DEVELOPING STORY: Ghastly Campaign On Facebook To Intimidate TelexFree Prosecutor In Brazil May Be Under Way
Facts are sketchy, but there are disturbing reports in Brazilian media today that someone with a Facebook account used it to claim falsely that a prosecutor involved in the TelexFree pyramid-scheme probe had been murdered. The bogus report was supplemented by photos of a mutilated body purported to be that of the prosecutor.
Investigators in Brazil are treating the matter as an effort to intimidate the prosecutor, according to media accounts in Portuguese.
TelexFree has been under investigation in Brazil since at least June. There have been reports of death threats directed at a prosecutor and a judge.
But apparent efforts to menace officers of the court are only one symptom of the disconnect that accompanies TelexFree, an MLM “program” that some U.S. affiliates say triples or quadruples money in a year.
The PP Blog has observed recent instances in which apparent TelexFree members hoping to gain recruits spammed Comments threads below stories in Brazilian media that reported on the suicide deaths of two TelexFree members in the country.
New TelexFree registrations are blocked in Brazil. Certain TelexFree assets have been frozen. Pitchfests, though, continue in other countries. Some promos have encouraged Brazilians to pose as residents of the United Kingdom to evade the limitations imposed in Brazil and sign up for the “program.”
TerraMagazine possibly was the first outlet to report the disturbing news about the false reports about the murder of a prosecutor. There’s also a report on cbnfoz.com.br. (See Google Translation from Portuguese to English.)
Quick note: Also see:
http://cenariomt.com.br/noticia.asp?cod=332561&coddep=1
And:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fcenariomt.com.br%2Fnoticia.asp%3Fcod%3D332561%26codDep%3D1
Patrick
The Ministerio Publico do Estado do Acre has issued a statement in Portuguese:
http://www.mpac.mp.br/nota-de-repudio/
I ran it through Google Translate. The message appears to be that prosecutors are repudiating the Facebook incident, describing it as ugly and an example of virtual terrorism on the web.
Patrick
[…] See Dec. 13, 2013, PP Blog story. […]
[…] tracked down the publisher of false claims that one of their own had been murdered. The claims, published on Facebook back in December of last year, […]
[…] tracked down the publisher of false claims that one of their own had been murdered. The claims, published on Facebook back in December of last year, […]