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Tag: Golden Panda Ad Zone

  • Another HYIP Pushed By ASD Members Now DOA; Cypriot, Canadian Securities Regulators Issue Warnings About Genius Funds; Regulator Seeks Criminal Probe

    Regulators in Cyprus have referred Genius Funds for criminal investigation and released a warning that the company “[is] not permitted to provide investment and ancillary services in the Republic.”

    Genius Funds, a darling of the HYIP world,  was heavily promoted on the Ponzi boards. The program also is known as Genius Investments. The program was referred for criminal investigation by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, which also issued the warning. The announcement that the case was referred for criminal investigation was made Friday in Cyprus.

    One of the matters referred for criminal investigation pertained to a question about whether Genius Funds used a “falsified document that possibly stated that it possessed an operational license which was not authentic,” the Cypriot regulator said.

    Separately, Canadian securities regulators also have acted against Genius Funds, permanently banning the HYIP “for illegally selling securities,” the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) said.

    Genius Funds’ website is throwing a server error.

    The program was pitched on the pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum in December by a poster who dubbed himself “joe.” Genius Funds was one of four HYIP’s pitched by “joe” in an egg-themed promotion. The egg-themed domains redirected to HYIP programs.

    All of the programs appear to have failed or gone missing, but the egg-themed domain names now redirect to other HYIPs.

    “ALL MY EGGS ARE NOT IN ONE BASKET,” the Surf’s Up pitchman said in all-caps. “I MAKE 2000.00 A WEEK.”

    Some ASD members continued to promote autosurfs and HYIPs after the federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin in August 2008. The Surf’s Up forum went missing earlier this year.

    In recent weeks, the Golden Panda Ad Zone forum (also known as the Online Success Zone forum), another website from which ASD members pitched autosurf and HYIP programs, also went missing.

    BCSC opened its probe into Genius Funds after receiving a tip from “a financial institution,” the agency said.

    Read the Genius Funds’ announcement from Cyprus. Read the announcement from Canada.

  • A SILENT DEATH? Did GoldenPandaAdZone Forum For Autosurf Shills Follow Surf’s Up Into The Electronic Graveyard?

    Has the Golden Panda Ad Zone forum, which was renamed the Online Success Zone after federal agents seized tens of millions of dollars from AdSurfDaily and Golden Panda Ad Builder in 2008, followed the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum into the dust?

    The website URL — http://goldenpandaadzone.ning.com — now is returning the same error message Surf’s Up produced when it went missing early this year. Other failed autosurf forums on ning.com have generated the same error message.

    It was not immediately clear how long the Golden Panda Ad Zone forum has been offline. The forum was a meeting place at which promoters shilled for autosurf programs, cash-gifting schemes and other questionable “business opportunities” such as recyclers.

    It is believed that every single autosurf program pitched on the Golden Panda Ad Zone Forum collapsed or is in the process of failing, giving the forum an unblemished record for failure. In recent weeks, the forum was used to promote MLM programs such as Narc That Car and Data Network Affiliates.

    In one memorable video, the forum pitched multiple surf programs that reportedly collapsed this year or last after the spectacular seizures in the ASD case. These included — but are not limited to — Biz Ad Splash, AdGateWorld and Daily Profit Pond.

    Biz Ad Splash purportedly was operated by Clarence Busby, who presided over the collection of more than $14 million before it was seized in the ASD case and an untold sum with Biz Ad Splash. AdGateWorld, meanwhile, collapsed after collecting an untold sum and purportedly being sold to buyers in the “Middle East.”

    Daily Profit Pond, which suddenly went missing just prior to Christmas in 2008 after collecting an untold sum, also was said to have collapsed.

    In AdGateWorld’s earliest days, the acronym “ASD” appeared in its Terms of Service, which suggested the surf simply copied and pasted terms from one program to another.

    The Golden Panda Ad Zone forum also was notable for promoting MegaLido, another program that resulted in a spectacular flameout prior to the 2008 Holiday Season, and a host of cash-gifting schemes promoted as “Pay It Forward.”

    “Pay It Forward” is a promotional scheme by which members sign up under each others links as a means of assuring they can build downlines or establish relationships with like-minded participants.

    Autosurf programs that pay a lower daily rate “normally have sustainability,” a forum pitchman counseled prospects in a video. He cited no authority for the claim, but noted that 7 percent to 14 percent a week was a “really, really good” return that no bank could match.

    “I can assure you [of] that,” the pitchman said, noting that higher return-on-investment surf programs “just tend to go away quicker.”

    MegaLido, he explained, might have been a clunker because its advertised payout rate of about 13 percent a day perhaps made it unsustainable. How a program that paid a lower rate of say, 1 percent a day or 365 percent a year, could be any more sustainable without being a Ponzi scheme never was explained.

    Like their brick-and mortar cousins, autosurf Ponzi schemes are not sustainable. They sustain themselves temporarily only through the use of smoke-and-mirrors, paying old members with money from new members to create the mirage of sustainability and performing other sleight-of-hand such as “80/20” programs to minimize cash outflow. Ponzi scheme operators typically siphon funds paid by investors, which is a form of theft. Prosecutors view the money as proceeds of a crime.

    Like the Surf’s Up forum — but to a lesser degree — the Golden Panda Ad Zone forum became an outlet for members to complain about how the government views the autosurf “industry.” Some members complained openly, if not bitterly, about perceived “slow” refunds as a result of the seizure of assets connected to ASD and Golden Panda.

    Those assets were seized amid wire-fraud, money-laundering and Ponzi scheme allegations — but members continued to push surf programs even after the seizure, while still complaining about “slow” refunds.

    The complaints continued even after the government explained it had not perfected title to the seized assets because of court challenges by Andy Bowdoin. Although the government now holds title to the assets, an appeal filed by Bowdoin in one of the forfeiture cases — and the prospect of a Bowdoin appeal being filed in a second case — means that restitution could be delayed even longer, prosecutors said.

    Some Golden Panda Ad Zone members positioned new surf programs as a means by which ASD and Golden Panda members could recover losses. Like Surf’s Up, entire threads went missing at the Golden Panda Ad Zone forum.

    One thread that went missing pertained to a surf program purportedly operated by ASD Chief Executive Officer Juan Fernandez after the ASD seizure. Some Golden Panda Ad Zone members  used religion in their sales pitches.

    Religion also was an element in ASD pitches. ASD President Andy Bowdoin told a crowd assembled at a company “rally” in Las Vegas that he thanked God for making him a “money magnet.”

    Prosecutors said Bowdoin family members and at least one insider embarked on a spending spree less than two weeks after the Las Vegas rally concluded on May 31, 2008, purchasing cars, jet skis, a boat and haul equipment — and retiring the $157,000 mortgage on the Tallahassee home of George and Judy Harris.

    George Harris is Bowdoin’s stepson. Members later said he was the co-owner of the AdViewGlobal (AVG)  autosurf, which crashed and burned in June 2009, after launching in the aftermath of the ASD seizure and in the weeks after a key court ruling went against ASD.

    Some members of the Golden Panda Ad Zone also pitched AVG, despite everything that had happened to ASD, Golden Panda and a related surf known as LaFuenteDinero. There were reports later that at least $2.7 million was stolen from AVG, but the reports have not been confirmed.

    After AVG announced a suspension of cashouts last summer and exercised its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause, the surf said that, if the program restarted, an “80/20” program would become mandatory.

    AVG pitchmen started out by saying the surf paid about 1 percent a day — or 365 percent a year — an amount the Golden Panda Ad Zone pitchman described as reasonable and sustainable for  autosurfs in general.

    The claims were made despite the fact that prosecutors had laid out a case against ASD that its 1 percent daily payout rate was unsustainable and that the surf was insolvent.

  • While Asking Members To Input License-Plate Numbers And Citing U.S. Based AMBER Alert In Promos, Data Network Affiliates Lists Domain-Registration Address In Cayman Islands

    UPDATED 2:37 P.M. ET (March 5, U.S.A.) If the United States or any U.S. based police agency were to purchase database entries from Data Network Affiliates (DNA), the government and the agencies would be purchasing information from a company that uses a Cayman Islands address.

    Even as it suggests the U.S.-based AMBER Alert program is wasting taxpayers’ money and encourages U.S. residents to write down the license-plate numbers of their neighbors for entry in a database, DNA is using a service in the Cayman Islands to keep the registration data of its domain name hidden.

    The street address in the registration data is used by an untold number of businesses, including porn sites and malware sites, according to Google search results. On May 4, 2009, President Obama specifically cited the Cayman Islands in remarks on his initiative to combat offshore tax fraud.

    Using capital letters on its website, DNA said the U.S.-based AMBER Alert system had recovered “ONLY” 492 abducted children, saying “DNA could help in such safe recoveries at a fraction of cost of Amber Alert.” Meanwhile, a DNA pitchman in a conference call questioned AMBER Alert’s effectiveness, even as DNA was using an address in the Cayman Islands.

    “I’m pretty sure you heard of AMBER Alert,” he said. “It saved over 497 people. But guess what? AMBER Alert, I think, costs about over $100 million a year or some kind of astronomical number.”

    The same pitchman also has suggested that U.S. church parking lots and the parking lots of giant retailers such as U.S.-based Walmart were places DNA members could harvest license-plate numbers for entry in DNA’s database.

    Why the company chose a Cayman Islands address for its website is unclear. Also unclear is why DNA would at once criticize AMBER Alert while repeatedly using its name to generate business for a company that lists its address as George Town, Grand Cayman, the capital city of the Caribbean nation in the British West Indies.

    AMBER Alert is managed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Its secondary program is managed by the U.S.-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

    Like Narc That Car — another company that is urging members to write down license-plate numbers — the DNA pitchman implored prospects to view the company as an excellent tool for “law enforcement.”

    “We’ll be able to reunite families,” he said. He did not reference the Cayman Islands domain registration in his pitch.

    DNA says it has an “Executive Power Team,” identifying Dean Blechman as its chief executive officer, board chairman and founder.

    “In the early 1990’s Mr. Blechman served as Director and Board Member of the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA),” DNA says on its website. “Mr. Blechman was a key strategist and lobbyist for the NNFA and was influential in the team that was responsible for the passage in 1994 of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act through the United States Congress and Senate. This bill still stands today as one of the most important pieces of legislation in the Health Food and Natural Food Supplement Industry.”

    Troy Dooly, a multilevel-marketing (MLM) aficionado who runs the MLM Help Desk website, issued a Scam Alert on DNA yesterday. Dooly’s Scam Alert followed on the heels of an earlier one he issued for Narc That Car, which is the subject of an inquiry by the BBB in Dallas and an inquiry by the district attorney of Henderson County, Texas.

    “Data Network Affiliates aka DNA makes Narc That Car look like saints,” Dooly said on the MLM Help Desk website.

    Meanwhile, MLM aficionado Rod Cook, who was threatened with lawsuits for publishing information on AdSurfDaily, which later was implicated in a $100 million Ponzi scheme, also has labeled Narc That Car a scam.

    Narc That Car is “one of the cutest pyramid tricks ever pulled!!!!” Cook exclaimed on his MLM Watchdog website.

    Separately, a You Tube site featuring a Jeff Long video for Narc That Car in which Long informs viewers that he recorded 100 license-plate numbers for Narc That Car on his iPhone as he strolled though a Walmart parking lot, now says that he has jumped ship to DNA.

    In the Narc That Car video, Long said he collected so many license-plate numbers at Walmart that he could give some way to Narc That Car prospects, perhaps even enough for them to qualify for a $55 payout without leaving home.

    Long, though, now has turned sour on Narc That Car, according to a screaming message on the YouTube site.

    “This video talks about NARC That Car,” a message on the YouTube site says. “IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON MARKETING THIS BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET DO NOT JOIN!!!!! NarcThatCar CANCELED AND DISABLED My distributorship because I put this video YouTube…I’m now the #1 leader and sponsor in their BIGGEST COMPETITOR’S BUSINESS…DataNetworkAffiliates. Again…don’t join NarcThatCar if you plan on marketing on the internet!!!!!! JOIN DNA WITH ME FOR 100% FREE!”

    Long’s name was referenced in a recent DNA conference call.

    In other Narc That Car news, promoter “Jah” says he has received a check for $70 from Narc That Car.

    Jah, who says he has a Narc That Car team of 100 members, posted a video of the check on YouTube.

    In May 2009, Obama announced a crackdown on offshore fraud. On the same date — May 4 — the AdViewGlobal autosurf announced it had secured a new international wire facility. AVG crashed and burned in June 2009. The company it identified as its facilitator — KINGZ Capital Management Corp. (KCM) — later was banned by the National Futures Association (NFA) amid allegations that it failed to uphold high ethical standards and failed to supervise its operations.

    NFA’s specific ban on KCM centered on Minnesota Ponzi scheme figure Trevor Cook, who allegedly managed a KCM investment pool. Cook is one of two central figures in an alleged Ponzi scheme and financial fraud involving at least $190 million. The other central figure is Pat Kiley, a former host on Christian radio.

    Promotions for Narc That Car have appeared on the former Golden Panda Ad Zone forum, now known as the Online Success Zone. A pitch for DNA also appears on the site, as well as a promoter’s link to DNA conference calls.

    Golden Panda was implicated in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.

    At least three promos for Narc That Car and DNA have appeared on the former Golden Panda forum in recent days. One of the promos for Narc That Car was deleted. Two remain: one for Narc That Car, another for DNA.

    “UPDATE: D.N.A – FREE Method of Earning GOOD Money…Just surpassed 19,000 Members and Climbing,” says the headline in the DNA promo on the former Golden Panda site.