UPDATED 9:47 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AdViewGlobal has disabled its forum. The move followed on the heels of complaints from members that the surf company was confusing them when trying to explain its new pay-out program. The payout program was introduced with great fanfare today, and included a prediction that AVG would become a Fortune 500 company.
The surf blamed the decision to disable the forum on members, saying confused members were posting information that confused other members. AVG has a history of blaming problems on members, saying in March that its bank account had been suspended because too many members wired transactions in excess of $9,500.
The forum suspension announcement was signed “George and Judi Harris,” and identified them as the “Owners.” A separate AVG forum operated by Mods and members of the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum went dark a few days ago. AVG said it would inform members through “breaking news,” apparently in their back offices.
Here, our earlier post . . .
AdViewGlobal (AVG), which purports to be a professional advertising and communications company based in Uruguay, has withdrawn an announcement of its new pay-out plan, members said.
AVG members reported confusion over the initial plan, which suggested members could earn back their entire advertising spend and a profit of 25 percent during an unspecified time period.
Some members questioned whether they would have to view advertisements for eternity to record a profit. Others said they expected profitability to return quickly after AVG emerged from a dark period in which it announced the suspensions of cash-outs for at least 30 days and the implementation of a mandatory 80/20 program.
Many members joined AVG expecting to earn back their initial spend, plus full profit, in 150 days. AVG later moved the redemption date to 180 days, and then 210 days, according to its website. The date for full redemptions now appears to be up in the air, members said.
Some members raised concerns that they would not receive credit for matching bonuses AVG advertised.
For weeks, AVG advertised bonuses of 200 percent, for both prospects and sponsors. To celebrate the launch of a new website last month, AVG advertised a 250 percent match for prospects.
The initial payment plan AVG announced appeared to reflect only cash purchases and did not seem to address matching bonuses, members said. In March, one AVG promoter told prospects that $5,000 turned into $15,000 “instantly.”
Some AVG members complained about smug responses from AVG after they made simple inquiries about the payment plan and matching bonuses.
Members said AVG appeared to have an unfathomable number of page impressions on its books, owing to the 200-percent promotions and the presence of a member-to-member cash button than enabled participants to “stack” earnings within individual downline groups.
Some AVG members held more than 1 million page impressions, members said.
In other news, AVG members said the company announced that its program was “100% Legal.” The announcement came on the heels of a court filing yesterday in a RICO case that mentioned AVG’s name as a new iteration of AdSurfDaily and other autosurf programs.
ASD and AVG have close ties. Tens of millions of dollars were seized from ASD last year as part of a wire-fraud, money-laundering, securities and Ponzi scheme investigation.