Category: Writing And Branding
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BULLETIN: FTC Goes To Federal Court To Take Down Alleged Acai Berry Scam Operating On ‘Fake News Websites’; Some Domains Listed In Complaint Now Load Error Messages Or Blank Pages
BULLETIN: (Also see editor’s note below.) The Federal Trade Commission says a major law-enforcement initiative is under way to stop an acai-berry weight-loss scam that features “fake” news stories on websites that appear to be real media outlets but are really just sites that flog acai products. The agency appears to have filed at least…
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BULLETIN: Corrupt MLMers Found Guilty Of Operating Pyramid Scheme And Stock Swindle; James A. Sweeney And Patrick M. Ryan Face Decades In Prison
BULLETIN: In a case that could have been taken from the MLM and security swindler’s playbook, James A. Sweeney and Patrick M. Ryan have been found guilty by a state jury in California of operating a pyramid scheme and stock fraud and stealing $8.2 million after soliciting business at “seminars.” The men face more than…
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Club Asteria Pitchman Uses Name Of Another Famous Bank In Ponzi-Forum Promo For ‘ThatFreeThing’; No Immediate Comment From JP Morgan Chase
UPDATED 10:51 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The name of JPMorgan Chase — one of the most prominent financial institutions in the world — is being used by “manolo” in a pitch for the ThatFreeThing (TFT) MLM program on the TalkGold Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum. “manolo” also is promoting Club Asteria (CA), a highly questionable “program”…
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STATEMENT: PP Blog Comes Under Attack Again
Today at approximately 5:18 a.m., the PP Blog came under attack from a swarm of international IPs. The attack appears to have disrupted operations for approximately two hours and 19 minutes. Functionality was restored at approximately 7:38 a.m., although signatures of the attack continued to appear. The attack appears actually to have begun prior to…
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STATEMENT: Another Unusual Event At PP Blog
Yesterday, beginning at approximately 11:09 p.m., the PP Blog’s operations were affected by a swarm of sudden visitors. The swarm caused an outage that lasted for approximately 30 minutes. The vast majority of the visitors displayed non-U.S. IPs, and sought to pull a range of “old” stories or archived files. It is believed the event…
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STATEMENT: Unusual Event At PP Blog
At approximately 1:05 a.m. (EDT) today, the PP Blog began to experience unusually high traffic volume and a highly unusual traffic pattern. The source of the traffic is unclear. What is clear is that IPs from all over the world suddenly began to pull “old” stories, meaning that the URLs being pulled existed in the…
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STATEMENT: PP Blog Takes ‘Prudent’ Measures In Response To Security Concerns
MARCH 18, 2011: The PP Blog today made certain prudent adjustments to its publishing well in response to security concerns. The adjustments center on how the Blog treats a tiny fraction of the thousands of pages in its archives, and what web browsers will display when readers visit those pages. The Blog will have no…
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Sea Of Incongruity Surrounds Club Asteria: As ‘Ken Russo’ Pushes ‘Opportunity’ On TalkGold Ponzi Board, World Bank Qualifies ‘Director’ Claims Made By Promoters
The World Bank confirmed to the PP Blog this morning that a person named Andrea Lucas left its employment in December 1986, nearly 25 years ago. But Lucas was never a member of the World Bank’s board of directors, as many members of business “opportunity” known as Club Asteria have implied in online, MLM-style promotions…
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PP Blog Operated By ‘Self-Appointed Idiot,’ Fan Of Nonexistent Nation Of ‘New Utopia’ Suggests; Blog Invited, Then Uninvited To Ceremony At ‘Palace’
A man using the anonymous identity of “Mr. Protector,” a hotmail address and an IP in the Netherlands has scolded the PP Blog for a story that described “New Utopia” as a nonexistent nation in the Caribbean. New Utopia is the fanciful “tax haven” allegedly dreamed up by Lazarus R. Long, an American who declared…