Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

“Investors who suspect that their email account has been hacked should immediately notify their brokerage firm and other financial institutions, and anyone who suspects they have been defrauded should file a complaint with FINRA.” — Gerri Walsh, vice president for Investor Education, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Jan. 26, 2012 The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) […]

UPDATE: “Dave,” the purported “admin” of an increasingly bizarre HYIP known as JSS Tripler 2 (T2), has blocked public access to the T2 forum. T2, which purportedly was born after a meeting of Ponzi-forum minds, is using payment processors notoriously friendly to Ponzi and fraud schemes. The “program” is trading on the name of a […]

We’ve mentioned it before — and we’ll mention it again. In July 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) described the HYIP sphere as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.” It was as good a description as any, and here is yet another case in point: The MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum said today that it “temporarily” […]

The bizarre descent into chaos of a failing “program” that claimed to be moving to “offshore” servers and once made its participants swear they were not government spies or media lackeys has gotten stranger yet. Poster “10BucksUp,” who’s now flogging the JustBeenPaid “program,” falsely claimed on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum today that the PP Blog […]

You can’t make this stuff up . . . A Club Asteria pitchman flogging multiple HYIP schemes on the TalkGold Ponzi forum says that late-entry members of a teetering “program” known as “JustBeenPaid” are engaging in hurtful and “drastic measures” if they file disputes with AlertPay. Filing a dispute means that “all members will suffer,” […]

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 […]

UPDATED 9:09 A.M. EDT (June 14, U.S.A.) A PowerPoint pitch titled “Asteria Corporation” raises serious questions about the nature of the business “opportunity” and may undermine Club Asteria’s own claims that members alone are to blame for the company’s apparent troubles. The document is slugged “[ClubAsteriaPresentation]” and attributed to Asteria Corp. and Andrea Lucas. It […]

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 […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: The adjective-inspiring story below is made possible by the incongruous behavior of online pitchmen who operate in an environment the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) described last year as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.” Two promoters of Club Asteria, a business “opportunity” purportedly operated by a woman variously described as a former […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: You might feel a chill after reading the story below about Bertram A. Hill and co-defendants implicated by the SEC in an international fraud scheme that ensnared investors in the United States and Europe. The SEC case includes an allegation that U.S. retail brokers were solicited to push unqualified clients to a murky […]

Four egg-themed domain names used to drive business to HYIPs that ended in spectacular flameouts and foreshadowed a warning from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have gone missing. The domains — including one that redirected to an HYIP site known bizarrely as Cash Tanker, which used an image of Jesus Christ to promote a […]