ASD, AdGateWorld, AdViewGlobal — In Pictures
AdSurfDaily Inc. and other firms and individuals linked to the autosurf trade have been named defendants in a class-action racketeering lawsuit.
Among the allegations is that ASD was a participant in schemes beyond its own autosurf Ponzi scheme and was engaged with co-conspirators in a pattern of racketeering. Here is part of the ASD story — in pictures. Some of the pictures are being published today for the very first time.
1.
AdViewGlobal denies affiliation with AdSurfDaily, LaFuenteDinero, Andy Bowdoin Jr., Golden Panda AdBuilder and Clarence Busby.
2.
The webroom at ASD-controlled adsurfdailywebroom.com showcasing AdViewGlobal. (See No. 4.) UPDATE: The ASD-controlled webroom has removed the AdViewGlobal graphic. See the video highlighting the removal.
3.
AdSurfDaily webroom URL magnified.
4.
Reference to “our” webroom at adsurfdailywebroom.com as it appears on the ASD Breaking News site at adsurfdailybreakingnews.com/weeklyevents.htm.
5.
Google search results showing reference to Juan Fernandez, chief executive officer of ASD, as “national sales manager” for AdViewGlobal. On December 22, Fernandez’ name appeared in a Blog post as “national sales manager” for AdViewGlobal. The name “Gary,” also an associate of ASD, appeared in the same post. Neither name now appears in the post, but the references remain in the search results. The original pitch in the post was that AdViewGlobal was a hedge against the recession.
6.
Oct. 21 pitch for AdGateWorld.
7.
ASD pitch to military families by ASD member and attorney Jack Schrold. Schrold once was disbarred (now conditionally reinstated) in Florida after his conviction for knowledge of the commission of conspiracy and wire fraud, a felony.
8.
Jack Schrold’s site on GreenbackStreet.com, a company associated with ASD.
9.
Jack Schrold’s order for AdGateWorld graphics on scriptlance.com. The red circles denote use of the word “our” as it pertains to AdGateWorld. Schrold has not been named a defendant in any ASD-related litigation.
10.
Jack Schrold AdGateWorld order magnified.
11.
AdGateWorld Terms of Service showing reference to ASD.
12.
Blogger passes along AdGateWorld memo from Jack Schrold.
13.
Blogger’s Schrold memo magnified.
14.
Announcement of prospective $200 million deal with Praebius Communications on ASD’s Breaking News website. The announcement was removed when members questioned it.
15.
ASD member promoting ASD “re-invest” strategy despite the fact the firm insists it sells “advertisements,” not investments.
16.
ASD member encouraging other members to defraud Google, amid claims that ASD had just entered into an “agreement” with Google.
17.
Andy Bowdoin’s gifts to the National Republican Congressional Committee for which he received the “Medal of Distinction.” Note that the $250 contributions from 2007 were given in the name of “AdSalesDaily Inc.,” as opposed to “AdSurfDaily Inc.” ASD members claimed the “medal” was a special award from the President of the United States, and Bowdoin didn’t correct the record. In fact, he took the medal, which signified only his ability to write a check to receive banquet tickets, on the road with him.
Patrick,
I think you can find a great addition to your collection. On scam.com and on the asd-biz.ning sites there are screen shots that show the business address of Ad View Global. Not a big shock to find out that it is 13 South Calhoun Street, Quincy, FL.
Sharp readers will recall that this is the business address raided by the Secret Service and home of Ad Surf Daily.
Any doubt the two are linked? Both are operating out of the same former flower shop.
This is wonderful — I’m so glad to see this level of detail in the permanent record. We lost a lot of history when the Scam.com site was shut down.
Patrick, I think you may have to take up the victimology aspect next. (I didn’t think investigating the victims of ASD was terribly interesting until now.) By victims I don’t really mean the leaders of AVG, I mean the people who lost money in ASD who are trying to recoup it in AVG. That’s like losing all your money to Madoff (who was paying higher rates of return, consistently, than any other fund manager) and trying to make it up with Nadel (who was doing the same thing on a smaller scale).
Hi Entertained,
That really is an instructive picture at scam.com:
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=94864&page=4
Thanks for sharing.
Patrick
Hi Marci,
Remember comments/discussion here a few days ago?
Refresh your memory:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/01/27/readers-ask-if-autosurf-promoters-really-that-stupid/
Former ASD members have been promoting the new surfs for weeks now — despite all that has happened to ASD, Golden Panda, LaFuenteDinero — and the meltdowns of MegaLido, Frogress, DailyProfitPond and others.
If you look closely in No. 12 above, you’ll see that the gentleman also was promoting MegaLido, in addition to AdGateWorld and others.
Yesterday, after news of the ASD RICO lawsuit broke, people still were promoting Ad Splash Biz, AdViewGlobal and AdGateWorld. ASD has obvious connections to the new surf sites, either through common members or common promoters.
And then there is the issue of the ASD database. Andy Bowdoin preemptively suggested in a conference call that the government had erased it.
It was a strange claim indeed.
Patrick
[…] this post, we showed you a screen shot of the AdSurfDaily webroom showcasing AdViewGlobal, a new […]
Although it appears that ASD is operating anew on the new site, I think it’s not that cut and dried. It seems to me that what has happened is AVG promoters used the old ASD documents and web pages as templates to jump start their program and simply failed to edit it well. Certainly if the operators of ASD made this available to them, along with the lost/not lost database that would be an ominous development, but in fairness we do have to consider the possibility that they simply pulled the old data off the web, where it is readily available, and were sloppy in the execution. They’re still crooks, and I’m sure a lot of common people are involved, but it is also very plausible that Andy himself has nothing to do with the new venture and is powerless to either stop it or disassociate his own name from it.
Now, in another tack altogether, I strongly support the same investigative and prosecutorial entities that brought down ASD going after the various clones. I feel very strongly that failure to do so will leave these new scammers an open field and you can bet the promoters will make big news of the lack of action taken against them. In the same vein, the swift and certain intervention of law enforcement in these “offshore” ventures will re-enforce the fact that filing a few hundred dollars worth of papers in a third world country can protect them from the jurisdiction of US law.
The outcome of this public act of defiance by the “usual suspects” (should there be one) could be interesting.
For some time many concerned ‘net users have made it a practise to inform the appropriate regulators of the existence of such scams, complete with details, addresses etc.
Whether due to budgetary, staff or time constraints, it is apparent the relevant agencies have chosen to act only against those who have exceeded what appear to many to be arbitrary limits.
Fraudsters have seemingly become so unafraid of detection and legal action that some are now using registrations lodged with regulatory bodies as “proof” of their legality.
That’s an important point. Most people don’t realize how easy it is to get a certificate of incorporation and even a tax certificate. I have seen cheerleaders use this as “proof” that the scam is a legitimate business. “Afterall”, they say, “the State of XXX has done a complete investigation before they gave them a business license”. The fact is, the only investigation for a Certificate of Incorporation is to see if the name of the proposed company is already taken. Ditto for the tax certificate, where I live, if the check clears, the certificate is issued. Now getting a Financial Services Permit is another thing altogether, but of course, none of these schemes has ever gotten one of those from a country outside third world or tax haven countries.
[…] of the others is AdViewGlobal, which has ASD’s fingerprints all over it (see this, see this, see this) and purports to be operating out of Uruguay. Some of the Surf’s Up Mods have a […]
Patrick, thanks so much for all the work you’ve done in researching these companies. I now know that I’m out-PERIOD. I just have to recoup my money lost in ASD.
[…] See this previous post. […]
[…] See this January picture story. […]