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Tag: The Achieve Community

UPDATE: Competing Cycler Advertised Inside ‘Achieve Community’ Forum Collapsed At Launch Yesterday

This ad (see top of screen shot) for “Cycles 24/7,” a Ponzi-board “program,” appears in the Achieve Community forum. Source: YouTube promo for Achieve.

UPDATED 2:12 P.M. ET U.S.A. A competing cycler advertised inside the supposedly private “Achieve Community” forum and promoted on the MoneyMakerGroup forum collapsed at launch yesterday, triggering a classic uproar among willfully blind Ponzi-board scammers.

The name of the cycler is Cycles 24/7. The PP Blog learned of the “program” only because Achieve promoter Mike Chitty recorded an Achieve commercial and posted it on YouTube on Dec. 15. Chitty’s Achieve promo shows a banner ad for Cycles 24/7 inside the Achieve forum, raising the specter that the unknown individual who posted the banner is an Achieve member promoting another scam.

The ads inside the Achieve forum will show “different things that keep coming out,” Chitty said in his video. The ad for Cycles 24/7 claims, “Non Stop Earning For Everyone[.] JUST LAUNCHED[.] Automated Hybrid Straight Line Cycler[.] Turn $10 Into $30 or Turn $50 Into $400[.] Receive $1.00 or $5.00 Bonus[.] JOIN NOW!”

Cycles 24/7 appears to have made its debut Dec. 10 on MoneyMakerGroup. With a prefunding period and a launch set for yesterday, the Cycles 24/7 server appears first to have showed to a crawl and then collapsed, triggering questions about whether a scamming “admin” had fled with the cash or was merely incompetent when choosing a hosting platform.

Ponzi forum legend “Ken Russo,” formerly of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme and many others, apparently was not amused. “Just sent a support ticket with my refund request,” the huckster wrote at MoneyMakerGroup. “If it is not honored I will file a dispute with [Solid Trust Pay]. Just went through this with the AdBubbler fiasco!”

Although the Cycles 24/7 website appears to be back online today, this message appears: “CYCLES 24/7 is relaunching soon!”

Another Ponzi-board post claims “Rick Fleming” is the “admin” of the program. Cycles 24/7 members, according to a MoneyMakerGroup post, received an email that read (italics added):

Good day All C247 Members,

You will notice that my FB account has been suspended and reported by one of the members of Cycles24/7 group.

This is too personal and unprofessional behaviour to an admin who is offering a genuine and life changing opportunity online.

We can’t find any programs out there that Cycles 24/7 is offering to the members – instant payout, no preloaded positions to name a few.

Cycles 24/7 members will expect transparency, honest and fair play at all times.

The reason I am not showing you my photos is I am protecting myself and my family for possible threat or extortion.

Involving in the money making program will always have risk despite of good intentions that you will bring to the members there are still others you can’t please.

Cycles 24/7 was well plan and offering a generous compensation plan to the members. Admin only earn from 10% commissions every cycled position, other than that the remaining money is always given to the member’s position cycling out.

Let’s continue remain positive and hope this will not affect the success of Cycles 24/7.

The FB Group will remain open with the help of hardworking admins. All future updates will be send through our newsletter.

Kind Regards,

Rick Fleming

Chitty hosted an Achieve conference call last week with fellow Achiever Rodney Blackburn that revealed one or more senior citizens were Achieve members. Blackburn, a onetime Iraqi dinar enthusiast, now has backed away from certain claims he made during the call, although he still claims Achieve is a great “program.”

In his Dec. 15 YouTube promo, Chitty identities himself with the “Legendary Income Solutions Team” and asserts that “once those [Achieve payment] processors get in and we get everybody locked into the system, I really feel like — and this is a personal feeling; I’m not trying to make any forecasts for the Achieve Community itself — but the way I saw it before and the way I’m seeing it now, when that processor gets locked in, guys, hang on. Because we’re gonna blow up. And it’s gonna go absolutely insane again. Be ready. Have a repurchase plan.”

Achieve, which purportedly turns $50 into $400 and enables participants to buy multiple $50 “positions,” reportedly lost its ability more than a month ago to do business through Payoneer. An ad for Payza as shown on the Achieve forum also appeared in Chitty’s Dec. 15 promo, although it is unclear if Achieve is moving to Payza. The court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme case said in an Oct. 30, 2014, report to the court that he is continuing his “investigation and pursuit of outstanding funds from Payza” and other processors used by Zeek, including SolidTrustPay.

Some Achieve members reportedly have grumbled or expressed concerns that anti-Achieve “spies” may be reading posts in the private forum. Chitty’s Dec. 15 video, however, shows that Achievers themselves may be creating leaks.

From the video alone, the PP Blog was able to see multiple thread titles inside the forum and posts by some individual Achieve members.

Dec 17, 2014
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Nicholas Smirnow, Pathway To Prosperity HYIP Ponzi Figure, Arrested At Airport In Canada

Nicholas Smirnow. Source: INTERPOL Wanted notice.

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (6th update 9:35 p.m. ET U.S.A.) Nicholas Smirnow, still listed by INTERPOL as a person wanted by the United States in the alleged Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) HYIP Ponzi scheme that affected people in 120 countries, has been arrested at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Canadian media outlets are reporting.

U.S. federal prosecutors charged Smirnow, believed now to be 56 or 57, in 2010. He has been listed by INTERPOL since that time.

CTV News, via the Canadian Press, is reporting that U.S. authorities are aware of the arrest. Smirnow also has been charged with crimes in Canada.

P2P was an instance of international mass-marketing fraud, U.S. authorities said in 2010. Though large for its time in the 2008 to 2010 time frame after allegedly gathering more than $70 million and affecting 40,000 investors, P2P since has been eclipsed in dollar volume and victims count by other mass-marketing fraud schemes such as Zeek Rewards and TelexFree.

Professor James E. Byrne, an HYIP expert consulted by the U.S. government in the P2P case, said in 2010 that “the investment scheme described in the materials that I have reviewed are not legitimate but resemble and are classic instances of so-called high yield frauds and fraudulent pyramid schemes. The proposed returns are excessive for even the most risky legitimate investments and are simply preposterous for investments whose principal is supposedly guaranteed.”

From Byrne’s P2P analyis (italics added):

The funds are turned over to the investment and “earn” returns that range from 1.5% daily for a 7 day plan Plus the return of the initial investment to 2.67% daily for a 60 day plan or 160.2% plus the return of the initial investment. The weekly returns on the 7 day investment would amount to approximately 540% per year without taking into account the principal and the 60 day plan would return approximately 950% annualized.

Like many HYIP schemes before and after, P2P had a presence on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Both forums are referenced in P2P-related court filings. TalkGold got a mention last week in the Liberty Reserve money-laundering case.

Like current schemes with a Ponzi-board presence such as “Achieve Community,” the P2P tentacles spread far and wide and sucked in vulnerable people such as senior citizens. From a PP Blog story on May 31, 2010 (italics/bolding added):

The scheme was almost unimaginably widespread, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said in an affidavit.

“Financial records of payment processors utilized by P-2-P to collect investment funds from investors show that approximately 40,000 investors in 120 countries established accounts with P-2-P,” a postal inspector said. “Despite the fact that the investment was supposedly ‘guaranteed, investors lost approximately $70 million as a result of [Smirnow’s] actions.”

The probe began when the U.S. government received a referral from the Illinois Securities Department “concerning an elderly Southern District of Illinois resident who had made a substantial investment in P-2-P,” the postal inspector said in the affidavit.

“In addition to P-2-P’s own website, I discovered that P-2-P’s investment scheme was marketed on other websites, including High Yield Investment Program forums, which I was able to access directly through the internet,” the inspector said.

Before long, the inspector determined that the scheme cost investors losses in 48 of the 50 U.S. states, and 18 of the 38 counties that comprise the Southern District of Illinois, prosecutors said.

Such penetration in Illinois may suggest Smirnow had a promotional arm in the state. The complaint spells out a case against conspirators “known and unknown,” and the complaint notes that family members told other family members about the scheme.

“When P-2-P’s funds were depleted and when investors did not receive a return of their funds as they had been promised, [Smirnow] caused a posting on P-2-P’s private forum warning investors not to complain to payment processors about P-2-P’s failure to return their money or they would find themselves ‘on the outside looking in,’” prosecutors charged.

The postal inspector has spoken to “hundreds of P-2-P investors” during the course of the investigation, according to court filings.

“Hundreds [of people] sent me copies of printouts they had made of P-2-P’s website, postings that had been made on the P-2-P’s members forum, and internet sites touting high yield investment programs which contained postings related to P-2-P,” the postal inspector said.

With “Achieve Community,” promoters claim that $50 turns into $400 in three months or less. Participants are encouraged to roll over profits.

Achieve Community promoters have published extrapolations that show “earnings” in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even the millions of dollars.

Dec 16, 2014
SPECIAL REPORT: We’re Like ‘A Ride At Disney World,’ Achieve Community Cycler Bizarrely Claims
From a YouTube promo for “The Achieve Community.”

UPDATED 11:39 A.M. ET DEC. 12 U.S.A. In its latest effort to expand its reality-distortion field, “The Achieve Community” money-cycling “program” that tells prospects a $50 “position” increases by a factor of eight and turns into $400 in a few months (or even in as few as 55 days) has compared itself to The Walt Disney Co.

Achieve represents both a “micro” and a “macro” scheme. Although participants can buy a single “position” for $50, they also can buy multiple “positions” for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, according to promos. At least one promo contends that 200 “positions” can be purchased 100 at a time in two separate transactions of $5,000 each. If this proves to be the case either in the past or in the future, the crime of structuring transactions to evade bank-reporting requirements could be on the table.

Structuring is an element in the prosecution of figures associated with the eAdGear network-marketing “program” shut down by the SEC in September. Allegations of structuring also appear in civil filings by the Massachusetts Securities Division against TelexFree network-marketing figures in April. TelexFree now is in bankruptcy court, with prosecutors calling it a massive Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.

The specific Achieve Community analogy noted in the headline and lede above is to Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Even more specifically, it is to the rides at Disney World and the purported “hours” it takes to board one of them.

From a Dec. 8 “Monday Night Update” post on the Achieve Community Blog credited to co-founder Kristi Johnson (italics added):

I want to explain a bit more about how we work for the benefit of those new members . . . and thanks goes to Sheila once again for this wonderful analogy.

Think of Achieve as a ride at Disney World. You get in line for the ride and it can takes [sic] hours! But it’s always moving, just like our matrix. And finally you get to the ride (the matrix) and it’s over in a few minutes! It may take a few months to hit our matrix, and once you get there you’ll be paid within days on all three levels. Then you can take the ride again!

Here’s our initial take on the claims:
- From a YouTube promo for Achieve Community.
  
  If you submit to this bollocks and think of Achieve as a ride at Disney World, you’re as out of touch as the Achieve organizers and some of their professional hucksters want you to be. Wake. Up. Now.
- If you choose to remain in a network-marketing-induced Stepfordian trance, expect that a sudden desire to embrace every conspiracy theory under the sun will come next. If that happens, you’d better hope the BBC’s “Sunday Politics” program hosted by Andrew Neil never gives you the Alex Jones treatment.
- You also might starting hearing, “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”
- Lines indeed can be long at Disney World. (But there’s a free app for that.)
- Disney doesn’t sell $50 cycler tickets and tell parents and starry-eyed kids that those tickets pay not only for the ride, but also will convert to $400 cash before fall takes over from summer. And Disney also doesn’t encourage parents and kids waiting in lines to plunk down another $50 (or more) as a means of fetching another $400 (or more) before winter takes over from fall. Moreover, unlike Achieve, Disney does not operate a cycler. The New York Stock Exchange would go apoplectic if Disney or its fans took to the web to claim purchases and repurchases of “positions” set the stage for $50 to morph into more than $1.6 million.
- If Disney did what Achieve is doing, its operating revenue of nearly $49 billion in 2014 would translate into a liability of nearly $392 billion, creeping up on a hole of almost half-a-trillion dollars.
- As a great American company, Disney wouldn’t dare do what Achieve Community is doing — for the same reasons Google wouldn’t do what the AdSurfDaily “advertising” scam was doing in 2008 and eBay wouldn’t do what the Zeek Rewards “auction” scam was doing in 2012.
Cyclers such as the one operated by Achieve Community are among the Internet’s oldest forms of the Ponzi scheme. Because the fraud is so old — and because cycler carcasses litter cyberspace — cyclers have sought new and better ways to dupe the public. Internal mechanics and entry points may vary from $10 to hundreds of dollars. Recruiting may or may not be required, and there may be talk of “algorithms” or “secret algorithms.” Achieve purportedly has a proprietary “triple algorithm.”

Ever hear of the Regenesis 2×2 matrix-cycler scam in 2009? The U.S. Secret Service did — and kept a Dumpster under surveillance to gather evidence. Material seized in the case, according to court records, included envelopes containing credit cards, debit cards and financial statements; 13 Priority Mail envelopes and 10 First Class Mail envelopes; and various computers, computer equipment and business records.

Federal agents investigating now-shuttered Regenesis said they found the personal financial records of customers in the Dumpster, plus complaint faxes sent by customers and a letter from a law firm complaining about false, misleading and deceptive advertising.

As is the case now with Achieve Community, Regenesis promoters took to the web with reports of getting paid. Getting paid, however, is not proof that no scam exists. In 2010, promoters of the MPB Today cycler scam took to the web with “payment proofs” that were even crisper than the Regenesis “proofs.”

MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun later was sentenced to a term in a Florida state prison.

Despite “payment proofs” that appeared online, the MPB Today cycler was a scam that put its operator in prison.

From an Achieve Community promo for a purported “repurchase” plan that turns $50 into “ANY amount you wish!”

In HYIP Cycler Land, the much ballyhooed matrices move only when new money flows to a scheme, assuming the matrices even exist and further assuming an early entrant (or even a later one) doesn’t try to blackmail an operator by mixing a threat to go to the police with a demand for hush money or a selective payout.

Is it any wonder that Vimeo has banned “videos pertaining to multi-level marketing (MLM), affiliate programs, get-rich-quick schemes, cash gifting, work-from-home gigs, or similar ventures?” Also not permitted on Vimeo are “rips of movies, music, television, or any other third party copyrighted material.”

Members of WCM777, a network-marketing “program” taken down by the SEC earlier this year after money was channeled to all kinds of secret businesses, found ways to work images of Sylvester Stallone and the music and imagery of the “Rocky” franchise into their scam. In 2010, promoters of the MPB Today “program” wrapped the music of Heart into their sales appeals. “Guaranteed No Scam,” one promo read in part.

This could in part explain why Vimeo appears to return no search results for “The Achieve Community.” It’s heartening, but the great MLM/network-marketing ripoffs on YouTube continue — from pitches for obvious scams to piracy of music and video content. At least one promo for Achieve Community appropriates virtually the entire soundtrack of a recording of “You Raise Me Up” by Celtic Woman.

And, hell, why not make a commercial for Achieve Community at an ATM provided by an FDIC-insured bank to sanitize your scam?

In 2011, a now-missing cycler known as AutoXTen came out of the gate with a message of “Turn $10 into $199,240.” The purported opportunity was appropriate for “churches,” according to a sales pitch. AutoXTen debuted even as the state of Oregon was investigating a cycler and ordering sanctions totaling $345,000 against a pitchman. That “program” was known as “InC,” for “I need cash.”

Is Traditional MLM Fighting Back?

Though he doesn’t reference Achieve Community in a video posted Nov. 29 on YouTube, network-marketing veteran Eric Worre of NetworkMarketingPro.com laments all the “lazy . . . MLM online idiots in the marketplace.”

“There’s too many, and it’s causing too much damage,” Worre says, noting the MLM ban at Vimeo and “boorish stuff” from MLMers “on any of the [social media] platforms.”

“It’s out of control. It doesn’t work, and it’s causing tremendous damage,” Worre says.

Nine days later came the preposterous Achieve Community analogy to Disney — this after Achieve reportedly had lost its original payment processor but went scouting for new ones, plus an offshore company to process credit cards. Purchasing and repurchasing of “positions” reportedly opened back up last week with a new card processor at the helm, but payouts to participants reportedly have not resumed.

Not to worry, Achieve Community says.

“When our Payout Processor is added next week,” the enterprise said Dec. 5 in a Blog post titled Friday Update, “we will be paying members who joined September 12th and will start paying out nearly $500,000.00 to our members.”

If those payouts materialize, they will come after a payout halt of more than a month and after Achieve Community apparently found an offshore company to provide a merchant account that permitted it to take credit cards for the acquisition of matrix “positions.” In other words, Achieve started collecting “new” money and now publicly announces a plan to pay “old” members who were due to be paid in early November for “positions” taken out on Sept. 12.

That, friends, is what Ponzi schemes do. More than that, it’s an indicator that Achieve was racking up a liability of $400 for every $50 it took in and was at least technically insolvent when Payoneer — its previous payment processor — reportedly pulled out weeks ago. Solving an insolvency condition by lining up new vendors to rekindle cashflow is one of the oldest tricks in the HYIP Ponzi books.

The Achieve Community Disney analogy makes no sense at all — except perhaps in that uber-bizarre, network-marketing way.

That the Disney comparison came on a Monday night is particularly rich. That’s because ESPN, part of the Disney Media Group, was getting ready to televise Monday Night Football. Even as ESPN was doing that, other Disney brands such as ABC (and ABC News) were broadcasting to the world. At the same time, the Walt Disney Studios was engaged in movie production, and Disney Consumer Products and Disney Interactive were doing what they do.

With Achieve, it’s only the upstart cycler and the hidden matrix positioned to be miraculous. What a racket!

Disney stock closed yesterday at $93.80, up a humble 4 cents. The iconic brand is a Dow and S&P 500 component, but it’s easy enough to imagine the Achievers saying, “Four cents! Only 4 cents! Better join Achieve!”

Did we mention the app for those Disney World lines?
Dec 9, 2014
‘The Achieve Community’ Promoter Records Commercial At ATM In Hawaii; YouTube Text Promo Claims Achieve A ‘True Lifetime Income Plan!’

From a promo for ‘The Achieve Community’ playing on YouTube.

UPDATED 10:42 A.M. ET DEC. 11 U.S.A. Promoters of the MPBToday network-marketing scam recorded promos at FDIC-insured banks and inside Wal-Mart stores to sanitize the outrageous “program’s” fraud scheme in 2010.

In 2013, MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun was sentenced to a term in Florida state prison on a racketeering charge. MPBToday operated a cycler in which it was claimed a $200 purchase could result in free groceries and gasoline for life.

Now, a promoter of “The Achieve Community” cycler has recorded a commercial at an ATM of an FDIC-insured bank in Hawaii. The 0:51 promo is posted on YouTube and is titled, “Proof that my Payoneer debit card from the Achieve Community works!”

Achieve appears to have lost its ability to gather money through Payoneer only days later, although it is unclear whether the ATM video played any role.

Some promoters have positioned Achieve as a retirement plan. Others have claimed payouts are guaranteed and that no one has to sell anything.

In 2013, a promoter of the Banners Broker “program” told a British newspaper that he had a plan to withdraw Banners Broker cash at a NatWest ATM and then deposit the cash in an HSBC account.

Canadian authorities later declared Banners Broker an international scam that had harvested millions of dollars.

In the Achieve YouTube promo with a publication date of Oct. 16, 2014, a man walks up to an American Savings Bank “Money Express” machine apparently in Kauai, displays an ATM card, inserts it in the machine and presses some buttons. The machine then dispenses a $20 bill, which the man shows to the audience.

“It works,” he says smiling, and giving the audience a “thumbs up” sign. “All right. [Aloha.]”

Text below the video reads, “Just wanted to show everyone that ACHIEVE + PAYONEER equals a True Lifetime Income Plan!”

It is very early morning in Hawaii. American Savings Bank, an FDIC member as noted above, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Regulators have issued repeated warnings about Ponzi- and pyramid schemes spreading on social media and also about affinity fraud.

Some promos for Achieve Community have used religious and Christian themes. By some accounts, purchases of $50 Achieve “positions” can turn into tremendous sums of wealth through a strategy in which 50 percent of purported “earnings” are continually rolled back into the “program.”

Also see Dec. 2 and Nov. 17 PP Blog stories, plus coverage here and here and here at BehindMLM.com.

Dec 7, 2014
UPDATE: Bromide-Fest, Ripped Music Soundtrack From ‘Celtic Woman’ Mark Apparent Return Of ‘The Achieve Community’

As a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack from a Celtic Woman recording of “You Raise Me Up” plays in the background and various bromides appear on screen, Achieve Community prospects are encouraged in this YouTube promo to buy multiple “positions” for the cycler “program” that lost its payment processor last month. The promo guarantees a return.

“The Achieve Community” money-cycler train wreck has announced it’s back on the rails (sort of) and will relaunch today (sort of), after losing its payment processor last month. The asserted relaunch is occurring on the heels of multiple warnings from regulators about scams spreading on social media.

It’s also occurring against the backdrop of allegations in both the Zeek Rewards and TelexFree Ponzi/pyramid court cases that the operators encountered halts at various banks and payment processors, but moved to other ones to keep the massive fraud schemes going.

Both Zeek and TelexFree purported to be purveyors of a product or products. Regulators say the purported offerings were used to hide the illicit nature of the schemes. Achieve Community also purports to provide products.

Promos for Achieve Community assert that $50 for the purchase of a cycler “position” morphs into $400 in two months or so. Participants are encouraged to plow purported profits back into the system. Over time, according to this purported “repurchase strategy,” the original $50 will turn “into ANY amount you wish.”

As of the time of this PP Blog post, Achieve Community has not announced the name or names of its new payment processors. A Dec. 1 announcement attributed to co-founder Kristi Johnson suggests that Achieve Community intends immediately to start selling “positions” to participants who have debit or credit cards. When payouts to members would resume was not immediately clear.

“Payments will begin once we attach our processor, you sign up for it from your back office, and you are approved,” the Dec. 1 Blog post attributed to Johnson reads in part. “I will update you on the date to begin signing up for our payout processor.”

Naturally this has led to questions about whether Achieve Community was trying to replumb an involuntarily stalled Ponzi scheme by making it convenient for prospects to pay into the system until enough money becomes available for payouts to begin anew.

Achieve Community is said to have more than 9,000 members.

As in many network-marketing schemes, participants either are clueless about the obvious markers of fraud or pretending to be so.

News of the asserted relaunch has been greeted on social media with depictions of a fireworks display and images of champagne and wine glasses. Members of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008 celebrated purported good news in the same fashion.

As was the case with the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme two months prior to its collapse in 2012, members of Achieve Community are being fed bromides. (With Zeek, it was “If you want things in your life to change, you have to change things in your life” and more. With Achieve Community, it’s “If you do not GO after what you want, you’ll never have it” and more.)

One 5:07 promo for Achieve Community on YouTube includes virtually the entire soundtrack of a recording of “You Raise Me Up” by Celtic Woman. Various bromides appear on the screen as the hauntingly beautiful music plays. As one bromide fades away, a panel rolls onto the screen. It claims that Achieve Community “will change your life FOREVER. EVERYONE MAKES MONEY HERE. NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND. PERIOD.”

The video, with the Celtic Woman recording still playing, goes on to assert that there is “Never a moment alone” in the Achieve Community.

Another promo — this one on Facebook — shows an image of a U.S. space shuttle blasting off. “Now Anyone Can Live Their Dream!” the promo roars. “Over $2,000,000 PAID Out to Members.”

Another claims, “The Achieve Community Is On Fire.” Members of the TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid scheme were targeted in a similar promo last year. TelexFree collapsed into a pile of Ponzi rubble in April 2014.

Also see Nov. 17, 2014, PP Blog post.

Dec 2, 2014
RECOMMENDED READING: Two Stories/Threads At BehindMLM.com On ‘The Achieve Community’

We recommend these two stories/Comments threads at BehindMLM.com on “The Achieve Community.” Access the first here. Access the second here.

BehindMLM.com covers emerging MLM fraud schemes. Naturally the site separates some MLMers from their senses because it so neatly debunks cover stories and magical constructions that have helped MLM scams trading on the Internet thrive for years.

We’d point out that, like other apparent “supporters” of other “programs,” an apparent “supporter” of Achieve Community “defending” the “program” at BehindMLM.com is arguing that “The Achieve Community is not a scam [because] I GOT PAID . . .”

Such arguments tend to reflect the coaching of willfully blind promoters and typically are seen on well-known Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold.

All successful Ponzi/pyramid schemes “pay.” Those payments are used as “social proof” no scam exists and help to drive new dollars to scams. HYIP-flavored scams are among the most dangerous in the world. They pollute banks and payment processors with illicit proceeds, turning them into warehouses for fraud schemes. And because bad money follows bad money in the HYIP fraud sphere, the proceeds affect the commerce stream at multiple points of contact.

Money purportedly “earned” in one “program” is used to join another. The banks and processors, in effect, end up warehousing radioactive financial waste. If that’s not bad enough, many of the schemes are exceptionally dark and murky. Money disappears down ratholes or ends up in the hands of ghosts. Such was the case at “Profitable Sunrise” and “Secure Investment” and many more.

There are “I got paid” posts for both of those “programs” on the Ponzi boards.

At Achieve Community, $50 somehow miraculously turns into $400, purportedly in 55 days or so. Our research shows that promos claim people can buy multiple “positions.” There also is a claim that, at some point in the future — a point at which Achieve Community lines up another payment processor — recruits will be able to buy 200 “positions” with two separate transactions of $5,000 each.

This could be construed as an attempt to evade reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act and to “structure” transactions to evade those reporting requirements. The Massachusetts Securities Division has raised the issue of structuring in its action against the TelexFree “program.”

Structuring is dangerous because it accommodates both “micro” and “macro” scams. Some people may buy in at the “micro” level of $50, sometimes known in HYIP Ponzi Land as a “test spend.” Enough “I got paid” posts from cheerleaders at “micro” levels could cause others to buy in at “macro” levels of thousands of dollars.

Some people in TelexFree appear to have made a series of purchases, effectively turning “micro” transactions into “macro” positions. The same thing likely also occurred with the Zeek Rewards and WCM777 MLM “programs.” Like TelexFree, Zeek and WCM777 cratered.

MLMers should reject any contention that no scam exists because a program “pays” or that a member getting “paid” is proof that nothing untoward is occurring. HYIP schemes are infamous for fuzzy if not nonsensical math and for hiding scams behind green curtains.

Beyond that, all successful Ponzi/pyramid schemes “pay.” Ever hear of Bernard Madoff? He “paid.”

At the moment, 9,000 or so alleged winners are confronting clawback lawsuits to recover alleged fraudulent transfers from the c. $850 million Zeek Rewards scheme.

Put another way, Zeek “paid.” After that, Zeek caused people it “paid” to have to hire lawyers and respond to subpoenas and prepare to sit for depositions — all at their own expense.

Imagine Bernard Madoff, who “paid” far less than Zeek on an annualized percentage basis, strolling into court and addressing the judge at sentencing:

“But . . . but, Your Honor,” he begins. “You don’t understand. I paid. This is so unfair! I’ll tell you what this is! It’s a [freaking] conspiracy by the government against people just trying to help their fellow man!”

Next imagine the judge, after repairing from the bench to the restroom to projectile-vomit, returning to the courtroom and ordering the bailiff to escort Mr. Madoff through the side door to begin his 150-year tour of the prison system.

Finally, imagine Madoff sitting in his cell and having the following conversation with himself.

“If only the Achieve Community cycler had been around at the time. I could have rolled in all my clients’ money and, for each $50, I’d get paid $400 — in just two months or so, no less!”

If you can imagine these things, you can imagine the insidious world of the HYIP universe. Madoff, no stranger to chicanery, might actually be mortified at the goings-on in certain MLM circles. Even so, he never would have insulted a judge by insisting no Ponzi scheme existed because he “paid.”

Put another way, the greatest Ponzi schemer in U.S. history was more honest than the average HYIP purveyor and willfully blind promoter hoping to carve off profits from the mass production of scams on the Internet.

Nov 17, 2014