UPDATE: North Carolina Says Profitable Sunrise Investors Have Been Targeted In ‘Reload Scams’ Like Zeek Rewards Investors Before Them

From a warning by North Carolina that Profitable Sunrise investors are being targeted in reload scams.

From a warning by North Carolina that Profitable Sunrise investors are being targeted in reload scams.

UPDATED 11:28 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The Securities Division of North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall has issued a warning that Profitable Sunrise investors are being targeted in “reload scams.”

North Carolina issued a similar warning in August 2012, saying then that members of the Zeek Rewards “program” — an alleged $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme operating online — also were being targeted in reload scams.

From a statement by Marshall’s office (italics added):

The NC Securities Division has learned that Profitable Sunrise investors are being contacted with promises of help in getting their money back for them. The Securities Division is issuing this alert to warn investors that such promises may be yet another attempt to scam them again through a “reload scam”.

Reload scams hit consumers when they’re down, offering to help them make back money they lost to a previous scam or bad business decision. These scams have been popular for years with telemarketing fraud rings but can also follow other types of fraud, including investment fraud.

Such reload scams were aimed at victims of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme last year. Reload scammers used social media sites and online news releases to tout opportunities to help investors replace the income they were receiving from Zeek Rewards. Similar opportunities are being touted in the case involving Profitable Sunrise. Investors are warned to stay away from such “opportunities”.

On Feb. 27, North Carolina issued a cease-and-desist order against the Profitable Sunrise “program” and purported operators Roman Novak and Radoslav Novak. Profitable Sunrise operated through a British entity known as Inter Reef LTD.

At least 35 U.S. states or provinces in Canada went on to issue Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders against Profitable Sunrise. The SEC filed an action on April 4, alleging that Profitable Sunrise was an online pyramid scheme that may have gathered tens of millions of dollars.

Promoters of Profitable Sunrise may have pushed the program without even knowing for whom they were working, the SEC said.

On April 1, the PP Blog observed an online pitch for an entity that appeared to be using the name and address of a U.S. government agency while promising “to recover” funds lost through Profitable Sunrise. The fake agency claimed it could recover losses for a sum of less than $50 and encouraged Profitable Sunrise members to send money to purported accounts at the Liberty Reserve and Solid Trust Pay payment processors.

Profitable Sunrise members also have been targeted by boat-sharks hoping to glean commissions for other HYIP “programs” and purported MLM “opportunities.”

On March 31 — Easter Sunday — the PP Blog reported that a Facebook pitch aimed at Profitable Sunrise members sought to recruit them into a “program” known as TelexFree.

A video for TelexFree claimed members could purchase an income by sending the “program” specific sums of money.

The TelexFree pitch was similar to pitches for the infamous World Marketing Direct Selling (WMDS) and OneUniverseOnline (1UOL) pyramid schemes, which were exposed in 2005 and operated by James Bunchan and Seng Tan. Those scams resulted in federal prison sentences for both Bunchan and Tan and also sparked follow-up probes by the government because a federal prosecutor and witnesses were subjected to death threats by Bunchan.

Like Profitable Sunrise, the WMDS and 1UOL scams traded on references to religion. And like TelexFree and Profitable Sunrise, WMDS and 1UOL prospects were told they could purchase an income.

WMDS and 1UOL members — like Profitable Sunrise members — also may not have been sure of who they were working for. Here is a snippet from an appeals-court ruling upholding the 20-year-prison sentence of Tan (italics added):

“A high-school graduate, [Christian] Rochon became president (in name only, though) for one reason, and one reason only: Bunchan wanted an ‘American face’ for his companies, and his neighbor Rochon (a Caucasian of Canadian decent) apparently fit the bill,” the footnote reads. “And after renting Rochon a suit jacket and taking him to a professional photographer, Bunchan had Rochon’s photo plastered all over the companies’ promotional pamphlets.”

Tan told WMDS and 1UOL members that she’d been sent by the “Gods” to make them millionaires.

Also see April 16 PP Blog story: Idaho Says Profitable Sunrise Pitchmen May Have Exposure ‘For Soliciting Other Investors’

 

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11 Responses to “UPDATE: North Carolina Says Profitable Sunrise Investors Have Been Targeted In ‘Reload Scams’ Like Zeek Rewards Investors Before Them”

  1. It would be more surprising, if they were not targeted. Idiots are always in need.

  2. Quick note: A Facebook boat shark on a Profitable Sunrise site is pitching something called ShareGrowing.

    ShareGrowing reminds me of the alleged BossTeam scam in Canada:

    http://patrickpretty.com/2012/05/04/developing-story-bulletin-filings-suggest-new-strain-of-autosurfing-cancer-discovered-in-canada-british-columbia-securities-commission-investigating-bossteam-e-commerce-inc-amid-ponzi-allega/

    Whoever’s pushing ShareGrowing at the Profitable Sunrise Facebook site is doing so AFTER the warning from North Carolina was posted in the thread.

    Patrick

  3. Quick note: More Facebook boat-sharking on a Profitable Sunrise site.

    One is for “ProfitClicking,” the successor scam to the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid scam purportedly operated by Frederick Mann.

    There’s also something called UPrivateBanking.

    Meanwhile, there’s something called PaidWeeklyGuaranteed, which appears to be an affiliate’s site for TelexFree.

    Patrick

  4. There’s also something called UPrivateBanking.

    Oh, just what the world needs.

    Advertised on the Talkgold HYIP ponzi forum and in “prelaunch”

    “BE PART OF THE PRE-LAUNCH OF THE FIRST WORLD PRIVATE BANKING IN NETWORK MARKETING- Universal Private Banking”

  5. UPrivateBanking has a highly suspicious WHOIS in my eyes. One phone number matches the given address – a FedEx store used by a number of other websites. The other phone number belongs to presbyteryofthejames.org, a religious organization who I suspect would be horrified that they were being used for something that the Scriptures prohibit. And the email account given in said WHOIS, [email protected], is a free email such as one might see on a Nigerian 419 letter.

    All signs from the get-rich-quick gangs point to fraud so far, from where I’m standing.

  6. Thanks for these, LRM and Prof.

    Patrick

  7. Quick note: Now, it’s something called vleaf.biz.

    And something called TriDeci with purported payout proofs from SolidTrustPay, LibertyReserve, and Payza again is being pitched at the Profitable Sunrise Facebook site.

    Patrick

  8. Thursday night at 11pm on WTOL in Toledo OH they will be running a story entitled:Religious rip-off in our own backyard.

    Gee, I wonder who THAT will be about. lol

    I’m pretty sure they’ll post the video Friday on the following site:

    toledonewsnow.com/story/22018604/thursday-on-wtol-11-a-religious-ripoff-in-our-backyard

  9. […] at the RealScam.com antiscam forum, gave PP Blog readers a heads-up on the WTOL report yesterday . . […]

  10. […] Carolina regulators have repeatedly warned about so-called “reload scams,” including scams that surfaced after the SEC alleged in August 2012 that Zeek was a $600 million […]

  11. […] this month, North Carolina issued a warning about “reload scams” aimed at Profitable Sunrise […]