Screen shot: Neither of these two YouTube videos for JustBeenPaid will load on a site associated with the purported "opportunity" — but a repurposed video featuring billionaire investor Warren Buffett will. It is common in fraud schemes for scammers to trade on the names of celebrities and to suggest a famous person endorses a "program."
There are the deliberate shills for JustBeenPaid — serial Ponzi board hucksters such as “10BucksUp,” for example.
And there are the unwitting shills whose celebrity is stolen without their knowledge to sanitize the over-the-top fraud that promotes absurd returns — people such as famed investor Warren Buffett. Buffett’s only tie to JustBeenPaid is that he lives and breathes on the same planet occupied by the collective of international scammers behind the purported “opportunity.”
A YouTube video in which Buffett is giving a speech to a group of Florida MBA students is shoehorned into a JustBeenPaid promo at BigBooster.com. As Buffett arrives at the podium, he makes sure the microphone is working.
“Testing,” he quips. “One million, two million, three million.”
The audience appreciates the line.
Buffett’s repurposed appearance sandwiched into the JustBeenPaid promo at BigBooster.com is one filled with irony that is the very definition of bizarre. As this post is being written, it is the only video on the page that works. Two in-house videos for JustBeenPaid do not work and carry these messages:
“This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.”
“This video has been removed because its content violated YouTube’s Terms of Service.”
This YouTube video of famed investor Warren Buffett is playing in a promo for JustBeenPaid on a website known as BigBooster.com.
But the repurposed video of Buffett is every bit as dangerous as it is bizarre: It is being used to help the JustBeenPaid Ponzi scheme proliferate globally. And the people behind JustBeenPaid once promoted AdSurfDaily before the U.S. Secret Service exposed the ASD Ponzi scheme in August 2008. (See graphic near bottom of story.)
To its credit, YouTube has been removing JustBeenPaid videos at least for several days. But even as YouTube does the right thing by taking the videos offline in the age of epidemic white-collar crime and global money-laundering and Ponzi theft, the video of Buffett still plays on the BigBooster site. The likely reason is that there is no easy way for YouTube to associate Buffett’s 13-year-old speech at the University of Florida to a relatively recent BigBooster.com ad for JustBeenPaid, a “program” of recent vintage.
Research by the PP Blog suggests Buffett delivered the speech on Oct. 15, 1998 — when Saddam Hussein still was presiding over Iraq and George W. Bush still was governor of Texas before being elected President of the United States more than two years later. A decade passed — as did the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bush’s eight-year occupancy of the White House and the fall of Saddam Hussein — before the people behind JustBeenPaid apparently had the brainstorm of shoehorning the Buffett video into the BigBooster promo to help them sell a scam.
YouTube’s removal of the JustBeenPaid videos poses only a minor hurdle, according to an email attributed to JustBeenPaid honcho Frederick Mann, who’s also the apparent braintrust behind BigBooster.com and a former ASD member.
“We’ve started moving our videos to our own server,” the JustBeenPaid email attributed to Mann read in part.
BigBooster.com appears to be hosted in South Africa; JustBeenPaid.com appears to be hosted in the United States. Both domains use a street addresses in South Africa that lists Mann as the administrative contact.
Here is some of the advice attributed to Mann in the BigBooster.com promo associated with JustBeenPaid and related “programs.” (Italics added.)
Get in early.
Get in with “significant” money
If the program performs well, do some early compounding.
Sponsor as many people as possible to earn referral fees.
Withdraw your original risk capital as soon as appropriate to get into a “can’t-lose” position.
Parlay, compound, or let run some of your profits.
Think in terms of maximizing the money you “take off the table.”
Much of the power of this formula is that it enables you to make money with programs that fail after a few months, but if a reasonably good program lasts 6 months or longer, you could earn tens of thousands.
The message could not be more at odds with the principles for which Buffett stands, and yet Mann and JustBeenPaid incongruously sandwich him into the promo after previously leading ASD recruits to disaster.
And even as JustBeenPaid tells members it is saying goodbye to Google’s YouTube, is is encouraging members to register for the “program” by using a Google Gmail addresses.
“Gmail E-mail addresses work well with JustBeenPaid! – and they are free!” the firm informs prospects on its sign-up page.
But it gets stranger yet: Payouts from JustBeenPaid come from an email address assigned to “michael” on the BigBooster.com domain, according to “I got paid” posts by shills on the Ponzi forums such as MoneyMakerGroup.
Not “JustBeenPaid” or “Frederick” — but “michael.”
And the cheerleaders and shills cheer on, even as a condition has developed in which the program is trying to rescue itself from collapse, offshore servers apparently are being brought into play — and the money is being routed from AlertPay in Canada to a murky business with footprints in both the United States and South Africa and the “opportunity” just happens to be trading on the name of Warren Buffett after previously pushing traffic to ASD.
This is happening through a process by which a 13-year-old speech by the billionaire has been repurposed and made to load on the BigBooster site via YouTube — even as JustBeenBeen can’t get its own YouTube videos to load and even as it apparently is saying goodbye to YouTube while encouraging people to use Google Gmail addresses to sign up so they purportedly can get paid by “michael” at BigBooster.com for JustBeenPaid.
Like JustBeenPaid, ASD had a tie to AlertPay. And ASD and a spinoff surf known as AdViewGlobal also used Gmail addresses and relied on videos to spread the scheme.
On May 14, 2008, according to research by the PP Blog, ASD was touted on BigBooster.com as a “cash cow.” Less than three months later, the U.S. Secret Service alleged that ASD was an international Ponzi scheme that had sucked in tens of millions of dollars, routed money through Canada and was contemplating ways to get offshore.
“I (Frederick Mann) have been with ASD since January 07,” remarks attributed to Mann on the BigBooster site read. “Past performance indicates a strong probablility (sic) that ASD will continue to perform as advertised. (By early May 2008, I had received 14 payments totalling over $6,000!”)
On May 14, 2008, BigBooster.com was touting AdSurfDaily.
Screen shot: Even as JustBeenPaid concedes YouTube is removing its videos, the "opportunity" is encouraging prospects to register by using a free Gmail addresss. Google owns both YouTube and Gmail. Payments for JustBeenPaid are being routed through Canada-based AlertPay by a person apparently known as "michael" of BigBooster.com. Both BigBooster.com and JustBeenPaid.com use street addresses in South Africa, and the linked companies appear also to have a presence in the United States. (Red rectangle around Gmail's name and red block of sponsor's name added by PP Blog.)
After delaying its launch twice in February and finally settling on a March 1 launch date, Data Network Affiliates (DNA) now describes tomorrow’s launch as a “Beta Test.”
Meanwhile, the company has added a hugely popular YouTube video known as “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” to its website, using the video to promote DNA.
On the YouTube site, the video and a related webpage that solicits donations for the Sheila Wellstone Institute are are used to create awareness about domestic violence. Because the video is is miniaturized on DNA’s site, the violence-prevention message is not visible unless viewers expand the size.
At the same time, a person who identified himself as Dean Blechman, DNA’s former chief executive officer, has emailed the PP Blog, saying he no longer is affiliated with DNA in any way.
“I am no longer the CEO of DNA,” the email said. “I have no affiliation with the company whatsoever.”
The email could not immediately be confirmed as authentic, but the PP Blog believes the sender was Blechman. The sender did not respond immediately to a request to explain matters pertaining to DNA, saying via email he was on vacation with his wife until Tuesday and adding that he would contact the Blog again after he returns home.
DNA does not explain Blechman’s departure on its website, which lists an address in the Cayman Islands. Nor does the company explain why it now is describing the launch date as a “Beta Test.”
The company, which says it is in the business of recording license-plate numbers for entry in a database, repeatedly has advertised various launch dates. Critics have raised questions about privacy matters and the propriety, safety and legality of DNA.
Some critics have said that Phil Piccolo, a notorious figure in multilevel marketing, is associated with the firm.
It was not immediately clear if DNA was authorized to post the “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” video on its website and use it in the context of advertising DNA. The video has received more than 43.7 million views on YouTube. Its producers created the video to share the joy of their wedding, and also to create awareness about domestic violence, according to a message linked to their YouTube website.
An email to the producers — Jill and Kevin Heinz — by the PP Blog was not immediately returned. Among other things, the couple has appeared on the Today Show to explain their joyous, music-rich video, which features the entire wedding party dancing to the altar and has been a spectacular hit on YouTube — one with a serious message attached.
In a page that accompanies the couple’s video, Jill is described as a PhD candidate whose work focuses on breaking cycles of violence in society. Kevin is described as a law student with a passion for social justice. The site includes a link to donate to the Sheila Wellstone Institute.
Sheila Wellstone was a human-rights advocate. She and her husband, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., were killed in a plane crash in 2002. Their daughter, Marcia, died in the same crash.
DNA’s site does not reference the serious message associated with the YouTube video. Instead, it uses the video to promote DNA, under a headline of “WARNING: What happens when The Wedding Party found out about D.N.A. 5 minutes before THE WEDDING WAS TO TAKE PLACE…”
Ronald W. Smith used YouTube to promote a Ponzi scheme, according to CFTC.
In a case that may spread a chill among fraudsters who use YouTube to promote bogus money-making schemes, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged a Virginia man with fraud.
Ronald W. Smith Jr. of Vansant used a YouTube video to promote a Forex Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $800,000 from 34 investors, CFTC said. In the video, Smith claimed that more than 95 percent of his trades in the “Safeguard 3030 Investment Club” were winning trades and that Safeguard “made a whopping 298 percent in just a mere 17 trading days.”
The CFTC transcribed the YouTube video and presented it and other investigative materials to a federal judge, who ordered Smith’s assets to be frozen, as well as the assets of Smith’s wife, Angela Smith, and the assets of a company known as Tigre Systems Inc.
In reality, “Smith used little, if any, of the funds to trade forex,” CFTC said. “Instead, he used customer funds for personal expenses, such as for a pool service, carpeting and furniture.”
Customer funds also were used for “purported profit payouts” and for business expenses, CFTC said.
At least one “third party solicitor or marketer” helped Smith sell the scheme, which operated between January 2009 and December 2009, CFTC said. The unnamed person who assisted Smith received more than $157,000.
Smith also marketed the scheme in Florida, CFTC said.
Investors’ money was used for personal purchases such as eyewear, clothing, roofing, flooring, furniture and swimming-pool expenses. It also was used for purported business expenses such as payments for hotels, a car and a limousine service.
Smith issued false account statements, which prompted some customers to give him more money, CFTC said.
The scheme began to collapse in October 2009, and Smith told customers he could not pay them because of a “purported on-going investigation by the SEC,” CFTC said.
That claim was false, CFTC said.
In December, Smith told customers he had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the “purported” SEC probe.
That claim was false, CFTC said.
In January 2010, CFTC said, Smith told customers their payments were being held up by a bank.
That claim, too, was false, CFTC said.
Smith had never been registered with CFTC in any capacity, the agency said.
U.S. District Judge James P. Jones issued the asset freeze and an order prohibiting the destruction of documents, including the YouTube video and other evidence.
DECEMBER 12, 2009, 12:03 P.M. ET (U.S.A.). The PatrickPretty.com Blog announced today that it has made an arrangement to share data about cyberstalkers “unclefesta26” and “joe” on its own initiative with law-enforcement and, at the Blog’s discretion, with the operators of certain websites.
The Blog’s decision to share a limited amount of information with authorities voluntarily will not affect the privacy of other PatrickPretty.com readers and posters. PatrickPretty.com has the capability of segmenting information on individual readers and posters. No user information beyond data associated with “unclefesta26” and “joe” will be shared.
“unclefesta26” also is known by the handles “Pistol” and “Pistol’s Pal.” He operates a cyberstalking and hate site on YouTube and uses crude sexual references and vulgarities in headlines to promote his site, which includes an image of the federal judge presiding over the forfeiture elements of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme cases.
On his YouTube site, “unclefesta26” employs technology to put words in the mouth of the judge, causing the image of the judge to recite the name of an AdSurfDaily participant, make a disparaging remark about the participant, make a phone call to a “psychiatric hospital” and suggest that “men in white coats” bring a “straitjacket and some leg irons” to detain the participant against her will.
“joe” also is known as “Mr. Wonderful”; “joejoe”; “joe the magnificent (and good looking”); and “Joseph the phallicly gifted,” among other user identities. “joe” regularly uses vulgarities and crude sexual references or crude references to sexual organs in his various harassing communications to the Blog. ‘joe” has sent dozens of illegitimate communications to the Blog over the Internet since September.
“We are taking this action because ‘unclefesta26’ and ‘joe’ are stalking the Blog and creating an untenable situation for PatrickPretty.com and its readers,” PatrickPretty.com said. “unclefesta26” uses material from the Blog to make harassing videos on a cyberstalking and hate site he maintains on YouTube. He has delighted in sending us harassing messages to ‘Enjoy!’ his work and harassing messages with links to new videos that subject the Blog and some of its readers to harassment, while attempting to poison the brand identity of the Blog. He has licensed himself repeatedly to use the Blog’s branding materials to disparage the Blog, and recently published a video is which he captured the intellectual property of Amazon.com that appeared on the Blog, used an Amazon.com flash movie outside its intended purpose and superimposed images owned by Amazon.com to create a video designed to harass the Blog.
“unclefesta26” is diluting the value of the Blog’s intellectual property, creating confusion among members of the public, engaging in repeated acts of cyberpiracy and affecting the goodwill PatrickPretty.com has built up among readers. Readers and targets of the videos have complained to the Blog about the YouTube site. PatrickPretty.com has filed three complaints with YouTube, which has not responded to the complaints.
'unclefesta26,' also known as 'Pistol,' sent us this email message to 'Enjoy!' a YouTube video he produced to pillory the PatrickPretty.com Blog. The message was sent after he was blocked from the Blog for spamming links, derailing discussions and posing chronic maintenance problems.
“Meanwhile, ‘joe’ has sought to disrupt the Blog’s operations for months by sending a steady stream of harassing communications,” PatrickPretty.com said. “Among other things, ‘joe’ has threatened to start ‘fires’ to divert and strain our resources, and also has claimed to have access to insecure wireless networks to mask his IP address and escape detection.”
Screen shot: An outtake of a video made by PatrickPretty.com in which 'joe' threatened the Blog with 'fires' and said he could employ insecure computer networks to frustrate attempts to track him. PatrickPretty.com has the capability of segmenting nuisance communications, placing them in a queue to separate them from legitimate submissions by other readers and videotaping the contents of the queue. The queue from which this particular video was made in early September contained 19 harassing communications from joe. The video includes audio narration of 'joe's' IP addresses, usernames and email addresses, and includes dictation of select passages of his nuisance communications, which served no lawful purpose and were designed to annoy, harass,alarm and distract the Blog from its editorial mission. A 'joe' queue from Dec. 7 and Dec. 8 shows eight harassing communications over a period encompassing about four hours, including six within 18 minutes. He has sent dozens of harassing communications over the Internet since September.
“unclefesta26” and “joe” are believed to be separate individuals. “unclefesta26” purports to detest Ponzi schemes; “joe” purports to advocate for them. “joe” now suggests that he, like “unclefesta26,” is capable of posting videos on YouTube, which the Blog views as an escalation of his threats.
PatrickPretty.com’s Editorial Mission
Along with its reports on Ponzi schemes, PatrickPretty.com publishes commentary from posters who oppose Ponzi schemes. It also publishes commentary from posters who advocate for Ponzi schemes. The Blog believes that the advocacy for Ponzi schemes, though puzzling, misguided and dangerous, is an important part of the Ponzi story.
Some of our readers have expressed shock and outrage that an entire subculture of people — people who actually advocate for Ponzi schemes despite their criminality and obvious danger –Â exists. Ponzi advocates typically argue that the government has no right to limit commerce. They often view autosurf Ponzi schemes, for example, as a lawful business because there is a contract between buyer and seller and because “rebates aren’t guaranteed” under the terms of the contract. They frequently deny they are selling unregistered securities as investment contracts, even though the U.S. government has never lost an autosurf Ponzi prosecution brought under securities laws. Despite claiming they are breaking no securities laws, they typically stress that new companies they are representing (after predecessor companies based on U.S. soil were prosecuted successfully under securities laws) are based “offshore” and thus beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement and securities regulators. Ponzi promoters’ messages often are impossibly at odds with themselves
Other Ponzi advocates hold views that are even more extreme, insisting they are “sovereign” beings answerable to no government authority. Some extremist Ponzi scheme promoters have declared their own nation-states on U.S. soil, arguing they have diplomatic immunity from U.S. law. Still others claim government has no moral authority to regulate Ponzi schemes or enforce laws because it permits things such as gambling, smoking cigarettes and consuming alcohol. Some Ponzi scheme advocates identify themselves as “Christians” or members of a particular religious faith, thus adding an element of affinity fraud to the Ponzi schemes they promote.
The Genesis Of Our Decision To Share A Limited Amount Of Information On ‘unclefesta26’ and ‘joe’ With Law Enforcement
Despite rumors spread by some Ponzi scheme advocates that PatrickPretty.com is a government entity and strange suggestions that the Blog is part of a government conspiracy to undermine free enterprise, PatrickPretty.com is not an agent for the government or part of any government entity or law-enforcement mission.
PatrickPretty.com is a privately owned publishing venture. The Blog conducts research and produces articles, essays and editorials for a general audience interested in the highly newsworthy topic of Ponzi schemes. Readers and posters of all stripes — from news junkies, online entrepreneurs and journalists to Ponzi scheme victims, members of law-enforcement agencies and employees of regulatory bodies — have equal access to the pages and the reporting of PatrickPretty.com.
Self-described Ponzi advocate “joe” is straining this Blog’s limited resources by playing a relentless game of “ring and run,” using multiple user identities, multiple email addresses and multiple IP addresses to harass the Blog. He says he will not stop, defining himself as a “bad penny.”
Beyond his harassing behavior here, “joe” started a hectoring campaign against the Blog on Scam.com, which subsequently banned him for inappropriate behavior and creating multiple user identities to send illegitimate and nuisance communications. PatrickPretty.com views “joe’s” actions as evidence of intent to dilute the value of the Blog’s brand, affect its goodwill with readers and confuse the public on multiple websites.
“joe” asserts a nonexistent right to to hector the Blog, leech off unprotected communications networks to harass the Blog and set the editorial standards by which PatrickPretty.com operates. In short, “joe” wants to dictate the terms under which we grant a voice to readers, insisting he won’t go away until we submit to his demands.
“I feel some satisfaction that you seem to be intimidated by me,†joe said. “You can deny all you want but it’s true even though [sexual reference/poster’s name deleted] is right, I’m harmless. Now if you’re a good boy and post this unedited we can consider this my final retirement. I don’t really want to keep coming on here but I just wasn’t going to be unceremoniously tossed like a bad penny and you know what they say about bad pennies.â€
We believe “joe” will not stop his resource-draining hectoring campaign, absent proactive steps by the Blog to protect its operations. During the late evening and early morning hours of Dec. 7 and Dec. 8, we received eight harassing communications from “joe” in a period of about four hours, including six within 18 minutes.
“unclefesta26” also has been banned from multiple websites for sending inappropriate and harassing communications. PatrickPretty.com believes the multiple identities created after he has been banned from various sites for misconduct constitute evidence of intent to commit a crime and to tax resources. His harassing messages prompting us to “Enjoy!” his chronic pestering and submission of links to announce new YouTube video creations also constitute evidence of intent to commit a crime, and we view his behavior as a form of extortion.
If one doesn’t play “unclefesta26’s” game, one gets pilloried on YouTube. If one does not accommodate the full license he grants himself to invade a space, one gets pilloried on YouTube.
We believe at least one major provider of free hosting space on the Internet already has taken action to prevent “unclefesta26” from engaging in cyberstalking. His YouTube site, however, remains.
An Impossible Condition
We believe the behavior of “unclefesta’26” on YouTube is consistent with the behavior of an extortionist. The site cannot be construed as legitimate satire, parody, journalism, consumer advocacy or a “fair use” of intellectual property because of his history of stalking behavior and extortive conduct.
“unclefesta26” creates an impossible condition that is inconsistent with satire, parody, journalism, consumer advocacy and “fair use.” He relentlessly harasses the objects of his supposed satire by deliberately making obnoxious posts in spaces they control, gets blocked or banned from forums because of his obnoxious behavior and then retaliates for the condition he created by cyberstalking and exacting a penalty on his cyberstalking targets by skewering them on YouTube.
There is a “cause” and “effect,” we believe, to what “unclefesta26” does. Any attempts to reason with him “cause” an escalation in his outrageous conduct and, finally, a YouTube video to be created. These videos have the “effect” of exacting a penalty and harming individuals and entities. At the same time, they cause a chilling effect on speech. We believe that some readers no longer are posting here or have curtailed their posting because they believe “unclefesta26” will stalk them and subject them to ridicule on his YouTube hate site.
In general, “unclefesta26” creates an impossible condition for forum operators and participants by insisting he is permitted to behave in any fashion he sees fit, however unwelcome and objectionable by the standards of common courtesy and common human decency that most people observe. If a forum operator attempts to assert ownership rights or disagrees with “unclefesta26” even civilly, “unclefesta26” reacts by escalating his obnoxious behavior, which further drains resources and creates maintenance problems — and ultimately results in the retaliation he carries out on YouTube. He is not using YouTube to educate, enlighten and inform. He is using it to harass.
His behavior chills speech. It puts people in fear of caustic, often vulgar reprisal, and it is consistent with an agenda of ravaging human beings. His YouTube headlines include, but are not limited to:
“Has [Name] got the balls”
“Shit for brains”
“Bullshit from [Name] . . .”
“Fat Greedy Bastards”
“Wimpy [Name] throws down the gauntlet to Wimpy [Name]”
“Breaking news from [Name] [Veiled Sexual Vulgarity]”
“The Fat Mod’s battle”
“The bastard had to get greedy”
“[Name’s] blow job”
It is for these reasons that the PatrickPretty.com is segmenting the information on “unclefesta26” and “joe” and sharing it with law enforcement voluntarily.
In the coming hours we will publish a post that revisits some of these issues and explains our point of view on the perils of publishing online during an era in which advertising revenues are plunging, publications large and small are failing, thieves and pirates are leeching off the hard work of others and cyberstalkers are on the prowl looking for ways to subject people and businesses to harm.
Our grandmother could not have imagined this era — and the incivility and criminality it has brought front and center.
