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  • Fortune Magazine Refutes ‘Social Security Ponzi’ Claim

    If you’ve been following the AdSurfDaily case and the Bernard Madoff case, there’s a good chance you’ve seen people claim that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Some members of ASD have said the government had no business going after Andy Bowdoin when it was knee-deep in its own Ponzi scheme. Fortune magazine has published…

  • Judge To Ponzi Brokers Who Pushed ‘Ad’ Business: Pay Up

    Editor’s Note: This story was suggested by reader Tony H., who pointed us to an SEC News Release on the dismantling of yet another Ponzi scheme. Two principals of the American Investors Network (AIN) have been ordered to pay more than $1.4 million for foisting on investors an upstart advertising company that proved to be…

  • Frogress Autosurf Apparently DOA

    An autosurf known as Frogress apparently has gone the way of MegaLido, leaving members in the lurch. Frogress seems to have started in October — about the same time as MegaLido. It advertised 12 percent a day for 12 days, and forum posts raved about the communications skills of the Frogress operator. MegaLido employed a…

  • Madoff Bail Restrictions Tightened, But He’ll Stay Home

    It must have been a worrisome weekend for Bernard Madoff. Madoff, accused of masterminding a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that has affected investors worldwide, found out Friday that a federal judge planned to rule today whether to revoke his bail and jail him in response to prosecutors’ court pleadings. The judge now has ruled —…

  • Monday News And Notes

    Monday news and notes: We’ve installed a WordPress plug-in called “Quote Comments” by Joen Asmussen. If you highlight a section of a comment to which you’d like to respond and click the “Quote” link next to the date, it will copy the highlighted text to the comment box. We initially couldn’t get the plug-in to…

  • Seattle Post-Intelligencer Imperiled: Could It Use The Autosurf Model To Save Itself?

    Yesterday we wrote about the U.S. unemployment rate surging to 7.2 percent, the highest since 1993. Today we’ll start with the news that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, one of America’s great newspapers, has been put up for sale by Hearst. Our purpose for this post is twofold: To send our respect to staff members who may…

  • CEP Receiver Settles With 14 Ponzi Scheme Participants

    The receiver in the CEP Ponzi scheme case has filed court papers to settle adversary proceedings against 14 participants who profited in the scam. In court since July 2007,  the case is not fully settled. Litigation against other participants is ongoing. Dozens of lawsuits were filed against CEP members. Settlement terms for the group of…

  • U.S. Unemployment Hits 7.2 Percent, Highest Since ’93

    Employers slashed nearly 525,000 jobs last month, sending the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, the highest level since 1993, the Labor Department said today. The numbers are just plain bad. In 2008 as a whole, the economy lost 2.6 million jobs. In December, “job losses were large and widespread across most major industry sectors,” the…

  • Prosecutors Turn Up The Heat On Madoff

    Ponzi schemes almost always have insiders, and sometimes the insiders may not even know they’re insiders. In an extraordinary revelation, federal prosecutors said this afternoon that Bernard Madoff took overt steps to distribute bonuses to preferred family,  friends and employees after he realized the Ponzi he created was crashing down around him “[When] the defendant’s…

  • Blagojevich Subject Of Debut RateMyVanity.com Poll

    He’s the governor who won’t go away, despite allegations he tried to sell the Senate seat vacated by President-Elect Obama. Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois is the subject of the debut poll on RateMyVanity.com. So, if you’ve been following the Blagojevich saga and have a few minutes, visit the site and cast your vote. You’ll…

  • AdViewGlobal, AdGateWorld Brands Leveraged To Sell Cash-Gifting, Other Programs; Pitches Also Use Tony Robbins’ Name

    It’s hard to imagine that motivational speaker Anthony Robbins would be pleased to learn his carefully cultivated brand name is being leveraged to sell highly questionable online-income opportunities such as cash-gifting programs. Robbins, however, has company — and it’s the sort of company that adds an extra layer of dubiousness to the drip-drop dilution of…

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