PatrickPretty.com

Tag: MAPS

COURTING TROUBLE: In Bogus Promo, Obama Shown As Pitchman For ‘MyAdvertisingPays’

On April 2, a video depicting President Obama as a fan of the MyAdvertisingPays “program” appeared on YouTube. An “Obama voice” was dubbed into the video, which also shows the Presidential Seal. Text below the video reads, “Mr. President speaks about the new advertising revolution.”

Depicting then-President George W. Bush as a fan of the AdSurfDaily MLM HYIP “program” backfired in spectacular fashion in 2008, drawing the attention of the U.S. Secret Service. Federal agents eventually seized more than $80 million in an asset-forfeiture case. ASD President Andy Bowdoin, accused of operating a cross-border Ponzi scheme, was indicted. He later pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Bush left the White House in January 2009, after Barack Obama was elected President. By August 2010, according to the FTC, “medical discount” hucksters were trading on Obama’s image.

By September 2010, contrived images of Obama appeared in sales promos for the MPB Today MLM “program.”

MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun later was charged with racketeering. Assets were seized. A conviction followed.

In 2013, with Obama now in his second term, he was depicted in a promo as a pitchman for a scheme known as Ultimate Power Profits. That “program” had promoters in common with Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described in 2012 as a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had gathered hundreds of millions of dollars.

Against this backdrop, a YouTube video that appeared online today positioned Obama as a pitchman for MyAdvertisingPays, a Ponzi-board scheme like ASD, MPB Today, Ultimate Power Profits, Zeek and many others.

News about the 0:33 MAPS’ video titled “My Advertising Pays, Obama” first appeared on the RealScam.com antiscam forum.

MAPS already may be on borrowed time. That’s because MAPS has links to both the Zeek and TelexFree schemes. TelexFree, alleged to have gathered more than $1.8 billion, also traded on the illusion the U.S. government backed the “program.”

The video for MAPS puts MAPS-friendly words into the President’s mouth.

“My AdvertisingPays pays its members every 20 minutes,” a mimicked voice of Obama’s says. “I highly recommend you to join MyAdvertisingPays.”

The video concludes with, “God bless MyAdvertisingPays.”

Apr 2, 2015
‘MyAdvertisingPays’ And A Bromide Thrice Vomited

It turns out that a hackneyed expression currently in play within MyAdvertisingPays (MAPS) is a lightly remixed version of one used in the collapsed Zeek Rewards and Achieve Community schemes.

Will this thrice-vomited bromide become a kiss of death for MAPS?

Back before the SEC shut down Zeek in 2012, the $897 million scheme traded in part on “If you want things in your life to change, you have to change things in your life.”

With Achieve prior to its shutdown by the SEC last month, it was “If you do not GO after what you want, you’ll never have it.”

On Twitter, a promoter of the emerging MAPS scheme is prospecting for recruits with a similar line. “If you want something you’ve never had, then you’ve got to do something you’ve never done!”

The PP Blog reported on March 9 that the name of MAPS appears in a TelexFree-related class-action lawsuit originally filed in federal court in New York and later transferred to Massachusetts. Even though MAPS isn’t named a defendant, it is clear that both private lawyers and government lawyers are aware of MAPS.

With an alleged haul of more than $1.8 billion, TelexFree likely is the largest MLM HYIP fraud of all time. Zeek, the previous title-holder in terms of its alleged haul, probably now is second. Both schemes may have created hundreds of thousands of victims.

Zeek’s receiver currently is involved in an international paper chase to round up assets for victims. Some of the money allegedly was routed to the Cook Islands (South Pacific) through a California company and then used to buy property in the Turks and Caicos (North Atlantic).

MAPS, which appears to have a paper presence on the Caribbean island of Anguilla but likely operates from the United States, recently claimed to have “110676+ Users.” Given its business model and the presence of serial promoters of fraud schemes in its membership ranks, MAPS very well could be a litigation target-in-the-making.

Regardless, many MLM HYIP Ponzi promoters will pretend that the membership should not be concerned — as they did with Zeek and Achieve Community.

Mar 13, 2015
[PART 2]: ‘MyAdvertisingPays’ Scheme Referenced In TelexFree-Related Class-Action Complaint That Alleges Racketeering — A Zeek Tie, Too

EDITOR’S NOTE: Part 1 of this two-part PP Blog series covered allegations against an alleged New York City-based TelexFree promoter . . .

**__________________**

2ND UPDATE 9:42 A.M. EDT U.S.A. Though not charged as a defendant, the emerging “MyAdvertisingPays” (MAPS) scheme is referenced in a proposed class-action lawsuit filed against multiple TelexFree figures and financial vendors in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in December 2014.

Because both New York’s Southern District and Eastern District are key centers of prosecutions against U.S. financial fraudsters, the proposed TelexFree class-action — now transferred to Massachusetts federal court — leads to questions about whether other “programs” such as MAPS could become the subjects of prosecutions.

Those odds might increase because Staten Island-based Daniil Shoyfer, alleged by the TelexFree plaintiffs “to have been the largest single Promoter in the greater New York area,” also is promoting MAPs, according to a YouTube site in his name.

Beyond that, Shaun Smith, alleged by the receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid case to be one of the largest Zeek “winners” in the United Kingdom, also is promoting MAPs. Receiver Kenneth D. Bell is suing Smith and other alleged U.K. Zeek promoters for return of the funds, alleging they are Ponzi proceeds that came from Zeek victims.

Bell has expressed concern about MLMers or network marketers moving from one fraud scheme to another.

The TelexFree-related class action describes MAPS as a “120% ROI advertising-based Ponzi scheme.”

MyAdvertisingPays (MAPS) is referenced in this TelexFree-related class-action complaint. Red highlight by PP Blog.

The MAPS website purports to have “110676+ Users” and to be “GROWING FAST!” MAPS is the subject of a long thread at the RealScam.com antiscam forum. (Also see BehindMLM.com review of MAPS, also known as MAP.)

From the BehindMLM.com review (italics added):

Using the familiar advertising credit + Ponzi scheme business model, MyAdvertisingPays simpl[y] shuffle new affiliate money around to pay off existing investors.

The business model of MAPS is similar to the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. MAPS purports to operate from George Hill, Anguilla, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean.

In the proposed TelexFree class action, the reference to MAPS appears in a section that alleges various TelexFree financial vendors enabled the fraud. Some of the vendors are alleged to have engaged in racketeering activity.

At least one Zeek vendor has claimed it was rendered insolvent, owing to its Zeek ties.

On its website, MAPS claims it does not accept PayPal because PayPal “has a bad habit of freezing or limiting members accounts for little or no reason at all.” Instead, it encourages prospects to use SolidTrustPay, a vendor used by both the Zeek and ASD schemes.

MAPS also says it uses something called “VX Gateway,” which purports to operate out of Panama.

Mar 9, 2015