AVG

The website of AdViewGlobal (AVG), an autosurf with close ties to the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, has gone offline. Why AVG’s site was offline was not immediately clear. One person told the PP Blog that the site had been “down for days.” AVG’s domain, which lists a registration address in Uruguay and appears to use [...]

UPDATED 4:51 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A convicted felon who emerged from prison and almost immediately launched a $1 million fraud scheme known as PPSN threatened to prosecute and sue a consumer who had filed an online complaint, federal prosecutors said. Although the threat caused the consumer to withdraw the complaint against Philip Pestrichello, Pestrichello’s bid [...]

UPDATED 12:39 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) An upstart autosurf pushed by members of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme has announced a confusing tweak in a confusing manner. In its announcement, AdPayDaily (APD) quoted 12 words from an attorney — and the quotation did not appear to be on the subject of legality. Rather, it appeared to [...]

The Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Florida Times Union are reporting that three Jacksonville-area residents have been charged in an alleged $425 million fraud scheme involving mass solicitations for the renewal of dubious “Yellow Pages” listings. Separately, the brother of one of the defendants is listed as an international fugitive by the U.S. Postal Inspection [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally was published June 30. The PP Blog later encountered a database problem, which caused the site to go down and resulted in the temporary loss of some data. The data now has been retrieved. This story is about a new site known as “WebsiteTester.biz,” but some background is in order. [...]

An elderly Ponzi schemer who fleeced Catholic priests, parishioners and senior citizens in a long-running scam in Buffalo was aided by a comparatively youthful assistant who was ordered to make the victims whole, federal prosecutors said today. Kathleen Fuoco, 60, of West Seneca, N.Y., pleaded guilty today to misprision of a felony and willful failure [...]

AdPayDaily (APD), an upstart surfing company whose membership includes participants in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and the failed AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, is lecturing members on proper behavior. AVG, which had close ties to ASD, became infamous for scolding members In an unsigned post on its free WordPress Blog, APD, which does not disclose its [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a post in which the introduction is longer than the actual story (below). The story demonstrates the dangers of jumping on bandwagons before giving them careful thought. Longtime readers of the PP Blog will recall our coverage of Curtis Richmond, “Professor” Patrick Moriarty and ASD Members International (ASDMI). Each was a [...]

Dear Readers, We have received a few inquiries about a new surfing program called AdPayDaily (APD). Our initial take is that the program is a dressed-up version of AdSurfDaily, AdViewGlobal, BizAdSplash and AdGateWorld and that the operators are persuaded they’ve found a word combination and legal structure that will neutralize critics and law enforcement should [...]

Longtime readers of the PP Blog may scarcely believe a year has passed since the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf announced a new, offshore wire facilitator — on the same day President Obama announced a crackdown on international fraud. Obama delivered his remarks at 11:37 a.m. By 5:54 p.m., a member of an AVG forum operated by [...]

Sign of the apocalypse? The headquarters of the “3 Hebrew Boys” Ponzi scheme in Columbia, S.C., was gutted in a fire Monday and Tuesday. Firefighters spent 19 hours over two days battling the blaze, but the “building and all contents . . . were completely destroyed,” according to Beattie B. Ashmore. Ashmore is the court-appointed [...]

UPDATED 7:52 A.M. EDT (April 13, U.S.A.) On the very day Tom Petters was sentenced in Minnesota to 50 years in prison for operating a colossal Ponzi scheme, a federal judge froze the assets of Renee Marie Brown after the SEC accused her of ripping off clients by persuading them to invest in a mysterious [...]

The court-appointed receiver in the fraud case against the parent company of the Noobing autosurf has asked a federal judge for the authority to add Noobing to the receivership probe. Larry Cook, the receiver, said that Noobing and 14 other companies under the Affiliate Strategies Inc. (ASI) umbrella have become the subjects of “numerous inquiries” [...]

UPDATED 10:40 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) Federal and state agents have raided the Minneapolis offices of Inter-Mark Corp., seeking evidence of a Ponzi scheme, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis/St. Paul is reporting. Inter-Mark Corp. is operated by Steve Renner, who also operates a purported “advertising” service known as INetGlobal. In a scene that resembled the August 2008 [...]

UPDATED 12:01 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Has the pressure of being challenged on multiple legal fronts led to a split in the extended family of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin? The depths of any split are unclear, and it is believed that Bowdoin has the continued support of some members of the Bowdoin/Harris family. But interviews conducted [...]

UPDATED 5:25 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) KINGZ Capital Management Corp. (KCM) might have been used or contemplated for use as a tool in two far-reaching, incredibly elaborate Ponzi schemes, according to an analysis of public records and other information. One of the schemes ultimately appears to have consumed tens of millions of dollars in a squalid [...]

UPDATED 1:18 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A company that denied any ties to the AdViewGlobal autosurf after AVG listed it as a facilitator of offshore wire transfers has been permanently banned by the National Futures Association (NFA) amid allegations that it failed to uphold high ethical standards and failed to supervise its operations. KINGZ Capital Management [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This list summarizes several programs pushed by members of AdSurfDaily, a Florida company implicated in an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme. In some cases, the programs were pushed prior to the seizure by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008 of 15 bank accounts linked to ASD or Golden Panda Ad Builder, one [...]

Dear Readers, UPDATED 11:50 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) There were reports yesterday that things have become so strange at Florida-based AdSurfDaily that a convicted sex offender has emerged as a sort of PR voice for the company. ASD is implicated by the Department of Justice in a $100 million Ponzi scheme, amid allegations of wire fraud, [...]