PatrickPretty.com

Tag: Ad Surf Daily

  • Another HYIP Pushed By ASD Members Now DOA; Cypriot, Canadian Securities Regulators Issue Warnings About Genius Funds; Regulator Seeks Criminal Probe

    Regulators in Cyprus have referred Genius Funds for criminal investigation and released a warning that the company “[is] not permitted to provide investment and ancillary services in the Republic.”

    Genius Funds, a darling of the HYIP world,  was heavily promoted on the Ponzi boards. The program also is known as Genius Investments. The program was referred for criminal investigation by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, which also issued the warning. The announcement that the case was referred for criminal investigation was made Friday in Cyprus.

    One of the matters referred for criminal investigation pertained to a question about whether Genius Funds used a “falsified document that possibly stated that it possessed an operational license which was not authentic,” the Cypriot regulator said.

    Separately, Canadian securities regulators also have acted against Genius Funds, permanently banning the HYIP “for illegally selling securities,” the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) said.

    Genius Funds’ website is throwing a server error.

    The program was pitched on the pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum in December by a poster who dubbed himself “joe.” Genius Funds was one of four HYIP’s pitched by “joe” in an egg-themed promotion. The egg-themed domains redirected to HYIP programs.

    All of the programs appear to have failed or gone missing, but the egg-themed domain names now redirect to other HYIPs.

    “ALL MY EGGS ARE NOT IN ONE BASKET,” the Surf’s Up pitchman said in all-caps. “I MAKE 2000.00 A WEEK.”

    Some ASD members continued to promote autosurfs and HYIPs after the federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin in August 2008. The Surf’s Up forum went missing earlier this year.

    In recent weeks, the Golden Panda Ad Zone forum (also known as the Online Success Zone forum), another website from which ASD members pitched autosurf and HYIP programs, also went missing.

    BCSC opened its probe into Genius Funds after receiving a tip from “a financial institution,” the agency said.

    Read the Genius Funds’ announcement from Cyprus. Read the announcement from Canada.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Autosurf Known As ‘Premium Ads Club’ Tanks; Takes Child’s Chemo Treatments With It, Member Says

    An autosurf known as “Premium Ads Club” has tanked. A poster at the ASA Monitor forum said he invested money for his child’s chemotherapy treatment in it.

    Premium Ads Club advertised a payout of 135 percent over 15 days. Members said the surf was collecting money as late as this weekend and had just come off a series of 15 percent bonus promotions.

    Other surfs in bonus mode now include AdViewGlobal and BizAdSplash, both of which surfaced in the weeks following the government seizure of nearly $100 million from AdSurfDaily Inc. amid allegations of selling unregistered securities and running a Ponzi scheme.

    Email To Members

    Members say they received this email (below) from the surf, which used SolidTrustPay, the same processor to which ASD was transferring money last summer prior to the seizure. Incredibly, the surf said it collected money from 500 members in the past four days to try to make the Ponzi go away.

    The Ponzi did not go away, of course. Premium Ads Club also said it was not blaming anybody, but then proceeded to blame the members for panicking and bringing down operations.

    We have not edited this note, except to add italics:

    We are truely sad and sorry to send this…
    Dear Members,

    It is with really heavy hearts that we send this update to you. We are truly sorry and sad to inform you that PAC is officially closed as of now.

    The Deposits have been disabled.

    There are a few events that have led to this untimely event.

    Our Cashflow got seriously affected from when we implemented the PinCode and the recent site accessibility issues.

    Sadly members chose to go into Panic mode and stop despositing into PAC. Withdrawals took a huge upswing and in the past 7-9 days and we have had to use up our reserve to supplement payouts to the tune of 10-15K daily. We will need at least another 30K (as of now) to meet today’s payouts.

    We have been upfront with you that while we have a business plan, we would still be dependent on member spends to make payouts and would have been at least for 6-9 months minimum.

    We also have had 2 of our Private Programs being under investigation so, some of our funds are frozen there.

    We hoped by using up our reserve fund, the situation could be turned around. With over 500 new members in the last 4 days, we were almost sure PAC would come through. Unfortunately it hasn’t happened and we are forced to make this decision.

    It is not all over. We are still going ahead with the IBC and will continue to do business.

    We have a long term investment that will start paying a steady income in some months.

    How will this affect you? We are conducting an audit and all members who are not in profit will be refunded. We will do right by you all.

    We will begin by refunding AP and LR as soon as the audit is over, because we have those funds.

    STP and SP are running on a huge deficit and it will take some time.

    We truly understand how disappointing this is and there are just no words for us to express how disappointed we are too.

    AggeroInvestment and Scotia Ads are unaffected and will continue to run as normal.

    However, we feel that it is best that Roger takes over the day to day operations of AI and he has agreed.

    We ask for your understanding and hope that you will trust that we had not forseen that simple technical matters would undo the hard work we all put in together.

    We are not blaming anyone.

    It is just a sad fact that needs to be pointed out.

    We had the very best of intentions and were unable to fulfil them. There are no words to tell you how truly sorry we are.

    Sincerely,
    Kazzy and EL.