EDITOR’S NOTE: The JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program” may have links to the “sovereign citizens” movement. Potentially signaling a change in the “program’s” status quo, JSS/JBP has not posted a recording of its weekly conference call since June 7. As the screen shot below shows, JSS/JBP also now is soliciting “purchases” ranging from $1,000 to $20,000, suggesting the $20,000 purchase will produce a return of $400 a day.
The PP Blog accessed the JSS/JBP website (and the ad captured in the screen shot below) today through an ad on a site known as “ADsactly.com.” An ad for the purported Zeek Rewards MLM “program” also was featured on ADsactly.
Zeek and JSS/JBP are using at least two of the same offshore payment processors: SolidTrustPay and AlertPay (now Payza).
UPDATED 11:22 A.M. EDT (JUNE 13, U.S.A.) Images of a man described as “Alan Chapman” appear in online promos for both the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid and Zeek Rewards “programs” that plant the seed that enormous daily returns on the order of 1 percent to 2 percent are possible.
In one Blog pitch for JSS/JBP dated Oct. 6, 2011, “Chapman” is quoted as saying, “I have been with JustBeenPaid! since it launched in early 2010, which proved to be very successful. But now in these last 4 short months JSS-Tripler has proven to be my best income earner compared to all the other programs I have joined in the previous 4 years!”
The ad includes a photo of “Chapman.”
Meanwhile, in a Blog pitch for Zeek in a publication titled “ZeekRewardsPays,” “Chapman” is quoted as saying Zeek members can post their “ads” on the ZeekRewardsPays site “to qualify [for] your [Zeek] earnings for that day!”
The Zeek pitch also includes a photo of “Chapman.”
Zeek members who want to share in the firm’s purported revenue pool are required to post an ad online to qualify for a payout. The ad-posting requirement may be a bid to undermine the “Howey Test,” which determines what constitutes a security/investment contract.
One of the questions posed by the Howey Test is whether profits can be derived from an opportunity solely from the efforts of the purveyors. By insisting that Zeek members cannot get paid unless they post an ad, Zeek may be setting the stage to argue that Zeek’s ad-posting requirement constitutes “work” by affiliates and therefore the payouts do not derive solely from Zeek’s efforts.
Both Zeek and JSS/JBP use offshore payment processors such as AlertPay (now Payza) and SolidTrustPay that are friendly to fraud schemes promoted on known Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Both Zeek and JSS/JBP have promoters in common, and both “programs” are being promoted on the Ponzi boards.
Because Zeek and JSS/JBP have common promoters and a presence on Intenet cesspits, questions have been raised about whether the “programs” and their banks and payment-processing vendors have come into possession of funds tainted by fraud schemes.
On the ZeekRewardsPays site with the photo of “Chapman, the following claim is made today:
ZeekRewards Daily Profit Last 7 Days!
June 11 2012 1.89 %
JUNE 10 2012 0.88 %
JUNE 09 2012 0.96 %
JUNE 08 2012 0.92 %
JUNE 07 2012 1.91 %
JUNE 06 2012 2.00 %
JUNE 05 2012 1.93 %
In recent days, Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JBP, has raised the prospect that JSS/JBP members could be on their own if law-enforcement agencies take action against the “program.”
JSS/JBP also has banned discussion about customer-service issues on its weekly conference call. That announcement was made during the June 7 call, a week after a woman identified as “Ping” begged Mann for assistance, asserting her concerns had not been addressed in a month.
On May 31, “Ping” implied she was ill with a serious heart condition, was managing three JSS/JBP accounts that had been hacked a month ago and said her “sister borrowed on her house [to] put money in JBP.”
During the June 7 call, Mann also implied that JSS/JBP members were free to start their own business-with-a-business — for example, they could create pools from investor money at the local, regional, national or international level and a single JSS/JBP member could manage the pools and perhaps make a profit by playing the spread between what JSS/JBP pays and the fees a local pool manager would charge for managing the pool.
JSS/JBP has no known securities registrations, does not identify where it is operating from and may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.
Mann now has taken to doling out medical advice during the JSS/JBP calls, insisting that JSS/JBP members should not trust their doctors.
Nor should they trust attorneys, Mann implied.
JSS/JBP members are required to affirm they do not work for the “government.”
Zeek recently has encountered problems at at least two U.S. banks. Zeek preemptively has denied it is a pyramid scheme. The firm also claims it is not offering an investment product.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Our theory about Zeek Rewards is that it’s a slow-motion, pyramid-style Ponzi scheme being driven by any number of clueless affiliates who do not understand they are being influenced by steroidal puppeteers and MLM’s Great Wing of Willfully Blind Hucksters, Religious Frauds and Disingenuous Opportunists, PR Amateurs, Government Agitators and Unindicted Felons and Misdemeanants. We had a similar theory about AdSurfDaily. Read this document (courtesy of the ASD Updates Blog) and see if you agree that Zeek affiliates need to be asking some very serious questions about their “program.”
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UPDATED 1:39 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) If you expected to be less confused about Zeek Rewards after listening to Jim Gillhouse and Troy Dooly chat up Zeek COO Dawn Wright-Olivares Friday night on ACES Radio Live, you’re apt to have come away disappointed — or perhaps even more confused. (Link to recording at bottom of editorial.)
The 86-minute show began with something that resembled a hopeful note: Gillhouse implied he’d hold Zeek’s feet to the fire and play “bad cop” to Dooly’s “good cop” because of various controversies swirling around Zeek. Co-host Dooly, though, seemed to bristle at the “bad cop” remark.
“Well, it ought to be interesting because I’m learning that bad cops don’t usually have all the facts,” Dooly said.
With that remark, the radio program more or less devolved into a session in which Wright-Olivares was permitted to ramble . . . and ramble . . . and ramble. The questions Dooly put to a top MLM executive who represents a company that plants the seed it offers a return of more than 1 percent a day without being the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC of multilevel marketing were asked with sugary and/or leading preambles — with Dooly effectively stifling the worthy aims of his co-host and coming off as Zeek’s PR flack and spin doctor.
When Zeek’s story is compared to the tale of Madoff’s relatively modest (compared to Zeek) but unusually consistent returns of around 10 percent a year, Zeek is outperforming the notorious Ponzi swindler by a factor on the order of 30 to one. Zeek, though, insists it is not offering an investment. It also preemptively denies it is a “pyramid scheme” and plants the seed it will terminate any affiliate who suggests Zeek is offering an investment program.
Gillhouse tried. He deserves credit for that.
After not liking how Gillhouse framed a question to Wright-Olivares in the context of Zeek’s purported revenue-sharing program and recruitment efforts and how it purportedly spits 50 percent of its revenue with affiliates, Dooly behaved as though the question were asked of him and not the Zeek executive.
The information was “proprietary,” Dooly insisted.
He then bizarrely planted the seed that the ACES Radio Live show could get in trouble with a “regulator” for asking such a question and that Zeek itself could get in trouble for even responding to such a question. Dooly also implied that someone with dubious motives had set up Gillhouse by supplying him with bogus questions to make Zeek look bad. Such questions were offensive to American Capitalism, Dooly implied.
At one point in the “interview,” Wright-Olivares planted the seed that jealous competitors were after Zeek — in addition to the fraudsters and hackers who were making Zeek look bad in the eyes of its financial vendors, including offshore payment processors.
And there also was accidental comedy: Dooly called Zeek’s legal and compliance team the “crackpot team” when he meant the “crack team.”
We think he meant that, at least.
Gillhouse tried to make the show something other than a Zeek commercial and even caused Wright-Olivares to get snarky in one of her responses, but his own co-host made sure the Zeek executive had a cocoon into which she could retreat with no meaningful follow-up questions asked to tie up any of the incongruities about Zeek.
Although Dooly ventured that Zeek was “the most complex thing I’ve ever seen,” he did precious little to strip away any of the layers of complexity to show Zeek in the plain light of day.
“Proprietary” ain’t gonna cut it with Zeek — not with Zeek’s business model, not with criminals behind green curtains in the era of white-collar fraud relying on the word to coverup or sanitize massive fraud schemes, not after AdSurfDaily, not even if Zeek’s lawyers come on the show with the aim of turning on one of Dooly’s belt-high softball tosses in the middle of the plate and driving it into the upper deck of MLM La-La Land Stadium with the robotic Stepford fans rising to their feet in full Stepfordian awe. (Dooly’s suggestion that Gillhouse and/or the radio show itself could get in trouble for not being precise when asking questions is almost too strange to contemplate, so we are choosing not to contemplate it right now. Our plate is already filled with bizarre tales — JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which has promoters in common with Zeek and plants the seed it can outperform Madoff on the order of 50 to one, for instance.)
It’s this simple if you are a Zeek affiliate and have questions about the company: Assume that Dooly is trying to wear two hats (at least) and therefore is not an independent voice. He is making personal appearances at Zeek Red Carpet events, posing for the camera with Wright-Olivares and even permitting his image to be shown in what effectively is a commercial for Zeek. Then, he’s “interviewing” Wright-Olivares on the subject of Zeek.
What you are observing, unfortunately, is Troy Dooly and a Zeek executive in MLM Radio La-La Land, a cheerleader quizzing a woman who apparently is committed to her own bizarre talking points and even running interference for her. Paul Burks is the purported boss of North Carolina-based Rex Venture Group LLC, Zeek’s purported parent company. Burks and Wright-Olivares go way back, Wright-Olivares says.
At the heart of the Zeek flap are questions such as these:
Does Zeek’s penny-auction arm (Zeekler) constitute a gambling operation and therefore put the entire Zeek enterprise at risk?
Does Zeek’s MLM arm (Zeek Rewards) make the company vulnerable to charges that it is selling unregistered securities as investment contracts because of the seed Zeek plants that a return of between 1 percent a 2 percent a day is possible — thus putting the entire enterprise at risk?
Are Zeek’s purported tens of thousands of affiliates exposing themselves to charges they are helping Zeek sell unregistered securities?
Given Zeek’s business mix, what agency is its principal regulator?
Because any number of Zeek affiliates also are promoting highly dubious opportunities or obvious scams on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold, is Zeek coming into possession of funds tainted by fraud and depositing those funds in its own bank and payment-processing accounts?
Why is Zeek, a U.S. company, auctioning sums of U.S. cash and telling successful bidders it will pay them via offshore payment processors linked to fraud scheme after fraud scheme promoted on the Ponzi boards?
Why has Zeek had problems with at least two U.S. banks? (And why is Wright-Olivares now suggesting that the banks and affiliates are to blame?)
Why are Zeek customers openly complaining on a Zeek support forum that they have not received their auction winnings for weeks or even months?
Why is Zeek apparently closing itself to would-be prospects in Montana?
How is Zeek paying employees? How many employees — as opposed to independent contractors — does it have?
Why were/are some of the “employees” Zeek lists on its website participants in cash-gifting schemes, matrix-cycler schemes and autosurf Ponzi schemes such as AdSurfDaily?
Is Zeek relying on volunteers to catch up on a considerable backlog of customer-service issues — and calling the volunteers “employees?” Why would Zeek permit either volunteers or employees associated with various forms of online fraud effectively become spokespeople for Zeek? (Note: AdSurfDaily also relied on “volunteers.”)
Was Paul Burks or any Zeek executive, employee or volunteer involved in AdSurfDaily in any capacity? Did any Zeek executive, employee or volunteer receive any compensation from the remissions pool established by the government in the ASD Ponzi case? Did Zeek, whose business model is similar to ASD, come into possession of any money that flowed from the ASD remissions pool?
Is there a chance that Zeek’s growth was fueled in part by money originally seized in the ASD case and returned to participants last fall in the form of remissions payments?
Why is purported MLM expert Keith Laggos, who ventured an opinion that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme, a consultant to Zeek?
MLM attorney Gerald Nehra, an expert witness for AdSurfDaily, ventured an opinion that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. Why is Nehra’s law firm purportedly doing work for Zeek?
While Wright-Olivares was rambling Friday night, she did say two attention-getting things. One was delivered almost as a throw-away line; the other was a butchered attempt to spin a major negative into a positive.
First, the butchered spin attempt: After Zeek implied on its Blog on May 28 that it voluntarily was closing two U.S. bank accounts, Wright-Olivares suggested Friday night that the closings were less than voluntary.
One of the banks simply was too small to handle Zeek’s rapidly expanding business, a circumstance that left the bank president “devastated,” Wright-Olivares said. But at the same time she was saying that, she also was implying that the bank booted Zeek because of all the problems associated with doing business with the firm. (Emphasis added.)
“Well, our bank of 15 years came to us and said, ‘You’re just way too big. We can’t handle this.’ This is like the small bank in Lexington, North Carolina, and the president of the bank was devastated . . .” Wright-Olivares said.
She went on to explain that Zeek had opened an account at a second bank, apparently after the multimillion-dollar MLM firm had approached a branch office to open the account instead of consulting with the main office. Although Zeek told the branch office what business it was in and apparently managed to get an account started, the matter got kicked upstairs and Zeek ultimately got booted, Wright-Olivares implied.
“They didn’t do their due diligence” at the branch office, she curiously explained.
Now, the throw-away line:
After Gillhouse asked her if Zeek’s profit pool is a “50/50 split” between Zeek and participating affiliates, Wright-Olivares said, “Yeah, the Retail Points Pool — the revenue shares . . . actually, [Zeek President and CEO] Paul [Burks] — Paul manages all that.”
Wright-Olivares went on to explain that Burks gives “us” up to 50 percent of Zeek’s daily net, an answer that strongly implied that she was both a Zeek executive and an affiliate sharing in the profit pool. Neither Gillhouse nor Dooly asked whether Burks made the revenue-sharing calculations in the plain light of day with other executives observing the process, whether Wright-Olivares also drew an executive’s salary from Zeek, whether her COO title was simply an in-house designation and whether she essentially was just an affiliate with a fancy title and more responsibilities.
The answer to those questions could be important because Zeek’s business model strongly resembles that of Florida-based AdSurfDaily, which the U.S. Secret Service said in August 2008 — nearly four years ago — was operating a massive online Ponzi scheme. Like Zeek, ASD positioned itself as a revenue-sharing program that split 50 percent of its daily receipts with affiliates, awarding them an unusually consistent gain of about 1 percent a day.
And like Zeek, some ASD executives held fancy titles. In the end, however, the titles that ASD handed out appeared to be simple naming conventions designed to create the appearance of legitimacy. No evidence has emerged that any purported executive with the possible exception of ASD President Andy Bowdoin was anything other than an affiliate who held a fancy title in ASD’s MLM la-la land. Bowdoin effectively was alleged to be a glorified affiliate of his own company, with federal prosecutors saying that he’d placed an ad for a failed, dissolved business in his own “advertising” rotator to qualify for a payout from ASD’s revenue pool.
Moreover, the Secret Service alleged that, contrary to assertions by Bowdoin that ASD was paying out to affiliates 50 percent of the daily revenue it generated from sales, ASD was not doing what it said it was doing.
“Rather, Bowdoin manufactured the revenue numbers to deceive members into believing that they could reasonably expect to receive an average daily return on their investment with ASD of at least 1%. This percentage in no way corresponded to the daily revenue that ASD was generating, but had been determined by ASD’s operators to be the amount needed to attract a steady stream of newcomers,” the Secret Service alleged in an affidavit originally filed under seal in February 2009, as the agency’s then-eight-month-old probe into ASD’s businesses practices continued.
In essence, the Secret Service alleged that Bowdoin was the man behind the colloquial green curtain and that he and unnamed others were fudging numbers and compartmentalizing information to keep the $110 million ASD scam afloat. Participants needed to hear a certain number or they weren’t apt to play, and Bowdoin and his coconspirators delivered that number — 1 percent a day — all while insisting ASD was not offering an investment product and giving themselves a further out by claiming revenue-sharing payouts were not guaranteed.
There have been no allegations of wrongdoing against Burks or Wright-Olivares or Zeek, but the remarks by Wright-Olivares are troubling.
“Paul manages all that?”
In closing, we present to you Paragraph 16 of a U.S. Secret Service affidavit filed on Feb. 26, 2009. This document was part of a seizure action that targeted the bank accounts of certain ASD members. We urge readers who may be members of Zeek not to listen to anyone who argues the document has no relevance in the context of the Zeek “program.” Indeed, you are about to read something that speaks compellingly about criminality — and steroidal puppeteers and Stepfordians — within the MLM universe:
16. Bowdoin and his [silent partner and 12DailyPro] sponsor knew that it was illegal to sell investment opportunities to thousands of individuals; thus, they were careful not to call participants “investors” but rather referred to them as “members.” Moreover, there were careful not to call payments to “members” “return on investments”; rather, they referred to the income program as a “rebate” program (A review of the ASD account database actually revealed ASD used the term “ROI” as a payment category for members). Although they were careful not to explicitly state that any income from ASD was guaranteed, both ASD founders intended that prospective members understood that they would receive better than market returns. Bowdoin and his sponsor were paying the stated 150% return and knew that ASD members expected that return. Bowdoin and the sponsor had discussed the need to pay at least one percent a day to members for members to promote the program to others.
A Blog targeted at senior citizens is recruiting affiliates for Zeek Rewards, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid and other online "programs" that suggest they can create riches. (Redaction by PP Blog.)
EDITOR’S NOTE: As the PP Blog was researching matters pertaining to the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” and preparing the post below for publication, it encountered a subdomain of the ZeekRewards.com website styled “zeeksupport.” A page on the subdomain purports to identify 16 Zeek “employees,” although is was unclear whether the workers received a wage or salary or were independent contractors.
Here is the full URL: http://zeeksupport.zeekrewards.com/zeeksupport/people
Included among the “employees” listed were Terralynn Hoy and Catherine Parker, both of whom were affiliated with AdSurfDaily, which the U.S. Secret Service alleged was a Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million. Hoy, at least, also was affiliated with an ASD knockoff known as AdViewGlobal.
In April, federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia said they’d tied ASD President Andy Bowdoin to AdViewGlobal. Bowdoin, 77, pleaded guilty to wire fraud last month after being charged criminally in 2010 for his role in the ASD Ponzi scheme. As part of a plea agreement, Bowdoin has been banned from MLM, Internet programs and mass marketing.
Although the story below does not report on the Zeek claims that Hoy and Parker are Zeek employees, a link on the Zeek subdomain leads to a page in which “Catherine Parker” is responding to Zeek customer-service issues, including one titled, “TO BE PAID FOR OUTSTANDING AUCTION WINNINGS, POST HERE.” Within the customer-service thread is a post from an individual who claimed to have won an April 12, 2012, Zeekler auction for $100 in U.S. cash with a winning bid of $16.28 — but never received his money. Other posters also claimed not to have been paid . . .
UPDATED 5:27 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A detailed post from December 2011 on an affiliate Blog that publishes information in German and English instructs affiliates of the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” how to wire funds to Zeek and have them deposited in its account at NewBridge Bank in North Carolina. The Blog, which targets senior citizens, is hosted on Google’s free Blogspot platform at a subdomain styled “getlucky2011.”
Zeek announced suddenly last week that it was ending its relationship with NewBridge. It also announced it was ending its relationship with BB&T, a second bank based in North Carolina. Zeek plants the seed that affiliates can earn a return of between 1 percent and 2 percent a day, but the “program” insists it is not offering an investment opportunity.
Included on the same affiliate Blog are multiple pitches for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, a “program” purportedly operated by Frederick Mann that does not disclose its base of operations, may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement and advertises a return of 60 percent a month. The deck of the Blog, which includes a Zeek affiliate link in the right sidebar, features these words (bolding added):
“Indefinitely sustainable second income seniors earn independent living, plan their retirement, meet seniors assisted living, meet seniors online, secure your pension, look for retirement services and retirement benefits”
The post provides a glimpse into how U.S. banks could come into possession of funds tainted by fraud as the funds circulate between and among various HYIP programs advertised online. Research by the PP Blog shows that NewBridge also was one of the banks that handled the business of a bizarre MLM “program” known as “Narc That Car” that effectively collapsed in 2010 after the Better Business Bureau raised pyramid-scheme concerns and American television stations and investigative reporters turned their sights on Narc.
How Narc, a Texas-based company that used at least two names and at least two banks when issuing checks to members, ended up using NewBridge in North Carolina as one of its banks is unclear. Narc issued checks under the names of Narc Technologies Inc. and National Automotive Record Centre Inc. The entity later became known by a third name: Crowd Sourcing International.
National Automotive Record Centre Inc., Narc’s purported parent company, is listed in Nevada records as a corporation in “default.” Zeek’s purported parent company, Rex Venture Group LLC, also is registered in Nevada. Like Narc, Rex has scored an “F” from the BBB. (See Rex listing. See Narc listing.)
Like Zeek, Narc relied on a company known as USHBB Inc. to produce video sales pitches for its opportunity. USHBB is based in Indianapolis. Among its listed officers is OH Brown of Mount Pleasant, S.C. Brown hosted this May 2012 call for the Zeek “program” and also is listed on Zeek’s website as a Zeek “employee” who simultaneously holds the title “Official Rep.” Whether Brown receives compensation from Zeek while also serving as the vice president of USHBB is unclear.
On March 15, 2010, the PP Blog published a story that reported that a video USHBB produced for the Narc “program” asserted that some affiliates were earning more money than the President of the United States.
As part of its reporting on Narc, the PP Blog visited a USHBB website in 2010 that claimed the company had done promotional work for MLM teams and companies such as Ad Surf Daily, AdGateWorld, BizAdSplash, Ad-ventures4U, TVI Express and Global Verge/Buzzirk Mobile. Virtually all of the enterprises listed were associated with get-rich-quick schemes or HYIP autosurfs. Some of the “programs” later went missing from the web or were accused of fraud.
Frederick Mann of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid was a promoter of both AdSurfDaily and Ad-ventures4U, according to records. Clarence Busby, a onetime business partner of ASD’s Andy Bowdoin, was the purported chief consultant and operator of BizAdSplash, an autosurf that vanished mysteriously in 2010. Erma Seabaugh, ASD’s purported “Web Room Lady,” also was affiliated with Ad-ventures4U.
On March 2, 2010, the PP Blog reported that a Narc affiliate known as “Jah” was seeking to drive business to Narc by producing his own videos and posting them on YouTube. “Jah’s” videos featured check-waving as a form of social proof that Narc “paid.” One of the videos, which later was removed, showed a Narc check drawn on NewBridge. Another “Jah” video that still appears online shows that Narc also had an account at a second bank.
“Jah” compared repping for Narc to working for the U.S. Census Bureau.
Some of “Jah’s” check-waving videos later were hidden from public view. Jah, however, was not the sole Narc affiliate to produce check-waving videos in which checks from NewBridge were displayed. Though Narc appears to be long gone, the PP Blog observed a video today on YouTube in which the name of NewBridge flashed on the screen.
Zeek has not provided specifics about why it ended its relationship with NewBridge.
Among the assertions on the German/English Blog that was targeting senior citizens and promoting both Zeek and JSS/Tripler/JustBeenPaid was that “SolidTrustPay is one of the worlds most trusted e-wallet providers.”
SolidTrustPay is a Canada-based payment processor that is handling business for both Zeek and JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid.
The PP Blog reported on June 2 that JSS/JBP also was being promoted on a race-baiting and Catholic-bashing site known as VaticanAssassins. The VaticanAssassins site, among other things, asserts that ““Majority Savage Blacks were never taught to behave in civil White Protestant culture and thus have been released upon us Reformation Bible-believing Whites to further destroy our once White Protestant and Baptist American culture founded upon the Reformation’s AV1611 English Bible and a White Protestant Presbyterian Constitution with its attached White Baptist-Calvinist Bill of Rights.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: One of multilevel marketing’s longtime problems is the observation by critics that some MLM purveyors routinely display cult-like behavior that protects the reputation of the “opportunity” at all costs while ostracizing participants who stray from the company line or ask too many questions. Zeek Rewards, which is married to a penny-auction site known as Zeekler and employs a business model that suggests an investment return of between 1 percent a 2 percent a day is possible, already has a considerable PR problem. The “opportunity” did itself no favors in a conference-call yesterday in which company leaders did nothing but reinforce the notion that MLM often is its own worst enemy . . .
UPDATED 3:27 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) On a conference call in which the Zeek Rewards MLM scolded affiliates for everything from not pressing “*6” to eliminate background noises (such as flushing toilets) to bypassing Zeek and calling its attorneys and vendors to get answers to their questions, Zeek COO Dawn Wright-Olivares shared a story that planted the seed Zeek reps should carry out the company’s marching orders without question — or risk public humiliation or banishment.
A recording of the call posted on Zeek’s website early this morning began with a woman delivering condescending remarks to Zeek affiliates that they had to be “coachable” or likely would remain “just over broke” despite Zeek’s efforts to help them make money through the MLM program. The post is titled “Hit *61 and Other Zeek 101 Suggested Behaviors.”
“Did you know that broke people usually don’t listen and follow their leader?” the woman ventured.
She went on to deliver a series of bromides (“If you want things in your life to change, you have to change things in your life”), and then Wright-Olivares came on the line.
That’s when an already-curious call devolved into the bizarre.
As part of an apparent bid to teach Zeek affiliates how they should behave as responsible affiliates, Wright-Olivares shared a story about a pitch she once attended from a top-ranked personal-fitness trainer seeking new clients.
The trainer, Wright-Olivares recalled, began by asking attendees if they were serious about getting in shape — and then advised prospects to go home and to carry out a task that (apparently) would demonstrate their willingness to be coached.
“If your toilet paper flips over and rolls over the top,” Wright-Olivares recalled the trainer saying, “I want you to flip it over so it comes out the bottom.”
Attendees whose toilet-paper dispensing habits were the reverse of the top-rollers were given the opposite instruction — and then everybody was sent home, Wright-Olivares said.
When the pitch resumed, the trainer asked the audience of about 50 people for a show of hands on who carried out the instructions. About 10 people raised their hands, Wright-Olivares recalled.
“Everyone with your hands raised may stay — everyone else I want you to leave,” Wright-Olivares recalled the trainer saying.
“You’re not ready, and I’m not willing to risk my career and my reputation to train you,” Wright-Olivares recalled the trainer saying, noting that the nonflippers were “disgusted” that they’d been dismissed in this fashion.
But the trainer held his ground, Wright-Olivares remembered.
“Look,” he explained, Wright-Olivares recalled. “I just want everybody to be clear: If you’re not willing to listen to me, to go home and flip over your roll of toilet paper, then you’re not going to do a damn thing I tell you to do and you are risking my company’s reputation and you are risking my reputation . . .”
Wright-Olivares then asserted Zeek affiliates were harming Zeek’s reputation by inappropriately calling Zeek’s financial vendors, a country club and attorneys.
“Guys, they’re legally not allowed to talk to you,” Wright-Olivares said of the attorneys. “They’re our attorneys. They’re not your attorneys.”
She went on to fret about the harm Zeek affiliates apparently were heaping on the company.
Is it your intention “to harass the bank so much that they don’t want to do business with our company?” she asked.
After wrapping itself in the American flag on Memorial Day and authoring a vague announcement that it “will be closing our old accounts” at two named U.S. banks and transitioning to an unnamed bank “that can handle our growing needs,” the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” now says it experienced a problem with “mislabeled” credit-card purchases.
Zeek blamed a vendor for the problem, which resulted in Zeek purchases being mislabeled as purchases from a company named “Zonalibre1,” Zeek said.
“We have just been informed that our credit card processing mis labeled [sic] zeek purchases with the company name Zonalibre1 for the past 15 hours,” Zeek said on its news Blog last night. “This is currently being corrected on all billing statements. If you have purchased anything from zeek in the past 15 to 20 hours and have a ‘Zonalibre1’ charge for the same dollar amount as your zeek purchase, please do not dispute the charge.”
“Zona Libre” is a Spanish phrase that means “free zone.” Zeek did not say who informed it about the problem. Nor did it identify the vendor or say whether it was using a U.S. domestic or offshore processor to handle credit card transactions.
Zeek announced Monday that it was dumping two U.S. banks, adding a layer of mystery by saying it “is currently in the process of moving to a bank” — but not saying whether its new bank was U.S. domestic or offshore.
A Zeek-related business known as Zeekler is a penny-auction site. Among other things, Zeekler puts up for bid sums of U.S. currency, saying successful bidders can receive their winnings via the payment processors AlertPay (now Payza) and SolidTrustPay. Both firms are offshore from a U.S. perspective and have gained reputations as enablers of fraud schemes.
Among the many other Ponzi-forum promoted “programs” that use AlertPay and SolidTrustPay is JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which purportedly is operated by Frederick Mann and may have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement. JSS/JBP purports to pay 2 percent a day. “Sovereign citizens” have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them.
Promos in 2008 identified Mann as a pitchman for AdSurfDaily, which the U.S. Secret Service described as a “criminal enterprise” and Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million online. ASD is known to have had “sovereign citizens” in its ranks. ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud last month, acknowledging that ASD was a Ponzi scheme that had defrauded participants from Day One of its operation, beginning in late 2006.
Some former ASD affiliates also are known to be promoting Zeek. Included among them are Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer, who sued the United States last year for alleged misdeeds in bringing the ASD Ponzi case. One text ad for Zeek that includes a photo of Schweitzer includes this phrase (italics added):
“I earn 1%+ a day compounded & you can too!”
Schweitzer is a former attorney whose license was suspended in Connecticut. Disner is a co-founder of the Quiznos sandwich franchise.
Both Zeek Rewards and Zeekler say they are part of an entity known as Rex Venture Group. Rex operates in North Carolina, the same state in which the banks it announced it was dumping operate. On Monday, Zeek instructed customers to “Please be sure to deposit or cash any commission checks immediately so they clear before June 1st, 2012 or they will be returned to you with ‘account closed’ and will need to be reissued.”
Two days later — on Wednesday, during evening hours in the United States — Zeek issued a strange announcement that used the term “claw-back.” “Clawback” is a word often associated with Ponzi schemes. For instance, if investors in Ponzi schemes emerge as winners among a pool of losers, the government or court-appointed receivers may file clawback lawsuits that demand the return of funds from winners as a means of ensuring that all victims of a fraud scheme are treated equally.
Here, in one instance, is how Zeek used the term (italics added):
“As you know, we are currently in the process of transferring accounts to our new banks. While we will be able to resume check runs when the transfers are finalized, we do not want to cause any additional delay to our affiliates who are waiting for their May 21st or 28th commission checks. Therefore we are going to be issuing a claw-back of all requested checks into a special Zeek portal where any affiliate who is awaiting a physical check can instead choose their preferred eWallet for their commission payment. All three fully integrated eWallets (below) will be made available for this and future paydays.
SolidTrust Pay
AlertPay
Although Zeek initially said on Wednesday it had three eWallet providers, it now appears to be referencing only two — apparently editing its original news-Blog post. (In the original announcement Wednesday, Zeek also listed NXPay.)
Adding another layer of mystery to Wednesday’s announcement was Zeek’s use of the plural “banks” in the context of its transition to new service-providers. On Monday, Zeek used the singular “bank,” implying that it was selecting a single new bank to handle its needs.
Zeek affiliates have a presence on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, forums whose members promote “programs” that purportedly offer returns that are both unusually consistent and outsize — typically at preposterous ROIs that exceed 1 percent a day.
Affiliates of Zeek say the Zeek “program” pays out between 1 percent and 2 percent a day, although Zeek claims it is not an investment program and has preemptively denied it is a pyramid scheme.
Among Zeek’s claimed consultants are the MLM law firm of Gerald Nehra, and purported MLM expert Keith Laggos. Both Nehra and Laggos ventured opinions that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. Disner and Schweitzer pointed to those opinions when suing the United States in November 2011.
The government has moved for dismissal of the lawsuit, pointing to Bowdoin’s guilty plea and acknowledgement that ASD was a Ponzi scheme. Among other things, Disner and Schweitzer argued that undercover agents who joined ASD prior to the seizure of $65.8 million in the personal bank accounts of Bowdoin violated ASDs Terms of Service and had a duty to report their alleged violations to ASD.
Disner and Schweitzer also sued Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator in the ASD case. A federal judge dismissed Rust as a defendant weeks ago.
This is always the hardest post of the month — the one in which I ask for your continued help to get through the upcoming month.
The need right now is on the order of $300. That sum would take the instant crisis out of play. It has not been easy keeping the Blog going during these lean times, and I am very grateful for the support I’ve received. Every story you’ve read this month, for example, was made possible by readers who contributed last month.
There are some important stories in the offing, stories that may help open eyes, shape thoughts and keep both longtime and new readers out of harm’s way. The fraud sphere constantly evolves, the language changes, the wordplay and disguises get more sinister. This Blog exists to help readers understand the various means by which fraudsters and their collective of online shills separate people by the thousands from their money.
Zeekler, an arm of a U.S. company, frequently promotes auctions for sums of U.S. cash. Winning bidders can collect the sums via offshore payment processors linked to fraud scheme after fraud scheme. Zeek is adding to the incongruity by preemptively denying it is a "pyramid scheme" while planting the seed that the U.S. government is operating a pyramid scheme through the Social Security program.
UPDATED 11:12 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) After the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case in 2008, some of ASD’s Stepfordian members advanced the bizarre theory that ASD should have been left untouched because Social Security — a U.S. government program — is a Ponzi scheme. The argument, which assumes Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is disingenuous to its core. Even if it could be proven that Social Security is a Ponzi, it does not change the simple fact that private businesses are not permitted to operate Ponzi schemes.
With the Social Security argument providing disingenuous cover for ASD and scams across the web, some of ASD’s most reliable “defenders” instantly turned their attentions to other autosurfs, HYIPs, cyclers and cash-gifting schemes. They might as well have said, “If the government gets to run a Ponzi scheme, so do we.”
The Social Security argument is a deflection that gets trotted out in scam after scam. It is used so often in scams that feature an MLM or MLM-like component that it has become a cliché, a veritable signature of a scam. Some of the most robotic MLM Stepfordians can’t resist the urge to go heavy on the exclamation points when they’re “defending” the most recent “program” in their stable of scams. Many of the “defenses” are nothing more than antigovernment screeds.
Even ASD President Andy Bowdoin — who after preemptive denials now admits he was operating a massive Ponzi scheme and knew all along that ASD was “an illegal money making business” — could not summon the discipline required to put an end to his scamming ways and days after his arrest. The government now says it has tied Bowdoin to AdViewGlobal (AVG), an autosurf that launched after the Secret Service raid, and to “OneX,” an alleged “fraudulent scheme” and pyramid.”
After the ASD raid, Bowdoin embarked on a PR strategy that positioned the government as evil. The government, according to Bowdoin, was guilty of “wrong doing,” creating a “nightmare of injustices,” bringing “un-true charges” and the “suppression of all ASD members.”
Like the Social Security argument, it was just a way to change the subject.
It has become somewhat fashionable within the HYIP sphere for “program” operators to preemptively deny they are running Ponzi schemes. The up-front denials were an element in the ASD case. They are incongruous by their very nature because they typically occur even as the “program” plants the seed that it not only pays commissions on two or more levels, but also provides outsize returns of 1 percent or more per day — percentages that would make Bernard Madoff blush.
“Zeek Rewards” is an MLM “program” that is planting an ASD-like seed that money directed to the enterprise will produce a large return.
Given the lessons provided by the ASD case on both the legal and PR fronts, it is just plain bizarre that Zeek is preemptively denying it is a “pyramid scheme” — all while going heavy on the exclamation points and raising the issue of Social Security.
On its Zeekler.com penny-auction site, the “opportunity” is saying this (italics/bolding added):
Our parent company Rex Venture Group has been in business 13 years and has historically paid its representatives in the field every commission check earned since its’ [sic] inception. “Is this a Pyramid Scheme?” Of course not!! “Pyramids” or “Money Games” are illegal and ask its’ [sic] participants to wrap money in tin foil and FedEx it to “someone else” with no exchange for product or service!
For good measure, the site is saying this (italics/bolding added):
The pyramidal structure is actually the “model” structure of every corporation and even the U.S. Social Security system. Why then are pyramids illegal? Because there is no “exchange” of product or service for the money spent and the only ones who “collect” money are the people at the top of the pyramid. When there are no longer enough people coming and sending money “up” to move people thru the pyramid – the pyramid collapses. An example of a legal – yet collapsing pyramidal structure/system is what is happening to social security. The baby boomers are all coming of age to collect (at the top of the pyramid)- with not enough people paying in from the bottom!! The structure will then collapse. Every CEO is at the top of his/her company’s pyramidal structure. That’s why he/she makes so much more than a mailroom worker. At penny auction site Zeekler every person has the same opportunity to achieve the same income or out-earn the person who referred them into the program.
Whether Rex Venture Group historically has paid commissions is immaterial to the issue of whether the company is conducting a pyramid scheme through its Zeek arms. Like successful Ponzis, successful pyramid schemes pay. The payments are what keep new money flowing to the schemes. Web-based Ponzis/pyramids can be exceptionally dangerous because affiliates use the payments they receive as a disingenuous form of social proof that no scam is under way.
Zeek’s “tin foil” reference is an apparent allusion to obvious cash-gifting scams. But lawyered-up Zeek has to know that the pyramid issue is much more complicated that that, which is why the gifting allusion impresses us as a red herring. Ponzi/pyramid schemes come in many forms and often involve the issuance and sale of securities. Fraud purveyors may avoid the use of the language of investments, but a security described as something else is still a security.
And that’s one of the potential issues with Zeek: Is the company selling unregistered securities as investment contracts and trying to disclaim its way out of an encounter with regulators?
Zeek does not address this issue in its preemptive denial that it is operating a pyramid scheme and simultaneous argument that Social Security is a pyramid scheme. But it does touch on the securities issue at the bottom of the home page of ZeekRewards, the MLM arm of the Zeek “program” (italics added):
IMPORTANT: The following paragraph MUST BE READ ALOUD whenever the ZeekRewards compensation plan is presented verbally or by telephone, or included in it’s entirety when communicating in writing:
“If you make a purchase from ZeekRewards you are purchasing a Premium eCommerce subscription or you are purchasing bids to give away as samples. You are NOT purchasing stock or any other form of “investment” or equity. You MUST actually use the bids that you purchase or give them away as samples to help grow your business. Affiliates who present our products to others in a misleading manner or in a way that leads the buyer to believe he or she is making an investment or purchasing equities will be terminated and all commissions and awards will be forfeited. Buyers MUST read the entire How It Works and Get Paid pages on the ZeekRewards website and the Legal Disclaimers.”
At a minimum, this much can be said about Zeek: It has a tin ear for PR.
Zeek is preemptively denying it is a pyramid scheme even as its affiliates maintain a presence on well-known fraud forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, a circumstance that strongly suggests scammers are directing money to Zeek that they “earned” in other scams. The Social Security argument also is a loser because it is embraced by a sea of online scammers as a rationale for licensing themselves to commit crimes on a global scale.
ASD preemptively denied it was a Ponzi scheme. Its Stepfordian affiliates advanced the Social Security deflection even as they were racing to their next scams and positioning them as a way ASD members could make up their losses.
Almost all of the scams used the same offshore processors Zeek is using.
An affiliate's "press release" for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is juxtaposed on Google News today against information about CONSOB's ban of promos for the "opportunity" in Italy. The affiliate's release ignores the CONSOB news, positions JSS/JBP as a way to make a "fortune" — and does not explain that JSS/JBP members must affirm they are not with the "government." The release also ignores conflicts between the "opportunity's" written words and the spoken words of purported operator Frederick Mann.
At the moment, Google News is providing an interesting juxtaposition on the subject of JSS Tripler, the purported arm of the “JustBeenPaid” program that does not identify itself with a nation-state, makes members affirm they are not with the “government” and advertises an absurd monthly return of 60 percent.
Frederick Mann, the “opportunity’s” purported operator, was identified in 2008 promos as a pitchman for AdSurfDaily. The U.S. Secret Service called ASD an online Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million and defrauded thousands of people. JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid advertises a daily payout rate twice that of ASD.
As the screen shot above shows, Google News today is publishing information on JSS Tripler from three sources. Two of the sources report on the April 23 JSS Tripler promotional ban by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator.
A third source — dated May 2, nine days after CONSOB announced the JSS Tripler ban — does not reference the ban at all. Instead, it instructs readers via an affiliate’s press release that JSS Tripler is “an income-generating program that lets investors start with just $10 and turn it into a fortune. Essentially an HYIP, the program factors in the daily compounding system to increase earnings or make daily withdrawals as any investor would wish.”
One of the issues in the ASD Ponzi case is lack of disclosure to investors.
JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid has no known securities registrations. Regardless, the affiliate’s release defines participants as “investors” and positions the program as one that is passive in nature. Claims in the release easily could lead to questions about whether the “opportunity” and its affiliates are benefiting in ASD-like fashion from the sale of unregistered securities by a global network of unregistered brokers.
5. I have NOT been led to believe that this activity is an investment activity, franchise, or employment opportunity.
Although the release prompts readers (in the first paragraph) to “look closely at what they are getting into and ensure that they are joining income opportunities through programs that are proven to truly deliver financial freedom and sustainability,” it does not explain why the Member Agreement says one thing and Mann another.
Nor does it explain why any reasonable person would direct money to an entity whose Member Agreement also says this. (Italics added):
6. I affirm that I am not an employee or official of any government agency, nor am I acting on behalf of or collecting information for or on behalf of any government agency.
7. I affirm that I am not an employee, by contract or otherwise, of any media or research company, and I am not reading any of the JBP pages in order to collect information for someone else.
Bizarre ambiguities, incongruities and internal inconsistencies are common in the HYIP fraud sphere.
News about CONSOB’s JSS Tripler ban was published in English on CONSOB’s own website April 23. It also was published on the PP Blog and other sites, including the sites referenced by Google News.
Even as the affiliate was prompting JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid prospects to “look closely,” he apparently missed information that was available through simple web searches — and this apparently also occurred after he missed the conflict between Mann’s words and the “opportunity’s” published Member Agreement.
The release concludes with these words:
“People who want real money from a reliable online networking system without the fuss and tricks should visit [URL deleted by PP Blog] to learn more.”
UPDATED 12:06 P.M. EDT (MAY 5, USA): Andy Bowdoin’s bond-review hearing has been rescheduled from May 8 to May 18. Here, below, our earlier story . . .
Only days ago, federal prosecutors described the OneX “program” pitched online by accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily as a “fraudulent scheme” and “pyramid” that “simply re-distributes funds among participants” in ASD-like fashion.
The PP Blog learned yesterday through a source that Bowdoin was a no-show on last night’s scheduled “team” conference call for OneX. A call Monday apparently was canceled.
According to information provided by the source, Bowdoin was unable to participate in last night’s call — after the cancellation of Monday’s call — because of “personal problems.” The specifics of the personal problems were not disclosed.
Unless U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer postpones a May 8 bond-review hearing for Bowdoin, prosecutors are expected to argue on Tuesday that Bowdoin was pushing the OneX pyramid scheme while awaiting his September trial in the ASD Ponzi scheme case.
Although a postponement of the bond-review hearing is possible because one of Bowdoin’s two lawyers is ill and the government has not objected to a delay, the judge has not entered an order delaying the proceeding, according to docket entries as of this morning. (May 5 update: The May 8 hearing has been rescheduled for May 18.)
Last night’s OneX call, according to information provided by the source, was conducted by “Allen” (or Alan).
“First and foremost, Andy has some personal problems that he has to deal with, so he will not be with us for a few days,” Allen said, according to information from the source.
Whether Bowdoin’s OneX “team” is aware that federal prosecutors have described the “program” as a scam is unclear. What is clear, according to filings by the government, is that Bowdoin has a long history of recruiting people into financial debacles and withholding information that would enable them to make informed investment decisions.
Prosecutors also say they’ve tied Bowdoin to the failed AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which came to life in the weeks and months after the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from ASD-related bank accounts in August 2008 as part of a Ponzi probe. AVG vanished during the summer of 2009 — about a year after the ASD seizure — amid claims that someone had stolen money from the enterprise.
Even as AVG was tanking, members and critics were threatened with lawsuits for sharing news about the purported Uruguay-based entity.
While at ASD’s helm in 2007, Bowdoin explained that members were not getting paid because of script problems and because “Russian” hackers had stolen $1 million, according to records. Prosecutors said Bowdoin never filed a police report about the purported $1 million theft.
Prosecutors have argued that ASD collapsed before Bowdoin resurrected it and started operating it under a new name (ASDCashGenerator). Incoming members were not told they were funding payouts to members affected by the collapse. Over time, Bowdoin dialed up the criminality to keep ASD afloat in what was at least its second iteration, according to court filings.
In the 1990s — in at least three Alabama counties — Bowdoin was charged with securities-related crimes similar to his later illegal behavior at ASD, prosecutors now say. ASD members, however, were led to believe that the ASD patriarch’s only encounter with law enforcement had been a speeding ticket.
Bowdoin has been participating in OneX conference calls since at least October 2011, explaining in the earliest calls that we was seeking to fund his criminal defense to the ASD-related Ponzi charges through OneX and that OneX was brought to members and prospects by “God.”
The indictment against Bowdoin was made public in December 2010. It charges him with wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.
Details about OneX, including the identities of its operators, are exceptionally murky.
I drove to my sister’s house this morning to make this quick post. The past few days have brought about a crisis . . .
On Friday, both of the computers used to publish the Blog developed problems with condensation. Precisely how and why this happened remain a mystery. Our desktop machine became wet on the inside. The screen on the laptop, meanwhile, literally was dripping with water.
The bottom line is that both machines got fried. The situation also is affecting our ability to read and return correspondence and access email. Although the site remains online, we have no ability to access the Internet. This probably will be the case through Wednesday or Thursday.
Friends, this is occurring while we’re facing our usual end-of-the-month obstacles. Although my family is going to help me get a replacement computer, the hosting bill is coming due and there are other expenses that must be addressed.
JSS
