Federal Prosecutors Have No Immediate Comment On ‘Achieve Community’ Call In Which Senior Citizen With 86-Year-Old Ailing Husband Was Told, ‘You Are Exactly The Type Of Person That The Achieve Community Is Built Around And For’
3RD UPDATE 11:30 A.M. ET U.S.A. A female senior citizen from the 434 Area Code in South-Central Virginia dialed into a Dec. 10 “Achieve Community” conference call, according to an audio recording of the call playing on YouTube.
She explained that she had a heart condition, that she had trusted in God and joined Achieve and that her 86-year-old husband of 53 years had been “in the hospital for a full year and six months in the nursing home.
“And it took every penny of money that we had and could get together just to be able to pay those bills and live. For four years, we haven’t been living. We’ve been existing. We did not have enough money to pay our bills, to buy medicine, food, gas . . .”
The woman explained that she had been paid by Achieve, had “nowhere to go” and “couldn’t get this kind of return on my money even if I could.”
One of the hosts then said her tale was “very inspiring,” that he hoped things worked out with her husband and that (italics added):
“I think your attitude is absolutely fantastic. You are exactly the type of person that the Achieve Community is built around and for . . .”
Area Code 434 services Lynchburg and other communities in the Western District of Virginia.
The office of U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy of the Western District of Virginia had no immediate comment on the call. The RealScam.com antiscam forum was the first to publish a link to the recording of the call. The PP Blog listened to the call and then contacted Heaphy’s office, which handles the Lynchburg area.
Achieve Community, a money-cycler “program,” may be operating from Michigan. The purported co-founders are Troy Barnes and Kristi Johnson. Achieve enthusiasts Rodney Blackburn and Mike Chitty appear to have been the lead hosts on the call. Johnson briefly was on the line at the beginning of the call.
The call demonstrates that Achieve Community, which purports to be an international company, is driving business in the United States by reaching across state lines. Callers on the Dec. 10 call were identified by their respective Area Codes.
One female caller came on the line from Area Code 615, which serves the Nashville, Tenn., region. Another woman came on the line from Area Code 504, which covers Greater New Orleans in Louisiana. Yet another woman came on the line from Area Code 702, which serves the Las Vegas region in Nevada.
The woman from 702 complained that Achieve, which claims that $50 turns into $400, was being elusive and capricious.
Also on the line was a man who said he was from Baltimore. He raised concerns about problems Achieve had been having after reportedly losing the ability to use the Payoneer payment processor more than a month ago.
Next up was a man from the 347 Area Code in the Greater New York City region. He complained that a “position” purchase he made hadn’t been credited. The elderly woman from 434 described above then came on, followed by a man from the 407 Area Code in the region of Orlando, Fla. The call concluded with a woman from Area Code 718 in the New York City region coming on the line.
Achieve Community targeting is wide, covering twenty-somethings to eighty-somethings. One of the call hosts said Achieve money could be used to build churches, take care of families and pay off student loans.
See the RealScam.com post with the YouTube video attributed to “washable jones,” who may be an antiscam activist.
Also see Dec. 9 report on the PP Blog, plus PP Blog reports on Dec. 7 and Dec. 2 and Nov. 17.
RealScam.com appears to be down right now. This is the YouTube video noted in the story above:
Patrick
Connection timed out, I think they’ve been DDOS bombed.
Quick notes: There is a Facebook post dated today from Kristi Johnson that says, “As you all know, last week I was told our Processors would be ready this week….they are still working on getting us set up. So, it will be next week and as soon as I have a exact date I will let you all know.”
The post also says that “volunteers” for Achieve are helping “to keep our communications going, information shared, our members answered, and our pages positive.”
Longtime PP Blog readers will recall the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008 also relied on purported “volunteers” and that the Zeek Rewards scheme in 2012 had an Achieve-like forum in which nonemployees were handling customer-service issues.
Also, with respect to the conference call noted above: One of the hosts said 500 people were on the call. At least two of the hosts claimed they had multiple “positions” in Achieve — one with 100, the other with 180.
Some of the info is disjointed, but appears to suggest that a downline club put 2,000 members in Achieve. Achieve says it has 13,000 members. People in that downline club might have a lot riding on new entrants or new money coming into Achieve.
Patrick
But the “good news” is that you can still send them money, you just can’t get paid. So another week of accepting payments but not having to worry about paying anyone. And there is still no guarantee that the payment processor will be named next week. My bet is they won’t as they have to get past Christmas before paying out anything. Unless they do a Banners Broker and make a huge payout and then nothing for the next 2 years of promises, promises.
Can you imagine the number of payments they will have to make when they do finally get a payment processor on board? It will make this sink faster than the Titanic. The members have no clue how great the liabilities are in Achieve and how it is impossible for them to pay everyone what they are due. I wouldn’t be surprised if Troy and Kristi are already planning their escape.
There is going to be a lot of crying, screaming, gnashing of teeth, moaning, anger about to explode when this goes down.
That’s the epitome of the disgusting underbelly of the Ponzi/pyramid “business”. The crooks running the SCAMS and the players addicted to this crap like to believe that that woman “understands the risks”.
SD
.
Hello SD,
The woman with the heart condition and the ailing husband did not seem even to know that Troy Barnes was not on the line. The hosts had to correct her.
So, we have an elderly woman with a sick husband and financial troubles in an 800 percent “program” with a purported proprietary “triple algorithm” that not even the call hosts could explain.
This type of thing reminds me of the circuitous nature and the targeting of the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid scam. A woman identified as Ping called into a call.
As we reported in 2012:
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Equally compellingly — in a JSS/JBP conference call Thursday — a distressed woman who said her name was “Ping” implied she was ill with a serious heart condition, was managing three JSS/JBP accounts that had been hacked a month ago and said her “sister borrowed on her house [to] put money in JBP.”
“I need, Mr. Mann, I beg your lifesaving help,” Ping said to Frederick Mann.
Ping recited her ticket number multiple times and asked Mann to intervene personally in her case because JSS/JBP customer support had been unresponsive for weeks.
Mann said, “Well, ah, one of our support staff will check it out.”
But what Mann said was not what Ping wanted to hear.
“Yes, but it has been one month and no one — I told them my situation, I told them my life was on [the] line. But help is so slow. Could you please take my case?”
At that point, JSS/JBP’s female conference-call host — “Dale” — intervened in an apparent bid to reassure the panicked woman that the “opportunity,” which advertises a daily return that corresponds to an annualized return of 730 percent, would look into her case. But Ping, who’d been panting and said she had made a recent trip to “the ER,” either did not hear what “Dale” was saying or was not satisfied that her complaint had been heard and would be escalated and resolved.
“Dale” then became agitated at Ping’s persistence.
“Ping, yes,” Dale barked. “We’re gonna try to handle that on this end. OK?”
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Source: https://patrickpretty.com/2012/06/02/jss-triplerjustbeenpaid-touted-on-race-baitingcatholic-bashing-site-pitchman-linked-to-church-that-says-it-preaches-true-gospel-of-the-risen-lord-jesus-christ-to-white-raced-peoples-of-north/
Patrick
Love achieve community????
If that’s love, I hate to see what hate looks like.
this is a leak from the private facebook forum from someone named cecilia
If you guys click on Todd’s link, all it is, is a stupid website made with cheap templates from a nobody. This is the third time I’ve seen these cheap ass blogger’s site trying to bring down Achieve and other members saying that the feds are gonna shut down Achieve because it’s a ponzi. In fact I bet some of these bloggers purchased a position just to come in here an and spy. I saw a blogger that goes by the name of Patrick Pretty, who talked a bunch of crap on his site and made a transcript and had a link of the Achieve conference call that was held Wednesday night, on 12/17/14. I bet that dude is in here right now spying on us. The link to his site has also been blocked by FB. I was trying to put patrickprettydotcom in a chat and I got the red print warning that the link is blocked and could not be used in the chat. Patrick is just a hater. I really do hope he reads this.
lol. If they are legit, what are they worried about? They are their own give away that something is wrong in their own activities.
The “hater” talking point has gotten a lot of play over the years.
For a short list of the various deflections, see the “Ponzi Buzzword Bingo” post by Tony H. on Jan. 16, 2009:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/01/15/breaking-news-more-asd-connected-assets-seized-bowdoin-blamed-company-troubles-on-russian-hackers/comment-page-1/#comment-267
Patrick
Paranoia, Whip. They seriously think people are out to get them. :) (There are, but it’s not us)
Back in 2009, the pro-AdSurfDaily “Surf’s Up” site had “poof” policy about links to the PP Blog’s coverage of the ASD Ponzi scheme. It was all about enforcing rigid thinking and keeping the forum “safe” from those who’d challenge ASD.
Memory Lane:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/05/19/patrick-pretty-poof-penalty-plagues-portal-posters/
Patrick
Quick note: Found out yesterday that, in the Liberty Reserve prosecution, the Feds have a nice screen shot of the JSS/JBP website — and also the websites of the ProfitClicking and Royalty7 scams.
From a Dec. 9 court filing by the Feds:
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Similarly, HYIP-style Ponzi schemes are typically easy to discern, based on their unexplained promises of impossible profits, and their insistence on receiving investments in the form of Liberty Reserve or other anonymous digital currencies with “no chargeback” policies in the event a customer complains of being defrauded.
Several examples of HYIP sites listed among the top 20 traffic-generating sites in Liberty Reserve’s Google Analytics data are attached as Exhibit H, and illustrate the point. One, for instance, “justbeenpaid.com,” promises users the ability to “Earn 2% per Day or 60% per Month” and “Use Daily Compounding to Increase Your Earnings.” (Ex. H). Another, “royalty7.com,” promises an “amazing 154% monthly ROI [return on investment] over the long term.” (Id.). A third, “profitclicking.com,” promises users they can “Start with Just $10 and Turn It into a Fortune”; all they have to do, the site indicates, is “Click on three websites a day and Receive Your Generous Daily Commissions.” (Id.).
At the very least, any person of reasonable sophistication would realize, as Marmilev admits he did, that such websites had a “high probability of being fraudulent.”
_____________________________________
Related story:
https://patrickpretty.com/2014/12/13/feds-liberty-reserve-figure-mark-marmilev-shilled-on-talkgold-ponzi-forum-and-also-hired-shills-to-do-so-memo-speaks-to-vast-wasteland-of-online-criminality/
Also see:
http://www.realscam.com/f43/liberty-reserve-owner-arrested-charged-money-laundering-website-offline-2344/index9.html#post79208
Patrick
OMG!! HATERS MAKE US FAMOUS …loL Yes Achieve members are making money , nobody loss money in the Achieve.
“Hater” seems to be the selected word used by the “believers” against anyone who doesn’t sing the praises of Troy, Kristi and Achieve. Of course I was labeled a “hater” for my exposing this Ponzi at MMG. Makes me wonder if lilbit at MMG is Cecilia? She loves to use the “hater” label for anyone who dares to question or expose Achieve.
What is truly remarkable is that Troy and Kristi will not name the processor even though they say it is a done deal. Just because they haven’t worked out all the links doesn’t mean they can’t name the processor, yet the faithful haven’t figured this out yet. Now what is really going to be interesting is if Troy and Kristi do not name the processor this week as promised. Hmm, seems they have broken that promise twice before, so why not a third time?
There are cracks in the foundation, and many members are starting to question Troy and Kristi’s statements and excuses. Not sitting well with the faithful at all. Thus the “haters” label attached to everyone not toeing the line with the Achieve mantra. Needless to say this week is going to be very interesting for Achieve, Troy and Kristi.
The Achieve Community it’s turn to SCAM :D
becuase The New Payment Processor !
it’s Unreliable !
So i think no one got paid !
and i’m contact with Payoneer Coustmer Service !
and he tell me !
Troy Barnes Canclled Work with us !
not Payoneer Canclled Work with Troy Barnes !
so we Now Show Real SCAM :D
Interesting. But the **more** likely explanation is Payoneer start to jack up the fees saying “you have so much chargebacks, you have to pay more fees and we have to audit you”, and Barnes said “you ask too many questions, f*** you” and pulled out.
Only Barnes and whoever will know for rea, of course.
Well, Kristi gave her update today, but alas they still cannot name the payment processor. You can bet your assets that they are scrambling to find one. There is no reason why they can’t name the payment processor, especially if they are accepting money. Hopefully the faithful will now wake up and realize this is over.
OK. In the video above from the Dec. 10 conference call, Rodney Blackburn says this: “[Kristi], of course, gives me some insight that she doesn’t give other people.”
Now he’s backing away from that, apparently after creating heat for himself and Kristi by suggesting he has access to information the Achieve rank-and-file does not. (See video below.) He also seems to be apologizing for not properly supporting Achieve “admins” who are banning or otherwise clashing with Achieve posters who stray from the company line.
It’s hard to tell precisely what he’s apologizing for, given that he says, “I just wanted to clarify a few things and apologize, if anything I said was taken out of context or misconstrued.”
In the context of his remarks, it also seems as though some of the Achievers thought Rodney was trying to direct traffic away from the Achieve support system and cherry-pick Achievers for other programs through something called “Legendary Income Solutions Team” or LIST.
He wouldn’t do that, Rodney says.
On a side note, back in 2011 or so, Rodney apparently was interested in the Iraqi dinar and “interviewed” a mystery man who used the handle “Contact 2.”
As is the case in many HYIP scams, Contact 2 appears to have adopted the tactic of trying to attract an audience by hitching his wagon to conspiracy theories. Or, as one wag put it, “babbl[ing] on and on for a couple of hours spouting off nonsense drawing from every conspiracy theory known to man over the past 40 years.”
In the recorded call (below), the Contact 2 conspiracy theories fly so fast it’s hard to get a handle on it all. One of them seems to be that 9/11 was at least in part an effort to cover up an earlier U.S./Israel scheme by which Chinese-owned gold stored in the World Trade Center had been systematically and secretly removed four pallets at a time via transfers to garbage trucks, which in turn transferred it to ocean-bound garbage scows.
If I’m following things correctly, the scows never really went out into the ocean. Instead they went up the Hudson River. The gold was hidden somewhere in New York state and then transferred to Russian-built jets, which flew across the United States. Unseen crews then offloaded the gold and hid it in an old military barracks in the Mojave Desert.
“Keep in mind, the whole reason for that issue of 9/11 was to hide the theft of $43 trillion in gold,” Contact 2 told Rodney.
It’s hard to get a handle on all the conspiracy theories Contact 2 advanced that day. Get your vomit bucket ready:
http://www.spirit.kauwila.net/iqd/110131_GET_call_rodney_and_contact_2.mp3
A Blog known as “Dinar Douchebags” chronicled some of the dinar figures. Rodney, according to the Blog, was on “The GET Team.”
http://dinardouchebags.blogspot.com/2011/09/pumpers.html
Patrick
With respect to this LIST downline group: I’m not sure how the Achieve rank-and-file who’ve never been in a “program” such as Achieve could ever be satisfied that things were on the up-and-up if LIST members control — as the Dec. 10 call suggests — 2,000 (or even more) Achieve “positions.”
New money has to flow to the scheme for those positions to pay out, so it’s in LIST members’ interests to keep leading cheers and overlook the markers of a scam in progress.
As for Rodney’s individual cheerleading efforts, it looks as though he is expecting an Achieve payout of nearly $90,000 from his positions. If new money stops or a payment processor isn’t lined up, his expected haul is at risk.
I’d say Rodney isn’t exactly a disinterested person.
Patrick
“removed four pallets at a time via transfers to garbage trucks, which in turn transferred it to ocean-bound garbage scows.
If I’m following things correctly, the scows never really went out into the ocean. Instead they went up the Hudson River.”
Wasn’t this the plot to the third ‘Die Hard’ movie?
There appear to be some similarities:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Hard_with_a_Vengeance
Patrick
Quick notes: Achieve Community now appears to be claiming it’s about the “products,” not the “positions.”
Zeek and TelexFree claimed the same thing, of course.
From an update tonight attributed to Kristi Johnson:
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Regarding the payout processor – we are waiting on their coding (how they want you to sign up with them), then we do the processing (integrating that to our system), test it, and I give you the instructions for signing up. That can take a couple of days, and I’ll let you know where we are as we go.
There were also some questions about how our program works. Our matrix moves by positions, not time. You can hear more about that in our videos on the website and read more in our FAQ on the website.
The simple explanation is this – the more products purchased, the more people move through the matrix and get paid. Even though we are waiting on our processors to be completed, the purchases are sending positions through the matrix and the funds are just waiting for them with our merchants accounts.
________________________________________
Patrick
The operator had told everyone that the Global Cash Card was about to be mailed out. But today’s update, we see this is not so:
Sunday Update
Kristi Johnson
January 4 2015
Hello Achieve Community!
I have some bad news for the Community. GCC is not going to work with us after all, and that is not the worst of it. We have to restructure our Achieve organization. I don’t know yet what that will mean entirely, until I speak with my lawyers tomorrow. All I can tell you is that I fully intend to have us up and running again as soon as possible and that I know there are many options for doing this. But at this point I need expert advice and I’m not going to guess at what that will be. Instead I’ll let you know when I have real information about what this is going to take and how long it will take.
I know that Achieve is not going anywhere, no matter what we have to do – and you will know what our future will be as the solutions are put into place.
There is a lot of work for me to do….I’m very sorry I can’t just be online and talk with all of you….but this restructure needs my full attention now.
Nothing is going to stop me. This Community is changing the world and we aren’t going to let a few set backs stop that.
More tomorrow….
And there is now a Facebook page for Achieve postings. https://www.facebook.com/NonOfficialAchieveCommunity
Thanks!