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Category: Writing And Branding

Appeals Court Upholds 20-Year Prison Sentence Of Seng Tan, Mercedes-Driving Pyramid Schemer Who Blamed Hurricane Katrina For Payment Delays And Told Members That The ‘Gods’ Had Sent Her To Make Them Millionaires

EDITOR’S NOTE: Simply put, the World Marketing Direct Selling (WMDS) and OneUniverseOnline (1UOL) pyramid scheme of James Bunchan and Seng Tan was one of the ugliest — if not the ugliest — in U.S. history. Bunchan eventually was implicated in a a murder-for-hire plot in which 12 witnesses and a federal prosecutor in Massachusetts were discussed as targets.

Bunchan was convicted in both the pyramid case and the murder-for-hire case, which was brought separately. He was sentenced to a combined 60 years in federal prison, sentences upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Tan was sentenced to 20 years for her role in the WMDS/1UOL pyramid scheme, which also was a Ponzi scheme. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit now has upheld that conviction. The opinion of the panel was written by Circuit Judge Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson in exceptionally straightforward language apt to put readers “right there.”

A link to the full opinion appears at the bottom of this story . . .

“She usually made quite an entrance, showing up in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes . . . Tan’s pitch was quite attractive. She and Bunchan were millionaires, she said, and the ‘gods’ had sent her to make ‘the Cambodian people’ millionaires too.” — First Circuit Judge Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson, writing for the court and denying the appeal of Seng Tang in the WMDS/1UOL pyramid-scheme case, March 23, 2012

An affinity fraudster who ran a $20 million pyramid scheme with her husband has lost her bid to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence.

Writing for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Judge Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson laid out the thinking of a three-judge panel that denied the appeal of Seng Tan, who ran the fraud scheme with James Bunchan.

Using exceptionally straightforward language in the 17-page opinion, Thompson recounted the nature of the pyramid case. The opinion began with a subhead titled “SETTING THE STAGE.”

“A federal jury convicted James Bunchan and Seng Tan, a husband and wife team, of numerous mail-fraud, money-laundering, and conspiracy crimes committed in furtherance of a classic pyramid scheme that swindled some 500 people out of roughly $20,000,000 in the early to mid-2000s,” the opinion began. “Fellow scammer Christian Rochon pled guilty to similar charges on the first day of trial, and his testimony in the prosecution’s case helped seal the couple’s fate.”

Thompson next described the venture, below a subhead titled “THE SCHEME.”

“Bunchan founded and owned two self-styled multi-level marketing (MLM) companies — World Marketing Direct Selling (WMDS) and Oneuniverseonline (1UOL) — that supposedly made a mint selling health and dietary supplements. In a legit MLM venture — think Avon, Mary Kay, Amway (companies Tan had worked for) — each person who joins the sales force also becomes a recruiter who brings in other persons underneath her. But the venture survives by making money off of product sales, not off of new recruits.

“Not so with WMDS and 1UOL,” Thompson continued. “Neither sold much of anything, and both raised gobs of money almost exclusively by recruiting new investors, also called members.”

“Here,” Thompson continued, “is how it all worked.” (Italics added.)

Bunchan tasked Tan with drumming up new members, something she was born to do, apparently. Both she and Bunchan are Cambodian émigrés. And they focused their recruitment efforts primarily on Cambodians living here, many of whom were first-generation Cambodian-Americans who had limited educations and spoke little English. As “CEO Executive National Marketing Director,” Tan ran informational seminars for potential investors, meeting them at hotels, their homes, and elsewhere. She usually made quite an entrance, showing up in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes. And she spoke to the attendees in their native language (Khmer), stressing their common background too (including their shared experiences living in Cambodia during the murderous reign of the Khmer Rouge).

Tan’s pitch was quite attractive. She and Bunchan were millionaires, she said, and the “gods” had sent her to make “the Cambodian people” millionaires too. She bragged about how profitable both companies were thanks to high product sales, which earned members at the “Distributor” level fantastic sales commissions. But a member did not have to sell a single item to make money, she explained. For a lump-sum payment of $26,347.86, an investor could skip the Distributor level, become a “Director I,” and get an immediate “bonus” of $2,797, plus $300 every month for the rest of her life, her children’s lives, their children’s lives, and so on. Promotional pamphlets also promised investors that if they recruited more members and kicked in more money (any where from $130,000-$160,000), they could become “Gold Directors” and earn even higher never-ending monthly payouts (something like $2,500 a month). And Tan urged persons short on cash to take out second mortgages or home-equity loans or to borrow money from their retirement accounts to finance their investments, and more than 150 people did. She even had members sign forms so that the loan proceeds would be wired directly to WMDS or 1UOL.

When prospective investors asked her point-blank whether they had to sell company merchandise to get money, Tan answered no. She and Bunchan reduced their promises to writing, with Tan even signing letters guaranteeing monthly returns basically forever.

In words that could describe many corrupt ventures, Thompson noted that the “scheme started out swimmingly.

“WMDS and 1UOL used newly-invested money to trick old investors into thinking that the good times were here to stay,” Thompson wrote. “Not knowing any better, members were ecstatic. Bunchan and Tan were too, obviously. And with cash pouring in, the pair used the companies’ coffers as their own personal piggy bank.”

The Beginning Of The End — And A ‘Hurricane’ Explanation

It frequently is the case in the universes of corrupt “opportunites,” including HYIPS, that the weather gets blamed when payment problems develop — so much so, that explanations involving high winds have become an investment-fraud cliché.

Such was the case in the WMDS/1UOL scam.

“[Tan] started having trouble signing up new investors,” Thompson wrote. “So WMDS and 1UOL stopped mailing out the monthly checks. Members revolted, naturally. Tan tried to quell the uprising, blaming the ‘delay’ on banking glitches caused by Hurricane Katrina and telling members that they would get their checks soon — out-and-out lies, the record reveals.”

Even more fraud clichés came into play, including thefts from family members to prop up the scheme, the continued gathering of funds while the enterprise was tanking and the issuance of selective payouts to calm nervous investors and sustain the deception.

“Worse still,” Thompson wrote, “after getting an earful from irate investors, Tan flew to Minnesota and raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars — bilking her son-in-law out of $150,000 and his friend out of $300,000 — making the same false promises of unending returns she had made before. And she herself decided which lucky member would get a check from the new money — an ill-conceived stopgap measure, it turns out.”

The ruling also includes a footnote that speaks to yet-another investment-fraud cliché: the appointment of a “name-only” executive to become the face of an enterprise. This was the alleged role of Rochon, the purported “president.”

“A high-school graduate, Rochon became president (in name only, though) for one reason, and one reason only: Bunchan wanted an ‘American face’ for his companies, and his neighbor Rochon (a Caucasian of Canadian decent) apparently fit the bill,” the footnote reads. “And after renting Rochon a suit jacket and taking him to a professional photographer, Bunchan had Rochon’s photo plastered all over the companies’ promotional pamphlets.”

Read the ruling and the dissection of the legal issues here.

Mar 27, 2012
[EYE-OPENING EXERCISE]: A Modest ‘HYIP’ — But One That Provides A Learning Experience Juxtaposed Against JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid: Compare Pitches Of ‘Blue Hedge Investments’ And JSS/JBP

"Blue Hedge Investments," like JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, is out there for all of Canada (and other countries) to see.

UPDATED 2:57 A.M. EDT (U.S.A., MARCH 27) Vague information about JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is all over the web. The “opportunity” purportedly operated by Frederick Mann is targeting investors in Canada, the United States and many other countries through conference calls, videos and text pitches.

The PP Blog has listened to recordings of four JSS/JBP conference calls with Mann as the featured guest. Persons who asked questions during the calls have identified themselves as residents of the Canadian provinces of “Alberta” and “British Columbia” and several U.S. states. One caller suggested he was Jamaican — and Jamaica, like Canada and the United States, has had more than its share of problems with massive fraud schemes.

See story on combined Jamaica/U.S. allegations against Bertram A. Hill. See story about the guilty plea of Jamaican citizen David A. Smith, implicated by the United States in a spectacular international fraud scheme that involved at least $220 million.

One of the hallmarks of HYIP fraud is vagueness about an “opportunity.” JSS/JBP, for example, purports to pay a daily return of 2 percent, with Mann accorded the description of “mathematical genius.”

But Mann — despite the various superlatives attached to his name and the various preposterous claims — does not tell investors in Canada or the United States (or any other country) where the JSS/JBP “program” is operating from.

As an exercise in identifying red flags, the PP Blog today is proposing that readers visit the website of “Blue Hedge Investments.” (The URLs are below.)

Among other things, “Blue Hedge” describes itself as a “truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Promoters of JSS/JBP use similar language when promoting their “program.”

And “Blue Hedge” — also in vague, JSS/JBP-like fashion — also says this: “BlueHedge Investments is led by a team of well-respected Canadian specialists with vast experience in the offline and online investment market . . .”

If anything, though, JSS/JBP is even more vague than “Blue Hedge.” JSS/JBP, for example, doesn’t even identify itself with a nation-state.

Unlike JSS/JBP, “Blue Hedge” plants the seed that its investors earn 9 percent a month, a relatively modest claim in the HYIP sphere. JSS/JBP, on the other hand, claims 60 percent a month, more than 6.6 times the “advertised” monthly return of “Blue Hedge.”

While “Blue Hedge” asserts it is interested in “the financial stability of our people today,” JSS/JBP promoters also claim their program is about the people — specifically, “average people.”

Many people instantly would question any claim that appears on the “Blue Hedge” website, even though its purported payout is far lower than the payout advertised by JSS/JBP and thousands of its affiliates.

But the sad reality is that many people would question neither the claims of “Blue Hedge” nor the even more extreme (or even more opaque) claims of JSS/JBP.

Like “Blue Hedge,” JSS/JBP has a “Platinum” program. And like “Blue Hedge,” JSS/JBP is out there for all of Canada (and all of the United States and other countries) to see.

“Blue Hedge” provides a learning opportunity for all JSS/JBP promoters. The PP Blog encourages readers to visit the “Blue Hedge” site.

It perhaps is best to start with this page to get a sense of the interest rates while comparing them to JSS/JBP. You’ll see “Invest Now” buttons on the page, but perhaps it is best to avoid clicking on them until you’ve visited the “Blue Hedge” FAQs page and finally this page to assess its content and watch the short video.

After that, click on the “Invest Now” button and assess its content. It might be one of the best clicks you make all year. (See button on this page.)

Mar 25, 2012
BULLETIN: KABOOM! FTC Gains Asset Freezes Against Mortgage-Relief Scammers Trading On Image Of President Obama And Masquerading As ‘Law Firm,’ Agency Says

Sample advertisement promising relief from foreclosure: Source: FTC

BULLETIN: A federal judge in the Central District of California has approved asset freezes and appointed a receiver in a case in which the FTC alleged several companies and a scammer-in-chief were running two mortgage-relief fraud schemes.

The scam, the FTC said, traded on an image of President Obama and used at least three .org sites to separate homeowners who already were financially strapped from even more money.

Named defendants were Sameer Lakhany of Santa Ana, Calif.; The Credit Shop LLC of Orange, Calif.; Fidelity Legal Services LLC of Orange, Calif.; Titanium Realty Inc. of Anaheim, Calif.; Precision Law Center Inc. of South Coast Metro, Calif.; and Precision Law Center LLC, also of South Coast Metro.

Lakhany also controlled three .orgs from which the scam was carried out, the FTC said: FreeFedLoanMod.org, HouseHoldRelief.org and MyHomeSupport.org.

In stunning allegations of relentless fraud aimed at vulnerable Americans, the FTC said Lakhany and his business entities authored a con “that falsely promised to get help for homeowners who joined others to file so-called ‘mass joinder’ lawsuits against their lenders.”

As part of the mass-joinder fraud, the scammers charged “$6,000 to $10,000 in advance, but failed to get the results they promised,” the agency alleged.

In the second fraud, the hucksters “promised but failed to deliver relief from . . . mortgages and foreclosures,” even after charging customers “between $795 to $1595 each for a so-called ‘forensic loan audit.’”

The defendants, according to the FTC, “told consumers these audits would find lender violations 90 percent of the time or more, and that the resulting legal leverage would force their lender to give them a loan modification that would substantially improve their mortgage terms. The defendants falsely portrayed themselves as non-profit, free, accredited, or HUD-certified housing counselors with special qualifications to help obtain mortgage loan modifications and avoid foreclosure.

“They promised consumers that the forensic loan audit would be the only charge not covered by their ‘free’ service, and that if the ‘audit’ did not turn up any violations, consumers could get a 70 percent refund and still obtain a loan modification. They also told consumers their loan modification requests would be seriously delayed without the audit,” the FTC charged.

The scams traded in part on an image of President Obama, the FTC said.

One ad featuring an Obama image urged consumers to call a toll-free number to “Speak With a Counselor and Receive a FREE Loan Modification Under the Obama Loan Modification Programs,” the FTC said.

Using various misrepresentations, the scammers targeting vulnerable Americans took in more than $1 million, the FTC said.

The addresses of Credit Shop LLC and Fidelity Legal Services LLC were mail drops, the FTC said.

Read the FTC complaint.

Mar 22, 2012
DEVELOPING STORY: JSS/JBP’s Frederick Mann Tells Americans, Canadians That Company Is Paying Them With Money From ‘New Members’ And That Firm’s Theoretical Income Streams May Be Insufficient To ‘Pay The 2 Percent’

“Where does JustBeenPaid get the money to pay that kind of interest?” — Caller “Michael” from “San Francisco” in March 15 JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid conference call

“Well, first of all, JBP or JSS Tripler is a revenue-sharing program, so that means some of the money comes from new members buying positions. Then, we are in the process of developing additional income streams, so that’s relevant. And eventually the additional income streams may be sufficient to pay the 2 percent — maybe not.” — Response by Frederick Mann, purported JBP/JSS operator, to “Michael’s” question, March 15, 2012

Frederick Mann

UPDATED 7:26 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) In yet-another bizarre conference call for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, the “program’s” purported operator told listeners from the United States and Canada (and possibly from Jamaica) that JSS/JBP is paying them with money sent in by “new members.”

Using “new” money to pay “old” members is the central element of a Ponzi scheme — although Frederick Mann did not use the phrase. Still, it was the white elephant in the conference room, and Mann’s explanations during the March 15 call became increasingly complex, vague and incongruous.

Mann, for instance, declined to say where the program was operating from, repeating his practice of nondisclosure from previous calls.

What’s important, he explained, “is that our programs are not U.S.-based. We don’t have any offices in the U.S. Our servers are not in the U.S.”

The explanation caused a chuckling U.S. caller to quip, “Yeah. I agree. Somewhere out in the galaxy.”

“Yes,” Mann replied to the caller’s “galaxy” remark. The caller earlier had described himself during the March 15 call as a “financial planner” for 22 years. In a previous call, the caller said he was in “California” and had family in Iowa.

And Mann advised listeners that it was OK to call JSS/JBP an investment program when they were recruiting new members — guidance that seemed to catch even the conference-call host off-guard.

“And I know that, in the [separate conference] room, we do try to say ‘purchase’ and ‘repurchase’ as opposed to ‘invest’ and ‘reinvest,’” the female host said.

It is common for HYIP scams and their purveyors to seek to avoid the language of investments when promoting “programs” — on the errant belief that avoiding such language insulates them from prosecution.

The female host did not say why the other room was giving one set of instructions and Mann another. Regardless, internal inconsistencies are one of the hallmarks of HYIP scams, and it is well-known that wordplay designed to disguise securities fraud cannot insulate purveyors from prosecution — rather like a robber who uses a gun to snatch the purse of an 80-year-old woman cannot avoid prosecution by calling the robbery an innocent exercise in arranging a loan and insisting that the gun was a harmless piece of metal that just happened to be at the scene.

Mann, whose name appears in 2008 materials identifying him as a promoter of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, said nothing about whether JSS/JBP had any securities registrations or whether promoters of the “program” were risking a legal calamity by recruiting downlines into a scheme that does not identify itself with a nation-state and whose payout corresponds to a preposterous annualized return of 730 percent .

The bank accounts of some individual ASD promoters were seized by the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD Ponzi case, according to court filings. JSS/JBP purports to pay a daily return double that of ASD.

Income Streams Are Theoretical; ‘Free’ Members Dominate JSS/JBP

The most troubling explanation — among any number of troubling explanations during the 1:11 call — was Mann’s assertion in response to a question from “Michael” of “San Francisco” about where JSS/JBP gets the money to pay a return of 2 percent a day. (The exchange is noted in the breakout quotes at the top of this story.)

Conceding that the company uses money from “new members” who buy “positions” to make the payouts, Mann simultaneously acknowledged that the “program” was “in the process” of developing new income streams and that those still-theoretical streams may be insufficient to sustain the scheme.

But the company’s “restart” feature, Mann suggested, was enough to defeat any concerns that the firm’s liabilities exceeded its assets.

“The 2 percent that the company pays is effectively a liability to the company,” Mann said. “But what the ‘restart’ makes possible is to convert some or even all of these liabilities into assets in the form of JSS positions.”

Even so, members needed “to bring in new members with new money,” Mann said. He later asserted that only “about 25 percent” of new registrants “put in money.”

“Maybe 75 percent of people do nothing,” Mann said, a problematic response because the program advertises that it provides registrants a $10 credit (described during the March 15 call as a loan) for joining and pays them interest of 20 cents a day until they realize a profit of $5 after 75 days.

When JSS/JBP debits a member’s account to recapture the purported loan, which apparently is made at an interest rate of zero percent, the company still is on the hook for the $5 due the new subscriber.

Speaking with a South African accent but using an American baseball metaphor, Mann said the lion’s share of JSS/JBP new members (about 75 percent) do nothing after enrolling

If the JSS/JBP program were baseball, Mann suggested, “The pitcher would pitch the ball, and they would watch it go by, they would just stand there.”

If Mann’s assertions are true, it means that only 25 percent of JSS/JBP’s members are propping up 100 percent of the enterprise, including the purported $5 profit due new registrants in 75 days and much larger payments due other members. Even if JSS/JBP enforces a cash-out minimum higher than $5 to prevent a flood a small redemptions, such a device leads to questions about whether the purported $10 credit is just a smaller scam within a larger scam that permits accrued liabilities to be ignored.

Much remains mysterious about JSS/JBP’s purported restarts and its in-house accounting methods. Other HYIPs have used similar devices to duck the Ponzi issue. But with its “restart” explanation, JSS/JBP may be inviting questions about whether is has introduced Enron-like accounting tricks into the morass.

Enron’s 2001 collapse revealed one of the greatest financial scandals in U.S. history. It destroyed not only the company, but also the Arthur Andersen accounting firm. (See “Enron scandal” Wikipedia entry.)

Is JSS/JBP a miniature Enron-in-waiting?

Among the callers who asked questions during the call was a JSS/JBP member who described himself as “Earl,” a 79-year-old man interested in leaving money for his daughter.

Also on the line was a man who suggested he hailed from Jamaica and wanted to start a JSS/JBP account for a “nonprofit, for a school that I have, that I attended in Jamaica.”

Other callers identified themselves as residents of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta and the U.S. states of California, South Dakota, Texas, Georgia, Missouri and Louisiana.

One caller asked Mann why electronic payments from JSS/JBP came from “Michael” at a BigBooster.com email address, not an email address associated with the JSS/JBP domains.

“Michael is a business partner, and he handles some of the finances,” Mann said. He did not identify “Michael” by a last name.

Mann also advised callers that JSS/JBP had two representatives in Italy, but did not speak to the JSS/JBP-related probe involving the program’s affiliates announced by the Italian securities regular CONSOB in January.

One caller informed Mann that his downline recruits has put in “substantial” sums. Another complained that his account had been debited weeks in advance of the anticipated debit. Another complained that the website was unattractive to potential recruits and looked like a scam. Yet another fretted that the site appeared to lack a secure connection (https). Still another complained that his “matrices” did not appear to be cycling properly.

HYIPs are infamous for creating one set of expectations and then changing the rules at midstream. They’re also infamous for their convoluted explanations and fuzzy — if not downright impossible — math.

Like ASD’s Andy Bowdoin — now under indictment amid charges that he orchestrated an international Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million — Mann has been accorded the description of “genius” in promotions for the program.

Mar 21, 2012
AdLandPro, Site Whose HYIP Shills Touted AdSurfDaily, Finanzas Forex And JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, Renews Attack Against RealScam.com — As ALP Swaps In Images Of Its Own Members Alongside Ad For ‘Escort’ Service

This ad for a purported Thailand escort service appears today in the United States on AdLandPro, a site whose operator is threatening a class-action lawsuit against RealScam.com, an antiscam forum. The PP Blog captured this screen shot today and edited it to remove the images of EIGHT AdLandPro members whose photographs were displayed in the left sidebar and created the appearance that the AdLandPro members also were members of (or approved of) the escort service. When the Blog reloaded the ad, the page displayed the images of EIGHT other AdLandPro members. A third reload served up an image of an entire family, including three young children who appear to reside in the South Central United States.

In November 2011, the PP Blog reported that Bogdan Fiedur of AdLandPro had threatened antiscam site RealScam.com with litigation. The bid to chill RealScam in the age of international mass-marketing fraud featured the registration of a domain styled RealScamClassActionSuit.com.

With Fiedur trolling for suckers and hoping to make his intellectual dishonesty go viral, RealScam did not buckle at his obvious bid to chill it.

Good for you, RealScam!

It’s hard to condense all the AdLandPro absurdities that followed over the next several weeks, but we’ll summarize them as such: A sampling of Stepfordian shills and mindless apologists stepped up to the plate for Fiedur, “fake” law students purportedly from a major American university entered the fray to add to the bid to chill — and the matter devolved into Threatre of the Absurd in that Internet-only sort of way.

By the end of December, the chill bid appeared to end: Content on the purported class-action site went missing, and the site began to resolve to an AdLandPro page.

We would be remiss if we did not point out that, in addition to being solicited to register for HYIP scams such as AdSurfDaily, Finanzas Forex and JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid (730 percent a year) by purported “Christians” on AdLandPro over the past few years, American visitors (and others) also were solicited for cross-border sales of pharmaceuticals.

If drugs weren’t on their purchase list, AdLandPro visitors were told how to find used underwear and arrange — umm, how should we put this? — the temporary services of scantily clad women in various nations from India eastward after demonstrating a way to pay?

At least some of the risqué ads have gone missing, but their URLs remain. When they’re clicked, they resolve to pages that show the faces of AdLandPro members who had nothing to do with the placing of the ads. Did we mention that AdLandPro purports to be a great guardian of privacy and the interest of its members?

And did we mention that not all of the risqué ads have gone missing — and that, when they’re clicked, they load images of AdLandPro members who had nothing to do with placing the ads and that AdLandPro wants members to believe it was a sort of Facebook before Facebook became the craze?

“The most exclusive, classic and attractive companions in Bangkok are here waiting to join you, at your hotel, apartment, or villa,” one ad on AdLandPro reads today. “All our princesses are hand picked by our management for their beauty, demeanour and friendly attitude.”

The ad is on the “community” subdomain of the AdLandPro.domain. When the PP Blog viewed the ad earlier today, the photographs of EIGHT AdLandPro members showed up in a sidebar only inches to the left. The headline above the sidebar read, “Our Members.” Less than an inch away, a photo of a presumptive “escort” wearing a pink-lace bra and a pink-lace wrap over her genital area appeared. The photo appeared to display two red telephones, with the woman posing seductively on what appeared to be a bed or mat.

When the PP Blog reloaded the page, the images of eight different AdLandPro members were displayed. A third reload resulted in the display of images of an AdLandPro family whose matriarch identified herself in her AdLandPro profile as a mother and grandmother from the South Central United States.

Two adults in the photo were holding young children, one of whom appeared to be an infant. A third child also appeared in the photo. Below that photo, the full-face image of a lone AdLandPro member — a woman — appeared. Below the woman’s photo, an ad for “OneX” appeared.

OneX is a program accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily said he was using to raise funds to pay for his criminal defense.

“I believe that God has brought us OneX to provide the necessary funds to win this case,” Bowdoin said in an October 2011 pitch.

So, if you’re an AdLandPro member and had nothing whatsoever to do with the placement of the escort ad and do not endorse Thailand “princesses” purportedly “hand picked by . . . management,” say, because you oppose human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women, AdLandPro is making it appear as though you’re on board the Thailand escort train.

A link prompt below the photos of the eight AdLandPro members reads, “See All 185753 Members.” The URL points to the AdLandPro membership directory.

By coincidence, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that Marcus Choice Williams, 36, of Fort Worth, Texas, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison followed by 30 years of supervised release for various felony offenses related to a conspiracy to traffic women for prostitution.

“The court’s sentence clearly reflects the seriousness of these awful sex trafficking crimes,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The victims suffered physical assaults, sexual abuse and daily degradation all because of this defendant’s greed and callous disregard for them as individuals. We are committed to prosecuting sex traffickers and vindicating victims’ rights, as they were vindicated today.”

Williams, prosecutors said, operated “adult escort web sites” as part of a human-trafficking scheme that also included money-laundering.

He “recruited vulnerable women, specifically single mothers from troubled backgrounds, and, in some cases used a combination of deception, fraud, coercion, threats and physical violence to compel the women to engage in prostitution, requiring each young woman to secure a daily quota of money, and if operating out of town, to wire the funds to him,” prosecutors said.

Crazier By The Moment

Just when one began to believe that AdLandPro had abandoned its absurd litigation threat against RealScam, guess what’s back? (You’d be right if you guessed the class-action site.)

And if ads on AdLandPro from “Christian” HYIP peddlers and purveyors of used underwear and illegal, cross-border pharmaceutical sales (after Google had agreed in August 2011 to pay the United States $500 million to settle claims of illegal cross-border solicitations for pharmaceuticals) were not enough, Fiedur’s purported class-action site is quoting a notorious YouTube cyberstalker and raunchy Internet gadfly, positioning him as an authoritative critic of RealScam.com.

It’s enough to make decent people from all corners of the world cringe as they contemplate whether intellectual corruption as practiced on the web has gained the upper hand.

Mar 19, 2012
UPDATE: WordPress Deactivates JSS/JBP Affiliate Blog That Prompted Investors To ‘Look At The Banks [That] Are Only Offering You .05-1% APR On Yearly Basis’

WordPress suspended this JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid affiliate Blog earlier today. Google had indexed a post on the site only hours earlier.

UPDATED 12:20 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Within six hours of Google indexing (earlier today) a JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid affiliate Blog using WordPress as a free platform from which to attract investors, Word Press caused the post to disappear.

Kudos to WordPress!

Visitors to the Blog URL of dailyrevenueresourcegroup.wordpress.com now see a message that the Blog “has been archived or suspended for a violation” of the WordPress Terms of Service.

The keyword title of the post, which now cannot be seen, was “How To Invest In JustBeenPaid.” The title ended with an exclamation point.

The post appeared to be a reposting of companion JSS/JBP-related content that appeared on Blogger, yet another free Blogging platform. The Blogger post remains active.

Amid claims that JSS/JBP’s advertised daily payout rate of 2 percent “is not a bad rate,” the now-missing WordPress post asked investors to compare JSS/JBP to a bank and planted the seed that prospects should choose the absurd program over the bank.

“Look at the banks [sic] they are only offering you .05-1% apr on yearly basis for savings accounts,” the now-missing WordPress post claimed.

In its introduction, the now-missing post claimed, “In this article it is my intent to help those that are unsure of how JustBeenPaid works and how to invest in it.”

Despite the WordPress ban, the same phrasing continues to appear on the Blogger site at Blogsport.com — along with at least three JSS/JBP affiliate links. The Blogger post is dated today.

It is common for promoters of highly questionable “opportunities” and even outright scams to rely on free hosting services in bids to recruit new affiliates and “earn” downline commissions.

Claims about JSS/JBP have been under investigation by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, since at least Jan. 23.

JSS/JBP does not disclose where it operates from. The scheme’s preposterous purported daily payout rate of 2 percent is double that of AdSurfDaily, which the U.S. Secret Service described in 2008 as an international Ponzi scheme that had gathered tens of millions of dollars.

Frederick Mann, JSS/JBP’s purported operator, described himself in 2008 promos as an ASD pitchman. In December 2010, ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

JSS/JBP has no known securities registrations. The “program” operates in an MLM-like fashion in which prospects are told they’ll receive a return of 60 percent a month for their “positions” — on top of two-tier affiliate commissions totaling 15 percent for recruiting prospects who send money to the company via offshore payment processors.

Among other things, the Terms for JSS/JBP makes members affirm they are not government spies or media lackeys.

An ad banner accompanying the still-active Blogger post solicits prospects to “Start collecting Unlimited $15 payments Straight to your Alertpay account.” When the banner is clicked, it lands on a JBP affiliate page that asserts, “Quickly Get CLEVER[.] GET PAID FOREVER!”

Mar 18, 2012
EDITORIAL: The Astonishing Virality Of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, A ‘Program’ That Purports To Pay A Return Of 2 Percent A Day And Makes Members Affirm They Are Not With The ‘Government’ — Even As Purported Operator Spotlights ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Implicated In Alleged Murder Plot Against Public Officials
EDITOR’S NOTE: For the purposes of this column, the PP Blog is reporting on only a small number of references to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid in the past 24 hours, as compiled by Google’s “Past 24 hours” feature. Google also has a “Past hour” feature. At the time of this post, Google is reporting “About 3,970” indexed “results” for jss tripler during the 24-hour time period, yesterday to today. A good number of the returns are in languages other than English. (Editor’s note continues below screen shot.)

JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is an exceptionally murky “program” that purports to pay a return of 2 percent a day. That’s an absurd 60 percent a month — or, on an annualized basis, 730 percent, an ROI that would make Bernard Madoff gag. The “program,” which purports to be “indefinitely sustainable” and makes members affirm they are not government spies or media lackeys, has a strong presence on forums listed in U.S. federal court files as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a website linked to Frederick Mann, the purported operator of the “program,” is publishing two videos and links to nine more that highlight Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported “sovereign citizen” implicated in an alleged murder plot against public officials in Alaska.

“Sovereign citizens” have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them. They have been implicated in numerous fraud schemes and may engage in what has become known as “paper terrorism” — i.e., the filing of false liens against members of law enforcement, false libel lawsuits against publishers and other bids to chill and nuisance the law-enforcement community or members of the media.

Mann declined to tell conference-call listeners on Feb. 23 even where the enterprise was operating from.

Despite these disturbing events, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid has achieved Internet virality and may be recruiting thousands of new affiliates daily. The bullet-point brief below condenses some of the affiliate claims in just the past 24 hours.

Despite repeated promotional references to the sum of $10, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid members do not have to limit their “purchase” to only one $10 position. The scheme could be raking in tremendous sums during an era of securities hucksterism that sometimes involves massive — if not epic — sums of money. It is not unusual for large sums to go missing, leaving defrauded investors holding the bag for tremendous losses. At a minimum, those losses contribute to the undermining of economies on a local level, perhaps particularly if groups of individuals from the same area become investors.
- Source: Blog titled “Easy Online Money” with a kicker of “Change a life today!” Among the claims: “You are guaranteed to earn a daily 2% on the positions you purchase, thereby making a decent amount of passive income online working from home.”
- Source: Blog at URL that is a subdomain of blogspot.com, a free Blogger platform hosted by Google. Among the claims: “You can fund your account with as little as $10, and earn 2% per day with no work.”
- Source: Blog at another blogspot subdomain. Among the claims: “JSS-Tripler now has 294,651 members — having grown by just over 6,000 new members during the past 24 hours. Thank you to our many promoters for doing such a great job!”
- Source: Text accompanying video on Google-owned YouTube. Among the text claims: “Once you are in JSS tripler . . . Click on ‘Financial’ tab . . . Scroll down you will have $10 in your jss tripler account . . . Click on ‘Buy Jss Tripler Position’ . . . Purchase 1 free position with the $10 you receive in your account . . . You will be getting 2% earnings on $10 [sic] i.e. $0.20 every day without doing anything . . . After the 75 days you make $15 dollars [sic] without any more investments or referrals. Then you invest back in $10 or whatever you like and you make more and more each day. Simple system really [sic] More position [sic] you purchase or get from referrals the more you make. Very simple process.”
- Source: Blog titled “Money Making Tips.” Among the claims: “The level of support is better than any other program i have seen, the Daily Web Conferences with Carl Pearson are terrific. You can usually get your questions acknowledged instantly, you are kept up to date with what’s going on with this company, they provide training including tutorials and videos. You can access the conference area 24/7 [sic] a moderator is there to answer all your questions. JBP had just hired a new marketing leader, Louis Paquette[,] to help educate members in any areas where they need help.” [Note by PP Blog: Louis Paquette is referenced in this Feb. 4 PP Blog story, which reported that a JSS Tripler-related domain hosted in Utah mysteriously began to redirect to the Netherlands after a JSS Tripler-related action by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator.]
- Source: Blog at empowernetwork.com URL. Among the claims: “JSS Tripler Gives You the first $10 for FREE: My Total ‘2%’ Earnings Thus Far $4757.00.”
- Source: Blog with a kicker of “Social Media Marketing Consultant.” Blog has accompanying YouTube video: Among the Blog claims: “I would like to help JBP grow, in any way I can contribute . . . It is my goal to add 60 active referrals over the next 6 months or less.” Among the video claims: “Makes It So Easy to Make Money Online that a Baby can Almost do it!” The text accompanying the video engages in considerable keyword stuffing with the phrase of “Make Money At Home” and similar phrases.
- Source: Entry on apsense.com. Among the claims: “I just want to pay it forward and help others . . . get ‘$10 free money’ in your accounts . . . Buy a JSS-Tripler position and start earning 2% per day! . . . Inbite [sic] new members. There is an endless supply of people online looking for money making opportunities.”
- Source: Blog styled “Success Instantly.” Blog has accompanying YouTube video. Among the video claims: “Compound your Earnings To INCREASE Your Daily Payout.”
Mar 16, 2012
UPDATE: ‘MoneyMakingBrain’ Asserts PP Blog Will ‘Go Down In Flames’ — Plus, He Suggests He’s In ‘Law Enforcement’ And May Issue Subpoena

“In law enforcement, we look into the IP address and whether is real or not (proxy). Then your service provider gives the account information with the customer’s name and address, then a warrant is made, then a police task force is dispatched with agents to raid your home or office, arrests you and seizes all your computers. That’s if you are a terrorist.” — “MoneyMakingBrain,” in March 11, 2012, post on RealScam.com

“And Patrick, the day your host is subpoenaed by court determination to provide all the RealScam.com web logs, it will be the beginning of end of your credibility and your PatrickPretty.com blog. I am sorry, but you did to yourself, and you will go down in flames.” — “MoneyMakingBrain,” in March 11, 2012, post on RealScam.com

Amid new suggestions he is in “law enforcement” — and while planting the seed he can cause subpoenas for log files to be served or motivate others to serve them or otherwise nuisance the PP Blog and cause it to “go down in flames” — “MoneyMakingBrain” again has used RealScam.com as a platform to hatch new and deeper conspiracy theories concerning the PP Blog and others.

The latest disturbing developments unfolded within hours of “MoneyMakingBrain’s” arrival Saturday at the PP Blog from a website linked to other harassment bids targeted at the PP Blog and some of its posters. “MoneyMakingBrain” appears to be in search of information — however disingenuous and laden with vulgarity and sexual innuendo — to confirm his own biases.

On Saturday, “MoneyMakingBrain” arrived at the PP Blog from the WorldLawDirect forum — specifically from a page set up by the notorious cyberstalker “unclefesta26” weeks ago in a bid to discredit RealScam.com. “unclefesta26” once videotaped a cartoon representation of himself hectoring the PP Blog by typing the compressed phrase “kissmyarse” into the Blog’s contact form and posting a video of his harassment on YouTube. (See screen shot from “unclefesta26” YouTube video below.)

The notorious cyberstalker "unclefesta26" uses his free platform at YouTube to attack various people, including individuals who post on the PP Blog. "MoneyMakingBrain" also is using a free Google platform — Blogger — to harass the PP Blog and some of its posters.

Known mostly by his principal handle, “unclefesta26″ once posted a video on YouTube that, in cartoon form, depicted Lynn Edgington,” a male reader of the PP Blog and the chairman of a California nonprofit entity that educates the public about scams, as a diaper-wearing pole dancer squeezing his own breasts.

In 2009, “unclefesta26” — posting at the PP Blog as “Pistol” and coming off an unsuccessful bid to register as “Hugh Jorgan” (read: Huge Organ) at a site that once carried news and commentary about the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme — was banned from the PP Blog for chronic harassment and creating maintenance problems.

“unclefesta26” retaliated by adding the PP Blog to his list of hectoring targets at his YouTube site, at one time trying to tie the Blog to the word “anal.” In October 2011, “unclefesta26” sought to overcome his PP Blog ban and post with a different user identity — under the proposed user ID of “lurch” and in a thread in which the Blog reported that Edgington had been quoted by a St. Louis newspaper in a story about steering clear of online fraud schemes.

The October 2011 posting bid appeared to feature a bogus email address entered into the Blog’s Comments form.

“MoneyMakingBrain” now has been attacking Edgington for days. And like “unclefesta26,” MoneyMakingBrain also is carrying out his sordid campaign from a free platform owned by Google.

Edgington has “no escape” from MoneyMakingBrain’s Google-hosted site, MoneyMakingBrain has asserted on RealScam, while suggesting other hectoring campaigns may be under way and the force of it all will destroy Edgington’s marriage.

“I feel sorry for you and your wife actually, who must be putting up with so much crap from anonymous callers, and who knows what else,” MoneyMakingBrain asserted on RealScam.com on March 7. “If you don’t stop being a deceptive person, though, she is gonna divorce you.”

On March 8 on RealScam, “MoneyMakingBrain” appears to have tipped his hand that one of his research sources for purported information on Edgington was “unclefesta26’s” YouTube hectoring site.

“You are not even a funny cartoon of a man to watch, as some people have depicted you,” he ventured.

Among the latest MoneyMakingBrain claims on RealScam are that the PP Blog is “soapboxmom,” one of the administrators of RealScam, and that the PP Blog runs RealScam.

Both claims are false.

“MoneyMakingBrain” also claims the PP Blog posted as scam critic “Lil Ol’ Radical Me” (LORM) on its own Blog on March 10 — and then answered its own post with the PP Blog identity.

Those claims are false.

Meanwhile, “MoneyMakingBrain” claims that the PP Blog also posts as “LORM” and “nomaxim” on RealScam — all while suggesting the PP Blog also posts as “ProfHenryHiggins” and Edgington, the chairman of Eagle Research Associates.

Each of those claims is false, as are the claims that the PP Blog posts with a proxy at RealScam and then changes proxies.

The PP Blog does not post with proxies at RealScam — or at any other site. One of the reasons the Blog does not use proxies is that it operates in an environment in which threats are directed at it on a somewhat regular basis, and the Blog needs to be able to demonstrate the threats were targeted at the Blog’s actual Internet Service Provider (ISP) account or hosting connection site (the website IP of the PP Blog).

The Blog uses its ISP account to access the Internet, and its IP account to publish the Blog. Veiled threats against the PP Blog’s ISP account date back to 2009. The Blog’s hosting IP was crippled by waves of DDoS attacks in October and November of 2010. The Blog then had to arrange new hosting, which drove up its monthly publishing costs substantially.

Even under its upgraded hosting and security architecture , the Blog occasionally has been targeted by traffic floods that briefly have collapsed its server. In April 2011, the Blog received a claim of responsibility for the attacks from the HYIP sphere.

Although “MoneyMakingBrain’s” most recent conspiracy theories are getting harder to follow as they conflate one artificial reality after another, he also appears to be suggesting that the PP Blog also posts on RealScam as “Whip” and “laidback.”

Those claims are false. The PP Blogs user ID at RealScam is PPBlog. It is the only name under which the Blog posts at RealScam. The Blog, which is an ordinary member of RealScam — i.e., it has no administrative credentials and no access to RealScam logs — has a total of 23 posts at the RealScam forum.

The PP Blog and RealScam do have posters in common, and the PP Blog is concerned about various bids to chill RealScam.com in the age of white-collar crime and international mass-marketing fraud.

In November 2011, the Blog wrote about such a bid.

After “MoneyMakingBrain” planted the seed yesterday that he was in law enforcement and could cause subpoenas to be served, some RealScam skeptics questioned his credentials. “MoneyMakingBrain” initially then backed away from the law-enforcement claim.

“And, I never said I was a police agent, you moron,” MoneyMakingBrain claimed to RealScam poster (ProfHenryHiggins) yesterday, while falsely asserting the poster was the PP Blog. “I don’t have to be in law enforcement to detect [a] scumbag like you, Patrick. It doesn’t matter under what user you post: Radical, Whip, Professor, whoever, I know exactly how many users are at anytime in this thread.

“So, go to the hell Patrick, you and this ‘real scam’ forum of yours. There are people who are dying to know who is behind this crackpot forum. Now they know what to do with those web logs from your host.”

“MoneyMakingBrain” did not identify the people purportedly “dying to know who is behind this crackpot forum.” Nor did he explain whether he coached people to “know what to do with web logs” or say precisely how he purportedly had obtained RealScam logs or whether he was distributing logs to the people purportedly “dying” for the information.

In any event, the PP Blog does not own, operate or run RealScam.com. Nor does the Blog share hosting with RealScam. Nor is the Blog acquainted with RealScam’s hosting arrangement.

CAUTION WARRANTED: As the PP Blog previously noted, it may be unwise to click on any link that “MoneyMakingBrain” posts on RealScam. A phishing bid of some sort may be under way.

Although “MoneyMakingBrain” yesterday backed away from his “law enforcement” claim, he asserted it again today, planting the seed that he might be able to put people “behind bars” or dispense fines.

“Maybe I am that guy trying to make a few bucks online with money making programs, or may (sic) I am the developer of IP DETECTOR, maybe I am going to put you behind bars or make you pay a big fine for cyber bullying, or simply expose you to prove the product works, or, maybe I am in law enforcement and you are being monitored, keep guessing,” he posted on RealScam.

“MoneyMakingBrain” started out as a “defender” of Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, a “program” that purports to pay a return of 2 percent a day.

Using a proxy to send an email threat to the PP Blog on Feb. 29, “MoneyMakingBrain” asserted he’d defend Mann “so help me God.” He further suggested he might seek to interfere in an Eagle Research Associates banking relationship, all while asserting that Edgington was the operator of RealScam.

After the Feb. 29 email threats to the PP Blog, “MoneyMakingBrain” asserted on RealScam (March 9) that “the MMB is no longer interested in defending Fred Mann, but accusing Lynn Edgington . . .”

Yesterday, though, “MoneyMakingBrain” asserted he had “cleared” Edgington from an earlier MoneyMakingBrain allegation that Edgington was “LittleRoundMan,” another RealScam.com administrator.

Visit RealScam.com. (Please take heed that clicking on any link MoneyMakingBrain posts may be unwise.)

Mar 12, 2012
FRIDAY HYIP ODDITIES: (1) Spammer Swipes PP Blog Graphic, Uses It In Bid To Promote LibertyReserve; (2) Other Spammers Target JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Threads; (3) ‘MoneyMakingBrain’ Calls Blog ‘BIG Idiot’ And ‘Deceptive Unethical Lowlife’

Here is an imponderable: Is there any ceiling to the absurdities in the HYIP sphere and the destructive force it exercises around the web?

On Wednesday, the PP Blog received repeated spams from U.S.-based IPs. The spammer used the handle “invest liberty reserve” and targeted two threads, including this one about JSS Tripler 2, a purported “program” that purportedly based its name on JSS Tripler. JSS Tripler is a purported element of JustBeenPaid, an “opportunity” purportedly operated by Frederick Mann that claims it pays a return of 60 percent a month.

Liberty Reserve is an “offshore” payment processor favored by HYIP schemes, including JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid. Wednesday’s spam bids used purported email addresses at AOL and Hotmail.

One of the Wednesday spams featured a graphic swiped from PonziNews, once a sister site to the PP Blog. The spammer attempted to use the stolen graphic in his posting bid on the PP Blog.

It was not the first time the Blog’s graphics had been used in a nefarious way online. On Dec. 12, 2010 — in commemoration of its 1,000th post — the PP Blog recounted a July 2010 story that its Breaking News graphic had been swiped and placed inside a promotion for Data Network Affiliates.

DNA was a scam associated with huckster Phil Piccolo. The “opportunity” traded on the names of Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump and advertised a nonexistent cell-phone plan of unlimited talk and text for $10 a month, an offshore “resorts” scheme and a “mortgage-reduction” scheme — all while tying itself to Christianity, the U.S. AMBER Alert system of locating abducted children and a purported bid to end world poverty.

It’s worth noting that some JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid promoters also traded on Winfrey’s name.

In the same December 2010 commemoration post, the Blog reported that Janet Napolitano, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, had been called names that would peel paint when DHS announced that Walmart had joined the “If you see something, say something” terrorism-awareness campaign. Meanwhile, the Blog reported that some online-fraud schemes had evolved to victimize participants by the tens of thousands — numbers America’s largest sports stadiums could not accommodate.

The PP Blog no longer owns the PonziNews domain. The Blog suspended publication of the site in 2010, after thieves who used international IPs stole the domain’s content verbatim and posted it on other sites they controlled that had a higher Page Rank than Ponzi News.

In short, the net effect of the theft was that the PP Blog was being used to create “free” content for thieves who intercepted the traffic of PonziNews. Such piracy schemes are hurting the publishing industry.

In a separate spam bid on Wednesday, a would-be poster suggesting he represented an HYIP ranking site targeted this PP Blog thread on strange claims associated with “MoneyMakingBrain” in the context of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid.

The would-be poster purporting to represent the HYIP ranking site complained that the Blog had used the term “HYIP” in the linked story above “21 times” without explaining the meaning of the term.

“Nice writing job!” the would-be poster jabbed. He provided no comment on the substance of the story.

On RealScam.com yesterday, “MoneyMakingBrain” — who’d emailed threats repeatedly to the PP Blog on Feb. 29 — described the Blog as a “BIG idiot,” a “chicken,” a “deceptive unethical lowlife,” the user of “NONFACTUAL” sources and other names.

Because of the emailed threats and “MoneyMakingBrain’s” subsequent ban from the PP Blog, the Blog will not engage with MoneyMakingBrain on RealScam.com, an antiscam forum that concerns itself with mass-marketing fraud and occasionally has been subjected itself to threats and menacing communications.

“MoneyMakingBrain” has advanced various conspiracy theories about RealScam.com, the PP Blog and and some of their common posters.

What he has not done is explain what his purported “due diligence” into the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program” entailed or how purported operator Frederick Mann could pay an annualized return between 48 and 73 times higher than the purported “returns” of Bernard Madoff.

Yesterday on RealScam, “MoneyMakingBrain” asserted that he has “recently read [about the PP Blog] on some scams forum, that he is a very deceptive reporter, well, that doesn’t surprise the MMB at all.”

It is possible that “MoneyMakingBrain” is referring to this September 2009 thread on Scam.com. The thread was started by a PP Blog poster known as “little joe” who’d been banned for harassment. The poster, who later was banned from Scam.com, claimed the PP Blog would be “scrambling to put out fires” from multiple IPs.

The threats and intimidation campaign from “little joe” began after the summer 2009 collapses of AdViewGlobal (AVG) and Ad-Ventures4U (ADV4U), both of which claimed an ability to provide preposterous returns in the wake of the government seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case.

Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, has described himself as a promoter for both ASD and ADV4U.

On Aug. 18, 2009, antiscam commentators on the PP Blog were called “idiots” and the PP Blog itself was asked by an ADV4U promoter whether the author was a “fag.” After launching his ad hominem attacks against the PP Blog and its posters, the ADv4U pitchman asserted he was a longtime businessman and that criticism about ADV4U on the PP Blog was about “as unprofessional as it gets people.”

“I’m out of here.You bunch of idiots make me sick!!!” the poster railed.

ADV4U ceased member payouts about 10 days later.

Less than a year later — in May 2010 — Professor James Byrne, an expert hired by the U.S. government to assess the alleged HYIP Ponzi scheme of Nicholas Smirnow of Pathway To Prosperity — observed that HYIPs were not “noted for their internal consistency.”

One of the inconsistencies that became part of the ADV4U story was the assertion by the “defender” that he was a longtime, professional businessman — while the same “defender” asked the PP Blog if he was a “fag” and declared ADV4U critics who questioned a purported payout rate of 1 percent a day “idiots.”

Both assertions occurred a year after the U.S. Secret Service brought Ponzi allegations against ASD, whose payout scheme was similar to ADV4U’s.

Mar 9, 2012
6 Pitchmen Who Raised Funds Plowed Into Jeffrey Mowen’s Ponzi Sanctioned By SEC On Heels Of Long-Running Lawsuit; Alleged Offering Fraud’s Advertised Monthly Payout Rate 20 Times LOWER Than JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid

Part of Jeffrey Lane Mowen's Ponzi haul.

UPDATED 7:43 A.M. ET (MARCH 9, U.S.A.) If ever there has been a cautionary tale for HYIP pitchmen, it is Jeffrey Lane Mowen’s Utah Ponzi scheme.

Mowen and at least six promoters ended up inspiring litigation on multiple fronts, with Mowen charged criminally. At issue was Mowen’s Forex Ponzi scheme, which allegedly was funded in part through an alleged high-yield “promissory notes” offering fraud.

Tonight, Mowen, 49, is listed as “in transit” to an unspecified federal prison. He has been jailed in the United States since he was extradited from Panama in 2009. He pleaded guilty to U.S. charges of wire fraud last year and was sentenced to 10 years.

Mowen received a merciful plea agreement in which other serious criminal charges were dropped, including solicitation to commit a crime of violence, witness tampering and retaliating against a witness.

The sidebars in the Mowen story have been every bit as compelling as the story-in-chief. Indeed, Mowen sought to shield himself in Panama when his scheme collapsed.

It didn’t work. Panamanian authorities and the FBI got him quickly.

Jeffrey Lane Mowen

After his return to the United States, Mowen allegedly solicited the murder of four witnesses “with the intent of preventing their attendance and testimony at his federal fraud trial” in the Ponzi scheme case.

That didn’t work. The cellmate through whom he allegedly solicited the murders was a snitch.

Other than ripping off investors and authoring a particularly ugly drama, about the only thing Mowen managed to do was create a storage problem for the U.S. Marshals Service, which had to round up and warehouse more than 200 vehicles he bought with investors’ funds.

Yes, more than 200.

But the cautionary tale doesn’t end there. Jeffrey Lane Mowen was a felon and a recidivist securities huckster. Thomas Fry, an unregistered promoter, used at least five other unregistered promoters to raise funds for “opportunities” that purported to pay a return of between 2 percent and 3 percent a month, according to the SEC.

Fry and the pitchmen were sued by the SEC in 2009. All six also now face administration sanctions from the SEC — this after the agency targeted their ill-gotten gains in the earlier lawsuit.

Failure to conduct due diligence and engaging in willful blindness were elements in the SEC’s lawsuit 2009 against the promoters, according to court filings.

“Because the Promoters not only conducted virtually no due diligence in connection with Fry’s purported investment opportunities, but transferred investor money to Fry without any documentation or limitation on his use of the funds, the Promoters were reckless in failing to discover Fry’s association with Mowen and that their funds were being placed into a Ponzi scheme or used for other undisclosed purposes,” the SEC charged at the time.

All of the pitchman now have been barred from the securities business under the terms of the administrative action. In a settlement, none of the pitchmen acknowledged wrongdoing. But the various Ponzi- and fraud-related actions were front-and-center in their lives for the better part of three years.

This common paragraph appears in each of the administrative actions against the five Fry pitchmen (italics added):

“The Commission’s complaint alleged that, from at least January 2007 through July 2008, [Pitchman’s Name] offered and sold purported high-yield promissory notes to investors that he claimed would pay 2% to 3% interest monthly. The funds raised by [Pitchman’s Name] were given to Thomas R. Fry who funneled those funds into a Ponzi scheme run by Jeffrey L. Mowen, a convicted felon and securities law recidivist. The Commission alleged that [Pitchman’s Name] distributed private placement memoranda to investors that falsely stated that all the investors’ funds were being used to make collateralized domestic real estate loans and domestic small business loans and that misrepresented the level of his due diligence as to the investment scheme. The Commission alleged that [Pitchman’s Name] conducted virtually no due diligence in connection with the purported investment opportunities and transferred investor money without any documentation or limitation on the use of the funds.”

Fry knew Mowen was a scammer, but still continued to solicit funds, the SEC said. All in all, he and the other five pitchmen raised more than $18 million for Mowen.

But the FBI said Mowen wasn’t operating a legitimate investment opportunity. What he was doing was buying exotic cars, taking personal vacations, supporting a luxurious lifestyle and making Ponzi payouts that ultimately defrauded more than 200 investors out of between $9 million and $10 million.

The purported monthly returns offered by JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid — an “opportunity” now making its way around the web — are roughly TWENTY times higher than the scheme pitched by Fry and his promoters, according to records.

As noted above, the alleged offering fraud involving Fry and the other pitchmen was promoted on the purported basis of returns of 2 percent to 3 percent a month. JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid advertises 60 percent a month.

Also on a monthly basis, the purported payout of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is roughly between TWO and SEVEN times higher than the payout of the Ponzi scheme that put Mowen in prison for 10 years, according to records.

Mowen’s Forex Ponzi scheme scheme offered between 8 percent and 33 percent a month, federal prosecutors said last year.

It is somewhat common for HYIP purveyors who populate Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup to assert they have conducted “due diligence” on an “opportunity” or to assert that a “program’s” operator and/or management “team” have done so and that prospects don’t have to concern themselves with doing any legwork.

It often proves to be the case that the “due diligence” consists of GIGO — garbage in, garbage out. The promoters simply repeat the company line, rather than doing any sort of critical assessment such as questioning how an HYIP “program” operator could provide returns that may dwarf the returns of Bernard Madoff and other Ponzi schemers such as Mowen.

Mar 8, 2012
BULLETIN: Already Under Scrutiny, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid May Be Using ‘Regional Reps’ To Increase Ponzi Reach Over National Borders

Redacted screen shot of "regional representatives" claim today on the website of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid.

BULLETIN: The PP Blog has learned that JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is publishing a page in which it advertises the availability of “regional representatives” in various parts of the world, including Italy.

On Jan. 23, CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, took action against certain JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid affiliaties. Despite the CONSOB action, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is openly advertising that it has at least two affiliates who speak Italian and that the affiliates are available to “assist you with ALL aspects of the program IN YOUR LANGUAGE.”

The page also touts the native-language talents of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid affiliates to assist members in Hong Hong, Taiwan, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States (to assist people who speak English or Japanese), Germany, Lithuania, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Poland, Portugal, Latvia, France, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Spain.

JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid described its outreach via regional reps as “AMAZING!”

“The people on this page have been thoroughly trained in all the workings of JustBeenPaid’s programs, and are happy to assist you TODAY!” the murky entity crowed.

In a Feb. 23 conference call, Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, declined to say precisely where the “opportunity” itself was located.

JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, Mann asserted to an audience of Americans and at least one person who claimed to be a resident of Canada, was “not located in any specific part of the world.

“We’re all over the planet,” he said, speaking with an English accent that appeared to be native to South Africa.

The assertion led to questions about whether Mann was running the “program” in a fashion reminiscent of a sort of small-scale Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). BCCI deliberately structured itself in murky fashion to ward off oversight by regulators. Its collapse created one of the great business scandals of the 1990s, prompting the Wall Street Journal (Europe) to observe that BCCI had been set up to be “offshore everywhere.”

BCCI’s collapse also triggered Congressional probes in the United States, along with both civil and criminal prosecutions.

The CONSOB probe in Italy, which the agency announced nearly six weeks ago, was not referenced on the “representatives” page on the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid website.

Incongruously, the “representatives” page included a link to an “agreement” page in which JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid registrants and/or prospects were informed they must 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.”

Moreover, the registrants and/or prospects were informed they must 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.”

The collapsed Legis HYIP published similar terms. (More on the Legisi prosecution below.)

How long the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid regional reps have been in place was not immediately clear. Also unclear was whether each of the reps had a physical presence in the respective countries or were using the Internet to reach over borders and perform customer service and recruit downlines in the respective nations.

The U.S. government and other governments of the world have become increasingly concerned about cross-border fraud. Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, met with top officials in Canada to discuss the problem.

Perhaps aghast over JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid developments, a poster on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum declared today that having regional reps for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is an “insane idea.”

“Forget about the matrix spots and payouts,” the MoneyMakerGroup poster wrote today. “[W]hy is 200,000 + members not enough and why arent (sic) we off the radar and private and not opening ourselves up to potential problems ? Regional reps is an insane idea, Im (sic) sorry but the admin needs to protect us and wakeup (sic) to the reality that you cant (sic) get this huge and expect nothing bad to happen.”

The poster did not explain his apparent belief that JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid had a duty to go “private” and to get “off the radar” of regulators. Nor did he say precisely what constituted something “bad.”

HYIPs have been the subject of both civil and criminal litigation in various jurisdictions.

It is common for HYIP purveyors to tout purported “offshore” operating venues and to claim such venues insulate an “opportunity” from prosecution. It also is common for HYIPs to announce they are “private” programs and therefore not subject to government oversight. At the same time, it is common for HYIPs to try to structure a Terms of Service or Member Agreement that purports either that the “opportunity” is not selling securities or is not subject to regulatory oversight.

Some HYIPs, including JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, have preemptively denied they are Ponzi schemes.

JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid purports to pay a daily return of 2 percent. On an annualized basis, the sum is between 48 and 73 times the purported returns of imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. It is EIGHT times the daily return touted by Gregory McKnight, who pleaded guilty last month in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan for his operation of the Legisi HYIP scheme.

The purported returns of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid are somewhat on par with the returns of Nicholas Smirnow of the alleged Pathway To Prosperity HYIP Ponzi scheme. Smirnow is listed as “Wanted” by INTERPOL.

On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a website linked to Mann displayed videos of Francis Schaeffer Cox, an American and purported “sovereign citizen” under indictment in Alaska in an alleged murder plot against public officials.

Separately, a YouTube promo for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid dated yesterday asserted that “[a]ll you have to do is wait for your money to increase!!!”

A Blog post dated today, meanwhile, makes this assertion (italics added):

“The JSS Tripler new site is one month old. It has been a month of phenomenal growth, but it’s nothing compared to what’s in the future. Some ‘Big Things’ are on the horizon that will enable many of the members to become millionaires, some could even become billionaires.”

Neither the March 3 Blog post nor the March 2 YouTube video referenced the CONSOB probe.

In 2008, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin asserted that ASD had a plan to create 100,000 millionaires in three years. On Dec. 1, 2010, the U.S. government announced that Bowdoin had been indicted on Ponzi-related charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

About 16 days later — on Dec. 17, 2010 — U.S. federal prosecutors announced they had filed forfeiture litigation against at least two ASD affiliates. One of the alleged affiliates was purported ASD “trainer” Erma Seabaugh.

Seabaugh also was an affiliate of an enterprise known as Ad-Ventures4U (ADV4u), which crashed in 2009 amid allegations that its operator had been threatened by members.

In web promos, Mann has described himself as a promoter for both ASD and ADV4U. Some affiliates have described him as a “genius,” the same description accorded Bowdoin before the August 2008 raid on ASD headquarters by the U.S. Secret Service.

After the event — and facing both civil prosecution and a criminal investigation — Bowdoin told ASD members that the raid was the work of “Satan.”

It is a descriptor completely contrary to the typical view Americans have of the Secret Service, which has the twin duties of protecting the nation’s financial infrastructure and the life of the President of the United States.

Most Americans believe the Secret Service consists of heroes who place themselves in harm’s way every day to keep the United States safe, doing everything from making sure U.S. grandparents have safe places to deposit their Social Security checks to making sure that the President is well-protected and accessible to the American people.

Kenneth Wayne Leaming, an ASD member and purported “sovereign citizen,” allegedly filed a bogus lien against the Secret Service agent who led the ASD investigation in 2008, the FBI said in November 2011 court filings.

Leaming also allegedly filed bogus liens against a federal judge and three federal prosecutors involved in the ASD case, according to court filings by the FBI. He is jailed near Seattle awaiting trial on those charges, along with charges of filing false liens against other public officials, concealing two federal fugitives wanted in a home-business caper in Arkansas, being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a bogus “Bonded Primissory Note” for $1 million.

Court filings suggest Leaming was conducting financial research on John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States and the head judge of the U.S. Supreme Court, while hatching a scheme to serve papers on Roberts through a school attended by the distinguished jurist’s children.

Mar 3, 2012