COUNTYWIDE : Youth Service Group Fights Use of Name

The Philadelphia-based Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America has demanded that a recently established Anaheim publishing company stop calling itself Big Brothers & Sisters of the World.

“This sort of thing can adversely affect fund raising and program development if people don’t understand that Big Brothers & Sisters of the World is not associated with us in any way, and seems to be, in fact, just a get-rich-quick scheme,” said Colleen Watson, director of marketing and communications for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. “It’s also a waste of our much-needed resources to have to work to prevent this kind of group from literally cashing in on the reputations of our agencies and their programs.”

The youth service organization has written a letter of complaint to the state Department of Consumer Affairs, which advised filing a name infringement lawsuit, Watson said. A spokesman for the Department of Consumer Affairs could not be reached for comment.

“We’ve sent (the company) a letter to cease and desist using our name,” Watson said. “If they do not, we will be seeking an injunction.”

John Metcalf Jr., identified on the Anaheim firm’s city business license as the sole owner of Big Brothers & Sisters of the World, did not return telephone calls from The Times.

But a man who answered the Anaheim company’s telephone and refused to give his name acknowledged that the company has “no affiliation with” the Philadelphia-based organization or its 497 affiliated agencies that match at-risk children with adults who serve as role models.

“We got a letter from (the children’s organization) just the other day,” he said. “They are just saying that we are infringing on their name. We were unaware of that. We have to respond in about two weeks.”

The company spokesman described his firm as “a multilevel marketing company” but declined to elaborate. However, a recording on an 800 telephone number for Big Brothers & Sisters of the World asks callers to join the company by buying memberships for four “big brothers and sisters” at $25 each.

Purchasing memberships for others, the recorded message said, is “your key to over $11,000 per month for the rest of your life. You do not recruit and you do not sponsor. We are the only truly forced matrix in existance.”

“You simply pay for four little brothers and sisters of your choosing,” the recording continued. “ . . . Then those pay for theirs, after it repeats four times, you are earning $500 per month . . . and the sixth time puts you at $11,568.20 per month from then on.”