Updated 12/16/16: Her criminal ways have finally caught up with her! She took her scamming ways offline and onto the streets of Iowa, stealing thousands from everyday people trying to feed their families.
“They were all targeted by this same woman, Teri Hardy Hatland who owns an Iowa business called Street Repeats who promised them she was holding a Sioux Falls Holiday Market at the Convention Center Nov. 18-20. They signed up, because Hardy Hatland had already held a show in July.”
“We followed the registration for Street Repeats on the Iowa Secretary of State’s website, all the way to this address in Sioux City, where we found owner Teri Hardy Hatland.
AK: Are you Teri Hardy Hatland? Um, yeah,” Hardy Hatland said.
AK: I’d like to talk to you about the vendor show you had in Sioux Falls, had scheduled.
“Um, no comment,” Hardy Hatland said.
AK: Are you going to give them their money back?
“No comment, thank you,” Hardy Hatland said as she shut the door.
All of these vendors are now filing complaints with the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office of Consumer Protection”
Check out this investigation into her latest crimes.
In life there are good people and bad people, good bloggers and bad bloggers. I met who I thought was a good blogger, a person I had many things in common with, and she fooled me like I’ve never been fooled before.
I got conned, plain and simple. I didn’t think it could happen to me, but it did. THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO ME! It all started so innocently. A fellow blogging friend Cyndee had just recently passed away. Along came another blogger, Teri Hardy know now as Motherhood Defined aka Mom To Bed By 8. She created an auction to raise funds for the young boy Cyndee left behind. You know me, I’m a totally sucker for helping out good causes.
I bid on several items that were being donated by other bloggers, physical items and some goods and services. One of those services was to be a mentor-ship and blogging services package from Teri herself. I figured she’s been at this long enough and I could probably learn a thing or two from her.
Included in the package were things like mentor-ship, one on one assistance, host pages for giveaways, link inclusions as well as commission for any new clients brought into her Mom Powered Media network. At the last-minute I had to step away and another blogger outbid me. Everything happens for a reason right? Well Teri messages me privately and tells me that although the other blogger won, she likes my work ethic blah, blah, blah, and would like to offer me the same deal for the same price, $1475 (not including the blog button price for her site). Teri said I’d make back the money in no time at all. Stupid is as stupid does. I bit, HARD, hook, line and sinker.
Months go by and I start to notice that all the things that were offered aren’t happening. I start to concentrate my focus on other work in an effort to recoup my money. And then the walls really come crashing down. Other bloggers that were offered the same “team member” position in MPM are being treated like trash. I called Teri on it and told her that she can’t talk to people that way and that I want out. Fine she says, but only offers to refund two-thirds of my money saying that the “work” I did and any money I received would be deducted. Um, hello? So you mean to say any work I did was for FREE? I don’t think so.
At this point I already knew she had done the same to at least two other bloggers. They took whatever was left of their money and ran to try to salvage their blogs. I was not running. I wanted what was mine. Included in those services I was supposed to have a site button published on her page, it never happened. Mentor-ship, never happened. Host pages, got a few pages out hundreds she did, suddenly changing the rules stating that if there were leftover (paid) host pages I could have one. First on the list for top review items, nope got screwed on those too. Every time I called her on something, the rules changed.
I had plans to take her to court. Life happened and I’ve been busy with taking care of my family first, including burying my mother in law and seeing my son off to college. I’ve got two little girls at home that have needs, and all I know is that this woman who I thought was a friend is now just pure evil. She has taken advantage of so many people it makes me sick to my stomach.
After another blogger was stabbed in the back by Teri, word started to get out on the Internet and blogging community exploded with stories of bloggers being had by Teri. Not only bloggers but readers/winners of giveaways hosted by Teri came forward to say they never received their prizes. How do I know this is true? I have received several emails from winners that never received their prizes from the giveaways she hosted that I shared on my page. For that, I apologize to my readers. It’s a total mess and you can read more about the mess which was blogged by Kim from Life In A House of Testosterone. The comments from readers, winners, and bloggers speaks volumes.
It’s funny, I direct messaged Teri last night inquiring about my refund request dating back to November…her answer: SHE BLOCKED ME ON ALL SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS. Do this sound like an upstanding and caring individual to you? With all that has happened, I can’t help but wonder if Cyndee’s family ever did get the auction money that us good-hearted bloggers raised.
I will keep you updated as to how everything goes. I put in a call to PayPal but the time to dispute has past, although they still took in the dispute to look into Teri’s shady practices, including requesting funds to be sent to her for services as friends/family to avoid paying PayPal fees. My next step is filing a claim with the FBI and National White Collar Crime Center for Internet Fraud. This needs to stop. If you have been a victim, please speak out. Scammers come in all different shapes, sizes and forms, some will even pretend to be your friend. I will not allow her to get away with it. Right now, all I want is what is rightfully mine and for this to NEVER happen to anyone EVER again!
Comments (60)
I commend you for speaking out. Bloggers need to join together to throw out the bad eggs.
I won a giveaway from Excited to email you today to say:
You are the winner of a canvas in the Say “I Love You” with PrintSmart.co Giveaway at Mom to Bed by 8! I never received it at all even email Printsmart got now here with it. that was back February 19 2014. She keep saying I would get the prize never did. . So just gave up on it.
This is appalling. I’m feeling very grateful that my blog was never big enough for her campaigns.
I would also recommend that the winners of the giveaways email the companies sponsoring those giveaways. Those companies are all being scammed and need to stop giving her free stuff.
That is an excellent suggestion. One person just told me they are waiting for a KitchenAid mixer from July 2014. Another is waiting for a $250 gift card from last year as well! It’s unbelievable all that is coming out.
I am glad you put this in writing. Many bloggers will not name names.
Wow, it’s also strange for my vantagepoint as a consumer of blogs (and a perennial contest entrant); that there has always seemed something ‘too much’ and ‘off’ about “Motherhood Defined” (starting with that absurd – even sort of insulting – title) that I just couldn’t put my finger on.
I was researching last night after this came out and the GoFundMe and auction come up, and I remember it. I am too curious if the family ever received the fund and got her matched donation.
Thanks and I hope everyone takes the time to get themselves off her social media. I see both her FB pages have warnings on them from other bloggers, so great going to spread the word. She will be under God’s judgement, no doubt.
Please read this REDACTED.
I have read it and responded. You should leave it to the attorneys to provide legal advise. You could get sued.
If you are wondering why I redacted the URL to the post Angela was trying to self promote, it is because she is not being impartial. In fact, one of my comments that was not to her liking with the TRUTH was deleted. As well, she deleted and refused to publish another comment from a friend of mine who happens to be an attorney. Angela is doling out legal advice with no Law Degree to back up her post. The comment that was left by my friend was (draw your own conclusions as to why she decided not to publish it):
“As a lawyer, who went to law school (graduated with honors & published) and has actually consulted with one of the victims of this blogger’s “alleged” scams, I would urge you against posts like this. Defining legal terms and what may or may not fall into those terms runs dangerously close to the unauthorized practice of law which can be reported to the authorities/Bar in your state. If someone relies on your advice, definitions, or interpretations of those definitions, you can end up in trouble yourself. Trust me, you are not qualified to dispense this advice. I’m sure of that because unless you can put “Esq.” after your name, you’re not. And even I – an attorney of nearly 15 years – wouldn’t write a post like this because laws and legal definitions/interpretations vary from state to state. Besides, if your true intention was to stay out of it, a post probably isn’t going to do that, right?”
Kudos to all of you speaking out. I hope someone is contacting Cyndee’s family to see if they received the money that was being raised for her son.
You hang in there!!!!!. Good luck.
Thank you!
I have been following Mom to Bed by 8’s blog for a long time & I had no idea all this was going on. I will say I did win a Keurig giveaway from her site & did receive it. I feel bad for everyone who has been duped & I probably would’ve fallen for it all too. My mom had a bad experience with another popular giveaway blog, who ended up saying she’d get a lawyer after my mom if she said anything bad about her online. This after months of my mom emailing her about the prize & being told excuse after excuse & lie after lie. My mom & I both avoid that blog now. This is all supposed to be fun & friendly & isn’t worth the aggravation just to win something.
I am glad you did receive your prize Stevie. I have spoken to many of my readers that unfortunately never received their prizes and it’s a very sad situation.
i was areading all this do you think that if someone does not get their prize they keep it for themselves, maybe
That isn’t quite clear at this moment. Unfortunately there is no way to really tell what the host is doing with the prizes.
Wow I never would have believed it how sad and to do it in this day and age when everyone is everywhere is just crazy!!
I think it is disgraceful what she has done. Shame on you!
This makes me so sick! I heard about this earlier today from a fellow giveaway addict like myself. She forwarded me Kim’s post about this same woman. My boyfriend and I are shaking our heads. I hate cheaters, liars and scammers. I don’t have time to put into giveaways for prizes that will never arrive. What a shame that this woman is making all other bloggers look bad to sponsors and turning them away from doing business with them. So here is my question: what will become of the current giveaways that are co-hosted by trusted bloggers such as Jenn’s Blah Blah Blog?
Emily, unfortunately all the bloggers involved in co-hosting had no idea this was going on. That is why it was time for this to come to light. All of these bloggers that have trusted her are sick over this. Jenn is a great person and amazing blogger. I consider her to be a friend. She is sick over everything that has happened and I wouldn’t be surprised if she pulls out of the giveaway so as not to hurt her readers. This is the reason many bloggers self host their giveaways and do not participate in group giveaways.
http://www.motherhooddefined.com/dreft/ I won this and it was a sample pouch not what I thought it would be from the contest photo. I thought it would be a coupon as usual for a bottle of it.
Oh geez Laurie! That is horrible.
Please tell me this isn’t the same woman that had a house fire or something, then vehicle issues, etc, etc. Because of her being a military family I donated money to help her family out?
Linda I don’t think so. I vaguely recall something like that but I don’t think this was her.
No Linda, but I smelled something very off about that yard too.
I just found the one I had donated through paypal to. Adventures of a Military Mom of 8
Any updates on how she is doing?
On Christmas Eve 2014, she was doing some random giveaways, and told me I won an Amazon e-gift card. I never received it, when I asked about it, she said she would try to send it again, never received it. I just chalked it up to Amazon not working, but wondering if that was a scam. I wasn’t out anything, so I didn’t fuss about it. I wondered though about her. Something in my gut.
I’m so sorry to hear this Amanda. Naturally we want to believe that people are good.
I was there with her in the early years…before it was Mom to Bed by 8. Have not been blog reading much the last year or so, so didnt even know the namebhad changed once AGAIN. I do know the first blow out prize she was to award was an ipad…the person never recieved. Yh en oretense was something to the effect that If the company donating the prize got “hits”, the prize would be awarded. There was noyhing in black and white who donator” was. People called her out on it. I won a lot of little thing from Teri and one playpen we really needed. I also won obe of her first really big packages and did have to stay in her to get many of those items. She did deliver on everything but a shop tool she kept saying was on her dining room tsble and was winyer so she could not get to the post office to send it out. I got tired of the game so told her to just keep It..assuming it haf become someones xmas gift. To be true, the times I did win there she was in early blogging, so she was mostky nice with good customer service. Ive been tsken by many bloggers or had to fight above their heads by goibg to companies on face.book. the up front bloggers seemed ok with this after several months wait. The scoundrel bloggers got angry about this. And seemed scammy. ( I always was diplomatic and did in no way tarnish the blogger in any just stating I had won such and such with this great blogger and was some miscommunication. One blogger I won a big package from felt terrible that yhe pr person scammed her, and I was out several hundeds on yhe win. THAT blogger came through with some small xmas gifts for kids out of her own stash. THAT was integrity! Another I was issued a $100 gc from waste management to walmart and saved it to use for groceries for a family event. When I went to use it, said was used. BUT the back of card had never and is still not scratched off. So could not have been used. I felt very blog r aped and was the biggest force in my huge decline in blog reading the past year. it is a 2 way street. Most bloggers get some compensation for their hard “marketing” work…but readers can put many hours in per day also. And if someone dupes us we get nothing out of it. Its sad some bad apples will ruin the whole bushel. Sad because it used to be so fun and rewarding to really READ blogs and kearn about new products, recipes, crafts…family advice. It is hard to trust and connect fir me anymore. I have about 10 to 20 faves I visit now and then…because I truly lije their work or them as people. Winning is so hard now with automated counters so content is most important to me now.
Oh my gosh. So sorry for typos. It’s late here.
Eileen, that is so sad! I used to work with said blogger and was floored that she did this. Many of us bloggers are good people and go out of our way to try making true prizes come through. We can’t always control it but I have fought to make sure my readers (I own Budget Earth) get their prizes and have tried compensating out of pocket when I can if the companies truly fails. I don’t understand why anyone would be dishonest. 🙁
OMGosh I have been following her for a while and I have gone to parties, I’m actually so happy I didn’t win! I’m very sorry to hear what happen, I understand because we all look for ways to make our hobbies better and she did look all together on the outside. I wish you the best in getting back your money and thank you for sharing with us.
hope you take her to small claims – its a contract case and she did not fulfill the contract. You would easily win. It would be best for her to pay you 100% and get on with life. by going to court her name and blog will be so tainted and she will lose crediblity with sponsors etc. Good luck
Thank you for this information. I just took her off my social media sites and if I receive email from her I will unsubscribe. I’m so sorry you lost money to her. 🙁
I won a prize about 18 months ago. After 8 weeks, I contacted her to see where it was. She said she contacted the host company again. About 6 weeks later, I received a prize, but it was NOT the prize I won. I let her know, and got no response. I finally just gave up and gave the prize to a friend who could use it because it was way too small for my daughter. I’m thankful I had never told my daughter I had won it. She would have been really disappointed.
I am so sorry you have to experience this Heather!
Erica I am so sorry this happen to you and Darci. I won an Amazon Gift Card back in February 2014 and never received and another item in June of 2014 and nothing. I gave up contacting her and never enter any of her giveaways or participated as a blogger. I figure Karma will get her at the end, but WOW this is huge. I am glad someone spoke up so us little bloggers can speak out without being intimidated.
Wow Letty, I am so sorry you never received prizes from her giveaways. It’s such a shame that people can do this to others and not have any guilt about it. The amount of people coming forward that haven’t received prizes is unbelievable.
This is a really sad day for the honest bloggers out there who enjoy hosting and sponsoring legitimate giveaways. Who will trust us now? I have often wondered about this type of thing when entering Teri’s (and others) giveaways. Who is monitoriing to insure that the giveaways are truly being awarded randomly and that the prizes are actually being delivered to the winners?
I am so sorry this has happened to you. Please be strong and fight back. I do thank you for sharing this with your viewers to keep our eyes open. If there is anything I can do to help please contact me.
Thank you for your kind words. I just ask that everyone keep sharing so that no one has to go through this ever again!
It’s amusing that now she’s going through on Facebook deleting either all of her friends, or at least all of her blogger friends. I was keeping her, to just see her side of the story if it came out. I then noticed she deleted me, and we were at about 400+ mutual friends. Checked again today, and we’re down to 283.
Sketchy.
That’s her MO. She deletes and blocks everyone that questions her or tries to get their money back. Very sketchy for someone that claims to be on the up and up.
Thank you for this post Erica!! If you had not of written it, I wouldn’t have known this was going on. So sorry you (and everyone else who fell victim to these scams) had to deal with this massive headache.
I am so glad I saw this post!!! I have been following her for sometime and didn’t know. I have won several things that I’ve never gotten but do not recall who they were from. I am going to look now to see. She will delete herself out of business it sounds like. It’s so sad but this is real life and these things happen everywhere though it is so unfortunate. I couldn’t go to sleep at night if I did that but others it doesn’t seem to bother. She definitely has a problem or some sort. Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you for making others aware. I wish more of the dishonest bloggers were exposed.
Thank you so much for speaking out! I really think that everyone NEEDS to go to the FBI for sure. She is a fraud and if people just “threaten” to do it but don’t actually do, she will continue this madness. She will just find another corner in the blogsphere and other bloggers that don’t know better to bully. I can guarantee you she has used all that money for herself and her family. I am so sickened by this whole ordeal.
By the way, I’ve heard it’s confirmed by Cyndee’s family that NONE of that money was ever given to them.
This woman seemed very sketchy to me right from the very start. And she’s actually most of the reason I quit participating in her “genre” of blogging a few years back. There was way too much drama and bullying and everything always circled back to her being the “dictator” of the blogging world. It got to a point where it was difficult to find anything to participate in that she wasn’t trying to take complete control of. It left a very bad taste in my mouth that when it came to blogging, what she said goes, even if you had nothing to do with her. Ironically she somehow stayed on my facebook friends list over the years (until recently, she unfriended me within the past 2 weeks, which is odd because while I wasn’t a huge fan, we never had words or anything like that)….I saw something very interesting a couple weeks back. There was this huge deal, allegations from her own mother (and aunt, I believe) accusing *** of scamming her mother out of money. Apparently her mother had opened up a credit card, accused **** of racking up 10k worth of expenses and then refusing to pay for it. Sad that she would do this to fellow bloggers, but even more sad that she has allegedly done this to her own mother as well!
Wow, I hadn’t been online much in awhile… A friend asked me earlier tonight if I’d heard about all this. I’m not all that surprised, I’ve never thought much of Teri, but the extent of her scamming is crazy! When I first started entering giveaways I won a $25 gift certificate to, I think it was called, Strawberry Kids, which Teri owned. I got the gift card, placed my order. Put some money with it, maybe $20 I think, to buy more things I wanted. I can’t really remember why, but I wound up canceling the order. Didn’t get my refund. I emailed several times, she would say she’d take care of it, but didn’t. I can’t remember if it was my personal blog or if I’d already started my giveaway blog I had, but I wound up blogging about it all, then tweeting it out until she finally said she’d paypal me a refund, along with a sob story, something about how her stepmom kicked her out of the business or something and wasn’t honoring sales or refunds, but that Teri was going to pay me with her own money thru paypal and made a big deal about it being her own money. She did send it though, and I deleted my blog post about it.
Through the time I was doing giveaway blogs, I was in her FB group and also paid, even for co-host or host page for many of her MPM giveaways… Really bothers me that winners were not getting her prizes! Yeah, I got followers and pageviews, but I feel now like I was just handing her money, after reading all this stuff on various blogs! I put way more money in those than I should’ve just hoping to increase stats. What was that money going toward if prizes weren’t fulfilled??
This is sad! Thanks for sharing!
I did not realize this was her again Motherhood Defined just had to go unfollow everything since she is doing contest with herewegoagainready.com/ do they not know about her? I won from her and received a sample of a product and not the whole item shown.
She posted in the Blogger Resources and Opps group on Facebook 4 hours ago, on April 14, 2016. Please beware. How is she continuing to get away with this. I know she will keep scamming people. She claims that she needs people to work with for several big companies. People are posting their email addresses. She’ll probably sell their email addresses or something. She posted, “We’re still on the hunt for a few more bloggers to complete our 2016 brand ambassador programs on behalf of Dryel, Biz Stain Fighter, Mean Green Cleaners and Roto-Rooter’s new line of plumbing products. If interested please add your email and website below.”
Yes, I heard about that earlier. It’s such a shame that she can continue to scam people. The best we can do is keep spreading the word.
She’s the Admin of the group that has 6,192 members!!!
I know…and there’s nothing we can do 🙁
I actually won something for my granddaughter a long time ago from her blog, and of course…I wasn’t receiving my prize. After waiting like 10 weeks (I don’t like to bug bloggers, I know they are busy), I started to email her. I never received ANY emails. Unfortunately for her, she messed with the wrong person. haha, I bothered her like you wouldn’t believe! I even contacted the company that gave out the prize and after they looked into it, I suddenly got an email from Teri saying she had been in the hospital and she was sorry! Ya…right! So I waited another 4-6 weeks, then she tried saying I had already received the prize and she couldn’t believe I was trying to get another! I was sooooo angry with her. I do alot of giveaways, and I didn’t want her telling other bloggers that I was being untruthful. Anyway…I told her to go ahead and look into it, I had nothing to hide and I FINALLY received my prize. I will never, EVER enter another one of her giveaways. Please, people, beware!!!