PatrickPretty.com

Tag: email blast

  • ONLY ON THE INTERNET: Accused Huckster Andy Bowdoin’s Email ‘Blast’ To Raise 500K In Defense Funds May Begin Today; Recidivist Fraudster And Self-Described ‘Money Magnet’ Also Plans Facebook Appeal

    Accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin says he plans to open a Facebook fan page this weekend so AdSurfDaily members won't miss out on the opportunity to help him raise $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense, according to an email some ASD members received today.

    Federal prosecutors say Andy Bowdoin scammed investors in a securities swindle in the 1990s. They add that one of his partners in the autosurf trade was accused by the SEC in the 1990s of pitching a prime-bank swindle.

    Bowdoin, 76, was arrested in December on charges that he presided over an autosurf Ponzi scheme known as AdSurfDaily between 2006 and 2008. Among the allegations against Bowdoin was that the original iteration of ASD collapsed in a pile of Ponzi dust — and that Bowdoin simply started a new autosurf scheme to replace the collapsed one.

    After Bowdoin started his replacement fraud scheme in 2007, he then presided over efforts to start at least two additional autosurf fraud schemes. Those criminal efforts became hugely successful in 2008, sucking in at least $110 million, prosecutors said.

    Bowdoin, a self-described  “money magnet,” now is using a video pitch to raise $500,000 for his criminal defense. The accused con man now says an email “blast” to 77,000 ASD members he hopes will provide the funds to pay his lawyers will take place today after having been postponed last week.

    And Bowdoin, who once referred to the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors as “Satan” and claimed God was on his side, says he will launch a Facebook fan page “THIS WEEKEND” to bolster his fundraising efforts, according to an email some ASD members received today.

    Some ASD members have referred to the Secret Service and prosecutors as “goons” and “Nazis.” Others circulated a prayer calling for Bowdoin’s accusers to be struck dead from the heavens.

    In 2008, a federal judge presiding over a civil-forefeiture case involving about $80 million in seized funds linked to ASD was described as “brain dead” if she ruled against the firm.

    After the judge issued a key ruling against against the company, she was described as the operator of a “Kangaroo Court” who was conspiring with another federal judge also said to be operating a “Kangaroo Court.”

    Bowdoin, though, blamed his losses in the civil case — which included orders of forfeiture totaling about $80 million — on a “single, lone” judge.

    He also blamed his original attorneys and prosecutors. Bowdoin’s fundraising video in which he blamed the judge was released on the Internet on July 26, four days after he made his most recent appearance before the judge.

    Although the video initially advertised a July 15 launch date, that launch date was postponed until July 20 — and then until July 26.

  • DATA SHAPING? Bowdoin Email ‘Blasts’ To 77,000 Members Delayed In Favor Of Purported ‘Soft Launch’

    Andy Bowdoin

    Late Tuesday, a fundraising email attributed to accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily acknowledged that an advertised email “Blast” to 77,000 ASD members that was supposed to have occurred on Monday — the third anniversary of the Aug. 1, 2008, ASD-related asset seizures — had not occurred.

    What actually occurred, according to the email, was a purported “Soft Launch” to fewer than 500 ASD members. Despite an earlier  claim that the “Blast” to 77,000 members would occur Monday, the email backed away from the claim, advising recipients that the “Blast” was “COMING REAL SOON.”

    Bowdoin’s fundraising venture itself missed two advertised launch dates, but finally launched on July 26, fours days after Bowdoin’s most recent appearance before a federal judge in the District of Columbia.

    Tuesday’s email made various claims about the success of the purported “Soft Launch” so far while at once planting the seed that Bowdoin remains hugely popular among the ASD membership base.

    Because the email did not identify the characteristics of the ASD members initially contacted, the purported results — including a result that 110 people among the group of fewer than 500 initially contacted had made donations totaling “Over $4,400”  — could be heavily skewed in Bowdoin’s favor. As things stand, the email effectively makes the claim that more than 22 percent of the people initially contacted chose to donate to Bowdoin while suggesting the number could hold across a cross-section of 77,000 ASD members.

    The “average” donation was pegged at $40. Averages in such a small sample, however, can be misleading. The email did not reveal the amount of the smallest donation or the largest one.

    At the same time, the email does not say whether the “Soft Launch” group consisted of Bowdoin friends, family members, close business associates or people who may be friendly with Bowdoin such as former cheerleaders on the pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum. Nor does it say whether the initial contributors perhaps were predisposed to make a donation out of fear or concern that they had legal exposure because of the size of their downlines, the dollar volume they generated through ASD, the amount of “profits” they have lost as a result of their participation in ASD or the amount of interference they ran for Bowdoin before and after the August 2008 seizures of about $65.8 million from Bowdoin’s personal bank accounts.

    Some ASD members have more legal and financial exposure than others and may be predisposed to help Bowdoin raise funds to mount his criminal defense as a means of delaying their own day of reckoning. The government, however, has two civil judgments against ASD-related assets in its favor, and announced nearly three years ago that it was implementing a remissions program through which ASD victims would receive compensation for their losses through seized funds.

    Certain purported results suggest that, in the early stages of Bowdoin’s fundraising venture, the initial goal was to let Bowdoin bask in a preordained light and to shape the data to intensify the light. Although much has been made of a purported open rate of 42 percent — meaning that more than four out of 10 members of the initial group contacted opened the fundraising email — such a purportedly glowing statistic could be meaningless. Friends and foes alike are interested in Bowdoin news, and the nature of the initial group’s relationship with Bowdoin has not been revealed.

    If Bowdoin and his fundraising helpers already had a “hot” list of sympathizers, early purported success would not be surprising — in the same way that a self-evident result culled from baseball fans asked to name their favorite team while already inside the park of their favorite team would not be surprising.

  • UPDATE: No Reports Received Of Andy Bowdoin Email ‘Blast’ That Had Been Scheduled For Aug. 1, Third Anniversary Date Of AdSurfDaily-Related Asset Seizures (And Also Third Anniversary Of Total Eclipse Of The Sun)

    UPDATED 11:23 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.)

    Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin amid allegations he was presiding over an international autosurf Ponzi scheme from a former floral shop in Quincy, Fla.

    Although some ASD members had received an email that claimed an “Email Blast to the ASD Members List of Over 77,000” would occur yesterday as part of a bid to raise $500,000 to pay for Bowdoin’s criminal defense, the PP Blog has received no reports that such a “Blast” was sent.

    The Blog cannot independently confirm that no “Blast” occurred. If a full or partial “Blast” occurred yesterday, however, the event would have coincided with the third anniversary of the ASD-related asset seizures.

    Any spam complaints triggered by a “Blast” yesterday potentially could further cement Aug. 1 as an ignominious date in ASD history. On Aug. 1, 2008 — a date that ironically coincided with a total eclipse of the sun observable in parts of the Northern Hemisphere — federal agents stationed south of the eclipse zone were busy preparing their Ponzi case.

    Late in the afternoon of Aug. 1, a strange message signed “ASD Management” appeared on ASD’s website.

    “Friday, August 1st 2008 afternoon update,” the message began.

    “Upon direction from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia, ASD will not be able to move funds into company accounts, or out of them. We will work to resolve this problem, and return to normal operation, as soon as we are permitted to do so.”

    The ASD case has been nothing but strange since the initial asset seizures on the date it grew dark during daylight hours at the top of the earth. A short time after the initial seizures, Bowdoin compared federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service to “Satan” and the 9/11 terrorists.

    See earlier story.