Poker Deposit BonusWhat Ever Happened to Dave Del Dotto?
January 9th, 2008 Paul Lucas
The early 1990s saw a proliferation of infomercials by real estate gurus peddling their get-rich-quick systems: Tom Vu, Carleton Sheets, Ed Beckley. Among those gurus fighting for the attention of late night TV viewers was one Dave Del Dotto.
Del Dotto’s infomercials were notable for taking place in outdoor, scenic settings, such as Hawaii and for having actor John Davidson (best known from the TV show “That’s Incredible!”) as host. Dave Del Dotto also had a penchant for hideously loud clothing. I particularly remember one infomercial where he came out wearing a blindingly bright canary-yellow blazer.
So what ever happened to Dave Del Dotto? It turns out that Mr. Del Dotto ran into legal trouble (surprise!). In 1995 the FTC filed a complaint in federal court alleging that Del Dotto “made false and unsubstantiated representations” and “misrepresented the guarantee accompanying a home business package sold at the seminars by failing to inform purchasers that there were conditions to receiving a refund,” among other things. As part of the settlement of these charges, Del Dotto paid a $200,000 fine and was “prohibited from making any representation about the performance, benefits, efficacy or success rate of any product or service…unless the representation is true and the defendants can substantiate the representation” (i.e. he had to stop telling lies on his real estate infomercials).
But like Tommy Vu and his poker playing success, Dave Del Dotto shows former real estate gurus everywhere that there is indeed life after hawking money-making schemes on late night TV. Del Dotto is now the proprietor of Del Dotto Vineyards in California’s Napa Valley. You can see the way Dave Del Dotto looks today in this video where he gives a tour of his “wine caves.”
I know this is vague, but there was another one whose name I can’t remember now. He was young, had this smug look on his face all the time and some sort of modified spiked hairdo… looked like a little twerp. That’s what we used to call him — little twerp, or, for some reason, Skippy. He was all over the late night real estate infomercial scene in the mid-90s. Haven’t seen him in a long time, and always wondered what happened to him, hoping that “prison time for a scam” was the answer.
Comment by Dan — January 31st, 2008 at 7:26 pm
You might be thinking of Don Lapre. He had an infomercial in the 1990s telling people that they could make big money with classified ads and 900 numbers. Later he did an infomercial for a vitamin.
Here is his picture: http://www.wholesaleronly.com/images/don99.jpg
Comment by Paul Lucas — February 1st, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Don Lapre, along with the 900 scammers, helped decimate a business that has been very successful all over the world except in the USA. We still do a lot of business in 900 numbers, but nearly what we used to. The reputation of the industry was ruined by the get rich quick scammers like LaPre.
Comment by Bob Bentz — April 8th, 2008 at 10:39 pm