An autosurf known as Frogress apparently has gone the way of MegaLido, leaving members in the lurch.
Frogress seems to have started in October — about the same time as MegaLido. It advertised 12 percent a day for 12 days, and forum posts raved about the communications skills of the Frogress operator.
MegaLido employed a similar model before going belly-up in a matter of weeks. People also raved about the communications skills of the MegaLido operator — until he stopped communicating, that is.
In any event, the Frogress server is throwing an error message, and people in forums said the program has tanked. Some people, however, added that they’d join the next autosurf opened by the Frogress operator. After all, he had good communications skills — and 12 percent a day is nothing to sneeze at.
Frogress and MegaLido both used the flameout model — high rebate percentages purportedly paid quickly.
This is distinguished from the slow-motion model — low rebate percentages paid over considerably more time.
Regardless, Ponzi math applies to both approaches, and a rational argument can be made that slow-motion Ponzis actually are more dangerous than flameout Ponzis because more people have more time to join and more money can enter the system before collapse.
Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion scheme was a slow-motion Ponzi, as was the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi.
That a slow-motion Ponzi could be construed as more dangerous than a flameout Ponzi does not inply that there is any virtue in using the flameout model; it simply means the individual autosurf’s pot may not grow as large in the flameout model.
No matter. A fameout Ponzi operator still can collect big sums quickly, shut down the autosurf, and start another flameout Ponzi, hopscotching across the Ponzi universe fueled by promoters who can’t say no to the sign-up commissions and the chance to make a quick kill.
It’s worth pointing out that Ponzi collapses can be voluntary or involuntary. It’s common for autosurf Ponzi operators to take the money and run, invoking disclaimers and contract language members agreed to at sign-up:
Advertising fees are “nonrefundable,” for instance. And “rebates aren’t guaranteed.”
If the cessation of operations is involuntary, it could be because the government has stepped in to stop an alleged scam from mushrooming and sucking away even more money. That’s the ASD experience.