‘GooBets,’ Cross-Border Fraud Scheme, Emerges

GooBets, an emerging HYIP scheme with a presence on social media, is leeching off the brands of the NBA and NFL, among others.

2ND UPDATE 2:19 P.M. EDT U.S.A. A “program” known as “GooBets” that appears to be targeting speakers of Portuguese and English has emerged. BehindMLM.com broke the news this morning.

After observing the GooBets site, the PP Blog sought comment from the National Football League and the National Basketball Association. That’s because GooBets is using the intellectual property of both sports leagues in a rolling promo on its website.

Neither league responded immediately to the requests for comment. The Blog will publish the responses, if received.

Update 12:25 p.m. Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the NFL, said in an email that the league did not have a comment.

Update at 2:19 p.m. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment on GooBets. (Original story continues below . . .)

Images of players from the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks appear on the GooBets website. So do images of players from the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic. An inspirational quote attributed to NBA legend Michael Jordan appears on the site, which also uses images from professional soccer and tennis.

Many fraud schemes leech off the brands of famous business entities or people.

GooBets is reminiscent of earlier collapsed “betting” schemes or “arbitrage” programs such as GoldNuggetInvest. GNI collapsed in 2010, amid a bizarre assertion it was seeking a “crystal clear vision of our financial vortex.” A probable reload scheme known as “New GNI” later emerged, pushed by Ponzi-board legend “Ken Russo,” a figure in the Zeek Rewards and Profitable Sunrise schemes — among many others.

Zeek Rewards and Profitable Sunrise were massive fraud schemes, according to the SEC. NewGNI appears to have gone missing in 2013.

Like the original GNI, NewGNI, Zeek and Profitable Sunrise, GooBets has a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums such as MoneyMakerGroup.

Twitter already is thick with GooBets promos. One of them, dated today, claims that “Sports Trading Has Never Been So Easy. In GooBets Everybody Makes 25% to 31% Per Week. Period!!!”

Promos for GooBets also appear on Facebook and YouTube. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission updated its Investor Alert on fraud schemes trading on social media in November 2014.

“Investment fraud criminals look for victims on social media sites, chat rooms, and bulletin boards,” the SEC said.

The targeting of GooBets — at speakers of Portuguese or English — also is reminiscent of the collapsed TelexFree scheme in 2014. TelexFree, which reached across borders and appears to have gathered $1.8 billion while creating at least hundreds of thousands of fraud victims, triggered investigations by the SEC and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In 2015, a scheme known as Wings Network was operating in part from Massachusetts at Ground Zero for TelexFree. The SEC brought an action against management and promoters, alleging Wings was a Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that appeared to have set up shop in Portugal and the United Arab Emirates to reach across borders and scam the masses.

Wings allegedly plucked at least $23.5 million.

At least one TelexFree promoter who appears to have been involved in the WCM777 scam broken up by the SEC last year used the logo of the NFL in Facebook promos and sought to lure prospects with game tickets.

A promo in English for GooBets observed by the PP Blog today read in part (italics added):

Hey, it’s a VERY excited Darren here :-)

This is like shooting fish in a barrel… a barrel with no water in it !!

I have FINALLY found the Holy Grail – a 100% legit way to earn a steady and secure Passive Income stream online and I just had to tell you about it.

The name of the Company is GooBets LLC. and is the collaboration between a VERY successful ‘Sports Trader’ – Miguel Carvalho and his Mega-Business partner – Augusto Queiroz.