BULLETIN: (7th Update 1:52 p.m. ET Jan. 7 U.S.A.) The Achieve Community says it has suspended “sign ups” and “repurchases” through iPayDNA, a credit-card processor based in Asia.
PP Blog reader “Secwatchin” first reported the news at 2:44 p.m. ET today. The Blog confirmed that orders for “positions” could not be placed by visiting the ReadyToAchieve website, clicking on the “Sign Up” tab and clicking again on a “Join Now!” button. The message we received is reproduced in the graphic at the top of this story.
Colorado-based Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson reportedly advised Achieve members that its “merchant” — iPayDNA — needed to “get caught up.”
Why iPayDNA purportedly had fallen behind in processing credit-card transactions wasn’t explained.
On Jan. 4, Johnson announced to Achieve members that Global Cash Card, which Achieve had claimed to be its new “payout” processor, “is not going to work with us after all.” On Dec. 18, Achieve had positioned its relationship with U.S.-based GCC as a done deal.
Why Achieve, a money-cycling “program” operating in the United States with a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums, needed separate vendors to process “money in” and “money out” transactions has not been explained.
Here is what Johnson reportedly told members today (italics/carriage returns added):
Hello Achieve Community!
We are going to stop sign ups and repurchases for a few days beginning in about 30 minutes, so that our merchant can get caught up. And we won’t be doing more sign ups until we have more information about payout options for us.
I hope to have some good news on that in the next few days! Thursday I’ll be meeting again with the lawyers and that will give me a better time frame for when Achieve will be completely ready to go again. I will keep letting you know how things are going as the information becomes available to me.
In the meantime, while this process is going on, there is very little that I can tell you without risking hurting the entire process. So please, keep the speculation quiet, you will hear everything, just be patient please. Although we won’t be doing sign ups, you all will still have access to the members area, your banners, the Forum, and your products. Thank you all for taking care of each other! Achieve is the best Community ever!
Kristi
Some Achieve members have turned to promoting other Ponzi-board “programs” such as Unison Wealth and Trinity Lines. Promos from Achieve members also promoting Unison Wealth show that Unison Wealth is beaming ads for HYIP schemes inside the back offices of its members.
“They want so badly to believe in the tooth fairy.” — Fred Joseph, then-Colorado Securities Commissioner, February 2013. (As told to the Durango Herald in “For a Ponzi payout, call the tooth fairy.”)
Achieve Community promoter Rodney Blackburn laments developments with that “program,” and now is encouraging prospects to sign up for “Trinity Lines,” another Ponzi-board “opportunity.” Like other Achievers, Rodney also is promoting “Unison Wealth,” yet another Ponzi-board “program.”
UPDATED 1:27 P.M. ET U.S.A. Fred Joseph announced his retirement in December 2013, after 30 years in public service. He’d seen it all during the course of his career, including the case of Frederick H.K. Baker, infamous as an instance in which an HYIP scammer tried to “scam the scammers.”
Now comes word that “Achieve Community,” a Ponzi-board “program” that appears to be operating out of Colorado and Michigan, is in an even deeper crisis than the one it confronted after reportedly losing its ability to do business with Payoneer in late October or early November.
This is because Global Cash Card, which Achieve apparently envisioned as a substitute “payout” processor after the Payoneer debacle, reportedly is unwilling to work with Achieve — this after Achieve sold the asserted GCC arrangement as a done deal on Dec. 18.
Achieve promoter Rodney Blackburn, in our view, is a classic example of a person who wants badly to believe in the tooth fairy.
“Quite honestly, there’s a lot of upset people out there, and rightfully so,” Rodney says of the GCC development, attributing the news to Colorado-based Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson. “I can understand where everybody is upset. There was a lot of rumors going on out there. There has not been a lot of transparency, as far as the details . . .”
“Kristi has brought out information that’s in the forum [pertaining to the GCC development]; I can’t dispute that. But as far as what’s been going on with Global Cash Card — that has been declined, for whatever reason we don’t know.”
Rodney says Achieve owes him $90,000.
“We all just have to wait it out,” he says, adding that he “trust[s] Kristi enough to where she is going to make this wrong right, that she is going to give everything that she’s got to get Achieve up and running. She had a vision from the beginning. The vision has never, you know, swayed. But definitely something going on in the background, and it would be nice if she was a little bit more open about what’s going on. I know she likes to kinda hold everything to the vest close to her. But . . . it’s tough because there are so many of us out there that are really needing the money. That’s why we get into this industry. We want Achieve to work so badly . . .
“The best thing I can tell everybody as of right now is to look into other options.”
Rodney’s remarks are contained within a 11:59 YouTube video published Jan. 4 and titled “LIST – Achieve Community Update 1/ 4 /2015.” LIST stands for Legendary Income Solutions Team, a group that pushes “programs.” Just seconds after Rodney laments the situation at Achieve, it becomes clear that he won’t be just sitting around. No, Rodney is now pushing “Trinity Lines,” another Ponzi-board “program.”
As noted earlier, Rodney also is pushing Unison Wealth. It, too, is a Ponzi-board “program.”
Because Ponzi-board “programs” often have promoters in common, this sets the stage for fraudulent proceeds to circulate between and among scams.
Little wonder GCC appears not to be keen on Achieve. Its promoters may be polluting the money stream at multiple points of contact by pushing other scams, even as Achieve appears to be boxed in.
It didn’t take long for MLM to get some bad press in 2015. The Reserve Bank of India, the nation’s central bank, cautioned the public “against Multi Level Marketing Activities” on the first day of the new year.
Some Ponzi analysts are questioning whether an emerging cycler scheme known as Unison Wealth may be Indian in origin. Unison Wealth is lauded by promoters of the Achieve Community scheme. (See K. Chang comment at PP Blog and thread below this Dec. 9 Unison Wealth Story at BehindMLM.com.)
At least one previous MLM scheme — Club Asteria — traded on the venerated name of Mahatma Gandhi. A recent scheme known as 8Elos that may have ties to TelexFree Ponzi-scheme hucksters has traded on the venerated name of Abraham Lincoln.
The Reserve Bank of India has cautioned the public against Multi-level Marketing (MLM) activities so that investors do not fall prey to unscrupulous entities.
Explaining the functioning of these entities, the Reserve Bank stated that MLM/Chain Marketing/Pyramid Structure schemes promise easy or quick money upon enrolment of members. Income under such schemes majorly comes from enrolling more and more members from whom hefty subscription fees are taken rather than from the sale of products they offer. It is incumbent upon all members to enroll more members, as a portion of the subscription amounts so collected is distributed among the members at the top of the pyramid. Any break in the chain leads to the collapse of the pyramid, and the members lower down in the pyramid are the ones that are affected the most.
The Reserve Bank has advised that members of public should not to be tempted by promises of high returns offered by entities running Multi-level Marketing/Chain Marketing/Pyramid Structure Schemes. The Reserve Bank has reiterated that falling prey to such offers can result in direct financial losses and they, in their own interest, should refrain from responding to such offers in any manner.
The Reserve Bank has also said that acceptance of money under Money Circulation/Multi-level Marketing/Pyramid structures is a cognizable offence under the Prize Chit and Money Circulation (Banning) Act 1978. Members of public coming across such offers should immediately lodge a complaint with the State Police.
A link to Facebook flashes on the screen in a Dec. 30 YouTube promo for Achieve Community, Unison Wealth and LIST. Rodney Blackburn assures viewers that all is OK with Achieve, but then appears to take back his remarks.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Legisi HYIP scheme was a Ponzi-board “program” that tried to hide underground in 2007/08, even as state and federal investigators were conducting an undercover probe that eventually led to the arrests and subsequent convictions of the purveyor-in-chief and a pitchman for the $72 million fraud.
In this evidence exhibit given to a federal judge prior to the Legisi asset freeze in 2008, a Legisi prospect writes the name “Money Maker Group.com” in longhand. State and federal probes into Legisi were under way long before members knew — and undercover agents were part of the probe.
One of the evidence exhibits in the case included the words “MoneyMakerGroup.com” written out in longhand by a Legisi investor. Case files used in an SEC exhibit also show page after page of postings from Legisi’s so-called “private” forum. In addition to prison sentences, millions of dollars in civil judgments were imposed in the Legisi prosecution.
Like Legisi, Achieve Community is a Ponzi-board “program” that has installed a “private” forum.
**_______________________**
2ND UPDATE 12:38 P.M. ET U.S.A. As the PP Blog noted on Dec. 11, Achieve Community appeared to be prepping to follow a playbook used by predecessor scams such as AdViewGlobal and others — that is, compartmentalize information by creating a members-only private forum to make it the only source of info from the “opportunity” itself.
This typically occurs when a scam begins to sense it has been entirely too public in its scamming through public venues such as Facebook or Ponzi forums and that members themselves — through individual promos — are hastening the day of a “program’s” final demise.
Achieve Community now appears to have turned its back on (or is in the process of retreating from) the once-ballyhooed “TheOfficialAchieveCommunity” Facebook site. At the same time, it appears to be discouraging individual promoters from continuing to use Facebook for their Achieve pitchfests.
“We are no longer able to be a Facebook program – and that is not up for debate – there are several reasons for this – and most have to do with our processors,” Achieve Community co-founder Kristi Johnson reportedly has written.
A real head-scratcher, that one.
“If you have questions about our program come to the [Achieve private] Forum to ask them,” Kristi continues. “If you are a member with time, come to the Forum to help answer your community members please.”
And, she adds, “If our information continues to be shared through unofficial Facebook groups or timelines or questions about everything Achieve anywhere on Facebook, we will not get the processors that we want to work with. It’s that simple.
“You all can decide if you want to see Achieve continue or not. If you do want us to continue come to the Forum. If not, stay on Facebook with these unofficial groups and questions. I’ll leave it to our community.”
Kristi did not identify any of the “unofficial groups.” Nor did she say whether she was concerned about individual promos on YouTube such as those from Rodney Blackburn.
Like many “cycler” promoters on the Internet, Rodney is a one-person PR train wreck. For example, he now has announced on YouTube that he’s promoting “Unison Wealth” and, in the process, joining other Achievers who are doing so.
In Rodney’s promo, a link to Facebook flashes on the screen at about the 8:35 mark.
“As far as I can see, as far as I understand . . . everything is fine with the Achieve Community,” Rodney ventures in his 10:30 YouTube combo promo for Achieve, Unison Wealth and the “Legendary Income Solutions Team or LIST.
The promo, complete with three exclamation marks, is titled “LIST – Achieve Community Update and More!!!”
But as soon as Rodney utters soothing words about Achieve, he seems to take them back. “Kristi is under a tremendous amount of stress as far, in my opinion, [as] trying to get everything up and running. But, guys, we can’t lose focus that she has done everything that she says she’s gonna do. Has it been at the exact timelines all the time? No.”
He then talks about debit “cards” purportedly from Global Cash Card not being “out” and “all these [Achieve] delays” over the past few weeks after Achieve reportedly lost its ability to conduct business through Payoneer weeks ago.
Talking about damning someone with faint praise.
Regardless, Rodney then switches course again, assuring his audience that Kristi isn’t responsible for any of the problems at Achieve. He further ventures that the MLM trade/networking marketing business in general has been impressed by the way Achieve does business and therefore would adopt Achieve practices.
“That tells you something,” Rodney asserts. “Kristi was onto something when she created this. And so, you gotta tip your hat to her.”
Unison Wealth” is “an excellent opportunity for people to come in,” Rodney says — this after noting his LIST downline group stresses “passive” programs.
The passivity of a scheme is an element in what constitutes an “investment contract” under U.S. and state-level securities laws. A recent example of this can be found in the lawsuits against alleged “winners” in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, including lawsuits filed this week against alleged Zeek winners who hail from Australia.
Zeek’s court-appointed receiver is seeking the return of the alleged winnings, saying they came from Zeek victims. The receiver also has sued U.S. and Canadian alleged winners.
Achieve “winners” potentially could experience the same outcome if litigation emerges.
Like Achieve, Unison Wealth is a Ponzi-board program. The TalkGold forum got a prominent mention in court filings earlier this month in the U.S.-led prosecution of Liberty Reserve, a defunct money-moving business once used by criminals the world over.
So, the following bizarre circumstance has evolved: Achieve — a “program” with an 800 percent ROI and targeted at senior citizens and promoted on Ponzi forums — suddenly says it’s “no longer able” to be a Facebook “program” and that the issue is “not up for debate” because post-Payoneer processors might get the wrong idea about Achieve.
This appears to be occurring as Achieve is engaging in a Zeek Rewards- and TelexFree-like game of payment-processor roulette, potentially now including iPayDNA and Global Cash Card.
Nothwithstanding the bizarre assertion that Achieve once was “able” to be a Facebook “program” but now cannot be, Achieve will be no less a Ponzi scheme whether it goes underground or not.
From an Achieve Community Facebook promo posted Dec. 20.
The “Achieve Community,” a Ponzi-board money-cycling “program” targeted at Christians and positioned by some network marketers as an alternative for people who don’t want to “sell out” to banks and their “tiny little 1% annual return,” would like you to know that Santa Claus and an elf are on the team.
By buying one “EXTRA” $50 Achieve position on Christmas Day, Achievers will come into possession of “the gift that Keeps On Giving!” according to a bizarre new promo published on Facebook Saturday by Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson.
A fellow Facebook poster, however, laments, “Kristi, Can you please answer this question? I tried the whole weekend to purchase new positions. But every time it says, an error occur[r]ed, your payment is declined. I called already to MasterCard and nothing is wrong with my Card. Problem seems to be with readytoachieve. I sent already 4 messages to readytoachieve, but i get no answer.”
Volunteers purportedly now are assisting Achieve, which appears to be transitioning to new financial vendors after parting company with Payoneer weeks ago, with support duties. Johnson has claimed she’s typically too busy to answer questions, that members should turn to the website FAQs and a recently installed private forum for assistance and that co-founder Troy Barnes “won’t be around much anymore” because of pressing family issues.
Separately, Achieve boosters parroting each other continue to circulate a promo that reads, “We are not investing in a stock or buying shares in a company. We are using our God given universal right to spend our money the way we want. We choose not to sell out to the banking system for their tiny little 1% annual return.”
The claim appears in both video and text form. It is common for HYIP promoters to invoke God and seek to fuel contempt against banks. Some Achieve promoters appear to have hijacked the original claim and worked it into their individual promos. The original source of the claim is unclear.
No authority that God had granted any such “universal right” is provided. Nor does the promo explain why banks are not doing the same thing Achieve is doing or how Achieve will get by if banks and payment vendors it relies on pull the plug on Achieve. If the assertion that banks pay 1 percent annually is true, however, it would mean that Achieve pays 800 times that percentage in three months or less.
Because banks have greater economies of scale than Achieve and greater opportunities to employ vertical integration, they could pound Achieve into the sand by simply adopting the Achieve business model — and yet they don’t do it.
The reason why is that the banks would be creating a liability of $400 for every $50 they accepted for the purchase of “positions” and that regulators and class-action litigants would attack any disclaimer language as an obvious attempt to sanitize a Ponzi scheme and create a license to steal tremendous sums of money.
Even though Achieve appears to have generated cash flow by switching to an offshore processor known as iPayDNA after the Payoneer divorce in late October or early November, Achieve very well could be insolvent today. This is because it is not meeting obligations when they become due. Payouts due Achieve members who joined or repurchased positions on Sept 12 were due to be paid in early November, but reportedly have not been paid.
That Achieve also appears to be playing payment processor roulette potentially adds to its attractiveness for class-action litigation against both itself and payment vendors on the theory of racketeering and “deepening insolvency.” (See this document from private litigants in the TelexFree bankruptcy case. Like Achieve, TelexFree was promoted on Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup. So was Zeek Rewards, a “program” that also has encountered class-action litigation. )
Achieve says $50 turns into $400. Multiple “positions” can be purchased. Some promos have extrapolated returns in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or even in excess of $1 million.
Members reportedly have not received payouts from Achieve since the relationship with Payoneer ended.
From an Achieve promo playing on YouTube. Masking by PP Blog.
This ad (see top of screen shot) for “Cycles 24/7,” a Ponzi-board “program,” appears in the Achieve Community forum. Source: YouTube promo for Achieve.
UPDATED 2:12 P.M. ET U.S.A. A competing cycler advertised inside the supposedly private “Achieve Community” forum and promoted on the MoneyMakerGroup forum collapsed at launch yesterday, triggering a classic uproar among willfully blind Ponzi-board scammers.
The name of the cycler is Cycles 24/7. The PP Blog learned of the “program” only because Achieve promoter Mike Chitty recorded an Achieve commercial and posted it on YouTube on Dec. 15. Chitty’s Achieve promo shows a banner ad for Cycles 24/7 inside the Achieve forum, raising the specter that the unknown individual who posted the banner is an Achieve member promoting another scam.
The ads inside the Achieve forum will show “different things that keep coming out,” Chitty said in his video. The ad for Cycles 24/7 claims, “Non Stop Earning For Everyone[.] JUST LAUNCHED[.] Automated Hybrid Straight Line Cycler[.] Turn $10 Into $30 or Turn $50 Into $400[.] Receive $1.00 or $5.00 Bonus[.] JOIN NOW!”
Cycles 24/7 appears to have made its debut Dec. 10 on MoneyMakerGroup. With a prefunding period and a launch set for yesterday, the Cycles 24/7 server appears first to have showed to a crawl and then collapsed, triggering questions about whether a scamming “admin” had fled with the cash or was merely incompetent when choosing a hosting platform.
Ponzi forum legend “Ken Russo,” formerly of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme and many others, apparently was not amused. “Just sent a support ticket with my refund request,” the huckster wrote at MoneyMakerGroup. “If it is not honored I will file a dispute with [Solid Trust Pay]. Just went through this with the AdBubbler fiasco!”
Although the Cycles 24/7 website appears to be back online today, this message appears: “CYCLES 24/7 is relaunching soon!”
Another Ponzi-board post claims “Rick Fleming” is the “admin” of the program. Cycles 24/7 members, according to a MoneyMakerGroup post, received an email that read (italics added):
Good day All C247 Members,
You will notice that my FB account has been suspended and reported by one of the members of Cycles24/7 group.
This is too personal and unprofessional behaviour to an admin who is offering a genuine and life changing opportunity online.
We can’t find any programs out there that Cycles 24/7 is offering to the members – instant payout, no preloaded positions to name a few.
Cycles 24/7 members will expect transparency, honest and fair play at all times.
The reason I am not showing you my photos is I am protecting myself and my family for possible threat or extortion.
Involving in the money making program will always have risk despite of good intentions that you will bring to the members there are still others you can’t please.
Cycles 24/7 was well plan and offering a generous compensation plan to the members. Admin only earn from 10% commissions every cycled position, other than that the remaining money is always given to the member’s position cycling out.
Let’s continue remain positive and hope this will not affect the success of Cycles 24/7.
The FB Group will remain open with the help of hardworking admins. All future updates will be send through our newsletter.
In his Dec. 15 YouTube promo, Chitty identities himself with the “Legendary Income Solutions Team” and asserts that “once those [Achieve payment] processors get in and we get everybody locked into the system, I really feel like — and this is a personal feeling; I’m not trying to make any forecasts for the Achieve Community itself — but the way I saw it before and the way I’m seeing it now, when that processor gets locked in, guys, hang on. Because we’re gonna blow up. And it’s gonna go absolutely insane again. Be ready. Have a repurchase plan.”
Achieve, which purportedly turns $50 into $400 and enables participants to buy multiple $50 “positions,” reportedly lost its ability more than a month ago to do business through Payoneer. An ad for Payza as shown on the Achieve forum also appeared in Chitty’s Dec. 15 promo, although it is unclear if Achieve is moving to Payza. The court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme case said in an Oct. 30, 2014, report to the court that he is continuing his “investigation and pursuit of outstanding funds from Payza” and other processors used by Zeek, including SolidTrustPay.
Some Achieve members reportedly have grumbled or expressed concerns that anti-Achieve “spies” may be reading posts in the private forum. Chitty’s Dec. 15 video, however, shows that Achievers themselves may be creating leaks.
From the video alone, the PP Blog was able to see multiple thread titles inside the forum and posts by some individual Achieve members.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (6th update 9:35 p.m. ET U.S.A.) Nicholas Smirnow, still listed by INTERPOL as a person wanted by the United States in the alleged Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) HYIP Ponzi scheme that affected people in 120 countries, has been arrested at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Canadian media outlets are reporting.
U.S. federal prosecutors charged Smirnow, believed now to be 56 or 57, in 2010. He has been listed by INTERPOL since that time.
P2P was an instance of international mass-marketing fraud, U.S. authorities said in 2010. Though large for its time in the 2008 to 2010 time frame after allegedly gathering more than $70 million and affecting 40,000 investors, P2P since has been eclipsed in dollar volume and victims count by other mass-marketing fraud schemes such as Zeek Rewards and TelexFree.
Professor James E. Byrne, an HYIP expert consulted by the U.S. government in the P2P case, said in 2010 that “the investment scheme described in the materials that I have reviewed are not legitimate but resemble and are classic instances of so-called high yield frauds and fraudulent pyramid schemes. The proposed returns are excessive for even the most risky legitimate investments and are simply preposterous for investments whose principal is supposedly guaranteed.”
From Byrne’s P2P analyis (italics added):
The funds are turned over to the investment and “earn” returns that range from 1.5% daily for a 7 day plan Plus the return of the initial investment to 2.67% daily for a 60 day plan or 160.2% plus the return of the initial investment. The weekly returns on the 7 day investment would amount to approximately 540% per year without taking into account the principal and the 60 day plan would return approximately 950% annualized.
Like many HYIP schemes before and after, P2P had a presence on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Both forums are referenced in P2P-related court filings. TalkGold got a mention last week in the Liberty Reserve money-laundering case.
Like current schemes with a Ponzi-board presence such as “Achieve Community,” the P2P tentacles spread far and wide and sucked in vulnerable people such as senior citizens. From a PP Blog story on May 31, 2010 (italics/bolding added):
The scheme was almost unimaginably widespread, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said in an affidavit.
“Financial records of payment processors utilized by P-2-P to collect investment funds from investors show that approximately 40,000 investors in 120 countries established accounts with P-2-P,” a postal inspector said. “Despite the fact that the investment was supposedly ‘guaranteed, investors lost approximately $70 million as a result of [Smirnow’s] actions.”
The probe began when the U.S. government received a referral from the Illinois Securities Department “concerning an elderly Southern District of Illinois resident who had made a substantial investment in P-2-P,” the postal inspector said in the affidavit.
“In addition to P-2-P’s own website, I discovered that P-2-P’s investment scheme was marketed on other websites, including High Yield Investment Program forums, which I was able to access directly through the internet,” the inspector said.
Before long, the inspector determined that the scheme cost investors losses in 48 of the 50 U.S. states, and 18 of the 38 counties that comprise the Southern District of Illinois, prosecutors said.
Such penetration in Illinois may suggest Smirnow had a promotional arm in the state. The complaint spells out a case against conspirators “known and unknown,” and the complaint notes that family members told other family members about the scheme.
“When P-2-P’s funds were depleted and when investors did not receive a return of their funds as they had been promised, [Smirnow] caused a posting on P-2-P’s private forum warning investors not to complain to payment processors about P-2-P’s failure to return their money or they would find themselves ‘on the outside looking in,’” prosecutors charged.
The postal inspector has spoken to “hundreds of P-2-P investors” during the course of the investigation, according to court filings.
“Hundreds [of people] sent me copies of printouts they had made of P-2-P’s website, postings that had been made on the P-2-P’s members forum, and internet sites touting high yield investment programs which contained postings related to P-2-P,” the postal inspector said.
With “Achieve Community,” promoters claim that $50 turns into $400 in three months or less. Participants are encouraged to roll over profits.
Achieve Community promoters have published extrapolations that show “earnings” in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even the millions of dollars.
3RD UPDATE 11:30 A.M. ET U.S.A. A female senior citizen from the 434 Area Code in South-Central Virginia dialed into a Dec. 10 “Achieve Community” conference call, according to an audio recording of the call playing on YouTube.
She explained that she had a heart condition, that she had trusted in God and joined Achieve and that her 86-year-old husband of 53 years had been “in the hospital for a full year and six months in the nursing home.
“And it took every penny of money that we had and could get together just to be able to pay those bills and live. For four years, we haven’t been living. We’ve been existing. We did not have enough money to pay our bills, to buy medicine, food, gas . . .”
The woman explained that she had been paid by Achieve, had “nowhere to go” and “couldn’t get this kind of return on my money even if I could.”
One of the hosts then said her tale was “very inspiring,” that he hoped things worked out with her husband and that (italics added):
“I think your attitude is absolutely fantastic. You are exactly the type of person that the Achieve Community is built around and for . . .”
Area Code 434 services Lynchburg and other communities in the Western District of Virginia.
The office of U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy of the Western District of Virginia had no immediate comment on the call. The RealScam.com antiscam forum was the first to publish a link to the recording of the call. The PP Blog listened to the call and then contacted Heaphy’s office, which handles the Lynchburg area.
Achieve Community, a money-cycler “program,” may be operating from Michigan. The purported co-founders are Troy Barnes and Kristi Johnson. Achieve enthusiasts Rodney Blackburn and Mike Chitty appear to have been the lead hosts on the call. Johnson briefly was on the line at the beginning of the call.
The call demonstrates that Achieve Community, which purports to be an international company, is driving business in the United States by reaching across state lines. Callers on the Dec. 10 call were identified by their respective Area Codes.
One female caller came on the line from Area Code 615, which serves the Nashville, Tenn., region. Another woman came on the line from Area Code 504, which covers Greater New Orleans in Louisiana. Yet another woman came on the line from Area Code 702, which serves the Las Vegas region in Nevada.
The woman from 702 complained that Achieve, which claims that $50 turns into $400, was being elusive and capricious.
Also on the line was a man who said he was from Baltimore. He raised concerns about problems Achieve had been having after reportedly losing the ability to use the Payoneer payment processor more than a month ago.
Next up was a man from the 347 Area Code in the Greater New York City region. He complained that a “position” purchase he made hadn’t been credited. The elderly woman from 434 described above then came on, followed by a man from the 407 Area Code in the region of Orlando, Fla. The call concluded with a woman from Area Code 718 in the New York City region coming on the line.
Achieve Community targeting is wide, covering twenty-somethings to eighty-somethings. One of the call hosts said Achieve money could be used to build churches, take care of families and pay off student loans.
UPDATED 11:39 A.M. ET DEC. 12 U.S.A. In its latest effort to expand its reality-distortion field, “The Achieve Community” money-cycling “program” that tells prospects a $50 “position” increases by a factor of eight and turns into $400 in a few months (or even in as few as 55 days) has compared itself to The Walt Disney Co.
Achieve represents both a “micro” and a “macro” scheme. Although participants can buy a single “position” for $50, they also can buy multiple “positions” for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, according to promos. At least one promo contends that 200 “positions” can be purchased 100 at a time in two separate transactions of $5,000 each. If this proves to be the case either in the past or in the future, the crime of structuring transactions to evade bank-reporting requirements could be on the table.
The specific Achieve Community analogy noted in the headline and lede above is to Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Even more specifically, it is to the rides at Disney World and the purported “hours” it takes to board one of them.
From a Dec. 8 “Monday Night Update” post on the Achieve Community Blog credited to co-founder Kristi Johnson (italics added):
I want to explain a bit more about how we work for the benefit of those new members . . . and thanks goes to Sheila once again for this wonderful analogy.
Think of Achieve as a ride at Disney World. You get in line for the ride and it can takes [sic] hours! But it’s always moving, just like our matrix. And finally you get to the ride (the matrix) and it’s over in a few minutes! It may take a few months to hit our matrix, and once you get there you’ll be paid within days on all three levels. Then you can take the ride again!
Here’s our initial take on the claims:
From a YouTube promo for Achieve Community.
If you submit to this bollocks and think of Achieve as a ride at Disney World, you’re as out of touch as the Achieve organizers and some of their professional hucksters want you to be. Wake. Up. Now.
If you choose to remain in a network-marketing-induced Stepfordian trance, expect that a sudden desire to embrace every conspiracy theory under the sun will come next. If that happens, you’d better hope the BBC’s “Sunday Politics” program hosted by Andrew Neil never gives you the Alex Jones treatment.
Lines indeed can be long at Disney World. (But there’s a free app for that.)
Disney doesn’t sell $50 cycler tickets and tell parents and starry-eyed kids that those tickets pay not only for the ride, but also will convert to $400 cash before fall takes over from summer. And Disney also doesn’t encourage parents and kids waiting in lines to plunk down another $50 (or more) as a means of fetching another $400 (or more) before winter takes over from fall. Moreover, unlike Achieve, Disney does not operate a cycler. The New York Stock Exchange would go apoplectic if Disney or its fans took to the web to claim purchases and repurchases of “positions” set the stage for $50 to morph into more than $1.6 million.
If Disney did what Achieve is doing, its operating revenue of nearly $49 billion in 2014 would translate into a liability of nearly $392 billion, creeping up on a hole of almost half-a-trillion dollars.
As a great American company, Disney wouldn’t dare do what Achieve Community is doing — for the same reasons Google wouldn’t do what the AdSurfDaily “advertising” scam was doing in 2008 and eBay wouldn’t do what the Zeek Rewards “auction” scam was doing in 2012.
Cyclers such as the one operated by Achieve Community are among the Internet’s oldest forms of the Ponzi scheme. Because the fraud is so old — and because cycler carcasses litter cyberspace — cyclers have sought new and better ways to dupe the public. Internal mechanics and entry points may vary from $10 to hundreds of dollars. Recruiting may or may not be required, and there may be talk of “algorithms” or “secret algorithms.” Achieve purportedly has a proprietary “triple algorithm.”
Ever hear of the Regenesis 2×2 matrix-cycler scam in 2009? The U.S. Secret Service did — and kept a Dumpster under surveillance to gather evidence. Material seized in the case, according to court records, included envelopes containing credit cards, debit cards and financial statements; 13 Priority Mail envelopes and 10 First Class Mail envelopes; and various computers, computer equipment and business records.
Federal agents investigating now-shuttered Regenesis said they found the personal financial records of customers in the Dumpster, plus complaint faxes sent by customers and a letter from a law firm complaining about false, misleading and deceptive advertising.
As is the case now with Achieve Community, Regenesis promoters took to the web with reports of getting paid. Getting paid, however, is not proof that no scam exists. In 2010, promoters of the MPB Today cycler scam took to the web with “payment proofs” that were even crisper than the Regenesis “proofs.”
MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun later was sentenced to a term in a Florida state prison.
Despite “payment proofs” that appeared online, the MPB Today cycler was a scam that put its operator in prison.From an Achieve Community promo for a purported “repurchase” plan that turns $50 into “ANY amount you wish!”
In HYIP Cycler Land, the much ballyhooed matrices move only when new money flows to a scheme, assuming the matrices even exist and further assuming an early entrant (or even a later one) doesn’t try to blackmail an operator by mixing a threat to go to the police with a demand for hush money or a selective payout.
Is it any wonder that Vimeo has banned “videos pertaining to multi-level marketing (MLM), affiliate programs, get-rich-quick schemes, cash gifting, work-from-home gigs, or similar ventures?” Also not permitted on Vimeo are “rips of movies, music, television, or any other third party copyrighted material.”
Members of WCM777, a network-marketing “program” taken down by the SEC earlier this year after money was channeled to all kinds of secret businesses, found ways to work images of Sylvester Stallone and the music and imagery of the “Rocky” franchise into their scam. In 2010, promoters of the MPB Today “program” wrapped the music of Heart into their sales appeals. “Guaranteed No Scam,” one promo read in part.
This could in part explain why Vimeo appears to return no search results for “The Achieve Community.” It’s heartening, but the great MLM/network-marketing ripoffs on YouTube continue — from pitches for obvious scams to piracy of music and video content. At least one promo for Achieve Community appropriates virtually the entire soundtrack of a recording of “You Raise Me Up” by Celtic Woman.
Though he doesn’t reference Achieve Community in a video posted Nov. 29 on YouTube, network-marketing veteran Eric Worre of NetworkMarketingPro.com laments all the “lazy . . . MLM online idiots in the marketplace.”
“There’s too many, and it’s causing too much damage,” Worre says, noting the MLM ban at Vimeo and “boorish stuff” from MLMers “on any of the [social media] platforms.”
“It’s out of control. It doesn’t work, and it’s causing tremendous damage,” Worre says.
Nine days later came the preposterous Achieve Community analogy to Disney — this after Achieve reportedly had lost its original payment processor but went scouting for new ones, plus an offshore company to process credit cards. Purchasing and repurchasing of “positions” reportedly opened back up last week with a new card processor at the helm, but payouts to participants reportedly have not resumed.
Not to worry, Achieve Community says.
“When our Payout Processor is added next week,” the enterprise said Dec. 5 in a Blog post titled Friday Update, “we will be paying members who joined September 12th and will start paying out nearly $500,000.00 to our members.”
If those payouts materialize, they will come after a payout halt of more than a month and after Achieve Community apparently found an offshore company to provide a merchant account that permitted it to take credit cards for the acquisition of matrix “positions.” In other words, Achieve started collecting “new” money and now publicly announces a plan to pay “old” members who were due to be paid in early November for “positions” taken out on Sept. 12.
That, friends, is what Ponzi schemes do. More than that, it’s an indicator that Achieve was racking up a liability of $400 for every $50 it took in and was at least technically insolvent when Payoneer — its previous payment processor — reportedly pulled out weeks ago. Solving an insolvency condition by lining up new vendors to rekindle cashflow is one of the oldest tricks in the HYIP Ponzi books.
The Achieve Community Disney analogy makes no sense at all — except perhaps in that uber-bizarre, network-marketing way.
That the Disney comparison came on a Monday night is particularly rich. That’s because ESPN, part of the Disney Media Group, was getting ready to televise Monday Night Football. Even as ESPN was doing that, other Disney brands such as ABC (and ABC News) were broadcasting to the world. At the same time, the Walt Disney Studios was engaged in movie production, and Disney Consumer Products and Disney Interactive were doing what they do.
With Achieve, it’s only the upstart cycler and the hidden matrix positioned to be miraculous. What a racket!
Disney stock closed yesterday at $93.80, up a humble 4 cents. The iconic brand is a Dow and S&P 500 component, but it’s easy enough to imagine the Achievers saying, “Four cents! Only 4 cents! Better join Achieve!”
Did we mention the app for those Disney World lines?
In 2013, MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun was sentenced to a term in Florida state prison on a racketeering charge. MPBToday operated a cycler in which it was claimed a $200 purchase could result in free groceries and gasoline for life.
Now, a promoter of “The Achieve Community” cycler has recorded a commercial at an ATM of an FDIC-insured bank in Hawaii. The 0:51 promo is posted on YouTube and is titled, “Proof that my Payoneer debit card from the Achieve Community works!”
Achieve appears to have lost its ability to gather money through Payoneer only days later, although it is unclear whether the ATM video played any role.
Some promoters have positioned Achieve as a retirement plan. Others have claimed payouts are guaranteed and that no one has to sell anything.
In the Achieve YouTube promo with a publication date of Oct. 16, 2014, a man walks up to an American Savings Bank “Money Express” machine apparently in Kauai, displays an ATM card, inserts it in the machine and presses some buttons. The machine then dispenses a $20 bill, which the man shows to the audience.
“It works,” he says smiling, and giving the audience a “thumbs up” sign. “All right. [Aloha.]”
Text below the video reads, “Just wanted to show everyone that ACHIEVE + PAYONEER equals a True Lifetime Income Plan!”
It is very early morning in Hawaii. American Savings Bank, an FDIC member as noted above, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Regulators have issued repeated warnings about Ponzi- and pyramid schemes spreading on social media and also about affinity fraud.
We recommend these two stories/Comments threads at BehindMLM.com on “The Achieve Community.” Access the first here. Access the second here.
BehindMLM.com covers emerging MLM fraud schemes. Naturally the site separates some MLMers from their senses because it so neatly debunks cover stories and magical constructions that have helped MLM scams trading on the Internet thrive for years.
We’d point out that, like other apparent “supporters” of other “programs,” an apparent “supporter” of Achieve Community “defending” the “program” at BehindMLM.com is arguing that “The Achieve Community is not a scam [because] I GOT PAID . . .”
Such arguments tend to reflect the coaching of willfully blind promoters and typically are seen on well-known Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold.
All successful Ponzi/pyramid schemes “pay.” Those payments are used as “social proof” no scam exists and help to drive new dollars to scams. HYIP-flavored scams are among the most dangerous in the world. They pollute banks and payment processors with illicit proceeds, turning them into warehouses for fraud schemes. And because bad money follows bad money in the HYIP fraud sphere, the proceeds affect the commerce stream at multiple points of contact.
Money purportedly “earned” in one “program” is used to join another. The banks and processors, in effect, end up warehousing radioactive financial waste. If that’s not bad enough, many of the schemes are exceptionally dark and murky. Money disappears down ratholes or ends up in the hands of ghosts. Such was the case at “Profitable Sunrise” and “Secure Investment” and many more.
There are “I got paid” posts for both of those “programs” on the Ponzi boards.
At Achieve Community, $50 somehow miraculously turns into $400, purportedly in 55 days or so. Our research shows that promos claim people can buy multiple “positions.” There also is a claim that, at some point in the future — a point at which Achieve Community lines up another payment processor — recruits will be able to buy 200 “positions” with two separate transactions of $5,000 each.
This could be construed as an attempt to evade reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act and to “structure” transactions to evade those reporting requirements. The Massachusetts Securities Division has raised the issue of structuring in its action against the TelexFree “program.”
Structuring is dangerous because it accommodates both “micro” and “macro” scams. Some people may buy in at the “micro” level of $50, sometimes known in HYIP Ponzi Land as a “test spend.” Enough “I got paid” posts from cheerleaders at “micro” levels could cause others to buy in at “macro” levels of thousands of dollars.
Some people in TelexFree appear to have made a series of purchases, effectively turning “micro” transactions into “macro” positions. The same thing likely also occurred with the Zeek Rewards and WCM777 MLM “programs.” Like TelexFree, Zeek and WCM777 cratered.
MLMers should reject any contention that no scam exists because a program “pays” or that a member getting “paid” is proof that nothing untoward is occurring. HYIP schemes are infamous for fuzzy if not nonsensical math and for hiding scams behind green curtains.
Beyond that, all successful Ponzi/pyramid schemes “pay.” Ever hear of Bernard Madoff? He “paid.”
At the moment, 9,000 or so alleged winners are confronting clawback lawsuits to recover alleged fraudulent transfers from the c. $850 million Zeek Rewards scheme.
Put another way, Zeek “paid.” After that, Zeek caused people it “paid” to have to hire lawyers and respond to subpoenas and prepare to sit for depositions — all at their own expense.
Imagine Bernard Madoff, who “paid” far less than Zeek on an annualized percentage basis, strolling into court and addressing the judge at sentencing:
“But . . . but, Your Honor,” he begins. “You don’t understand. I paid. This is so unfair! I’ll tell you what this is! It’s a [freaking] conspiracy by the government against people just trying to help their fellow man!”
Next imagine the judge, after repairing from the bench to the restroom to projectile-vomit, returning to the courtroom and ordering the bailiff to escort Mr. Madoff through the side door to begin his 150-year tour of the prison system.
Finally, imagine Madoff sitting in his cell and having the following conversation with himself.
“If only the Achieve Community cycler had been around at the time. I could have rolled in all my clients’ money and, for each $50, I’d get paid $400 — in just two months or so, no less!”
If you can imagine these things, you can imagine the insidious world of the HYIP universe. Madoff, no stranger to chicanery, might actually be mortified at the goings-on in certain MLM circles. Even so, he never would have insulted a judge by insisting no Ponzi scheme existed because he “paid.”
Put another way, the greatest Ponzi schemer in U.S. history was more honest than the average HYIP purveyor and willfully blind promoter hoping to carve off profits from the mass production of scams on the Internet.
BULLETIN: (7th Update 1:52 p.m. ET Jan. 7 U.S.A.) The Achieve Community says it has suspended “sign ups” and “repurchases” through iPayDNA, a credit-card processor based in Asia.
