PatrickPretty.com

Tag: Club Asteria

  • UPDATE: HYIP Known As ‘Insectrio’ Has Collapsed; Website Of LibertyReserve- And PerfectMoney-Enabled Scheme Pushed On Ponzi Boards Goes Missing; Both Payment-Processing Firms Referenced In SEC’s Complaint Against Imperia Invest IBC

    The 'Insectrio' HYIP used the logos of the MoneyMakerGroup, TalkGold and DreamTeamMoney Ponzi forums in its sales pitch.

    UPDATE: (UPDATED 11:53 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) RealScam.com is reporting that the website of a bizarre HYIP known as “Insectrio” will not resolve.

    As the PP Blog reported on May 27, Insectrio was emerging as a darling on the Ponzi boards. The purported “opportunity” even used a graphic showing the logos of TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and DreamTeamMoney in its vomitous sales pitch.

    Insectrio advertised an “Egg” plan purported to pay 103 percent after one day, a “Larva” plan purported to pay 120 percent after five days and other plans advertised to pay even more. It was enabled by the offshore processors LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney, both of which are listed in the SEC’s October 2010 complaint against Imperia Invest IBC as processors that allegedly gathered money for Imperia.

    Imperia was accused to stealing millions of dollars from deaf people. Its “program” also was promoted on the Ponzi boards.

    Efforts to popularize Insectrio on the Ponzi boards were beginning at roughly the same time the popularity of Club Asteria was waning on the fraud cesspits. Club Asteria targeted its offer to the world’s poor. It reportedly suspended payouts weeks ago, although some members of the Ponzi boards say they continue to get paid through AlertPay, a Canadian processor.

    Visit RealScam.com.

  • AlertPay Says It Was Targeted In DDoS Attack Last Week; Unclear Who Launched Assault; Site Processed Payments For Club Asteria And Other Collapsed HYIP And Money-Cycler ‘Programs’ Promoted On Ponzi Boards

    UPDATED 9:45 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AlertPay, a Canadian payment processor referenced frequently on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, announced on its Blog that it was subjected to a “large” DDoS attack last week that affected customers’ ability to access the site.

    In a Blog post dated Wednesday, the company said the DDoS attack began on Aug. 16.

    “We have measures in place to mitigate such attacks but when the intensity of the attack traffic peaks, said measures can occasionally drop legitimate traffic to the site,” AlertPay said. The firm’s website appears to be loading quickly today.

    No customer information was compromised in the attack, AlertPay said. The firm did not say whether it had identified a suspect in the attack or whether the attackers had provided a reason for targeting the firm.

    “Solving an issue like this unfortunately takes a bit of time to tweak appropriately so please bear with us while we attempt to adjust our filters and improve the situation,” the company said.

    AlertPay processes payments for Club Asteria, according to Club Asteria members who complained when Club Asteria reported earlier this year that it had suspended member cashouts after acknowledging its PayPal account had been frozen. Some Club Asteria members reported on the TalkGold Ponzi board that they continued to be paid through AlertPay after the PayPal freeze and despite the payout suspension Club Asteria had announced.

    Club Asteria traded on the name of the World Bank, targeting a purported Club Asteria “revenue sharing” offer to the world’s poor.

    Promotions for Club Asteria claimed the Virginia-based firm had recruited more than 300,000 members, was gaining thousands of new members each week and was on target to register 1 million members by the end of 2011.  Some Club Asteria members simultaneously were promoting a purported “opportunity” known as Centurion Wealth Circle.

    In short order, Centurion’s website then disappeared amid reports of a Ponzi collapse, but later reappeared. Reports soon surfaced that Centurion intended to implement a feeder cycler known as “The Tornado” to prop up its original, collapsed cycler. Members claimed AlertPay processed payments for both Centurion and “The Tornado.”

    Early reports on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum about the effectiveness of “The Tornado” in reversing the financial course of Centurion are confusing. Accompanying those reports are confusing reports that a second version of “The Tornado” is coming soon and that Centurion will contact “free” members to make sure they have a chance to pay Centurion for a membership “upgrade” that will permit them to get in on the action.

    Prior to its reappearance after an absence of days, Centurion’s DNS information suggested that the firm’s website had been disabled for spamming.

    Centurion, according to the MoneyMakerGroup post, now says its first implementation of “The Tornado” resulted in “13 HUNDRED POSITIONS earning many members good commissions & bonuses all round.”

    The firm, according to the MoneyMakerGroup post, did not say how much money it gathered in the first use of “The Tornado.”

    But a second implementation of “The Tornado” will be tweaked to make it even more “exciting” than the recently completed first, according to the MoneyMakerGroup post, which was dated today.

    “The next Tornado will run for 24 hours only,” Centurion was quoted in the MoneyMakerGroup post as saying. “It will consist of just one phase at 200%. The most exciting part is [. . .] we will run a a (sic) two way cycler that wont (sic) cross over each other. What this means is when the left-to-right cycler meets the right-to-left cycler they will both start again!!

    “This spreads the profits more evenly and ensures more positions profit – especially the later entries!” Centurion was quoted as saying. “All entries in the Tornado are worth 2 Product Tokens and these will be added to members main account! A Brand NEW Wealth Creation System is coming – Premium Members Only!”

    Earlier this year, AlertPay processed payments for Exotic FX, another program widely promoted on the Ponzi boards. Some Club Asteria members also promoted Exotic, which billed itself a “PRIVATE ASSET HAVEN.”

    Exotic appears to have collapsed in the spring, roughly at the same time Club Asteria was collapsing. The dollar value of Exotic member losses is unclear, and the firm’s website no longer loads. There were reports that AlertPay had blocked Exotic’s access to funds prior to the collapse. Exotic’s domain now resolves to a page that beams ads.

    AlertPay also processed payments for Pathway to Prosperity, which the U.S. Postal Inspection Service described last year as a collapsed $70 million Ponzi scheme that had spread to 120 countries over the Internet and created 40,000 victims.

    Separately, AlertPay’s name is referenced in U.S. Secret Service allegations against AdSurfDaily, an autosurf  company accused of propping itself up by creating at least three other feeder Ponzi schemes after its original Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2007. The ASD scheme allegedly gathered at least $110 million though a series of payment processors. The firm also used Bank of America to collect payments, according to filings by federal prosecutors and a private racketeering lawsuit brought against ASD President Andy Bowdoin by three ASD members in January 2009.

    Hank Needham, a Club Asteria principal, also was an ASD pitchman, according to web records. Club Asteria launched in the aftermath of the Secret Service seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin in 2008.

    Like Club Asteria, Centurion Wealth Circle, “The Tornado,” Exotic FX and Pathway To Prosperity, ASD also was promoted on the Ponzi boards.

    It is common on the Ponzi boards for members to promote two or more fraud schemes simultaneously. One Club Asteria member who also promoted Centurion has claimed he participates in 35 forums.

  • BULLETIN: ASDCashGenerator Website Now Returns A Server Error; PP Blog Observed Error After Clicking On Link In 2008 ASD Promo That Featured Photo Of Current Club Asteria Pitchman Hank Needham

    This 2008 ad for AdSurfDaily features an image of Hank Needham and continues to appear online. Last month, an old ASD Cash Generator affiliate link within the ad began to resolve to a page for an opportunity known as Ad Sales Daily International. Today, however, the link is resolving to a page that returns a server error. The reason why was not immediately clear. In a video released last month, Needham identified himself as a principal of Club Asteria. The video was released after Club Asteria, which trades on the name of the World Bank, acknowledged that its PayPal account had been frozen and claimed that it had suspended payouts to members. Club Asteria blamed the developments on members. But some Club Asteria members, including "Ken Russo," have claimed that they continue to be paid by Club Asteria through AlertPay, a Canadian payment processor. "Ken Russo" posts as "DRdave" on the TalkGold Ponzi forum. Talk Gold, which is known for helping HYIPs and other "programs" that promise or suggest preposterous weekly or even daily payouts to members achieve virality on the Internet, moved ClubAsteria to its scam folder last week. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said in July 2010 that "HYIPs are old-fashioned Ponzi schemes dressed up for a Web 2.0 world." Some "programs" have tried to distance themselves from the term "HYIP" by declaring themselves "revenue-sharing" programs or using other language tweaks in their offers. Some Club Asteria members have claimed that the firm's program paid out up to 520 percent a year — while preemptively denying Club Asteria was an HYIP or Ponzi scheme and describing it as a revenue-sharing program. Other members described Club Asteria as a "passive" program that provided a weekly return on investment and an income of more than $20,000 a year if members paid only $19.95 a month.

    BULLETIN: (UPDATED 10:16 A.M. EDT (AUG. 22, U.S.A.) As the PP Blog first reported on July 12, the ASDCashGenerator.com domain once controlled by accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin had returned online and was promoting a mysterious opportunity known as “Ad Sales Daily International.”

    But the ASDCashGenerator website now is throwing a server error and returning this message: “The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request. The script had an error or it did not produce any output . . .”

    In July, the PP Blog observed that the ASDCashGenerator domain had become operational again after clicking on a link from a 2008 ASD affiliate promotion that featured a photograph of Hank Needham. After his days in 2008 as an ASD pitchman and lead generator, Needham emerged as a principal in Club Asteria.

    Club Asteria, which trades on the name of the World Bank and targets its offer to the world’s poor, announced weeks ago that its PayPal account had been frozen and that it had suspended payouts to members amid a serious cash crunch. The firm blamed the developments on members.

    Claims about Club Asteria are under investigation by Italian regulators.

    Some Club Asteria promoters claimed Club Asteria was a “passive” investment program that paid a return of up to 10 percent a week. The news section of the firm’s website has not been updated since July 21. The last Club Asteria news update occurred nine days after the PP Blog reported that the old ASD Cash Generator URL associated with Needham was sending visitors to the purported Ad Sales Daily International opportunity, which appears to have been an upstart that did not fully launch.

    Precisely when the old ASD Cash Generator domain became operational again is unclear. The domain, however, appears to have directed all old ASD affiliate links to the purported Ad Sales Daily International opportunity, which had its own logo.

    The PP Blog observed the server error on the ASDCashGenerator site today after it again clicked on the old ASDCashGenerator affiliate link in the 2008 ASD promotion that featured Needham’s photograph. On July 12, the same affiliate link returned a pitch page for the mysterious Ad Sales Daily International program.

    Federal prosecutors declined to comment in July on the curious return of the ASDCashGenerator website and the reactivation of the ASDCashGenerator domain name, which previously had been associated with Bowdoin and the alleged ASD Ponzi scheme.  The site had been reregistered in the name of Barbara Cruz.

    Cruz was associated in 2009 with an ASD cheerleading site known as ASD2Day that made confusing claims about the then-Bowdoin controlled ASDCashGenerator site, including a claim that ASD could not be a Ponzi scheme because the script employed by ASD could not be programmed to permit a Ponzi scheme to occur. The ASD2Day site also asserted that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer was on an Aug. 28 [2009] deadline “to determine if the US Attorney General’s case against ASD should move forward.”

    Collyer, who presided over the civil-forfeiture cases involving Bowdoin and ASD Cash Generator and now is presiding over the criminal case against Bowdoin after he was arrested for wire fraud and other crimes in December 2010, was under no such deadline. Although a deadline did exist at the time, it was not one that applied to Collyer.

    Rather, it was a deadline imposed by Collyer on Bowdoin to file pleadings in one of the ASD civil-cases or face the forfeiture of more than $65.8 million seized by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008. After not having heard from Bowdoin for more than two months, Collyer issued the order to Bowdoin in July 2009.  Bowdoin then asked for a series of delays to comply with the order, saying he was in negotiations with federal prosecutors.

    Collyer ultimately gave Bowdoin until Sept. 14, 2009, to comply with the order. Bowdoin ultimately complied, apparently after his negotiations with prosecutors had broken down.

    A supporter of the ASD2Day cheerleading site for ASD claimed on the PP Blog on Oct. 23, 2009, that Cruz was his mother and that “we where (sic) one of the biggest [ASD] leaders earning over $8,000 daily.”

    Little is known about the purported Ad Sales Daily International “opportunity” that, at least for weeks, was accessible through Bowdoin’s old ASDCashGenerator website that had been reregistered in the name of Cruz. The ASD2Day website, which also had a Cruz tie and promoted Ad Sales Daily International, now is displaying a page that beams advertisements.

    The domain registration for ASD2Day appears to have expired Aug. 19. AdSalesDailyInternational appears not to have a domain registered in its own name.

    Today’s strange developments follow on the heels of a bizarre bid by Bowdoin to raise $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense through a series of “blast” emails to the very individuals he is accused of defrauding: ASD members.

    Bowdoin disses Collyer in a fundraising video released July 26 — without mentioning Collyer by name.

    ASD is known to have ties to so-called “sovereign citizens.”

     

  • MIRACLE? TalkGold Ponzi Forum Rejects Club Asteria Payment Claim From Serial Scammer ‘Ken Russo’ (AKA ‘DRdave’); CA Thread Moved To ‘Closed Programs And Scam Warnings’ Folder

    Despite efforts by serial cash-gifting, cycler, HYIP and autosurf pitchman “Ken Russo” to prevent the TalkGold Ponzi forum from moving the 16-month-old Club Asteria thread to the scam folder,  TalkGold did exactly that today.

    “Ken Russo,” known as “DRdave” on TalkGold, posted purported proof that he had been paid through Ponzi-friendly AlertPay on Aug. 5 for his Club Asteria efforts. But the “Ken Russo” post — and another TalkGold post from Club Asteria promoter “martyboy” that also claimed an Aug. 5 payout — apparently weren’t enough to persuade even a Ponzi cesspit such as TalkGold that Club Asteria had any cash-sucking and wealth-draining life left in it.

    Club Asteria, which traded on the name of the World Bank and targeted its offer to the world’s poor, announced weeks ago that it had suspended payouts. The announcement of the payout suspension was accompanied by news that claims about Club Asteria were under investigation by Italian authorities and that Club Asteria’s PayPal account had been frozen.

    Like “Ken Russo,” one of Club Asteria’s principals — Hank Needham — promoted AdSurfDaily. ASD was implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in an alleged $110 million international Ponzi scheme in August 2008. ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in December 2010.

    The TalkGold thread on Club Asteria had been active for eight months at the time of the Bowdoin indictment. It survived at TalkGold for another nine months beyond the Bowdoin indictment, but today was moved to the “Closed Programs And Scam Warnings” folder.

    Club Asteria has been said to be scrambling to save itself, perhaps by providing members a chance to sell MLM products. Club Asteria last updated its news page on July 21, nearly a month ago.

    On or about June 28, weeks prior to its most recent news update, Club Asteria announced that it had experienced a dramatic revenue plunge that had been driven by lies told by its members and bad publicity.

    Two days ago, “Ken Russo” announced on TalkGold that he’d received a Club Asteria payment of $256 on Aug. 5.

    “I request a withdrawal once a month and I always receive a payment,” Ken Russo claimed on the forum. “My last withdrawal request was processed in about 48 hours.”

    But in a span of less than a month — between May 30 and June 27 — “Ken Russo” claimed on TalkGold that he had asked for and received three Club Asteria payments, totaling $2,032.

    Even as “Ken Russo” showcased his purported Club Asteria payouts, other members of various Ponzi forums complained about not getting paid.

    Club Asteria asserted it was not an investment program, even though innumerable web promos positioned it as one that paid a “passive” return of up to 10 percent a week.

    Some Club Asteria members have turned their attentions to Centurion Wealth Circle, an AlertPay-enabled cycler that collapsed and is trying to resurrect itself with something called “The Tornado.”

    Club Asteria enthusiast “strosdegoz,” also known as “manolo,” now is pitching Centurion Wealth Circle and “The Tornado” — on the same Ponzi boards in which he pitched Club Asteria.

    TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup are referenced in federal court filings as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

  • UPDATE: CenturionWealthCircle, ‘Program’ Pushed By Club Asteria Cheerleaders On The Ponzi Boards, May Be Trying To Address Ponzi Collapse By Implementing ‘Feeder’ Ponzi; ASD Tried The Same Thing, Only With ‘Autosurfs,’ Court Filings Say

    CenturionWealthCircle (CWC) appears to be moving from the ridiculous to the absurd, fueled in no small measure by serial, wink-nod scammers on the Ponzi boards. Members of Club Asteria, an “opportunity” that suspended cashouts weeks ago amid reports its PayPal account had been frozen, were among CWC’s early cheerleaders.

    Club Asteria promoters also have been linked to Florida-based autosurf purveyor AdSurfDaily. ASD President Andy Bowdoin was arrested in December on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. He potentially faces decades in prison, if convicted.

    Bowdoin now is seeking to raise $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense, according to a video featuring Bowdoin released last month.

    CWC began to emerge as a Ponzi darling in mid- to late June, after Club Asteria’s problems had become known. By late July, however, CWC’s website appears to have been suspended for spamming — and the site disappeared. The site appears to have switched servers, even as members were complaining about low or absent payouts.

    In an apparent bid to re-plumb a collapsed Ponzi that already had been the subject of spam complaints, CWC now appears ready to suck up more cash by implementing a “feeder” program that at least one Club Asteria cheerleader (manolo) is describing on the TalkGold Ponzi forum as a “Mini cycler” or “The Tornado.”

    Among other things, manolo claims that “more exciting updates are coming on top of the above news.”

    Various incongruities dot various posts about CWC on both TalkGold and the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forums, where some posters have declared in public that CWC is in need of new money to survive.

    CWC has not said whether it is confident that its income stream is not polluted with proceeds from various Ponzi schemes. The nature of the cycler business itself is to recycle money from one group of members to another. One of the allegations against ASD was that it was a classic Ponzi scheme that recycled funds.

    These words (see next paragraph) appear in a February 2009 affidavit originally filed under seal by the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD Ponzi scheme forfeiture case. (NOTE: The document identifies certain ASD promoters and was used to seize their ASD-related funds.)

    “Based on his experience with 12daily Pro, and his review of the SEC’s filings against it, Bowdoin knew that a paid auto-surf program that promised returns of that magnitude and recycled (emphasis added) member funds was a business model that was both unsustainable and illegal. He also knew that selling an unregistered investment opportunity to thousands of investors was illegal. Nevertheless, after the collapse of 12daily Pro, Bowdoin agreed with his 12daily Pro sponsor to start a similar autosurf program. Both individuals were aware that, before its collapse, 12daily Pro had taken in millions of dollars from its members.”

    Among the other allegations against ASD is that it formed a new autosurf Ponzi to address a collapsed, old autosurf Ponzi — and later launched more autosurf Ponzis to sustain the deception that legitimate commerce was under way.

    CWC appears to be doing the same thing — only with cyclers, as opposed to autosurfs.

  • BULLETIN: CenturionWealthCircle.com — ‘Opportunity’ Pushed By Club Asteria Members And New Darling Of The Ponzi Boards — Is Offline; Nameserver Data Show Same Info ASD Cash Generator/AdViewGlobal Sites Displayed When They Went Missing

    BULLETIN: The website of CenturionWealthCircle.com will not resolve to a server, and DNS data that appears in domain-registration info strongly suggest the site was suspended for spam and abuse.

    The DNS data include this string on two nameservers: SUSPENDED-FOR.SPAM-AND-ABUSE.COM.

    In 2008 and 2009, nameserver information for the ASD Cash Generator and AdViewGlobal autosurfs included the same string when the sites went missing.

    CenturionWealthCircle.com is a new darling of Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, both of which are referenced in federal court filings as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

    Some members of Club Asteria, an “opportunity” that traded on the name of the World Bank amid claims that members could experience a “passive” return on investment of 10 percent a week, also promoted Centurion Wealth Circle. Included among the Centurion Wealth Circle promoters was “Ken Russo,” who claimed on TalkGold (as “DRdave”) to have received $2,032 from Club Asteria during the month of June alone.

    Club Asteria later suspended member cashouts and claimed its revenue had plunged “dramatically.” The firm, whose website appears to have been registered on or near the same date the AdViewGlobal autosurf suspended cashouts in June 2009, blamed members for its problems.

    A photo of Hank Needham, Club Asteria’s purported owner, appears in a promo for ASD Cash Generator, which was implicated by the U.S. Secret Service is an alleged Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $110 million. ASD Cash Generator, also known as AdSurfDaily, was operated by Andy Bowdoin.

    Bowdoin was indicted on Ponzi, securities and wire-fraud charges in December 2010. Two days ago — in a video soliciting $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense — Bowdoin blamed lawyers and a federal judge for his legal problems, claiming he had been “crucified” by federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service.

    See the Centurion Wealth Circle thread on RealScam.com, an antiscam site.

     

  • BULLETIN: ASDCashGenerator Website Is Active Again; Is A New ‘Program’ In The Offing? Page Is Accessible Through Old ASD Ad That Features Image Of Purported Club Asteria Owner; No Comment From Investigators

    This old ad for AdSurfDaily features an image of Hank Needham, the purported owner of Club Asteria. An ASD affiliate link in the ad summons ASD’s old ASDCashGenerator.com URL, which went dormant after the federal raid on ASD’s Florida headquarters in August 2008. In recent hours, however, the old ASDCashGenerator URL began to resolve to an apparent new business opportunity known as Ad Sales Daily International. Needham’s one-time tie to ASD leads to questions about whether Virginia-based Club Asteria, through Needham or ASD downline members, could have benefited from ASD cash prior to the federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin nearly three years ago. The Club-Asteria domain name was registered in June 2009, the same month an autosurf with ASD connections known as AdViewGlobal collapsed. Club Asteria’s domain now is registered behind a proxy, but once was registered to Needham, according to web records.

    BULLETIN: (UPDATED 9:36 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A website identified in a 2008 forfeiture complaint as the site of a major financial crime allegedly engineered by AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin and unidentified co-conspirators is active again and appears to be redirecting traffic to an entity named “Ad Sales Daily International” (ASDI) and a second entity known as ASD2Day.

    “Make $10 per direct referral & $5 for every 2nd level indirect!” the site exclaims. “Recieve (sic) $2000 Account Initiation Credits! Hurry, while we are in pre-launch.”

    A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia declined to comment on the development, saying that ASD is part of an active investigation.

    The ASDI site is accessible through an affiliate link to Bowdoin’s old ASDCashGenerator.com site, which appears to have been re-registered in the name of Barbara Cruz, whose name previously has appeared in the context of ASD. The PP Blog accessed the ASDI site by clicking on an old ASDCashGenerator affiliate link . The link was within an ASD ad from 2008 that featured an image of Club Asteria’s purported owner Hank Needham.

    The ASD ad with Needham’s image positioned ASD as a “Perfectly Credible Business” and included a contact email address that used the characters “ptigold.” The ASD ad, however, does not load Needham’s name as an ASDI affiliate when the link is clicked. Instead, it loads the name of another individual. The reason was not immediately clear.

    This page for ASDI, an apparent upstart, is accessible when a link is clicked in an old ad for Andy Bowdoin's ASD Cash Generator program. The old ASD ad features a photo of Hank Needham, the purported owner of Club Asteria, but the ad does not load Needham's name as an ASDI affiliate when the link is clicked. Instead, the ad loads the name of another person. The reason was not immediately clear. Bowdoin is under federal indictment for wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Questions have been raised about whether Club Asteria also was selling unregistered securities as part of a purported "passive" investment program.

    A separate link within the ad with Needham’s image forwards to a page that displays pornography ads.

    All or part of the old ASDCashGenerator site appears to be redirecting to the domain name of ASD2Day.com. In 2009, the ASD2Day site was registered with Cruz listed as the contact person at an address in Florida that state investigators had tied to a major insurance scam. Although Cruz now is listed as the registrant of the ASDCashGenerator site, the ASD2Day site is registered in the name of another individual.

    In October 2009, the PP Blog published a story about the ASD2Day site, which was making odd claims about the state of the ASD litigation a year after the federal seizure of Bowdoin’s assets and assets linked to Golden Panda Ad Builder, an autosurf implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD probe.

    ASD2Day.com claimed, among other things, that ASD could not be a Ponzi scheme because the script employed by the autosurfing firm could not be programmed to permit a Ponzi scheme to occur. It also made a puzzling claim that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer was on an Aug. 28, 2009, deadline “to determine if the US Attorney General’s case against ASD should move forward.” (Also see this story and comments thread.)

    Collyer was on no such deadline. In January 2010, Collyer issued a forfeiture order that awarded $65.8 million seized from Bowdoin’s bank accounts to the U.S. government, which is using the seized money to compensate victims of ASD. In July 2009, Collyer issued a forfeiture order for more than $14 million linked to Golden Panda, ASD’s one-time purported “Chinese” option.

    The ASD ad that featured Needham’s image also made a veiled reference to Golden Panda.

    A section of the ad read, “OPENING IN CHINA[:] July 2008.”

    Undercover agents from a Secret Service/IRS task force began to investigate ASD and Golden Panda on July 3, 2008, according to court filings. The court process of seizing cash linked to both entities began on Aug. 1, 2008, with the issuance of seizure warrants.

    It appears to be the case that all old ASD Cash Generator affiliate links, including the links in the ad that featured Needham’s photograph, now load the new ASDI webpage at the old ASD Cash Generator URL.

    Claims made about Club Asteria are under investigation by Italian authorities. Club Asteria first slashed payouts to members then reportedly suspended them for 60 days. The firm also reportedly has had its PayPal account frozen.

    Like ASD, Club Asteria was promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    In a video dated July 8, a Club Asteria executive claimed the firm had “a philanthropic foundation both domestically and internationally where we help causes all over the world.”

    Among the claims in the video, which appeared online after Club Asteria reportedly suspended payouts, was this one:

    “We donate cows and pigs and water buffaloes and camels to help families all over the world.”

    Virginia-based Club Asteria trades on the name of the World Bank. Members said payments came from an entity known as Asteria Holdings Limited (Hong Kong) — before the payments stopped.

    One of Club Asteria’s principal concerns, according to a new video, is children.

    Investigators long have fretted that some promoters of online business “opportunities” simply race from fraud scheme to fraud scheme, collecting commissions for introducing others to “programs” that prove to be scams.

    Like the now-collapsed AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, Club Asteria has blamed its reported problems on members. AVG had promoters and members in common with Bowdoin’s ASD, which the Secret Service described as a massive international Ponzi scheme.

    Among other things, AVG plucked the heartstrings of members by telling them that the company was interested in saving the rain forest.

  • BULLETIN: Club Asteria Says Revenue Has Plunged ‘Dramatically’; Firm Blames Member Lies For Crisis, Compares Situation To Run On The Bank

    BULLETIN: UPDATED 6:44 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Club Asteria, a Virginia-based company that claims to elevate people out of poverty globally by involving them in an MLM-like income and recruitment scheme, has acknowledged a revenue plunge and described it as dramatic.

    In an audio recording posted online, the firm blamed its current state on lies from members and bad publicity. The audio is dated June 24.

    “It’s taken our revenue, and it has hurt it dramatically,” the company said.

    Club Asteria, which described itself as a ’cause’ marketing company concerned about the impoverished people of India and other countries across the world, conceded it has been swamped by “thousands” of support tickets from members.

    Eight weeks ago, approximately a year after its launch, Club Asteria discovered that it had liars in its ranks, the company claimed in the recording. The liars created problems, according to the firm.

    Among other places, Club Asteria is being promoted on forums linked to numerous Ponzi schemes. A Club Asteria thread on TalkGold, for example, has been active since April 5, 2010. Meanwhile, a Club Asteria thread on MoneyMakerGroup has been active since May 29, 2010. Both forums are referenced in federal court filings as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

    Club Asteria did not say in the recording precisely where it believed its problems with untruthful promoters had begun. Nor did the company say how much money it believed it had collected as a result of lies told by its freelance sales staff or what it planned to do with tainted proceeds.

    “The challenge that occurred is that, all of a sudden, we found that our membership — many of our members — were presenting Club Asteria in an inaccurate, untruthful manner,” the company said.

    False claims and “all kinds of distortions” were being made “all over the Internet” that Club Asteria provided “passive” income of $400 per week, the company said.

    Members — and not the company itself — were responsible for the false claims, the revenue plunge and putting the firm at risk, the company suggested in the recording.

    “It’s like a bank where somebody says, ‘They have no money left.’ And everybody runs to the bank and takes their money out,” the company said. “Of course, the bank is going to be in serious trouble . . .”

    Many Club Asteria members have claimed preemptively in promos for the firm that Club Asteria was not operating a Ponzi scheme. Why the firm chose a bank-run analogy to describe its problems was not immediately clear.

    Some Ponzi schemes topple — the Bernard Madoff scheme, for instance — when a company encounters cash-flow problems and cannot meet redemption requests, the Ponzi equivalent of a run on the bank. In a classic Ponzi scheme, no real business exists — and a firm takes money from “new” members to meet the payout expectations of “old” members.

    Club Asteria said it hoped to reverse its financial course by inspiring members to sell more products and services to increase revenue. Meanwhile, the firm said it hoped to sell a tablet computer to members on time payments beginning on a date uncertain. Club Asteria did not identify a manufacturer for the computer, but said the device would help members become better equipped to run successful businesses.

    Whether impoverished members of Club Asteria could afford a tablet computer or whether such a computer would be operable in all the countries of the world was not made clear in the recording.

    Pricing for the tablet was not revealed. The firm also said it planned to offer apparel, vitamins and other products.

    There have been claims in recent weeks that Club Asteria has slashed cashouts, which some members claimed provided a return of 10 percent a week. Other members said Club Asteria normally paid between 3 percent and 4 percent a week.  In recent days, there have been claims that the firm suspended cashouts altogether. These claims followed on the heels of claims that Club Asteria had offered bonuses convertible to cash to lure members to join.

    Club Asteria did not say in the recording whether it believed its bonus program had contributed to its problems. Nor did the firm say why it had come to recognize only weeks ago that false claims about its business opportunity were appearing online.

    In a strange turn-of-phrase, however, the company did say this: “We offer them products and services to purchase under the guise of ’cause’ marketing.”

    The firm described “cause” marketing as an inspirational “concept” that targets people globally who may be enduring personal poverty and motivates them to climb the ladder of economic success by giving them something in which to believe.

    Two of the problems the company is experiencing are that fewer people now believe in it because of the lies told by members and because members were complaining in public about the firm, Club Asteria said.

    Listen to the recording.

  • UPDATE: Blurb For Club Asteria Executive Reappears On Website; Separately, Promoter ‘Ken Russo’ Says On TalkGold Ponzi Forum That The ‘Next Couple Of Months Will Tell The Story’

    A blurb for Hank Needham has reappeared on the Club Asteria website after having been missing for days. The blurb appears to have gone missing sometime between June 19 and June 24, but is back on the site today.

    Separately, promoter “Ken Russo,” who posts as “DRdave” on the TalkGold Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum, announced in a TalkGold post dated yesterday that he’d received $400 by wire from “Asteria Holdings Limited (Hong Kong)” yesterday.

    The payment was described as a “cashout.” Other members, however, claimed that Club Asteria suspended cashouts last week and had been paying only pennies or low-dollar sums prior to the purported suspension.

    TalkGold is referenced in federal court filings by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service as a place from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

    In the month of June, “Ken Russo” has claimed on TalkGold that his Club Asteria cashouts have totaled at least $2,032. The cashouts appear to have occurred after Club Asteria’s PayPal account reportedly was frozen last month and after Italian authorities began to investigate claims made about the company.

    Few details are known about the Italian probe. Whether Russo’s purported payments as outlined on TalkGold could be considered ill-gotten gains if a prosecution emerges was not immediately clear.

    “The next couple of months will tell the [Club Asteria] story,” Ken Russo opined in his cashout claim on TalkGold yesterday. The post suggests the enterprise is in danger, but “Ken Russo” did not say whether he would return his cashout money voluntarily if authorities in Italy or elsewhere file a fraud action against the firm.

    Nor did “Ken Russo” say whether he’d provide refunds for his downline members.

    Some ClubAsteria members claim they are filing disputes with Alert Pay in a bid to reclaim money directed at Club Asteria.

    A Twitter site in the name of “Hank Needham” claims Needham is the “owner” of Club Asteria. On the Club Asteria website, Needham is described as director of sales and marketing.

    After the PayPal freeze, Club Asteria encouraged members to use offshore processors. Many Club Asteria promoters preemptively claimed that the Virginia-based firm was not operating a Ponzi scheme.

    How they could be certain never has been made clear, and a cash crisis appears to have engulfed Club Asteria after the claims were made. The company, which trades on the name of the World Bank,  may have hundreds of thousands of members globally, including members from Third World countries, developing nations and nations subjected to political dictatorships.

    Many Club Asteria members claimed the firm offered a “passive” investment opportunity, which led to questions about whether Club Asteria was selling unregistered securities to some of the poorest people on earth.

  • UPDATE: Is Club Asteria Missing An Executive? Blurb For ‘Director Of Sales And Marketing’ Goes Missing From Website Amid Reports Firm Has Suspended Cashouts

    A blurb for a key leader of an online “program” that claims to elevate people out of poverty globally has gone missing.

    The blurb for Hank Needham, whom Club Asteria identified as its director of sales and marketing, appears to have vanished between June 19 and today. Also missing from the Club Asteria webpage that identifies its leaders is Needham’s photograph.

    Club Asteria has not announced Needham’s departure. Why the blurb has been removed from the website was not immediately clear. Also unclear is whether Needham remains a Club Asteria employee and continues to hold an executive post at the Virginia-based firm, which trades on the name of the World Bank.

    In general, companies announce the departure of a key executive long in advance of the departure for the purposes of maintaining continuity and stakeholder trust.

    Needham, Club Asteria noted prior to the removal of the blurb, was “responsible for establishing Country, Regional and Network Team Leaders.

    “Hank has 22 Years (sic) experience in building Sales Teams throughout Europe, United States, Asia and Africa with special emphasis in the Network Marketing and Communications Industry (sic),” according to the now-removed blurb.

    In May, Club Asteria announced that its PayPal account had been frozen. There are reports today that the company has suspended member payouts for up to 60 days, but the company has not confirmed the reports on the news section of its website. Members have been grumbling on Ponzi scheme forums for weeks about drastically reduced cashouts from the firm.

    Remarks attributed to Andrea Lucas, Club Asteria’s managing director, appeared on Ponzi forums today. Lucas was quoted as saying, “We have made the decision to accumulate revenue share disbursements for the next 30 to 60 days.”

    Such a statement — if true — may signal that Club Asteria is having a serious cash crisis.

    On April 11, Club Asteria announced on its news website that it takes “very seriously our responsibility to remain financially solvent.”

    Many Club Asteria members preemptively claimed in promos for the firm that it was not operating a Ponzi scheme. The claims were juxtaposed against competing claims that a $19.95 monthly payment to Club Asteria could result in guaranteed earnings of $400 a week — nearly $21,000 a year for a 12-month outlay of about $240.

    See story from earlier today.

  • UNCONFIRMED: Club Asteria Suspends Member Cashouts; If Ponzi Forum Reports On Payout Halt Are True, Then Decision Was Made Virtually 2 Years To The Day After AdViewGlobal Autosurf Collapsed

    A Virginia-based company that trades on the name of the World Bank and claims to help lift some of the poorest people on earth out of poverty by involving them in an income and MLM-like recruitment scheme has suspended member cashouts, according to posts on Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forums.

    If the news about Club Asteria is true — and the company is not confirming it on its news webpage — then the firm may be following the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf into the darkness virtually two years to the day after AVG suspended cashouts after collecting an unknown sum of money and declaring member payouts never were guaranteed.

    Club Asteria, according to chatter on infamous Ponzi forums such as MoneyMakerGroup, did not call its decision not to pay members a suspension. Rather, the firm described it as a “decision to accumulate revenue share disbursements for the next 30 to 60 days.”

    Members have claimed in promos for months that Club Asteria provided a “passive” investment opportunity and that earnings were guaranteed. The company itself has implied as much, according to promotional materials. Club Asteria is under investigation by Italian authorities, and confirmed in May that its PayPal account had been frozen.

    After the PayPal freeze, which involved an unspecified sum of money, Club Asteria slashed its weekly payout rate to less than 1 percent and urged members to use offshore payment processors.

    Like AVG, Club Asteria blamed negative developments on its own members. The firm does not publish verifiable financial data, and members say payments come via wire from an entity known as Asteria Holdings Limited in Hong Kong.

    Why a Virginia-based company would route money through an apparent Hong Kong-based subsidiary to both U.S.-based members and international members never has been clear. Some members have published spreadsheets and ads that state plainly or imply that Club Asteria members can count on earning $400 a week for a payment of $19.95 a month, with earnings projected at a rate of 10 percent a week.

    Other members have claimed Club Asteria pays 3 percent to 4 percent a week, numbers that project to a return of between 156 percent and 208 percent per year. References to a “passive” earnings opportunity with guaranteed payouts gave rise to questions about whether Club Asteria and its members were selling unregistered securities as investment contracts.

    Meanwhile, the presence of promotions and “I got paid” posts on infamous Ponzi forums led to questions about whether Club Asteria had come into possession of funds tainted by one or more Ponzi or fraud schemes.

    When AVG collapsed two years ago this week, the firm said it was retooling and would make an 80/20 program mandatory upon relaunch. Club Asteria, whose domain name appears to have been registered on June 25, 2009,  reportedly incorporated an 80/20 program into its business model upon its launch in 2010.

    Club Asteria’s domain, according to web records, was registered on the very same day news about the collapse of AVG surfaced. On June 30, 2009 — five days after its collapse — AVG’s name was referenced as an iteration of Florida-based AdSurfDaily in a racketeering lawsuit filed against ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Bowdoin was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service for wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in December 2010. In August 2008, prior to the launches of both AVG and Club Asteria, tens of millions of dollars were seized from Bowdoin’s 10 personal bank accounts by the Secret Service.

    It is believed that ASD, AVG and Club Asteria had promoters and members in common.

    In the online Ponzi world, 80/20 programs are used to minimize cash outflow and disguise the nature of the programs. Club Asteria members preemptively have claimed the firm was not operating a Ponzi, a highly dubious claim given that the company does not publish audited financial information and that members — perhaps particularly members from Third World countries, countries ravaged by war or countries governed by dictators or strongmen — likely lacked the means or ability to visit Club Asteria’s U.S. headquarters to examine the books in person.