Jesse Willms

Willms started his first business in 2003, at the age of 16. Through an online storefront, eDirect Software, Willms, along with an assembled staff of a dozen people, sold copies of computer software that he had obtained relatively inexpensively from the Jordanian government. The software sold was mainly cheap copies of Microsoft Office, and before long eDirect was one of the largest resellers of Microsoft products on the Internet.[3]

Within two years, in March 2006, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against the then 18-year-old Willms, accusing him of dealing in large amounts of "counterfeit, tampered and/or infringing"[2] copies of Microsoft’s products. Through a court order, Microsoft went through Willms’ PayPal account and discovered that it contained more than $200,000. Microsoft also reviewed eDirect’s software inventories, where they found approximately 66,000 questionable Microsoft products. In February 2007, Willms agreed to a six-figure settlement.[4]

Willms started to sell his own white-label product tea under the new company name Just Think Media. The tea was marketed and sold through several web sites. The business became such a success that Willms quickly launched other types of alleged health products, such as colon cleansers, teeth whiteners, and acai supplements. The web pages that were used to sell the products were filled with fake "scientific proof" and alleged endorsements from celebrities and TV networks.[5] At its peak in 2009, Just Think Media earned more than $100 million in revenue and had only 20 employees.[6]

By late 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated an investigation to scrutinise Willms’ businesses. The impetus for the investigation was the fact that Willms’ companies had, at the time, triggered more complaints from consumers than almost all Internet businesses. According to the FTC investigation, the majority of Willms’ profit came from negative option billing, "a practice in which the seller interprets consumers' silence or inaction as permission to charge them".[7] In effect, this meant that consumers signing up for "free trials" of a product were charged with extra fees hidden in the fine print of the terms and conditions. Often consumers first became aware of this after their credit cards had been charged. Also, several different company names appeared on their statements of account, each with a charge of an uneven dollar amount. The FTC claimed that these charges made up the majority of Willms' profits because consumers believed they were legitimate.[8][9]

In May 2011, after an 18-month investigation, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Willms. The lawsuit claimed that Willms, from 2007 to 2011, had conned approximately $467 million from customers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the UK, and New Zealand. In September 2011, a U.S. District Court Judge froze Willms' assets and prohibited him from continuing to sell products through negative-option. In early 2012, Willms acquiesced to a $359 million settlement. As part of the settlement, Willms also agreed to sell off personal property, including his mansion.[10][11][12]

• Clark, Taylor (2014). "The Dark Lord of the Internet". The Atlantic. 313 (1): 50–61. Retrieved 29 February 2016.