UPDATED 12:20 P.M. ET U.S.A. Two websites associated with the “Achieve Community” — ReadyToAchieve.com and TheAchieveCommunity.com — are inaccessible this morning.
Achieve Community is under investigation by the Colorado Division of Securities.
The PP Blog asked the Division this morning if it was aware of the outage and whether the inaccessibility of the sites had anything to do with the investigation.
“I cannot comment further at this time,” said Lillian Alves, Colorado’s Deputy Securities Commissioner.
Reports surfaced yesterday on a Facebook site known as the “NonOfficialAchieveCommunity” that Achieve had shut down its own private forum and that a page linked to a purported new payment processor for Achieve was carrying a “server maintenance” message.
The maintenance message continues to appear today.
Some Achievers have condemned the NonOfficialAchieveCommunity Facebook site, which also is known as “the Sheepdog” and does not echo the company line. In recent days, one poster made the preposterous assertion that the Sheepdog was responsible for ruining 10,000 lives and could be held financially liable by Achievers.
Achieve purportedly is operated by Kristi Johnson of Colorado and Troy Barnes of Michigan. The “program,” backed by hucksters such as Rodney Blackburn, reportedly has not made payouts for nearly three months after encountering trouble with payment processors.
Blackburn is pushing multiple “programs” with a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums — and even camped out on the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to record a promo.
BULLETIN: (7th Update 1:52 p.m. ET Jan. 7 U.S.A.) The Achieve Community says it has suspended “sign ups” and “repurchases” through iPayDNA, a credit-card processor based in Asia.
PP Blog reader “Secwatchin” first reported the news at 2:44 p.m. ET today. The Blog confirmed that orders for “positions” could not be placed by visiting the ReadyToAchieve website, clicking on the “Sign Up” tab and clicking again on a “Join Now!” button. The message we received is reproduced in the graphic at the top of this story.
Colorado-based Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson reportedly advised Achieve members that its “merchant” — iPayDNA — needed to “get caught up.”
Why iPayDNA purportedly had fallen behind in processing credit-card transactions wasn’t explained.
On Jan. 4, Johnson announced to Achieve members that Global Cash Card, which Achieve had claimed to be its new “payout” processor, “is not going to work with us after all.” On Dec. 18, Achieve had positioned its relationship with U.S.-based GCC as a done deal.
Why Achieve, a money-cycling “program” operating in the United States with a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums, needed separate vendors to process “money in” and “money out” transactions has not been explained.
Here is what Johnson reportedly told members today (italics/carriage returns added):
Hello Achieve Community!
We are going to stop sign ups and repurchases for a few days beginning in about 30 minutes, so that our merchant can get caught up. And we won’t be doing more sign ups until we have more information about payout options for us.
I hope to have some good news on that in the next few days! Thursday I’ll be meeting again with the lawyers and that will give me a better time frame for when Achieve will be completely ready to go again. I will keep letting you know how things are going as the information becomes available to me.
In the meantime, while this process is going on, there is very little that I can tell you without risking hurting the entire process. So please, keep the speculation quiet, you will hear everything, just be patient please. Although we won’t be doing sign ups, you all will still have access to the members area, your banners, the Forum, and your products. Thank you all for taking care of each other! Achieve is the best Community ever!
Kristi
Some Achieve members have turned to promoting other Ponzi-board “programs” such as Unison Wealth and Trinity Lines. Promos from Achieve members also promoting Unison Wealth show that Unison Wealth is beaming ads for HYIP schemes inside the back offices of its members.
“They want so badly to believe in the tooth fairy.” — Fred Joseph, then-Colorado Securities Commissioner, February 2013. (As told to the Durango Herald in “For a Ponzi payout, call the tooth fairy.”)
Achieve Community promoter Rodney Blackburn laments developments with that “program,” and now is encouraging prospects to sign up for “Trinity Lines,” another Ponzi-board “opportunity.” Like other Achievers, Rodney also is promoting “Unison Wealth,” yet another Ponzi-board “program.”
UPDATED 1:27 P.M. ET U.S.A. Fred Joseph announced his retirement in December 2013, after 30 years in public service. He’d seen it all during the course of his career, including the case of Frederick H.K. Baker, infamous as an instance in which an HYIP scammer tried to “scam the scammers.”
Now comes word that “Achieve Community,” a Ponzi-board “program” that appears to be operating out of Colorado and Michigan, is in an even deeper crisis than the one it confronted after reportedly losing its ability to do business with Payoneer in late October or early November.
This is because Global Cash Card, which Achieve apparently envisioned as a substitute “payout” processor after the Payoneer debacle, reportedly is unwilling to work with Achieve — this after Achieve sold the asserted GCC arrangement as a done deal on Dec. 18.
Achieve promoter Rodney Blackburn, in our view, is a classic example of a person who wants badly to believe in the tooth fairy.
“Quite honestly, there’s a lot of upset people out there, and rightfully so,” Rodney says of the GCC development, attributing the news to Colorado-based Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson. “I can understand where everybody is upset. There was a lot of rumors going on out there. There has not been a lot of transparency, as far as the details . . .”
“Kristi has brought out information that’s in the forum [pertaining to the GCC development]; I can’t dispute that. But as far as what’s been going on with Global Cash Card — that has been declined, for whatever reason we don’t know.”
Rodney says Achieve owes him $90,000.
“We all just have to wait it out,” he says, adding that he “trust[s] Kristi enough to where she is going to make this wrong right, that she is going to give everything that she’s got to get Achieve up and running. She had a vision from the beginning. The vision has never, you know, swayed. But definitely something going on in the background, and it would be nice if she was a little bit more open about what’s going on. I know she likes to kinda hold everything to the vest close to her. But . . . it’s tough because there are so many of us out there that are really needing the money. That’s why we get into this industry. We want Achieve to work so badly . . .
“The best thing I can tell everybody as of right now is to look into other options.”
Rodney’s remarks are contained within a 11:59 YouTube video published Jan. 4 and titled “LIST – Achieve Community Update 1/ 4 /2015.” LIST stands for Legendary Income Solutions Team, a group that pushes “programs.” Just seconds after Rodney laments the situation at Achieve, it becomes clear that he won’t be just sitting around. No, Rodney is now pushing “Trinity Lines,” another Ponzi-board “program.”
As noted earlier, Rodney also is pushing Unison Wealth. It, too, is a Ponzi-board “program.”
Because Ponzi-board “programs” often have promoters in common, this sets the stage for fraudulent proceeds to circulate between and among scams.
Little wonder GCC appears not to be keen on Achieve. Its promoters may be polluting the money stream at multiple points of contact by pushing other scams, even as Achieve appears to be boxed in.
A link to Facebook flashes on the screen in a Dec. 30 YouTube promo for Achieve Community, Unison Wealth and LIST. Rodney Blackburn assures viewers that all is OK with Achieve, but then appears to take back his remarks.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Legisi HYIP scheme was a Ponzi-board “program” that tried to hide underground in 2007/08, even as state and federal investigators were conducting an undercover probe that eventually led to the arrests and subsequent convictions of the purveyor-in-chief and a pitchman for the $72 million fraud.
In this evidence exhibit given to a federal judge prior to the Legisi asset freeze in 2008, a Legisi prospect writes the name “Money Maker Group.com” in longhand. State and federal probes into Legisi were under way long before members knew — and undercover agents were part of the probe.
One of the evidence exhibits in the case included the words “MoneyMakerGroup.com” written out in longhand by a Legisi investor. Case files used in an SEC exhibit also show page after page of postings from Legisi’s so-called “private” forum. In addition to prison sentences, millions of dollars in civil judgments were imposed in the Legisi prosecution.
Like Legisi, Achieve Community is a Ponzi-board “program” that has installed a “private” forum.
**_______________________**
2ND UPDATE 12:38 P.M. ET U.S.A. As the PP Blog noted on Dec. 11, Achieve Community appeared to be prepping to follow a playbook used by predecessor scams such as AdViewGlobal and others — that is, compartmentalize information by creating a members-only private forum to make it the only source of info from the “opportunity” itself.
This typically occurs when a scam begins to sense it has been entirely too public in its scamming through public venues such as Facebook or Ponzi forums and that members themselves — through individual promos — are hastening the day of a “program’s” final demise.
Achieve Community now appears to have turned its back on (or is in the process of retreating from) the once-ballyhooed “TheOfficialAchieveCommunity” Facebook site. At the same time, it appears to be discouraging individual promoters from continuing to use Facebook for their Achieve pitchfests.
“We are no longer able to be a Facebook program – and that is not up for debate – there are several reasons for this – and most have to do with our processors,” Achieve Community co-founder Kristi Johnson reportedly has written.
A real head-scratcher, that one.
“If you have questions about our program come to the [Achieve private] Forum to ask them,” Kristi continues. “If you are a member with time, come to the Forum to help answer your community members please.”
And, she adds, “If our information continues to be shared through unofficial Facebook groups or timelines or questions about everything Achieve anywhere on Facebook, we will not get the processors that we want to work with. It’s that simple.
“You all can decide if you want to see Achieve continue or not. If you do want us to continue come to the Forum. If not, stay on Facebook with these unofficial groups and questions. I’ll leave it to our community.”
Kristi did not identify any of the “unofficial groups.” Nor did she say whether she was concerned about individual promos on YouTube such as those from Rodney Blackburn.
Like many “cycler” promoters on the Internet, Rodney is a one-person PR train wreck. For example, he now has announced on YouTube that he’s promoting “Unison Wealth” and, in the process, joining other Achievers who are doing so.
In Rodney’s promo, a link to Facebook flashes on the screen at about the 8:35 mark.
“As far as I can see, as far as I understand . . . everything is fine with the Achieve Community,” Rodney ventures in his 10:30 YouTube combo promo for Achieve, Unison Wealth and the “Legendary Income Solutions Team or LIST.
The promo, complete with three exclamation marks, is titled “LIST – Achieve Community Update and More!!!”
But as soon as Rodney utters soothing words about Achieve, he seems to take them back. “Kristi is under a tremendous amount of stress as far, in my opinion, [as] trying to get everything up and running. But, guys, we can’t lose focus that she has done everything that she says she’s gonna do. Has it been at the exact timelines all the time? No.”
He then talks about debit “cards” purportedly from Global Cash Card not being “out” and “all these [Achieve] delays” over the past few weeks after Achieve reportedly lost its ability to conduct business through Payoneer weeks ago.
Talking about damning someone with faint praise.
Regardless, Rodney then switches course again, assuring his audience that Kristi isn’t responsible for any of the problems at Achieve. He further ventures that the MLM trade/networking marketing business in general has been impressed by the way Achieve does business and therefore would adopt Achieve practices.
“That tells you something,” Rodney asserts. “Kristi was onto something when she created this. And so, you gotta tip your hat to her.”
Unison Wealth” is “an excellent opportunity for people to come in,” Rodney says — this after noting his LIST downline group stresses “passive” programs.
The passivity of a scheme is an element in what constitutes an “investment contract” under U.S. and state-level securities laws. A recent example of this can be found in the lawsuits against alleged “winners” in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, including lawsuits filed this week against alleged Zeek winners who hail from Australia.
Zeek’s court-appointed receiver is seeking the return of the alleged winnings, saying they came from Zeek victims. The receiver also has sued U.S. and Canadian alleged winners.
Achieve “winners” potentially could experience the same outcome if litigation emerges.
Like Achieve, Unison Wealth is a Ponzi-board program. The TalkGold forum got a prominent mention in court filings earlier this month in the U.S.-led prosecution of Liberty Reserve, a defunct money-moving business once used by criminals the world over.
So, the following bizarre circumstance has evolved: Achieve — a “program” with an 800 percent ROI and targeted at senior citizens and promoted on Ponzi forums — suddenly says it’s “no longer able” to be a Facebook “program” and that the issue is “not up for debate” because post-Payoneer processors might get the wrong idea about Achieve.
This appears to be occurring as Achieve is engaging in a Zeek Rewards- and TelexFree-like game of payment-processor roulette, potentially now including iPayDNA and Global Cash Card.
Nothwithstanding the bizarre assertion that Achieve once was “able” to be a Facebook “program” but now cannot be, Achieve will be no less a Ponzi scheme whether it goes underground or not.
From an Achieve Community Facebook promo posted Dec. 20.
The “Achieve Community,” a Ponzi-board money-cycling “program” targeted at Christians and positioned by some network marketers as an alternative for people who don’t want to “sell out” to banks and their “tiny little 1% annual return,” would like you to know that Santa Claus and an elf are on the team.
By buying one “EXTRA” $50 Achieve position on Christmas Day, Achievers will come into possession of “the gift that Keeps On Giving!” according to a bizarre new promo published on Facebook Saturday by Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson.
A fellow Facebook poster, however, laments, “Kristi, Can you please answer this question? I tried the whole weekend to purchase new positions. But every time it says, an error occur[r]ed, your payment is declined. I called already to MasterCard and nothing is wrong with my Card. Problem seems to be with readytoachieve. I sent already 4 messages to readytoachieve, but i get no answer.”
Volunteers purportedly now are assisting Achieve, which appears to be transitioning to new financial vendors after parting company with Payoneer weeks ago, with support duties. Johnson has claimed she’s typically too busy to answer questions, that members should turn to the website FAQs and a recently installed private forum for assistance and that co-founder Troy Barnes “won’t be around much anymore” because of pressing family issues.
Separately, Achieve boosters parroting each other continue to circulate a promo that reads, “We are not investing in a stock or buying shares in a company. We are using our God given universal right to spend our money the way we want. We choose not to sell out to the banking system for their tiny little 1% annual return.”
The claim appears in both video and text form. It is common for HYIP promoters to invoke God and seek to fuel contempt against banks. Some Achieve promoters appear to have hijacked the original claim and worked it into their individual promos. The original source of the claim is unclear.
No authority that God had granted any such “universal right” is provided. Nor does the promo explain why banks are not doing the same thing Achieve is doing or how Achieve will get by if banks and payment vendors it relies on pull the plug on Achieve. If the assertion that banks pay 1 percent annually is true, however, it would mean that Achieve pays 800 times that percentage in three months or less.
Because banks have greater economies of scale than Achieve and greater opportunities to employ vertical integration, they could pound Achieve into the sand by simply adopting the Achieve business model — and yet they don’t do it.
The reason why is that the banks would be creating a liability of $400 for every $50 they accepted for the purchase of “positions” and that regulators and class-action litigants would attack any disclaimer language as an obvious attempt to sanitize a Ponzi scheme and create a license to steal tremendous sums of money.
Even though Achieve appears to have generated cash flow by switching to an offshore processor known as iPayDNA after the Payoneer divorce in late October or early November, Achieve very well could be insolvent today. This is because it is not meeting obligations when they become due. Payouts due Achieve members who joined or repurchased positions on Sept 12 were due to be paid in early November, but reportedly have not been paid.
That Achieve also appears to be playing payment processor roulette potentially adds to its attractiveness for class-action litigation against both itself and payment vendors on the theory of racketeering and “deepening insolvency.” (See this document from private litigants in the TelexFree bankruptcy case. Like Achieve, TelexFree was promoted on Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup. So was Zeek Rewards, a “program” that also has encountered class-action litigation. )
Achieve says $50 turns into $400. Multiple “positions” can be purchased. Some promos have extrapolated returns in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or even in excess of $1 million.
Members reportedly have not received payouts from Achieve since the relationship with Payoneer ended.
From an Achieve promo playing on YouTube. Masking by PP Blog.
3RD UPDATE 11:30 A.M. ET U.S.A. A female senior citizen from the 434 Area Code in South-Central Virginia dialed into a Dec. 10 “Achieve Community” conference call, according to an audio recording of the call playing on YouTube.
She explained that she had a heart condition, that she had trusted in God and joined Achieve and that her 86-year-old husband of 53 years had been “in the hospital for a full year and six months in the nursing home.
“And it took every penny of money that we had and could get together just to be able to pay those bills and live. For four years, we haven’t been living. We’ve been existing. We did not have enough money to pay our bills, to buy medicine, food, gas . . .”
The woman explained that she had been paid by Achieve, had “nowhere to go” and “couldn’t get this kind of return on my money even if I could.”
One of the hosts then said her tale was “very inspiring,” that he hoped things worked out with her husband and that (italics added):
“I think your attitude is absolutely fantastic. You are exactly the type of person that the Achieve Community is built around and for . . .”
Area Code 434 services Lynchburg and other communities in the Western District of Virginia.
The office of U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy of the Western District of Virginia had no immediate comment on the call. The RealScam.com antiscam forum was the first to publish a link to the recording of the call. The PP Blog listened to the call and then contacted Heaphy’s office, which handles the Lynchburg area.
Achieve Community, a money-cycler “program,” may be operating from Michigan. The purported co-founders are Troy Barnes and Kristi Johnson. Achieve enthusiasts Rodney Blackburn and Mike Chitty appear to have been the lead hosts on the call. Johnson briefly was on the line at the beginning of the call.
The call demonstrates that Achieve Community, which purports to be an international company, is driving business in the United States by reaching across state lines. Callers on the Dec. 10 call were identified by their respective Area Codes.
One female caller came on the line from Area Code 615, which serves the Nashville, Tenn., region. Another woman came on the line from Area Code 504, which covers Greater New Orleans in Louisiana. Yet another woman came on the line from Area Code 702, which serves the Las Vegas region in Nevada.
The woman from 702 complained that Achieve, which claims that $50 turns into $400, was being elusive and capricious.
Also on the line was a man who said he was from Baltimore. He raised concerns about problems Achieve had been having after reportedly losing the ability to use the Payoneer payment processor more than a month ago.
Next up was a man from the 347 Area Code in the Greater New York City region. He complained that a “position” purchase he made hadn’t been credited. The elderly woman from 434 described above then came on, followed by a man from the 407 Area Code in the region of Orlando, Fla. The call concluded with a woman from Area Code 718 in the New York City region coming on the line.
Achieve Community targeting is wide, covering twenty-somethings to eighty-somethings. One of the call hosts said Achieve money could be used to build churches, take care of families and pay off student loans.
UPDATED 11:39 A.M. ET DEC. 12 U.S.A. In its latest effort to expand its reality-distortion field, “The Achieve Community” money-cycling “program” that tells prospects a $50 “position” increases by a factor of eight and turns into $400 in a few months (or even in as few as 55 days) has compared itself to The Walt Disney Co.
Achieve represents both a “micro” and a “macro” scheme. Although participants can buy a single “position” for $50, they also can buy multiple “positions” for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, according to promos. At least one promo contends that 200 “positions” can be purchased 100 at a time in two separate transactions of $5,000 each. If this proves to be the case either in the past or in the future, the crime of structuring transactions to evade bank-reporting requirements could be on the table.
The specific Achieve Community analogy noted in the headline and lede above is to Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Even more specifically, it is to the rides at Disney World and the purported “hours” it takes to board one of them.
From a Dec. 8 “Monday Night Update” post on the Achieve Community Blog credited to co-founder Kristi Johnson (italics added):
I want to explain a bit more about how we work for the benefit of those new members . . . and thanks goes to Sheila once again for this wonderful analogy.
Think of Achieve as a ride at Disney World. You get in line for the ride and it can takes [sic] hours! But it’s always moving, just like our matrix. And finally you get to the ride (the matrix) and it’s over in a few minutes! It may take a few months to hit our matrix, and once you get there you’ll be paid within days on all three levels. Then you can take the ride again!
Here’s our initial take on the claims:
From a YouTube promo for Achieve Community.
If you submit to this bollocks and think of Achieve as a ride at Disney World, you’re as out of touch as the Achieve organizers and some of their professional hucksters want you to be. Wake. Up. Now.
If you choose to remain in a network-marketing-induced Stepfordian trance, expect that a sudden desire to embrace every conspiracy theory under the sun will come next. If that happens, you’d better hope the BBC’s “Sunday Politics” program hosted by Andrew Neil never gives you the Alex Jones treatment.
Lines indeed can be long at Disney World. (But there’s a free app for that.)
Disney doesn’t sell $50 cycler tickets and tell parents and starry-eyed kids that those tickets pay not only for the ride, but also will convert to $400 cash before fall takes over from summer. And Disney also doesn’t encourage parents and kids waiting in lines to plunk down another $50 (or more) as a means of fetching another $400 (or more) before winter takes over from fall. Moreover, unlike Achieve, Disney does not operate a cycler. The New York Stock Exchange would go apoplectic if Disney or its fans took to the web to claim purchases and repurchases of “positions” set the stage for $50 to morph into more than $1.6 million.
If Disney did what Achieve is doing, its operating revenue of nearly $49 billion in 2014 would translate into a liability of nearly $392 billion, creeping up on a hole of almost half-a-trillion dollars.
As a great American company, Disney wouldn’t dare do what Achieve Community is doing — for the same reasons Google wouldn’t do what the AdSurfDaily “advertising” scam was doing in 2008 and eBay wouldn’t do what the Zeek Rewards “auction” scam was doing in 2012.
Cyclers such as the one operated by Achieve Community are among the Internet’s oldest forms of the Ponzi scheme. Because the fraud is so old — and because cycler carcasses litter cyberspace — cyclers have sought new and better ways to dupe the public. Internal mechanics and entry points may vary from $10 to hundreds of dollars. Recruiting may or may not be required, and there may be talk of “algorithms” or “secret algorithms.” Achieve purportedly has a proprietary “triple algorithm.”
Ever hear of the Regenesis 2×2 matrix-cycler scam in 2009? The U.S. Secret Service did — and kept a Dumpster under surveillance to gather evidence. Material seized in the case, according to court records, included envelopes containing credit cards, debit cards and financial statements; 13 Priority Mail envelopes and 10 First Class Mail envelopes; and various computers, computer equipment and business records.
Federal agents investigating now-shuttered Regenesis said they found the personal financial records of customers in the Dumpster, plus complaint faxes sent by customers and a letter from a law firm complaining about false, misleading and deceptive advertising.
As is the case now with Achieve Community, Regenesis promoters took to the web with reports of getting paid. Getting paid, however, is not proof that no scam exists. In 2010, promoters of the MPB Today cycler scam took to the web with “payment proofs” that were even crisper than the Regenesis “proofs.”
MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun later was sentenced to a term in a Florida state prison.
Despite “payment proofs” that appeared online, the MPB Today cycler was a scam that put its operator in prison.From an Achieve Community promo for a purported “repurchase” plan that turns $50 into “ANY amount you wish!”
In HYIP Cycler Land, the much ballyhooed matrices move only when new money flows to a scheme, assuming the matrices even exist and further assuming an early entrant (or even a later one) doesn’t try to blackmail an operator by mixing a threat to go to the police with a demand for hush money or a selective payout.
Is it any wonder that Vimeo has banned “videos pertaining to multi-level marketing (MLM), affiliate programs, get-rich-quick schemes, cash gifting, work-from-home gigs, or similar ventures?” Also not permitted on Vimeo are “rips of movies, music, television, or any other third party copyrighted material.”
Members of WCM777, a network-marketing “program” taken down by the SEC earlier this year after money was channeled to all kinds of secret businesses, found ways to work images of Sylvester Stallone and the music and imagery of the “Rocky” franchise into their scam. In 2010, promoters of the MPB Today “program” wrapped the music of Heart into their sales appeals. “Guaranteed No Scam,” one promo read in part.
This could in part explain why Vimeo appears to return no search results for “The Achieve Community.” It’s heartening, but the great MLM/network-marketing ripoffs on YouTube continue — from pitches for obvious scams to piracy of music and video content. At least one promo for Achieve Community appropriates virtually the entire soundtrack of a recording of “You Raise Me Up” by Celtic Woman.
Though he doesn’t reference Achieve Community in a video posted Nov. 29 on YouTube, network-marketing veteran Eric Worre of NetworkMarketingPro.com laments all the “lazy . . . MLM online idiots in the marketplace.”
“There’s too many, and it’s causing too much damage,” Worre says, noting the MLM ban at Vimeo and “boorish stuff” from MLMers “on any of the [social media] platforms.”
“It’s out of control. It doesn’t work, and it’s causing tremendous damage,” Worre says.
Nine days later came the preposterous Achieve Community analogy to Disney — this after Achieve reportedly had lost its original payment processor but went scouting for new ones, plus an offshore company to process credit cards. Purchasing and repurchasing of “positions” reportedly opened back up last week with a new card processor at the helm, but payouts to participants reportedly have not resumed.
Not to worry, Achieve Community says.
“When our Payout Processor is added next week,” the enterprise said Dec. 5 in a Blog post titled Friday Update, “we will be paying members who joined September 12th and will start paying out nearly $500,000.00 to our members.”
If those payouts materialize, they will come after a payout halt of more than a month and after Achieve Community apparently found an offshore company to provide a merchant account that permitted it to take credit cards for the acquisition of matrix “positions.” In other words, Achieve started collecting “new” money and now publicly announces a plan to pay “old” members who were due to be paid in early November for “positions” taken out on Sept. 12.
That, friends, is what Ponzi schemes do. More than that, it’s an indicator that Achieve was racking up a liability of $400 for every $50 it took in and was at least technically insolvent when Payoneer — its previous payment processor — reportedly pulled out weeks ago. Solving an insolvency condition by lining up new vendors to rekindle cashflow is one of the oldest tricks in the HYIP Ponzi books.
The Achieve Community Disney analogy makes no sense at all — except perhaps in that uber-bizarre, network-marketing way.
That the Disney comparison came on a Monday night is particularly rich. That’s because ESPN, part of the Disney Media Group, was getting ready to televise Monday Night Football. Even as ESPN was doing that, other Disney brands such as ABC (and ABC News) were broadcasting to the world. At the same time, the Walt Disney Studios was engaged in movie production, and Disney Consumer Products and Disney Interactive were doing what they do.
With Achieve, it’s only the upstart cycler and the hidden matrix positioned to be miraculous. What a racket!
Disney stock closed yesterday at $93.80, up a humble 4 cents. The iconic brand is a Dow and S&P 500 component, but it’s easy enough to imagine the Achievers saying, “Four cents! Only 4 cents! Better join Achieve!”
Did we mention the app for those Disney World lines?
As a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack from a Celtic Woman recording of “You Raise Me Up” plays in the background and various bromides appear on screen, Achieve Community prospects are encouraged in this YouTube promo to buy multiple “positions” for the cycler “program” that lost its payment processor last month. The promo guarantees a return.
“The Achieve Community” money-cycler train wreck has announced it’s back on the rails (sort of) and will relaunch today (sort of), after losing its payment processor last month. The asserted relaunch is occurring on the heels of multiple warnings from regulators about scams spreading on social media.
It’s also occurring against the backdrop of allegations in both the Zeek Rewards and TelexFree Ponzi/pyramid court cases that the operators encountered halts at various banks and payment processors, but moved to other ones to keep the massive fraud schemes going.
Both Zeek and TelexFree purported to be purveyors of a product or products. Regulators say the purported offerings were used to hide the illicit nature of the schemes. Achieve Community also purports to provide products.
Promos for Achieve Community assert that $50 for the purchase of a cycler “position” morphs into $400 in two months or so. Participants are encouraged to plow purported profits back into the system. Over time, according to this purported “repurchase strategy,” the original $50 will turn “into ANY amount you wish.”
As of the time of this PP Blog post, Achieve Community has not announced the name or names of its new payment processors. A Dec. 1 announcement attributed to co-founder Kristi Johnson suggests that Achieve Community intends immediately to start selling “positions” to participants who have debit or credit cards. When payouts to members would resume was not immediately clear.
“Payments will begin once we attach our processor, you sign up for it from your back office, and you are approved,” the Dec. 1 Blog post attributed to Johnson reads in part. “I will update you on the date to begin signing up for our payout processor.”
Naturally this has led to questions about whether Achieve Community was trying to replumb an involuntarily stalled Ponzi scheme by making it convenient for prospects to pay into the system until enough money becomes available for payouts to begin anew.
Achieve Community is said to have more than 9,000 members.
As in many network-marketing schemes, participants either are clueless about the obvious markers of fraud or pretending to be so.
News of the asserted relaunch has been greeted on social media with depictions of a fireworks display and images of champagne and wine glasses. Members of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008 celebrated purported good news in the same fashion.
As was the case with the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme two months prior to its collapse in 2012, members of Achieve Community are being fed bromides. (With Zeek, it was “If you want things in your life to change, you have to change things in your life” and more. With Achieve Community, it’s “If you do not GO after what you want, you’ll never have it” and more.)
One 5:07 promo for Achieve Community on YouTube includes virtually the entire soundtrack of a recording of “You Raise Me Up” by Celtic Woman. Various bromides appear on the screen as the hauntingly beautiful music plays. As one bromide fades away, a panel rolls onto the screen. It claims that Achieve Community “will change your life FOREVER. EVERYONE MAKES MONEY HERE. NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND. PERIOD.”
The video, with the Celtic Woman recording still playing, goes on to assert that there is “Never a moment alone” in the Achieve Community.
Another promo — this one on Facebook — shows an image of a U.S. space shuttle blasting off. “Now Anyone Can Live Their Dream!” the promo roars. “Over $2,000,000 PAID Out to Members.”
Another claims, “The Achieve Community Is On Fire.” Members of the TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid scheme were targeted in a similar promo last year. TelexFree collapsed into a pile of Ponzi rubble in April 2014.
