PatrickPretty.com

Category: Writing And Branding

RECOMMENDED READING: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The World Of Coos Bay (Oregon) Spotlight Reports On ‘Sovereign Citizens’

This is a links post: Visit the website of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to read a story on indictments of “sovereign citizens” in Washington state amid allegations of threats against public officials. Visit the website of The World of Coos Bay, Ore., to read a story on the “indictment” of a sitting district attorney by sovereign…

Oct 25, 2011
UPDATE: Neither Asteria Philanthropic Foundation Nor Asteria Foundation Listed As Charities In Virginia Database, State Says

UPDATED 3:35 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) There are no listings in a state database for either the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation or the Asteria Foundation, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said this morning. The agency, which did not respond immediately to a request for additional comment on Club Asteria-related matters, oversees charitable entities in…

Oct 24, 2011
DONATION POST: A Year Ago On The PP Blog . . .

Dear Readers, A year ago this week, the PP Blog suffered the first of a series of vicious electronic attacks that knocked it offline. The attacks continued into November of 2010 — and then followed the Blog into the new year. The attacks coincided with the Great (And Continuing) Publishing Slump, bringing on higher costs…

Oct 23, 2011
Authorities In Virginia Neither ‘Confirm [N]or Deny’ That Investigation Into Club Asteria Is Under Way; Firm Whose Growth Was Fueled On Ponzi Boards Before Cashout Suspension And CONSOB Probe Is Not Registered To Sell Securities In The State

UPDATED 4:14 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Club Asteria, the offshoot of Virginia-based Asteria Corp. and the apparent braintrust behind an emerging entity known as the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, is not registered to sell securities in Virginia, the state said Thursday. Neither is Asteria Corp., according to state records. Citing confidentiality laws, the state declined to say…

Oct 22, 2011
UPDATE: JustBeenPaid Also Is Using Image Of Star Trek’s ‘Mr. Spock’; Fictional Spaceman Joins Oprah, Warren Buffett As Unknowing Pitchmen For Global Ponzi Scheme

UPDATE: The PP Blog reported here that Warren Buffett had become an unknowing pitchman for the global JustBeenPaid Ponzi scheme whose promoters also pushed the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme on the public. Meanwhile, the Blog reported here that Oprah Winfrey had met the same fate at the hands of the JustBeenPaid henchmen. The Blog now is…

Oct 18, 2011
INCREDIBLE: Month After Will Smith Debacle, Club Asteria Turns To Mahatma Gandhi To Drive Traffic — And Misspells Name Of Assassinated Champion Of Freedom While Turning Him Into A Pitchman; House Organ Also Includes Photo Of Richard Branson

Last month, it was famed actor Will Smith. This month, it is Mahatma Gandhi, the civil-rights champion and beacon of freedom in India who was assassinated at a prayer meeting in 1948. After placing a “JOIN NOW” button under an image of Smith in its September house organ and later removing both the image and…

Oct 18, 2011
EDITORIAL: ENOUGH! Payments For ‘JustBeenPaid’ Purportedly Routed Through Canada From BigBooster.com Email Address Linked To Frederick Mann At Domain That Uses Street Address In South Africa; Pitch Site Features Repurposed Video Of Warren Buffett And Prompt To Register With Gmail Address — Even As YouTube Removes Some Video Pitches; Alert Pay-Enabled Site Once Touted AdSurfDaily

There are the deliberate shills for JustBeenPaid — serial Ponzi board hucksters such as “10BucksUp,” for example. And there are the unwitting shills whose celebrity is stolen without their knowledge to sanitize the over-the-top fraud that promotes absurd returns — people such as famed investor Warren Buffett. Buffett’s only tie to JustBeenPaid is that he…

Oct 13, 2011
SEC: New York Pitchman, 73, Hawked ‘Illegal Offering’ For Murdoch Security & Investigations Inc. By Spinning Tall Tale Of ‘Anti-Piracy’ And ‘Anti-Terror’ Success On The ‘High Seas’

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the past 24 hours, the SEC has filed charges against two firms purportedly in the business of preventing terrorism. Read the PP Blog’s story about the first firm here. The cavalcade of senior citizens implicated in securities schemes continues — as does the story about the bizarre nature of recent fraud cases…

Oct 12, 2011
BULLETIN: SEC Says InfrAegis — Purported ‘Homeland Security’ Firm With Product To Detect Weapons Of Mass Destruction — Was A $20 Million Fraud Based In Part On A ‘Trillion’-Dollar Lie; Company And CEO Gregory E. Webb Charged

BULLETIN: The SEC has gone to federal court in Illinois to charge InfrAegis Inc. and CEO Gregory E. Webb with fraud amid allegations they fleeced investors in a $20 million scam that traded on post-9/11 fears and claims that government security contracts worth more than $1 trillion would make everybody rich. Webb, 64, resides in…

Oct 11, 2011
UPDATE: YouTube Is Removing Videos For ‘JustBeenPaid,’ Program Hawked By Serial Hucksters; MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi Forum Poster Suggests His Hundreds Of YouTube Accounts Will Enable Him To Circumvent Video Removals

YouTube is removing videos for JustBeenPaid, a “program’ linked to Frederick Mann and popularized by scammers on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. JustBeenPaid promos feature claims of remarkable returns. The removed videos carry messages such as “This video has been removed as a violation of YouTube’s policy against spam, scams, and commercially deceptive…

Oct 11, 2011
FTC: Spammer/Scammer Who Sent ‘Mind-Boggling’ Number Of Text Messages And Traded On Name Of Government Hit With Judgment, Ban

Phillip A. Flora of Huntington Beach, Calif., caused cell-phone bills to rise when he sent millions of unsolicited text messages. Flora sent at least 5 million such messages, a number the FTC described as mind-boggling when it sued him in February for violating the CAN-SPAM Act and the FTC Act. But spam was only part…

Sep 30, 2011