Members Criticize Bowdoin’s ‘PaperlessAccess’ Video; Some Surf’s Up Posters Say Enough Is Enough
UPDATED 12:15 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily Inc. President Andy Bowdoin once had members eating out of his hand, but his faithful flock now appears to be splintering.
Helping drive Bowdoin’s fall from grace is a video in which he positions “Paperless Access,” a company that appears to use a surf model, as a way ASD members can recover money seized by the government in August by participating in the new venture.
AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, whose video for ASD is a major part of a federal fraud investigation, is now a video pitchman for 'Paperless Access.'
The video first appeared online two days ago. Bowdoin did not identify the owners of Paperless Access, describing them only as a small group of people. Nor did Bowdoin mention that the government is establishing an ASD refund program.
One of the reasons it hasn’t been able to implement the program is because of Bowdoin’s self-filed legal maneuverings.
Except for a letter Bowdoin released through Surf’s Up several days ago, he had been silent for months. Bowdoin, for example, did not tell members about a second forfeiture complaint filed in December against assets linked to ASD. Nor did Bowdoin tell members about his January decision to submit to the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized in August.
Before Bowdoin went silent late in the fall, he tried to sell members VOIP telephone service, positioning the $20-a-month offer as a gift.
Bowdoin, now acting as his own attorney, has changed his mind about submitting to the forfeiture, an act that will delay any government refund program because prosecutors can’t liquidate seized assets to create a victims’ pool until the case is fully litigated.
At the same time, other ASD members also are filing pro se pleadings in the forfeiture case — something the government says also affects its ability to implement a refund program.
Why Paperless Access would choose Bowdoin for a commercial spokesman at the risk of being dragged into a major federal fraud investigation is unclear, especially when one of the issues in the federal case is Bowdoin’s appearance in a video to promote ASD.
Prosecutors said Bowdoin was the head of a criminal enterprise. Private litigants have accused him of racketeering, and Bowdoin was accused of 89 separate counts of fraud in four Alabama counties in the 1990s, pleading guilty to felonies.
Database Decision Ruffles Feathers
Some ASD members were angry that Bowdoin had turned over the ASD database to Paperless Access, saying the move invaded their privacy and exposed them to identity theft.
“They have been given access to the database for the purpose of determining losses and the structure of the network,” Bowdoin said.
In short, Bowdoin appears to have turned over the database to a company whose owners he appears unwilling to identify. If ASD member “losses” are recorded in the database as Bowdoin says, the new owners might gain insider’s knowledge about possible targets in a federal criminal probe into ASD’s business practices. At the same time, the database would provide Paperless Access with the names of thousands of potential witnesses against ASD and the spending habits of ASD members at large.
Bowdoin does not identify himself in the Paperless Access video. Nor does he refer to ASD by name a single time. At the same time, Bowdoin’s claims about Paperless Access are filled with vagaries and confusing information.
Paperless Access has a “variety of outside revenue-generating sources,” Bowdoin said, without revealing the sources.
Bowdoin said the company’s business plan was based “solely on outside revenue.” Vague claims of outside revenue was one of the things that got ASD in trouble.
Meanwhile, Bowdoin makes the odd claim that the goal of Paperless Access is to “return the members’ legally purchased funds.” ASD members used funds to make their purchases, but they did not purchase funds.
You’ve got to hand it to the people behind this one.
They’re either extremely brave or unbelievably stupid.
Promoting what appears to be “another” autosurf publicly AND using Bowdoin to do so.
It appears that “Paperless Acess” is either operating from or owned by
InVantage Medical
Paul Walling
23110 SR 54, Suite 332
Lutz FL 33549
877-772-8296
http://www.medical-billing-coding.org/DisplayCountyDetail.aspx?id=345&provider=11132&type=profile
Whichever, it is using the same address – right down to the same suite number, and it seems some people associated with AdSurfDaily are aware of “Mr Walling” in connection with ASD.
Nothing like giving investigators a head start in the spirit of cooperation, I suppose.
Hi LRM,
It is hard to reconcile much of the ASD saga. Take its PR approach, for example.
ASD would have people believe it was a professional advertising service. But no professional ad service would place amateurs in charge of the PR message. Appearances are everything in the worlds of advertising and PR.
Even if one accepted ASD’s “professional” advertising claim at face value, he or she wouldn’t be able to reconcile ASD’s impossibly butchered PR approach. The ASD Breaking News site was an unqualified disaster — amateur in both appearance and message.
The Feds used the August forfeiture complaint expressly to show Bowdoin withheld information from members that would be vital to their decision-making process — the Alabama securities violations, for instance.
And Bowdoin plainly knew about Clarence Busby’s securities troubles, and didn’t tell members. Instead he issued a statement of trust in Busby, saying Busby was the boss at Golden Panda.
These things occurred last summer. It’s now spring. Two full seasons have passed. Bowdoin effectively lost the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing in which he took the 5th. In November, a federal judge ruled ASD did not demonstrate it was operating legally and not a Ponzi scheme.
In December, a second forfeiture complaint was filed — this one alleging that $1 million had gone missing from ASD as a result of “Russian” hackers and that Bowdoin didn’t even file a police report.
Other money was missing from ASD, and Bowdoin didn’t file a police report.
Prosecutors said Bowdoin knew ASD was illegal in 2007, and fabricated a video lie with Robert Garner to separate people from their money and build the business.
One of the core issues of the ASD case is lack of disclosure.
It’s now March, and here comes Bowdoin in another video — this one for Paperless Access — in which information people need to make informed decisions again isn’t being disclosed. Not even the names of the company owners. Not even the sources of revenue.
There simply is no way to reconcile these things and have them make sense.
Paperless Access is an upstart. A man believed to have operated a $100 million Ponzi scheme has emerged as its first video spokesman, which demonstrates that Paperless Access is the equal of ASD when it comes to its ability to butcher a message and put itself in harm’s way.
Nevermind ASD’s direct ties to AdViewGlobal and, at a minimum, its indirect ties to BizAdSplash and AdGateWorld.
And never mind that private litigants already have alleged that Bowdoin, Busby and Garner are racketeers engaged in a conspiracy with others.
It’s incredible.
Patrick
It was striking that Andy disappears at the end of the video. Just like your cash and any information regarding your investment when things reach their inevitable end.
Also striking is that Andy seems to be utterly without any emotion, just sucking as much cash out of people as possible as long as possible. Hopefully, the criminal charges against Andy are filed soon and this video is used against Andy to deny him bail. That would be very nice!
Hi dirty_bird,
Thanks for this thought-provoking comment. Man, it really cuts to the chase.
Patrick
Doesn’t Bernie Madoff occupy a double occupancy cell in the slammer ? Perhaps Bowdoin could be put in there to keep him company, after all, these 2 boys have lots incommon, don’t they ?
Patrick and all:
I see from the Joy Luck Club that Gary Talbert resigned his position at AVG. Paperless Access instead????
The early reports are that Talbert will remain with AVG as an accountant.
A person named Ismeal Santiago reportedly is taking over and will move to Uruguay because “all officers should live offshore,” according to one promoter.
Patrick
Thanks for the compliment. Also, thanks for the time you put into your blog. You have a great writing style and I appreciate your journalistic approach, even when dealing with attacks on yourself. Keep it up! You are giving a voice to the little guy/gal!
I was in a state of shock when I saw this video. Andy looks like he is in heaven, with his outfit and the background of the video,were ever this filmed. Very bizarre. I quess I must wake up and realise Andy Bowdin conned us all out of millions of dollars.
My God forgive him. Patrick John
Oh good grief. Entering the phone number 877-772-8296 from LRMs post above shows some of the other things Paul Walling is involved in. There’s some property, and this MLM old favourite, fuel snake-oil:
http://www.improvedvehiclemileage.com/
Please type your ASD email address in the box. There is a set of videos to watch. There is one Video with Andy to watch and you can register for up and coming webinars………………………………………… Steve
March 19, 2009
In the above Video, Andy states, he gave access to the ASD database to paperlessaccess.com
Has Andy Bowdoin breeched his own Terms of
Service contract with ASD members?
COMPLAINT FOR FORFEITURE IN REM
Page 75 of 101
9. ASD agrees that we will not share your personal information with any third parties other than authorilative officials with authoritative rights. We will not surrender any of your information unless a court order and/or a Subpoena andlor a Protective Order is presented to us, and then we will abide by the laws of the United States and surrender your information only to the proper authorities who have the legal rights to said information. We view protection of Advertisers’ privacy as a very important principle. We store and process your personal information on computers located in the United States and elsewhere as we deem necessary that are protected by physical as well as technological security devices.
Is your social security number now floating around on the web for others to use? You might not be concerned, but I am!
I started a discussion over on Surf’s Up Baby, but the girls keep deleting the threads. They are receiving alot of negative feedback about this and will not let anyone post anything related to this topic. You are forewarned!
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Amazing,Haven’t missed a day here since August. I knew the identity worries I had were always a problem, here it goes……….
Next, Andy will be selling identity theft protection..as a gift, of course.
So Andy unilaterally decided to give your personal information to a third party with unnamed individuals backing it. Better yet, they are allegedly located outside of the U.S.
Personally, I would put a lock on my credit at the three credit agencies. No accounts can be opened in your name, at least in theory. I would close existing credit accounts and bank accounts and reopen them with different account numbers and passwords (if any), explaining to the creditors that you are worried about ID theft. While a pain, statistically it takes an individual 18 months to discover that they are a victim of ID theft and it takes at least 5 years for victims to “get their good name back”. While ID theft may be unlikely, people who have been victims describe the hassles of dealing with ID theft after the fact as a “full time job”.
The following site is a wealth of information if you have concerns.
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/websites/idtheft.html
Just my opinion.
I did a little more research on Paul Walling (all readily available on the internet). The address noted in the first post above by LRM is interesting. It is not a suite. It is a rented PMB (private mail box) at the UPS Store in Lutz, FL. As LRM noted above, the same address is used for Invatage Medical billing services, which is also registered to Paul J. Walling.
Also, the websites for Paperless Access Inc (PaperlessAccessInc.com .net .org .info) were originally registered to Paul Walling at the above address on Mar 19, 2003. The contact information has been made private so that you have to do more digging to find the owner of the domain.
The phone number for the Adminsitrative contact for the domain is 813-235-6801. That number is registered to Paul Walling at 6902 Cancun Ct, Land O Lakes, FL 34637
The administrative email registered for Paperless Access Inc is paul@papacc.com which does not exist any more.
The original domain registration also mentions “Tennis Naturally”. The only reference I can find a business by that name is a nudist resort in California. The domain registration was created 7-Aug-2001. The archived website states “Share the exhilarating experience of Tennis – Naturally.” The domain server is papacc.com, which was also the domain of the email address. (was paperless access = papacc.com originally?)
The holder of two patents for a method for transmitting medical images is Paul J. Walling in 1989 and 1990. It also references Professional Satellite Imaging, Inc 179 Plymouth Way San Bernardino CA 92325
See
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4945410.html
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4802008.html
The Invantage website states “Since 1993, InVantage Medical has been providing reliable billing service expertise to practices from California to Florida.”
Amazing. Amazingly incompetent, that is.
If InVantage Medical is actually involved, as currently appears likely, it could get a second state’s AG after Bowdoin and Co., as Mr. Walling’s business also operates in California.
Additonally, creating a tie between Ponzi schemes and people’s medical records could result in some rather… let me say, “interesting” legal repercussions in and of itself.
Kathy, this is the funniest remark I’ve read in ages. I laughed until I had tears running down my face! I dare you to post it over at the ASDelusional site; seems some people over there didn’t think much of his latest offering either.
Sorry, Marci, but I am banned from that forum due to things I wrote on the ASD-Biz forum..but, I give you permission to write it asap!! It will, of course, be deleted!
What is interesting to me is how Andy keeps getting into business with all these questionable people. He sure knows how to pick’em doesn’t he. Now Paul Walling may not be Mr. Clean as thought at first blush. “Birds of a Feather, Flock Together” seems to be Andy’s motto for business associates. The “takes one to know one” also comes to mind when it comes to Andy and his business partners.
I think if the pepople behind AVGA, BAS, and AGW are revealed, there are going to be some very shocked people as to who all are involved. Guess none of these people learned a thing from ASD/its Spanish version and GP being shut down. Some just have to learn the old fashioned way….arrested. From what I have seen, they are used to it. Hopefully this time they will actually have to do time instead of a slap on the wrist.
It is beyond me why people blame others when information is so openly available on the internet .
Look at the facts:
1- Bowdoin has been married five times and bilked one wife out of over a $150,000 of which he has not repaid.
2-Florida public records openly show that Bowdoin started and failed in over 20 business ventures.
3-Alabama and Georgia public records show that he has conned investors out of thousands and perhaps millions in the past.To his credit and to stay out of jail he faithfully was repaying at the rate of $50 per month to the couple he fleeced in Alabama out of $450,000.
4- Trace his records back to his home town of Perry Fl. where he served as Mayor, find someone there that trusts him.If you go back to the 1960’s you could find that he failed in a Marine outboard motor dealership .Bowdoin does not have a good reputation in his home town.
5- Tracing his business history back through his self proclaimed success’s.One finds that he in fact did teach one or two Dale Carnegie courses in Tallahassee.However he was never associated with The Naploleon Hill Training Courses.In Georgia I uncovered that he had a SUCESS company called Success Motivation Institute which failed.
6-I also took the liberty to do research on the net looking up the term CON MAN. Guess what Andy Bowdoin fits like a glove those definitions.
Why does a con man get away with his con’s. Because we want financial success so badly that we believe them. We want so badly to believe and follow someone that we do so blindly.
Bowdoin in his lifetime has conned hundreds of people and still is on the hunt.And their will be more victims because they want success so badly that they fail to do their research. As a market investor I would never invest in a stock without doing adequate research into the company and it leaders. However when a con man happens by he cons us with his lies and we fall for it.
In closing look up the definition of a Ponzi scheme on the internet. It is free only costing you a few moments. In the future when something seems to be too good to be true ,easy,simple to make a million. Run!RUn!RUN!
Bob:
For a minute I thought that you were describing Bob Guenther and then I realized that you were talking about Andy Bowdoin.
http://www.hare.org/links/fraud.html
These Men Know ‘Snakes in Suits’: Identifying Psychopathic Fraudsters
Thought I’d share this interesting article from Fraud Magazine. (The name is a bit of a misnomer — it’s the magazine put out by the Certified Fraud Examiners — they’re actually AGAINST fraud).
Hello Bob:
Your research AND posting the goods on Andy Bowdoin is as as good as a ton of gold, and I say RA RA RA RA RA to your excellent posting ! You did an awesome job and for spending quality time researching and posting your findings, you deserve a PURPLE HEART !!!!!!!! :) :)
Can you provide me with more information about the government refund program for people who lost their money in ASD.
Thanks
Hello Michael,
You might want to check out these links:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/dc/Victim_Witness_Assistance/adsurfdailyinformationform.html
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/dc/Victim_Witness_Assistance/files/January%2023,%202009%20-%20civil%20forfeiture%20proceedings%20update.pdf
Patrick
[…] this year Bowdoin appeared in a video pitch for a purported surf known as PaperlessAccess. It was a way for ASD members to get their money back, he explained. The Pro-ASD Surf’s Up […]
[…] PaperlessAccess: Mysterious upstart surf. ASD President Andy Bowdoin appeared in a video for Paperless Access in 2009, after the ASD seizure. Video appeared online in March 2009 — during time frame in which AVG was announcing bank-account suspension and the departure of its CEO. PaperlessAccess positioned as way for ASD members to regain money seized by the government. Bowdoin did not identify the owners of Paperless Access, describing them only as a small group of people. Nor did Bowdoin mention that the government was establishing an ASD refund program. […]