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Tag: DreamTeamMoney

  • BULLETIN: Tata Group, Famous Business Concern In India, Says Fraudsters Trading On Its Name To Push HYIP Scheme; Purported Agriculture ‘Program’ Has Presence On The Ponzi Boards

    The purported TataAgro entity had a presence on the Ponzi boards and appears to have used trading screens to dupe the worldwide investing public. Image source: Google cache.
    The purported TataAgro entity had a presence on the Ponzi boards and appears to have used trading screens to dupe the worldwide investing public. Image source: Google cache.

    BULLETIN: (3rd Update 8:32 a.m. ET, Feb. 20 U.S.A.) The Tata Group, a global conglomerate based in India, says its name has been stolen by an HYIP Ponzi scheme. The fraud scheme is associated with a domain styled TataAgro.com and has a presence on the MoneyMakerGroup, TalkGold and DreamTeamMoney Ponzi forums, according to search results.

    Like the recently exposed WCM777 fraud scheme, the TataAgro scam claims a business presence in the British Virgin Islands. WCM777 also traded on the names of famous companies, including Siemens, the German conglomerate. Siemens issued statements warning the public about WCM777. Tata now has done the same thing with the purported TataAgro entity.

    The TataAgro website “claims that ‘Tata Agro Holding is a subsidiary of the globally known Tata group, [and is] one of the top 10 agro investment players in Asia’s financial market,’” the real Tata says. “It goes on to offer a wide range of investment plans with a monthly profitability of up to 100%.

    “Members of the public are hereby cautioned that the information provided on the website is absolutely false, misleading and intended to defraud innocent and unwary members of the public,” the real Tata says. “Neither Tata Sons nor any other Tata company has any connection whatsoever with the aforesaid Tata Agro Holding. Tata Sons is initiating appropriate action in the matter.”

    PonziTracker.com was among the first outlets to report the news of the Tata warning.

    The TataAgro site appears not to be loading.

    It is somewhat common for fraud schemes to try to steal the identities of major figures on the world financial stage. CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, regularly publishes information on purported “opportunities” that adopt the names of legitimate firms to create confusion and fleece the masses.

    A post dated Dec. 3, 2013, at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum claims the purported TataAgro entity pays “1.9-3.1% daily for 15-90 days” and accepts Perfect Money, BitCoin, EgoPay and Qiwi.

    Meanwhile, a post dated Dec. 17 at the DreamTeamMoney Ponzi forum makes this claim (italics added):

    Tata Agro is an agricultural investment company founded in 2012 in British Virgin Islands. We are a subsidiary of transcontinental conglomerate Tata Group that has been established in India back in 1868 and now boasts the combined market capitalization of $96 bln.

    We have retained only the best things from a rich and long experience of our ancestor: the unique corporate culture, client-oriented and customized approach, and understanding of the market through retrospective analysis. Our fundamental aim is to help you grow your capital.

    We work with assets like barley, soya, soya oil and meat, corn, wheat, and livestock and currently operate in CME Group, TOCOM, and MGEX exchange houses.

    We are eager to offer you four investment plans with the daily ROI of 1.9% to 3.1% and investment term of 15 to 120 days. You can invest from 5 to 10,000 USD. Apart from that, we offer you a profitable referral program that lets you earn more and work side by side with your family and friends.

    A post dated Dec. 17 at the TalkGold Ponzi forum makes these claims (italics added):

    • Invest 5 to 100$ for 15 days and earn 1.9% ROI daily;
    • Invest 100 to 1000$ for 30 days and earn 2.3% ROI daily;
    • Invest 1000 to 5000$ for 60 days and earn 2.5% ROI daily;
    • Invest 5000 to 10,000$ for 120 days and earn 3.1% ROI daily.

    Collapsed fraud schemes such as Zeek Rewards, AdSurfDaily, Legisi, Pathway to Prosperity, Profitable Sunrise, Imperia Invest IBC and many more also had a presence on the Ponzi boards.

    The TelexFree “program” currently has a presence on the Ponzi boards.

  • **[UNCONFIRMED]** Report In Brazil Says Prosecutors Have Asked U.S. Court To Block TelexFree Accounts, New Signups **[UNCONFIRMED]**

    telexfreelogo**[UNCONFIRMED]** A report in Brazilian media translated by Google Translate from Portuguese to English says that prosecutors in Brazil have asked a U.S. court to prevent new members from joining TelexFree and to block the accounts of TelexFree figures Carlos Wanzeler, James Merrill, Carlos Costa and Lyvia Wanzeler.

    The PP Blog could not immediately confirm the report. If it is true, it could mean that law-enforcement agencies in Brazil have contacted their U.S. counterparts and asked them to begin the process of investigating a potential seizure of TelexFree-related funds that may be in the United States and perhaps to disable or otherwise block the functionality of the TelexFree web domains. The United States has said on various occasions that it is interested in fostering partnerships with law-enforcement agencies across the globe to combat commercial fraud online.

    As of 1:03 p.m. EDT today in the United States, the TelexFree websites remained online and appeared still to be capable of enrolling recruits.

    TelexFree has said it has U.S. arms in the states of Massachusetts and Nevada. Some U.S. afffiliates of TelexFree also appear to have formed business entities in California and Florida. Some TelexFree affiliates have claimed the “opportunity” did business through Bank of America, TD Bank and ProPay. (See July 8, 2013, PP Blog report on some of the claims.)

    Despite allegations in Brazil that TelexFree was conducting a massive pyramid scheme and that a Brazilian judge and prosecutor had been threatened with death, TelexFree nevertheless held a rah-rah session in California late last month in which an MLM pitchman appears to have tried to sustain the scheme by telling a joke about “Carlos Danger,” an online identity purportedly used by U.S. Democratic politician Anthony Weiner. A companion TelexFree promo playing in the United States on YouTube claims that people who send $15,125 to TelexFree can expect to profit to the tune of more than $42,000 in a year.

    TelexFree has a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and DreamTeamMoney. The forums previously were used as staging grounds for the Legisi Ponzi scheme, the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, the PathwayToProsperity scheme, the Zeek Rewards scheme and the Profitable Sunrise scheme, among others. The SEC has described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud. The agency has described Profitable Sunrise as a fraud that may have gathered tens of millions of dollars through a series of accounts. Federal prosecutors in Illinois have described PathwayToProsperity as a fraud that made its way into at least 120 countries.

    In May, the United States indicted the Liberty Reserve payment processor and forced it offline, amid allegations that Liberty Reserve and some of its operators had engaged in a $6 billion money-laundering conspiracy. In June 2011, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder described the amount of money being stolen online as “staggering.”

    “In recent years, we’ve seen clear, and alarming, advances in the sophistication and commercialization of crimes involving electronic networks,” Holder said.  “And the staggering volume of money being stolen online today has the potential to threaten not only the security of our nation — but the integrity of our government, the stability of our economy, and the safety of our people.”

    Nearly a year later — in May 2012 — INTERPOL said that “[Eighty] per cent of crime committed online is now connected to organized gangs operating across borders.”

    In October 2012, Lisa Monaco, then-Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said that cyber intrusions may have resulted in “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.”

    Monaco is now President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser.

    Some TelexFree members have claimed that the purported “opportunity” has gathered in excess of $300 million. Among other things, TelexFree has purported to be in the hotel-development business in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. TelexFree, an MLM business, also purports to be in the VOIP telephone business.

    Many HYIP “opportunities” that use an MLM sales model have members and promoters in common and promise absurd rates of return. The practice has led to questions about whether groups of MLMers — however loosely associated — may be engaging in willful blindness and causing banks and payment processors to become warehouses for fraud proceeds.

    The ASD, Zeek, Legisi, PathwayToProsperity and Profitable Sunrise HYIP schemes may have gathered on the order of $1 billion, court filings suggest. Alleged PathwayToProsperity operator Nicholas Smirnow is listed as wanted by INTERPOL. So is Robert Hodgins, who reportedly once provided payment services to ASD and is listed as an INTERPOL fugitive in a money-laundering case allegedly involving the offloading of narcotics profits in Colombia.

    See Aug. 12 TelexFree report on BehindMLM.com.

  • BIZARRE: ‘Program’ Dubbed ‘CashCropCycler’ Has Ponzi-Board Presence And Zeek Pitchman While Touting Payouts Through PerfectMoney, SolidTrustPay And EgoPay — And Saying It Provides JSSTripler-Like Signup Bonus Of $10

    cashcropcyclerA “program” with the bizarre name of “CashCropCycler” (Triple C) is being pushed on the Ponzi forums, amid claims it issues cashouts through offshore payment processors linked to fraud scheme after fraud scheme and gives enrollees $10 just for signing up. An earlier HYIP scam known as JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid that appears to have morphed into at least two other scams also advertised recruits would be paid $10 for enrolling in its “program,” which purported to pay 730 percent a year (precompounding).

    Like a series of recent scams, CashCropCycler purports to be a “revenue sharing and advertising” program. It also claims it is using Skype and Gtalk for customer service. The lead pitchman for CashCropCycler on the MoneyMakeerGroup Ponzi forum appears to be “mmgcjm,” the lead pitchman for the alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme at the same forum.

    Whether CashCropCycler borrowed part of the JSS/JBP fraud pitch wasn’t immediately clear. Also unclear is whether CashCropCycler’s  unusual name was designed to be provocatively ambiguous or as a taunt of some sort. Could the unidentified Triple C operators be suggesting they are using the HYIP world to crowd-source the cultivation of marijuana, for instance? Other HYIP schemes — CashTanker, BotFly and Insectrio, for instance — may have been named to taunt regulators and demonstrate just how gullible investors can be.

    CashCropCycler curiously discusses the Triple C alliteration in another context, saying “The name ‘Triple C’ came about in year 2012 when we gave all our personal earnings to support the Clarion Children’s Choir, that was the best experience for us as a team.”

    The “program” purports to be operated by “three friends, Americans by naturalization and Swedish by birth; Benson, Dave and Anderson.”

    CashCropCycler’s website defines the trio as “ordinary people who find delight in been [sic] able to help our same human species. It doesn’t matter what country you’re from, what race you belong or how educated you are; we only care to help people by building a network that ticks, and this is what we enjoy doing.”

    Records suggest that one of the domain nameservers (ian.ns.cloudflare.com) linked to CashCropCycler has been used in spam campaigns for everything from malware to potentially fraudulent National Football League jerseys and potentially fraudulent designer purses purportedly from Louis Vuitton.

    Meanwhile, the CashCropCycler Terms of Service includes the strange phrase “Agreements shall be interpreted under the laws” — without identifying a jurisdiction or set of laws used if disputes occur. The Terms also confoundingly assert that “A member is neither an employee nor an independent contractor of CASHCROPCYCLER,” even as CashCropCycler asserts elsewhere on its site that promoters can earn MLM-style commissions totaling 15 percent over three tiers.

    By plowing $10 into the scheme, according to the CashCropCycler website, members will earn “186% in 60Days” [sic]. A sum of $50 purportedly fetches “129.60% in 25days” [sic]. Recruits should feel good about the “program” (apparently) because the “script was tested for 68days [sic] before this official launch.”

    And members also are permitted to engage in “Member to Member Transfer[s]” from inside the CashCropCycler system “for a 2.50% fee,” according to the website. Beyond that, according to the site, members can pay an exchange “fee of 8.70%” should they wish to have their earnings paid through a processor other than the one through which they joined the “program.”

    Some purported exchange services were among the casualties of the Liberty Reserve money-laundering action in the United States in May. Federal prosecutors in New York said that the now-shuttered Liberty Reserve payment processor was facilitating any number of fraud schemes while helping criminals launder billions of dollars.

    Even though CashCropCycler members purportedly are neither employees nor independent contractors of the “program,” they nevertheless are encouraged to (italics added/no edits made):

    “Promote via banner/text advertisements on other advertising websites that you are a member of.

    “Be active on the forums, including MoneyMakerGroup, TalkGold, DreamTeamMoney and Investment-Tracker .

    “Including a link to CashCropCycler in your signature in forums.

    “Traffic exchanges/Safe lists.

    “Social media.

    “Word of mouth.”

    At least four ads that appear to highlight other HYIP schemes appear near the bottom of the CashCropCycler landing page. One of the ads is for “NeoMutual,” which uses a tagline of “we are crowdfunding.”

    Some critics of crowd funding have voiced concerns that easing regulations on certain types of startup companies before appropriate safeguards are in place could lead to egregious marketplace abuses.

    Ads for what appear to be HYIP schemes are displayed on the website of CashCropCycler. A purported opportunity known as NEO Mutual purports to be a "crowd funding" company through which members can use bitcoins and payment processors linked to multiple fraud schemes.
    Ads for what appear to be HYIP schemes are displayed on the website of CashCropCycler. A purported opportunity known as NEO Mutual purports to be a “crowd funding” company through which members can use payment processors such as Perfect Money, SolidTrustPay and EgoPay that have been linked to multiple fraud schemes. NEOMutual also purportedly does business with bitcoins and PexPay — all while employing a “bank transfer” option. NEOMutual purports to have “Junior,” “Senior” and “Executive” plans that pay daily interest rates of 1.4 percent, 1.6 percent and 1.9 on sums  between $20 and $250,000. NEO Mutual says it is located at Revolution Tower in Panama City, Panama. Like the “Profitable Sunrise” scheme, NEO Mutual purports to be in the bridge-loan business. In April 2013, the SEC called Profitable Sunrise a scam that may have gathered millions of dollars while using a “mail drop” and offshore bank accounts.

    Also see CashCropCycler review on BehindMLM.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Zeekers Targeted As Early Ponzi-Board Rift Develops Over Promo For ‘My Fun Life’; Lawsuits Involving Other MLMs Make Headlines

    This attractive blonde woman is featured on the landing page of My Fun Places.
    This attractive blonde woman is featured on the landing page of My Fun Life.

    UPDATED 4:04 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) It has been another miserable PR week for MLM.

    Some members of the alleged Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme now are receiving over-the-top emails for an emerging travel-membership “program” known as “MyFunLife,” a source tells the PP Blog.

    Meanwhile, executives from a longstanding MLM company are suing each other in Utah while other baffling cases involving upstart MLMs remain in the courts.

    The nascent My Fun Life “program” appears already to have sparked a thread deletion at the DreamTeamMoney Ponzi forum — after two posters complained that a huckster had purloined sales content and used it to recruit downline members. (More on the DreamTeamMoney pitch below. First, the email pitch . . .)

    According to a PP Blog source, Zeekers were emailed a MyFunLife affiliate offer that blared, “There is a CHANGE taking place in our industry . . .  Something SO BIG, SO NEW, and SO COMPELLING I just have to SHARE IT with you . . .”

    The email hype-fest went on to declare My Fun Life “a revolutionary company in the emerging MOBILE APP Industry that’s about to take the world by STORM. They are in the process of building the largest GLOBAL NETWORK of their kind by introducing the HOTTEST APPS in the HOTTEST MARKETS!”

    The pitch appeared below a subject line of “This will be BIGGER and SAFER then Zeek, and it’s LEGAL! You’ll thank me later! ONLY $21 THAT’S IT!!!” The 19-word subject line was backed by five exclamation points.

    Here’s how another part of the email pitch read (italics added):

    The company is using a 3X10 Forced Matrix Compensation structure with up to 50% check matching (on all your personals) with upfront coding bonuses that pay out weekly! And you can earn up to 7 Levels in the Matrix without having to sponsor or talk with anyone! Hello??? (Sponsoring is only required to get paid on levels 8,9 &10) Its INCREDIBLE and its gonna BLOW UP and it’s only $21 to get in.

    As of today, the only content visible on the MyFunLife.com landing page are the words “Coming Soon.” Those words are backed by a series of rotating photographs, including a photo of an attractive blonde woman taking in some sun from a hammock under palm trees.

    “They are positioning several big global leaders now and anticipate 200,000 members in the first 6 months!” the email pitch contended. “Please get back with me asap so I can secure YOU a Top position in my matrix prior to launch!”

    The now-missing pitch on DreamTeamMoney urged prospects to GET IN “EARLYYYY!!” — in part because the “COMP PLAN” for My Fun Life called for “‘matching’ bonuses up to 50%, and ‘coded bonuses’ to die for -> they are UNREAL!! Launching in 45 countries. Major money and talent behind this.”

    As part of the Ponzi-board pitch, the poster shared a plan to “build it fast and hard with . . .  solo ads, FB, Craigslist, my list, and more.”

    In its early days, MyFunLife appears not to have a presence on other well-known Ponzi boards. Like TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, DreamTeamMoney is infamous as a launch pad for scores and scores of fraud schemes, including a bizarre “program” known as “Insectrio.”

    Zeek also was promoted widely on the Ponzi boards.

    News of the impending debut of MyFunLife came during the same week that MLM was generating more bad headlines in the mainstream press. XanGo co-founder and board member Bryan B. Davis accused the Utah-based firm of looting. Meanwhile, XanGo accused Davis of extortion and incompetent lawyering.

    Those lawsuits followed a lawsuit and counter-lawsuit earlier this year by the purported Go Fun Places and JubiMax opportunities, both of which have a presence on the Ponzi boards.

  • In Wake Of Profitable Sunrise Alert, British Columbia Issues 2 More Warnings Against HYIPs; Like Profitable Sunrise, Both ‘Programs’ Had Presence On TalkGold And MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi Forums

    recommendedreading1EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to PP Blog reader “Tony” for pointing us to the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) warning against the Lucra Fund and Goldenarium HYIP schemes. Earlier this month, BCSC issued a warning on the Profitable Sunrise scheme.

    The British Columbia Securities Commission has issued warnings on HYIP “programs” known as Lucra Fund and Goldenarium. BCSC’s move follows on the heels of its move earlier this month to issue a warning against Profitable Sunrise.

    All three “programs” had a presence on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. The Zeek Rewards “program,” which the SEC in August 2012 described as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, also had a presence on the forums. So did many other collapsed schemes, including the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, the $72 million Legisi Ponzi scheme and the alleged $70 million Pathway to Prosperity Ponzi scheme. P2P spead Ponzi misery to at least 120 countries, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

    BCSC said it became aware of Lucra Fund on March 11 “after a BCSC staff member received a promotional e-mail.

    “The sender of the e-mail wrote that Lucra Fund offered 5.5% daily returns, and promised a referral commission,” the agency said.

    And, it noted, “[t]he Lucra Fund website stopped working soon afterwards.”

    Among the talking points of Lucra Fund was that it employed “DDoS Protection By BlockDos,” according to a pitchman’s post at MoneyMakerGroup.

    That appears to be the same firm that provided protection for Profitable Sunrise. The Profitable Sunrise website also has gone missing. (At the time of this post, the Profitable Sunrise website has been inaccessible for nine days.)

    On March 19, BCSC said, the agency “became aware of what appears to be a BC-connected promotion of Goldenarium through Twitter. Similar to Profitable Sunrise, this high-yield investment promotion offered a minimum investment of $10 and high daily returns. It also offered a referral fee.

    “The Goldenarium website no longer works, and people on numerous Facebook pages connected to the scheme are questioning whether the entity will reactivate its website,” BCSC said.

    In August 2012, a pitchman on the DreamTeamMoney Ponzi forum described Goldenarium as “a company registered in England and Wales (United Kingdom) that “fulfills all the necessary requirements to provide a serious and highly reliable service to all our customers.
    In order to accomplish that we not only strictly comply with both United Kingdom’s Law and International Law.”

    Profitable Sunrise also described itself as based in the United Kingdom. It is now the subject of at least 30 Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders in the United States and Canada. The United Kingdom and New Zealand also have issued warnings against Profitable Sunrise.

    Before its 2011 collapse, "insectrio" used the logos of DreamTeamMoney, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup in sales pitches.
    Before its 2011 collapse, “Insectrio” used the logos of DreamTeamMoney, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup in sales pitches.

    In August 2011, the PP Blog wrote about the collapse of a bizarre “program” known as Insectrio that 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, two of the processors used by Profitable Sunrise.

    LibertyReserve and Perfect Money also are referenced in the SEC’s October 2010 fraud complaint against Imperia Invest IBC, a scheme that targeted deaf investors. Imperia also had a presence on the Ponzi boards.

    Insectrio used the logos of DreamTeamMoney, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup in promos.

    In July 2010, after the collapse of the P2P and Genius Funds HYIP schemes, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a warning about HYIP schemes,  pointing out that they trade through social media.

    FINRA specifically warned about websites that “Rank the latest programs and provide details of ‘payout options.’” At the same time, it warned about sites that “Allow web designers to buy ready-made HYIP templates and set up an ‘instant’ HYIP.” Meanwhile, it warned about sites that “Blog, chat and ‘teach’ about HYIPs.”

    “Some HYIP ‘investors’ proffer strategies for maximizing profits and avoiding losses — everything from videos showing how to ‘make massive profits’ in HYIPs and ‘build a winning HYIP portfolio’ to an eBook on how to ‘ride the Ponzi’ and get in and out before a scheme collapses,” FINRA said.

    “Other HYIP forums discuss how to enter ‘test spends,’ how to identify new HYIPs to maximize one’s chances of being an early stage payee and even how to check when a HYIP’s domain name expires so you can guess how long it might pay returns before shutting down,” FINRA noted.

    Read BCSC’s March 22 Investor Alert against Lucra Fund and Goldenarium. (The document references the earlier warning against Profitable Sunrise.)

  • BIZARRE ON TOP OF BIZARRE: Andrey C. Hicks, Boston-Area Man Charged Civilly By SEC Last Week In Alleged ‘Locust’ Hedge-Fund Scheme, Now Charged Criminally, Feds Say; Separately, TMZ.com Reports Hicks Was Guest At Kim Kardashasian/Kris Humphries August Wedding — And That Kardashian Filed For Divorce Today

    Andrey C. Hicks, accused civilly by the SEC last week of orchestrating a domestic and offshore fraud, now has been charged criminally with wire fraud, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts said.

    Separately, TMZ.com is reporting that Hicks was a guest at the $10 million, August wedding of reality-TV star Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, a professional basketball player in the NBA — and that Kardashian filed for divorce today.

    Hicks was arrested in Canada, TMZ reports.

    Kardashian and Humphries have been married barely two months. The divorce papers were filed today: Halloween Day. TMZ said Kardashian cited “irreconcilable” differences” with Humphries.

    Hicks operated a purported hedge fund known as Locust Offshore Fund Ltd. and an entity known as Locust Offshore Management LLC of Delaware.

    “Locust” is a term associated with a destructive bug capable of wiping out vegetation. How the firms allegedly operated by Hicks got their names was not immediately clear.

    Trading on the names of destructive insects, however, is not unprecedented in the fraud sphere.

    In May, a bizarre firm known as “Insectrio” was promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and DreamTeamMoney. Insectrio apparently collapsed in late August.

    The SEC said Hicks made up two degrees from Harvard as part of his “Locust” scam, which involved more than $1.6 million, according to court filings.

  • 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.

  • Club Asteria Members Posting On Ponzi Boards Turn Their Attention To ‘JSS Tripler’ Amid Claims Daily Payout Of 2 Percent ‘Indefinitely Sustainable’; ‘Bizarre Substatum’ Gets Crazier Yet

    From a YouTube promo for JSS Tripler.

    We’ve previously noted that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has described the HYIP sphere as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.”

    That substratum now is getting crazier yet.

    Three weeks ago, Club Asteria was a great darling of the Ponzi boards. But weekly payout rates that purportedly have been slashed — coupled with a purported freeze of Club Asteria’s PayPal account — appear to have put the “program” in a death spiral.

    Club Asteria stopped short of announcing it had placed a call to the coroner, but did announce a “downward spiral,” according to a post on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum.

    Not to worry, though: Some Club Asteria promoters on the Ponzi forums have turned their attentions to JSS Tripler, whose site appears to be accessible through multiple domains, including a site known as JustBeenPaid (JBP).

    JBP appears to be tied to something called Synergy Surf, which appears to be another darling of the Ponzi boards.

    “I buyed (sic) new 8 positions for that,” a MoneyMakerGroup poster announced.

    JPB encouraged enrollees to “[s]et up your AlertPay account and fund it, or link your credit card to it,” according to web records.

    These instructions also were provided.

    • Upgrade in JBP by making your $10 or $20 payments.
    • Enter your AlertPay email address in the JBP Member Area.
    • Buy and/or sponsor downline members.
    • Study and apply ‘Upgrade Your Brain’ and the ‘Big Success Breakthrough’ — see ‘Access Our Products’ in your JBP member area.
    • Make JBP’s Synergy Surf (JSS) your primary moneymaker.

    In the spring of 2009 — as the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf was in its death throes before a fatal gurgle — the AVG braintrust pointed the finger of blame at the membership.

    Other surfs that launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Florida-based AdSurfDaily did the same thing. These included AdGateWorld, which once referenced ASD in what appeared to be a copy-and-paste lift from ASD’s Terms of Service, and BizAdSplash, whose purported “chief consultant” was ASD/Golden Panda Ad Builder figure Clarence Busby.

    Fast forward two years, and Club Asteria, which lists Andrea Lucas as managing director, appears to be doing the same thing — along with serving up some Busby-like syrup for the soul:

    “Greed is a very powerful motivation, but the kindness, generosity and goodness in all of us all are even more powerful,” Club Asteria is reported on MoneyMakerGroup to have intoned.

    “The challenges that we are facing recently have been caused by a small percentage of our members misusing their membership privileges,” Club Asteria is reported to have told members. “As any good company would have done to protect their members and future members, we had to reinforce our Code of Ethics and Conduct, to ensure that our message of a better life for all of us is presented honestly and accurately.

    “We are working very hard to make sure that any benefit from Club Asteria and all of our products and services are accurately represented. Any company, no matter how good their products and services are, can be destroyed with misleading information, bad publicity, false rumors and inactivity of their members/customers.”

    Two years ago, AVG’s death spiral began as the ASD grand jury was meeting in the District of Columbia. The surf first slashed payouts — something Club Asteria reportedly is doing right now — and then eliminated them altogether, while at once announcing an 80/20 program would become mandatory after AVG completed an audit of itself.

    One of the issues complicating matters for AVG was the purported misuse of a member-to-member cash button. Club Asteria members also purportedly misused a money-transfer facility.

    “Bizarre substratum of the Internet” just about covers it — except for the heartache and myriad nightmares created by the various HYIP darlings, of course.

    Thinking Outside The Box

    Our friends at RealScam.com report another nightmare in the making. It’s bizarrely called Insectrio — and it bizarrely has 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.

    The sales pitch for Insectrio, apparently an emerging HYIP, touts MoneyMakerGroup, TalkGold and DreamTeamMoney.

    Given JBP’s prompt for enrollees to “upgrade” their brains — which we view as a prompt to think outside the box — the PP Blog concludes this post by providing readers an outside-the-box way to look at the Insectrio offer:

    InSECtrio.

    Indeed, the three letters centering the HYIP’s name are real attention-getters.

  • WebsiteTester.biz Delays Launch; Produces Video With Voice, But No Faces; Sends Members To News Release By Unnamed Author; Mysterious Firm Has 18,000 Twitter Followers

    UPDATED 7:26 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A Nevada company that advertises “job” openings and is being promoted on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup, ASAMonitor and DreamTeamMoney has delayed its launch.

    WebsiteTester.biz made the announcement on its website. Forum posters across the world had expected the launch to be under way fully today, but Website Tester says the launch now will be delayed until the company records 400,000 registrations.

    The mysterious firm says it has 375,000 registrants.

    Adding another layer of mystery, the company posted a video on its website that purports to feature the voice of Michael Anthony DeBias, the “CEO.” Michael A. DeBias is listed in Nevada corporation records as director, treasurer, secretary, and president of Alpha Market Research Inc., the apparent parent company of Website Tester.

    The address listed for Alpha Market Research — 3651 Lindell Rd.,  Las Vegas, NV. — appears to be the address of a company that offers “virtual office” services, meaning Alpha Market may not actually be located in Las Vegas. Promotional material attributed to Website Tester has featured awkward phrasing, including this curious sentence:

    “Potential clients who are disturbed by trifles during the ordering process are often unaware of exactly why.”

    The video includes audio that purports to be of DeBias’ voice, but does not show his face. The video does not explain why a company that is asking people from across the world to register and provide private information — and says citizens of 140 countries have done so — is not showing the face of its CEO.

    Meanwhile, a link at the Website Tester site is adding yet-another layer of mystery. Under a headline of “WebsiteTester.biz – Is it a Scam or Real Business,” the company is sending registrants and prospects to a purported news release posted on PRLog.org, a free news-release service.

    The news release is by an author who did not provide a name, but purported to have conducted an interview with DeBias. The news release author claimed that he or she had conducted “the first official interview” with DeBias.

    Why the author of the news release chose to remain anonymous was unclear. Why WebsiteTester would send traffic to a news release written by an anonymous author also was unclear.

    “We contacted the initiator, Alpha Market Research, Inc. (AMR), to find some answers,” the news release began.

    Although the news release used the word “We,” it did not define who “We” is — an individual, a company, a WebsiteTester affiliate, a company employee. The release included a link to yet-another anonymous release. The domain-registration data for the second anonymous release is unclear, meaning the ownership of the domain cannot be determined immediately.

    Meanwhile, the websites of both WebsiteTester.biz and Alpha Market Research are registered behind proxies. Separately, Alpha Market Research’s Twitter site shows 18,178 followers.

    Precisely what Website Tester and Alpha Market Research do remains unclear — weeks after the prelaunch hoopla began. The launch delay now apparently extends the hoopla.