“These participants received uncontrolled cash deposits outside of the TelexFree system,” — Massachusetts Securities Division, Ponzi- and pyramid complaint against TelexFree, April 15, 2014.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For our earliest background on BitClub Network, see Aug. 30 report that references serial HYIP promoter T. LeMont Silver. Are you really sure you want to promote bitcoin-themed HYIPs alongside a man who parachuted into the Dominican Republic from Florida after the Zeek HYIP scam and now is using an address in Seychelles?

Read on for more early background on BitClub Network . . .

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As tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the beginning of World War II, it’s easy enough to summon images of the late Winston Churchill asking the world to pay attention. The great man still is very much alive in the annals of history and in millions of hearts. We imagine him in 2014, contemplating BitClub Network as a gathering storm, perhaps a modern “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

BitClub Network appears very much to be yet another nascent MLM/network marketing whack-a-mole “program,” a reload scheme rising to replace a “program” that has collapsed. The most recent major “program” to crumble into an alleged heap of Ponzi- and pyramid rubble was TelexFree — in April 2014.

Reload schemes keep cash flowing to factories of online crime and to the “leaders” who deliver human souls to them for the purposes of financial disembowelment. The more bodies disemboweled, the more the scammers-in-chief and their disingenuous and corrupt enablers make.

Our early analysis of BitClub Network, subject to amendment, is that it is casting its net to attract the greediest and greatest HYIP scammers on a cross-continent basis. The PP Blog observed information last night that suggested the brand of BitClub Network, which already is conducting business via wires that pass though the United States, also may be expanding in a region of Europe known for atrocities, including ethnic cleansing.

Among the core dangers of HYIP scams is that they deliver undeserved and potentially ruinous economic power to unknown persons or entities. The money could be used for any nefarious purpose under the sun.

For an unclear reason — headline scraping to drive people with an interest in politics to bitcoin-themed sites, perhaps? — one promo using the name of BitClub Network linked yesterday via Twitter to a site that featured a video commercial and the names of National Geographic and Michelin, the French tire-maker with a presence in the United States. The Twitter linkage occurred through a site curiously dubbed “Bitcoin Regime” with a “From” message of “Bitclub Russia.” A promo today linked via Twitter through Bitcoin Regime was playing a commercial for Schick, the Connecticut-based maker of razors. Some text surrounding the promos is in English. Other text appears to be in the language of Russian or Ukranian or Serbian.

“Bitclub Russia” appears also to have its own YouTube site. “Bitcoin Regime,” meanwhile, says “[t]his site was created out of passion and interest in the subject.” One of the headlines on the site reads, “Obama: No Strategy For ISIS.. (Oops, We Funded & Trained ISIS!).”

Another reads, “. . . because fuck fiat!” Yet another reads, “Let’s Talk Bitcoin: Buenos Aires & Bitcoin Embassy.” Still another, in Russian, reads, “Earn Bitcoins on a serious level 1 service! The most serious Bitcoin earnings!” — when Google’s translation tool from Russian to English is used.

Is it a scraping site of some sort that is drafting off the anticipated popularity of BitClub Network?

ISIS is the terrorist group that allegedly beheaded American journalist James Foley and also allegedly beheaded a Lebanese soldier.

Launch Timing

Head-scratchingly, the “Founders’” launch of the BitClub Network “program” had been set for Sept. 1, the 75th anniversary of the beginning of World War II. Whether that’s a coincidence is unclear. Sept. 1 also is Labor Day in the United States. Various HYIPs have targeted the world’s workers, offering false relief from the daily grind — not just a chicken in every pot, but a mansion, unlimited sums of cash and perhaps a fleet of high-end automobiles and maybe even a Ferrari (or two).

As is typical in HYIP scams, there was at least one report this morning circulating on Twitter that BitClub Network has experienced a launch delay. As also is typical in HYIP Ponzi Land, black comedy is in no short supply. Whether it’s accidental or intentional is unclear.

In any event, BitClub Network reportedly has a feature known as the “holding tank” — and this “holding tank” is being blamed for the launch delay.

“Hi Leaders,” a link from Twitter bizarrely begins, adding a second layer of black comedy. “Ok, I just heard that the programming of the holding tank feature is taking a bit longer than expected, so dont [sic] be dissapointed [sic] as it basically gives us more time to prepare our teams. :) So, it now looks like we [sic] gonna pre launch around wednesday [sic] or thursday [sic] 2pm EST [sic?] this coming week!”

Perhaps most distressing, though, is a murky claim that “Founders” still can wire $3,599 to get started, “holding tank” delay or not. This wire maneuver appears to be very similar to the way things were done at WCM777, alleged by the SEC earlier this year to be a massive international scam. It’s also highly reminiscent of Profitable Sunrise, which told the marks to wire money to the Czech Republic. Some of the money was seized in Hungary in a money-laundering probe.

Details of the BitClub Network wiring arrangement are not published and apparently are revealed only in private communications, another typical signature of an emerging HYIP scam. It’s also possible that people are disguising themselves as BitClub Network promoters to solicit and then steal wire transfers.

“If you want to do a wire you need to get back to me ASAP and I will sent [sic] you the details for that,” the link from Twitter coaches. “The advanatge [sic] of sending in a wire is that you lock your spot on top of the binairy [sic] before hundreds or probably thusands [sic] that will come in afer [sic] you at launch!”

Chronic typos and odd syntax often signal HYIP scammers are at work.

A separate link from Twitter, presumptively from a different early bird, says, “[Y]ou get paid right away on all referrals and can use those commissions to pay others in after they send you paypal [,] bank wire, or pazya etc.”

If this is true, it would reflect the money-moving mechanics of other HYIP scams that encourage “leaders” to gather money from prospects via bank wires and payment processors — and then to cherry-pick part of it or all of it to use as a recruitment lure. Such deals almost certainly would take place off the books of the “program” and can create layers and layers of black markets inside a larger black market — nesting dolls of crime, if you will.

The second link from Twitter continues (italics added):

I can’t stress enough the fact that you are at the top and at the very beginning of this incredible global program that will make everyone money every day, just for joining.

If you have done your homework you shoud [sic] know by now why this is and how it works, cause of the crypto currency mining :)

And if you refer others, well you”ll [sic] make a KILLING! read [sic] the income example on the payplan site, this will blow your mind!

This is BIG money you can make here, some of you will make already [sic] 7 figures by christmas [sic].

Naturally some American scammers appear already to be doing some of the bidding for BitClub Network. It’s as though Profitable Sunrise, a collapsed HYIP allegedly operated by a ghost and driven by willfully blind affiliates who conducted business by wire from the United States to Eastern Europe, never happened.

BitClub Network also may be a bit like TelexFree, another collapsed HYIP. After prospects are told they can only join by wire at this stage and later will have to join with bitcoin, the first link from Twitter goes on to suggest sponsors can perform back-office transactions and collect money directly from recruits.

Here’s how the first link from Twitter (described above) confusingly puts it (italics added):

OR……having your sponsor or upline paying for you with their commissions within their back office using the credit system after you have sent them the money!

Back-office transactions almost certainly contributed to the calamity at TelexFree, an alleged Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that may have gathered more than $1.2 billion in a little more than two years of Internet scamming. One of the issues at TelexFree was “cash deposits” alleged to be “uncontrolled.”

As noted above, one of the dangers of such systems is that they introduce the specter of a black-market economy and back-alley deals, making already-dangerous enterprises doubly dangerous. The results can be bizarre.

As things stand today, if BitClub Network were the movie “Casablanca,” Renault would be telling the troops to “round up the usual suspects.”

Any person who joins this program with a purported “holding tank” is a fool. Any person who pitches it to others amid these exceptionally murky circumstances is reckless beyond comparison.