{"id":17268,"date":"2018-09-06T22:51:37","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T22:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/06\/feds-shut-down-alleged-copycat-military-recruiting-sites\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:45:14","slug":"feds-shut-down-alleged-copycat-military-recruiting-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/management\/pay-benefits\/2018\/09\/06\/feds-shut-down-alleged-copycat-military-recruiting-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds shut down alleged \u2018copycat’ military recruiting sites"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The government has shut down at least eight \u201ccopycat\u201d military recruiting websites run by companies accused of using deceptive practices to entice potential recruits into providing their personal information, then selling the information to post-secondary schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Federal Trade Commission<\/a>\u2019s complaint, the companies\u2019 websites appeared to be official recruiting sites \u2014 such as army.com<\/a>, armyenlist.com<\/a>, airforceenlist.com<\/a>, marinesenlist.com<\/a>, navyenlist.com<\/a>, coastguardentlist.com<\/a>, airguardenlist.com<\/a>, nationalguardenlist.com<\/a> and armyreserves.com<\/a>. The companies agreed to give up the domain names and stop the alleged deceptive practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose who are considering a military career deserve to have confidence that the recruitment site is legitimate and their personal information will not be misused,\u201d said FTC Chairman Joe Simons, in an announcement about the FTC action. \u201cThe FTC will take action against any party in the lead generation ecosystem \u2014 from sellers to purchasers \u2014 that fails to comply with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A statement from one of the companies, Sun Key, says it has worked for years with more than 7,500 recruiters across all the services, providing leads on potential recruits. In addition, the company previously provided leads as a subcontractor to advertising agencies working on DoD recruiting contracts, until budget constraints ended the subcontracts, Sun Key said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FTC said the websites allegedly prompted consumers to submit their personal information to learn more about the armed forces, and promised to use the information only for military recruitment purposes and not to share it with anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the FTC alleged, the companies sold the information to post-secondary schools for marketing leads, for $15 to $40 per lead. According to the FTC, tens of thousands of consumers visited these websites each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The companies continued their deception \u201cduring phone calls to consumers who submit information on their websites by holding themselves out as military representatives,\u201d according to the complaint, and gave the false impression that the military endorsed the schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint, filed Thursday along with the proposed settlements in federal court in the Northern District of Alabama, names defendants Alabama-based companies Sunkey Publishing, Inc.; Sun Key Publishing, LLC; Fanmail.com<\/a>, LLC; and WhereData, LLC. Sun Key company officers Christopher Upp and Mark Van Dyke and Fanmail.com officials Lon Brolliar and Andrew Dorman are also named as defendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sun Key entities operated the enlist.com<\/a> websites; Fanmail.com<\/a> operated army.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The settlements noted the companies and the officials named as defendants neither admitted nor denied the FTC\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement from Sun Key, provided by its attorney Jonathan Direnfeld, officials said, \u201cSun Key\u2019s business was focused on assisting individuals who are interested in joining the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before they shut down their websites to comply with the settlement agreement with the FTC, Sun Key was working with more than 7,500 military recruiters, according to Sun Key\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe U.S. Armed Forces recruiters informed Sun Key that Sun Key\u2019s military recruitment network is a valuable tool in helping them identify potential recruits, and the leads provided by Sun Key are some of the best performing leads in generating appointments with potential recruits,” the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the telemarketing complaints, Sun Key says it followed up by telephone with the consumers who submitted inquiries to confirm their contact information before submitting it to one of the 7,500 military recruiters. Since January 2014, about 73 percent of inquiries submitted to Sun Key were validated and submitted to military recruiters.<\/p>\n\n\n\t