Archive for April 2015

UPDATED 7:10 A.M. EDT APRIL 18 U.S.A. A year has passed since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced the prosecution of TelexFree. Here’s the lede from the PP Blog’s story on April 17, 2014: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against the alleged TelexFree pyramid scheme and a federal judge […]

NOTE: This post originally was published March 30 at 12:21 a.m. It will remain in this slot for several days, but new posts will appear below it. Dear Readers, In November, I introduced “penny-a-post” annual subscriptions. These were designed to allow readers to value the PP Blog’s editorial well of 2,500 articles between 1 cent […]

As the PP Blog reported yesterday, photos of National Basketball Association players and team jerseys are appearing on the .com (https://www) website of “GooBets,” a purported betting entity in which recruits are being told “Everybody Makes 25% to 31% Per Week. Period!!!” The NBA said today that the matter had been forwarded to “our Legal […]

BULLETIN: The SEC has gone to federal court in Atlanta, charging the alleged operator of CashFlowBot (DollarMonster) with operating a Ponzi scheme. The “program” had a presence on Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. James A. Evans, 33, of Villa Rica, Ga., has been charged with selling unregistered securities and securities fraud. The SEC […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (Updated 9:05 a.m. EDT April 15 U.S.A.) An investment scam known as LB Stocks and Trades Advice LLC was targeted at military personnel at Fort Hood in Texas and perhaps other installations, the SEC has alleged. Charged in the scheme were the company and alleged operator Leroy Brown Jr., 32, […]

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 […]

A California attorney alleged to have stolen at least $800,000 that originated in Zeek Rewards while serving as counsel for a Zeek financial vendor has been formally disbarred. The California Supreme Court issued the order against Scott Stone Mehler on Feb. 23, according to the docket of the case. Mehler was an attorney for Plastic […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: The interconnectivity of fraud schemes is one of the core dangers of the HYIP sphere. Stolen proceeds continually cycle between and among scams, making banks and payment vendors virtual warehouses for cross-border criminals and their serial enablers. The problem may be intensifying. More and more HYIP schemes appear to be using script kits […]

4th Update 1:15 p.m. EDT U.S.A. “Daily-Earnings,” yet another Ponzi-board scheme pushed by Achieve Community huckster Rodney Blackburn, appears to have met its demise. The “https” dotcom for Daily-Earnings is publishing a “Your web space is ready to go!” message, suggesting front-page content has been moved from the site. Not all pages of the site, […]

UPDATED 9:10 A.M. EDT U.S.A. It’s whack-a-mole via MLM or network marketing — again. There are reports in Thai media about a major pyramid/Ponzi bust involving a cross-border “program” known as “UFunClub.” (See links below.) No American suspects appear to have been arrested or named so far, but Americans have promoted UFunClub. One of them, […]

Two senior managers at the St. Michael’s Centre nursing home in Burnaby allegedly were running a pyramid scheme targeted at women and have been fired, GlobalNews.ca is reporting. Workers — rather than residents — were the apparent targets. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating, the publication reported. Whether the scheme was operating as a […]