Direct answer

The Income Store sold purportedly income-producing websites and guaranteed returns. Its owner was convicted on seven wire-fraud counts after prosecutors showed that investor returns were primarily funded with money from newer investors.

What to remember
  • SEO service;
  • content publishing;
  • affiliate marketing;

01

Identified claim

The Income Store sold purportedly income-producing websites and guaranteed returns. Its owner was convicted on seven wire-fraud counts after prosecutors showed that investor returns were primarily funded with money from newer investors.

Verdict.

No. A federal jury conviction and SEC enforcement record establish that the reviewed website-investment operation was fraudulent.

What The Income Store promised.

Today’s Growth Consultant operated under the name The Income Store.

The company offered to build or acquire websites for investors, then develop, market, and maintain them.

Investors paid substantial upfront fees.

The pitch promised an income stream tied to website advertising revenue, with minimum return guarantees.

That structure made the offer look like a combination of:

  • SEO service;
  • content publishing;
  • affiliate marketing;
  • website management;
  • passive-income investment.

02

Sources and evidence

What prosecutors proved.

A federal jury convicted owner Kenneth Courtright on all seven wire-fraud counts in July 2023.

The Justice Department said trial evidence showed that the scheme fraudulently raised at least $130 million from more than 500 investors.

The government proved that returns were primarily funded through money from new investors rather than the websites’ operating revenue.

That is the central Ponzi mechanism.

The conviction moves the case beyond allegation.

The SEC record.

The SEC obtained an asset freeze and receiver appointment in late 2019.

The agency alleged that:

  • investment contracts were sold without required registration;
  • funds were not used exclusively for each investor’s website;
  • new investor money funded existing returns;
  • investor money paid personal expenses.

The receivership took control of company assets and pursued recovery.

Why the SEO wrapper mattered.

A content website is a real business asset.

A site can earn through:

  • display ads;
  • affiliate commissions;
  • lead generation;
  • ecommerce;
  • sponsorship;
  • subscriptions.

That reality made the offer plausible.

But a real site does not justify a guaranteed yield.

Organic traffic is uncertain. Rankings change. Ad rates vary. Content depreciates. Competition rises. Platforms change policies.

A seller guaranteeing a fixed minimum return must explain where the guarantee is funded.

If new buyer payments fund old buyer returns, the websites are decoration around a financial fraud.

Due diligence that would have exposed the risk.

An investor should have demanded property-level evidence:

Domain registrant
CMS owner
Analytics owner
Search Console owner
Ad-network account
Affiliate account
Bank deposits
Operating expenses
Content invoices
Traffic sources
Net cash flow

For each investor website, revenue should reconcile:

Ad-network statement
→ bank deposit
→ site ledger
→ investor distribution

A portfolio-wide payment without property-level reconciliation is not proof that the investor’s site generated the return.

Buyer-control checklist.

  • Get the exact legal entity, product name, and salesperson promises in writing.
  • Require a complete statement of work with measurable deliverables, owners, dates, and exclusions.
  • Keep the domain, DNS, website, analytics, Search Console, ad accounts, and business profiles under buyer-controlled administration.
  • Reject ranking, revenue, lead-quality, or income guarantees that cannot be substantiated.
  • Require contract, renewal, cancellation, refund, and early-termination terms before payment.
  • Preserve screenshots, call notes, invoices, campaign exports, and change records.
  • Test a limited scope before granting broad access or signing a long minimum term.
  • Define offboarding, data export, credential revocation, and content ownership before launch.

External-source links.

  1. Federal jury conviction — U.S. Department of Justice; accessed 2026-08-05. [1]
  2. SEC investor information page — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; accessed 2026-08-05. [2]
  3. SEC litigation release — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; accessed 2026-08-05. [3]

03

Conclusion

Guaranteed-return warning.

A managed SEO service can promise work.

It can promise:

  • article count;
  • page count;
  • audits;
  • fixes;
  • reporting;
  • publishing schedule.

It cannot honestly guarantee a stable passive-income percentage from organic search without transferring or concealing the business risk.

The guarantee was the most important red flag.

Asset ownership.

An investor buying an income site should control or independently verify:

  • domain;
  • hosting;
  • repository;
  • content license;
  • analytics;
  • ad account;
  • affiliate account;
  • vendor contracts;
  • bank destination;
  • backup.

If the manager controls every evidence source, the investor cannot verify performance.

What buyers should learn.

Do not confuse:

A real website

with:

A sound investment

A scam can own real domains, publish real articles, receive real traffic, and still use fraudulent accounting.

SEO evidence must reconcile with financial evidence.

Bottom line.

The Income Store was not a legitimate passive website-investment program.

The owner’s federal conviction establishes fraud.

The case remains one of the clearest warnings against guaranteed website-income offers wrapped in SEO language.

04

Limitations

Current status.

The operation entered receivership; the owner was convicted in 2023.

Verification record.

Audit completed on 2026-08-05. Primary legal or regulatory records were preferred over review summaries. Allegations, settlements, convictions, final orders, and complaints are labeled separately. No anonymous complaint is treated as independently proven. No current service outcome, ranking result, or financial return is guaranteed. The article should be rechecked before any material update because corporate status and enforcement matters can change.

Evidence handling.

RankBuilder separates adjudicated facts, settlements, pending allegations, customer complaints, and contract terms.

Duplication and search-intent record.

This is a new branded buyer-intent audit targeting the query “is Today's Growth Consultant / The Income Store legit” and related searches. It does not duplicate the prior twenty-company general agency audit batch. The editorial angle is a documented-red-flag review, not a standard service-fit profile.

References

Sources behind this record

  1. Federal jury conviction — U.S. Department of Justice (accessed August 5, 2026)
  2. SEC investor information page — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (accessed August 5, 2026)
  3. SEC litigation release — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (accessed August 5, 2026)

Corrections

Correction history

No corrections recorded.

To report an error, use the public corrections path.

Claim limit

The operation entered receivership; the owner was convicted in 2023.

Audit completed on 2026-08-05.

Primary legal or regulatory records were preferred over review summaries.

Allegations, settlements, convictions, final orders, and complaints are labeled separately.

No anonymous complaint is treated as independently proven.

No current service outcome, ranking result, or financial return is guaranteed.

The article should be rechecked before any material update because corporate status and enforcement matters can change.