PatrickPretty.com

Category: Writing And Branding

  • As Longstanding Antiscam Publication Passes 2,200-Post Milestone, It Passes The Hat: Help Needed From Readers

    Dear Readers,

    Post updated 5:06 p.m., Dec. 5. It is the 11th hour. This post has been up since Nov. 23, resulting in $135 in contributions from readers. That is at least $515 short of what is needed. This Blog has made a difference in people’s lives. I hope it always will, despite the challenges.

    Original post below . . .

    _______________________

    This is PP Blog post No. 2,207. There has not been a passing-the-hat post since January. It’s time again.

    Most of my time and energy goes into the Blog: the reading, the researching, the reporting, the writing. And I’m also the bottle-washer, which is to say the guy who monitors the waves such as the one shown in this screen shot taken three days ago:

    jsstriplerspam

    Thankfully it wasn’t a knockout wave. But the Blog has experienced those, too, in recent weeks.

    Shown in the screen shot is a wave of IPs bearing signatures from China virtually simultaneously seeking to pull this Aug. 22, 2012, PP Blog story on the JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler/ProfitClicking HYIP Ponzi scheme and to load up the thread with resources-draining spam. It was as though the 15-month-old URL for the story had been loaded into a cannon. Had the IP wave grown in intensity, legitimate readers looking for information on actual or alleged Ponzi schemes or highly dubious online “opportunities” with an investment element could have been denied access to the information, thus setting the stage for scammers to rip off even more people.

    Friends, $650 isn’t a lot to some people. But it’s the world to me. It’s what I need to keep the Blog going, to keep me going into the new year.

    Please help if you’re able.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: United States, 10 Foreign Law-Enforcement Agencies, Seize 706 Domain Names In Cyber Fraud Crackdown

    domainseizurescybermonday2013smallURGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The United States and 10 law-enforcement agencies in Europe and Hong Kong have seized 706 domain names in a Cyber Monday fraud crackdown, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said.

    The photo above is from one of the domains: nfl-go.com, which has been linked to counterfeiting, according to a seizure message playing on the site. Variety.com first reported the seizure of domains linked to alleged counterfeiting sites that trade on the intellectual property of the National Football League.

    At least some of the seized sites now display the emblems of at least 14 law-enforcement agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom (City of London Police), Belgium, Romania, Hong Kong, France, Spain, Hungary and Denmark. The EUROPOL emblem also is rolling across the seized sites.

    “Working with our international partners on operations like this shows the true global impact of IP crime,” said ICE Acting Director John Sandweg. “Counterfeiters take advantage of the holiday season and sell cheap fakes to unsuspecting consumers everywhere. Consumers need to protect themselves, their families, and their personal financial information from the criminal networks operating these bogus sites.”

    A top EUROPOL official said buyers may be assisting organized crime.

    “Unfortunately the economic downturn has meant that disposable income has gone down, which may tempt more people to buy products for prices that are too good to be true. Consumers should realize that, by buying these products, they risk supporting organized crime,” said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol.

    ICE dubbed the takedown “Operation In Our Sites, Project Cyber Monday IV,” saying it built on efforts that began in 2010 and continued through subsequent years. The European side of the probe was dubbed Project Transatlantic III.

    ICE is a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Working with ICE on the U.S. side were Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) in Washington, D.C.

    HSI conducted undercover operations as part of the effort, ICE said.

    “This is the fourth year that the IPR Center has targeted websites selling counterfeit products online in conjunction with Cyber Monday,” ICE said. “Due to the global nature of Internet crime, the IPR Center partnered with Europol who, through its member countries, seized 393 foreign-based top-level domains as part of Project Transatlantic III. Additionally, Hong Kong Customs coordinated the seizure of 16 foreign-based top-level domains hosted in Hong Kong, enlisting the assistance of the web-hosting companies to suspend the service of related websites.”

    “During this operation, federal law enforcement officers made undercover purchases of a host of products including professional sports jerseys and equipment, DVD sets and a variety of clothing, jewelry and luxury goods from online retailers who were suspected of selling counterfeit products,” ICE said. “Upon confirmation by the trademark or copyright holders that the purchased products were counterfeit or otherwise illegal, law enforcement officers obtained seizure orders for the domain names of the websites that sold these goods.”

  • Conflicting Reports Over Status Of U.S. Payza Funds: Frozen? Withheld By Vendor? Seized By Department Of Homeland Security?

    This claim appears today on a website styled obopayusa.com. Precisely when it began to appear is unclear.
    This claim appears today on a website styled obopayusa.com. Precisely when it began to appear is unclear.

    With Cyber Monday and the traditional online sales coming up a few days from now on Dec. 2, this is what we know: Payza, the successor brand to Montreal-based AlertPay, a Ponzi-forum darling and chronic HYIP- and fraud-enabler, suddenly says this in a headline on its Community forum: “US Funds Frozen | Obopay/Ultralight FS. issue.”

    The announcement is dated yesterday, Thanksgiving Eve in the United States.

    Today is Thanksgiving Day. U.S. government offices are closed. Black Friday, another day of brisk U.S. sales activity in which retailers cater to door-busting holiday shoppers, is tomorrow.

    We also know that the U.S. government has established a tradition of taking down counterfeiting and piracy scams and their enabling websites on Cyber Monday. Moreover, we know that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, issued an alert two days ago that it is working with partners and “will be conducting increased operations during the holiday season targeting the importation and distribution of counterfeit and pirated products.”

    Beyond that, we know that the United States — the U.S. Secret Service, ICE and other agencies — took down the Liberty Reserve payment processor over the 2013 Memorial Day holiday period and the U.S. Department of the Treasury identified Liberty Reserve as a “Financial Institution of Primary Money Laundering Concern.” The bust was announced on May 28, the day after Memorial Day.

    Backing up a year, we also know that the AlertPay-enabled Zeek Rewards venture that allegedly conducted a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud while auctioning sums of U.S. cash and telling successful bidders they could use AlertPay and another offshore processor (SolidTrustPay) to collect it, curiously announced on Memorial Day 2012 (May 28) that checks it issued from two U.S. banks had to be cashed by June 1 or they would bounce.

    Backing up a few years, we also know that AlertPay and SolidTrustPay enabled the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and the $70 million Pathway To Prosperity fraud scheme — to name just two of many.

    Meanwhile, we know that the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case is going after money allegedly tied to Payza and SolidTrustPay. The most recent affirmation of this occurred on Nov. 14, when the receiver advised a federal judge that his efforts to gather $10 million from Payza “persisted” and that “new information has come in” that affects his analysis of Zeek-related Payza funds. Whether the $10 million sum would go up or down based on the new information was not revealed in the filing.

    Analysis of “transactional data from Payza is not yet complete,” the receiver advised the judge. He also noted that the Payza funds were held in a “foreign bank account” in an undisclosed country.  Based on its research, the PP Blog believes the country is in Eastern Europe.

    We also know that AlertPay effectively became Payza in May 2012, even as Zeek was conducting auctions for U.S. currency and experiencing trouble with U.S. banks. Payza operates through a New York entity known as MH Pillars Inc., which in May 2012 announced the “recent acquisition of AlertPay’s existing online payment platform.” Payza also is associated with a U.K. entity known as MH Pillars Ltd. of London.

    Thanksgiving Confusion

    Although Payza’s headline uses the word “Frozen,” the text below it does not identify the party that purportedly froze the funds. At the same time, the text appears to be at least slightly at odds with the headline claim that the money was “Frozen.” Indeed, the text describes the funds as “withheld.”

    Although the word choices may or may not be important, one thing seems obvious: Either word is apt to be unsettling to Payza’s U.S. customers who want their money.

    “As you may or may not already know, we are unable to complete any requests to withdraw or transfer funds for a part of our U.S. members at this time, since they are being withheld [emphasis added by PP Blog] by Ultralight Financial Services (formerly known as Obopay Inc.) a licensed U.S. money transmitter of which Payza was an agent,” the announcement begins.

    “We have tried to resolve this problem by contacting their management, their legal team and State regulators,” the announcement continues. “Their management and legal team were unresponsive. However, State regulators are willing to help us, but they have told us that they will not intervene unless they hear from you, the owner of your funds.

    “In this case, Payza is asking all affected members to demand action from both Ultralight FS and your State regulator . . .”

    At the time of this PP Blog post, the full Nov. 27 announcement is available at the Payza Community Forum. [See Update at bottom of this PP Blog post.]

    These Thanksgiving Eve claims by Payza are at odds with other claims online.
    These Thanksgiving Eve claims by Payza are at odds with other claims online.

    In short, Payza seems to be saying that Ultralight/Obopay Inc. is responsible for its inability to serve U.S. customers because the entities either froze or withheld the money.

    But here is where the information diverges and becomes even more fractious: At least two websites that state they’re associated with Obopay claim that “[t]he US Department of Homeland Security has seized all MH Pillars dba Payza money on deposit with UltraLight FS.” Both of these sites are cheesy in appearance. Both also have have copyright notices: One, styled obopayusa.com, says “Content copyright 2013. Obopay, Inc. All rights reserved.” The other, styled ultralightfs.com, says “Copyright @ UltraLight Financial Services. All rights reserved.”

    Neither site says when the money purportedly was seized. Nor does either site say how much was seized.

    So, the apparent obopay and UltraLight entities are saying the money was seized by the U.S. Feds. Payza is saying it was “frozen” or “withheld” by obopay/ultralight.

    What’s the truth? Well, it’s unclear at this time.

    There’s also a website styled obopay.com that appears to have the same logo as obopayusa.com. The obopay.com site asserts an association with Obopay Mobile Technology India Pvt. Ltd. of Bangalore and says its partners include Societe Generale, Essar Telecom Kenya Limited and Union Bank of India.

    The obopay.com site appears to make no reference to Payza or MH Pillars, but does reference Obopay Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., as its parent company. When the PP Blog clicked on a “State License” tab at the bottom of the obopay.com site, however, it received this error message: “An error occurred during a connection to www.obopay.com. Peer’s Certificate has been revoked. (Error code: sec_error_revoked_certificate).”

    So, another layer of the curious.

    Searching the database of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the PP Blog located a document that suggests Obopay Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., is a registered Money Services Business in all 50 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia. FinCEN is an arm of the U.S. Treasury Department. Its stated mission is “to safeguard the financial system from illicit use and combat money laundering and promote national security through the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence and strategic use of financial authorities.”

    Information on MH Pillars Inc. of New York also appears in the FinCEN database. The information suggests the firm is a registered Money Services Business in at least 48 of the the 50 U.S. states. (California and New Hampshire appear to be possible exceptions.) MH Pillars also appears to be registered in venues such as American Samoa, the Federated States Of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

    It seems clear that both Obopay Inc. and MH Pillars Inc. are registered MSBs. Why, then, can’t U.S. Payza customers get their cash? Could it be because UltraLight isn’t registered? The FinCEN database appears to have no information on UltraLight.

    But a Florida Department of State database does, and that information suggests Obopay Inc. is changing its name to ULTRALIGHT FS Inc. The Florida document is date-stamped Oct. 15, 2013. A phone number listed in the document comports with a phone number in Louisiana and Mississippi records as the number for Obopay Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.  Like Redwood City, Mountain View is a Silicon Valley community.

    Why FinCEN records show Obopay in Redwood City while state records show the enterprise in Mountain View was not immediately clear.

    What does seem clear is that some or all of Payza’s U.S. customers can’t get their money and that whatever dispute exists between Payza and OboPay/Ultralight is about money that either was frozen/withheld by OboPay/Ultralight or seized by U.S. law enforcement.

    Payza claimed in July 2012 to be cleaning up its act. This claim was made about a month prior to the August 2012 Zeek action by the SEC and an accompanying confirmation from the U.S. Secret Service that it also was investigating Zeek. Whether the Payza claim was just lip service remains to be seen.

    When the United States took down Liberty Reserve, the Secret Service changed Liberty Reserve’s domain nameservers to a “sinkhole” URL at ShadowServer.org. This initially caused Liberty Reserve to go offline. When the domain returned, the logos/badges of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Global Illicit Financial Team,  the Secret Service, the Treasury Department and Homeland Security Investigations were published on the site to let the world know that crime doesn’t pay in the United States.

    Payza’s website loaded quickly this morning, with full Payza branding and services appearing. DNS settings appear not to have been altered, suggesting at least to this point that the domain has not been seized by the United States. Whether the United States intends to seize it now or ever is not known.

    But seizing money is an altogether different matter. One of the ways to choke off HYIP and counterfeit-goods/pirating scams is to stop the fuel supply and to starve them out. If the United States desired to cripple criminal HYIPs and counterfeiting enterprises, it theoretically could attack them by seizing money that had been routed through Payza and the AlertPay predecessor.

    Whether that’s what’s happening here remains unclear. At the same time, it would be catastrophically foolish for an enterprise such as Obopay or UltraLight (or some combination thereof) to attribute a seizure of Payza funds to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security if it were not true. It also would be catastrophically foolish for Payza to claim that Obopay/UltraLight froze or withheld the money from U.S. Payza customers if that were untrue or not the complete truth.

    Seizure of money by the U.S. government requires a court order. Obopay/UltraLight either has or has not received such a court order or notice that one was on the way.

    If the United States has court-worthy evidence that Payza was facilitating online criminal enterprises, then it should become apparent in the coming days. If Obopay/UltraLight played any role, it also should become apparent.

    It could be a very interesting Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

    Update 7:31 p.m. Nov. 28:  The original Payza announcement appears to have been removed this afternoon or this evening and replaced by this considerably shorter one. There’s also a post on the Payza Blog. It is dated today and titled, “Important Update: Limited Services for Certain U.S. States.” Those states are not identified in the Payza Blog post.

  • TelexFree Affiliate Pitches Appear To Have Been ‘Scraped’ To Drive Traffic To Purported Gold And Silver Venture In Panama; Spam Link Leads To Site That Showcases ‘First Zeek Red Carpet Event’ And ‘Banners Broker’ In Folder Labled ‘aaronsharazeek’

    UPDATED 7:36 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Let’s say you’re out there feverishly flogging the TelexFree MLM even as the pyramid-scheme probe moves forward in Brazil, a judge and prosecutor have been threatened with death and TelexFree executive Carlos Costa is pulling an Andy Bowdoin and telling the world that God used him to bring the purported opportunity to the flock.

    There’s always risk associated with HYIP schemes. Now, however, it seems those risks are becoming even greater.

    With us so far? We’ll connect the dots below.

    At 5:56 p.m. on Friday, the PP Blog received a would-be “comment” that targeted this Nov. 17 story thread: NEW RECORDING: TelexFree Members Told To Pay The Piper 20 Percent Within 10 Days Or Lose Positions.”

    Here is a key fact: The sender used an IP based in France that has been associated by Project Honeypot with comment-spamming — pitches for porn sites and sites that purport to give you a good price on designer goods in advance of a predicted “downturn,” for example. (Basic message: You can look wealthy even if you’re not, even after the economy tanks. Buy your knockoffs now and look good when the sky is falling on your life.)

    The sender, now adding HYIP schemes to the porn and designer-good mix from that specific IP, used a handle that incorporated the word “Silver” within its overall handle and sought to plant a URL at the PP Blog to a Panamanian venture that advertises a custody service for precious metals. The PP Blog is declining to publish the URL and the name of the enterprise which, among other things, reproduces on its website the logos of an internationally famous insurer based in London and an internationally famous accounting firm based in Chicago. The site also publishes various contact phone numbers in the United States, Panama, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Although there is a chance that the service is legitimate, the PP Blog questions why someone or some thing is spamming links to the precious-metals site and loading them up further with links to “positive” coverage of seemingly unrelated HYIPs.

    For the purposes of this PP Blog post, the Panamanian venture is a sidebar tidbit. Far more interesting was the body content of the spam, which appears to be a compendium of gushing affiliate pitches for TelexFree that appear on the net. The spam appears to have been cobbled together by a human scraper or scraping device of some sort that had visited one or more TelexFree-related websites. Links embedded in the spam are the “real story” in the context of this PP Blog post.

    So, for starters, TelexFree’s name is being used as part of a bid to drive traffic to a precious-metals website on which visitors curiously are told they must provide 15 days’ notice if they wish to visit the office in Panama City. The PP Blog likely was targeted by the spammer simply because the word “TelexFree” appears here many times in reports about TelexFree-related events in Brazil and the United States.

    The spammer  — be it bot or human — appears to have made the calculation that TelexFree members might be the perfect customers for the precious-metals venture. Contained within the spam were three links: One to a site styled TelexFreeUnitedStates and two to a URL-shortening service that redirected visitors to Photobucket, the popular image-hosting and story-sharing website.

    Here’s where the story really begins . . .

    One of the picture stories told at at the Photobucket site was told inside a subfolder of a folder labeled “aaronsharazeek.” (Emphasis added.) The subfolder was slugged “First Zeek Red Carpet Event April 18th 2012.” Zeek conducted a Red Carpet event on that date.

    Exactly a month earlier — on March 18, 2012 — the popular BusinessForHome Blog listed “Aaron and Shara” as top Zeek earners. Whether the Photobucket site is operated by the same Aaron and Shara is unclear. Here’s a link to the BusinessForHome story. (If you’re not a Platinum member of Business For Home, you’ll need to purchase a subscription to read the entire story.) The PP Blog referenced the BusinessForHome story within a June 14, 2012, story titled, “Did Zeek Give Puff Piece To Rep Who Signed Petition For U.S. Senate To Investigate AdSurfDaily Prosecutors And U.S. Secret Service Agent?”

    The SEC moved against Zeek on Aug. 17, 2012. On the same date, the Secret Service said it also was investigating Zeek. Court records suggest the SEC began the Zeek probe at least by April 17, 2012, one day before the April 18 Zeek Red Carpet event highlighted within the “aaronsharazeek” folder on Photobucket.

    On April 17, 2012, according to court filings, the SEC tasked an IT specialist to “conduct Website/video capture” of ZeekRewards.com.

    Paul Burks appears to have been in deep thought on April 18, 2012, one day after the SEC tasked an IT specialist to capture content from Zeek Rewards.com. This is a slice of a photo from a larger photo that appears on Photobucket in a folder labeled "XXXX."
    Paul Burks appears to have been in deep thought on April 18, 2012, one day after the SEC tasked an IT specialist to capture content from Zeek Rewards.com. This is a slice of a photo from a larger photo that appears on Photobucket in a folder labeled “First Zeek Red Carpet Event April 18 2012.”

    Precisely when Zeek operator Paul R. Burks found out about the SEC probe remains unclear. But photos inside the “First Zeek Red Carpet Event April 18th 2012” subfolder at the Photobucket site show a Burks who appears to be in deep thought. One can only wonder what 66-year-old Burks was thinking about on that date. His health? His wife’s stress level, given the noise Zeek was creating in the small town of Lexington, N.C.? His ability to keep Zeek going? The prospect that investigators were closing in?

    There are 18 other photos in the Red Carpet event subfolder, some showing Zeek luminaries such as former SEC defendant Keith Laggos, former Zeek COO Dawn Wright-Olivares, former Zeek videographer OH Brown (looking happy), former Zeek trainer Peter Mingils (identified in one photo as the “V.P. of the Association of Network Marketing Professionals”). Other photos of Zeek personalities/staffers appear in the folder, as do photos showing attendees.

    Absent the “Silver”/TelexFree spammer, the PP Blog likely never would have seen these photos.

    Also within the “aaronsharazeek” folder at Photobucket is a subfolder slugged “Zeek Trip,” and subfolders slugged “Banners Broker” and “telexfree.” The “Zeek Trip” folder appears to contain four photos of Zeek-related real estate in Lexington, N.C. (In the ASD Ponzi case, affiliates suggested that ASD couldn’t possibly be illegitimate because ASD had an office. The same thing has been asserted by TelexFree promoters.)

    Meanwhile, the “Banners Brokers” folder contains a video of a sales pitch, and the “telexfree” folder contains images of government documents from the state of Massachusetts and the country of Brazil that appear to have been designed to plant the seed that TelexFree couldn’t possibly be a scam.

    Taken as a whole, the various folders and photos demonstrate the interconnectivity of MLM HYIP schemes, regardless of who actually controls the Photobucket site. It is known from other sources that some Zeekers also were in the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid scam and the exceptionally murky Profitable Sunrise scam shut down by the SEC and various state regulators earlier this year.

    Banners Broker is an uber-bizarre Ponzi-board program. On July 2, 2013, the PP Blog reported that MLM attorney Kevin Thompson said that the name of his law firm had been used by scammers in a bid to dupe members of Banners Broker and Profit Clicking, the JSS/JBP-associated “program” linked to Frederick Mann that may have ties to the extremist “sovereign citizens” movement. The July 2 PP Blog post was titled, “Law Firm’s Name Used In Bid To Dupe Members Of Banners Broker, Profit Clicking, MLM Attorney Says.”

    Within the July 2 post, the PP Blog reported that it had received menacing messages in apparent “defense” of Banners Broker. As the Blog reported at the time (italics added):

    WARNING: The next paragraph  includes quoted material from one of the Jan. 18, 2013, spams, and the PP Blog is reproducing it to illustrate the bizarre and often menacing nature of the HYIP sphere. Indeed, the apparent Banner’s Broker supporter wrote (italics added):

    ” . . . I am Big Bob’s cock meat sandwich. Your mom ate me and made me do press ups until I threw up . . . I am gonna report you. When you make false accusations, you can get done. Maybe you will be seen in court soon . . .”

    It is as ugly today as it was on the January date the PP Blog received the communication.

    Why “programs” such as TelexFree, Zeek Rewards, BannersBroker and ProfitClicking become popular with people of faith is one of the head-scratching mysteries of current times. Gold fever, of course, is nothing new; it’s been around for centuries. What’s at least relatively new in the Internet Age is that the gold- and silver-sellers appear to be piggybacking off HYIP pitchmen, apparently hoping to rope in customers for shiny-object schemes.

    This "comment" sent to the PP Blog on Nov. 22 sought to drive traffic to a precious-metals site while using the TelexFree "program" as the engine.
    This “comment” sent to the PP Blog on Nov. 22 sought to drive traffic to a precious-metals site by planting a link to the site and also planting links related to TelexFree.

    On Oct. 25, the PP Blog reported that an alleged shiny-object scheme had taken root in Zeek’s back yard in North Carolina. On June 19, the PP Blog reported that the receiver in the Legisi HYIP Ponzi case was going after assets linked to E-Bullion, a collapsed payment processor with shiny-object woo. James Fayed, E-Bullion’s operator, is sitting on death row in California after a jury found him guilty of arranging the brutal contract slaying of his own wife.

    The Legisi scheme was targeted at Christians, and E-Bullion’s cheerleaders included the Canadian clergyman Brian David Anderson, who was sent to U.S. federal prison in 2010 for the Frontier Assets Ponzi scheme. Anderson also was linked to the Flat Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI) HYIP scheme that put Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, also known as “Michael Mixon,” in federal prison after his September 2009 convictions for financing terrorism and fleecing FEDI investors.

    Yes, financing terrorism.

    Alishtari traded on his purported ties to prominent politicians, just like ASD’s Andy Bowdoin. At least one of the schemes linked to Alishtari and Anderson used the term “rebates,” just like ASD. The narrative surrounding FEDI read like impossibly outrageous fiction, a mind-bending example of a shiny-object scheme. Ten members of purported “Royal families” in the Middle East were said to have set aside “50 Billion in Gold” ($5 billion each) to advance the scheme. Another entity in the Middle East was said to have supplied a “total of 100 Billion in Gold.” Still another entity was said to have put up “500 Million dollars in liquid gold assets.”

    FEDI marks were solicited to purchase what effectively were trading desks that somehow would enable them to profit on the coattails of Middle East royals interested in escrowing huge sums to fund worldwide construction projects, with money purportedly flowing to the “labor” force. If that weren’t enough, the scheme purportedly was married to a venture that purportedly would put vending machines in at least 50,000 locations. The vending machines purportedly would sell debit cards, and were purportedly backed by $150 billion in gold and an insurance policy in Canada.

    In March 2012, the PP Blog reported on FTC allegations that three Florida companies and a Florida man had roped customers into a shiny-object scam, a precious-metals boondoogle allegedly carried out by telemarketers.

    Imagine what would happen if a scamming telemarketing firm had the customer lists for TelexFree, Zeek, Banners Broker, Profit Clicking, AdSurfDaily, Legisi and others.

    If the MLM industry seeks to win favor on Main Street and stop being the brunt of jokes, it needs to act forcefully to eradicate these schemes. MLM attorneys need to stop permitting schemes to trade on their names, thus potentially setting the stage for prospects to believe that no scam could be occurring because no lawyer would permit his name to be used in this fashion.

    But even today, what does one get when one visits the website of TelexFree? A pitch in which the alleged TelexFree pyramid scheme announces its pride at having MLM lawyer Gerald Nehra on board.

    Zeek traded on the name of MLM attorney Kevin Grimes, who comes off in Red Carpet Day shots as a Zeek crowd prop, and also the name of Nehra. Bidify traded on Kevin Thompson’s name. The lawyers should not permit this to happen. And they should stop making personal appearances at “opportunity” events and start questioning why so many of these “programs” are targeted at people of faith and promise or suggest the likelihood of absurd returns.

    Profitable Sunrise — perhaps recognizing that an MLM scheme can be made to appear legitimate if affiliates simply are provided the name of a  purported lawyer  — appears to have conjured up an attorney’s name out of thin air. It then allegedly proceeded to run off with millions and millions of dollars. When ASD’s Bowdoin switched from the two scams that eventually put him in prison (ASD and AdViewGlobal) and began pitching the alleged OneX pyramid scheme, one of the first things he did was assure the former ASD members he was pitching in a webinar that OneX had an “attorney,” adding that the venture was a great fit for college students. Bowdoin,  mixing in God talk during the October 2011 webinar, never identified the purported lawyer by name. Neither did a former ASD pitchwoman pitching the OneX scheme alongside Bowdoin.

    One of Bowdoin’s fellow OneX pitchmen was Zeek Rewards figure T. LeMont Silver.

    In the absence of self-imposed, self-regulatory restraints in the MLM industry — lawyers restraining themselves from becoming accidental or purposeful stage props and sanitizers of “programs,” for example — MLM prospects may be well-advised to view any MLM “program” with the highest degree of skepticism, regardless of the programs’ wares.

    Every single one of the “programs” referenced in this story has ridden on the coattails of a deity and lawyers. It did not matter whether the lawyers were real or imagined.

    And it did not matter that the Gods of many faiths were observing it all, perhaps mournfully wondering how the precious Children of the Earth had come to view MLM money as the maximum deity.

     

  • SPECIAL REPORT: WCM777 Says Its U.S. Operations ‘Will Be On Hold Until Further Notice’ Because Its Securities Sales ‘Failed To Fully Comply With Laws And Regulations In United States’ — But Will The ‘WCM 777 Boston’ Band Play On In Houston? And What About The Highly Curious ‘Joseph Global Institute?’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story covers highly curious events associated with WCM777 and related entities or people. In this post you’ll find:

    • News on yesterday’s announcement by WCM that it had mothballed its U.S. operation that sells securities.
    • Questions about whether a WCM777 event scheduled over the next two days in Houston would occur or whether TelexFree, a company under investigation in Brazil amid pyramid-scheme allegations, could become the “opportunity” promoted at the Houston event.
    • News about confusion associated with a strange entity known as the Joseph Global Institute, purportedly operated by WCM777 executive Ming Xu. Ming Xu also is known as “Dr. Phil Ming Xu” and “Dr. Philip Ming.”  A website associated with the Joseph Global Institute appears to have preemptively declared the enterprise a university that confers graduate and postgraduate degrees, but is showing videos that appear to be owned by Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. The Liberty videos have led to questions about whether Joseph Global potentially is duping visitors into believing the Liberty students who appear in the videos are Joseph Global Institute students or whether Joseph Global is a California branch of Liberty.
    • News about strange claims that WCM777 was “launching” an enterprise that actually launched long ago and became the center of an international media and diplomatic firestorm in 2012 over its reported ties to the controversial film, “The Innocence of Muslims.”

    ____________________________________

    UPDATED 6:56 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) WCM777 announced yesterday on its website that it was out of compliance with U.S. regulations and thus had put its U.S. securities operations “on hold.” Whether the purported “opportunity” whose affiliates claim can cause $14,000 to turn into $500,000 in 52 weeks had been notified by WCM777 to stop pitching U.S. prospects is far from clear.

    The news of the U.S. halt first was reported by BehindMLM.com.

    Left unsaid by WCM777 in its announcement was how the purported opportunity intends to address potential claims from untold scores of U.S. residents, including residents who attended pitchfests in hotels and churches and who might have purchased its securities. It is known from public records that Massachusetts purchasers were offered refunds. On Nov. 14, the state alleged WCM777 was selling unregistered securities.

    The WCM777 announcement did not address whether the “opportunity” had reported itself to the SEC. Nor did it say whether it had been contacted by the SEC. Until yesterday, the company never had directly addressed the Massachusetts allegations, hinting only that things had to change at WCM777.

    Another major concern: If WCM777 is selling unregistered securities, so is its stable of thousands of promoters, including those outside the United States who can solicit U.S. residents over the Internet. In theory, any U.S. -based promoter or international WCM777 promoter who continues to pitch the “opportunity” to U.S. residents could be charged under U.S. securities laws or the securities laws of the U.S. states. Whether WCM777 has the ability to block U.S. registrations is unclear.

    Will The WCM777 Band Play On In Houston?

    At the time of this PP Blog post, an apparent WCM777 affiliate site dubbed “Wcm777 Boston” on Facebook appeared not to know that WCM777 is closing shop in the United States. Nothing about WCM777’s announcement about its lack of compliance and the asserted halting of its U.S. securities operations appears on the Boston Facebook site. Indeed, at the time of this post, it was still promoting a WCM777 pitchfest set for tomorrow and Saturday at the  “Crown plaza northwest brookhollow.”

    “i just arrived in houston…. any question about the up coming meeting inbox me… dont lose this opportunity to learn about multi level marketing,” a post dated yesterday at the Boston Facebook site read. Meanwhile, a Nov. 1 post at the Boston Facebook site touting the purported daily payout of WCM777’s $1,999 plan reads, “U$32.00 DOLLARS EVERY DAY. NON STOP Daily Cash Flow NO Selling Required…coming soon, meeting in Houston, 11/22 and 11/23 . . .”

    Whether the WCM777 affiliate who runs the Wcm 777 Boston Facebook site will follow through with the plan to pitch WCM777 at the event — despite WCM777’s own confirmation it was operating illegally and was halting the sale of its own securities — is unclear. Continued sales of WCM777’s offerings could trigger even more scrutiny of the firm and its affiliates. Attendees at the Houston event who plowed any money into the WCM777 scheme all could become potential litigants against the Boston pitchman and WCM777 itself. If the Boston pitchman is aware or becomes aware of WCM777’s announcement before the Houston event and seeks to pitch something else, he may find himself addressing a confused and hostile crowd.

    The Wcm777 Boston Facebook site has associated itself with a street address in Boston, although the asserted phone number for the site uses an area code from a different region of Massachusetts. Whether the operator of the Facebook site had traveled from Boston (or elsewhere in Massachusetts or another state) to host the Houston event is unclear.

    Because the “Wcm777 Boston” Facebook site also references TelexFree in a Nov 10 post, attendees of the Houston event might find themselves getting pitched on that alleged pyramid scheme, too. TelexFree is under investigation in Brazil. The Nov. 10 post reads, “I do have a bunch guys in Houston area, my downlines on wcm777 and Telexfree, they will be more than happy to talk with you… Thank you again.” It is positioned alongside the logo of the National Football League.

    The Nov. 1 post that reproduces the NFL logo contends that two lucky prospects who attend the Nov. 22 and 23 WCM777 event in Houston will receive free tickets to “JACKSONVILLE VS HOUSTON.” The game is set for Sunday in Houston. Whether Ponzi or pyramid proceeds were used to pay for the tickets is unclear.

    wcm777boston

    Also unclear is precisely how the Boston affiliate is conducting business with WCM777 and recruits. Asked to provide payment proof, the Boston affiliate contended this in a Nov. 10 Facebook post: “I work with wcm for 3 Months and I had never need to transfers money my bank account because I use my credit to sign people up, if you not happy with screenshots unfortunately I don’t have deposits transfers to my bank account from wcm777…” (Unedited by PP Blog.)

    The post introduces the possibility that the Boston WCM affiliate somehow is paying recruits’ way into WCM777 and relying on reimbursement later, a common occurrence in HYIP scams. Whether that reimbursement would come from the prospects or the company is unclear. On Oct. 30, the PP Blog reported that a WCM777 affiliate on YouTube claimed, “I just had some[one] wire me from Mexico . . . $6,000 for three units. I’m signing up another person [in] [Florida?] for six units as well — excuse me, three units as well — another $6,000. And this is just going nuts.”

    The YouTube claim raises the specter that individual WCM777 promoters are accepting national and international wires from WCM777 recruits and somehow later transferring the money to WCM777. Such practices have been associated with cross-border securities scams, including the infamous Imperia Invest IBC scam in which the SEC accused a promoter of creating at least two business entities and using them to wire money to the Imperia scammers outside the United States.

    Making matters even stranger is the wording of WCM777’s announcement that it was halting its U.S. operations in the aftermath of a Nov. 14 consent order it entered into with the state of Massachusetts, which accused it of selling unregistered securities and benefiting from an affiliate’s targeting of the state’s Brazilian community. WCM777’s announcement is dated Nov. 20, six days after the order in Massachusetts. The announcement did not explain the delay in addressing the Massachusetts allegations. Nor did it explain why WCM777 hadn’t previously announced it was under investigation, only to claim later that “negotiations” went well — as though it were common knowledge that the firm was the subject of a securities investigation.

    Moreover, the timing suggests that WCM777 continued to benefit from the sale of unregistered securities across the United States even after the Nov. 14 order. Beyond that, it is far from clear whether WCM777 even has control over its U.S. affiliate base or affiliate bases elsewhere in the world. What is clear is that WCM777 is positioned as an opportunity for Christians to prosper.

    Here is WCM777’s Nov. 29 announcement in its entirety (italics added):

    WCM777 Response to Massachusetts Consent Order

    The negotiations between our lawyers and the Massachusetts’ Office of the Secretary went well. We have reached a settlement with Massachusetts.

    However, because the sale of securities failed to fully comply with laws and regulations in United States, our operations in the U.S. will be on hold until further notice; WCM Limited will continue operations. The company will implement new compliance procedures and register with the SEC before selling securities. Our customer service, IT support, and sales training are far from ideal. Especially in sales training, we don’t have a proper system set up. Some of the distributors have exaggerated the sales performance, which has led to complaints. The company system also needs to be further improved to ensure global legitimacy.

    Under the counsel of the lawyer, WCM777 has already registered in the state of California. We will soon re-enter the U.S. market. Also, WCM777 will hold the grand opening for Hong Kong office in Dubai this coming January. We will restore WCM777’s promise and move towards achieving our vision!

    Why WCM777 would hold a “grand opening” for a “Hong Kong” office in Dubai is unclear. Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirates. Also unclear is how WCM777 intends to comply with securities regulations in all 50 U.S. states, plus federal territories and districts such as the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.).

    Because virtually all developed nations regulate the sale of securities, WCM777 may face challenges across the globe. The scheme already is under investigation in Colombia, and there are reports that Peru has concerns.

    Affiliates, meanwhile, now have been officially blamed by WCM777 for exaggerating the offering and causing complaints, a classic corporate narrative in the HYIP world. While it is clearly true that affiliates have made outrageous claims that reflect their own lack of due diligence on the purported “opportunity,” it is equally true that WCM777 has advertised that a payment of $1,999 returns $3,200 in 100 days.

    Other Curious Issues

    An entity tied to WCM777’s purported operator Ming Xu — the Joseph Global Institute of Pasadena, Calif. — appears to be implying it operates a university that offers a “College of Engineering,” a “College of Health, ” a “College of Media Arts” and a “College of Business.” A website using the Joseph Global Institute name is accessible through a website that uses the famous name of “Harvard” as part of the URL.

    The site shows images of smiling, college-age students wearing graduation caps and holding what appear to be degrees. Other smiling students are shown studying in front of something that resembles a university hall. Visitors to the site are prompted to watch three videos, but there are no disclaimers or language that the action shown in the videos isn’t taking place at Joseph Global. All three videos appear to be owned by Liberty University, a large Christian university in Lynchburg, Va. Nothing on the Joseph Global Institute site, however, identifies the videos as belonging to Liberty and not to Joseph Global, a potential source of confusion.

    A text line below the videos on the Joseph Global site reads, “Want to see what we offer? Request a brochure here and get a tour of our school.”

    Why Joseph Global appears to be implying that it operates a university is unclear.

    Liberty University did not respond to a PP Blog request for comment about whether it was aware of the Joseph Global site.

    The strangest thing yet: A Nov. 18 Twitter post attributed to “Dr. Phil Ming Xu,” the purported operator of WCM777, says, “Launching The Way TV to transform nations & Joseph Global institute to train a group of Josephs to bless the world.”

    But The Way TV is something that launched years ago, through an entity known as Media for Christ. Media for Christ is based in Duarte, Calif. — and has a history that includes being at the center of an international firestorm.

    That firestorm centered on the inflammatory trailer of a film production known as “Innocence of Muslims,” which has been described as anti-Islamic and denigrating to the prophet Muhammad.

    Here’s how the Los Angeles Times put it on Sept. 13, 2012 (italics added):

    Joseph Nassralla Abdelmasih, the president of the Duarte-based charity Media for Christ, and Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a convicted felon from Cerritos, emerged Thursday as forces behind “Innocence of Muslims.” An online trailer for the low-budget film incited violence in recent days across the Arab world.

    Nassralla later reportedly told the website AtlasShrugs2000 that he’d been duped by Nakoula into believing Nakoula was making a film about the persecution of Christians and he understood from Nakoula that the film was titled “Desert Warrior.”

    What was supposed to be a film about members of one faith persecuting members of another turned out to be something quite different: a film that portrayed Muhammad, a sacred figure, as a buffoon.

    Quoting Nassralla, AtlasShrugs2000 reported this on Sept. 17, 2012 (italics added):

    Nakoula needed a place to film. So I let him use my facility – that is all I did, and is the full extent of my involvement with this project. Nakoula used my facility for ten days. Media for Christ employees were given a vacation during that time, because Nakoula was using the facility and so there was no work for them. There was only one Media for Christ employee who remained, to answer phones for the ministry.

    I later discovered that Nakoula, using the name Sam Bacile, had gone to LA Films as producer of Desert Warrior, and used the name of my organization, Media for Christ, to obtain the permit he needed. He did so without my knowledge or permission.

    Now, the Twitter site under the name of WCM777 figure Dr. Phil Ming Xu is claiming it is “launching” The Way TV, something Nassralla already has launched. The Twitter site further claims the launch extends to the Joseph Global Institute, apparently the same entity that is advertising its operation of various “colleges” of higher education and showing website visitors videos of Liberty University students.

    A letter attributed to “Dr. Bruno Caporrimo” at the site references the city of Duarte, the home of The Way TV and Media for Christ, the Nassralla enterprises. Caporrimo is referred to elsewhere online as a former Mafia member who found God.

    Here is the opening of the letter, which is dated Nov. 16, 2013: (italics added):

    Dear Potential Student,

    My name is Dr. Bruno Caporrimo, Chancellor of Joseph Global Institute. At J.G.I. we have been training men and women for full time ministry, in a formal classroom experience as well as helping individuals gain a greater knowledge and understanding of the bible in order to fulfill the mandate of God’s calling in their lives. Our curriculum offers important bible doctrines in addition to the School’s emphasis on the practical side of ministry.

    It is our desire to see the world evangelized and we believe that if people are trained and equipped, from the standpoint of their local church and community, that this mandate from the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth can be effectively realized and fulfilled in our generation. We currently have students from 50 different churches and from more than 10 nations around the world enrolled in Joseph Global Institute. J.G.I. has equipped and discipled into full and part time church and para-church ministry, over 5,000 students and they have embarked on their personal calling to fulfill the one great Commission of Matthew 28:19.

    Whether you plan to study through our International headquarters & ‘Global Student Network’™ in Duarte, California, or through our Distance Learning and online Correspondence Courses™ we are sure that we have the tools and resources to launch and elevate your personal and ministerial calling SO THAT YOU CAN bear much fruit for the Lord Jesus Christ and to operate in faith, diligence and integrity for God’s Kingdom.

    In a YouTube video dated Sept. 8, 2012, Caporrimo and Ming Xu appear. Ming Xu is described as the “dean” of the school and says, “If you want to get involved with us . . . we have bachelor degree[s], we have master degree[s.]” Caporrimo refers to Ming Xu as “Dr. Phil.”

    The URL cited for the Joseph Global Institute in the video — TheJoseph.org — now rotates to a parked page for Sedo, a domain seller.

    Another website associated with the Joseph Global Institute — JosephGlobalInstitute.com — shows some students holding books and others receiving degrees at a graduation ceremony. The JosephGlobalInstitute.com site uses the same logo as the website that uses Harvard’s name in its URL. The logos are similar in appearance to the logo of the actual Harvard University.

    Also see coverage on the MLM Skeptic Blog about a purported Ming Xu entity known as the Harvard Global Institute.

  • WCM777 — In Pictures: (1) Send In $14,000, Get Back 35 Times That Amount (c. $500,000); (2) Launch Scheme, Buy A Golf Course And Invite Friends; (3) Rip Off Scenes From ‘Rocky Balboa’ And Pretend Sly Stallone Is On The Train

    These are screen shots from three different promotional videos or news releases for WCM777 online. The first reflects a claim that people who send $14,000 to WCM777 in a poor economy will fetch back $500,000, 35 times-plus the amount they sent in. This will be accomplished in 52 weeks through the rollover of earnings in 100-day cycles, according to the video. The text headline on the video page says this: “Investment WCM777 – The Power of 7 Units Raises over $ 500,000.” Below that, there is a link to Blog with the extension of “br,” which stands for Brazil.

    The second screen shot shows World Capital Market, the purported parent firm of WCM777, saying it bought the Glen Ivy golf course in California. Meanwhile, the third shot reflects a pitch for WCM777 that rips off more than two minutes of footage from Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky Balboa” flick (2006) with its inspirational message and famous musical soundtrack from the six-film “Rocky” franchise, suggesting internationally famous movie star Stallone (or Rocky Balboa) would endorse WCM777.

    Unseen in the third screen shot is a text message that appeared below the video featuring Stallone. The message suggests that Brazil cannot block WCM777 or subject it to investigation, as it did with the BBOM, Priples and Telexfree “programs.”

    Here is that message in Portuguese: “A WCM777 é um banco de investimento que usa como estratégia de venda do seu produto o marketing de rede ou marketing multinível, o produto da empresa é a tecnologia em forma de nuvem a mesma usando pelo dropbox, Skydrive só que os lucros pór indicação é em dolar além do produto e a empresa ser sustentável o Brasil não pode bloqueá-la como fizeram com a BBOM, Priples e TELEXFREE. Junte-se ao Marketing de nível Profissional!”

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    wcm777500k

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    wcm777glenivy

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    wcm777ssad

    On a side note, if the world of MLM investment schemes can rip off Sly Stallone and his fictional portrayal of the boxing world, why not the rip off the real world of the sport of badminton? BehindMLM.com is reporting that TelexFree appears to have appropriated the logo of the 2010 World Badminton Championship in Paris and made it its own.

  • NEW RECORDING: TelexFree Members Told To Pay The Piper 20 Percent Within 10 Days Or Lose Positions

    TelexFree, an MLM "program" that requires participants to pay back to the company 20 percent of their earnings in one fell swoop, is positioned on You Tune as "The Hottest Deal In The World."
    TelexFree, an MLM “program” that requires participants to pay back the company 20 percent of their earnings in one fell swoop, is positioned on You Tube as “The Hotest [sic] Deal In The World.” There were earlier claims that the money did not have to be paid back.
    UPDATED 6:14 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) TelexFree members who wish to maintain their position in the “program” and are nearing their one-year anniversary dates will receive an invoice from the company for 20 percent of their program “income” and must pay it within 10 days, according to a recording of a Nov. 15 TelexFree conference call.

    “On all the existing contracts, there is a 20 percent renewal fee, which will be based on your income generated from the previous year,” said TelexFree executive Steve Labriola.

    “Just go into your back office [and determine] what you’ve earned and take 20 percent of it,” he instructed. “That will be the size of that invoice.”

    But in a video dated May 11, 2013, and playing on YouTube, TelexFree members attending a company event were told by various speakers that the 20 percent fee had been removed from the contract. The claim raises questions about whether untold scores of TelexFree reps joined the “program” believing the contract requirement to pay back 20 percent to TelexFree had been waived.

    “Certain people went to TelexFree and said, ‘Hey. This is America. This is the United States,’” a man addressing the audience said. “This 20 percent — this is ridiculous. And it’s been removed from the contract. Straight up.”

    The May announcement of the fee removal, confirmation of which was attributed by speakers to Labriola in the “back of the room,” was met with wild cheers.

    “You have to appreciate the heart of this company,” a second man said from the stage in the May video. TelexFree appears to have held a “Super Saturday” event at a Hilton hotel in Orlando, Fla., on May 11, the same date of the YouTube video.

    One of those cheering the asserted news in May was veteran “opportunity” pitchwoman Faith Sloan, late of Zeek Rewards and Profitable Sunrise.

    It appears, however, that TelexFree either never removed the fee or quickly reinstituted it when it recognized that millions of dollars of revenue it had anticipated when the “program” approached its anniversary date and first-in members approached their anniversary dates would vaporize.

    Other offering materials suggest that some of the asserted leaders who once protested the fee as unAmerican and announced its removal now have emerged as champions of the fee. If their downline members pay, it could keep the leaders on the gravy train.

    How much revenue was driven to the firm based on assertions the fee had been waived is unknown. Because some TelexFree promoters also pitched the alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme and may be targets of clawback lawsuits to return ill-gotten gains, their ability to address any invoice from TelexFree may be challenged. Some TelexFree promoters also pitched Profitable Sunrise, which the SEC described in April 2013 as a murky international pyramid scheme.

    How TelexFree members who already might have spent their earnings will address the invoice is unclear.

    TelexFree itself is under investigation in Brazil, amid pyramid-scheme allegations. In the Nov. 15 call, Labriola suggested some promoters will owe TelexFree sums ranging from $1,425 to $200,000. The more the earnings, the more owed TelexFree through the 10-day invoice.

    The pyramid probes in Brazil were not addressed in the Nov. 15 call.

    One of TelexFree’s electronic payment vendors limits individual transactions to $500, Labriola said.

    “All you need to do if you’re paying a $1,425 invoice is do it in three different . . . you can pay it in three different amounts: $500, $500 and $425. And you can do it all in one transaction,” he said.

    Members also can pay with back-office earnings that have not been withdrawn, by check or by ACH transactions, Labriola said.

    Depending on the sums owed, however, all of the payment methods could trigger bank-reporting requirements to the U.S. government. Beyond that, any attempt to evade those reporting requirements could lead to questions about whether TelexFree and/or its members were engaging in structuring transactions. Structuring is a somewhat common element in Ponzi- and other fraud schemes. (Here’s an example from January 2013. Here’s an example from August 2013.)

    TelexFree will introduce new products in the near future, Labriola said.

    One of them will be a cell-phone product, but TelexFree members aren’t permitted to identify the four carriers, he said.

    In the meantime, TelexFree members should continue to recruit, he said, suggesting that the new offerings could help members overcome the sting of an invoice for 20 percent of their earnings.

    Labriola also warned members not to cross recruit, suggesting they’d lose their TelexFree distributorships if they do so.

    Some members facing an invoice for 20 percent of their earnings, however, may see no other option than to dump TelexFree and take their downlines with them in favor of another company that does not require a 20 percent payback to the firm at the one-year anniversary of membership.

    It is possible, though, that some members will pay the piper 20 percent, viewing it as the only means of protecting anticipated earnings and enabling continued payouts from TelexFree beyond their anniversary dates. If something goes amiss with TelexFree beyond the current situation in Brazil and investigations spread around the globe, the decision to pay could be one members live to regret.

    Promos for TelexFree began to appear on the Ponzi boards roughly in the mid- to late summer of 2012. There are claims that more than 1 million participants joined. Given the dates of the early Ponzi-board pitches and the time it takes for a “program” to gain a head of steam, untold thousands of people now may be approaching their anniversary dates.

  • EDITORIAL: Herbalife And Polarization In The Latino Community

    A purported nutrition club site visited by Bill Ackman's team. Source: Pershing Square Capital Management LP report on Herbalife. (Red block by PP Blog.)
    A purported “nutrition club” site visited by Bill Ackman’s team. Source: Pershing Square Capital Management LP report on Herbalife. (Red block by PP Blog.)

    The PP Blog’s take on Bill Ackman’s take on Herbalife is that the Los Angeles-based MLM firm dupes prospects into believing they’re boarding the bus to Disneyland, but it’s really the bus to Jurassic Park. Latinos, African Americans and other vulnerable populations pile on bus after bus and become financial protein for the pyramid scheme of a voracious Tyrannosaurus rex.

    Our take on Herbalife’s take on Ackman, meanwhile, is that if anybody’s a T.rex with a ferocious financial jaw, it’s Ackman. Herbalife, in business since 1980, is no pyramid scheme, it says.

    Nearly a year has passed since Ackman showed the world photos of several purported Herbalife “nutrition clubs,” including one in which at least four trash cans and a discarded mattress were lined up outside a less-than-welcoming entrance. Through these clubs, Ackman suggests, Herbalife reps operate unlicensed restaurants by calling them places at which “social gatherings” occur, skirt local sanitation requirements and lure neighbors into becoming reps for the supplement manufacturer by offering “complimentary beverages” served in unbranded, disposable cups.

    The clubs, Ackman suggests, symbolize the surreal point at which the Disneyland dream ends and the Jurassic Park nightmare with elements of black comedy begins. No legitimate business would describe these food-serving clubs with drawn blinds, seating and blenders as nonrestaurants. And a legitimate business certainly wouldn’t provide rules for their continued operation.

    But that’s exactly what Herbalife did — and it did it while claiming it was an MLM company that not only wanted to tackle MLM competitors such as Nature’s Sunshine and traditional-retail competitors such as Jenny Craig, but also wanted to “go after” restaurants such as McDonald’s and KFC, Ackman contends.

    If a nutrition club was located in a residential neighborhood, it was not permitted to “use exterior signage of any kind” under the Herbalife rules, Ackman says, quoting from the rules. Nonresidential sites could have a sign, but the sign must “ensure” that the “location is not perceived as a store, restaurant, franchise or similar operation.”

    Say what?

    Did Herbalife really signal to distributors that restaurants fit nicely within its business model as long as they weren’t called restaurants — and, in any event, to make sure they were well-hidden from the food-service police?

    Ackman broadly asks his audience to ponder what would happen if McDonald’s pretended not to be in the restaurant business and published Herbalife-like talking points that operators actually were charging a “daily, weekly or monthly membership fee” to recover costs, not a fee that represented “the price or cost of products.” He specifically asks what would happen if McDonald’s instructed franchisees to go light on the signage and to pull down the blinds to fend off claims that a restaurant was operating in the shadows.

    The nutrition clubs, among other Herbalife-related matters, caught the attention of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which was none too pleased. LULAC says Herbalife needs to get a handle on its “bizarre” rules as they pertain to nutrition clubs and require them “to come into compliance with the law.”

    From an Oct. 18 letter to Herbalife distributors from LULAC (italics added):

    Herbalife’s nutrition clubs are required to follow a bizarre set of rules that prohibit club owners from displaying the Herbalife logo on the outside of the store, posting prices for their products, having an open/closed sign and advertising. Clubs are required to cover their windows, sell only Herbalife products, destroy used containers, and keep products hidden until they are sold. These bizarre rules appear to be designed to bolster Herbalife’s contention that nutrition clubs are not retail stores, restaurants or food establishments when in fact that is exactly what they are because they are selling food at fixed retail locations. Herbalife distributors should demand that the company ensure its nutrition clubs are in compliance with local, state & federal health and business codes that apply to retail food outlets. Better yet the company should franchise the nutrition clubs as most other national brands have done when selling food at fixed retail locations. The “future of the company” shouldn’t depend on hiding from the law.

    LULAC National Executive Director Brent A. Wilkes followed up with a Nov. 11 editorial in the Huffington Post in which he contends Herbalife engages in “predatory business practices” and “targets the Latino community in a methodical and calculated manner.”

    “Somewhere between 60 to 83 percent of them are Latino,” Wilkes’ Nov. 11 editorial contends. “300,000 to 400,000 Latino distributors will quit this year alone only to be replaced by another 300,000 to 400,000 new Latino distributors. If left unchecked, Herbalife could recruit, defraud and dispose of as many as 4 million Latino distributors over the next 10 years.”

    It seems that Herbalife is Jurassic Park to Wilkes, too.

    The Nov. 11 editorial followed a Nov. 4 column on Fox News Latino by Rafael A. Fantauzzi, who spoke out in favor of Herbalife. Fantauzzi, according to his bio line in the piece, is president & CEO of the National Puerto Rican Coalition (NPRC) and a board member of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR).

    This is among Fantauzzi’s contentions (italics added):

    Herbalife has succeeded at something that quite a few companies, and the Federal government for that manner, have failed, and that is to achieve real Hispanic inclusion. Hispanics make up at least 60 percent of Herbalife’s direct selling workforce – better known as distributors.

    Fantauzzi goes on to contend that “critics of Herbalife and multi-level marketing companies are confusing business ventures with a welfare program.”

    Say what?

    Fantauzzi explains on Fox News Latino:

    Critics “assume that everyone must have equal outcomes, not just equal opportunity,” he writes. “If individuals want to become distributors/salesmen for these companies, their compensation and reward is based on the results of their effort. A worker that dedicated time and sweat and achieved high sales and promotions should be rewarded. His/her compensation should not be equal to that of an individual who did not put much effort or thought into this venture. Plain and simple, this is a business, not a charity.”

    Earlier, on Oct. 29, NPRC congratulated Herbalife for appointing former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona to its board. Carmona’s appointment occurred on the heels of Herbalife’s Sept. 5 announcement that it had hired former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as a senior adviser to chairman and CEO Michael O. Johnson.

    In its news release introducing Carmona, Herbalife apparently felt the need to describe him in part as “[b]orn to a poor Hispanic family in New York City.” Villaraigosa, in an Herbalife-released statement about his appointment, noted that the firm has a “strong presence within the Latino community.”

    It’s no secret why Herbalife is recruiting such prominent and influential Latinos for its team: The firm is under attack from Latino groups or politicians representing them, including LULAC and MANA, a national Latina organization. On Sept. 5, Tito Jackson, a Boston city councillor who said last year that children who speak Spanish as their first language or are of Latino/Hispanic descent make up 43 percent of the student body of the Boston Public School District, asked FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez to open an investigation into Herbalife’s business practices.

    Among Jackson’s fears, according to his letter to Ramirez, is that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme that “pr[e]ys on disadvantaged populations.”

    Ackman is a Harvard-educated billionaire who runs a hedge fund and is famous for upsetting Wall Street suits. He’s also an Herbalife short-seller who’d benefit if the stock price craters. Herbalife naturally detests him.

    But if Bill Ackman is right — if Herbalife is Jurassic Park — it will be the greatest call since Harry Markopolos called Bernard Madoff a Ponzi schemer and federal prosecutors later called him an affinity fraudster with enough hubris to chomp down on human souls for decades.

    If Ackman is wrong — if Herbalife is Disneyland or the government comes to believe it would create too much market uproar by even bringing a case or could lose any case it did bring  — Herbalife might emerge as a category creator: an MLM company deemed too bizarre to fail.

     

  • UPDATE: ‘YouGetPaidFast’ Pitchman Said To Be Casting Net At Unemployment Office For Gifting-Program Leads; Meanwhile, Scheme Takes A Phil Piccolo-Like Turn By Pointing To Alexa Rankings As Supposed Proof Of Legitimacy

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    YouGetPaidFast, a Texas-based “program” that plants the seed it has the blessing of the FBI, is benefiting from a pitchman who is handing out flyers at an “unemployment office,” according to a post from an apparent naysayer at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum.

    The poster says his friend is the one handing out the flyers — and won’t listen to reason because he is desperate for money.

    If the claim is true, it would follow an incendiary circumstance that surfaced in the Women’s Gifting Tables pyramid scheme in Connecticut that resulted in lengthy prison sentences for two pitchwomen.

    In the Women’s Gifting Tables scheme, members of Alcoholics Anonymous were targeted, according to the trial testimony reported by the New Haven Register.

    Such schemes typically target vulnerable populations. Similar schemes such as HYIP frauds have been known to target people facing mortgage foreclosures and recent job losses.

    YouGetPaidFast is operated by Paul Darby, a Texan who claims he is friendly with FBI agents and has them on “speed dial.”

    At least one FBI agent has vetted his “program,” Darby has claimed.

    Unlike the Women’s Gifting Table scheme, which asked for $5,000 at a time, YouGetPaidFast appears to be seeking the much-smaller sum of $28. Participants reportedly are instructed to mail $7 to each of four names of individuals or entities that appear on a list and advised they are purchasing products.

    Gifting and other fraud schemes that assert they sell inexpensive “products” appear somewhat regularly on the Internet. Such an approach is consistent with micro-fraud, a scam by which hucksters gather small sums from participants, rather than seeking large sums. The hope is that the small sums will add up to a large sum over time and investigators will perceive a micro “program” as less toxic than a jugular-vein fraud and won’t bother to look into it.

    The JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP “program” purportedly operated by AdSurfDaily Ponzi pitchman and cash-gifter Frederick Mann was an example of micro fraud. Participants were told that JSS/JBP would give them $10 to get started in the “program.” After payout and other problems developed at JSS/JBP, the “program” started seeking “purchases” of tens of thousands of dollars at a time.

    Claims that a “program” sells “products” and that participants make “purchases” long have been associated with bids to mask the true nature of the “program” — a gifting scam or HYIP fraud disguised as a merchant doing legitimate business, for example. Meanwhile, claims that the government or an important politician or business person have vetted or endorsed a “program” are common in the fraud sphere.

    An earlier Darby “program” featured a knockoff of the Seal of the President of the United States and suggested that something called Net Millionaires Club was an “economic stimulus package.”

    The marketing efforts of Net Millionaires Club were reminiscent of those of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme exposed by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. (ASD traded on the name of former U.S. President George W. Bush; Darby has traded on the name of President Obama.) In 2010, a Phil Piccolo-linked scam known as Data Network Affiliates planted the seed that it had been endorsed by Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump.

    Meaningless, Bizarre, Piccolo-Like Claims

    YouGetPaidFast now screams it is “SETTING RECORDS WORLD WIDE,” pointing to an Alexa traffic ranking and “Video Views by You Tube 30 Days” as purported proof of legitimacy. Despite the claim it is setting records, however, YouGetPaidFast does not appear to specify precisely what records it is setting. Nor does it appear to say precisely what authority had certified the marks as “records.”

    Such incongruities litter the cash-gifting and HYIP landscapes, which are lined with the carcasses of collapsed “programs.” Sometimes the “programs” come back with a new name or a name designed to instill new confidence such as XXX Scheme 2.0 XXX Scheme Web 3.0.

    The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) warned in 2010 that fraud schemes were spreading online through social-media sites such as YouTube. A year earlier — in 2009 — the Better Business Bureau reported there were 22,974 cash-gifting videos on YouTube.

    Those videos, the BBB said at the time, had garnered an “astounding 59,192,963 views.” (Also see June 2009 report on cash-gifting by KIII-TV. The report includes an interview with an official from the Better Business Bureau of Central Texas.)

    Cash-gifting purveyors are “targeting people with some form of an affinity — such as as women’s clubs, community groups, church congregations, social clubs and special interest groups,” the BBB warned four years ago.

    On Oct. 8, BehindMLM.com, citing a Darby claim, reported that one or more Christian pastors was encouraging Darby to sue his detractors.

    Pointing to Alexa rankings and YouTube videos to sanitize frauds is one of the oldest tricks in the scammer’s playbook in the Information Age. Veteran online huckster Phil Piccolo, known for bizarre schemes such as Data Network Affiliates, OWOW and Text Cash Network,  has been doing it for years.

    Piccolo also has planted the seed he’ll sue his critics. In 2010, he planted the seed on Troy Dooly’s radio program that he could bring in leg-breakers if lawsuits didn’t work. Piccolo earlier had threatened to sue Dooly.

  • BULLETIN: FBI Issues Wanted Posters, INTERPOL Issues Red Notices For Alleged International Cybercriminals Who Targeted Americans In Scam That Duped Big-Ticket Shoppers

    BULLETIN: The FBI has issued Wanted posters and INTERPOL has issued Red Notices for at least five alleged cybercriminals who targeted Americans and websites such as eBay, Cars.com, AutoTrader.com and CycleTrader.com in a scheme that netted millions of dollars.

    Victims were in the marketplaces for high-ticket items such as cars, boats and motorcycles, and the scammers and coconspirators posed as sellers and created fake websites to dupe victims into believing they were doing business with real merchants. The products, however, “did not actually exist,” the FBI and federal prosecutors said.

    Phony invoices also were part of the scheme, which also allegedly used “high-quality fake passports to be used as identification by co-conspirators in the United States.”

    “After the ‘sellers’ reached an agreement with the victim buyers, they would often e-mail them invoices purporting to be from Amazon Payments, PayPal, or other online payment services, with instructions to transfer the money to the American bank accounts used by the defendants,” the prosecution team said.

    “Today, we have unsealed charges—and issued wanted posters and Interpol red notices—for a band of dangerous cyber criminals who are alleged to have stolen millions of dollars from unsuspecting consumers around the globe,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

    “As described in the indictment, the leader of this band of thieves openly proclaimed that he is beyond the reach of the U.S. criminal justice system,” Raman said. “But with the help of our international partners, we will track down and capture every alleged member of this criminal syndicate, no matter where they are hiding.”

    Among those wanted are Nicolae Popescu. the alleged ringleader described by the FBI as a “Romania fugitive.”

    Also wanted are “Romanian nationals Daniel Alexe (who may also go by the name ‘Alexe Daniel’), Dmitru Daniel Bosogioiu, Ovidiu Cristea, and Dragomir Razvan, and a defendant who goes by the names ‘George Skyper’ and ‘Tudor Barbu Lautaru,’” the FBI and prosecutors said.

    “Using forged documents and phony websites, for years Popescu and his criminal syndicate reached across the ocean to pick the pockets of hard working Americans looking to purchase cars,” said U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch of the Eastern District of New York. “They thought their distance would insulate them from law enforcement scrutiny. They were wrong.”

    Six scamming colleagues of the wanted men already have been caught, the FBI said.

    From a statement by the FBI and federal prosecutors (italics added):

    As alleged in the complaint and subsequent indictment, the defendants participated in a long-term conspiracy to saturate Internet marketplace websites including eBay, Cars.com, AutoTrader.com, and CycleTrader.com with detailed advertisements for cars, motorcycles, boats, and other high-value items—generally priced in the $10,000 to $45,000 range—that did not actually exist. The defendants employed co-conspirators who corresponded with the victim buyers by e-mail, sending fraudulent certificates of title and other information designed to lure the victims into parting with their money. The defendants allegedly even pretended to sell cars from non-existent auto dealerships in the United States and created phony websites for these fictitious dealerships. As part of the scheme, the defendants produced and used high-quality fake passports to be used as identification by co-conspirators in the United States, including Razvan (who previously resided in California), to open American bank accounts. After the “sellers” reached an agreement with the victim buyers, they would often e-mail them invoices purporting to be from Amazon Payments, PayPal, or other online payment services, with instructions to transfer the money to the American bank accounts used by the defendants. The defendants and their co-conspirators allegedly used counterfeit service marks in designing the invoices so that they would appear identical to communications from legitimate payment services. The illicit proceeds were then withdrawn from the U.S. bank accounts and sent to the defendants in Europe by wire transfer and other methods.

    The complaint and indictment describe the extent to which Popescu, in particular, led the conspiracy. Among other things, Popescu coordinated the roles of the various participants in the scheme—he hired and fired passport makers based on the quality of the fake passports they produced, supervised co-conspirators who were responsible for placing the fraudulent ads and corresponding with the victims, and ensured that the illicit proceeds transferred to the U.S. bank accounts were quickly collected and transferred to himself and others acting on his behalf in Europe. Popescu also allegedly directed Cristea to obtain and transfer luxury watches purchased using the illegal proceeds of the scheme, including three Audemars Piguet watches with a combined retail value of over $140,000, to his associates in Europe. It is estimated that the defendants earned over $3 million from the fraudulent scheme.

    Screen Shots Of Wanted Posters

    popescu

    bosogioiu

    cristea

    razvan

    meme

  • PROFITABLE SUNRISE CASE: Did Fake Reporter Use Photo Of Real Reporter In ‘Story’ Titled ‘Nanci Jo Frazer WINS in Court – A Case Of Innocent Ignorance?’

    “The judge ruled in Nanci & David Frazer’s favor along with Albert Rosebrock (ministry board members) . . . to release frozen funds. The FBI and the Federal government is categorizing Frazer as having suffered from a case of ‘innocent ignorance’ as she worked for nine months doing customer support for a UK Collateral Loan company.” — Lede from “story” on Topix.com, Oct. 5, 2013

    Is a photo of a real reporter being used by a fake reporter in the aftermath of the Profitable Sunrise scheme.
    Is a photo of a real reporter being used by a fake reporter in the aftermath of the Profitable Sunrise scheme? (Screen shot brushed by PP Blog.)

    This is what is known from the publicly accessible court docket in Ohio’s July 8 fraud case against alleged Profitable Sunrise promoter Nancy Jo Frazer (also known as Nanci Jo Frazer), Focus Up Ministries and others: On Sept. 24, the docket of the case noted that the judge had ordered the release of $20,000 to Frazer and her husband (David Frazer) to pay legal bills. Another $8,000 was made accessible to Albert Rosebrock, another defendant, to pay legal bills.

    The $20,000 ordered returned to the Frazers was in the form of a cashier’s check David Frazer had surrendered to the court after Ohio’s July action. Rosebrock’s money came from a bank account the judge ordered frozen after the Ohio action was filed. The docket shows that the judge authorized $8,000 from this frozen account to be made accessible to Rosebrock, but the freeze remains on any other money in the account. Freezes also remain on seven other accounts Ohio authorities have associated with the defendants. (Of the eight accounts originally ordered frozen in July, all eight remain frozen.)

    Importantly, Ohio’s civil case remains ongoing. So does a civil case by the SEC at the federal level. The SEC action does not name the Frazers or Rosebrock defendants, but suggests that pitchmen could have promoted Profitable Sunrise without even knowing who was running the purported “opportunity.”

    Purported Profitable Sunrise operator “Roman Novak” and his brother “Radoslav Novak,” a purported attorney associated with Profitable Sunrise, may be fictitious, according to the SEC, which has described Profitable Sunrise as a murky and massive international pyramid scheme that potentially gathered tens of millions of dollars.

    “Profitable Sunrise operates for the benefit of unknown individuals and/or organizations doing businesses through companies formed in the Czech Republic and using bank accounts in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, and China, among other places,” the SEC alleged in April.

    “There is more than a slight possibility, as with many offering frauds, that the people described in the [Profitable Sunrise] website, including the Novak brothers, do not exist,” the SEC said.

    Enter ‘scampoliceinsider’

    On Oct. 5, 11 days after the Sept. 24 Ohio docket entry, someone using the handle “scampoliceinsider” and a photo of a news reporter posted something that resembles a news story on the Topix.com site for Ogdensburg, NY., near the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the border with Canada.

    Gregg Evans, a poster and occasional guest columnist at the PP Blog and a regular poster at the RealScam.com antiscam forum, posted a link to the Topix story at RealScam.com on Oct. 13.

    Among other things, “scampoliceinsider” asserts on Topix that “I WILL GIVE YOU THE INSIDE SCOOP YOU DID NOT KNOW” and that “I am investigating a fraud within a fraud. I am the one who does what others won’t bother to do.” Moreover, “scampoliceinsider” asserts that he or she believes in “The truth backed by facts.”

    Here is the headline on the Topix “scampoliceinsider” story: “Nanci Jo Frazer WINS in Court – a Case of Innocent Ignorance.” The headline stressed the word “WINS” in uppercase. Nowhere does the story mention that Ohio’s case is ongoing and that any money ordered unfrozen was further ordered to be used for the express purpose of paying legal bills. Instead, the story contends that Ohio authorities had known since October 2012 that Profitable Sunrise was a fraud and that the authorities “failed to inform the public and especially Nanci Frazer.”

    It further positions Frazer as a victim of harassment from “A tight group of online individuals [who] have been targeted to be running their own bitcoin scheme” and claims the purported bitcoin schemers “stole Frazer’s image, identity and training videos while she was on vacation” in a bid to drive traffic to their own websites “and cash in on their own fraud.”

    Meanwhile, a strangely worded passage in the story contends that “The FBI and the Federal government is categorizing Frazer as having suffered from a case of ‘innocent ignorance’” while she “worked for nine months doing customer support for a UK Collateral Loan company.” (This would be Profitable Sunrise, which perhaps would be better described as a purported collateral-lending company.)

    Like the bitcoin and associated claims, the story does not substantiate the “innocent ignorance” claim. At the same time,  the story ventures that “The last straw was watching Toledo 11 Fox News put her children in harms way by airing a hateful and false, damaging, home made video story from one of the online stalkers- James L Paris is was a convicted criminal for Securities fraud(they never checked out his background).” (Unedited by PP Blog.)

    The Fox Toledo outlet now is “in position to be turned in to be put under regulators [sic] scrutiny and to be liable for a full investigation which connects them to another scam,” according to the Topix story.

    Paris is the editor of ChristianMoney.com and recently published an ebook on what he describes as his pressure-packed, nerve-racking experience writing about Profitable Sunrise and the enmity directed at him from certain members of the Christian community. Paris denies he is a convicted criminal, saying that he once was named in a civil securities action in Maine after his brother embezzled money from a Paris company and hid the act from Paris and accountants.

    (DISCLOSURE: The PP Blog is referenced in the Paris ebook. The Blog does not personally know Jim Paris, has no business association with him and does not benefit from the book, which was offered by Paris for free online for several days earlier this month and now costs $4.99 at Amazon.com. The book is titled, “Exposing The Ponzi Masters – The Profitable Sunrise Scam: How I Exposed It, How They Tried To Stop Me.” The Blog obtained the book free on Oct. 9 through a link supplied by Paris at RealScam.com. On Oct. 11, the Blog posted to RealScam.com about the book, opining that it believed the Paris book would “serve his intended audience in the Christian community well.” In its RealScam.com post, the Blog also drew some comparisons to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. ASD, like Profitable Sunrise, was targeted at people of faith.)

    Now, back to the Topix story referenced above . . .

    The photo of the reporter that appeared alongside the Frazer story on Topix in Ogdensburg, near the Canadian border, appears to be a low-resolution copy of a professional portrait/publicity still of a real reporter, a broadcast journalist who started her career at a California TV station in 2010 and accepted a job in 2012 at a station in Nevada, where she works as a weekend anchor. The photo does not identify the reporter by name and appears to have been taken while the reporter was working for the California TV station prior to moving on to the Nevada station.

    It may be the case that a fake reporter posting at Topix found an image of the real reporter online and used it as an avatar to add credibility to the story on Frazer published at the site. The PP Blog believes it has established the identity of the real reporter and emailed her yesterday to determine if the image on Topix was being used without her knowledge and consent and to rule out that she was the author of the Topix post. As of the time of this post, the Blog has not heard back from the reporter, which is not unusual. Media people have busy schedules. (For the purposes of this post, the Blog is not identifying the real reporter by name and has brushed the screen shot above to obscure her face and the identity of a TV station that, like the reporter, may have no knowledge of Frazer or Profitable Sunrise or the Ohio case.)

    In the Blog’s view,  the Topix story does not read like one prepared by a trained, working journalist. Rather, the story on Topix reads like fractured marketing and PR fluff of the type often seen in the HYIP sphere. At least part of it seeks to demonize both the media and the government. Similar situations occurred after the action by the United States against ASD in 2008. Online scammers have been known to pose as legitimate members of the media to add presumptive authority to a scheme.

    In 2011, the famous brand of Consumer Reports was appropriated by scammers to drive dollars to an acai-berry scheme, the FTC said. Meanwhile, “fake” news sites in the United States using the image of a real reporter from France were used in the acai  scheme.

    The PP Blog would be very surprised if the Topix story was authored by a real reporter, especially one using the handle “scampoliceinsider” and trying to stick it to a TV station in Toledo, other media outlets and Ohio authorities in this bizarre fashion.