WHO’S IN CHARGE? AdViewGlobal Surf Domain Now Resolves To GoDaddy; Registration Appears To Have Expired
UPDATED 6:45 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Has the autosurf world seen the last of AdViewGlobal? The surf’s main website at adviewglobal.com now resolves to a GoDaddy.com page filled with ads, and the domain registration appears to have expired Sept. 22.
It was not immediately clear how the development would affect AVG members. The company suspended cashouts in June, and reported in August that it had filed reports with law-enforcement agencies about a purported theft of $2.7 million.
AVG made the announcement about the purported theft one day after AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin revealed in court filings that he was negotiating with federal prosecutors. ASD and AVG have close family, membership and promoter ties.
AVG identified two suspects in its announcement about the purported theft. The PatrickPretty.com Blog is declining to publish the names because the information is sketchy and because AVG earlier had told a different story.
Bowdoin, however, was not identified by the firm as a theft suspect. Members said he was a silent partner in AVG.
An affidavit Bowdoin filed last week suggested a sealed grand-jury indictment had been returned against him in May, the same month AVG announced it had secured a new offshore wire facility customers could use to pay for “advertising” services.
In an accompanying filing, Bowdoin’s attorney, Charles A. Murray, said prosecutors wanted his client to “travel to Washington, D.C. and enter a criminal plea.”
Bowdoin chose not to go to Washington, Murray said.
The nature of the charges in any sealed indictment against Bowdoin are unclear.
AVG made the announcement about the wire facility on May 4, the same day President Obama announced a crackdown on offshore tax schemes. Three days later, a company that AVG had identified as a facilitator of the transfers denied it had any business relationship with AVG, suggesting AVG and a third company had engaged in a scam.
On June 1, AVG issued a baffling news release that seemed to suggest that the company had become a full-service advertising firm that also offered products and services beyond advertising, which led to question about what AVG was before it issued the release.
Domain registrations do not expire without the registrar sending several notices. Therefore, if this one expired it was either an enormous oversight – or an indication that the Harris/Bowdoin gang decided to let it expire.
having said that, if I’m not mistaken, the ‘association’ paperwork says that any funds remaining in the AVG treasury revert to the Harris family, so they may well have decided to simply allow AVG to die. Time will tell.
Hi Pat,
Another domain associated with AVG — advglobal.com — has been offline for some time, and the data indicate it was suspended for spam and abuse.
If you’ll recall, the domain for ASD Cash Generator was marked with the same spam-and-abuse DNS entry, roughly a year ago.
Regards,
Patrick
Patrick, it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of crooks. Hope they hire a good attorney.
HOLD ON..HELP IS ON IT’S WAY FOR AVGA..information just in from another forum posted today:
“I spoke with Laura yesterday, she said that her and another woman who worked in customer service are trying to get this back up and running.They have put together a business plan and are searching for an investor willing to take on the challenge.If it does come back they have the gentleman from Quiznos ready to be the CEO, she seemed very sincere in everything she said and if it is coming back then I believe she can do it !! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, she also said that they would do something with the current page impressions.”
Laura is Laura Pont Surf’s up moderator and one of the founders of AVGA. Of course, we all know who the Quizno’s person is..Bruce Disner.
Hi Kathy,
Todd Disner was a co-founder of Quiznos. Both Todd and Bruce Disner are among the pro se filers in the civil forfeiture case involving Andy Bowdoin’s assets.
With respect to Surf’s Up, someone tried to start a thread about AVG a couple of days ago, but it was deleted quickly.
Regards,
Patrick
The post DID NOT come from the Surf’s Up forum. The post referenced “Laura” and I only clarified just who “Laura” is..a Surf’s Up moderator as well as ONE of the AVGA founders.
Hi Kathy,
Understood. I was just trying to point out that Surf’s Up deleted an AVG thread and has a history of doing so.
Regards,
Patrick
Well, and lest we forget and start thinking that Mr. Disner is an astute, successful businessman and just the right person to transform AVG into the biggest entity on the ‘net, recall that Mr. Disner did indeed start the Quizno’s business, but sold it long, long, long before it became a significant, successful business. In other words, he is sort of like Dick and Mac McDonald…. Quizno’s was truly a “nothing” operation until the Schadens built it up into what it is today. No successful businessman would associate himself with an obvious Ponzi like AVG.
Correction!!!!!! where ya at? Joe??? Ooops. Enjoy county jail.
While I was being facetious, thank you Entertained for the information on Disner. It was difficult to imagine why a person behind a successful franchise such as Quizno’s would support a two bit crook such as Andy Bowdoin, much less a failed illegal auto-surf, such as AVGA.
These characters have a funny way of re-writing their pasts. Andy, of course was a visionary with his successful cell phone business. I can see it now:
BREAKING NEWS:
AVGA has been purchased by highly successful business owner, Bruce Dizner CEO of Quizno’s. We are relaunching AVGA with a 200% bonus. Contact everyone one you know for this bonus is good for one month only!
200% more cold cuts on subs?
Just when I thought the lunacy was drawing to a close. More pro se filings and now this. What are these people thinking?
As many readers will recall, things got so insane with AVG in May that it advertised an “unprecedented†250 percent match — less than two weeks after it announced the new offshore wire facility, and then unannounced the wire facility, saying negotiations it advertised as completed actually had failed.
Then AVG’s first website relaunch failed, and a 200 percent match came into play, advertised through June 28, then suddenly shaved back 23 days to June 5.
Now Andy says an indictment was returned in May.
Given the benefit of hindsight, some of AVG’s actions now appear to be consistent with a company that frantically was trying to get legal.
When I look back at the strange things that occurred in May, June and July, it now looks as though AVG was reacting to extreme stress.
Remember Entertained’s list of questions, which Donna appears to have spun to avoid the unpleasant realities?
Donna later left. It now looks as though she perhaps came into possession of information that helped her change her thinking. I’m wondering if someone let it slip that Andy had been indicted.
See the story/comments:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/06/25/adviewglobal-surf-firm-suspends-member-cash-outs-threatens-media-with-copyright-infringement-lawsuits/
Also see this story and accompanying comments:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/06/29/questions-adviewglobal-members-might-want-to-ask-the-management-team-as-surf-sinks-into-cash-out-abyss/
And who can forget about the extreme reaction to our June 3 story on the shortcut AVG prospects/sponsors could take to get ad packs credited in time to qualify for the bonus, the deadline for which suddenly had been shaved from June 28 to June 5?
See this story and accompanying comments:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/06/03/adviewglobal-promoter-says-prospects-can-bypass-company-and-purchase-ad-packs-directly-from-sponsors-to-ensure-they-get-credited-with-200-percent-match-before-deadline/
Patrick
Good Lord,
In the world of HYIP ponzi and “autosurfs”
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Bryan Marsden of P.I.P.S. fame (infamy) did it first,
while he was still facing the charges which eventually lead to his gaoling in Malaysia, he introduced “HA Lotto” to his adoring flocks as his next “big thing”
Now we have the so called “new” owners of AVG planning to introduce “RocketRaffle” to help make up for the demise of AVG.
Talk about “deja vu” all over again:
This email has apparently been sent to the AVG faithful:
“Our ownership group purchased the AdGateWorld properties approximately 60 days ago. At that time we knew we were getting involved with a fluid situation and a very unique business model. Unfortunately, we did not realize that other ‘similar’ sites continued to operate fly by night operations and dangle unreasonable bonuses and returns.
The original developers of the AdGate network never created false expectations or gave rebates that were not completely justified by revenues. This honest and legitimate approach using the advertising rebate model apparently did not meet the expectations of the herd mentality. They were far more interested, despite multiple warnings, to run and place their money at risk with unsavory operators. One by one they fell by the waste side taking advertiser funds with them. The disappointment of the original company and their consultants should have given us advance warning. This ‘lottery ticket’ mindset still continues today even after all of the clones have imploded from bad accounting procedures.
Our team has reviewed all possible programming for tiered rebate structures. We have also discussed the state of the advertising rebate arena in general. We are completely frustrated with the outcome of these efforts. It is quite obvious that ‘reasonable’ rebates cannot take place without continued advertising. The crowd attracted to this type of opportunity is not satisfied with legitimate rebates unless they are based on ‘total smoke and mirrors math’. After meeting the demand for a switch to the newer rebate model it was assumed that members would understand the difference and the stability. No one cared because some other site was giving a ridiculous 14% a week until they collapsed after their supposedly record weeks!
It is a true shame considering that both ownership groups provided a legitimate advertising rebate program. Since the launch of the site, regular ‘tweaks’ and changes were made to create an even better opportunity. In conclusion, this audience was not interested in a multi-faceted social advertising program. The majority only cared about finding the next ‘big score’ or bonus.
At this time our company cannot even support the monthly bills based on the advertising revenue generated. We understand that a smaller portion of the membership is interested in real opportunities and concepts. AdGateWorld will cease to exist in its current form but we will continue to communicate and bring REAL strategies that we are developing to your inbox. Some of these are brand new internet concepts that will be shared with each of you FIRST before public launch. Some are completely passive while others are affiliate based. We believe that placing our focus on these non-surf projects will be far more successful at this stage. Everything that we are working on WILL be shared with former AdGateWorld members. In the coming weeks you will have the ability to gain a spot (limited to 500) in the pre-launch of RocketRaffle.com. It is the first 24 hour online raffle system that will provide massive traffic generation and an affiliate program. Members of AdGateWorld that chose to participate will reap the benefits of this incredible new project. Today may be the end of one dream but all of us will succeed in the exciting projects that will be introduced shortly.
Best Regards,
AdGateWorld”
Is there anyone out there to answer my question?? I am interested in getting my money back from AdviewGlobal. Is that a joke or is there a chance? If anyone knows what I can do, please contact me.
Call Laura Pont, one of the founders..321.266.4802 OR join her latest scam
http://www.tviexpress.com/lauraann117
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