nov 08

You would have to be a very gullible schmuck to hire the services of this woman (or women if you want the other personalities) and her kin.

Like I said previously, I worked with Charly a few years ago at a fairly well known IT company. Seriously, she is actually pretty cluey, I’m surprised she has gotten herself into this much bother.

neanderthalsis10:33 am 05 Nov 08

I-filed said :

Most hilarious: among this family’s little shonky ventures listed on Shonky Stewy’s website is a ‘stationary’ (sic) business!

The business may well be “stationary” given the quality of their work evidenced on the interwebs.

neanderthalsis10:29 am 05 Nov 08

From the mumsies website:

“I’m Charly Leetham. I’m a business women who works from home and I have two children. I have a passion for anything IT related and I love to help people overcome their technology challenges. Some of the work I do include developing websites, writing sales copy and marketing online businesses. I hold a MBA specializing in Internet Marketing.”

Judging from the Americanised spelling (specialiZing) and the use of women instead of woman (unless there is a multiple personality disorder) and technology challenges as opposed to technological challenges (it’s called an adjective lady), I’d be inclined to think the MBA came from a degree mill; possibly purchased from the University of Costa Rica for a few hundred dollars. Or perhaps issued from a university in some imaginary city like Atlantis, Brigadoon or Hobart.

You would have to be a very gullible schmuck to hire the services of this woman (or women if you want the other personalities) and her kin.

*sorry – that should have read “I can’t HELP feel sorry for the kid” not ‘ehlp’. Damned lazy morning fingers….

I can’t ehlp but feel sorry for this kid. She either beleives she has a psychic ability due to her parents telling her she does or she’s ‘tuned in’ to how to part fools from their money.

If she’s after a quick win financially and can actually demonstrate what she’s preaching perhaps she should head out the next ACT Skeptics meeting. I believe they have a standing offer of $50,000 for anybody that can prove psychic ability.

Go on Rhiannon, I double dare you….

Being a child entrepreneur apparently runs in the family! Charlene claims to have worked in IT for 20 years before she became an Ezy DVD franchisee in 2003 – and claims to be 38 years old. So she started out in IT at the age of 13, in 1983! She claims to have gained an MBA in 2000 – but from which Ivy League Institution, she is very coy indeed!

Interestingly for someone with a 20 year track record in IT, elsewhere on the internet her cv mentions only part-time administration (albeit with a more jazzed-up title!) for a dog breeding club!

Most hilarious: among this family’s little shonky ventures listed on Shonky Stewy’s website is a ‘stationary’ (sic) business!

Watch in the next day or so for online attempts to rapidly flush this family’s internet presence down the cyber sewers!

I’d be interested to see if anyone buys something from the website whether they actually get the product, my guess is probably not.

Having just googled mummy, she seems to be the typical wannabe entrepreneur the has a lot of so called qualifications, websites and does a lot of things, but none are really successful. Notably she mentioned her EzyDVD franchises going broke, though I don’t think they went much better after she sold them, I noticed the one at Woden has closed.

It is noticeable that she’s had to try and drag her kids into the family “business” to try and make some quick cash, I feel sorry for those kids.

Suarts wife is in to Internet Marketing! And Stuart wants you to contribute to erase his debt!

OMG! the whole family are relatede to Charly(tans)!

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy9:08 pm 04 Nov 08

It seems, from reading the linked blog, that their businesses didn’t make enough $$ to cover the costs, and by the time they extricated themselves they were significantly in the red.

you’d hit what shiny flu??!

eq2 said :

The family is 300,000 in debt. That would help explain this desperate business idea.

http://stuartleetham.com/blog/

ummmm… most people with a recent mortgage are $300,000 in debt.

The family is 300,000 in debt. That would help explain this desperate business idea.

http://stuartleetham.com/blog/

Rhiannon’s brother- also a child – is flogging Warcraft products on the ‘net! Surprise surprise!

Pandy said :

Will she be able to cure all those men with erectile dysfunction?

ew

I’d hit it.

Although I think she would charge me for it.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy6:35 pm 04 Nov 08

I used to work with Charly (a number of years ago), and she was nice lady with a very good business mind. I wonder if maybe she’s encouraged her daughter to try this simply as a learning experience. I mean, really, if someone gives the kid money, who’s the real fool?

It might not hurt to stick a little closer to the topics at hand though.

mutley said :

Overheard, I’m grateful for your evident enthusiasm for original local music etc, and have attended and enjoyed a number of them on the advice from here, but please, please, please can you lay off the excruciating puns and extended stories of what you had for lunch, where you are at the moment, what you did on the weekend?

Fark. Four days without posting and I get flamed for a bit of mild sharing.

Sorry to offend your delicate little sensibilities, mutley. You do have the option of not reading anything I write. Keerist knows I employ that tactic with many who have their two lira to say here.

Overheard, I’m grateful for your evident enthusiasm for original local music etc, and have attended and enjoyed a number of them on the advice from here, but please, please, please can you lay off the excruciating puns and extended stories of what you had for lunch, where you are at the moment, what you did on the weekend?

Naughty girl. This is why parents are more frequently pushing for “values” teaching in schools. Immoral, exploitative, greedy Mummies breed immoral, exploitative, greedy daughters.

Poor little petal probably actually believes she’s a psychic too.

I-filed said :

No surprise – the mum is morbidly obese, hiding online, and living vicariously through her child.

No, I can’t agree with the link between body shape/genetic make-up and, well, anything else about the story.

A tenuous link at best. Not to be confused with the golf course by the sea on the coast of Spain which is the ‘Tenuas Links’.

Ok, I worked a bit hard for that one.

No surprise – the mum is morbidly obese, hiding online, and living vicariously through her child.

Man, I was having such a good weekend and now I feel quite physically (as opposed to psychically ill, which is when you know in advance you’re going to have a sick day — which NEVER happens).

Personally, I blame the parents.

Actually, that might be a trifle hypocritical as opposed to a dessert that campaigns against the over-use of sugar, which of course is a ‘hypocritical trifle’.

Where was I? Yeah, I’m grooming my 11 year old son for MC-ing and public-speaking, and my 12 year old daughter’s doing the livery for my business web-site (again, public speaking, not ‘Gormless Desperados R Us’).

Meh!

I wonder if her mother’s fancy MBA taught her how to handle the backlash of anonymous strangers on the internet!

I also wonder if these articles (At least the ones that aren’t blatantly stolen from other websites) are written by an 11 year old girl on the internet, or a 45 year old women pretending to be an 11 year old girl on the internet in order to make money.

http://www.thatpsychicgirl.com/blog/psychic-experiences/my-own-psychic-experiences#more-7

Either way this SUCKS. I wonder if these kids are home-schooled.

I’m half-tempted to buy the movie rights to this girls story. At least google will come up with this forum whenever some gullible fool wants to see if she’s legit.

Jonathon Reynolds11:00 am 04 Nov 08

I have this bridge I’d like to sell…

Dammit someone is already doing it!
http://www.immigrationbridge.com.au/

You’re not a cash smart kid. You’re a crook! And nuts.

Ours is not to reason why. Ours is just to cough up the USD$99.95.

*chuckle*

Thinking just gets in the way of our psychic abilities. You can never have a good PsyQ if you think too much about stuff.

So the mother is a reseller for http://www.be-psychic.com/ and is using the kid as a shill?

How lovely.

It’s not scary Thumper, it’s completely safe!

Charly(tan) by nature?

Pandy said :

Will she be able to cure all those men with erectile dysfunction?

I don’t know, but if you asked her she would be able to tell you.

*hehehe*

Mum has her own website [http://charlyleetham.com/] her pitch?

That would be her MBA in internet marketing!

Will she be able to cure all those men with erectile dysfunction?

..can she at least finish primary school first?!?

Would you buy a used car from this girl?

Seriously, well when you’re spending other people’s money you can afford to blow it all on uniforms or give some of it away to a worthy charity here and there.

I admire the entrepreneurial spirit, but have grave concerns regarding the exploitative nature of the product.

I’m sold! Soon I’ll be healing sick animals at the races. Everyone can enjoy the fruits of power, but it’ll cost you.

Hey, psychicing don’t come cheap, man.

god dodgy as!! should be a law against this bollocks. some people have no shame.

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