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Tag: cyclers

  • ‘AutoXTen,’ Ponzi Forum Darling And Scheme Linked To Former DNA And Narc That Car Pitchman Jeff Long, Goes Missing After Long Traded On Patriotism And Claimed ‘Opportunity’ Was Appropriate For ‘Churches’

    AutoXten came out of the gate during the summer, amid claims $10 could turn into nearly $200,000. Promos claimed the "opportunity" was using Canada-based AlertPay to avoid PayPal restrictions and that AutoXten was suited for "churches."

    AutoXTen, the absurd matrix cycler that came to life this summer even as the state of Oregon was issuing a public warning against pyramid schemes and ordering a $345,000 penalty against a cycler pitchman, has gone missing.

    The AutoXTen website is registered in the name of Jeff Long, an MLM huckster who sang the praises in 2010 of both the Narc That Car (NTC) and Data Network Affiliates (DNA) license-plate schemes before abandoning both programs and warning his followers to “Stay away from ‘EZ MONEY’ pitches and claims.”

    Long, though, appeared not to have followed his own advice. After the failures of Narc That Car and DNA, AutoXTen came out of the gate with a claim that members could “Turn $10 into $199,240.”

    Prior to the apparent collapse of AutoXTen, remarks attributed to Long on the AutoXTen help desk claimed the program was appropriate for “churches.” DNA made similar claims about one of its “programs” last year.

    In 2010, Jeff Long's YouTube video for Narc That Car was referenced by Fox News 11 in Los Angeles as part of the station's Narc coverage. The original Narc video was repurposed by Long into a YouTube text pitch for DNA, but later edited to insert an announcement Long had left both Narc and DNA.

    DNA’s website also has gone missing. The DNA program was associated with MLM huckster Phil Piccolo, as was a program known as One World One Website (OWOW). OWOW emerged last month as a launch ground for the emerging Text Cash Network (TCN) scheme.

    Despite the appearance online of a photo of a glistening building in Boca Raton, Fla., with the words “TEXT CASH NETWORK” affixed in large letters near the crown of the building, the Boca Raton Police Department said Wednesday that the company’s name does not appear on the building.

    Questions have been raised about whether Long performs any due diligence on the “opportunities” he embraces or blindly defaults to the company line or manufactures a convenient truth while recruiting participants by the hundreds into scheme after scheme.

    Long was among the conference-call cheerleaders for DNA, along with Joe Reid, who went on to become a cheerleader for TCN.

    Reid also was a cheerleader for OWOW, a company Piccolo positioned as the provider of a “magnetic” product that could prevent leg amputations and help tomatoes grow to twice their normal size.

    This video in which Jeff Long was driving an automobile and pitching the MLM license-plate schemes of DNA and Narc That Car was edited to insert the red balloon and annoucement from Long that he had dumped both DNA and Narc — and to warn prospects to stay away from "EZ MONEY'" MLM schemes. Long then turned to AutoXTen amid claims the firm's matrix cycler could turn $10 into nearly $200,000 and was appropriate for "churches."

    Whether Long participated in OWOW and TCN was not immediately clear. What is clear is that the AutoXTen website is not resolving to a server only months after the purported miracle program’s launch.

    When pinged, both the AutoXten and DNA websites are returning this message: “Unknown error: 1214.”

    Both NTC and DNA carded scores of “F” from the Better Business Bureau. Some NTC members then attacked the BBB, and DNA changed the name of one of its purported offerings to “BBB” in an apparent bid to trick search engines.

    AutoXTen was hawked in part through posts on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    AutoXTen gained a head of steam in part through promos by well-known Ponzi forum pitchmen “Ken Russo” (as “DRdave”), and “manolo,” both of whom also promoted Club Asteria.

    Club Asteria, which purports to have a philanthropic arm, suspended member payouts months ago and acknowledged its PayPal account had been suspended.

    An AutoXTen email attributed to Long, Scott Chandler and Brent Robinson as the opportunity’s “Founders/Owners” also shows the firm traded on U.S. patriotism.

    “This weekend here in the United States of America, we celebrate our freedom and independence as a nation and a Country,” the email read in part. The email was posted on the TalkGold Ponzi forum by “manolo” on July 1, 2011, during the run-up to the Independence Day holiday in the United States.

    “We want to wish EVERYONE a HAPPY Independence weekend, please be safe, have fun and as you are celebrating, know that you are also celebrating your new life should you choose to step into it here with AutoXTen!” another part of the email exclaimed.

  • 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.