PatrickPretty.com

Tag: JustBeenPaid

  • Baton Rouge Cop-Killer Was ‘Sovereign Citizen’ And ‘Moor’ — And Also Claimed To Have Been In Dallas

    Gavin Eugene Long, the alleged mass murderer of police officers in Baton Rouge yesterday, was a “sovereign citizen” and “MOOR,” according to a bizarre filing in his name last year with the recorder of deeds in Jackson County, Mo.

    The news of the filing appeared in the Kansas City Star. Here is a copy of Long’s rambling narrative in which he purportedly changed his name to “Cosmo Ausar Setepenra.”

    CBS News reported Long, a Kansas City native, claimed to have been in Dallas after the July 7 ambush murders of five police officers there by Micah Xavier Johnson.

    “Sovereign citizens” form an irrational belief that laws to not apply to them. African Americans who may self-identify as “sovereigns” sometimes express an affiliation with Moors or Moorishness. Long, killed after reportedly ambushing police, was African American.

    Published reports have described Long as a self-identified “nutritionist, life coach, dietitian, personal trainer, author and spiritual adviser.” Three law-enforcement officers died in Baton Rouge yesterday. Three others were injured.

    Some “sovereigns” have participated in HYIP schemes such as AdSurfDaily, Zeek Rewards, JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler and DFRF Enterprises.

    Visit the PP Blog’s tag archive on references to “sovereign citizens.”




  • Black December Fears Over AdClickXPress, Successor Scam To ‘JustBeenPaid’ And Others

    adclickxpressAs the PP Blog reported nearly a year ago, AdClickXpress (ACX) was a continuation of an absurd scam that began years ago as JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid, with antigovernment zealot and “sovereign citizen” sympathizer Frederick Mann at the helm.

    Just in time for the 2015 holiday season, there are reports that ACX has suspended payouts or is making selective payouts. In HYIP Ponzi Land, this is consistent with “Black December,” the collapse of a “program” because too many people are trying to withdraw or the operator just decides to keep all the Ponzi cash.

    “I have not be able to withdraw,”  a self-identified ACX membeer told the PP Blog today. “They keep changing their withdrawal policy and now we are all [convinced]  it is a scam.”

    See the PP Blog’s tag archive of references to “JustBeenPaid.”

    From the PP Blog on Nov. 29, 2014 (italics added):

    By the Terms alone, ACX makes co-conspirators of its members. And after this artifice is carried out, it divines a construction by which it will penalize “significantly” and unilaterally calculate damages purportedly caused by those same members who’d dare post “negative information . . . even if it’s absolutely true.”

    Separately, there are unconfirmed reports on MoneyMakerGroup that Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JPB and the de facto inspiration behind the follow-up scams, has died. Mann, a former pitchmen for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme,  once directed traffic to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox, the now-convicted Alaska “sovereign citizen” and militia man implicated in a plot to murder public officials.

    In 2012, Mann described government workers as “part of a criminal gang of robbers, thieves, murderers, liars, imposters.”

  • Now, ‘TelexMOB’

    TelexMoblogoUPDATED 11:25 A.M. EDT U.S.A. Something calling itself “TelexMOB” has established a web presence this month. A logo resembling that of TelexFree — an alleged Ponzi- and pyramid scheme said to have gathered $1.8 billion across national borders — appears on the site.

    BehindMLM.com was first with the news today.

    The PP Blog has sent requests for comment to three government agencies and to Stephen B. Darr, the court-appointed trustee in the TelexFree bankruptcy case. The Blog will post the responses, if received.

    Update 10:10 a.m. EDT U.S.A. “I have no comment, since I have no knowledge of TelexMOB,” Darr said in an email this morning.

    Update 11:25 a.m. EDT U.S.A. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this morning declined to comment on TelexMOB. (Original story continues below . . .)

    It is not unusual for knockoff schemes to emerge in the HYIP sphere in the aftermath of a collapse, a disappearing act or a government action. Examples of this include the infamous JSSTripler 2 scheme, a scam riding on the name of the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid scheme, which advertised an annual return of 730 percent in 2012.

    Content appears on the TelexMOB website in English and Portuguese. Some of the English is fractured. A 16-page pdf handout on the site is written in Portuguese. The last two words in the pdf, however, are in English.

    “Welcome Back,” it reads, potentially a direct appeal to TelexFree participants.

    The site appears to be using a New Zealand privacy service. The servers may be in the United States.

    JSSTripler 2 was memorable for reasons beyond its knockoff name. In January 2012, for example, it sparked legendary HYIP huckster Faith Sloan to call “Ken Russo,” another legendary huckster, a “crybaby.”

    A claim of Dengue Fever accompanied the JSSTripler2 scheme.

    Sloan published a JSSTripler 2 earnings calculator. She’d later become a defendant in the SEC’s civil case against TelexFree, filed in April 2014.

  • AdClickXpress, Successor Scam To 2 Earlier Scams, Stirring Again — And Gets Bad Press In South African Media

    “6. I affirm that I am not an employee or official of any government agency, nor am I acting on behalf of or collecting information for or on behalf of any government agency. I affirm that I am not an employee, by contract or otherwise, of any media or research company, and I am not reading any of the Ad Click Xpress pages in order to collect information for someone else.” — From the AdClickXpress Terms of Service, Nov. 29, 2014

    adclickxpressThe carcass of AdClickXpress (ACX) is stirring —  just in time to cast a spell on suckers hoping to find some extra money for the holidays. Like predecessor scams JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid and ProfitClicking in the same criminal family, ACX fancies itself the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) of online schemes.

    In short, ACX ropes “customers” into an international financial conspiracy theoretically designed to be offshore everywhere. But deliberately taunting government investigators in its Terms of Service (see breakout quote above from the Terms) appears only to have been a first act. The “program” now appears to be taunting its own members and prospects.

    From a Sept. 10, 2014, post on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum, quoting from the taunt (italics/bolding added):

    Note: if members are found to have posted negative information about ACX, even if it is absolutely true, their account could be penalized significantly. ACX Management will be the sole determinant as to how much damage the member has caused other ACX Members.

    Like the bizarre and incongruous AdViewGlobal scam before it, ACX fancies itself a “private association.” But even if it were one of those — and even if in theory it could hamstring government investigators and reporters with a vomitous word salad — it is a “private association” that threatens its own members in ways the Mafia wouldn’t consider.

    So, at least by Sept. 10, ACX began serving up BannersBroker-like word-sewage. It’s all designed to confuse and to obfuscate, of course.

    By the Terms alone, ACX makes co-conspirators of its members. And after this artifice is carried out, it divines a construction by which it will penalize “significantly” and unilaterally calculate damages purportedly caused by those same members who’d dare post “negative information . . . even if it’s absolutely true.”

    Separately, there are unconfirmed reports on MoneyMakerGroup that Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JPB and the de facto inspiration behind the follow-up scams, has died. Mann, a former pitchmen for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme,  once directed traffic to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox, the now-convicted Alaska “sovereign citizen” and militia man implicated in a plot to murder public officials.

    In 2012, Mann described government workers as “part of a criminal gang of robbers, thieves, murderers, liars, imposters.”

    On Nov. 22, IOL, a South African group of independent newspapers, published a story titled “Massive losses in scams only a click away.”

    Among other things, the paper reported people in that Strand/Somerset West area of the Western Cape appear to have become ACX victims.

  • Launch Of Murky BitClub Network ‘Program’ Appears To Be Under Way

    From a BitClub Network promo on a page in Indonesian today. Red blocks by PP Blog.
    From a BitClub Network promo on a page in Indonesian today. Red blocks by PP Blog.

    Much remains murky about BitClub Network, a Bitcoin-themed “program” that in typical HYIP fashion missed at least three advertised launch dates earlier this month.

    The launch, however, now appears to have gotten under way shortly after “2 p.m. EST” today, a possible indicator that the “program” is using Panama time.

    One promo the PP Blog observed shortly after the launch time was in Indonesian. It appeared to claim that BitClub Network paid between 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent a day. If we are reading this claim correctly, it appears as though the promoter is saying recruits who send in $3,000 will earn somewhere between $9 and $24 a day — or between $270 and $720 a month.

    We ran the Indonesian claim through Google Translate. Here is part of what the English translation reads (italics added):

    . . . the process is run by experts [mining?] bitcoin Digital Currency you just sit at home and receive a daily income of about 0.3 to 0.8% everyday.

    The Indonesian pitch also referred to “compounding.” Many HYIP schemes purport that “earnings” can be compounded and that relatively small sums will be become tremendous fortunes over time. Zeek Rewards, which allegedly collected on the order of $850 million in a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that lasted less than two years, was such a “compounding” program.

    If our reading of the early info on BitClub Network is correct, it is an upstart offering fraud with a lower daily payout rate than Zeek, which averaged about 1.5 percent. Promos for Bitclub Network claim recruits will get paid for 1,000 days. Zeek had a much shorter term, absent “rollovers.” BitClub Network also may have a rollover feature.

    Alleged Zeek Rewards winner Brian Spatola of Randolph, N.J., appears to be on the front lines of BitClub Network.  So does alleged Zeek winner T. LeMont Silver, a named defendant in a clawback action by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case.

    The BitClubNetwork site itself today was using rolling headlines from other sites. One read, “United Way Becomes Largest Nonprofit to Accept Bitcoin.”

    Some scams trade on the names of reputable entities as a means of creating a veneer of legitimacy. The names of other famous companies easily could appear in the rolling headlines on BitClub Network, which is presented as a “mining” venture that offers “shares.”

    That famous entities may use Bitcoin does not mean that BitClub Network itself is legitimate. Prior to the emergence of Bitcoin, the scammers who promote HYIPs routinely traded on the names of famous banks and credit-card companies, hoping the legitimacy of those enterprises would rub off on the emerging scams.

    Regulators have issued repeated warnings about the volatility of Bitcoin values and about scams that seek to tie themselves to Bitcoin.

    Here is part of what BitClub Network says about itself on its website (italics added):

    BitClub is not owned by any one person, we are a team of experts, entrepreneurs, professionals, network marketers, and programming geeks who have all come to together to launch a very simple business around a very complex industry. Anyone can join BitClub and begin earning a passive income by taking advantage of our expertise in Bitcoin mining and other Bitcoin related services.

    Fuzzy ownership and claims about “passive income” lead to questions about whether a “program” is conducting an offering fraud, selling unregistered securities as investment contracts and permitting recruits who have little or no net worth to direct whatever safety blanket they have to murky enterprises with long reach.

    Zeek Rewards preemptively denied it was a “pyramid scheme.” On its website, BitClub Network preemptively denies it is a “ponzi scheme .” The “program” claims to be “based in Europe.”

    It further claims to operate “virtually with contributors from all over the world.”

    And, it claims, “[o]ur main servers and technology for digital mining is located in a very secure and private location that will only be made available by pictures and a live video feed in the near future.”

    An earlier HYIP “program” known as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid appeared to use servers in the Netherlands. Frederick Mann, its murky purported operator, once fretted that the JSS/JBP servers could be subjected to a “cruise missile” attack.

    This is from the FAQs at the BitClub Network site (italics added):

    Q – If BitClub is already successful at mining Bitcoin then why are you sharing profit? Great Question!s [sic]

    A: Because of how mining works it is always getting harder and harder for smaller mines to make great profits. This is quickly turning into a game for the big boys. Bigger orders mean bigger discounts on hardware, less electricity and rent per Ghz, more flexibility in what is mined and many other factors. By starting BitClub Network we know that over the next couple of years we could become one of the largest most profitable mines in the world. We will actually make more money sharing the profits with you. That’s why there are so many mining pools, we are just doing things a little differently. We believe in the motto “Making money is a team sport.”

    Despite the fact BitClub Network says it does not promote that “a share will have set return and we don’t offer 100% ROI claims,” the site in Indonesian is making a claim that the daily payout will range between 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent. If people send in $3,000 and purportedly make between $9 and $24 a day with it, they’d make between $9,000 and $24,000 in BitClub Network’s purported term of 1,000 days.

    Bernard Madoff would not have dared to be so bold.

    A graphic of a smiling miner wearing a button-down shirt and swinging a pick appears on the site in Indonesian. Another graphic at the site shows Bitcoin and an Automated Teller Machine — as through BitClubNetwork will be the easiest thing in the world, that laborers worldwide will be smiling.

    The site in Indonesian also carries graphics of nice automobiles. A photo displays people standing in front of a “HOLLYWOOD” sign — presumptively in California. The banner in part reads, “MALAYSIA.”

    Another “MALAYSIA” banner appears in the foreground of a shot that shows people and pine trees set against a backdrop of snow.

    Following a recent pattern in HYIP promos, famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe also appear on the site in Indonesian.

  • MORE MLM WHACK-A-MOLE: (1) Quebec Securities Regulator Issues Warning On Karatbars International; (2) Cross-Border Colleagues Follow Suit; (3) Former Zeek Ponzi Scheme Pitchman Defends ‘Program’ As Others Push It Alongside TelexFree

    Source: Online pitch for Zeek.
    Source: Online pitch for Zeek.

    UPDATED 12:21 P.M. EDT (MARCH 28, U.S.A.) Whack-A-Mole. Here’s the latest disturbing incarnation: On March 20, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) published a warning on a gold “program” known as Karatbars International GmbH. BehindMLM.com spotlighted the warning yesterday.

    From the AMF warning (bolding added): “With the company’s ‘Affiliates’ program, investors can make Internet-based purchases through Karatbars plans and they are encouraged to recruit two other Affiliates. These Affiliates are in turn encouraged to recruit two other Affiliates each, and so on. Affiliates are lured by the possibility of earning large payouts, in particular through a percentage of amounts collected from the Karatbars plans and gold products purchased by referrals.”

    After AMF published its warning, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) republished it. So did the Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand (FMA).

    These things apparently meant little to former Zeek Rewards’ pitchman Lloyd Merrifield, who “defended” Karatbars International on BehindMLM. Zeek was an international Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $850 million, according to court records.

    You’ll see a reference to Merrifield in the Comments thread below this Dec. 17, 2010, PP Blog story: “URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Secret Service Has Seized More ASD Cash; Forfeiture Complaint Filed Today Against Bank Accounts Controlled By Erma ‘Web Room Lady’ Seabaugh And Robyn Lynn Stevenson.”

    ASD (AdSurfDaily) was an international Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $119 million, according to court records. Meanwhile, you’ll also see a reference to Merrifield below this June 25, 2009, PP Blog story about AdViewGlobal, an ASD reload scam: “AdViewGlobal ‘Surf’ Firm Suspends Member Cash-Outs, Threatens Media With Copyright-Infringement Lawsuits.”

    AdViewGlobal was an international Ponzi scheme that gathered an unknown sum before vanishing mysteriously in 2009. U.S. federal prosecutors linked it to ASD in April 2012.

    Merrifield also was a pitchman for Ad-Ventures4u (ADV4U), an ASD-like HYIP scam tied to shiny-object scam known as “TradingGold4Cash.” And why not Tazoodle, a search-engine “program” whose “board” consisted of former ASD members who had the big idea they were going to unseat Google? Yep. Merrifield was there, too.

    Along with ADV4U and Tazoodle, Merrifield pitched something called “20Clicks” as part of an overall package known as “The Golden Eggs.” (In 2009, the 20 Clicks website said it was “Powered by USHBB.com.” USHBB later was associated with the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme and is listed as a “winner” in a document assembled by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Ponzi/pyramid case.)

    At least one HYIP pitchfest site that describes Merrifield as a “featured speaker” for Karatbars International has led cheers for “programs” such as AdHitProfits and MyFunLife and BannersBroker — and an emerging darling known as FlexKom. The site also has pushed “ProfitClicking,” one of the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid reload scams linked to former ASD pitchman Frederick Mann.

    Mann, among other things, may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.

    Merrifield, perhaps ignoring this 2010 FINRA warning on HYIP schemes and social media, pitches Karatbars International on YouTube and coaches viewers to line up recruits via craigslist.

    Source: YouTube
    Source: YouTube

    On BehindMLM, Merrifield says he’s been “in the Investment Banking industry for over 35 years.”

    As always, HYIP “programs” and similar ventures that may lack licensing in individual jurisdictions across the world raise the prospect that banks and payment processors are coming into possession of funds tainted by fraud. In some cases, those funds have circulated between and among various schemes.

    A quick Google search shows that some pitchmen are promoting Karatbars International alongside TelexFree, a “program” under investigation in North America, South America and Africa. TelexFree also has been promoted in concert with the WCM777 MLM scam.

    From a simultaneous video pitch for Karatbars International and TelexFree.
    From a video pitch that simultaneously pushes Karatbars International and TelexFree.

  • REPORT: Woman Survives TelexFree-Related Death Plunge

    The "Aunt Ethels" of the world will be thrilled to join TelexFree, according to a sales pitch by U.S.-based hucksters.
    The “Aunt Ethels” of the world will be thrilled to join TelexFree once they see friends and neighbors prospering, according to a sales pitch by U.S.-based hucksters.

    A woman who borrowed money to join the TelexFree MLM “program” leaped from the fifth floor of a parking garage at the Manaíra Mall, a Brazilian news portal is reporting.

    PBAgora.com.br, based in the Brazilian state of Paraíba, reported yesterday that the woman was injured critically, but survived the plunge.  She is being treated at a hospital. (See Google translation from Portuguese to English.)

    Paraíba is as far east as one can go in Brazil. A pyramid-scheme investigation into TelexFree is centered virtually the entire way across the country in the state of Acre. Acre is as far west as one can go in Brazil.  The states’ respective capitals — João Pessoa in Paraíba and Rio Branco in Acre — are roughly what New York and Los Angeles are to each other in terms of distance. The Manaíra Mall is located in João Pessoa.

    How deeply TelexFree had penetrated Paraíba is unclear. There are reports that 10 percent of the population of Acre may be involved in TelexFree. In terms of population, Paraíba’s 3.8 million is roughly five times that of Acre.

    It is not unusual for HYIP participants to borrow large sums of money, take out second mortgages or other lines of credit or even raid retirement accounts to join a scheme. Some U.S.-based promoters claim a payment of  $15,125 to TelexFree returns at least $42,075 in a year and suggest that the “Aunt Ethels” of the world will be thrilled to join TelexFree because friends and neighbors are prospering.

    When schemes go bust or are taken down by a government, promoters typically claim that they never encouraged participants to become highly leveraged to join a scheme. (See June 2, 2012, PP Blog story that references “Ping,” a woman who complained her health was suffering and her frustration level was building because the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP scheme had put her through customer-service hell and that her sister was a risk of losing her house after joining the “program.”)

    How and when the woman in Paraíba apparently joined TelexFree are unclear. Brazil registrations were blocked by an Acre court in June. So were payouts to members in Brazil. The judge and a prosecutor in Acre reportedly have been threatened with death. There are concerns that some Brazilian members of TelexFree have crossed national borders to keep their “program” participation intact and have been encouraged to pretend they’re from another country when enrolling.

    Despite the Acre TelexFree probe and incongruities associated with the scheme, the death threats, bids by TelexFree to drive even more money to the scheme by sending members invoices for 20 percent of their year-to-year earnings and now a reported suicide bid, U.S.-based promoters and promoters from other countries continue to solicit for the scheme.

  • OUR ANSWER: ‘Nuts!’ PP Blog Receives Threat That ‘Authorities’ Will Move Against It If It Doesn’t Remove Content About Profitable Sunrise Figure Nanci Jo Frazer And Others; Email Claims FBI ‘Fully Aware Of All Your Consistent Attempts’ To Harm Frazer Group

    profitablesunrisethreateningemails

    “No!” Make that “Hell no!” — or, as Gen. Anthony McAuliffe once famously scribbled at the prompting of Gen. Harry W.O. Kinnard during the Battle of the Bulge, after soldiers for the Nazi Third Reich demanded surrender: “Nuts!”

    At 12:11 a.m. ET today, the PP Blog inexplicably received five duplicate emails from an IP in the vicinity of Tiffin, a city in North Central Ohio. The emails were sent through the Blog’s contact form and threatened that “the authorities” would get involved if the Blog did not remove content about Nanci Jo Frazer and other Profitable Sunrise story figures by Nov. 15, nine days from today. The emails were signed “Nanci Jo Frazer,” but the Blog cannot independently confirm Frazer was the sender.

    Why the Blog received five emails is unknown. The Blog tested the form after receiving the duplicated submissions, and it appears to be working properly, meaning it does not appear to be sending multiple copies of inquiries from readers. The Blog, however, did experience an outage that lasted approximately two hours yesterday. The outage occurred shortly after an IP from Ukraine made an appearance here at approximately 1:50 p.m. (Bots that leave a Ukranian signature have been circling the Blog for weeks.) The precise cause of yesterday’s outage, which occurred after the Blog reported on an HYIP/prime-bank scam in California outed as part of an FBI undercover operation that began in 2006, remains unclear.

    In any event, the Blog will not remove any Frazer or Profitable Sunrise-related content unless ordered to do so by a U.S. federal judge. Nor will it submit to threats that incongruously are mixed with appeals to the Christian faith to make posts go missing. HYIP schemes are all about incongruities and preposterous constructions: “secret” or “safe” or “guaranteed” or “insured” investments that purportedly are “offshore” and able to deliver Christians and other people of faith legitimate interest rates of hundreds or even thousands of percent each year, for instance.

    For security reasons, the Blog will not reply to the emails at the Gmail address entered by the sender. Instead, it will publish the content of the emails in this  space. The FBI is free to make its own assessment about acts attributed to the agency by the sender in or around Tiffin. The Blog also will continue to publish Profitable Sunrise-related stories. Such stories are in the public interest.

    The emails build on a conspiracy theory that has been circulating for weeks: that the Blog somehow acts in concert with fraudsters, cyberstalkers and at least one felon posing as a Christian do-gooder to subject Nancy Jo Frazer and her ministry to harm. Meanwhile, the emails plant the equally false seed that the Blog is part of a group involved in Bitcoin scams.

    Among other things, the emails seek to chill the Blog’s reporting by contending that “The FBI is fully aware of all your consistent attempts to keep my name and our FocusUp Ministries Board members, our staff, voluteers and even my husband (who had no connection) tagged to negative , damaging words (such as scam, fraud and Ponzi) along with negative press and stories we are not connected to at all.” (No editing performed by PP Blog.)

    “Last week through a phone conversation, the Senior investigator from the FBI, instructed me to have my attorney send you a Cease and Desist and demand for immediate removal of your unauthorized usage of materials, videos, audio, all radio & TV media, articles and all types of communication connected to FocusUp Ministries and our Board Members, staff and volunteers: including Nanci Jo Frazer (Nancy Frazer) and Albert Rosebrock, David Steckel (volunteer), Jon Simmons (staff pastor) also my husband David Frazer,” the emails read in part. (No editing performed by PP Blog.)

    The emails did not identify the purported “Senior investigator from the FBI” who purportedly gave the sender instructions on how to accomplish the deletion of PP Blog content the apparent Frazer group supporter finds both objectionable and actionable. The PP Blog is willing, however, to voluntarily provide the IP address of the sender to the FBI, the SEC, the Ohio Office of the Attorney General or other law-enforcement agency in the United States that has an interest in the Profitable Sunrise case.

    No subpoena will be necessary; we’ll simply provide the information and copies of the email, once the Blog verifies the request is genuine.

    Over the years, the PP Blog has encountered various bids to chill its reporting on the HYIP sphere, including a sustained DDoS attack in 2010 and traffic floods in 2011 for which the Blog received a claim of responsibility. The Blog forwarded the claim to a U.S. law-enforcement agency.

    In 2012, during a period of heavy reporting on two specific HYIP schemes, the Blog received repeated threats believed to be from different senders. Two of the threats were not aimed at the Blog. The first was received Aug. 6, 2012, and was aimed at three prominent U.S. politicians: one Democrat and two Republicans.  This communication appeared to have been sent from Switzerland and questioned why the American politicians are “still alive and running around.” The email further described an American subject of the PP Blog’s crime reporting as a “true Patriot[]” who, like other purported “Patriots,” believed in “sending out mercenaries to take out those corrupt bankers, USG politicians, agents, judges and attorney’s [sic].”

    Such content is consistent with members of the so-called Patriot Movement or similar U.S. extremists who identify themselves as “sovereign citizens.” Because the communication appears to have originated in a country famous for banking secrecy, it leads to questions about whether U.S. domestic extremists were networking with counterparts in Europe or perhaps were there themselves to “defend” HYIP schemes and chill reporting on the outrageous frauds by suggesting that mercenaries and assassins were at their disposal.

    The second communication, received Aug. 29, 2012, was aimed at the alleged operator of a huge international Ponzi scheme. This communication appears to blame the accused operator for not properly defending the purported opportunity from investigations by the U.S. government.

    “why you don’t stand to back [program name deleted by PP Blog][?]” the communication read in part.

    “we lost our money. we will kill you . . .”

    The communication concluded by slurring the alleged Ponzi operator as a “dog.” It appears to have been sent from Pakistan.

    Yet-another 2012 communication believed to be from a different sender suggested that members of the PP Blog’s family might die if the Blog continued to report on HYIP schemes. The Blog forwarded all of these communications to a U.S. law-enforcement agency.

    In 2009, the Blog repeatedly was stalked by an apologist for the AdSurfDaily and AdViewGlobal Ponzi schemes who sought to engineer an SEO campaign against the Blog. This tactic was repeated in 2012 by an apologist for the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid scheme which, like ASD and AVG, may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.

    This specific individual appears to have been inspired in part by an infamous troll whose posts and visits bear an IP signature from the United Kingdom. The troll has been attacking antiscam sites since at least 2009, often incorporating sexual innuendo, antiChristian themes and elements of misogyny into his bizarre and vulgar game plan. In any event, the JSS/JBP apologist he inspired asserted he’d defend purported operator Frederick Mann “so help me God.” He also targeted specific PP Blog readers in an SEO campaign carried out on a free Blogger site — all while spreading absurd conspiracy theories and utterly preposterous lies. At the same time, he appears to have embedded code in certain communications as a means of trying to identify potential federal witnesses and perhaps even obtain/isolate the identities undercover federal agents may use online.

    Requests for the Blog to delete content are not always menacing, but can be described fairly as mind-bogglingly bizarre. In 2010, an affiliate of the MPB Today MLM scheme asked the Blog to delete a story that reported President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were being depicted as Nazis in a promo designed to recruit MPB Today affiliates. A separate script from the same MPB Today recruiter described the Obama family as welfare recipients who aspired to eat dog food and put these words into the mouth of First Lady Michelle Obama: “Hmm, I should prolly call my Food Stamp worker now that I’ve joined MPB.”

    The Blog declined the deletion request.

    MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun later was jailed in Florida on state-level racketeering charges. Federal prosecutors contended in July 2012 that crimes such as access-device fraud and fraud in connection with identification documents had occurred. Some MPB Today affiliates claimed the purported grocery “program” had been endorsed by the U.S. government and Walmart and that impoverished prospects should sell their Food Stamps to raise the $200 needed to join MPB Today. At least one MPB Today affiliate referenced pipe bombs in a promo.

    In May 2009, the PP Blog reported that the AdViewGlobal scam announced it had secured a deal with a new offshore wire facilitator. The AVG announcement was made on the same day the President of the United States announced a crackdown on offshore fraud. The PP Blog later was asked by AVG’s purported facilitator to remove the story. The Blog refused.

    The purported AVG facilitator — KINGZ Capital Management Corp. — later was linked to the epic Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme in Minnesota and was booted from the National Futures Association. AVG earlier had collapsed in a pile of Ponzi rubble. Even as it was going down, critics of the “program” and even members concerned about where their money had gone were threatened with lawsuits and ISP terminations for speaking out online.

    Federal prosecutors later linked the AVG scam to the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. ASD story figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen,” is serving a federal prison sentence for targeting federal employees involved in the ASD case with bogus liens seeking billions of dollars, assisting a known tax fraudster in the filing of false liens, harboring federal fugitives in a case unrelated to ASD and being a felon in possession of firearms.

    HYIP schemes are a cancer on America and the rest of the globe because they permit the murkiest of figures to acquire tremendous sums of money that endanger the United States and other nations. They are a scourge on society in no small measure because they attract “sovereign citizens” and other extremists whose intent is to undermine legitimate markets and create widespread confusion, if not anarchy. People of faith often are targets of HYIP scammers. The scams often switch forms, but the criminality remains largely the same.

    In the case of Profitable Sunrise, the SEC has alleged that potentially tens of millions of dollars were driven to an individual potentially operating overseas. This individual’s identity may not be known. The allegations alone are chilling.

    Frazer and her associates are not named in the SEC civil action. But Frazer and two of her alleged business associates — husband David Frazer and Nancy Frazer business associate Albert Rosebrock — are named in a Profitable Sunrise-related civil fraud action filed by the state of Ohio in July.

    As noted above, the PP Blog will not remove any Frazer or Profitable Sunrise-related content. Here, now, the verbatim content of the emails received by the Blog at 12:11 a.m. today. (The Blog added carriage returns to make the contents more readable.)

    The Emails

    Dear Patrick;

    I am send you this private (not to be published or shared) email to you as a Christian brother, from your Christian sister, in hopes to have your assistance to stop all media coverage concerning our Ministry and our volunteer board members without having to get the authorities involved to get this accomplished.

    We understand that you have been trying to find the truth about Profitable Sunrise. The FBI has fully reviewed every document, communication and record we have and has returned everything to us. Our lead investigator stated that it is clear that we were a victim of “innocent ignorance”.

    The investigation resulted in no criminal charges being filed. The Federal Government has confirmed we are not being named in this case. Kansas is in the process of dismissing the case and Ohio has stated they do not have enough information to move forward (after losing the majority of the assets at our hearing on August 30th, 2013). We are so thankful that we are finally being vindicated and can speak out soon.

    2013 has been a refining year but so many awesome miracles have occurred that I cannot just feel there was no positive purpose. We believed that Profitable Sunrise was the “real deal”. We know that many of you believe that BitCoin is the “real deal” but in Texas, it is now declared a security and to some- part of a Ponzi? We sometimes learn things the hard way.

    The FBI is fully aware of all your consistent attempts to keep my name and our FocusUp Ministries Board members, our staff, voluteers and even my husband (who had no connection) tagged to negative , damaging words (such as scam, fraud and Ponzi) along with negative press and stories we are not connected to at all. Thus driving traffic to your website for your own purpose.

    Last week through a phone conversation, the Senior investigator from the FBI, instructed me to have my attorney send you a Cease and Desist and demand for immediate removal of your unauthorized usage of materials, videos, audio, all radio & TV media, articles and all types of communication connected to FocusUp Ministries and our Board Members, staff and volunteers: including Nanci Jo Frazer (Nancy Frazer) and Albert Rosebrock, David Steckel (volunteer), Jon Simmons (staff pastor) also my husband David Frazer.

    I am requesting that Patrickpretty.com and all associate websites, blogs and media… Cease and Desist immediately from using images, text, tags,YouTubes, Powerpoints, articles, documents and recordings associated in any way with the patrickpretty.com website, which is containing or referring to Nanci Jo Frazer, Nancy Frazer, David Frazer, Albert Rosebrock, David Steckel, Jon Simmons and FocusUp Ministries and/or any of our associate Ministries, as you are not authorized to use our names or image for any purpose without written permission.

    We have spent hundreds of hours of research to help authorities in everyway to fully understand and solve this case. We are almost to the point whereas I can share what I have learned to help avoid this event from happening again. I believe in going to my Christian brother first to resolve an issue. I believe that your heart is in the right place.

    We need to see that everything is deleted and completely removed from the Internet by Friday, November 15th, 2013 so we can all move on. I hope you honor this and that we can start over and have this be a much better story for all.

    Thanks Patrick!
    Nanci Jo Frazer

  • UPDATE: ‘YouGetPaidFast’ Pitchman Said To Be Casting Net At Unemployment Office For Gifting-Program Leads; Meanwhile, Scheme Takes A Phil Piccolo-Like Turn By Pointing To Alexa Rankings As Supposed Proof Of Legitimacy

    yougetpaidfastclaim

    YouGetPaidFast, a Texas-based “program” that plants the seed it has the blessing of the FBI, is benefiting from a pitchman who is handing out flyers at an “unemployment office,” according to a post from an apparent naysayer at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum.

    The poster says his friend is the one handing out the flyers — and won’t listen to reason because he is desperate for money.

    If the claim is true, it would follow an incendiary circumstance that surfaced in the Women’s Gifting Tables pyramid scheme in Connecticut that resulted in lengthy prison sentences for two pitchwomen.

    In the Women’s Gifting Tables scheme, members of Alcoholics Anonymous were targeted, according to the trial testimony reported by the New Haven Register.

    Such schemes typically target vulnerable populations. Similar schemes such as HYIP frauds have been known to target people facing mortgage foreclosures and recent job losses.

    YouGetPaidFast is operated by Paul Darby, a Texan who claims he is friendly with FBI agents and has them on “speed dial.”

    At least one FBI agent has vetted his “program,” Darby has claimed.

    Unlike the Women’s Gifting Table scheme, which asked for $5,000 at a time, YouGetPaidFast appears to be seeking the much-smaller sum of $28. Participants reportedly are instructed to mail $7 to each of four names of individuals or entities that appear on a list and advised they are purchasing products.

    Gifting and other fraud schemes that assert they sell inexpensive “products” appear somewhat regularly on the Internet. Such an approach is consistent with micro-fraud, a scam by which hucksters gather small sums from participants, rather than seeking large sums. The hope is that the small sums will add up to a large sum over time and investigators will perceive a micro “program” as less toxic than a jugular-vein fraud and won’t bother to look into it.

    The JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP “program” purportedly operated by AdSurfDaily Ponzi pitchman and cash-gifter Frederick Mann was an example of micro fraud. Participants were told that JSS/JBP would give them $10 to get started in the “program.” After payout and other problems developed at JSS/JBP, the “program” started seeking “purchases” of tens of thousands of dollars at a time.

    Claims that a “program” sells “products” and that participants make “purchases” long have been associated with bids to mask the true nature of the “program” — a gifting scam or HYIP fraud disguised as a merchant doing legitimate business, for example. Meanwhile, claims that the government or an important politician or business person have vetted or endorsed a “program” are common in the fraud sphere.

    An earlier Darby “program” featured a knockoff of the Seal of the President of the United States and suggested that something called Net Millionaires Club was an “economic stimulus package.”

    The marketing efforts of Net Millionaires Club were reminiscent of those of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme exposed by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. (ASD traded on the name of former U.S. President George W. Bush; Darby has traded on the name of President Obama.) In 2010, a Phil Piccolo-linked scam known as Data Network Affiliates planted the seed that it had been endorsed by Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump.

    Meaningless, Bizarre, Piccolo-Like Claims

    YouGetPaidFast now screams it is “SETTING RECORDS WORLD WIDE,” pointing to an Alexa traffic ranking and “Video Views by You Tube 30 Days” as purported proof of legitimacy. Despite the claim it is setting records, however, YouGetPaidFast does not appear to specify precisely what records it is setting. Nor does it appear to say precisely what authority had certified the marks as “records.”

    Such incongruities litter the cash-gifting and HYIP landscapes, which are lined with the carcasses of collapsed “programs.” Sometimes the “programs” come back with a new name or a name designed to instill new confidence such as XXX Scheme 2.0 XXX Scheme Web 3.0.

    The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) warned in 2010 that fraud schemes were spreading online through social-media sites such as YouTube. A year earlier — in 2009 — the Better Business Bureau reported there were 22,974 cash-gifting videos on YouTube.

    Those videos, the BBB said at the time, had garnered an “astounding 59,192,963 views.” (Also see June 2009 report on cash-gifting by KIII-TV. The report includes an interview with an official from the Better Business Bureau of Central Texas.)

    Cash-gifting purveyors are “targeting people with some form of an affinity — such as as women’s clubs, community groups, church congregations, social clubs and special interest groups,” the BBB warned four years ago.

    On Oct. 8, BehindMLM.com, citing a Darby claim, reported that one or more Christian pastors was encouraging Darby to sue his detractors.

    Pointing to Alexa rankings and YouTube videos to sanitize frauds is one of the oldest tricks in the scammer’s playbook in the Information Age. Veteran online huckster Phil Piccolo, known for bizarre schemes such as Data Network Affiliates, OWOW and Text Cash Network,  has been doing it for years.

    Piccolo also has planted the seed he’ll sue his critics. In 2010, he planted the seed on Troy Dooly’s radio program that he could bring in leg-breakers if lawsuits didn’t work. Piccolo earlier had threatened to sue Dooly.

  • TelexFree, MLM Firm That Is Subject Of Pyramid Probe, Says It Will Offer ‘At Sea’ Event

    Source: TelexFree website, Aug. 16. 2013.
    Source: TelexFree website, Aug. 16, 2013.

    TelexFree, an MLM “opportunity” under investigation in Brazil amid allegations it is orchestrating a massive pyramid scheme, says on its website that it is conducting an “at sea” event Dec. 15-18.

    Perhaps accidentally providing an awkward hint of dire portent, the promo shows the TelexFree logo superimposed on the side of a luxury ocean liner that is nearly beached in the tropics. Even more incongruously, it is being published not only against the backdrop of the pyramid probe, but also against reports that a judge and prosecutor in Brazil have received death threats related to the investigation.

    Promoters of MLM HYIP scams such as JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid (2 percent a day) and AdViewGlobal (1 percent a day) previously have advertised sea cruises. It is unclear if the JSS/JBP cruise ever came off.

    AVG’s 2009 cruise coincided with a bid (apparently unsuccessful) by the “program” to line up another bank and wire facilitator to assist in the swindling of investors who’d previously been swindled in AdSurfDaily’s $119 million Ponzi scheme that advertised a 1-percent-a-day payout.

    AdViewGlobal, which purported to operate from Uruguay, bizarrely announced its new scam on the same day the President of the United States announced a crackdown on offshore fraud. Federal prosecutors later said they’d tied AVG to ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Some TelexFree promoters say a payment of $15,125 to the program results in a profit of at least $1,100 a week for a year. Other promoters claim they’re “100% telexfree,” which apparently means they’ll stand by their “program” no matter what.

     

  • UPDATE: After Claiming It Was Interested In ‘Building A Network That Ticks,’ ‘CashCropCycler’ Appears to Be DOA; ‘NEOMutual’ Also Appears To Have Gone Missing After ‘Crowdfunding’ Claims

    cashcropcyclerTouted on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum by former Zeek Rewards pitchman “mmgcjm,” a bizarre “program” known as CashCropCycler appears to have tanked. Joining CashCropCycler in the recent HYIP DOA lineup was NEOMutual, a purported “crowdfunding” opportunity that claimed it used bitcoin and a series of offshore payment processors to provide daily interest rates of 1.4 percent, 1.6 percent and 1.9 on sums  between $20 and $250,000.

    The websites of both NEOMutual and CashCropCycler are throwing error messages. Precisely when the sites went offline is unclear. In August 2012, the SEC described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme.

    Among other things, CashCropCycler was notable for its provocative name, which led to questions about whether the “program” was designed as a taunt and perhaps was using the HYIP world to crowd-source the cultivation of marijuana. The “program” also claimed enrollees received $10 just for signing up, a practice once used by the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid scam.

    cashcropcyclerneoAn ad for NEOMutual once appeared on the landing page of the CashCropCycler website. NEO Mutual said it was located at Revolution Tower in Panama City, Panama. Like the “Profitable Sunrise” HYIP scheme, NEO Mutual purported 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” in England and offshore bank accounts.

    sdadprofitablesunriseIn July, the SEC issued an investor alert that warned about the dangers of potential investment scams involving virtual currencies promoted through the Internet.

    “We are concerned that the rising use of virtual currencies in the global marketplace may entice fraudsters to lure investors into Ponzi and other schemes in which these currencies are used to facilitate fraudulent, or simply fabricated, investments or transactions. The fraud may also involve an unregistered offering or trading platform. These schemes often promise high returns for getting in on the ground floor of a growing Internet phenomenon,” the SEC said in the warning.

    Among the strange claims on the CashCropCycler website was that the “program” was interested in building “a network that ticks.”

    A February 2013 ad for Profitable Sunrise that appeared on a classified-ads site in Montana South Dakota (Sept. 5, 2013 edit) claimed that “Finally we have the bomb.” In an April 2013 Investor Alert on Profitable Sunrise, the state of Idaho warned that “Those investors who receive compensation for soliciting other investors may themselves be subject to the licensing and anti-fraud provisions of state and federal securities laws.”

    In court filings on April 4, the SEC said Profitable Sunrise pitchmen may have pushed the “program” without even knowing for whom they were working.