EDITORIAL: Members Turn On Each Other As 11th Hour Dawns For Andy Bowdoin And AdSurfDaily Inc.
The coming hours and days may mark the end of AdSurfDaily. Fragmentation, fractiousness and bitterness are marking ASD’s final descent into infamy.
Steve Watt of TheJoyLuckClub, for instance, is accusing the Mods at the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum of covering up for Andy Bowdoin and AdViewGlobal (AVG), an offshoot of ASD.
We wish we could applaud Watt’s actions. We cannot.
Steve Watt is promoting yet another surf site at TheJoyLuckClub, despite everything that has happened and despite announcing that he was out of the surf-promoting business. He also has contributed to the delay of the government’s proposed restitution program by being an early champion of Curtis Richmond’s pro se pleadings, and doesn’t seem to understand that TheJoyLuckClub’s message is at odds with itself.
At one time, Watt announced a denial by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of a Richmond pro se pleading would lead to a “Major Criminal Complaint that will be filed with the U.S. Atty. General.” Watt encouraged members to join a nonprofit organization he and other Surf’s Up members formed — ASD Members International (ASDMI) — to litigate against the government even if it was behaving legally.
One of ASDMI’s co-founders was Patrick Moriarty, currently under indictment for federal tax fraud. In 2006, Moriarty started a nonprofit for a Missouri man accused of murdering a woman in cold blood, shooting a police officer four times and shooting another man eight times.
Richmond, meanwhile, is associated with a Utah “Indian” tribe a federal judge ruled a “complete sham.” The “tribe” became infamous for becoming embroiled in vexatious litigation against public officials, and the oddities did not end there.
Some people who used a sham tribal “arbitration” panel known as the Western Arbitration Council (WAC) to do their bidding against the government were jailed for tax crimes, including Bruce Robert Travis. Among other things, Travis is the self-published author of “My Past Life As Jesus” and “The Messiah For Hire.”
Travis, associated with tax denier Royal Lamarr Hardy, now reportedly is working on a book in which he’ll describe what it’s like to be Jesus behind bars.
Dale Stevens, “chief” of the sham Utah tribe to which Richmond belonged — the Wampanoag Nation, Tribe of Grayhead, Wolf Band — was arrested for child pornography and anounced his intention to marry two underage girls.
One of the girls was 12. Stevens, 69, said he’d hoped to enter into marital bliss with her in exchange for half a cooler of “energy bars.”
Despite all the information at their disposal about entities and individuals with whom they were associating themselves on the periphery, neither Watt nor Surf’s Up divorced themselves from the circus.
Regardless, Watt now writes that he is unhappy that the Mods refused to send an email blast to encourage Surf’s Up members to cooperate in a story proposed by Mike Mason, who once worked as a television journalist in Florida and has started a Blog.
The Mods at one time sent blasts if Bowdoin or favorite sons cleared their throats. They used the forum to champion ridiculous, pro se pleadings after Bowdoin declared his paid attorneys incompetent and fired them — and even after a federal judge in a separate case had ruled that Curtis Richmond and others had engaged in racketeering and mail fraud in a bid to destroy the credit of public officials in Utah by placing enormous, fraudulent judgments against them for having the temerity actually to do their jobs.
Richmond was hailed a “hero” on Surf’s Up. Never mind that he once signed a fraudulent “award” issued by WAC against a family-services worker in Utah for $300,000.
A family-services worker who was doing the good work of protecting children.
Good grief.
And never mind that Bowdoin and Richmond’s drivel delayed for months the government’s plan to implement a restitution program for participants who certified under oath they were crime victims. Surf’s Up almost never missed a chance to rally the troops to hate the government, even if it meant dispossessed widows caught up in the scheme had to wait even longer for their chance to get some money back.
At Surf’s Up, the widows always could wait. It’s a plain fact that some of the Mods and members started a forum to promote AVG after receiving ASD’s official endorsement just days after a key ruling went against Bowdoin in November, just weeks after Bowdoin took the 5th Amendment in his own case.
“Too honest” to testify, a Surf’s Up poster ventured. A $50,000 Lincoln was parked in Bowdoin’s driveway when the remark was made, having been purchased for cash with ASD “rally” money diverted to another Bowdoin enterprise. Meanwhile, victims of a Bowdoin securities scheme a decade ago got a check for $100.
Not to worry. If Bowdoin could not produce an audited balance sheet certifying ASD’s solvency and the courts could not see the beauty of ASD’s business plan, the widows always could make up their losses in AVG, which purportedly was headquartered in Uruguay and immune from all the meddling by the evil U.S. government.
Here is a plain fact — and it is a fact no matter what you read on Surf’s Up: ASD was catastrophically insolvent. It ignored the liabilities side of the ledger and hid behind “rebates aren’t guaranteed.” As a practical matter, ASD had no means even to deliver all the “ads” it sold. If you joined ASD, you gave Andy Bowdoin a license to keep your money.
The government intervened to give you a shot at getting some of your money back before the Ponzi scheme collapsed. The reason the restitution program hasn’t started is because the government has been unable to perfect its title to the money because of pro se pleadings by Bowdoin and others. No restitution program can begin until the government has clear title to the proceeds seized from ASD.
AVG, for its part, announced in June that it was suspending cashouts and exercising its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause. In effect, AVG seized the money — the exact same thing Surf’s Up railed against the government for doing last year. The AVG forum started by some of the Surf’s Up Mods and members went missing after AVG suspended cashouts.
Two of the Surf’s Up Mods announced yesterday that no email blast urging members to cooperate with Mason would be forthcoming. It first was explained that one of the Mods had been sick and that the proposal couldn’t be addressed immediately. Then it was said the Mods had to consult by phone to approve any blast. Finally, it was said that two of the Mods had communicated with Mason, but a decision had been made not to bring the matter to the attention of the full Surf’s Up membership.
In essence, the Mods explained that Mason was an unknown commodity and might slant his coverage to the government’s point of view.
For all intents and purposes, the ASD forfeiture case will end soon. It will be a clear, clean win for the public officials who prevented this contemptible Ponzi scheme from mushrooming globally and sucking wealth from 84 percent of members so 16 percent could enrich themselves.
We’d like to give Steve Watt credit for calling out the Surf’s Up Mods and regret that we cannot — and we sincerely hope that Steve will see the light.
Steve,
I see that I owe you an apology on one count. I believed you were a mod on the ASDBIZ forum. Reviewing my notes, I see that I misread a point as your comments were mixed in with others. I can’t substantiate that you had our accounts banned. So in that regard, I apologize.
As for my opinion that you seem awfully interested in something you profess not to care about, I maintain that opinion. I also maintain, as do many others, that you promote or have promoted several Ponzi’s which should be obvious at this point. One mistake, fine. More than a few, people ought to be able to read the obvious red flags rather quickly.
As for who has the biggest balls, people are free to choose to be anonymous or use their real names. In my opinion, using a real name on the Internet is not particularly desirable. I use the same moniker across the all the boards so it should be trivial to judge my posts on merit. You and Bob can compare and argue about size, I care more about accuracy.
Quote
Alasycia,
You are correct. I had to reread my notes. Steve is not a mod on ASDBIZ as far as I can see so I can’t draw the connection, at least not directly. I have apologized on that count.
What is interesting is that as soon as I reactivated my account and posted, I was immediately banned again. I’d forgotten that I had been banned some time ago. My posts were rather innocuous. I asked that people keep their passion in check until Mason got up to speed on ASD. POOF, there went the account.
dB
Quote
db, are you sure you dont mean the ASD Members Forum – otherwise known as Surfs Up? Rational posters like you dont usually get banned from ASD Biz. On the other hand, one word that varies from the Party Line or a name that worries them for being NEGATIVE (like yours truly) can guarantee to get a post deleted, if not a total banning! lol
And Steve, you have read my views on forum posters names already. If the material they publish is verifiable as fact, then that is more important than the name they use. If on the other hand they post total unverifiable horse excrement, using their real name serves no useful purpose, apart from giving readers notice to take the post’s content with a pinch of salt.
Lets face it, the Black Box Test stands up on its own, and it doesnt matter whether the poster is called Entertained, Happy Harry or Algernon Forsythe Smith. I guess some people dont need to see their name in lights to help fight scams.
Quote
Steve,
You strive for the truth — prove it. You refer to “trusting people” below. Perhaps you can answer for us why anyone should trust you? You have exposed yourself to be deceitful when you previously posted that you are no longer promoting these various Ponzi schemes, and now you are back doing so again. I had previously accused you of being a professional Ponzi pimp, which I recanted. However, you continue to pimp for ADV, so I guess the nom de plume still fits, although now that you know full well it’s an illegal Ponzi scheme, and you state that you don’t care that these programs are illegal, perhaps your business card should read “Steve Watt, Criminal Ponzi Pimp.” You certainly have the credentials. You don’t trust people who post under pseudonyms the truth you claim to seek? Fine, but how would you want others to view you? Should they “trust” someone who repeatedly promotes criminal enterprises? I know what I would choose. Follow the facts, regardless of who posts them. The facts are, the person posting as Steve Watt is a serial criminal scammer. There’s your truth.
Quote
Actually, Alasycia, Messrs Guenther and Watts are providing a valuable lesson, albeit unwittingly, to “newbies” to the world of internet commerce (and fraud)
When asked, I often make the analogy that beginning the internet experience is not unlike visiting a foreign country for the first time.
While things on the ‘net may appear to be the same as those “back home” or “in the real world” they most certainly are not.
Take, for example, Watts’ and Guenthers’ fixation on the use of “real” names or whereabouts as having some sort of relevance as to the legitimacy, or otherwise, of a posters’ information.
How many times during the heyday of ASD do you recall seeing the question being asked: “if Bowdoin was a fraudster, would he be so stupid as to use his real name and address”???
Similarly, those who have bothered to research the 12Daily Pro and CEP “autosurf” frauds will recognise that the people behind both scams used their real names and locations as “proof” of their honesty.(in the CEP case, complete with the name of the Bible College attended by the fraudsters and with 12DP, complete with photo of Charis Johnsons’ new house)
Both Guenther and Watts make a song and dance about (apparently) using their real names and locations, as did Bowdoin, Charis Johnson and the CEP “boys” when, in reality, it was/is done to lull people into a false sense of security.
In reality, knowing names and addresses did nothing to protect people from the fraud being carried out by ASD, 12DP or CEP scams. Nor did such knowledge protect people from Guenthers’ ASDBMA scam and Watts’ continual autosurf promotions via his JoyLuck Club.
However, discussion of the merits (or otherwise) of using “real names” is a classic illustration of a magicians’ “misdirection” technique in action. Readers “relax” in the knowledge they “know” with whom they’re dealing as their pockets are being picked.
And, if I might add, I’m almost certain that knowing Bowdoins’, Guenthers’ or Watts’ “real” name and location doesn’t lessen the pain of being robbed, in any way.
Quote
In fact the only reason I can see for real names to be important is if want to sue someone, or the Government wants to find you and they usually have adecuate ways of doing so, without your name and address appearing on the world wide web. lol
Quote
Nope, it was the ASD Business Information Zone. I think Kathy had a thing about me at one time. Too many questions or something like that so I got banned. Fast forward and I registered, posted twice and was banned rather quickly. My posts just asked people to chill while Mason got up to speed, if that is his intention.
I thought that SW was a mod and banned me since we had a bit of a dust up the other day so the timing was perfect. But I remembered wrong. That doesn’t mean emails or pm’s weren’t sent but whatever, it’s not a big deal.
Usually, ASDBIZ is fairly open and both Jack and Bob get to trade barbs. I guess that I am not cool enough to belong to their club…
Quote
dirty_bird, no, the problem was you were mistaken as a new alias for UncleFesta, who is banned immediately, just because. It may have been your email address used. Try it now…
Quote
Oh Boy. After all the fuss about names, the only thing that remains is to misquote Gilbert and Sullivan – “A Mod’raters’ lot is not a happy one”. DB- I guess that you had better stick to posting as the Dirty Bird we know and love in future.lol
People like UF, with their 3 new Ids per day, cause more problems for forum owners than the rest of the internet population put together. I guess it will be the subject for yet another unwatched video of his.
Quote
Ah, Ok. I can login now. Can I post without being banned?
Quote
Agreed. I was a mod on WWSN and UF took exception to one of the members using racist slurs. We filtered the offensive words but the poster just kept using similar words and I was not about to ban half the English language or spend half my time in a battle with the racist. The best I could do was condemn the posters behavior which did not placate UF. Not that I cared about UF or his opinion but racism is odious.
I have used dirty_bird for years on the scam related forums and plan to until and unless I have a reason to dump it. In my first forum, I was using a moniker I have used since I have been online but I somehow offended the rabid anti-scammers by requesting they substantiate some allegations….and they tried to “out” me. These fools were advocating physical action against those they felt were scammers. Hence the separation from my other moniker.
Quote
And the beat goes on………..
More “Site Problems” at AD4U.
Those of you “die hard believers” and online ostriches get used to it.
Ad4U is following the ponzi timeline perfectly, there will be many site outages in the future, coupled with other innovative excuses, family illnesses, lack of member faith and dedication and a few innovative things that will be forthcoming.
Sad but true.
ARWR
************************
Tuesday, August 18th
From Steve Smith at AD4U:
We are sorry but we had an issue this morning with the site. THis was beyond our control, so we are working extremely hard to be completely up and running.
So give us some time and all will be fine soon.
http://ad-ventures4u.com thanks Steve Smith
Quote
I spotted that the site was down today. In now looks as if Steve Ray Smith may win the race with the Government and is the one who closes Ad-ventures4U down before they get there to do it themselves.
Quote
After reading Mike Mason’s latest attempt at investigative journalism, I now understand why he went into real estate. How can anyone compare Google AdSense to ASD? There is no comparison. Google never promised 100 or 200 percent matches on ad purchases for you and your sponsor. I could compare ASD to Shell Oil, but that doesn’t mean they are comparable.
I’d also like to know what three new experts Murray found and how he presented evidence to Her Honor outside of a hearing and during negotiations he is in. Maybe I don’t understand the judicial system, but something seems out of order here.
Quote
It was payday today so people were anxious about the payouts and had to surf so I bet traffic was a bit high today. They are solving that problem. According to Steve and another AV4U admin over at MMG, you are required to surf 10 sites per day now rather than 77. That should help with the congestion for a bit.
Quote