A 400 Percent Return In 7 Days? Riiiight.

Here is how I could get that fantastic return: I had to pay $100 for a membership fee. If, in seven days, I got five people to join and two of those five decided to refinance their mortgages through the company, I could earn a $500 bonus. My $100 investment could net $400, thus the 400 percent return.

Garnett said I could also earn thousands by giving wealth-building presentations.

"Every time I go to see people, I make money," she said.

Garnett, who is black, talked enthusiastically about creating wealth in the African American community.

"This business helps black people to get ahead," she said. "All they have to do is use their house, riiiiight."

Garnett said the company uses an outside lender's wholesale loan department to assist homeowners in refinancing their mortgages. She described the same exotic loan products that have led to a collapse in the mortgage industry. She showed illustrations of how homeowners could earn hundreds of thousands of dollars by investing the equity from their home.

However, using equity to invest is highly risky, said Joseph P. Borg, NASAA president and director of the Alabama Securities Commission.

"It's like borrowing on your house and going to Vegas and hope you win," Borg said. "In my opinion this is dangerous unless a lot more information was given and a proven record was shown."

"Hopefully, given what has been in the news, people are especially wary today in engaging in any scheme where they are being asked to refinance their home to go into the market," said John Gannon, senior vice president of investor education for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the largest nongovernmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States.

Garnett would not provide me with written materials. She said the company had people who could show homeowners what to invest in.

"Oh, so you have financial advisers?" I asked. "Can I have a list of who they are so I can check them out?"

"You don't have to use our people," she replied.