An affiliate's "press release" for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is juxtaposed on Google News today against information about CONSOB's ban of promos for the "opportunity" in Italy. The affiliate's release ignores the CONSOB news, positions JSS/JBP as a way to make a "fortune" — and does not explain that JSS/JBP members must affirm they are not with the "government." The release also ignores conflicts between the "opportunity's" written words and the spoken words of purported operator Frederick Mann.
At the moment, Google News is providing an interesting juxtaposition on the subject of JSS Tripler, the purported arm of the “JustBeenPaid” program that does not identify itself with a nation-state, makes members affirm they are not with the “government” and advertises an absurd monthly return of 60 percent.
Frederick Mann, the “opportunity’s” purported operator, was identified in 2008 promos as a pitchman for AdSurfDaily. The U.S. Secret Service called ASD an online Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million and defrauded thousands of people. JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid advertises a daily payout rate twice that of ASD.
As the screen shot above shows, Google News today is publishing information on JSS Tripler from three sources. Two of the sources report on the April 23 JSS Tripler promotional ban by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator.
A third source — dated May 2, nine days after CONSOB announced the JSS Tripler ban — does not reference the ban at all. Instead, it instructs readers via an affiliate’s press release that JSS Tripler is “an income-generating program that lets investors start with just $10 and turn it into a fortune. Essentially an HYIP, the program factors in the daily compounding system to increase earnings or make daily withdrawals as any investor would wish.”
One of the issues in the ASD Ponzi case is lack of disclosure to investors.
JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid has no known securities registrations. Regardless, the affiliate’s release defines participants as “investors” and positions the program as one that is passive in nature. Claims in the release easily could lead to questions about whether the “opportunity” and its affiliates are benefiting in ASD-like fashion from the sale of unregistered securities by a global network of unregistered brokers.
5. I have NOT been led to believe that this activity is an investment activity, franchise, or employment opportunity.
Although the release prompts readers (in the first paragraph) to “look closely at what they are getting into and ensure that they are joining income opportunities through programs that are proven to truly deliver financial freedom and sustainability,” it does not explain why the Member Agreement says one thing and Mann another.
Nor does it explain why any reasonable person would direct money to an entity whose Member Agreement also says this. (Italics added):
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.
7. 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 JBP pages in order to collect information for someone else.
Bizarre ambiguities, incongruities and internal inconsistencies are common in the HYIP fraud sphere.
News about CONSOB’s JSS Tripler ban was published in English on CONSOB’s own website April 23. It also was published on the PP Blog and other sites, including the sites referenced by Google News.
Even as the affiliate was prompting JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid prospects to “look closely,” he apparently missed information that was available through simple web searches — and this apparently also occurred after he missed the conflict between Mann’s words and the “opportunity’s” published Member Agreement.
The release concludes with these words:
“People who want real money from a reliable online networking system without the fuss and tricks should visit [URL deleted by PP Blog] to learn more.”
Frederick Mann, onetime ASD pitchman and the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid
UPDATED 7:44 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.). A potentially damning audio recording of a March 15 conference call in which Frederick Mann told JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid members that the “opportunity” was paying them with money from “new members” has gone missing from the JSS/JBP website.
Mann, whose name appeared in 2008 promos as a pitchman for AdSurfDaily, is the purported operator of JSS/JBP. The U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars tied to ASD in 2008, amid allegations it was conducting an international Ponzi scheme over the Internet.
Andy Bowdoin now has been accused of serial scamming dating back at least two decades. He faces a May 8 bond-review hearing. Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JBP, was identified in 2008 promos as an ASD pitchman.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin was charged criminally in 2010. He now faces a May 8 bond-review hearing amid allegations that he continued to scam the public even after the August 2008 seizure of $65.8 million from his 10 personal bank accounts and even after his December 2010 arrest in Florida on ASD-related Ponzi charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.
“I (Frederick Mann) have been with ASD since January 07,” remarks attributed to Mann on a site known as BigBooster read on May 14, 2008. “Past performance indicates a strong probablility (sic) that ASD will continue to perform as advertised. (By early May 2008, I had received 14 payments totalling over $6,000!”)
The U.S. Secret Service conducted a Ponzi raid of ASD less than three months later. Despite the Ponzi allegations against Bowdoin and ASD, Mann purportedly went on to launch JSS/JBP, which purports to pay members a return of 2 percent a day — double the purported return of ASD.
In January 2012, JSS/JBP-related claims came under the lens of CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator. The agency banned promos for the “opportunity” last month after earlier announcing a 90-day suspension.
Just days before CONSOB’s April 23 announcement of the ban — on April 17 — U.S. federal prosecutors sent a letter to Bowdoin’s defense attorney in the ASD Ponzi case. The letter informed the attorney — Charles A. Murray — that the government intended to introduce evidence that Bowdoin continued to commit crimes after the August 2008 ASD seizure and after Bowdoin’s subsequent indictment on charges that could put him behind bars for 125 years if he is convicted on all counts.
Prosecutors said they had tied Bowdoin to AdViewGlobal (AVG), an autosurf that collapsed in 2009. They also said Bowdoin had emerged as a pitchman for a “fraudulent scheme” known as OneX that — in ASD-like fashion — “simply re-distributes funds among participants.”
Online Ponzi schemes are infamous for morphing into new forms. Serial scammers who populate Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup drive business to the purported “opportunities,” which often advertise MLM-style, tiered recruitment “commissions” on top of preposterous rates of return.
ASD, AVG, OneX and JSS/JBP all have (or had) a presence on the Ponzi boards. Serial apologists for JSS/JBP have pooh-poohed the CONSOB developments.
In the now-missing March 15 recording, a caller purportedly from “San Francisco” asked Mann where “JustBeenPaid get[s] the money to pay that kind of interest.”
The reference was to the advertised return of 2 percent a day, which corresponds to a precompounding, annualized return of 730 percent — a figure that would make Bernard Madoff blush.
“Well, first of all, JBP or JSS Tripler is a revenue-sharing program, so that means some of the money comes from new members buying positions,” Mann responded to the caller. “Then, we are in the process of developing additional income streams, so that’s relevant. And eventually the additional income streams may be sufficient to pay the 2 percent — maybe not.”
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, has banned promos for JSS Tripler, the purported arm of a “program” known as JustBeenPaid that has advertised a daily return of 2 percent and a monthly return of 60 percent.
In an English translation on CONSOB’s website this morning, the regulator described JSS Tripler as an “investment programme” and named an individual promoter. The wording may have global significance because it suggests that the Italian government views JSS Tripler as a venture that is offering unregistered securities through unregistered brokers.
“Opportunities” similar to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid have triggered both civil and criminal prosecutions in the United States.
Here is what CONSOB published in English:
“In accordance with Art. 101, section 4, letter c) of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 (the “Consolidated Law on Finance”), Consob has prohibited marketing the offering to the public of the investment programme named JSS Tripler, implemented by Mauro Messina through the website http://gruppounitoworld.com and, in accordance with Art. 101, section 4, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance, suspended for a further thirty-day period, marketing the offer to the public of the investment programmes named JSS Tripler, RicoChet Riches, System Explosion and Macro Trade implemented through the website < http://vizconsigli.com (resolutions nos. 18178 and 18179 of 18 April 2012).
The marketing activities in question had previously been subject to a 90-day suspension under resolutions 18075 and 18076 of 20 January 2012 (see “Consob Informs” no. 4/2012).
(In Consob Informa n. 17/12 – 23 April 2012)
JSS Tripler-related claims first came under the CONSOB lens in January.
In online conference calls, Frederick Mann — JSS/JBP’s purported operator — has declined to identity the purported opportunity with a nation-state. At least one website linked to Mann showcases content about a purported “sovereign citizen” under indictment in Alaska in an alleged murder plot targeting public officials.
Owing to time constraints, the PP Blog hasn’t written much about Zeek Rewards, an MLM “program” married to a penny-auction site known as “Zeekler.” For simplicity, we’ll refer to both arms as “Zeek.”
The structure of Zeek and precisely what it does are just plain baffling. Even so, it appears to have a legion of loyal followers, including followers on well-known Ponzi forums such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold. The Ponzi-board presence of Zeek affiliates is potentially problematic in the sense that some of them also are pushing obvious fraud schemes such as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which advertises a return of 60 percent a month and does not disclose its base of operations.
Yesterday, for instance, a MoneyMakerGroup poster “defending” JSS/JBP while dissing naysayer “Lynndel” was showcasing his Zeek affiliate link below his JSS/JBP “defense.”
“I am sorry to bring it up to you, but every business is a ponzi online or not,” poster “masikk08” wrote in response to “Lynndel’s” pointed criticism of JSS/JBP.
Let’s stop for a moment to assess what we just read: A JSS/JBP “defender” who’s also a Zeek affiliate just told you that “every business” is a Ponzi scheme.
Those words from your potential Zeek sponsor are just plain absurd. They also are devoid of any real-world understanding of the Ponzi menace. Ponzis have put people out of their homes, ruined lives, caused divorces, caused bankruptcies, destroyed college plans and dreams of passing on money to children and caused or contributed to suicides. A number of Ponzi/pyramid-related, murder-for-hire plots have been investigated. A California man believed to have used his ecommerce platform to facilitate Ponzi schemes has been sentenced to death for arranging the contract slaying of his wife, a potential witness against him.
“Every business makes money off of new customers and nothing lasts forever either,” the MoneyMakerGroup poster and Zeek affiliate continued, mixing an irrelevant point with a bromide.
“But we have to make the best out of what opportunities we have,” he droned. “I get paid and everyone I know gets paid with JBP. So I can not agree with your statement. But if you do not like to make money with JBP, there are other opportunities you may be interested in. JBP is not for everyone you know.”
Let’s assess those words: That people are getting paid is not evidence that no underlying crime exists. Successful Ponzis always pay. Bernard Madoff “paid” — right up until the day he didn’t.
Below the post, “masikk08” used an all-caps headline to attract attention to Zeek: “I HAVE A GIFT FOR YOU,” the headline reads. When the link is clicked, it resolves to a Zeek page.
“Zeek Affiliates are giving away up to 500 FREE BIDS to each of their registered and new customers!” the promo begins. It goes on to explain that the the bid giveaway is “AMAZING” and that the giveaway began in August 2011 and will “continue throughout the year!”
Given that we’re approaching May 2012, it appears as though the giveaway has been extended well into 2012.
Some JSS/JBP affiliates came under fire in January by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator. From a U.S. perspective, both JSS/JBP and Zeek are using offshore payment processors. This, coupled with the Ponzi-board presence and the processors’ histories of enabling investment scams, could mean that money “earned” in one or more scam “programs” is passing through Zeek.
Zeek Cash Auctions
From the tempting-fate department, Zeek and its affiliates, using photos of U.S. currency, also advertise what effectively are auctions for sums of U.S. cash — all while affiliates laud the “program” for providing a return. These things easily could catch the attention of the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, not to mention the SEC and potentially even the CFTC and the FTC.
Bidders potentially could receive substantial sums of cash at a significant discount. There is a certain incongruity about this, perhaps particularly in the sense that the cash auctions create the appearance that U.S. currency is being used as bait and potentially as a loss leader. But the strangest thing of all is that successful bidders apparently have the option of receiving the full value of the U.S. currency via AlertPay or SolidTrustPay, both of which are based in Canada and both of which are friendly to fraud schemes.
This opens the door to questions such as these: What registrations, if any, with which regulators in which countries does Zeek require — and does it have them? Which agency is its principal regulator? If a successful bidder pays less than the face value of the U.S. currency, is Zeek eating the loss? Is Zeek buying currency in bulk — or is it simply divining a sum available for bid and debiting its own bank or processing account for that sum when it sends the electronic equivalent of that sum to the successful bidder via the offshore processors?
Is Zeek selling U.S. currency at a loss or at a profit? If at a loss, why? If at a profit, how? Is there a risk to the U.S. and the currency markets if other “opportunities” model Zeek?
Blogger “Oz” at BehindMLM.com has written a number of articles that raise legitimate questions about Zeek. (It’s worth taking the time to use the search form at BehindMLM to check out the articles/editorials about Zeek.)
As time allows, we’ll add to our coverage of Zeek. We’re reading a lot about it from a variety of sources. The source volume and competing claims about the “program” create an atmosphere of confusion, and the overall Zeek “story” is far from clear.
For the purposes of this column, we’ll raise one final point: AdSurfDaily, which prosecutors have described as an international Ponzi scheme that operated over the Internet and plucked at least $110 million, once spouted that it would try to incorporate an auction arm of some sort. That arm never materialized.
Zeek appears to have ASD-like elements, leading to questions about whether regulators could become concerned that Zeek was selling unregistered securities as investment contracts and using wordplay to mask an investment program as something else.
ASD’s auction dream was speculative at best. Our initial take on Zeek is that it shared ASD’s now-ancient dream — indeed, other MLM’s have had the same dream — but Zeek actually put the dream into action. The question is whether that dream is compliant with any number of regulations that could come into play — or whether Zeek jumped the gun and now is trying to become compliant after the fact and after gathering an unknown sum of money while operating unlawfully.
Lots of people — perhaps millions — support MLM in one form or another. It is virtually impossible to quantify all of the disingenuous presentations, which often are hyperbolic — if not completely over-the-top. A certain sphere within the MLM universe is dominated by hucksters. These hucksters often display a remarkable lack of awareness. Some of them are tone-deaf politically and have a tin ear for real-world PR.
So, for the purpose of this first column on Zeek, we leave you with two questions: If you place a successful bid for a sum of U.S. currency on Zeekler, do you have any legal or political concerns if your cash equivalent is delivered via an offshore processor that has processed payments for one scam or collapsed scheme after another?
UPDATED 2:56 P.M. EDT (APRIL 3, U.S.A.):After an outage that lasted more than 24 hours, the JustBeenPaid website is back online — although there are reports it is not accessible in all parts of the world. Our earlier story is below . . .
** [UNCONFIRMED] ** Some members of the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program” have reported that the JBP website is experiencing a DDoS attack. The PP Blog cannot independently confirm the reports, which have appeared on the MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold Ponzi forums and on at least one JBP affiliate Blog.
The JBP domain has been returning a “timed out” error message for hours.
JSS/JBP purports to pay a daily return of 2 percent and a monthly return of 60 percent. The “opportunity” purportedly has more than 400,000 members. Similar “programs” have operated as virtually pure Ponzi schemes.
In a March 15 conference call, Frederick Mann, JSS/JBP’s purported operator, told members from the United States and Canada that JSS/JBP is paying them with money sent in by “new members.” Using “new” money to pay “old” members is the central element of a Ponzi scheme — although Mann did not use the phrase.
In the days that followed, JSS/JBP removed certain material from its website, including recordings of conference calls hosted by “Carl Pearson,” the purported COO of JSS/JBP. Images of certain JSS/JBP affiliates and customer-service personnel also were removed from the website.
JSS/JBP purportedly has been installing new servers. Members have grumbled in recent days about downtime at the site, delays in posting purported “earnings” and delays in sending payments.
Mann repeatedly has declined to identify JSS/JBP with a nation-state, leading to questions about whether members have any consumer protections at all.
If a DDoS attack is under way, the event may lead to questions about whether JSS/JBP has reported the attack to a law-enforcement agency or whether the “opportunity” would be reluctant to make such a report out of fear its base of operations would be exposed.
JSS/JBP has no known securities registrations, but Mann has advised members that it was OK to call JSS/JBP an investment program. Such guidance potentially could make both JSS/JBP and its affiliates targets of securities-related probes in various jurisdictions around the world.
The Italian securities regulator CONSOB announced a JSS/JBP-related probe on Jan. 23.
Purported JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid COO Carl Pearson. From: YouTube.
It sometimes is the case in the corrupt universes of HYIPs that a change in the status quo signals panic or devastating news. It’s also sometimes the case that significant developments get explained away as meaningless or part of a plan that had been in place all along in response to explosive growth.
It is almost always the case that HYIPs such as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid and their various purveyors reveal incongruities and internal inconsistencies — and a few big ones now are in play at JSS/JBP.
Within the past several days, audio recordings of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “conference calls” featuring pitchman and purported COO “Carl Pearson” have gone missing from the JSS/JBP website. The recordings previously had been embedded on the site below the embedded recordings of Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JBP. Although Mann’s recordings remain, the recordings of Pearson have vanished.
No recording from Mann was added to the site last week, meaning the last embedded Mann recording carries a date of March 15. No recording was posted for March 22, meaning that the streak of posting a recording of every Mann Thursday conference call dating back to Feb. 16 had been broken.
In the March 15 call, Mann told members that JSS/JBP was paying them with money from “new members” and that it was OK to call JSS/JBP an investment program. Using money from new members to pay old members is the central element of a Ponzi scheme. And because Mann himself described JSS/JBP as an investment program, promoters could find themselves confronting assertions they are selling unregistered securities as investment contracts.
JSS/JBP members who identified themselves of residents of the United States or Canada were on the March 15 call (and also on previous calls). Their nationalities and citizenship are potentially important because JSS/JBP has no known securities registrations, meaning that regulators from either the United States or Canada could move against the enterprise and perhaps even some of its promoters.
Mann has declined on multiple occasions to identify JSS/JBP with a nation-state — and promoters still are pushing the scheme, despite the fact they appear to have no clue about the internal workings of JSS/JBP and how they (and their recruits) ever could recover their investments in the event of a collapse or a government intervention.
In January, the Italian securities regulator CONSOB announced a JSS/JBP-related action — and affiliates still promoted the program, with JSS/JBP itself claiming it was posting record numbers of new members daily.
At least a few JSS/JBP members have noted the removal of the Pearson calls. Earlier today, the PP Blog viewed an affiliate’s Blog for JSS/JBP in which an assertion was made that Pearson had become too busy with other duties to host calls.
“Due to the unprecedented growth of JBP, Carl Pearson will no longer be doing the weekly conferences,” a comment from a reader asserted. “He is prioritising now full time in the back office operations of JBP.”
The comment was dated March 21. A follow-up comment dated March 22 suggested the recordings had been removed for security reasons and that other information also might be removed.
“From the conference room yesterday at around 8pm Dominick got on the mic and announced it,” the post claimed. “He also said that staff members could have their pictures and information removed from the site if they wanted to and Carl as well as other staff members decided it would be best to have that information removed. He said that they are growing so fast that they could be targeted by crooks and hackers.”
But what the explanation did not reveal is why Mann’s recordings remained on the site if concern about crooks and hackers was great enough to trigger the removal of the Pearson recordings.
As often is the case in the HYIP sphere, the information was posted anonymously, meaning it could not be verified. Even so, the information is potentially disturbing in the sense that it defaults to well-known HYIP clichés such as introducing the prospect of hackers — while ignoring the potentially damning information contained in the jettisoned material as a factor in the removal decision and the obvious fact that information that remains on the site may be equally damning.
With a straight face, for example, JSS/JBP purports to pay a daily return of 2 percent and a monthly return of 60 percent.
JSS/JBP openly advertises that it pays a return of 60 percent a month on TOP of affiliate commissions totaling 15 percent over two tiers.
In 2007, when the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme stopped making payments to members (even as its operator allegedly was making political donations with Ponzi money), ASD President Andy Bowdoin allegedly blamed the halted member payouts on script problems and “Russian” hackers who’d allegedly taken $1 million.
Bowdoin never filed a police report about the purported theft of $1 million, federal prosecutors said.
In 2008 promotional materials attributed to Mann, Mann was identified as an ASD pitchman. As the ASD prosecution moved forward, it became apparent that certain ASD members either were “sovereign citizens” or sympathizers. Some “sovereign citizens” hold extreme antigovernment views and have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them.
In November 2011, ASD figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming was arrested by an FBI Terrorism Task Force in Washington state on charges he had filed false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD case, including a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service.
On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a website linked to Mann included links to 11 videos concerning Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported “sovereign citizen” under indictment in an alleged murder plot against public officials in Alaska.
One poster on the JSS/JBP-related Blog from which the “hackers” explanation was advanced had a different take on conference-call-related developments.
“Heat is also the REAL reason why Carl Pearson has moved off the conference calls,” the poster speculated.
This ad for a purported Thailand escort service appears today in the United States on AdLandPro, a site whose operator is threatening a class-action lawsuit against RealScam.com, an antiscam forum. The PP Blog captured this screen shot today and edited it to remove the images of EIGHT AdLandPro members whose photographs were displayed in the left sidebar and created the appearance that the AdLandPro members also were members of (or approved of) the escort service. When the Blog reloaded the ad, the page displayed the images of EIGHT other AdLandPro members. A third reload served up an image of an entire family, including three young children who appear to reside in the South Central United States.
In November 2011, the PP Blog reported that Bogdan Fiedur of AdLandPro had threatened antiscam site RealScam.com with litigation. The bid to chill RealScam in the age of international mass-marketing fraud featured the registration of a domain styled RealScamClassActionSuit.com.
With Fiedur trolling for suckers and hoping to make his intellectual dishonesty go viral, RealScam did not buckle at his obvious bid to chill it.
Good for you, RealScam!
It’s hard to condense all the AdLandPro absurdities that followed over the next several weeks, but we’ll summarize them as such: A sampling of Stepfordian shills and mindless apologists stepped up to the plate for Fiedur, “fake” law students purportedly from a major American university entered the fray to add to the bid to chill — and the matter devolved into Threatre of the Absurd in that Internet-only sort of way.
By the end of December, the chill bid appeared to end: Content on the purported class-action site went missing, and the site began to resolve to an AdLandPro page.
We would be remiss if we did not point out that, in addition to being solicited to register for HYIP scams such as AdSurfDaily, Finanzas Forex and JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid (730 percent a year) by purported “Christians” on AdLandPro over the past few years, American visitors (and others) also were solicited for cross-border sales of pharmaceuticals.
If drugs weren’t on their purchase list, AdLandPro visitors were told how to find used underwear and arrange — umm, how should we put this? — the temporary services of scantily clad women in various nations from India eastward after demonstrating a way to pay?
At least some of the risqué ads have gone missing, but their URLs remain. When they’re clicked, they resolve to pages that show the faces of AdLandPro members who had nothing to do with the placing of the ads. Did we mention that AdLandPro purports to be a great guardian of privacy and the interest of its members?
And did we mention that not all of the risqué ads have gone missing — and that, when they’re clicked, they load images of AdLandPro members who had nothing to do with placing the ads and that AdLandPro wants members to believe it was a sort of Facebook before Facebook became the craze?
“The most exclusive, classic and attractive companions in Bangkok are here waiting to join you, at your hotel, apartment, or villa,” one ad on AdLandPro reads today. “All our princesses are hand picked by our management for their beauty, demeanour and friendly attitude.”
The ad is on the “community” subdomain of the AdLandPro.domain. When the PP Blog viewed the ad earlier today, the photographs of EIGHT AdLandPro members showed up in a sidebar only inches to the left. The headline above the sidebar read, “Our Members.” Less than an inch away, a photo of a presumptive “escort” wearing a pink-lace bra and a pink-lace wrap over her genital area appeared. The photo appeared to display two red telephones, with the woman posing seductively on what appeared to be a bed or mat.
When the PP Blog reloaded the page, the images of eight different AdLandPro members were displayed. A third reload resulted in the display of images of an AdLandPro family whose matriarch identified herself in her AdLandPro profile as a mother and grandmother from the South Central United States.
Two adults in the photo were holding young children, one of whom appeared to be an infant. A third child also appeared in the photo. Below that photo, the full-face image of a lone AdLandPro member — a woman — appeared. Below the woman’s photo, an ad for “OneX” appeared.
OneX is a program accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily said he was using to raise funds to pay for his criminal defense.
“I believe that God has brought us OneX to provide the necessary funds to win this case,” Bowdoin said in an October 2011 pitch.
So, if you’re an AdLandPro member and had nothing whatsoever to do with the placement of the escort ad and do not endorse Thailand “princesses” purportedly “hand picked by . . . management,” say, because you oppose human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women, AdLandPro is making it appear as though you’re on board the Thailand escort train.
A link prompt below the photos of the eight AdLandPro members reads, “See All 185753 Members.” The URL points to the AdLandPro membership directory.
By coincidence, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that Marcus Choice Williams, 36, of Fort Worth, Texas, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison followed by 30 years of supervised release for various felony offenses related to a conspiracy to traffic women for prostitution.
“The court’s sentence clearly reflects the seriousness of these awful sex trafficking crimes,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The victims suffered physical assaults, sexual abuse and daily degradation all because of this defendant’s greed and callous disregard for them as individuals. We are committed to prosecuting sex traffickers and vindicating victims’ rights, as they were vindicated today.”
Williams, prosecutors said, operated “adult escort web sites” as part of a human-trafficking scheme that also included money-laundering.
He “recruited vulnerable women, specifically single mothers from troubled backgrounds, and, in some cases used a combination of deception, fraud, coercion, threats and physical violence to compel the women to engage in prostitution, requiring each young woman to secure a daily quota of money, and if operating out of town, to wire the funds to him,” prosecutors said.
Crazier By The Moment
Just when one began to believe that AdLandPro had abandoned its absurd litigation threat against RealScam, guess what’s back? (You’d be right if you guessed the class-action site.)
And if ads on AdLandPro from “Christian” HYIP peddlers and purveyors of used underwear and illegal, cross-border pharmaceutical sales (after Google had agreed in August 2011 to pay the United States $500 million to settle claims of illegal cross-border solicitations for pharmaceuticals) were not enough, Fiedur’s purported class-action site is quoting a notorious YouTube cyberstalker and raunchy Internet gadfly, positioning him as an authoritative critic of RealScam.com.
It’s enough to make decent people from all corners of the world cringe as they contemplate whether intellectual corruption as practiced on the web has gained the upper hand.
WordPress suspended this JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid affiliate Blog earlier today. Google had indexed a post on the site only hours earlier.
UPDATED 12:20 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Within six hours of Google indexing (earlier today) a JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid affiliate Blog using WordPress as a free platform from which to attract investors, Word Press caused the post to disappear.
Kudos to WordPress!
Visitors to the Blog URL of dailyrevenueresourcegroup.wordpress.com now see a message that the Blog “has been archived or suspended for a violation” of the WordPress Terms of Service.
The keyword title of the post, which now cannot be seen, was “How To Invest In JustBeenPaid.” The title ended with an exclamation point.
The post appeared to be a reposting of companion JSS/JBP-related content that appeared on Blogger, yet another free Blogging platform. The Blogger post remains active.
Amid claims that JSS/JBP’s advertised daily payout rate of 2 percent “is not a bad rate,” the now-missing WordPress post asked investors to compare JSS/JBP to a bank and planted the seed that prospects should choose the absurd program over the bank.
“Look at the banks [sic] they are only offering you .05-1% apr on yearly basis for savings accounts,” the now-missing WordPress post claimed.
In its introduction, the now-missing post claimed, “In this article it is my intent to help those that are unsure of how JustBeenPaid works and how to invest in it.”
Despite the WordPress ban, the same phrasing continues to appear on the Blogger site at Blogsport.com — along with at least three JSS/JBP affiliate links. The Blogger post is dated today.
It is common for promoters of highly questionable “opportunities” and even outright scams to rely on free hosting services in bids to recruit new affiliates and “earn” downline commissions.
Claims about JSS/JBP have been under investigation by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, since at least Jan. 23.
JSS/JBP does not disclose where it operates from. The scheme’s preposterous purported daily payout rate of 2 percent is double that of AdSurfDaily, which the U.S. Secret Service described in 2008 as an international Ponzi scheme that had gathered tens of millions of dollars.
Frederick Mann, JSS/JBP’s purported operator, described himself in 2008 promos as an ASD pitchman. In December 2010, ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.
JSS/JBP has no known securities registrations. The “program” operates in an MLM-like fashion in which prospects are told they’ll receive a return of 60 percent a month for their “positions” — on top of two-tier affiliate commissions totaling 15 percent for recruiting prospects who send money to the company via offshore payment processors.
Among other things, the Terms for JSS/JBP makes members affirm they are not government spies or media lackeys.
An ad banner accompanying the still-active Blogger post solicits prospects to “Start collecting Unlimited $15 payments Straight to your Alertpay account.” When the banner is clicked, it lands on a JBP affiliate page that asserts, “Quickly Get CLEVER[.] GET PAID FOREVER!”
“[F]raudulent commercial schemes are not noted for their internal consistency.” — Professor James E. Byrne, consultant to FBI and Scotland Yard (among others) and HYIP expert hired by U.S. government to assess the alleged Pathway To Prosperity scheme in 2010
Frederick Mann
In a bizarre conference call for the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program,” a caller who identified himself as a former AdSurfDaily member raised the issue of the ASD Ponzi scheme case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008, questioning whether JSS/JBP was safe from regulatory scrutiny or “getting too big and drawing certain attention.”
The implication of the remark was that the attention of the U.S. government would be unwanted.
With listeners identifying themselves as U.S.-based members of JSS/JBP on the line, Frederick Mann suggested that his purported program was outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement.
“Just Been Paid is not based in the U.S.,” Mann replied to the caller, after the female host of the call had paraphrased the caller’s query to Mann. The host paraphrased the question because Mann said he didn’t catch it the first time around.
” . . . [H]e was making reference to AdSurfDaily and that they were closed down, and he wants to know what we have in place to protect Just BeenPaid for it not to happen like AdSurfDaily,” the host said to Mann.
“Just Been Paid is not based in the U.S., and our servers are not in the U.S.,” Mann replied. “We don’t have an office in the U.S.”
But Mann’s answer did not speak to costly civil and criminal litigation that could ensue against JSS/JBP’s U.S.-based members, all of whom are using wires that run through the United States to participate in the purported program and some of whom are using U.S. wires to recruit downline members. Nor did the answer speak to actions the United States could take against JSS/JBP itself.
In 2008, marketing materials identified Mann as an ASD promoter. In January 2012, the Italian securities regulator CONSOB announced a JSS/JBP-related probe and issued a 90-day suspension order. JSS/JBP purports to pay out at a daily rate of 2 percent, double that of ASD. On an annualized basis, the payout rate of JSS/JBP corresponds to a return that is between 48 and 73 times the typical rates that put Bernard Madoff in prison for 150 years. ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted on Ponzi scheme charges in December 2010.
Bowdoin specifically was accused of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. The U.S. Secret Service seized 10 of his personal bank accounts in August 2008, amid Ponzi allegations. Other court filings that became public in 2010 showed that the Secret Service also had seized bank accounts linked to some individual ASD promoters.
Mann previously has declined to identify JSS/JBP with a nation-state, meaning investors do not know where the “program” is operating from. JSS/JBP has no known securities registrations, and its U.S. affiliates very well could be selling unregistered securities to U.S. citizens via wire while at once implicating themselves and their recruits in a Ponzi scheme that is trying to disguise itself as a legitimate business.
Even if it is presumed to be true that the United States could not act against the company itself — and that’s a big “if” because U.S. law enforcement has a number of options should it choose to exercise them — U.S.-based affiliates of the “program” likely are running afoul of any number of civil and criminal statutes.
Internal Inconsistencies
In 2010, Professor James E. Byrne — who has consulted with the FBI and Scotland Yard and was hired by the United States to offer an expert opinion on the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) HYIP scheme — observed that “fraudulent commercial schemes are not noted for their internal consistency” and that materials he examined in the P2P case displayed such inconsistencies.
After a probe by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, P2P operator Nicholas Smirnow was charged criminally and accused of running an international financial scam. The purported return rate of JSS/JBP is somewhat on par with the rates of the alleged Smirnow/P2P HYIP scheme.
Internal inconsistencies were on full display during the March 8 JSS/JBP call featuring Mann.
As one example, a caller who identified himself as “John” and appeared to be speaking in U.S. English asked Mann for some specifics about the program, voicing that he was confused.
“All your marketing material — your website and now this conference call — has confused me more than anything I’ve ever heard in my life,” John said.
“You don’t have any answers for the [gentlemen] that have asked questions,” John said.
Mann suggested that John “submit a help request.”
Apparently growing agitated and increasingly confused, John shot back, “I submit that I just would like to have a straight answer.”
Mann again pointed John to the company’s web-based explanations and resources.
“The basic approach” to JSS/JBP, Mann explained, is to “find one thing that you understand and then find another thing that you understand, and that way you keep on finding things that you can understand.”
Unmoved by Mann’s response, John shot back, “I have two master’s degrees and I’m telling you that I do not understand it.”
John was the seventh caller to have asked Mann questions during the March 8 call. An eighth caller then came on the line. He identified himself as “Rick” (or by a name that sounded like Rick), saying he was from “California.” (Note: Garbling during the recorded call sometimes made it difficult to hear a name clearly.)
Rick questioned whether callers such as John should be asking Mann such “basic” questions, asserting that Rick, unlike John, had no master’s degree but nevertheless understood the program.
At that point, Mann observed that online money-making programs may have a “bigger learning curve.”
After Rick exited the line, a caller who identified himself as “Michael” from “San Francisco” stepped up to the plate for Mann and JSS/JBP.
Michael asserted that, like John, he has a “master’s degree,” adding that “I have lots of degrees” but noting that his academic pedigree was “really not applicable to online money-making.”
As guidance, Michael suggested that JSS/JBP promoters sign up for “all” of the payment processors used by the program — but Michael did not tell listeners that all of the processors with which JSS/JBP has associated itself are operating offshore (from a U.S. standpoint), are known to be friendly to fraud schemes and may deny customers U.S. consumer protections.
More Internal Inconsistencies
Other examples of internal inconsistencies presented themselves during the call, a recording of which was about 48 minutes in length.
One caller who identified himself as residing in “Florida” asked Mann about the importance of the “patent” claim on JBP’s website.
Mann initially replied that the “patent” claim is “not important at all.”
The response, however, gives rise to questions about why JSS/JBP even would mention a patent if it was “not important at all,” particularly since the “program” had altered the patent claim over time.
Prior to a website alteration that appears to have occurred last month, JSS/JBP made this specious claim: “JustBeenPaid! (JBP) and its related programs, including JSS-Tripler, are licensed under United States Patent 6,578,010.”
Those words were changed to read, “JustBeenPaid! (JBP) and its related programs operate in accordance with United States Patent 6,578,010 (now public domain).”
After reflecting on the caller’s patent question, Mann said this, “In any case, the patent is public domain. It doesn’t actually protect anything. But what is relevant about it is that a patent that covers some of what we do was issued and was approved by a government agency.”
In the United States, patents are issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a government entity. The office is not the nation’s securities regulator.
It is common for scammers to try to associate a scheme with the government as a means of planting the seed that the government has full knowledge of the “program” and has endorsed it. The ASD scheme, for example, traded on the name of the President of the United States — something that caught the attention of the U.S. Secret Service, which has the twin duties of guarding the President’s life and protecting the U.S. financial system from criminals.
Callers also expressed confusion about “commission” payments from JSS/JBP and raised questions about an emerging JSS/JBP “Platinum” program that would accompany an existing “Premium” program through which some earlier members had paid higher fees believing they would “cycle” faster and make more money.
Based on comments made during the call, it appears as though the “Platinum” program is priced higher than the “Premium” program — and members are concerned that their earlier “Premium” purchases would be for naught if new “Platinum” purchasers effectively could pay more money to cut in line and “cycle” faster than them.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For the purposes of this column, the PP Blog is reporting on only a small number of references to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid in the past 24 hours, as compiled by Google’s “Past 24 hours” feature. Google also has a “Past hour” feature. At the time of this post, Google is reporting “About 3,970” indexed “results” for jss tripler during the 24-hour time period, yesterday to today. A good number of the returns are in languages other than English. (Editor’s note continues below screen shot.)
JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is an exceptionally murky “program” that purports to pay a return of 2 percent a day. That’s an absurd 60 percent a month — or, on an annualized basis, 730 percent, an ROI that would make Bernard Madoff gag. The “program,” which purports to be “indefinitely sustainable” and makes members affirm they are not government spies or media lackeys, has a strong presence on forums listed in U.S. federal court files as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.
On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a website linked to Frederick Mann, the purported operator of the “program,” is publishing two videos and links to nine more that highlight Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported “sovereign citizen” implicated in an alleged murder plot against public officials in Alaska.
“Sovereign citizens” have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them. They have been implicated in numerous fraud schemes and may engage in what has become known as “paper terrorism” — i.e., the filing of false liens against members of law enforcement, false libel lawsuits against publishers and other bids to chill and nuisance the law-enforcement community or members of the media.
Mann declined to tell conference-call listeners on Feb. 23 even where the enterprise was operating from.
Despite these disturbing events, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid has achieved Internet virality and may be recruiting thousands of new affiliates daily. The bullet-point brief below condenses some of the affiliate claims in just the past 24 hours.
Despite repeated promotional references to the sum of $10, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid members do not have to limit their “purchase” to only one $10 position. The scheme could be raking in tremendous sums during an era of securities hucksterism that sometimes involves massive — if not epic — sums of money. It is not unusual for large sums to go missing, leaving defrauded investors holding the bag for tremendous losses. At a minimum, those losses contribute to the undermining of economies on a local level, perhaps particularly if groups of individuals from the same area become investors.
Source: Blog titled “Easy Online Money” with a kicker of “Change a life today!” Among the claims: “You are guaranteed to earn a daily 2% on the positions you purchase, thereby making a decent amount of passive income online working from home.”
Source: Blog at URL that is a subdomain of blogspot.com, a free Blogger platform hosted by Google. Among the claims: “You can fund your account with as little as $10, and earn 2% per day with no work.”
Source: Blog at another blogspot subdomain. Among the claims: “JSS-Tripler now has 294,651 members — having grown by just over 6,000 new members during the past 24 hours. Thank you to our many promoters for doing such a great job!”
Source: Text accompanying video on Google-owned YouTube. Among the text claims: “Once you are in JSS tripler . . . Click on ‘Financial’ tab . . . Scroll down you will have $10 in your jss tripler account . . . Click on ‘Buy Jss Tripler Position’ . . . Purchase 1 free position with the $10 you receive in your account . . . You will be getting 2% earnings on $10 [sic] i.e. $0.20 every day without doing anything . . . After the 75 days you make $15 dollars [sic] without any more investments or referrals. Then you invest back in $10 or whatever you like and you make more and more each day. Simple system really [sic] More position [sic] you purchase or get from referrals the more you make. Very simple process.”
Source: Blog titled “Money Making Tips.” Among the claims: “The level of support is better than any other program i have seen, the Daily Web Conferences with Carl Pearson are terrific. You can usually get your questions acknowledged instantly, you are kept up to date with what’s going on with this company, they provide training including tutorials and videos. You can access the conference area 24/7 [sic] a moderator is there to answer all your questions. JBP had just hired a new marketing leader, Louis Paquette[,] to help educate members in any areas where they need help.” [Note by PP Blog: Louis Paquette is referenced in this Feb. 4 PP Blog story, which reported that a JSS Tripler-related domain hosted in Utah mysteriously began to redirect to the Netherlands after a JSS Tripler-related action by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator.]
Source: Blog at empowernetwork.com URL. Among the claims: “JSS Tripler Gives You the first $10 for FREE: My Total ‘2%’ Earnings Thus Far $4757.00.”
Source: Blog with a kicker of “Social Media Marketing Consultant.” Blog has accompanying YouTube video: Among the Blog claims: “I would like to help JBP grow, in any way I can contribute . . . It is my goal to add 60 active referrals over the next 6 months or less.” Among the video claims: “Makes It So Easy to Make Money Online that a Baby can Almost do it!” The text accompanying the video engages in considerable keyword stuffing with the phrase of “Make Money At Home” and similar phrases.
Source: Entry on apsense.com. Among the claims: “I just want to pay it forward and help others . . . get ‘$10 free money’ in your accounts . . . Buy a JSS-Tripler position and start earning 2% per day! . . . Inbite [sic] new members. There is an endless supply of people online looking for money making opportunities.”
Source: Blog styled “Success Instantly.” Blog has accompanying YouTube video. Among the video claims: “Compound your Earnings To INCREASE Your Daily Payout.”
“The Government has provided over 2742 pages of discovery consisting of: liens, police reports, [Bureau of Prisons] records, pictures, surveillance photos, internet search records, audio subpoenas and over 1000 pages of documents seized.” — From March 5 court order in false-liens case involving accused AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming and former Leaming business associate David Carroll Stephenson
Kenneth Wayne Leaming
If the scheduling holds, accused AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming will go on trial in the Western District of Washington on Sept. 17 with his former business colleague David Carroll Stephenson, one week before ASD President Andy Bowdoin is set to go on trial in the District of Columbia in a Ponzi scheme case involving at least $110 million.
Leaming, 56, of Spanaway, Wash., is accused of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD case, including a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service. In addition, he is charged with being a participant with 56-year-old Stephenson, a federal inmate in a fraud case, in a scheme to file false liens against at least two federal prison officials.
At the same time, Leaming is charged with concealing two federal fugitives involved in an Arkansas-based, home-business fraud scheme involving millions of dollars, being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a false “Bonded Promissory Note” with a purported face value of $1 million.
The docket of U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington now shows a trial date of Sept. 17 for both Leaming and Stephenson.
Leaming, who has a 2005 felony conviction for piloting an aircraft without a valid pilot’s certificate, originally was scheduled to go on trial March 20. That trial date was rescheduled for April 2 after a superseding indictment was returned against Leaming after his initial arrest on a criminal complaint in November 2011 — and now has been moved to September to give Leaming and Stephenson more time to prepare, according to court filings.
Bowdoin, 77, was indicted in 2010 on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from 10 of his personal bank accounts, amid allegations that Bowdoin was presiding over an international Ponzi scheme operating over the Internet.
Both of the Arkansas fugitives allegedly found with Leaming in Washingston state also are purported “sovereign citizens.” They were identified as Timothy Shawn Donavan, 64, and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen, 67. Donavan currently is detained in Oklahoma, and Henningsen is detained in Texas, according to records.
Leaming and Stephenson both are detained near Seattle.
As was the case with the original court filings in the 2008 civil action that led to the criminal prosecution of Bowdoin, investigators have produced surveillance photos pertaining to the Leaming and Stephenson prosecutions.
Records suggest that Leaming came under surveillance in Washington state by an FBI Terrorism Task Force by at least August 2011.
In addition to the surveillance photos, the government also has produced, liens, police records, unspecified “pictures,” prison records, Internet search records, “audio subpoenas” and “over 1000 pages of documents seized,” according to court filings.
All in all, according to the filings, the government has produced at least 2,742 pages of discovery in the Leaming and Stephenson cases.
Leaming has asserted he is proceeding to trial under “duress.”
In March 2009 — while the ASD Ponzi case was still a civil matter — Bowdoin claimed a January 2009 decision he made to submit to the forfeiture and stop pressing claims for the money seized from his bank accounts was made under “severe duress.”
He made the claim while acting as his own attorney, and further claimed that his decision to relitigate the case after earlier abandoning his claims was “legally accomplished as a matter of law” simply because he had filed papers saying so.
A month later — in April 2009 — federal prosecutors made a bombshell announcement in court that, prior to submitting to the forfeiture and dropping his claims to the seized cash, Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter and acknowledged the government’s material allegations were all true.
In September 2009, prosecutors said Bowdoin was telling ASD members one story — while telling a federal judge another.
Final orders of forfeiture were entered in the ASD civil case in January 2010. Bowdoin appealed, but lost in March 2011.
In the earliest days and weeks after the August 2008 seizure, some ASD members — ignoring the lessons of history — began to promote other schemes that advertised preposterous payouts, claiming they were safe because they were “offshore.”
One current HYIP scheme is JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, whose advertised daily payout rate is 2 percent — twice that of ASD. Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, identified himself as an ASD pitchman in 2008 web promos three months before the Secret Service raid on ASD headquarters in Quincy, Fla.
In a Feb. 23, 2012, conference call, Mann declined to say precisely where JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid was operating from. On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a site linked to Mann featured videos of Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported “sovereign citizen” implicated in an alleged murder plot against public officials in Alaska.
On Feb. 29, the PP Blog received threatening communications from an individual describing himself as “MoneyMakingBrain.” Among other things, “MoneyMakingBrain” claimed he’d defend Mann “so help me God.”
On March 12, the PP Blog reported that “MoneyMakingBrain” had asserted the Blog would “go down in flames.”
On Feb. 18 — at RealScam.com, a forum that educates the public about mass-marketing fraud — “MoneyMakingBrain” published a link to the Mann-associated site that beams the Cox videos. It is unclear if “MoneyMakingBrain” understood that Cox was under arrest on serious criminal charges and is identified with the “sovereign citizen movement.”
NOTE: The PP Blog believes it is ill-advised to click on any link left by “MoneyMakingBrain” at RealScam.com.
One of the surveillance photos in the ASD Ponzi case: Source: Court files.
