On The High Seas Of Facebook, The Search For New HYIP Blood In The Water Intensifies After ‘Profitable Sunrise’ Goes Missing

“HYIPs use an array of websites and social media — including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook — to lure investors, fabricating a ‘buzz’ and creating the illusion of social consensus, which is a common persuasion tactic fraudsters use to suggest that ‘everyone is investing in HYIPs, so they must be legitimate.'” — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), July 15, 2010

FINRA issued a warning back in 2010 against HYIP schemes, pointing out that they often trade through social-media sites such as forums, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The warning came on the heels of the collapse of the Genius Funds “program” ($400 million) and the filing of criminal charges in the United States against Nicholas Smirnow, an alleged former bank robber in Canada who allegedly was running the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) Ponzi scheme. P2P is alleged to have gathered more than $70 million.

P2P even got a mention on the U.S. Department of Justice Blog. That mention came in the form of a warning about international mass-marketing fraud.

Nearly three years later, Smirnow, 55, is still listed by INTERPOL as an international fugitive.

So is Robert Hodgins, 68. Hodgins, a Canadian supplier of debit cards to HYIP schemes, is charged in a money-laundering case in the United States. It is alleged that cards Hodgins supplied were used by narcotics traffickers to offload millions of dollars in “profits” at ATMs in Medellin, Colombia.

Speaking of Colombia . . . well, it was one of the staging grounds of the infamous D.M.G. Group (DMG) multilevel-marketing pyramid scheme of David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzman (David Murcia). Murcia, too, was tied to narcotics traffickers. His collapsed pyramid scheme gathered hundreds of millions of dollars. The anger spilled out onto the streets.

Just about all of these schemes made absurd claims. Genius Funds, for example, promised a payout of 6.5 percent a week. Compare that absurd claim to the Profitable Sunrise claim of 2.7 percent a day through its bizarrely named “Long Haul” plan with a purported payout timed to coincide with Easter. A scheme bizarrely known as Cash Tanker was operating at the same time as Genius Funds. Like Profitable Sunrise, Cash Tanker purported to be a Christian enterprise. It’s gone now, too. So is Profitable Sunrise. Their members were cast into the sea like so much chum.

Enter the Facebook boat-sharks and the contemptible “lifelines” they’re tossing toward the people struggling to stay afloat in rough seas . . .

Despite all the warnings — despite all the publicity surrounding HYIP schemes — opportunists are descending on Facebook today to recruit Profitable Sunrise members (the people struggling in the water) into new scams. The same thing has happened repeatedly, perhaps most prominently in August 2012, after the SEC described the Zeek Rewards “program” as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.)

Boat-sharks posting on a Profitable Sunrise Facebook site today are promoting schemes such as “SuperWithdraw,” “Whos12,” Maxi-Cash,” “FairyFunds,” “Roxilia,” “OptiEarn,” “AVVGlobal,” “ProForexUnion” and “MajestiCrown.” Some of the emerging schemes promise to pay even more than Profitable Sunrise.