PatrickPretty.com

Tag: AdhitProfits

  • BULLETIN: Utah Division of Securities Rejects Claims In Traffic Monsoon Promo That Scheme Had Been Given Clean Bill Of Health

    Charles Scoville of Traffic Monsoon.
    Charles Scoville of Traffic Monsoon.

    BULLETIN: The Utah Division of Securities — the state-level regulator — has rejected online claims that the agency had investigated Traffic Monsoon and had given it a clean bill of health.

    Federal regulators sued Traffic Monsoon and alleged operator Charles Scoville last week, alleging Ponzi fraud, securities fraud and the sale of unregistered securities to unaccredited investors.

    The PP Blog contacted the state Division on Aug. 1, after reading a Traffic Monsoon affiliate promo that in part read, “The State of Utah’s security division & Consumer Protection went to the offices of Traffic Monsoon to investigate their business model. The result of the investigation was that Traffic Monsoon wasn’t committing any kind of investment scheme or security fraud.”

    That simply didn’t happen, the Division said through Director Keith Woodwell early this afternoon in response to the PP Blog’s inquiry.

    “[T]he Division has not investigated Traffic Monsoon,” the agency said flatly.

    It added that it “never made any determinations as to whether Traffic Monsoon was ‘committing any type of investment scheme or security fraud’ and that it had “made no determination as to whether there was a pyramid scheme.”

    It is not unusual for promoters of MLM-type or direct-sales fraud schemes to claim that a scheme had passed muster with regulators.

    The Division said it had received one complaint about AdHitProfits, another Scoville scheme, in December 2013. No action was taken there, the Division said, because the Division determined there was no offer of securities under state law.

    Regardless, the Division said, it does not offer clean bills of health to schemes or issue statements of “nothing wrong.”




  • Some Traffic Monsoon Promoters Are Zeek Clawback Defendants

    trafficmonsoonlogoUPDATED 11:51 A.M. EDT U.S.A. Zeek Rewards’ receiver Kenneth D. Bell had no comment this morning on reports that some Zeek clawback defendants also were participants in Traffic Monsoon, alleged last week by the SEC to have been a Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $207 million.

    The reports appeared on RealScam.com.

    In March 2015, Bell sued Adrian Hibbert of the United Kingdom, alleging he had received more than $82,000 in Ponzi proceeds from Zeek. Zeek was charged with fraud by the SEC in August 2012.

    Another Zeek promoter listed by Bell as a winner in that scheme — Frank Calabro Jr. of the United States — also promoted Traffic Monsoon. Bell has expressed concern about online pitchmen moving from one fraud scheme to another.

    “Winnings” from MLM or direct-sales fraud schemes may be subject to return through clawback litigation.

    Both Zeek and Traffic Monsoon were purported “revenue sharing” programs. Paul Burks, the operator of Zeek Rewards, potentially faces a long prison term after his conviction earlier this month on multiple fraud counts.

    On July 26, the SEC civilly charged alleged Traffic Monsoon operator Charles Scoville of Utah with fraud. He has not been charged criminally and is believed to be residing overseas.

    Peggy Hunt of the Salt Lake City office of the Dorsey & Whitney law firm has been appointed receiver over Traffic Monsoon. Neither she nor the firm responded immediately this morning to a request for comment on the issue of common promoters between Traffic Monsoon and Zeek.

    The law firm confirmed to the PP Blog last week that there would be a receivership website for Traffic Monsoon, but the site was not yet live. The URL has not been released.

    Some Zeek clawback defendants also were participants in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. ASD was a “program” similar to Traffic Monsoon broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008 in a highly publicized action.

    In U.S. domestic clawback litigation and in cases filed against non-U.S. residents, Bell has sued thousands of alleged Zeek winners for return of their gains and interest.

    Hunt’s plans with Traffic Monsoon are unclear.

    Hibbert appears also to have a page promoting the “My Advertising Pays” scheme.  MAPS, as it is known, has caught the attention of class-action attorneys involved in litigation against the TelexFree scheme broken up by the SEC and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2014. The litigation also includes Zeek figures.

    TelexFree and Zeek may be the two largest combined Ponzi- and pyramid schemes in history, generating on the order of $4 billion in illicit, cross-border business and affecting hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people.

    The MAPS’ page attributed to Hibbert claims that MAPs operator Mike Deese “has been in the trenches with Zeek, ASD, Banners Broker, Ad Hit Profits, and many other advertising revenue sharing companies some of which continue to thrive and some that are not.”

    AdHitProfits also was a Scoville scheme. BannersBroker was a cross-border fraud that led to arrests in Canada.

    Separately, the Zeek page attributed to Hibbert claims, “If you want to make money and get paid everyday, you have to look at Zeek Rewards and understand how it works.”

    The SEC and federal prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina said Zeek worked as a Ponzi scheme.

    Visit the TrafficMonsoon thread at RealScam.com.




  • TRAFFIC MONSOON: Whack-A-Mole — For Sure

    trafficmonsoonlogoNews came early this morning that the SEC had moved against Traffic Monsoon, calling it a Ponzi scheme. Both the “program” and alleged operator Charles Scoville were charged civilly yesterday in Utah federal court with securities fraud and selling unregistered securities to unaccredited investors.

    Scoville also was the braintrust behind AdHitProfits, a Ponzi-board “program” in part targeted at people who also were targeted in the egregious 2013 Profitable Sunrise cross-border scam in which millions of dollars appear to have vanished overseas.

    As the PP Blog reported on June 2, 2013 (italics added):

    A spammer hit a Profitable Sunrise Facebook site yesterday with five drive-by offers for “AdHitProfits.” All five of the machine-gunned theft bids claimed the same thing: “make money every half an hour…100% commission let your money grow for you at high speed.”

    The AHP “program” also is being pitched on the Ponzi boards, with the thread-starter at MoneyMakerGroup bragging that “Payza, []STP & Liberty Reserve Accepted !!”

    LibertyReserve was described last week by federal prosecutors in New York as a criminal enterprise that had laundered more than $6 billion for Ponzi schemers, credit-card fraudsters, identity thieves, investment fraudsters, computer hackers, child pornographers and narcotics traffickers.

    Traffic Monsoon allegedly used PayPal, SolidTrustPay and Payza, a processing firm under fire from the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid-scheme case. Payza also is involved in a federal investigation centered in the District of Columbia.

    In its complaint against Traffic Monsoon and Scoville, the SEC says PayPal restricted Traffic Monsoon during the winter, in January 2016.

    Our research shows that Scoville then turned to Payza for the heavy lifting and that Payza attended a Traffic Monsoon event in May 2016, during the spring and while funds in PayPal had been frozen by PayPal.

    From the SEC complaint (italics added):

    After the PayPal freeze, Scoville began using other payment processors more extensively: Solid Trust Pay, headquartered in Ontario, and Payza, headquartered in London with offices in New York. He has also used an account at JPMorgan Chase to receive investor funds.

    Zeek used both SolidTrustPay and Payza, as did the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme before it.

    Traffic Monsoon’s haul appears to have exceeded $200 million, potentially making it one of the largest advertising “revshare” schemes of all time. As things stand, it is larger than other well-known revshare frauds such as AdSurfDaily ($119 million) and Banners Broker ($156 million). Some of the Banners Broker cash reportedly ended up in KulClub, yet another Ponzi-board MLM scheme.

    Ponzi-board schemes are eviscerating wealth globally. It is not unusual for such schemes to use multiple payment processors and to target vulnerable population groups. Agencies from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have been involved in a number of major investigations of Ponzi-board “programs.”

    It is unclear if DHS or other U.S. agencies with the power of arrest are involved in a Traffic Monsoon probe. History has shown, however, that when the SEC brings a civil case, other agencies sometimes carry out criminal investigations on a parallel track.




  • MORE MLM WHACK-A-MOLE: (1) Quebec Securities Regulator Issues Warning On Karatbars International; (2) Cross-Border Colleagues Follow Suit; (3) Former Zeek Ponzi Scheme Pitchman Defends ‘Program’ As Others Push It Alongside TelexFree

    Source: Online pitch for Zeek.
    Source: Online pitch for Zeek.

    UPDATED 12:21 P.M. EDT (MARCH 28, U.S.A.) Whack-A-Mole. Here’s the latest disturbing incarnation: On March 20, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) published a warning on a gold “program” known as Karatbars International GmbH. BehindMLM.com spotlighted the warning yesterday.

    From the AMF warning (bolding added): “With the company’s ‘Affiliates’ program, investors can make Internet-based purchases through Karatbars plans and they are encouraged to recruit two other Affiliates. These Affiliates are in turn encouraged to recruit two other Affiliates each, and so on. Affiliates are lured by the possibility of earning large payouts, in particular through a percentage of amounts collected from the Karatbars plans and gold products purchased by referrals.”

    After AMF published its warning, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) republished it. So did the Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand (FMA).

    These things apparently meant little to former Zeek Rewards’ pitchman Lloyd Merrifield, who “defended” Karatbars International on BehindMLM. Zeek was an international Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $850 million, according to court records.

    You’ll see a reference to Merrifield in the Comments thread below this Dec. 17, 2010, PP Blog story: “URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Secret Service Has Seized More ASD Cash; Forfeiture Complaint Filed Today Against Bank Accounts Controlled By Erma ‘Web Room Lady’ Seabaugh And Robyn Lynn Stevenson.”

    ASD (AdSurfDaily) was an international Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $119 million, according to court records. Meanwhile, you’ll also see a reference to Merrifield below this June 25, 2009, PP Blog story about AdViewGlobal, an ASD reload scam: “AdViewGlobal ‘Surf’ Firm Suspends Member Cash-Outs, Threatens Media With Copyright-Infringement Lawsuits.”

    AdViewGlobal was an international Ponzi scheme that gathered an unknown sum before vanishing mysteriously in 2009. U.S. federal prosecutors linked it to ASD in April 2012.

    Merrifield also was a pitchman for Ad-Ventures4u (ADV4U), an ASD-like HYIP scam tied to shiny-object scam known as “TradingGold4Cash.” And why not Tazoodle, a search-engine “program” whose “board” consisted of former ASD members who had the big idea they were going to unseat Google? Yep. Merrifield was there, too.

    Along with ADV4U and Tazoodle, Merrifield pitched something called “20Clicks” as part of an overall package known as “The Golden Eggs.” (In 2009, the 20 Clicks website said it was “Powered by USHBB.com.” USHBB later was associated with the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme and is listed as a “winner” in a document assembled by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Ponzi/pyramid case.)

    At least one HYIP pitchfest site that describes Merrifield as a “featured speaker” for Karatbars International has led cheers for “programs” such as AdHitProfits and MyFunLife and BannersBroker — and an emerging darling known as FlexKom. The site also has pushed “ProfitClicking,” one of the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid reload scams linked to former ASD pitchman Frederick Mann.

    Mann, among other things, may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.

    Merrifield, perhaps ignoring this 2010 FINRA warning on HYIP schemes and social media, pitches Karatbars International on YouTube and coaches viewers to line up recruits via craigslist.

    Source: YouTube
    Source: YouTube

    On BehindMLM, Merrifield says he’s been “in the Investment Banking industry for over 35 years.”

    As always, HYIP “programs” and similar ventures that may lack licensing in individual jurisdictions across the world raise the prospect that banks and payment processors are coming into possession of funds tainted by fraud. In some cases, those funds have circulated between and among various schemes.

    A quick Google search shows that some pitchmen are promoting Karatbars International alongside TelexFree, a “program” under investigation in North America, South America and Africa. TelexFree also has been promoted in concert with the WCM777 MLM scam.

    From a simultaneous video pitch for Karatbars International and TelexFree.
    From a video pitch that simultaneously pushes Karatbars International and TelexFree.

  • SEC And FINRA Say ‘Pump And Dump’ Spam Increasing Sharply; McAfee Says ‘Botnet-Creating Malware’ Was Being Sold Through Liberty Reserve

    From a first-quarter 2013 security analysis by McAfee Labs. Red highlight by PP Blog.
    From a first-quarter 2013 security analysis by McAfee Labs. Red highlight by PP Blog.

    DISCLOSURE: The PP Blog uses McAfee security software. The Blog is not compensated for its use of the software.

    UPDATED 10:23 A.M. (JUNE 15, U.S.A.) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have issued an Investor Alert warning about a sharp increase in spam linked to “pump-and-dump” stock schemes.

    The warning points to a threats analysis for 2013’s first quarter published by McAfee Labs, an arm of McAfee, the Intel Corp.-owned Internet-security company. The same document reports that “botnet-creating malware” was being sold via Liberty Reserve, the now-shuttered payment processor purportedly based in Costa Rica that was charged in the United States last month with orchestrating a $6 billion money-laundering conspiracy.

    One of the “products” was described as “Vector Bot, for €1,000, payable via Liberty Reserve.”

    Various bots and malware kits are sold on the Internet — and not always in English. At least two of the malware pitches reproduced in the McAfee report appear to be in Russian or Slavic derivatives. One of the products pitched from a forum was called “Dump Memory Grabber,” which reportedly was designed to steal “payment card information from several US banks, including Chase, Capital One, Citibank, and Union Bank of California,” McAfee reports.

    “The malware’s author, who appears to have links to a Russian cybercrime gang, asks for US$2,000,” McAfee reports.

    ‘Pump-And-Dump’ Spam

    “Spam e-mail is the bait used to lure people into making bad investment decisions,” said Cameron Funkhouser, executive vice president of FINRA’s Office of Fraud Detection and Market Intelligence. “No one should ever make an investment based on the advice of an unsolicited email.”

    “Investors should always be wary of unsolicited investment offers in the form of an e-mail from a stranger,” said Lori Schock, director of the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy. “The best response to investment spam is to hit delete.”

    Similar to an HYIP warning issued by FINRA in 2010, the new SEC/FINRA Alert on pump-and-dump schemes advises investors that “[t]hese false claims could also be made on social media such as Facebook and Twitter as well as on bulletin boards and chat room pages.”

    On May 2, the PP Blog published a story about a pitch for a purported “opportunity” known as UPrivateBanking, a “program” pitched at victims on the alleged Profitable Sunrise HYIP scheme. The pitch appeared on Facebook and triggered a McAfee security warning. The website for UPrivateBanking triggers a “Phishing” warning.

    Later, on June 2, the PP Blog reported that a “program” known as AdHitProfits that also was targeted on Facebook at Profitable Sunrise victims also was triggering a McAfee security warning. Like the Profitable Sunrise and UPrivateBanking schemes, AdHitProfits has a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

     

     

  • HYIP Spammer Hits Profitable Sunrise Facebook Site With Drive-By Offers For ‘AdHitProfits,’ A Ponzi-Board ‘Program’ Whose Thread-Opener Bragged, ‘Payza, STP & Liberty Reserve Accepted !!’

    ponziglareUPDATED 5:41 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A spammer hit a Profitable Sunrise Facebook site yesterday with five drive-by offers for “AdHitProfits.” All five of the machine-gunned theft bids claimed the same thing: “make money every half an hour…100% commission let your money grow for you at high speed.”

    The AHP “program” also is being pitched on the Ponzi boards, with the thread-starter at MoneyMakerGroup bragging that “Payza, []STP & Liberty Reserve Accepted !!”

    LibertyReserve was described last week by federal prosecutors in New York as a criminal enterprise that had laundered more than $6 billion for Ponzi schemers, credit-card fraudsters, identity thieves, investment fraudsters, computer hackers, child pornographers and narcotics traffickers.

    The names of Payza predecessor AlertPay and SolidTrustPay, meanwhile, appear in U.S. court files as payment processors for Ponzi schemes. In August 2012, the SEC accused Ponzi-board “program” Zeek Rewards of orchestrating a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud. Earier in 2012, Zeek Rewards was auctioning sums of U.S. cash and telling successful bidders they could receive their winnings through AlertPay and SolidTrustPay.

    Forums such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold are referenced in U.S. court filings as places from which HYIP frauds/Ponzi schemes are promoted. AHP also has a presence on both forums. It also has a presence on DreamTeamMoney, yet another Ponzi forum.

    Like other recent Ponzi-board “programs,” AHP is triggering a security warning from McAfee Site Advisor. The warning declares the AHP site a “Dangerous Site.”

    “Whoa!” the warning begins. “Are you sure you want to go there?”

    In March, the SEC described Profitable Sunrise as a murky pyramid scheme that may have gathered tens of millions of dollars through offshore bank accounts. Court filings show that money tied to Profitable Sunrise and Liberty Reserve ended up in offshore bank accounts. Whether Profitable Sunrise had a Liberty Reserve account is unclear.

    Although HYIP schemes always are dangerous, they may be particularly dangerous now as operators scramble for new, Ponzi-sustaining cash after a series of seizures related to the Liberty Reserve investigation. The amount of HYIP-related cash seized in the Liberty Reserve probe is unknown. A well-known scam that has operated under at least three names — JSS Tripler, JustBeenPaid and ProfitClicking — claimed it accepted Liberty Reserve and now appears to have wiped out investors’ purported holdings and perhaps zeroed out the purported earnings of many of them.

    In an April 6 thread-starting post for AHP at MoneyMakerGroup, the claim is made that “You Purchase 1 Or More Revenue Share Ad Spot(s) For $45 !!” and that “You Earn $56.25.” The pitch also claims that a return of 125 percent is “More Stable For Long Term !!”

    Separately, the thread-starter’s forum signature tries to lure visitors to a “program” known as “AddWallet,” with a claim that it is “Better Than Zeek (( A Complete Passive Income With Best Advertising Revenue Income Ever )).”

    AHP shills have paraded to TalkGold to make “I Got Paid” posts for the purported “opportunity.” Shills did the same thing for Zeek and the other “programs.”

    An emerging Ponzi-forum darling like Zeek and Profitable Sunrise before it, AHP appears to have debuted in April, just weeks after the website of Profitable Sunrise went missing.

    A series of reload scams are been targeted at Profitable Sunrise victims via a Facebook site. Many of the “programs” claimed to accept LibertyReserve, PerfectMoney, Payza or SolidTrustPay.

    PerfectMoney, which purportedly operates from Panama, now claims it is banning new registrations from U.S. prospects.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Liberty Reserve Payment Processor Offline Amid Reports Of Arrest Of Operator In Spain On Money-Laundering Charges

    breakingnews72URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve, a payment processor favored by HYIP scammers and other criminals, is offline — and there are reports that its operator is under arrest in Spain on money-laundering charges.

    “We lost Huge $$$,” a poster on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum complained. The poster’s forum signature was advertising AdHitProfits, with a pitch of “125% – Superfast Earning.” It also was promoting GoldAllianceFunds, with a pitch of “4.5% for 45 Business Days.”

    From The Tico Times, a newspaper published in Costa Rica (italics added):

    Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, 39, on Friday was arrested in Spain as part of a money laundering investigation performed jointly by police agencies in the United States and Costa Rica.

    Costa Rican prosecutor José Pablo González said Budovsky, a Costa Rican citizen of Ukrainian origin, has been under investigation since 2011 for money laundering using a company he created in the country called Liberty Reserve.

    Local investigations began after a request from a prosecutor’s office in New York. On Friday, San José prosecutors conducted raids in Budovsky’s house and offices in Escazá, Santa Ana, southwest of San José, and in the province of Heredia, north of the capital.

    Budovsky’s businesses in Costa Rica apparently were financed by using money from child pornography websites and drug trafficking.

    Separately, BehindMLM.com is reporting that Liberty Reserve’s website is throwing a server error. The PP Blog confirmed the site will not load and that there appears to be no page-source information on the landing page.

    Recent scams that have used Liberty Reserve include JustBeenPaid/JSSTripler, “Expert Invest Group,” T2MoneyKlub (one of Ponzi schemer “Dave’s”) purported “programs,” Insectrio, Imperia Invest IBC and many more.

    Imperia scammed deaf people, the SEC said in 2010.