Noobing

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” from [...]

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 [...]

A court-appointed receiver has described the accounting records of Affiliate Strategies Inc. (ASI) as a mess, saying “an opinion on the accuracy of these records is not possible without an extensive audit that would require significant additional costs.”
ASI is the parent company of the Noobing autosurf, which targeted deaf people in sales promotions. ASI and [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: “Carolyn,” the subject of this story, is deaf. She uses a videophone and a human interpreter. The interpreter served as Carolyn’s voice for the interview, translating the Blog’s questions for Carolyn and her responses.

Here, now, the story . . .
A 64-year-old California woman — “Carolyn” — said she lost $5,300 in the Noobing [...]

All that glitters was not gold in the seedy world of Gold Quest International (GQI), according to the receiver in the GQI Ponzi scheme case.
Corrupt money was given to a ministry in the form of a gift, and other corrupt money is part of a homicide investigation in Los Angeles, according to court filings.
Receiver Larry [...]

UPDATED Jan. 20, 2010: Sale. Price of Single-User License for “Rebates Aren’t Guaranteed” lowered to $9.88.
Dear Readers,
We are pleased today to release, “Rebates Aren’t Guaranteed: The True Story Of Ponzi Deceptions And Myths In The Criminal Autosurf ‘Industry.’”
Belong to an autosurf? Thought about joining one? Think they’re harmless?
Think again. “Rebates Aren’t Guaranteed” reveals some [...]

A federal judge has given the go-ahead to a court-appointed receiver to sell the assets of Affiliate Strategies Inc. (ASI), the parent company of the Noobing autosurf.
U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson of the District of Kansas approved the plan submitted by receiver Larry Cook. The plan authorizes Cook to sell the assets in auction [...]

Dear Readers,
From time to time I publish a post in letter form. This usually happens when a post in story, editorial or essay form does not seem appropriate. This is one of those times.
Honestly, just how strange could things get in Ponzi Land?
Ponzi Land, which relatively few people outside of law enforcement even knew existed [...]

Assets of the parent company of an autosurf firm that targeted customers with hearing impairments would be sold at auction — up to and including a stainless-steel wastebasket in the women’s restroom, according to a plan proposed by the receiver in the case against Affiliate Strategies Inc. (ASI) and other companies.
ASI is the parent company [...]

The head of the Federal Trade Commission told a Senate panel yesterday that a firm associated with the Noobing autosurf embarked on a scheme to sell a $59 book and then used a telemarketing company to upsell customers to an expensive program that fraudulently sold “guaranteed” government grants from economic-stimulus funds.
“Just last week, some of [...]

UPDATED 2:11 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A company associated with the Noobing autosurf charged a 70-year-old Philadelphia man on Social Security $995 for the names and addresses of three entities that possibly could help him secure a grant to repair his rapidly deteriorating home, according to the receiver in the fraud case against Affiliate Strategies Inc., [...]

A receiver appointed to review financial records of Affiliate Strategies Inc. and related companies named defendants in a fraudulent government-grants scheme last month advised a federal judge that the companies were insolvent and had less than one day’s operating cash requirements in their bank accounts.
Astonishingly, receiver Larry Cook advised U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson [...]

Larry Cook, the receiver in the Federal Trade Commission case against Affiliate Strategies Inc., Brett Blackman and several co-defendants, has started a website to inform interested parties.
Visit the receiver’s website in the ASI case.
The FTC said the defendants were involved in a fraudulent scheme that promised “guaranteed” grants of $25,000 from economic-stimulus funds provided by [...]

A receiver has been appointed in the case against Affiliate Strategies Inc. (ASI) and Brett Blackman, ASI’s president, chief executive officer and founding partner. Noobing, a surfing site, is in the ASI fold, but has not been named a defendant.
Regardless, the Noobing site is offline. A federal judge has granted a freeze of ASI’s assets. [...]

UPDATED 10:48 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The Noobing surf site is throwing a server error and will not resolve. The development came in the aftermath of a Federal Trade Commission complaint filed late last month against Brett Blackman and others, although Noobing was not named in the FTC complaint.
On July 24, a federal judge froze Blackman’s [...]

UPDATED 3:44 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.)
Topic: In their response to an Andy Bowdoin pleading, federal prosecutors yesterday pointedly referred to ASD  insiders as Bowdoin “associates” and “confederates.”
Is it a signal?
Topic: Shad Foss, whom the receiver in the CEP Ponzi scheme case views as a Ponzi promoter worthy of pursuing for clawbacks, sent an email in [...]

Ning.com sites by David Courtney that promoted autosurfs have been taken offline without explanation. It is unclear if the removal is permanent, but sites for MegaLido, AdGateWorld and BizAdSplash went offline last night and remain offline this morning.
“This social network has been taken offline by its owner,” each site said. “It’s likely that the owner [...]

UPDATE 2:49 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) At a gathering of creditors today, Irving Picard, the trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, said he could find no evidence that Madoff even purchased securities for customers in the past 13 years. Cash came in — and immediately went out — to sustain the Ponzi, [...]

UPDATE 9:08 A.M. EST (FEB. 19 U.S.A.) After having gone missing yesterday, entries below “Noobing Rotator’s Top Rated Sites” on Noobing’s main page have returned. But previous entries for Rachel Ray, the Red Cross, Omaha Steaks and OrganicConsumers no longer are there. Here, below, our earlier post . . .
Controversial surf site Noobing has removed [...]