PatrickPretty.com

Tag: ASD

  • INTERPOL Chief Says His Identity Was Stolen In Fraud Bid On Facebook; Meanwhile, MPB Today Members Post Check-Waving Videos On Social-Media Sites And WebsiteTester.biz Gathers 400,000 Names And Email Addresses

    Earlier this week the PP Blog reported that members of MPB Today were using YouTube and other sites to post images of checks drawn on a distressed Florida bank. The checks, which were supplied as purported “proof” of MPB Today’s legitimacy, may expose both the posters and the bank to security breaches and identity theft.

    The bank, Gulf Coast Community Bank of Pensacola, has been operating under an FDIC consent agreement since January. It did not respond to a request for comment from the PP Blog. It is possible that the bank was unaware that its name was being used as a form of purported “proof” that one of its customers — MPB Today, which operates an MLM advertised on Ponzi forums such as ASA Monitor — was above-board.

    Like MPB Today, the alleged Legisi Ponzi scheme was pushed on Ponzi forums such as MoneyMakerGroup. This bizarre section of the Legisi Terms of Service purports that members must avow they are not an "informant, nor associated with any informant" of the IRS, FBI, CIA and the SEC, among others. The others included "Her Majesty's Police," the Intelligence Services of Great Britain, the Serious Fraud Office and Interpol.

    In the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme in 2008, members cited ASD’s relationship with Bank of America as purported “proof” of legitimacy. Federal agents later seized more than $65.8 million from 10 bank accounts controlled by ASD President Andy Bowdoin amid allegations of wire fraud and money-laundering.

    ASD also was promoted on the Ponzi boards. Robert Hodgins, who operated a company ASD members said supplied debit cards to the firm, now is wanted by INTERPOL in a case that alleges he assisted in the laundering of money for Colombian narcotics traffickers. The money was accessed with debit cards through ATMs in Medellin, according to court records.

    A mysterious business opportunity known as WebsiteTester.biz also is being hawked at ASAMonitor and other Ponzi boards. WebsiteTester claims it has collected the names and email addresses more than 400,000 prospects across the world. WebsiteTester claims its legitimacy can be established by watching a YouTube video that shows no faces and by reading a news release published by an anonymous author.

    In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an alert about fraud schemes that use forums and social-media sites such as YouTube and Facebook to spread virally.

    Among the other “programs” pushed on the Ponzi boards was Legisi, an alleged Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $70 million. Legisi members were specifically prompted to “avow” they were not “an informant” for law enforcement, including INTERPOL, the FBI and the SEC, among other agencies.

    Despite repeated public warnings by authorities to exercise caution on the Internet, fraud schemes continue to proliferate globally. INTERPOL now says one of its own was targeted in an identity-theft bid on Facebook — and it was the boss himself.

    “Just recently INTERPOL’s Information Security Incident Response Team discovered two Facebook profiles attempting to assume my identity,” said Ronald K. Noble, INTERPOL’s Secretary General.

    “One of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted
    during our recent Operation Infra Red,” Noble said. “This Operation was bringing investigators from 29 member countries at the INTERPOL General Secretariat to exchange information on international fugitives and lead to more than 130 arrests in 32 countries.”

  • EDITORIAL: Animated Attack On Obama Goes Missing From MPB Today Affiliate’s Sales Arsenal; PP Blog Declines Request From Affiliate’s MLM Sponsor To Remove Story That Describes Bizarre Sales Pitch Painting President As Nazi

    Regular readers of the PP Blog know that it supports the efforts of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to weed out the purveyors of schemes who brought the U.S. and much of the world economy to its knees. Obama is a Democrat.

    What readers may not know is that the Blog is written by a Republican who celebrates America’s entrepreneurial spirit, its market economy, its job-creators, its Great Defenders of Freedom, its Great Guardians of Liberty.

    The PP Blog concerns itself with matters of interest to readers who embrace online commerce and see the Internet as an outlet that is pivotal to future economic expansion. How wonderful would it be, say, if Americans and the other peoples of the world who are living in poverty could harness their entrepreneurial spirits and the power of the Internet to engage in legitimate commerce and elevate the standard of living worldwide?

    And how wonderful would it be if companies and individuals who already are benefiting from financial success could use the Internet to create a legitimate turbine that generates sustainable jobs that pay a pride-producing wage and freelance sales and vendor positions that create bright financial futures?

    Although the PP Blog focuses on business and generally avoids politics, today it makes an exception: When the President of the United States — regardless of party — is attacked to drive business to an online multilevel-marketing (MLM) firm, it must be noted for posterity that the MLM sphere has reached a new and deeply disturbing low.

    To call the anti-Obama, animated screed by an affiliate of MPB Today “tasteless” would be a gross understatement. It harms MPB Today, which is the subject of a “review” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture amid affiliate claims the company has been endorsed by the government. Various government agencies — regardless of what political party controls the White House and the Congress — have warned repeatedly for years that one of the scammer’s most important tools is the shovel that plants the seed that the government endorses a “program” or “business opportunity.”

    MLM “opportunities” are infamous for planting this cancer-spreading seed. Members of AdSurfDaily, for instance, planted the seed that President George W. Bush had given ASD President Andy Bowdoin an award for a lifetime of business achievement. Bowdoin fanned the pollination of the seed by taking his “award” on the road with him and even posing with it.

    The clear aim of the claim was to make prospects believe that ASD could not possibly be a scam because the President of the United States would not give an important business award to a scammer.

    It turned out that the “award” actually was a memento for making campaign donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee. In effect, Bowdoin had made the donations to the NRCC in return for banquet tickets. Records show that Bowdoin made the donations during a period of time in which federal prosectors say he was operating an international Ponzi scheme that perhaps ensnared more than 100,000 people.

    It is a virtual certainty that Bowdoin, who’d been charged with felonies in Alabama in a previous securities swindle and was given a suspended jail sentence, used Ponzi proceeds to make the donations.

    Harm spreads virally when such bogus seeds are planted and take root on the Internet.

    But getting back to the matter of the MPB Today affiliate’s Obama-bashing sales pitch . . .

    Walmart and Walmart’s Sam’s Club name now have been harmed because the MPB Today affiliate used the name of Sam’s Club in the animated attack, which painted Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis — with Obama as a cowering Nazi and Clinton as a drunken one wearing “puke colored” clothes purchased from Big Lots, a discount retailer.

    This occurred while other MPB Today affiliates were claiming that MPB, which dispenses Walmart gift cards to winners in the MPB 2×2 matrix cycler, was under “contract” with Walmart, that MPB members were “partners” with Walmart, that MPB sells food “vouchers” that can be exchanged for Walmart gift cards and that the MLM program was “Govt. certified with Food Stamps!”

    As incredible as it seems, Michelle Obama — the First Lady of the United States — was depicted in the affiliate’s animation as experiencing an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after sampling “beans” at a Sam’s Club store. A dog depicted in the pitch more or less said that the First Lady was stinking up the joint.

    Good grief!

    The pitch also harms the image of U.S. business in general because it sends the message that “anything goes” in American Capitalism as long as it returns a profit, the precise message U.S. companies now under indictment or investigation were sending when they brought the financial sector to its knees.

    Meanwhile, it specifically harms online business. Much of the world already believes the Internet is one giant cesspit, in no small measure because of the business practices of certain MLM programs and affiliates of MLM programs.

    At the same time, it harms the Republican party, which is trying to make gains in the upcoming midterm elections. It would be easy, for example, for the Democrats to seize on the message that the sales pitch for MPB Today is just another example of wretched GOP excess and hatred embedded in code. The most bizarre thing about the pitch is that it seems to presume that it is a perfectly acceptable business practice to alienate MPB members and prospects who might be Democrats and Obama supporters — as well as Republicans who actually respect and admire the President even if they disagree with his policies and do not share his political philosophy.

    Even though the MPB Today affiliate’s precise party or political affiliation is not known, it seems clear that the affiliate sees nothing wrong with mixing business with inflammatory, divisive politics,  and is not enthusiastic about the current Democratic leadership. In this sense, it also harms the Democratic party. Political pranksters and Obama opponents could paint the MPB pitchman as a Democratic saboteur or a Tea Party activist seeking to create dissension in the ranks, something that could inure to the benefit of Republicans.

    Most of all, though, the pitch hurts America. Much of the world looks to America for both financial and moral leadership. What the world got in the context of the promotion for MPB Today is yet-another impossibly ham-handed attempt to sell an MLM product at any price — even at the price of American prestige.

    Segments of the MLM trade already are infamous for their inability to sell products without lying, for resorting to gutter tactics, for using sales pitches to reimagine products as something they are not and for setting the stage for tens of thousands of people to get fleeced in one spectacular scam after another that goes “viral” on the Internet.

    Today the PP Blog received a request from a person who described herself as the sponsor of the MPB Today affiliate who produced the anti-Obama screed to “delete” the Blog’s stories on the reprehensible sales pitch.

    “The animated short video on MPB with Hilary and Obama was created by a member I sponsored into MPB and the film has since been taken down,” the sponsor noted. “The member agrees it may have been in poor taste and chose to delete it. Please do the same.”

    Welcome to the often-bizarre world of MLM — a world in which the affiliate who authored a political attack on the President of the United States to gain payments from a 2×2 cycler matrix pushed on known Ponzi forums such as ASAMonitor  “agrees” only that the pitch “may have been in poor taste” and the dutiful sponsor seeks to make sure the the record gets deleted.

    Although the PP Blog verified that the sales pitch had been deleted from the animation site, the Blog is declining to delete its coverage of the matter. All people engaged in MLM need to see it. If they are interested in being taken seriously, they need to condemn it.

    MPB Today should issue a statement that condemns it.

    In May 2009 — just days after the Obama administration announced a crackdown on international financial fraud — the PP Blog received a request from KINGZ Capital Management to delete a story about the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf’s claim that it had secured KINGZ as an offshore wire facilitator to make it easier for Americans (and other peoples of the world) to send money to an obvious Ponzi scheme that had risen from the ashes of ASD, yet another Ponzi scheme

    The PP Blog declined the request. KINGZ later was banned by the National Futures Association for turning a blind eye to the actions of Trevor Cook, a now-convicted felon who operated an international Ponzi scheme that caused investor losses of at least $158 million. The scheme traded on religion. A federal judge called it “wretched, tawdry and cheap.”

    History will record that AVG made the claim about  its new relationship with KINGZ on the very same day in May 2009 that Obama himself announced the fraud crackdown. By June 25, 2009, AVG suspended autosurf cashouts, taking an unknown sum of money sent in by members with it. It is known that many AVG members also were members of ASD, the subject of a racketeering lawsuit and two federal complaints that sought the forfeiture of more than $80 million. The government won both forfeiture cases. The decisions by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer now are under appeal by Bowdoin.

    It also is known the ASD victims have been targeted in promotions for MPB Today. If that’s not enough, it also is known that at least one MPB Today affiliate’s pitch page includes links to at least 100 “surfing” programs, as well as a link to Data Network Affiliates (DNA).

    DNA, yet another MLM program, purports to collect license-plate data that can aid law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children. Even as DNA and affiliates are claiming to be interested in helping law enforcement, the company says it is selling a spray product that prevents cameras from snapping photographs of license plates at intersections that use electronic systems to enforce traffic laws.

    As DNA is doing this, it also is telling churches that they have the “MORAL OBLIGATION” to recruit affiliates for a purported mortgage-reduction program targeted at people who are facing foreclosure. Meanwhile, MPB Today also is targeting foreclosure subjects in sales pitches, and some MPB affiliates are using religion in sales pitches to attract MLM members.

    Both MPB Today and DNA are operating in Florida, which has one of the highest concentrations of foreclosures in the United States and is near the top of the list in U.S. bank failures.

    So, no. The PP Blog will not delete its coverage of the MPB Today affiliate’s attack on Obama.

    All of America — all of the world and all of the MLM universe — needs to see that the President of the United States was right in May 2009 when he announced the fraud crackdown and was right in November 2009 when he announced the formation of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

    The PP Blog has no doubt — none whatsoever — that corrupt elements within the MLM universe are doing everything in their power to use the Internet to bleed wealth from hard-working Americans and other hard-working peoples of the world, and that the corrupt transfer of wealth is leading to losses of billions of dollars globally. Simply put, these reprehensible — if not downright criminal business practices — are a money grab on a colossal scale.

    Proceeds from fraud schemes are difficult to trace. Money moves at the speed of an electronic impulse. Any number of nefarious enterprises, including narcotics traffickers, organized crime and terrorist groups, could be tapping into the fraud stream. There is no doubt that some of the criminal enterprises are dressed up as legitimate MLMs or employ a direct-sales business model that pays commissions to attract new money.

    Stand strong, Mr. President. Your efforts to turn off this criminally gushing Ponzi and fraud spigot not only are commendable, but also are in the interest of U.S. national security, the safeguarding of which is your highest duty to the American people.

    The photos below are for posterity. We are publishing them even as we wonder if nothing is off limits if it helps an MLM offer convert — and even as we wonder why the MLM trade seems so willing to repeatedly attribute its image problem to only a “few bad apples” while simultaneously calling the industry’s critics “haters.”

    1.

    2.

    3.

    4.

    5.

    6.

    7.

    8.

    9.

    10.

  • PHOTO EDITORIAL: The MPBToday Flap: Affiliates Target Food Stamp Recipients, Ponzi Scheme Victims, People Of Faith, Foreclosure Subjects — And Say Government Backs MLM Cycler Matrix Tied To Florida Grocery Business

    EDITOR’S NOTE: UPDATED 3:12 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Florida-based MPBToday is one of the programs pitched on Ponzi boards such as ASAMonitor, MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold. It also is being pitched via email and on social-media sites such as YouTube. All three of the forums are referenced in court filings — including filings in criminal cases — as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. Pathway to Prosperity, just one of the schemes promoted on the forums, was alleged in May to have defrauded more than 40,000 people across the globe while gathering more than $70 million.

    MPBToday is a multilevel-marketing company tied to a Pensacola grocery company known as Southeastern Delivery LLC. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday that it was conducting a “review” of affiliate claims. Precisely what claims USDA will review is unclear.

    Some affiliates are encouraging recipients of Food Stamps to join the program, which claims a $200, one-time expense can led to free groceries for life. Other affiliates have targeted victims of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in sales pitches. Still others are using religion to sell the program. The program uses the word “foreclosure” in its sales pitch. Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. More than 9,000 people showed up at the Palm Beach County Convention Center late last month to seek foreclosure relief.

    One potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp recipients somehow can use their allotment to qualify for MPB Today’s MLM program. Another potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp money somehow is being used to pay MLM commissions. Because MPB Today says Southeastern Delivery assesses a shipping charge of up to 50 percent for the home delivery of groceries — and because affiliates purport that food “vouchers” and food “credits” can be acquired, perhaps in the form of a Walmart gift card MPB Today sends in the mail — another potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp money somehow can be converted to pay for items such as electronics and prepaid Visa cards. One MPB Today affiliate said the firm’s high shipping costs were a reason for Southeastern Delivery’s Food Stamp customers to join the MLM program.

    Claims have been made that the MLM program is “certified” by the government, “acknowledged” by the government and that Walmart is affiliated with MPB Today. Walmart has not responded to a request for comment from the PP Blog.

    Here are some photos of promotions for MPB Today from around the web. (Red highlighting added by PP Blog):

    In this YouTube video and text pitch, a claim punctuated with exclamation marks is made that the program is "Govt. certified with Food Stamps!" and that there is a "contract with wal mart!" The word "scam" appears multiple times in the pitch — in an apparent bid to drive traffic to the site from prospects seeking to determine if there is any scam-related information on MPB Today.
    MPB Today positioned on YouTube as a good opportunity for people of faith. The words "Christian" and "scam" are used to drive traffic to the site.
    In a money-waving Blog post, an MPB Today affiliate with a California address shows a check for $300 and a Walmart card.
    In this video for MPB Today on DailyMotion, visitors are encouraged to visit a .org affiliate site for the company, even though MPB Today is not a charity. The video claims members can purchase "electronics," even though MPB Today says it is in the grocery business and affiliates are targeting Food Stamp recipients in sales pitches.
    MPB Today affiliates display check and Walmart card on YouTube after videotaping check-opening ceremony. The program is described as a "NO BRAINER."
    This document on file in Florida shows that Southeastern Delivery LLC, the grocery arm of the MPB Today MLM program, once was known as William Lindsay Properties LLC. The name change occurred in January 2010. Gary Calhoun, the operator of MPB Today, is associated with both firms, according to records.
    On Aug. 25, the PP Blog received an unsolicited sales pitch for MPB Today via an email to the Blog's support address. Among the claims in the pitch, which did not include an unsubscribe link, was that "Walmart is thrilled" with the results of MPB Today. The pitch was targeted at members of AdSurfDaily, a company the PP Blog regularly covers because ASD is implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving tens of millions of dollars. A similar pitch was sent to another website that covers AdSurfDaily-related news.
    The names of Walmart and Sam's Club referenced by "Ken Russo" at the ASAMonitor forum, which is notorious for promoting Ponzi schemes.
    In this video, a check and Walmart card are displayed. Unlike other checks written in Southeastern Delivery's name, this check was written in the name of MPB Today Inc. The video, which captured a check-opening ceremony, shows a Walmart "In Store Credit" card
    In this video, an MPB Today affiliate gives a sales pitch while driving an automobile. A check and Walmart card were presented when the vehicle stopped at a highway intersection.The pitch claims a "ONE-TIME" expenditure of $200 can "TOTALLY ELIMINATE" grocery bills.

  • Forex Ponzi Schemers Who Targeted Deaf Investors Hit With $6.2 Million In Sanctions; ‘Billion Coupons’ Case Drew Comparisons To Defunct Noobing Autosurf

    A Hawaii man and his company were hit with sanctions totaling $6.2 million in a case that alleged they targeted people with hearing impairments in a Forex Ponzi scheme.

    Both the SEC and the CFTC filed actions against Marvin Cooper and his Honolulu-based firm, Billion Coupons Inc. (BCI). The CFTC announced the judgment against Cooper and the company.

    Investigators said Cooper and BCI “solicited funds from deaf American and Japanese individuals for the sole purported purpose of trading forex,” luring them with payout promises of up to 25 percent per month.

    For his part, Cooper took “more than $1.4 million of customer funds for personal use, including for flying lessons and to purchase a $1 million home,” investigators said.

    He was ordered to pay $3.9 million in restitution to customers and more than $2.3 million in penalties. The company is liable for the same amounts.

    The “Billion Coupons” case drew comparisons to the now-defunct Noobing autosurf, which also targeted the deaf. Noobing became popular in the aftermath of the August 2008 federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case.

    Despite the federal seizure, some ASD members promoted Noobing. Noobing effectively went bust in July 2009, when the FTC charged its parent company — Affiliate Strategies Inc. — with pushing a scheme that promised “guaranteed” government grants of $25,000 from economic stimulus funds.

    Noobing later was named a receivership defendant in the case. Receiver Larry Cook sold the company’s assets lock, stock and barrel — right down to a lavatory wastebasket. Like ASD, Noobing’s parent firm also owned a jet ski. Cook sold that, too.

    Despite dramatic asset seizures and the federal actions against ASD and Noobing’s parent — and despite previous actions against autosurfs, including 12DailyPro, PhoenixSurf and CEP — some ASD members have continued to promote autosurfs.

    This has occurred against the backdrop of a racketeering lawsuit against ASD President Andy Bowdoin and public filings in which prosecutors claimed Bowdoin had signed a “proffer” letter in the case and met with members of law enforcement over a period of four days in December 2008 and January 2009.

    It also is known that Interpol is seeking the arrest of Robert Hodgins, whose Dallas-based debit-card company, Virtual Money Inc., is alleged to have agreed to launder drug money in the Dominican Republic and assist a Colombian drug operation launder money at ATMs in Medellin.

    ASD members said Hodgins’ company supplied debit cards to AdSurfDaily, and web records suggest that Hodgins or a Virtual Money designate attended an ASD function in the Orlando area in late 2006.

    Even though Bowdoin acknowledged in court filings that he had given information against his interests to the government, some ASD members continue to promote autosurfs and HYIPs. After signing the proffer letter and surrendering his claims to more than $65.8 million seized from his personal bank accounts, Bowdoin later reentered the case as his own attorney.

    One of Bowdoin’s 10 personal bank accounts contained more than $31 million, according to court filings. Another contained more than $23 million. Three other bank accounts contained the exact same amount — a little over $1 million.

    After submitting to the forfeiture in January 2009, Bowdoin fired his attorneys without notice and attempted to reenter the case weeks later as his own attorney. This set in motion a series of bizarre pleadings from Bowdoin, including one in which he claimed he had not been provided “fair notice” of his illegal conduct by the government. ASD members by the dozens then filed their own bizarre, pro se pleadings. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled against each of the filers, saying they had no standing in the case.

    Collyer since has ruled against Bowdoin, awarding title to more than $80 million seized in the case to the government, which said it intends to implement a restitution program. Bowdoin is appealing Collyer’s forfeiture decisions.

    Court filings show that Bowdoin told Collyer the seized money belonged to him. In September 2009, the U.S. Secret Service presented Collyer a transcript of a conference-call recording in which Bowdoin told members the money belonged to them. Although Bowdoin insisted he had big plans for ASD, records show that he let the firm’s registration lapse in the state of Florida — even as he was telling members they should be excited about the company’s future.

    In the recording, Bowdoin claimed his fight against the government was inspired by the compelling personal story of a former Miss America.

  • DEVELOPING STORY: MPB Today Affiliate Says Firm’s High Shipping Costs For Groceries Good Reason For Federal Food Stamp Recipients To Join 2×2 Cycler Matrix; Also Claims Walmart Gift Cards Convertible To Cash; No Immediate Comment From USDA, Walmart

    UPDATED 4 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Former members of AdSurfDaily who lost money in an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme are not the only prospects being targeted by affiliates of MPB Today. Recipients of federal benefits administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also are being targeted.

    If you receive federal assistance for food — and if you’re turned off by the shipping costs charged by an online grocery store that is part of a 2×2 cycler matrix operated by a MPB Today, a Florida-based, multilevel-marketing (MLM) program — you should use the high shipping costs as a reason to join the MLM program, according to an MPB Today affiliate.

    And if you are a Food Stamp recipient who needs one more reason to join MPB Today, you should consider that, if you cycle and earn a Walmart gift card from MPB Today, you can use the “gift cards to purchase Walmart Visa Cards, which can be used the same as cash,” according to the affiliate.

    Shopping online for groceries once was a “privilege” reserved “for those in higher income brackets, with more money than time,” according to a Blog titled “Helping Dreams Come True For You!”

    “Granted, shipping charges are usually around 40% of the total grocery bill, but if that seems like too much to pay, you can utilize the marketing plan of the company,” a Blog post aimed at Food Stamp recipients suggests. “And refer your friends to sign up as well.”

    For its part, MPB Today says on its website that shipping costs “can average from 25 – 50%.”

    Under the MPB Today affiliate’s plan, a Food Stamp recipient with a $200 order would be spending up to $300 to gain the same purchasing power offered by a local, walk-in grocery retailer — assuming the local retailer’s prices were the same as MPB Today’s.

    If the local retailer’s prices were lower, the Food Stamp recipient would lose even more purchasing power.

    On average, only about 14 percent of participants “earn” money in 2×2 cycler programs. One such program operating in the Seattle area came under investigation last year by the U.S. Secret Service.

    Walmart did not respond immediately to a request for comment from the PP Blog.

    The Food Stamp program, known as SNAP, is administered by USDA and managed by the U.S. states and territories.

    USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the PP Blog. It was not immediately clear if the agency knows about the MPB Today program and the manner in which it is being marketed to Food Stamp recipients.

    The MPB Today affiliate’s pitch provided no guidance on whether Walmart gift cards could be viewed as reportable income for tax purposes and Food Stamp eligibility purposes. The pitch also did not disclose that the affiliate was in position to earn money if Food Stamp recipients joined MPB Today through the affiliate link on the Blog.

    A promo on MPB Today’s website encourages visitors to “Eat Well Today!” The site shows photos of delicious food, while prompting visitors to click on a video. The video is a sales pitch for the MLM program.

    When visitors click on the video prompt, a dire drum beat begins. The word “foreclosure” flashes on the screen twice in the first 15 seconds. Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States.

    Here is how the MPB Today affiliate describes the cycler program’s convenience to Food Stamp recipients:

    “Once at the checkout screen, you enter the number on your EBT,SNAP, or food stamp card, and another credit or debit card to pay for the shipping charges. It’s just that easy.”

    This YouTube promo for MPB Today claims Walmart is affiliated with the program and that the program is "Govt. acknowledged."

    Separately, a MPB Today affiliate is using a video on YouTube to promote the MLM company. The video claims that Walmart is “affiliated” with the firm and that the program is “Govt. acknowledged.”

    “This biz will explode,” the video claims. It does not list a source to substantiate the claim that Walmart is “affiliated” with MPB Today and that the government has “acknowledged” the program.

    The video has received nearly 5,800 views.

    See earlier PP Blog column.

  • Son Says AdSurfDaily’s Andy Bowdoin Used Religion To Fleece Masses And Disgraced Family Name; Huckster’s Scheming Dates Back To 1960s, Another Family Member Says; ‘He Has A Criminal Mind’

    Andy Bowdoin

    Growing up a child of Andy Bowdoin and advancing through adolescence and adulthood was hard because of Bowdoin’s habitual scheming, according to Scott Bowdoin, Andy Bowdoin’s son.

    “He uses religion — always,” Scott Bowdoin, 42, said flatly of his 75-year-old father, noting he had not spoken to Andy Bowdoin in about 15 years because the elder Bowdoin had ripped off his own mother, Scott’s late grandmother, in a credit-card scheme.

    The elder Bowdoin left his own mother “with nothing,” Scott Bowdoin asserted. “The electricity was about to get cut off, the water was about to get cut off. He is a man with no conscience.”

    Scott Bowdoin made the remarks about his father in an interview with the PP Blog this morning. The younger Bowdoin said his father had disgraced the family name — and that it was high time the public in general and AdSurfDaily members in particular knew that Andy Bowdoin did not enjoy the uniform support of his family as the ASD Ponzi case winds its way through the courts.

    There was a long-ago scheme involving telephone calling cards, Scott Bowdoin said.

    And there was an “air-conditioning scam” in Florida, he added, saying his father traded on faith.

    “He’d go around and evangelize,” Scott Bowdoin said. “That was a scam. He did something with cell-phone towers. That was a scam.”

    Andy Bowdoin has been married five times, Scott Bowdoin said, adding that Andy Bowdoin’s financial scheming devastated Scott’s grandmother late in her life.

    “He drained my grandmother,” Scott said.

    Separately, an Andy Bowdoin family member who spoke to the PP Blog on the condition of anonymity said Bowdoin “has been doing this since the 1960s.

    “I always knew he was a con man,” the family member said. “I just didn’t know he could do it at this level.”

    The “level,” according to federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service, exceeds $80 million and may approach $100 million when a final accounting is done. Records show that agents seized more than $65.8 million from 10 Andy Bowdoin bank accounts, including one that contained more than $31 million and another that contained more than $23 million.

    In total, about $80 million was officially listed as forfeited in the case. Andy Bowdoin has appealed the forfeitures, which were ordered by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer. An attempt last year by Bowdoin to force Collyer to withdraw as the presiding judge failed.

    Prosecutors claimed in court filings that ASD was a massive international Ponzi scheme masked as an “advertising” business.

    “I was a little surprised because I didn’t know he could pull off a scam that big,” Scott Bowdoin said. “But, by God, he did it.”

    After the elder Bowdoin scammed his own mother in the 1990s, Scott Bowdoin said, “I told him you are dead to me.” Andy Bowdoin later was implicated in a securities swindle in Alabama. Records show he was making restitution to the Alabama victims even as he was operating ASD in 2008.

    “I pity you when you have to face the Lord when you die,” Scott Bowdoin said he told his father after he had fleeced Scott’s grandmother.

    In July 2008, years after the Alabama swindle and while ASD was gathering tens of millions of dollars per month, ASD money was used to purchase a Lincoln automobile for nearly $50,000, according to court records. At the time, Bowdoin still owed the Alabama victims about $45,000.

    Even more ASD money — more than $1 million — went to acquire real estate, a Honda automobile, an Acura automobile, jet skis, a Cabana boat, marine equipment and haul trailers, according to records. A shell company linked to Andy Bowdoin’s company began to make the purchases in June 2008, less than two weeks after an ASD “rally” in Las Vegas.

    While in Las Vegas, Andy Bowdoin urged members to imagine themselves getting large checks from ASD and thanked God for making him a “money magnet,” according to records.

    Scott Bowdoin described his father as a “classic con artist.”

    “He is a very, very, very smart man,” Scott Bowdoin said. “He knows exactly what he is doing. He uses religion — always.”

    And Scott Bowdoin lamented his father’s appeals in the forfeiture case against his assets.

    “I don’t understand why this man is not sitting in prison,” Scott Bowdoin said. “He pulled off the ultimate [con] this time.”

    Scott said his father left when he was 14 and that father and son had been estranged for years.

    Asked what he would do if his father suddenly materialized in the same room with him, Scott said that Andy Bowdoin “won’t come around me.

    “I’d probably punch him in the face,” Scott said.

    Asked if he had any advice for ASD members, Scott said, “Don’t believe a word he says. He’s a great actor. He is a good bullshitter. He could sell a screen door to a submarine captain.”

    Calling his dad a “charmer,” Scott said he was aware that some ASD members continued to cling to hope that his father came as the “Christian” depicted in sales pitches and motivational talks.  After the company was raided in August 2008, Bowdoin asked his followers to trust in God, saying the government action against his autosurfing company was the work of “Satan.”

    “These people who feel sorry for him thinking he is a good Christian — they have blinders on,” Scott Bowdoin said. “He has hurt more people than just [members of] AdSurfDaily. I can guarantee it.”

    Andy Bowdoin wasted his talents chasing schemes, Scott Bowdoin maintained.

    “If he had gone the right way, he could have been a Donald Trump,” Scott contended. “[But] he wanted to start at the top, not at the bottom.”

    Meanwhile, the other Bowdoin family member interviewed by the PP Blog said that he believed Andy was “a sociopath.”

    “I know that whatever he puts his efforts in to is [designed to] con people out of as much money as he can,” the other family member said. “Andy is a sociopath. There aren’t many sociopaths, but he is one.”

    Both family members said they were not participants in ASD and learned about the alleged scheme on the Internet.

    The family member who spoke on the condition of anonymity explained he had done so in an effort to maintain as much privacy as he could as a sea of allegations swirled around Andy Bowdoin.

    “The man is a genius,” he said of Andy Bowdoin, “but he has a criminal mind. Anyone involved with his companies — they’d be sucked into a Ponzi. To me, he is a sociopath; he will drag other people down. People need to be [careful]. A good con has a little bit of truth to it.”

    Andy Bowdoin, said the family member, has lived a “sad” life.

    “It’s sad because he could have used his talent for good,” the family member said. “I don’t hate the man, but I pity him.”

    When he thinks about Andy Bowdoin, the family member said, he thinks about Bowdoin’s father.

    “Andy Bowdoin’s father was a good man,” the family member said.

  • KABOOM! FTC Says ‘Medical Discount’ Hucksters Used Images Of Obama, Words From Congressional Speech To Fleece Customers; Receiver Already Has Seized Website; Feds, 24 States Launch Fraud Crackdown

    The FTC said today that images of President Obama were used to help a bogus "medical discount plan" trick customers into believing they were purchasing health insurance.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Some readers will recall that one of the Secret Service’s allegations in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case is that pitchmen tried to sanitize the scheme by making false claims that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had received an award for business acumen from President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

    Others will recall that Mantria Corp. — implicated in a Ponzi scheme by the SEC — used images of former President Clinton and other world figures to sanitize a “green” energy scheme.

    Now comes word that the FTC has brought a fraud case against a company amid allegations it used images of President Obama, the White House, the U.S. Capitol and lawmakers to sanitize a bogus “medical discount plan”  marketed as health insurance.

    Here, now, the story . . .

    A company that used images of President Obama and the White House — along with logos that resembled the logos of government agencies — has been charged by the Federal Trade Commission with marketing a bogus “medical discount plan” as healthcare insurance.

    At least two other firms and their operators and associates have been charged separately with running discount scams, and a nationwide crackdown involving at least 24 states is under way. The FTC has dubbed the sweep “Operation Health Care Hustle.”

    “With so many Americans struggling to deal with the costs of health care, these medical discount benefit plans sound appealing because they masquerade as health insurance,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But they are not insurance. They don’t offer the benefits of health insurance, and victims don’t know they’ve been ripped off until after they’ve tried to use the service and paid their bill.”

    The fraud case against Health Care One LLC and associated firms illustrates the dangers not only of promoting scams, but also of of trying to recruit customers into them by implying a product or service is endorsed by the President, members of Congress or the government in general.

    Indeed, Health Care One’s website already has been seized by a court-appointed receiver — and content that once appeared on the site and affiliated sites has vanished. In a remarkable news presentation today, the FTC released a video pitch used by the company.

    Healthcare One LLC used images of the White House while scamming customers, the FTC said.

    The pitch features video of Obama addressing Congress about healthcare issues on Sept. 9, 2009. Heathcare One makes Obama the star of the video, showcasing remarks in which the President stated, “No one should go broke because they get sick.” Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are in the background of the video.

    The video then cuts away to a passage in which Obama said, “That is heartbreaking. It is wrong, and no one should be treated that way in the United States of America.”

    The video then quickly cuts away again to an image of the U.S. Capitol. Official-looking logos appear on the screen, along with the words “REGISTRATION NOW OPEN[:] NATIONAL HEALTHCARE DISCOUNT PROGRAM[:] FOR ALL UNINSURED AMERICANS.”

    A narrator simultaneously declares that “registration is now open for a national healthcare discount program.” The narrator — as an image of the White House replaces an image of the Capitol — goes on to say that “Citizens4Healthcare is now authorized to offer you savings of 20 to 60 percent on doctors, hospitals, prescription drugs and more.”

    As the video proceeds, the narrator declares that “there are daily registration limits for this program, so call now for immediate acceptance . . .”

    Healthcare One was specifically charged with claiming it sold health insurance when it did not — and of misleading the public into thinking it was affiliated with the federal government.

    “Defendants’ advertisements lead consumers to reasonably believe that Health Care One’s program is affiliated with, or endorsed or sponsored by, the federal government,” the FTC said.

    “It is not,” the agency said flatly in court filings, accusing the company of selling a scam.

    Read more about “Operation Health Care Hustle.” (Look in the upper-right corner of the screen when you land on the FTC page. You”ll find links to other cases announced today — and also a link to the video cited above.)

  • AdViewGlobal Website Offline; ‘Surfing’ Site With Close ASD Ties Suspended Cashouts A Year Ago

    The website of AdViewGlobal (AVG), an autosurf with close ties to the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, has gone offline.

    Why AVG’s site was offline was not immediately clear. One person told the PP Blog that the site had been “down for days.” AVG’s domain, which lists a registration address in Uruguay and appears to use a dedicated server that resolves to Panama, would not return a ping this morning.

    Aug. 1 was the two-year anniversary of the seizure by the U.S. Secret Service of tens of millions of dollars in the ASD case. AVG, fueled by the participation of ASD members, launched in the aftermath of the ASD seizure and the filing of a racketeering lawsuit against ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Promotions for AVG began to appear online less than a month after ASD lost a key court battle in November 2008. In January 2009, AVG graphics were seen on an ASD-controlled website, but AVG denied any ties to ASD. By February 2009, AVG was up an running, and some of the moderators of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum started a forum to promote AVG.

    AVG, whose site remained online after the company suspended payouts in June 2009 and announced it was conducting an audit of itself, perhaps is one of the oddest autosurfs of all time.

    Although AVG denied any ASD ties, the person issuing the denial on behalf of AVG was a former ASD employee. Even while issuing the denial, the former ASD employee confirmed that Gary Talbert, a former ASD executive, was the chief executive officer of AVG.

    AVG later went on to form a purported “private association” purportedly based in Uruguay. The surf bizarrely claimed U.S. Constitutional protections despite the competing claim it operated on foreign soil.

    By June 25, 2009, AVG had collapsed — after running a virtually never-ending series of promotions that offered 200 percent bonuses to both existing members and the prospects they recruited. One promoter claimed that $5,000 placed with AVG turned into $15,000 “instantly!”

    The surf later said it was the victim of a $2.7 million theft.

    AVG went offline for a brief period in September 2009 after its domain-name registration expired. Records show that the domain name is valid until Sept. 22, 2010 — more than a month from today’s date.

    Read this story for the names of other autosurfs/HYIPs promoted by ASD members.

    Read this story on AVG threats directed at members and the media after its collapse.

    Read this story on a method an AVG member said would help other members qualify for bonuses. (Make sure you read the comments from readers below the story.)

  • MAXIMUM KABOOM? Woman Found Guilty On 122,000 Counts In Pyramid Case; Tells Psychologist She Could Have Saved Firm Had Government Not Interfered

    Is it the maximum case of Kaboom! — coupled with the maximum case of denial?

    The government of South Africa hit Maritjie Prinsloo with a whopping 122,000 counts of fraud, racketeering and money-laundering in a pyramid-scheme case that involved an estimated $205 million. (R1.5 billion.)

    Prinsloo was found guilty last month. South African media now are reporting that she is blaming the government and an accounting firm for interfering in her business affairs while at once insisting she could have turned things around.

    It was not immediately clear if the filing of 122,000 counts established a record. Prinsloo has been referred to in local reports as the “Pyramid Scheme Queen” and the “Krion swindler.” Members of her family also have been implicated in the scheme.

    It is not unusual for Ponzi and pyramid schemers to blame the government for their legal predicaments and to claim the government made matters worse by taking action to stop a scheme before it could consume even greater sums of money. Online Ponzi forums, for example, are filled with claims that operators can turn things around if given more time, and victims routinely are discouraged, ridiculed and threatened with banishment by operators and their shills for contacting authorities and filing complaints.

    A psychologist told the the Pretoria High Court that Prinsloo believes she did nothing wrong and could have turned around the business had the government not filed charges, according to this account in the Daily Dispatch.

    Prinsloo was charged with more counts than there are seconds in a day (122,000 counts/86,400 seconds in a day). Had she been charged in the United States — and had she not waived the reading of the complaint — the court official tasked with the duty of ticking off the counts would have left voiceless.

    Had the judge ordered one count read per second — and had the employee magically been able to comply with the order — the employee would have consumed 24 straight hours in reading the counts and still been left 35,600 counts short of finishing the job. The job then would have carried over to consume almost 10 straight hours of a second day, at one count per second.

    During the first 24 hours of the reading of the complaint at the impossible rate of one count per second, the world’s population would have increased by about 220,000, according to estimates.

    In the often bizarre and incongruous world of Ponzi and pyramid schemes, the fact that the world’s birth rate exceeds its death rate has been seized upon by some advocates as purported “proof” that it is impossible to operate such schemes and the government therefore cannot “prove” that a Ponzi or pyramid scheme exists.

    Such claims were made by at least one member of AdSurfDaily, which the U.S. Secret Service described as a Ponzi scheme. Some members of ASD defended the firm by claiming that no Ponzi existed and that the government was interfering with commerce.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin, meanwhile, told members that the government had seized their money. In court filings, however, he told the presiding federal judge that the money belonged to him.

    Prosecutors called Bowdoin “delusional.”

  • BULLETIN: Another ‘False Liens’ Case Alleged; Feds Charge Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao With Targeting Federal Judges, SEC, IRS, Secret Service And Prosecutors In Paperwork Scheme

    BULLETIN: Yet-another bizarre paperwork attack on U.S. law enforcement has occurred.

    A California man has been charged with filing “false liens” in Nevada against federal officials and employees of the SEC, the Secret Service, the IRS, four federal judges and staff members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, federal prosecutors said.

    Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao was indicted by a federal grand jury in Las Vegas on charges of filing 22 false liens ranging from $25 million to $300 million against the officials, prosecutors said.

    He also sought $20 billion in fraudulent tax refunds, prosecutors charged.

    Cao resides in Orange County, Calif. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 223 years in prison and a fine of up to $5.75 million.

    “Cao corruptly obstructed the administration of the federal tax laws, by, among other things, filing retaliatory false liens against IRS employees, filing and attempting to file with the IRS false Forms 1099-OID (Original Issue Discount) that claimed fictitious income tax withholdings, filing and attempting to file false tax returns that claim fraudulent refunds totaling approximately $20 billion, and preparing at least five false tax returns for third parties that claimed fraudulent income tax refunds totaling in excess of $1.1 million based upon fictitious income tax withholdings,” prosecutors said.

    In June, Ronald James Davenport of Deer Park, Wash., was charged with filing false liens against federal officials in Washington state.

    Davenport sought the spectacular sum of nearly $5.2 billion from each of the officials, including U.S. Attorney James McDevitt of the Eastern District of Washington, an assistant U.S. attorney, a court clerk and an IRS agent, according to court records.

    Prosecutors described Davenport as a “tax defier.” Davenport has described himself in court filings as a “sovereign.”

    Some members of the alleged AdSurfDaily autosurf Ponzi scheme and other HYIP schemes have been linked to tax-deniers and the so-called “sovereign” movement.

    See earlier story that references the Davenport action. (The story also provides some background on court filings and other actions by ASD members.)

    In a civil case that preceded the criminal indictment against Davenport, Senior U.S. District Judge Justin L. Quackenbush ruled in May that the liens “were filed to retaliate against the officers for their good-faith efforts to enforce the tax laws against Mr. Davenport.”

    Quackenbush struck the liens, which were filed in the form of UCC Financing Statements with the Washington State Department of Licensing, according to records. The liens not only were fraudulent, but also contained “sensitive personal information” that violated privacy laws, the judge ruled.

    Davenport also filed instruments dubbed “Notice[s] of Claim of Maritime Lien” with the Spokane County Auditor’s Office, according to records. Those, too, were struck.

    The act of filing false liens or sending “demand” letters to officials or litigation opponents in a bid to hamstring civil and criminal prosecutions has been referred to as “paper terrorism” and “mailbox arbitration.”

  • SCAMMER’S GAMBLE BACKFIRES: Fraudster Who Chilled Customer With Lawsuit Threat Pleads Guilty To Mail Fraud; Philip Pestrichello Faces Up To 20 Years In Prison After Plea In ‘Work-At-Home’ Caper

    Source: FBI.Â

    UPDATED 4:51 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A convicted felon who emerged from prison and almost immediately launched a $1 million fraud scheme known as PPSN threatened to prosecute and sue a consumer who had filed an online complaint, federal prosecutors said.

    Although the threat caused the consumer to withdraw the complaint against Philip Pestrichello, Pestrichello’s bid to rattle the consumer’s nerves ultimately backfired because he included a “fake lawsuit number” in a letter to the consumer. Prosecutors used the letter and Pestrichello’s checkered past to persuade a federal judge to deny him bail. He has been jailed since his February arrest, and now faces up to 20 years behind bars after entering a guilty plea in the case.

    In the threatening letter, Pestrichello advised the complainant that “we will proceed by filing a lawsuit against you in The State of New York and you will be subject to prosecution, fines and penalties including monetary damages,” prosecutors said.

    Pestrichello also threatened “victim-consumers who lodged on-line complaints warning others that PPSN was a scam,” prosecutors said.

    The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service worked together in the Pestrichello case, which was brought in February as one of the undertakings of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

    Pestrichello was running a scam enterprise known variously as “Preferred Platinum Services Network LLC” ; “PPSN LLC”; “Home Based Associate Program”;  and the “Postcard Processing Program,” prosecutors said. They added that he had been running scams since the early 1990s and had been sentenced to three years in prison in 2003 after being convicted of mail fraud in a work-at-home scheme known as “IMXT & Co.”

    His most recent scam began in 2007 while Pestrichello was on federal probation after serving his time for the 2003 mail-fraud conviction, prosecutors said.

    “For nearly 20 years, Philip Pestrichello has preyed on the especially vulnerable — the economically disadvantaged, the unemployed, the disabled, or elderly individuals — who are trying to supplement their income by working from home,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “Pestrichello even began committing his work-at-home scam within one year from his release from prison for a prior scam. If Pestrichello thought he was unstoppable, he was wrong.”

    Pestrichello, 38, of Bayville, N.J., now has pleaded guilty to mail fraud in the PPSN case. He faces up to 20 years in prison when sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood on Oct. 26. A fraud case against Pestrichello’s wife, Rosalie Florie, is pending, prosecutors said.

    It is common for fraudsters to threaten to sue customers, critics and journalists. Such threats were present in the $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme case of disgraced Florida attorney Scott Rothstein, who eventually was disbarred. He repeatedly threatened to sue a reporter who questioned his business practices in the weeks leading up the the exposure of the scheme.

    Threats against customers and journalists also were part of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case. ASD President Andy Bowdoin, according to August 2008 court filings, told customers that he had set aside $750,000 to sue critics.

    “These people that are making these slanderous remarks, they are going to continue these slanderous remarks in a court of law defending about a 30 to 40 million dollar slander lawsuit,” Bowdoin said, according to federal prosecutors. “Now, we’re ready to do battle with anybody. We have a legal fund set up. Right now we have about $750,000 in that legal fund. So we’re ready to get everything started and get the ball rolling.”

    Less than a month after Bowdoin allegedly issued the threat in July 2008, the U.S. Secret Service raided ASD’s Florida headquarters. Prosecutors said the company was operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme and engaging in wire fraud and money-laundering.

    Even after the raid, some ASD members continued to threaten Bowdoin’s detractors. One ASD member suggested Bowdoin’s critics would be dragged off in handcuffs for speaking out against the autosurf firm, publishing his version of lyrics from the television program “COPS” to put a chill on the purported slanderers.

    “Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?” he chanted on the now-defunct AdSurfZone forum, a predecessor site to the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum. “Whatcha Gonna Do>WHEN<THEY COME FOR YOU ?!!!”

    In June 2009, while the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf was failing, members were threatened with lawsuits for sharing information that purportedly was “copyrighted.” Members also were told that they risked losing their Internet service for questioning the firm in public. Journalists who published information about AVG were threatened with lawsuits.

    When the Pathway To Prosperity HYIP scheme was collapsing in 2008, members were threatened with “expulsion,” according to court filings.

    “When complaints were made externally to service providers or supposed payment agents,
    scathing rebukes were made to the ‘members,’” according to court filings.

    In February 2010, Hospitalera.com Blogger Sybille Yates announced she had been threatened with a lawsuit for calling the INetGlobal autosurf a “scam” in September 2009.

    On Feb. 23, the U.S. Secret Service raided INetGlobal’s Minneapolis offices. An affidavit by the U.S. Secret Service described the company as operating an international Ponzi scheme. A federal probe into INetGlobal’s business practices is ongoing.