BULLETIN: ASDCashGenerator Website Is Active Again; Is A New ‘Program’ In The Offing? Page Is Accessible Through Old ASD Ad That Features Image Of Purported Club Asteria Owner; No Comment From Investigators

This old ad for AdSurfDaily features an image of Hank Needham, the purported owner of Club Asteria. An ASD affiliate link in the ad summons ASD’s old ASDCashGenerator.com URL, which went dormant after the federal raid on ASD’s Florida headquarters in August 2008. In recent hours, however, the old ASDCashGenerator URL began to resolve to an apparent new business opportunity known as Ad Sales Daily International. Needham’s one-time tie to ASD leads to questions about whether Virginia-based Club Asteria, through Needham or ASD downline members, could have benefited from ASD cash prior to the federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin nearly three years ago. The Club-Asteria domain name was registered in June 2009, the same month an autosurf with ASD connections known as AdViewGlobal collapsed. Club Asteria’s domain now is registered behind a proxy, but once was registered to Needham, according to web records.

BULLETIN: (UPDATED 9:36 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A website identified in a 2008 forfeiture complaint as the site of a major financial crime allegedly engineered by AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin and unidentified co-conspirators is active again and appears to be redirecting traffic to an entity named “Ad Sales Daily International” (ASDI) and a second entity known as ASD2Day.

“Make $10 per direct referral & $5 for every 2nd level indirect!” the site exclaims. “Recieve (sic) $2000 Account Initiation Credits! Hurry, while we are in pre-launch.”

A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia declined to comment on the development, saying that ASD is part of an active investigation.

The ASDI site is accessible through an affiliate link to Bowdoin’s old ASDCashGenerator.com site, which appears to have been re-registered in the name of Barbara Cruz, whose name previously has appeared in the context of ASD. The PP Blog accessed the ASDI site by clicking on an old ASDCashGenerator affiliate link . The link was within an ASD ad from 2008 that featured an image of Club Asteria’s purported owner Hank Needham.

The ASD ad with Needham’s image positioned ASD as a “Perfectly Credible Business” and included a contact email address that used the characters “ptigold.” The ASD ad, however, does not load Needham’s name as an ASDI affiliate when the link is clicked. Instead, it loads the name of another individual. The reason was not immediately clear.

This page for ASDI, an apparent upstart, is accessible when a link is clicked in an old ad for Andy Bowdoin's ASD Cash Generator program. The old ASD ad features a photo of Hank Needham, the purported owner of Club Asteria, but the ad does not load Needham's name as an ASDI affiliate when the link is clicked. Instead, the ad loads the name of another person. The reason was not immediately clear. Bowdoin is under federal indictment for wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Questions have been raised about whether Club Asteria also was selling unregistered securities as part of a purported "passive" investment program.

A separate link within the ad with Needham’s image forwards to a page that displays pornography ads.

All or part of the old ASDCashGenerator site appears to be redirecting to the domain name of ASD2Day.com. In 2009, the ASD2Day site was registered with Cruz listed as the contact person at an address in Florida that state investigators had tied to a major insurance scam. Although Cruz now is listed as the registrant of the ASDCashGenerator site, the ASD2Day site is registered in the name of another individual.

In October 2009, the PP Blog published a story about the ASD2Day site, which was making odd claims about the state of the ASD litigation a year after the federal seizure of Bowdoin’s assets and assets linked to Golden Panda Ad Builder, an autosurf implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD probe.

ASD2Day.com claimed, among other things, that ASD could not be a Ponzi scheme because the script employed by the autosurfing firm could not be programmed to permit a Ponzi scheme to occur. It also made a puzzling claim that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer was on an Aug. 28, 2009, deadline “to determine if the US Attorney General’s case against ASD should move forward.” (Also see this story and comments thread.)

Collyer was on no such deadline. In January 2010, Collyer issued a forfeiture order that awarded $65.8 million seized from Bowdoin’s bank accounts to the U.S. government, which is using the seized money to compensate victims of ASD. In July 2009, Collyer issued a forfeiture order for more than $14 million linked to Golden Panda, ASD’s one-time purported “Chinese” option.

The ASD ad that featured Needham’s image also made a veiled reference to Golden Panda.

A section of the ad read, “OPENING IN CHINA[:] July 2008.”

Undercover agents from a Secret Service/IRS task force began to investigate ASD and Golden Panda on July 3, 2008, according to court filings. The court process of seizing cash linked to both entities began on Aug. 1, 2008, with the issuance of seizure warrants.

It appears to be the case that all old ASD Cash Generator affiliate links, including the links in the ad that featured Needham’s photograph, now load the new ASDI webpage at the old ASD Cash Generator URL.

Claims made about Club Asteria are under investigation by Italian authorities. Club Asteria first slashed payouts to members then reportedly suspended them for 60 days. The firm also reportedly has had its PayPal account frozen.

Like ASD, Club Asteria was promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

In a video dated July 8, a Club Asteria executive claimed the firm had “a philanthropic foundation both domestically and internationally where we help causes all over the world.”

Among the claims in the video, which appeared online after Club Asteria reportedly suspended payouts, was this one:

“We donate cows and pigs and water buffaloes and camels to help families all over the world.”

Virginia-based Club Asteria trades on the name of the World Bank. Members said payments came from an entity known as Asteria Holdings Limited (Hong Kong) — before the payments stopped.

One of Club Asteria’s principal concerns, according to a new video, is children.

Investigators long have fretted that some promoters of online business “opportunities” simply race from fraud scheme to fraud scheme, collecting commissions for introducing others to “programs” that prove to be scams.

Like the now-collapsed AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, Club Asteria has blamed its reported problems on members. AVG had promoters and members in common with Bowdoin’s ASD, which the Secret Service described as a massive international Ponzi scheme.

Among other things, AVG plucked the heartstrings of members by telling them that the company was interested in saving the rain forest.

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9 Responses to “BULLETIN: ASDCashGenerator Website Is Active Again; Is A New ‘Program’ In The Offing? Page Is Accessible Through Old ASD Ad That Features Image Of Purported Club Asteria Owner; No Comment From Investigators”

  1. Quick note: There appears also to be a Facebook site for Ad Sales Daily International. Longtime readers will recall that AdSurfDaily’s Andy Bowdoin also at one time used the name Ad Sales Daily — sans the word “International.”

    See this:

    http://patrickpretty.com/2009/05/07/special-report-the-largely-unknown-bowdoin-surf/

    Snippets from story that ran here on May 7, 2009:

    “By February 2007, ASD was coming apart at the seams. Bowdoin announced the formation of a new corporation that would be known as “AdSalesDaily” — as opposed to “AdSurfDaily” — and he offered “stock” in the company to buyers willing to pay the minimum price of $10,000 . . .”

    “Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that Bowdoin, using the name “AdSalesDaily” and the address of 13. S. Calhoun, made the first of his political donations on Feb. 27, 2007, even as ASD members were clamoring for their cash. His first donation was for $250. He matched it in March 2007, with another $250 donation. In 2008, using the name “AdSurfDaily” and the address of 13 S. Calhoun, Bowdoin donated $5,000 to the NRCC.”

    Patrick

  2. Ptigold? As in, the ptigift.com cash gifting program that Hank was pushing in 2008? http://cashgiftingangels.ning.com/profile/Jamesnewcomb

    Also as in the company PTIPOWER which Needham claims (claimed?) to be the owner of. Checking the WHOIS data of the email address, it appears that yes, it is the same Hank Needham from Club Asteria, STEMtech, and others.

  3. WHOIS for Asdcashgenerator.com

    Registrant:
    Barbara Cruz
    2805 E 5 AVE
    Hialeah, FL 33013
    United States

    Domain Name: ASDCASHGENERATOR.COM
    Created on: 28-May-07
    Expires on: 28-May-13
    Last Updated on: 09-Jun-11

  4. I’m sorry but anyone who gets hooked this time can chalk it up not to experience but stupidity and greed. If anyone has been mentally alive in South Florida or anywhere in the known universe and cannot smell the roses, they either need to check the greed gland or check themselves into the nearest institution.

    On the other hand, one must admire the promoter’s persistence. Makes one proud to be an American.

  5. Didn’t the E-mail that was sent out on behalf of Andy for Andy’s Army say the website would be back, and they would have a video from Andy by the end of this week? So if that was true, then I am not surprised at the site being back, just what they have on it.

    It sure does expose Club Asteria to many in a new light. Besides CA is losing members faster than the Titanic took on water. If they are not totally leaving, they are downgrading their membership status. They will be lucky to survive the month.

    But DL is right. I think they should start the registration process now so it is easier to be admitted when Andy’s video appears. It’s hard to believe that anyone would send him a dime after all he has put them through.

    Hey, maybe he will start running all those adpacks that he owes his members now the website is back up.

  6. IM(very)HO this sort of apparently illogical behaviour will continue until someone (or a group of someones) are caught and prosecuted.

    In the grand scheme of things, 100,000 disenchanted victims is nothing, and the only people applying “logic” to the situation are the observers.

    To the fraudsters themselves, it’s nothing but a numbers game.

    100,000 ??? Pfffffftt !

    Latest official current world population estimate, for mid-year 2010, is estimated at 6,852,472,823.

    Internet take up rate is growing exponentially, especially in the rapidly growing economies of China, India and S/E Asia.

    Cost of putting up a HYIP ponzi website is what ??

    Hundreds ?

    Thousands ?

    Number of HYIP ponzis on the usual suspect forums at any one time ?

    Number of repeat offender HYIP ponzi promoters/owners whose identities and locations have been known by every man and his dog ?

    Number of repeat offender HYIP ponzi promoters/owners whose identities and locations have been known by every man and his dog and prosecuted ?

    Bowdoin had how many MILLION dollars in his accounts when he was busted ???

    Mathematical genius I ain’t, but even I can work out the odds are not in favour of the “good guys”

  7. Hello Everyone, just to drop a quick note, I remember almost a year ago attending the ASDI conference calls. They always made it clear that they are not affiliated to ASD or Andy Bowdin. Their ad plan is quite different, I am not sure of what their doing now, as I have not logged in for quite a while.

    Regard’s-
    Joly

  8. […] As the PP Blog first reported on July 12, the ASDCashGenerator.com domain once controlled by accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin had returned […]

  9. […] Foundation but during a period of time in which Club Asteria principal Hank Needham’s image appeared in a promo for AdSurfDaily — Needham appeared in a video for cash gifting, the PP Blog has […]