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UPDATE: Web References, Images Linked To Investing Raise New Questions About PPE-Life; Records Suggest Recruitment Bids Started In January And That Promoters Referenced Warren Buffet

While securities regulators in South Carolina say a murky business known as PPE-Life recently has been holding recruitment meetings in the state, web records suggest that online recruitment efforts actually got under way months ago in anticipation of the company’s launch. Efforts to promote PPE appear to have begun in January, at least three months…

May 27, 2010
FBI, SEC Nab Pair Using Gmail To Run Insider-Trading Scam; Undercover Agents Responded To Offer To Sell Disney Earnings Report

So, you want to use Google’s free Gmail service to pull off a scam? From this day forward you should not be confident that you’re not already caught.Â The FBI today announced that it set up a sting to nail two people who were trying to sell the quarterly earnings report of Walt Disney Co. before…

May 26, 2010
ONLINE PONZI FORUM BOMBSHELL: Matt Gagnon A ‘Danger To The Investing Public,’ SEC Says; Federal Judge Freezes Assets Of Mazu.com Pitchman Who Promoted Legisi, Other Alleged Scams

Ponzi forum operator or moderator? Online HYIP aficionado? Think you’re safe pitching fraud schemes because you’re “only” a promoter or forum “expert” and not the operator of the programs? Have a secret partnership deal with an HYIP fraudster? Using fancy, professional-sounding terms such as “due diligence” in your forum posts? Claiming you’ve done thorough research…

May 26, 2010
South Carolina Attorney General Orders Florida Company To Halt Sales Of Alleged Securities; PPE-Life Inc. Told To ‘Cease And Desist’ Amid Fraud Fears

A mysterious, upstart company registered as a corporation in Ocala, Fla., has been ordered by the attorney general of South Carolina to stop selling securities and collecting money in the state. Attorney General Henry McMaster ordered the company — PPE-Life Inc. (PPE) — to “cease and desist” after the state’s Securities Division opened a probe…

May 25, 2010
Data Network Affiliates Asks Members If They Know About Their ‘DNA Tax Benefits’; Pitch Highlights Mileage Deduction; Firm Quotes IRS In First Paragraph Of Email

An email DataNetworkAffiliates’ (DNA) members received today led with a pitch that participating in DNA could result in large tax deductions for mileage. DNA purports to be in the business of paying members to record license-plate numbers for entry in a database that would be potentially useful to law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program…

May 25, 2010
POLL: How Would You Rate The MLM Sales Pitches Of Data Network Affiliates On Scale Of ‘A’ To ‘F’?

By now you’ve likely heard about Data Network Affiliates, a multilevel-marketing (MLM) company that launched by telling prospects it was in the business of recording license-plate numbers useful for the AMBER Alert program and then morphed virtually overnight into a purported cell-phone business. “GAME OVER — WE WIN,” DNA told members in a message that…

May 25, 2010
KABOOM! Alleged Commodities Ponzi Scheme Run By Mexican Nationals On U.S. Soil Dumped Money Into TWO Other Failed HYIP Fraud Schemes, Investigators Say; Ruben Gonzalez, Jose C. Naranjo Charged By CFTC

UPDATED 10:17 A.M. EDT (May 25, U.S.A.) It has been another nasty day for the HYIP and autosurf “industries” and their apologists. Investigators have charged two Mexican nationals with operating a Ponzi scheme on U.S. soil. The alleged scheme, which used names such as New Golden Investment Group LLC (NGI), NGI Group LLC, New Golden…

May 24, 2010
SEC: Another Florida Ponzi Scheme; Financial Fraud Task Force: Guilty Plea By Attorney In California Mortgage-Fraud Case, Plus New Indictments

In a fast-moving news day on the fraud front, the SEC has accused two men and their Florida company of orchestrating a real-estate “promissory note” Ponzi scheme. Separately, the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force announced the guilty plea of a California attorney in a real-estate swindle, plus the indictments of seven other people in separate…

May 21, 2010
Feds, State Team Up In Virginia To Short-Circuit White-Collar Crime Wave; ‘All Too Clear’ Problem National In Scope, Top Federal Prosecutor Says

Calling it an “unprecedented partnership” brought about by a financial-fraud problem that is national in scope, federal and state officials today announced the creation of the Virginia Financial and Securities Fraud Task Force. The Virginia Task Force, which is part of President Obama’s interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, brings together criminal investigators and civil…

May 21, 2010
GONE TOO FAR? Video Implies Data Network Affiliates Has Branding Deal With Apple’s ‘iPhone’; Separate Video Implies Phone Available For $10 A Month With No Contract; No Immediate Comment From Apple

Have DataNetworkAffiliates and its multilevel-marketing sales force finally gone too far? Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump now have company on the list of famous names DNA promoters claim have ties to the firm — and this time the name is bigger and has even deeper pockets than Oprah or The Donald: Apple Inc., the inventive,…

May 18, 2010
Now, A Fast-Food Ponzi Scheme: Feds Say Ohio Man Swindled Millions By Telling Investors He Built Chicken And Burger Restaurants

EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s one for your Bubba Blue notebook on the various ways to have a Ponzi scheme, as opposed to shrimp — and this one actually wafts with the myth of food — in this case, chicken and burgers. More than 200 investors have been fleeced in a bizarre scheme in which an Ohio…

May 17, 2010

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