LETTER TO READERS: Reflections On 1,000 PP Blog Posts, The Lionization Of Fools And An Unprecedented Crime Wave That Threatens National Security And Is Filling Stadiums With Victims

Dear Readers,

This is actually Post No. 1,007 since the PP Blog switched to the WordPress platform two years ago this month. We’d hoped to commemorate our 1,000th WordPress post in the actual 1,000th post, but missed the chance because of Breaking News concerning the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force’s Operation Broken Trust.

The PP Blog's Breaking News graphic was stolen and used in a promotion for Data Network Affiliates (DNA) earlier this year. DNA, which purports to be in the business of helping the AMBER Alert prohram rescue abducted children, now apparently has morphed into a company known as OWOW, which has instructed members to advertise a secret cure for cancer.

Several hours after we reported that the Task Force now was counting investment-fraud victims by the tens of thousands and noting that even deaf people had been targeted in massive scams, we reported that Walmart had joined the “If you see something, say something” terrorism-awareness campaign operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Walmart was instantly and savagely pilloried on YouTube, apparently for holding the view that DHS deserved private-sector help in its work to keep America safe. On. Dec. 6, when the PP Blog first observed the DHS video on YouTube announcing the Walmart partnership, the video had received only 310 views. That number now has shot up to 289,657. YouTube posters called DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano names that could peel paint. We’ll leave it at that, except to say that scores of Americans appear to have emerged as kneejerk critics and appear unwilling to view America’s economic well-being within the lens of national security.

Indeed, how safe is America — and the world at large — if fraud victims are being counted in numbers that would fill stadiums and vast sums of wealth are being consumed and disappearing down ratholes? In the Task Force announcement, Attorney General Eric Holder said that, since Aug. 16 alone, cases investigated by the Task Force have uncovered losses of more than $10.4 billion. The schemes affected at least 120,000 victims.

The victims’ count in just this relatively small cluster of cases is more than enough to fill the Rose Bowl in Pasadena or Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, America’s largest college-football stadium.

Just prior to our Operation Broken Trust post — in Post No. 999 — we reported that the AdPayDaily autosurf, which has promoters and members in common with both AdSurfDaily and AdViewGlobal, was showing signs of collapse. Flash forward to Post No. 1,002: In this post, we reported that a New York Internet Marketer had been arrested by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for cyberstalking.

Vitaly Borker apparently believed it prudent to use the Internet to threaten to rape women who had received what investigators described as bogus and inferior-quality goods from him. A fair reading of the complaint against Borker shows that he used the same type of gutter language directed at Napolitano on YouTube — you know, for her apparent High Crime of asking Walmart shoppers to be aware of their surroundings in the Age of Terrorism.

We next reported on a 54-year prison sentence handed down to a former Indiana pastor who duped Christian investors in a Ponzi scheme. After that, we reported that a company that once did business with Steve Renner’s Cash Cards International had been implicated in a massive Forex scheme that affected at least 800 investors.

Renner was the operator of the INetGlobal autosurf, which the U.S. Secret Service said in February was operating a Ponzi scheme affecting thousands of people, including victims of Chinese descent who may have limited ability to understand English. The Secret Service said an undercover agent had been introduced to INetGlobal by an AdSurfDaily member.

On Dec. 8, we reported that a Maryland man had been arrested after the FBI intercepted his plot to detonate a car bomb at a military-recruitment center. A similar plot had been unmasked by the FBI in Portand, Ore., on the day after Thanksgiving. It was aimed at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, meaning it was aimed at children and families.

Here is one way to look at the alleged Thanksgiving plot: The arrest was announced on Nov. 26. By Dec. 6, crackpots were flooding YouTube with paint-peeling comments about Napolitano and the terrorism-awareness campaign. Two days after that, on Dec. 8, a man was arrested in the Maryland plot. He allegedly also talked about blowing up Andrews Air Force Base, which happens to be the home base of Air Force One, which happens to be the aircraft used by the President of the United States.

We haven’t even written about Wikileaks and the arrest in Britian of Julian Assange. Wikileaks’ sympathizers reacted by bringing DDoS attacks, apparently based on the belief that the best way to show support for Assange was to send out an army of bots to disrupt the websites of businesses that did not support Assange.

By week’s end, Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, were surrounded by a mob unhappy about the skyrocketing costs of getting a college education in the United Kingdom. Civility, it seems, can be cast out the door in a country minute and replaced by the taunts of a mob.

Yesterday, as we again sought to commemorate our 1,000 post, word arrived about the apparent suicide of Bernard Madoff’s son on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest.

There is no doubt — none whatsoever — that Ponzi = Pain. There also is no doubt that the Internet has ushered in an era of unprecedented, mass-produced, viral crime. Criminals have been aided in their nefarious pursuits by crackpots who employ no editorial filters and simply create or repeat lies that institutionalize crime as an occupation and even celebrate it.

At the precise moment in time in which Americans and other citizens of the world could benefit most from serious words and serious research backing those words, some of the world’s great publishing companies are struggling to make ends meet. Print circulation is down. Journalists are losing jobs. Designers and salespeople are losing jobs.

The switch to electronic publishing platforms has been accompanied by piracy, wanton theft and trademark infringement that further erodes the value of words and intellectual property, undermines the economy and adds to concerns about national and international security. People, including well-intentioned people, simply copy-and-paste entire editorial wells from one site to another. The public becomes confused about the original source of material, which often is shoe-horned to fit a specific agenda.

If former President Bill Clinton, for example, hands out an award for commitment to the environment, it gets spun by alleged scammers as an endorsement of their company. Images of Walmart, Warren Buffet, Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey frequently are used in promos for multilevel-marketing (MLM) and direct-sales companies to which they have no ties.

Earlier this year, the PP Blog’s Breaking News graphic was stolen by a member of Data Network Affiliates (DNA), an MLM company that routinely targets promos at Christians and, among other things, has claimed it is helping the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children. DNA now apparently has morphed into a company known as OWOW, which is asking members to suggest that a product known as TurboMune cures cancer.

For months, members of an MLM company known as MPB Today have helped themselves to Walmart’s name and branding materials, claiming that a $200, one-time purchase can result in free groceries and gasoline for life. One MPB Today member apparently believed it prudent to drive business to the firm by depicting the President of the United States and the U.S. Secretary of State, a former member of Walmart’s board of directors, as Nazis.

This is not “freedom,” as the scammers would have you believe; it is theft and piracy on the high electronic seas, plain and simple. It also often is the case that this specific brand of theft also gets mixed with appeals to faith, meaning the scammers are seeking to pluck heartstrings and separate Believers from their money.

There simply is no way that any government or branch of government can be at all places at all times. Although it is fashionable to describe efforts to battle crime in the Age of the Internet and the Age of Terrorism as an effort by Big Brother to assign each individual citizen his or her own bureaucrat to bring commerce and freedom to a screeching halt, such opinions often are simple rants that lack any real-world context.

Within hours of the PP Blog’s publication of a story about the alleged Portland plot, the Blog was bizarrely assailed by an MLM aficionado for DNA/OWOW as a tool for Israel. Michael Chertoff, a former federal judge, federal prosecutor and DHS secretary, was described as a “suspect” in the 9/11 attacks, which the poster blamed on Israel while calling Chertoff an Israeli scum bag.

As noted above, when Janet Napolitano announced a simple partnership with Walmart to encourage citizens to be aware of their surroundings, she encountered vicious name-calling — and it all happened during the same week yet-another bombing plot was unmasked, the Task Force was noting that America’s largest stadiums were not large enough to accommodate recent victims of financial fraud, DDoS attacks were aimed at companies deemed by third parties to be unfriendly to Wikileaks and the future king of England and his wife were surrounded by an angry mob.

Even if one is willing to assume that Wikileaks seeks to serve a higher, noble purpose, directing DDoS attacks at businesses and government sites hardly helps Assange elicit sympathy or understanding. He lost an important round in the PR war last week, as did the unthinking crowd that assailed Napolitano and the mob that heckled Prince Charles and the Duchess.

The lionization of crackpots of all stripes is rapidly emerging as a dangerous, unintended consequence of the Internet — as are all the tortured claims that MLM products treat or cure cancer, create vast sums of wealth for ordinary participants and the tortured claim that appropriating the names of Walmart and Winfrey and Trump and Buffet and Clinton is just another word for freedom.

Far from promoting freedom, the crackpots and criminals are promoting anarchy. They do not seek to compete in either a free marketplace of commerce or a free marketplace of ideas. Rather, they seek to commit crimes on a global scale and to fill entire stadiums with victims — even as would-be terrorists speculate about throwing cocktail bombs into military-recruitment centers and shooting soldiers and staff as they flee the flames through the doors.

In Portland, meanwhile, the idea was to kill wide-eyed children contemplating the miracles of Christmas and Santa Claus with a fireball that also would consume their parents.

We conclude this 1,000 post commemoration with a simple thought: Death and taxes are not the only two certainties of life. It is equally certain that law enforcement needs the proactive participation of the public more than ever. It is one thing to direct reasonable criticism at agencies and public officials; it is quite another to cheer against the people who are responding to unprecedented security challenges while trying to make sure the stadiums fill up with football fans, not victims.

About the Author

24 Responses to “LETTER TO READERS: Reflections On 1,000 PP Blog Posts, The Lionization Of Fools And An Unprecedented Crime Wave That Threatens National Security And Is Filling Stadiums With Victims”

  1. Patrick, first let me congratulate you on your milestone of 1000 posts!!

    Many ordinary citizens fail to see the long term financial harm these internet scams are causing here in the US and all over the world. Our economy is being ransacked by a bunch of nimrods that pillage the Faithful, the infirm and the elderly, all while moving our money offshore for who knows what nefarious purposes.They literally ruin people’s lives and could care less as long as their pockets are getting filled.

    If helping “Big Brother” will put terrorists and internet evildoers in jail, sign me up!!

  2. We live in interesting times. Things are changing.

    I would strongly caution people against associating those who would DDOS Amazon, Visa, MC, etc with WikiLeaks itself. WikiLeaks got a hold of a trove of documents and decided to publish, rightly or wrongly. The DDOS “supporters” are a loosely, if at all, associated band of anarchists, opportunists and just plain naive kids caught up in the moment who think they are “standing up to the man” by punishing companies who elected not to do business with WikiLeaks after they started publishing. Was Amazon perhaps risking hosting “terrorists” in the words of Sarah Palin? Were Visa and MC perhaps funneling money to “terrorism” if they did not stop taking donations?

    WikiLeaks has plenty of supporters who are creating mirror sites, pledging bond money, opposing extradition and taking peaceful action. Who’s getting the headlines? Even mainstream and peaceful supporters of WikiLeaks are dismayed by the publishing of a list of infrastructural sites critical to US security and consider this to be clearly over the line.

    It’s the same thing that’s happened at the WTO protests in Seattle 10 years ago. Anarchists embedded themselves with peaceful protesters and decided to burn and smash as much as they could while they had opportunity. Guess who got the headlines? The mainstream media such as CNN elected to show the image of a burning trash bin ad nauseum and it became THE image of the WTO protests.

    Presently, the Brits are cutting public spending and tripling the cost of a university education. Within the protests, a group decided to attack Princess Charles and Camilla when they had the opportunity. Who’s getting the headlines?

    And then we have the Ponzi supporters who feel that they are participating in free enterprise by cheating naive people out of their life savings…

    What interests me are the following issues:

    1. The “old media” trashed WikiLeaks for being unprofessional and an upstart…yet they are on a publishing binge. It’s clearly the most sensational story of the young decade. Take WikiLeaks out of the equation and you have a huge trove leaked documents and the mainstream media on a publishing binge…while trashing the source of their material.

    2. The speed WikiLeaks main site was taken off line. As has been pointed out, the KKK is able to publish and receive donations. The companies who won’t do business with WikiLeaks will do business with the KKK and porn sites. And the Swiss are suddenly suspending bank accounts because “he lied about his Swiss residency”. LOL…that has to be a first!!!

    3. Taking out WikiLeaks site has raised questions about how independent and free the Internet is at this time. There are serious choke points which can be controlled centrally such as DNS.

    4. The mirroring effort undertaken by WikiLeaks more reasonable supporters. Will the that effort keep WikiLeaks online and publishing despite governmental efforts to quash them?

    5. The DDOS attacks by the Internet mob. Will they be able to muster the resources to “punish” companies who’s policies they disagree with?

    6. How will international law be defined and enforced. Can the US indict and try an Australian national for domestic offenses? Will the New York Times in the US and the Guardian in the UK face sanctions given the “special relationship”? What about El Pais in Spain who not part of the US/UK alliance?

    Things are very interesting on a lot of levels with this story.

  3. Patrick:

    Let me add my Congratulations on your 1,000th post and counting. An awesome accomplishment, but what is more important they were all educational as well as informative. Bravo on a job well-done.

  4. By week’s end, Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, were surrounded by a mob unhappy about the skyrocketing costs of getting a college education in the United Kingdom. Civility, it seems, can be cast out the door in a country minute and replaced by the taunts of a mob.

    I have some sympathy for the students who are protesting against the rise in tuition fees. It could be seen that the “older” generation got their degrees in the 1970s or 1980s for free, then worked for banks that gave them final salary pension schemes, then they screw up the economy.

    Before the elections, the LibDems said they were against any raise in tuition fees. The Conservatives said that leaving University with high debt was a bad thing. Prominent politicians like Vince Cable are being seen as breaking election promises. Some people think that the Royal family is a drain on the tax payers. For some students, emotions are high.

    Of course there are always some who will take advantage of the situation, and will cause violence, no matter what.

    Just seen this story:
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101212/ap_on_re_eu/eu_sweden_terror

  5. From the BBC. “The Royal Family cost every UK person 69p last year – an increase of 3p on 2007/8, Buckingham Palace accounts show.” That’s pence, not pounds so about 1 USD per person.

    Some people see it as a drain on the treasury…some people see it as cheap advertising for a uniquely British institution which supports plenty of industry. This is a decades old debate.

    I think the bank bailouts cost considerably more per person.

    Education is a huge cost. Many here in the US wind up with debts of over 50k, or 100k or even 200k USD at graduation. 100k at 6% is 6k USD or $500 in interest the first year, provided you get a job and many are unable to find a decent job right out of college…or at all for that matter. Another consideration is that you cannot absolve yourself of the debt through bankruptcy.

    Things have gotten completely out of hand with education costs and people are rightly upset. That said, education costs are a completely separate matter, IMO, from the Royals. Immature people and anarchists may not see it that way.

  6. Congratulations Patrick on your 1000th (and 7th) post.

    Thanks to your blog many of us have been given the necessary “push” to look further into the reality of internet fraud and its links with non-internet crimes, such as money laundering and its probable links to organized crime and terrorism.

    On Wikileaks,, I think that db has made some very valuable points and that “Things are very interesting on a lot of levels with this story” and it is more than likely that all is not as it appears to be. It is far too easy to talk in cliches on a subject like this, and in any event there are no links to internet fraud here. This is essentially an issue where political morality meets press freedom – and dare I say it, horribly off topic.

    However, there is a definate parallel between Wikleaks supporters and frustrated students taking the law into their own hands and behaving in an illegal and irresponsible manner which is not the answer to the problems.

  7. Some stories on WikiLeaks:

    WikiLeaks’ Assange to be indicted for spying ‘soon’http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/10/assange_indictment_soon/

    Dutch police arrest 16-year-old WikiLeaks avenger
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/09/wikileaks_ddos_arrest/

    WikiLeaks supporters milk Twitter API in DDoS attacks
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/09/twitter_api_wikileaks_ddos/

  8. Dick Cheney has been indicted on bribery charges in Nigeria and a warrant transmitted to Interpol. Is the U.S. going to arrest and extradite Cheney to Nigeria? I doubt it.

    http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/1207/Nigeria-charges-Dick-Cheney-in-bribery-case

    Oh, and congrats on the 1,000th post Patrick. Great site. Great articles.

    dB

  9. Thanks for a first class précis of “Cyberspace World News” Patrick. Crime has always been the biggest growth industry on the planet and crime prevention the second largest. Fortunately the gap is closing faster than ever before. Crime busters like you are having a powerful effect on the cyberspace swamps where this infection breeds.

    MY SUGGESTION FOR A PERSONAL CHRISTMAS CARD TO PEOPLE LIKE BOGDAN FIEDUR OF ADLANDPRO WHO PROMOTES THIS ANARCHY and their pagan (polythestic) religions.

    Happy Yuletide or whatever your pantheon of Gods on “The Mountain of Love” care to call the season. The Words of Patrick Pretty should sound like a thunderbolt to interrupt The Galactic Spirits from celestial bonks and drunken stupors, as they did in Homer’s day. You are a bit behind the times old fellow! Homer knew the spiel over two thousand years ago so does Patrick Pretty.

    With Best Wishes from Judy using he words of Patrick Pretty.

    “Far from promoting freedom, the crackpots and criminals are promoting anarchy. They do not seek to compete in either a free marketplace of commerce or a free marketplace of ideas. Rather, they seek to commit crimes on a global scale and to fill entire stadiums with victims — even as would-be terrorists speculate about throwing cocktail bombs into military-recruitment centers and shooting soldiers and staff as they flee the flames through the doors.”

  10. Patrick, first let me congratulate you on your milestone of 1000 posts!!

    Thank you, Don.

    Patrick

  11. Let me add my Congratulations on your 1,000th post and counting.

    Thanks, Lynn.

    Patrick

  12. Congratulations Patrick on your 1000th (and 7th) post.

    Thanks. Lil.

    On Wikileaks,, I think that db has made some very valuable points and that “Things are very interesting on a lot of levels with this story” and it is more than likely that all is not as it appears to be. It is far too easy to talk in cliches on a subject like this, and in any event there are no links to internet fraud here.

    Respectfully disagree, Lil. The DDoS attacks against PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, a prosecution site and others not only were a modern form of fraud, but also a crime, in my view.

    These attacks were plainly extortive, carrying with them an elements of “do what we want, or else.”

    It is incongruous that folks who describe themselves as advocates for openness would seek to chill people and/or companies that may not or do not agree with their Wikileaks philosophy. One way to look as DDoS attacks is as a form of anarchy.

    The behavior of some of Assange’s purported advocates reminded me of various bids by, say, AVG members, to chill this Blog’s reporting by planting the seed that bad things would happen if the Blog kept on reporting about AVG. It also reminded me of other attacks launched against this Blog.

    Patrick

  13. Thanks for a first class précis of “Cyberspace World News” Patrick.

    Appreciate your words, Judy. Thank you.

    Patrick

  14. congrats on the 1,000th post Patrick. Great site. Great articles.

    Thanks, d_b. Want you to know that I appreciate your participation in discussions. You and others always give me things to think about. Your posts in this thread are just another example of how you have helped shape discussions.

    Thank you, d_b.

    Patrick

  15. Hi Tony,

    The links you have shared in this and many other threads are thought-provoking. Want you to know that I very much appreciate the time you take to post here and to share information that will help readers understand issues and shape their ideas.

    Thank you, Tony.

    Patrick

  16. Hi Patrick,

    Thanks for the kind words.

    I was thinking…

    What’s the difference between DDOSing Amazon, etc and the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit ins during the civil rights period?

    In both instances companies are effectively blocked from doing legitimate business. In both instances people are reacting against what they see as illegitimate company policies. In both instances the law is against those taking action. In both instances wider public opinion is also against those taking action.

    While I STRONGLY DISAGREE with DDOSing folks, I can’t seem to answer my own question.

    dB

    Thanks, d_b. Want you to know that I appreciate your participation in discussions. You and others always give me things to think about. Your posts in this thread are just another example of how you have helped shape discussions.Thank you, d_b.Patrick  

  17. What’s the difference between DDOSing Amazon, etc and the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit ins during the civil rights period?

    Hi d_b,

    In my mind, the difference is the use of weaponry — i.e., server-killing (or slowing) data packs in the case of the DDoS attacks.

    And the DDoS attacks occurred across state lines and even international lines.

    Here is a reference to a DDoS case against Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to an attack against the Church of Scientology website:

    http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/mettenbrinkPlea.pdf

    Patrick

  18. Hey Patrick,

    I don’t really see any difference intellectually between the Woolworth’s sit ins and the Amazon DDOS…provided other customers of the ISP are not affected. No physical damage is done to any equipment but neither company can do business.

    In the case of Woolworth, the “weaponry” was their butts sitting at the counter. In Amazon’s case, packets are used to deny service.

    When you got hit, they were denying you the right to publish your opinions which is denying free speech, a protected activity under our Constitution.

    Having said all that, I’m the one who gets the phone calls at my company if someone were to DDOS us. It would definitely be hell for me so I hope it does not happen. And I don’t advocate or agree with DDOSing anyone. It will just give Comcast (evil company) more excuses to restrict our freedoms.

    dB

    Hi d_b,In my mind, the difference is the use of weaponry — i.e., server-killing (or slowing) data packs in the case of the DDoS attacks.And the DDoS attacks occurred across state lines and even international lines.
    Here is a reference to a DDoS case against Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to an attack against the Church of Scientology website:http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/mettenbrinkPlea.pdfPatrick  

  19. Hi, Patrick;

    Been out of town, just catching up on things; noted this item re your 1,000th post and want to say how much I appreciate and admire your work – and to tell you I really understand the significance of that milestone.

    I have a Family History blog I write and have so far posted just about 80 stories I’ve researched and written about some of my extended ancestral family members. Bottom line: I’ve learned that it’s a huge challenge to do research, write stories, edit, rewrite as needed, update as new info emerges, deal with comments from readers and still maintain a balance with the rest of life.

    And unlike you, I haven’t had to deal with a barrage of hostility – including DDoS attacks. In view of all that, your output is amazing! I salute you, sir! I suspect you’ll never know how many people’s lives you’ve impacted positively with your talent and efforts. Thanks very much for what you do.

    -PWD

  20. Thanks very much for what you do.

    And thanks for what you do, Pat.

    Your warm words are very much appreciated.

    Thank you.

    Patrick

  21. Patrick,

    As you mentioned the issue of Wikileaks,I need to make it quite clear that, in no way do I condone criminal actions taken by anyone, and DDOS attacks clearly are crimes. However we are given to understand that these are the illegal actions of misguided supporters of Wikileaks. There must be better ways to protest the curtailing of freedom of speech, without criminally doing exactly the same thing by DDOSing a website.

    Having said that, I still maintain the view

    On Wikileaks,, I think that db has made some very valuable points and that “Things are very interesting on a lot of levels with this story” and it is more than likely that all is not as it appears to be. It is far too easy to talk in cliches on a subject like this, and in any event there are no links to internet fraud here. This is essentially an issue where political morality meets press freedom – and dare I say it, horribly off topic.

    Whether you agree with the actions of the Wikileaks website or not, their purpose is not to comit acts of financial fraud against the public nor do they directly or indirectly fund terrorists or narcotrafficers. Ergo the comment that its inclusion in your article was horribly off topic. (although many are glued to the press reporting of the developments of this case. lol)

  22. Ergo the comment that its inclusion in your article was horribly off topic.

    I think the same could be said about the comments on the student fees protest. However it is a big story in the UK, the BBC has a number of stories on this subject:
    Gangs intent on violence infiltrated student protest
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11986536

    Fees protester made ‘contact’ with Camilla
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11978954

    Students protest over education maintenance allowances
    Protest organiser: “We didn’t cause this crisis and we’re not going to pay for it”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11971164

    Met Police in talks over water cannon
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11981351

    To understand some of the history, Nick Robinson has a good explanation:
    Tuition fees for beginners
    http://wwwsearch.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2010/12/tuition_fees_fo.html

    Every major political party have broken promises to students. Many people are angry. It reminds me of the anger felt when the Thatcher government introduced the Poll Tax.

  23. Better remembered by some as Thatcher the Milk Snatcher. And that is truly off-off-topic. lol

    I thoroughly agree with Patrick’s closing remark that “It is equally certain that law enforcement needs the proactive participation of the public more than ever”.

    Anyone who has been following the fraud schemes perpetrated on line can speak out. Everyone who has been a victim should forget their embarassment and report it and educate others.

    Patrick’s blog has served as a great reporting and education medium in the field of ponzis and other online fruads for the past few years and has surely given many people the confidence to do just that, in spite of the fraudsters attempts to silence them.

  24. […] and logistical nightmares of viral Internet crime to their essence: fraud creep. This followed our Dec. 12, 2010, post, which explained that America’s largest sports stadiums may not be large enough to […]