Disappointed investors in the get rich quick scheme eforyou.com are demanding their money back - just weeks after they handed over nearly £3,000 apiece for licences in the hope of big earnings from the internet.

They allege the company has failed to give them the training, back-up and sales leads promised when they signed up for the "business opportunity". Many say they have failed to sign up a single client. The idea was that they would sell internet sites and facilities to small businesses.

In November and December, audiences at presentations were told by sales director Peter Carbert: "Get ready for the most awesome money-making opportunity you will ever see."

He informed hopefuls at a London meeting that "efor you.com is one of the biggest companies in the net that people have never heard of"; that "it has an expansion programme"; and that "the internet is the fastest growing business proposition around".

Eforyou was touted as "the perfect opportunity with a fast return, unlimited growth, no start-up costs and no work".

According to a recent eforyou letter which the Guardian has seen, "eforyou has reached its' (sic) recruitment targets". These were set at 1,000 - suggesting the plan had netted some £2.5m for its promoters.

Now the main movers behind the plan - serial cash creating scheme entrepreneur Chris Douglas and Peter Carbert have bailed out.

The original eforyou managing director, Chris Douglas, boasts a large house, a helicopter and a Porsche with personalised number plates.

He has money making plans and publications such as The Secrets of Wealth from Pandora's Box, the Government Auction Handbook, the Wealth Handbook and recruiting for the now defunct Century Mortgages on his curriculum vitae. And his ventures have attracted adverse rulings from the Advertising Standards Authority.

Peter Carbert was a director of Century Mortgages, when it was wound up by the Department of Trade and Industry in June 2000. Among grounds cited by the DTI for the Century closure were:

Making false and misleading representations in its recruitment of licensees, particularly in relation to the overstatement of earnings;

Failing to keep proper records, in particular to its dealings with associated businesses.

Douglas and Carbert are currently pushing Herbalife, a US-based nutrition supplement sold through a multi-level, pyramid-style sales network via the Xotic Group, a firm they set up in January.

But selling the Herbalife powders and pills, which are supposed to help the overweight to slim and the underweight to gain, is not the real object. Instead, Douglas and Carbert sign up "opportunity seekers" for £2,600 packages.

Earlier this week, Carbert told a London area audience that Herbalife was "the most exciting thing Chris Douglas has ever seen in his life".

Eforyou.com has been forgotten. Douglas is no longer managing director. He has handed over that job to "project manager" David Henley. Henley also finds time to be a "top Herbalife producer".

"It's not pyramid selling," Carbert tells Herbalife hopefuls. He tells them that they could soon be earning an annual income of more than £340,000 - all they must do is to recruit five, who each recruit five who, in turn, each find five people, and so on.

Although the rules governing these schemes say no one should be asked to pay more than £75 in the first week - a form of cooling-off period - Carbert busies himself at meetings stressing the advantages of paying £2,600 to join at "supervisor" level: the first link up the chain.

Carbert, Douglas and others in Xotic gain £650 from each supervisor sale. Those who join at that level receive pills and potions with a £4,000 retail value - if they manage to find buyers.

Meanwhile, eforyou licensees are not letting their money go without a fight. "The DTI needs to investigate this one, like it looked at Century. But it must move quickly before the cash is spent," says one disgruntled eforyou agent who wants to remain anonymous.

"I've lost £2,500 so far. But I did better than most. I even managed to sell an internet site. But they weren't interested in this. The headquarters in Darlington just ignored me. They also gave me no help when the site buyer wanted to pull out. I've got personal integrity, I don't want a rip-off," he adds.

Other eforyou licensees have been bombarding the firm with emails asking for their money back - or at least the "money making opportunity" that they were promised.

Douglas did offer to come to an "amicable settlement" with some eforyou people. But so far, they have seen no sign of a refund. Attempts to stop personal credit card payments to the firm have failed.

Two former eforyou agents, Andy Bignell and Nick Teahan, who made money sup porting Carbert at presentations, defected and started a lookalike set-up. So far, few others have opted for this.

Earlier this week, Henley wrote to licensees to calm them. He said: "It would appear a number of you are concerned at not being able to get through on the telephone lines... but not only is nothing wrong at head office, things have never been better."

Now emails between eforyou agents suggest some are considering taking the law into their own hands if the DTI and trading standards continue to ignore their plight.

'I admit that greed got the better of us'

Chris Smith signed up for eforyou.com in December. He was promised big earnings from selling the wonders of the world wide web to small businesses.

Along with partner Nikki Shaw, who works in closed circuit tv sales, car racing instructor Smith paid the £1,000 deposit demanded.

Chris says: "I have to admit greed got the better of us. The earnings figures were huge compared to both our salaries. We both wanted to get out of the rat race. What we were offered seemed really good."

Nikki's Christmas bonus part funded the eventual £2,500 total. "We've had to scrimp and go without luxuries for the rest which went on the credit card," Chris says.

Now the Cheshire couple have nothing to show for their money. "We were promised loads of leads. But we only ever had three - and all were useless. The whole organisation shut down for three weeks at Christmas. It was soon clear this was going nowhere," says Chris.

Chris and Nikki wanted their money back. Their letters and phone calls were unanswered, so they went to eforyou's Darlington office four weeks ago.

"David Henley, the office manager [and now managing director] refused to talk to us. Karen Douglas, Chris Douglas's wife, promised a refund but just to get rid of us."

Chris and Nikki complained to the DTI but have had no reply. Using credit card consumer protection rules failed.

"My plastic company refused our claim. It says the eforyou contract is vague, so there is nothing they can do. It will not risk not being able to get the money back. They said they could only pay if eforyou went bankrupt within 120 days of our first payment.

"We've lost money to an organisation which is useless at everything except promising big things and delivering nothing," Chris says.