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Tag: MoneyMakerGroup

  • BULLETIN: Already Under Scrutiny, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid May Be Using ‘Regional Reps’ To Increase Ponzi Reach Over National Borders

    Redacted screen shot of "regional representatives" claim today on the website of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid.

    BULLETIN: The PP Blog has learned that JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is publishing a page in which it advertises the availability of “regional representatives” in various parts of the world, including Italy.

    On Jan. 23, CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, took action against certain JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid affiliaties. Despite the CONSOB action, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is openly advertising that it has at least two affiliates who speak Italian and that the affiliates are available to “assist you with ALL aspects of the program IN YOUR LANGUAGE.”

    The page also touts the native-language talents of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid affiliates to assist members in Hong Hong, Taiwan, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States (to assist people who speak English or Japanese), Germany, Lithuania, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Poland, Portugal, Latvia, France, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Spain.

    JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid described its outreach via regional reps as “AMAZING!”

    “The people on this page have been thoroughly trained in all the workings of JustBeenPaid’s programs, and are happy to assist you TODAY!” the murky entity crowed.

    In a Feb. 23 conference call, Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, declined to say precisely where the “opportunity” itself was located.

    JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, Mann asserted to an audience of Americans and at least one person who claimed to be a resident of Canada, was “not located in any specific part of the world.

    “We’re all over the planet,” he said, speaking with an English accent that appeared to be native to South Africa.

    The assertion led to questions about whether Mann was running the “program” in a fashion reminiscent of a sort of small-scale Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). BCCI deliberately structured itself in murky fashion to ward off oversight by regulators. Its collapse created one of the great business scandals of the 1990s, prompting the Wall Street Journal (Europe) to observe that BCCI had been set up to be “offshore everywhere.”

    BCCI’s collapse also triggered Congressional probes in the United States, along with both civil and criminal prosecutions.

    The CONSOB probe in Italy, which the agency announced nearly six weeks ago, was not referenced on the “representatives” page on the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid website.

    Incongruously, the “representatives” page included a link to an “agreement” page in which JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid registrants and/or prospects were informed they must 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.”

    Moreover, the registrants and/or prospects were informed they must 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.”

    The collapsed Legis HYIP published similar terms. (More on the Legisi prosecution below.)

    How long the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid regional reps have been in place was not immediately clear. Also unclear was whether each of the reps had a physical presence in the respective countries or were using the Internet to reach over borders and perform customer service and recruit downlines in the respective nations.

    The U.S. government and other governments of the world have become increasingly concerned about cross-border fraud. Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, met with top officials in Canada to discuss the problem.

    Perhaps aghast over JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid developments, a poster on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum declared today that having regional reps for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is an “insane idea.”

    “Forget about the matrix spots and payouts,” the MoneyMakerGroup poster wrote today. “[W]hy is 200,000 + members not enough and why arent (sic) we off the radar and private and not opening ourselves up to potential problems ? Regional reps is an insane idea, Im (sic) sorry but the admin needs to protect us and wakeup (sic) to the reality that you cant (sic) get this huge and expect nothing bad to happen.”

    The poster did not explain his apparent belief that JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid had a duty to go “private” and to get “off the radar” of regulators. Nor did he say precisely what constituted something “bad.”

    HYIPs have been the subject of both civil and criminal litigation in various jurisdictions.

    It is common for HYIP purveyors to tout purported “offshore” operating venues and to claim such venues insulate an “opportunity” from prosecution. It also is common for HYIPs to announce they are “private” programs and therefore not subject to government oversight. At the same time, it is common for HYIPs to try to structure a Terms of Service or Member Agreement that purports either that the “opportunity” is not selling securities or is not subject to regulatory oversight.

    Some HYIPs, including JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, have preemptively denied they are Ponzi schemes.

    JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid purports to pay a daily return of 2 percent. On an annualized basis, the sum is between 48 and 73 times the purported returns of imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. It is EIGHT times the daily return touted by Gregory McKnight, who pleaded guilty last month in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan for his operation of the Legisi HYIP scheme.

    The purported returns of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid are somewhat on par with the returns of Nicholas Smirnow of the alleged Pathway To Prosperity HYIP Ponzi scheme. Smirnow is listed as “Wanted” by INTERPOL.

    On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a website linked to Mann displayed videos of Francis Schaeffer Cox, an American and purported “sovereign citizen” under indictment in Alaska in an alleged murder plot against public officials.

    Separately, a YouTube promo for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid dated yesterday asserted that “[a]ll you have to do is wait for your money to increase!!!”

    A Blog post dated today, meanwhile, makes this assertion (italics added):

    “The JSS Tripler new site is one month old. It has been a month of phenomenal growth, but it’s nothing compared to what’s in the future. Some ‘Big Things’ are on the horizon that will enable many of the members to become millionaires, some could even become billionaires.”

    Neither the March 3 Blog post nor the March 2 YouTube video referenced the CONSOB probe.

    In 2008, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin asserted that ASD had a plan to create 100,000 millionaires in three years. On Dec. 1, 2010, the U.S. government announced that Bowdoin had been indicted on Ponzi-related charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    About 16 days later — on Dec. 17, 2010 — U.S. federal prosecutors announced they had filed forfeiture litigation against at least two ASD affiliates. One of the alleged affiliates was purported ASD “trainer” Erma Seabaugh.

    Seabaugh also was an affiliate of an enterprise known as Ad-Ventures4U (ADV4u), which crashed in 2009 amid allegations that its operator had been threatened by members.

    In web promos, Mann has described himself as a promoter for both ASD and ADV4U. Some affiliates have described him as a “genius,” the same description accorded Bowdoin before the August 2008 raid on ASD headquarters by the U.S. Secret Service.

    After the event — and facing both civil prosecution and a criminal investigation — Bowdoin told ASD members that the raid was the work of “Satan.”

    It is a descriptor completely contrary to the typical view Americans have of the Secret Service, which has the twin duties of protecting the nation’s financial infrastructure and the life of the President of the United States.

    Most Americans believe the Secret Service consists of heroes who place themselves in harm’s way every day to keep the United States safe, doing everything from making sure U.S. grandparents have safe places to deposit their Social Security checks to making sure that the President is well-protected and accessible to the American people.

    Kenneth Wayne Leaming, an ASD member and purported “sovereign citizen,” allegedly filed a bogus lien against the Secret Service agent who led the ASD investigation in 2008, the FBI said in November 2011 court filings.

    Leaming also allegedly filed bogus liens against a federal judge and three federal prosecutors involved in the ASD case, according to court filings by the FBI. He is jailed near Seattle awaiting trial on those charges, along with charges of filing false liens against other public officials, concealing two federal fugitives wanted in a home-business caper in Arkansas, being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a bogus “Bonded Primissory Note” for $1 million.

    Court filings suggest Leaming was conducting financial research on John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States and the head judge of the U.S. Supreme Court, while hatching a scheme to serve papers on Roberts through a school attended by the distinguished jurist’s children.

  • ‘MoneyMakingBrain,’ Advocate For JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, Emails Threats To PP Blog; ‘That’s Not A Threat, It’s A Promise,’ First Email Claims; Second Suggests He’ll Create Banking Trouble For Blog Poster And Defend JSS Tripler Operator ‘So Help Me God’

    “Either we talk about here, or I talk about somewhere else (that’s not a threat, it’s a promise :)” — ‘MoneyMakingBrain (MMB), in email threat to PP Blog, Feb. 29, 2012, 7:52 a.m. ET

    UPDATED 4:22 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) It has happened again: The PP Blog has received yet another threat via email for its reporting on the HYIP sphere, which FINRA described in a 2010 Alert as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.”

    Today’s threat came from “MoneyMakingBrain” (MMB) in apparent “defense” of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, an HYIP “program” purportedly operated by self-described former AdSurfDaily and Ad-Ventures4U pitchman Frederick Mann. JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid claims it pays a return of 2 percent per day.

    ASD operator Andy Bowdoin, 77, is an accused Ponzi schemer under indictment for wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. The ASD scheme, which was based in Florida,  gathered at least $110 million and created thousands of victims, federal prosecutors have said. Bowdoin’s Ponzi trial has been scheduled for September 2012. JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid purports to pay a daily return twice that of ASD.

    Among other things, Bowdoin has compared the August 2008 U.S. Secret Service raid on ASD’s headquarters to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and described it as the work of “Satan.”

    MMB’s initial email threat was received at 7:52 a.m. ET. It was followed by another email threat at 11:14 a.m. in which MMB suggested he’d seek to cause banking troubles for a specific PP Blog poster and defend Mann “so help me God.”

    “You could be the nicest guy in the world, doing a real public service, but on the matter of Frederick Mann, you’ve made a gross error, and you crossed the line, Mr.,” the second threat read in part. “I am not a passive by-stander Patrick, I am one of those who will come and help an old man from being beaten up by a bully, so help me God.”

    The second email also claimed that, “If anything, you’ve brought all this upon yourself.”

    On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a site registered to Mann in South Africa at the same street address of JustBeenPaid had at least 11 links to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox. Cox, 27,  is a purported “sovereign citizen.” He is accused in Alaska of a “militia” murder plot against public officials.

    Federal prosecutors known to be investigating the ASD scheme in the District of Columbia declined to comment on the Blog’s story, which was published Monday. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors known to be investigating the “sovereign citizen” movement in the Pacific Northwest did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

    Today’s disturbing developments began with the Blog’s receipt of the initial threatening email at 7:52 a.m. The initial threat implied that, if the PP Blog did publish a comment submitted by MMB during the overnight hours and respond to the email, MMB would seek to cause harm to the Blog. The PP Blog did not reply to the initial email. Nor did it reply to the follow-up threat.

    MMB’s comment already had been published by the PP Blog by the time the initial email threat was received. The comment was submitted at 1:12 a.m. today and approved by the PP Blog at approximately 7:30 a.m., after being temporarily sequestered in a holding queue because of the menacing nature of previous comments submitted by MMB.

    An anonymous proxy in Europe was used to send the comment, and a Gmail address was entered on the PP Blog’s Comments form. For the past two days, MMB has been submitting comments that imply he has the power to harm the Blog if the Blog does not submit to his threats. His comments were sent from IPs in the United States and Europe. Today’s email communications from MMB were the first received from MMB.

    Because the Blog believes it is important to publish comments that showcase the bizarre and sometimes menacing nature of the HYIP sphere, it has published several comments from MMB since Monday. But because today’s email threats introduced a new form of electronic menacing and implied a PP Blog reader would be subjected to a hectoring campaign,  the Blog no longer will publish any additional comments from MMB.

    The PP Blog engages in the marketplace of ideas, not the marketplace of threats.

    These are among MMB’s menacing assertions yesterday:

    • “I know you’re reading everything I write and you are scared.”
    • ” But, continue to annoy the MoneyMakingBrain and deviate him from his monitoring duties, and you’ll be the ones to be in the hot water. “
    • “no one is invisible to the MoneyMakingBrain and you need to stop doing what you’re doing against this man immediately. Because if you don’t, I am going to make a formal complain (sic) to the very authorities you purport are coming after scam sites and send all the evidence I’ve gathered so far from posting on your site and the realscam site. I don’t like witch hunts and I am sure Fred Mann can whip your ass in court for your highly suggestive, provocative, highly contentious and flat-out defamatory commentaries against his character on your sites.”
    • “You can delete my comments as much as you like, but take what I said to the bank. In the end, you are going to look like a fool.”
    • “Maybe it’s a good idea that you stop your charade once and for all and finally cease and desist attacking Mr. Fred Mann, who is innocent until proven guilty. Not going to be repeating myself again.”
    • “Needless to say that you’ll be needing to look for another ISP because you won’t have internet access at home or your office, wherever. Needless to say that your server host will also shut down your sites down for violation of terms and conditions.”

    MMB also advanced a number of conspiracy theories, including one in which he asserts that two different people who post on RealScam.com and the PP Blog are one and the same. RealScam is a forum that concerns itself with mass-marketing fraud.

    In November 2011, RealScam  was subjected to a bid to chill from Bogdan Fiedur, the operator of AdLandPro, a website whose members routinely promote HYIP schemes and other highly dubious pursuits. JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is one of the “programs” promoted on AdLandPro, which also has a presence on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    Conspiracy theories are part and parcel to the HYIP landscape, as are threats — direct and veiled. Today”s second MMB email threat also raised the specter of fear.

    ” . . . it’s clear that you are too scared of me by now,” the second email read in part.

    In November 2011, an FBI Terrorism Task Force arrested ASD figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming on charges he filed false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case. Two months later, a superseding indictment was returned against Leaming that accused him of participating in a scheme to file false liens against two U.S. prison officials, uttering a false “Bonded Promissory Note” for $1 million and being a convicted felon in possession of firearms.

    So-called “sovereign citizens” have been linked to various forms of securities fraud and tax fraud. Because they believe prosecutors and judges have no authority over them, “sovereigns” have been known to target state, local and national officials in plots to file bogus liens and destroy the credit of members of the law-enforcement community and litigation opponents.

    Their harassment methods, which feature the use of both postal mail and email and often include direct or veiled threats, have become known as “paper terrorism.”

    When arrested, Leaming, the ASD figure and purported “sovereign,”  was found with two federal fugitives from Arkansas who’d been indicted on charges of duping participants in a home-business scheme of more than $2 million. Those fugitives also have been linked to the “sovereign citizen” movement and filed a series of bizarre pleadings in Arkansas after their arrests with Leaming, who is jailed near Seattle. Both fugitives now are detained at federal facilities in Texas, according to prison records.

    After MMB sent today’s initial email threat, he sent another comment to the Blog that included a threat:

    “Stop abusing your forum as Lynn does, or I am going to conclude that there is a business relationship between the two of you, and that would be bad a thing (I am afraid to say anything else as you may call it another ‘threat’).

    “And yes, this is not a threat: you’re better off having me talking here than somewhere else. I know too much already about both you and Lynn, and I still want to believe that the two of you are men of good (although the tactics of one indicate the otherwise).”

    “Lynn” is a reference to Lynn Edgington, the chairman of Eagle Research Associates Inc., a 501(c)3 Public Benefit Charitable Corporation based in Mission Viejo, Calif.

    The second email implied that MMB would seek to interfere with an Eagle Research banking relationship.

    See related story and Comments thread.

  • WILLFUL BLINDNESS: With Legisi Operator Now Convicted Of Wire Fraud, HYIP Colleague And Fellow Ponzi-Forum Darling Nicholas Smirnow Of Pathway To Prosperity Listed As ‘Wanted’ By INTERPOL; Meanwhile, Cheerleading For JSS Tripler Continues

    Nicholas A. Smirnow. Source: Interpol "Wanted" notice.

    After the news broke yesterday that Gregory N. McKnight, the accused operator of the Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a $72 million caper, things only got worse for the serial Ponzi-forum cheerleaders — not that they’re likely to abandon their practice of willful blindness while reaching across oceans to pick the pockets of any person with cash and a pulse.

    Nicholas Smirnow, a convicted robber, burglar and drug dealer before he became an HYIP operator and darling of the TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASAMonitor Ponzi forums, is listed as wanted by INTERPOL.

    How long Smirnow has been on INTERPOL’s wanted list and the circumstances under which he was placed on the list were not immediately clear. An email yesterday by the PP Blog seeking comment from federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Illinois on the status of Smirnow and the case against him was not immediately returned.

    Smirnow, 54, also is known as Nicolay Smirnow, Alexander Judizcev, Nicholas Kachura and Jeff Prozorowiczm. He was charged in the Southern District of Illinois with fraud and money laundering-related crimes in May 2010 for his alleged operation of the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) Ponzi scheme.

    When the charges against Smirnow were announced approaching two years ago, U.S. federal prosecutors said they intended to ask the government of the Philippines to extradite Smirnow to the United States. Whether Smirnow had been jailed in the Philippines and somehow later was set free after the U.S. arrest warrant was issued could not immediately be determined.

    What is clear is that INTERPOL is publishing a “Wanted” listing with the following physical details about Smirnow:

    Height: 1.76 meter
    Weight: 76 Kg
    Colour of hair: Brown
    Colour of eyes: Green

    The INTERPOL poster for Smirnow was up even as the SEC was announcing the McKnight conviction. (See “Wanted” poster, which is active at the time of this post.)

    A U.S. Postal Inspection Service affidavit in the Smirnow case references TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASAMonitor, which is now defunct. The affidavit also references AlertPay and SolidTrustPay, Canada-based processors often used by HYIP hucksters. The Smirnow criminal complaint also references the Canadian processors.

    The P2P scheme was almost unimaginably widespread, a postal inspector said in the 2010 affidavit.

    “Financial records of payment processors utilized by P-2-P to collect investment funds from investors show that approximately 40,000 investors in 120 countries established accounts with P-2-P,” the postal inspector said. “Despite the fact that the investment was supposedly ‘guaranteed, investors lost approximately $70 million as a result of [Smirnow’s] actions.”

    Ponzi-forum cheerleaders yesterday appeared either to be unaware of (or to have to ignored) the news about the guilty plea of Legisi’s McKnight and corresponding civil judgments against him totaling about $6.5 million.

    Some of them continued to focus on their efforts to promote JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, a “program” purportedly operated by Frederick Mann that also uses AlertPay and SolidTrustPay.

    AlertPay and SolidTrustPay also are referenced in court filings in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case. A 2008 promo for ASD attributed to Mann asserted that Mann was an ASD promoter. ASD operator Andy Bowdoin faces a criminal trial in September 2012 on Ponzi-related charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid asserts it pays a daily return of twice what ASD offered. ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming has been linked to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement and is jailed near Seattle on federal charges of filing false liens against public officials involved in the ASD case.

    McKnight’s base program in Legisi offered a return of .25 percent (one quarter of 1 percent) per day, according to a 2008 SEC filing.

    Mann’s purported base program offers eight times that return on a daily basis, according to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid promos. On an annualized basis, the “program” offers a return that is between 48 and 73 times higher than the returns of imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.

    Madoff is serving a U.S. prison term of 150 years. McKnight faces up to 20 years, the SEC said yesterday.

    A promo for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid that appeared yesterday on a forum known as CariGold made this claim. (Italics added):

    JSS-Tripler now has 213,884 members —
    continuing to grow by over 3,000 new
    members a day. (If it hadn’t been for
    yesterday’s downtime, the number would
    have been “over 4,000.”) Thank you to
    our many promoters for doing such a
    great job!

    Purchases of new JSS-Tripler positions
    are on track for a new all-time record,
    today.

    More than a month ago — on Jan. 23 — the Italian securities regulator CONSOB announced that JSS Tripler promoters were under investigation. Ponzi-forum promoters pooh-poohed the news.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: KABOOM! Gregory N. McKnight, Legisi HYIP Operator And Ponzi-Forum Darling, Pleads Guilty To Wire Fraud

    This grainy likeness of Gregory N. McKnight is taken from federal court filings in 2008.

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Gregory N. McKnight, the operator of the Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan, the SEC said this afternoon.

    McKnight was charged criminally on Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day. His guilty plea followed two days later, the SEC said. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. The SEC charged him civilly in May 2008.

    Legisi, which gathered more than $72 million and fleeced more than 3,000 investors in the United States and several other countries, was popularized in part on Ponzi cesspits such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    MoneyMakerGroup is specifically referenced in U.S. court files in the Legisi case.

    Legisi’s Terms of Service resemble those of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, a purported “opportunity” currently being flogged on the Ponzi boards even as CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, has opened a probe into the actions of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid promoters.

    Promos by Legisi triggered an undercover operation by the U.S. Secret Service and state regulators in Michigan.

    In addition to the prospect of jail time, McKnight is on the receiving end of a civil judgment and penalties totaling about $6.5 million, the SEC said.

    Legisi members, according to the Terms, had to affirm they were not an “informant, nor associated with any informant” of the IRS, FBI, CIA and the SEC, among others, according to documents filed in federal court.

    The others included “Her Majesty’s Police,” the Intelligence Services of Great Britain, the Serious Fraud Office and Interpol.

    JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid makes members affirm they are “not an employee or official of any government agency.” In addition, it makes them affirm they are not “acting on behalf of or collecting information for or on behalf of any government agency” and not “an employee, by contract or otherwise, of any media or research company.”

    One of Legisi’s payment “programs” advertised a return of .25 (one-quarter) percent per day, according to court filings.

    JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid promotes a return of 2 percent a day — eight times higher than Legisi.

    A sentencing date for McKnight will be determined later, the SEC said.

    U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith presided over McKnight’s guilty plea, the SEC said.

    Frederick Mann is the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid.

     

  • UPDATE: JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Promoters Now Trading On The Name And Image Of Actress Lindsay Lohan; Video Promo Appears After Earlier YouTube Removals — And Even As CONSOB Probe Under Way In Italy

    After earlier trading on the names of Warren Buffett and Oprah Winfrey and even fictional spaceman “Mr. Spock,” promoters of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid now are trading on the name of actress Lindsay Lohan.

    A 1:14 YouTube promo for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid dated Feb. 14, 2012 — Valentine’s Day — flashes images of Lohan throughout the video. The promo is titled “Sexy Lindsay Lohan.”

    Below the video, seven links appear for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid-related sites. The links are accompanied by a text pitch.

    Here is one claim from the text pitch. (Italics added):

    “Basically, You Earn 2% per Day or 60% per Month! No sponsoring Requirements. Use Daily Compounding to Increase Your Earnings! Make Daily Withdrawals to Get Your Money Out! This may be one of the easiest and best ways to earn money you’ve ever seen!

    “Sponsor People to Earn 10% Referral Bonuses on the First Level and 5% on the Second! Withdraw this Money Daily, or Use It to Further Compound and Increase Your Earnings!

    “You Can Start with Just $10 and Turn It into a Fortune!”

    Here is another. (Italics added):

    “75 DAY GET RICH PLAN!
    “Day 1:
    “Add Money
    “Days 2 — 75:
    “100% Reinvest your daily earnings
    “Day 76:
    “Balance now 340% bigger after Day 1 Investment deducted!
    “Day 76 onwards:
    “Conservative: Reinvest 70% of daily earnings and cashout the remaining 30%.
    “Aggressive: Reinvest 80% of daily earnings and cashout the remaining 20%.
    “RESULT: Ever Increasing Earnings and Daily Cashout Amounts!”

    Incongruously, the text pitch ends with these words:

    “Never join ptc and other scam sites.”

    Neither the video nor the accompanying text pitch explained how JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which purportedly is operated by Frederick Mann, could pay an annualized rate of return that is between 48 and 73 times higher than rates touted by imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.

    The YouTube promo trading on Lohan’s name and images was posted less than a month after CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, announced that it had opened a probe into the actions of certain JSS Tripler promoters.

    Within days of the announcement, certain U.S.-based websites with links to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid mysteriously went missing. Those sites remain inaccessible in the United States, although the reason they no longer are accessible is unclear.

    It is common for hucksters to trade on the names of famous people to sanitize fraud schemes.

    YouTube earlier removed some promos for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, although others remained.

    One Ponzi-forum promoter claimed in October 2011 that a YouTube ban would pose only a temporary problem.

    “No sweat, I own over 500 Youtube accounts, so I’ll just keep making videos like normal, plus I can always use Viddler and Windows movie maker and facebook video as well,” a MoneyMakerGroup poster poster claimed.

  • With CONSOB Probe Under Way In Italy And Certain U.S. Affiliate Sites Offline, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Members Say AlertPay Is Sending Them Debit Cards: ‘Now I Can Start Using AP In Other Programs,’ MoneyMakerGroup Promoter Announces

    “You can only load money from your Alertpay account onto it. So, now I can start using AP in other programs & have an easy way to get my money to spend, by loading funds from my AP account onto the card. Then I can use the card like a regular debit card in stores, online & even withdraw the money off of the card via an ATM machine.” — MoneyMakerGroup post by JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid promoter, Feb. 16, 2012

    There’s none so blind as those who will not see.

    Only a little more than eight months ago — on June 3, 2011 — the U.S. Secret Service advised a federal judge in Maryland that HYIP schemes spread in part through coordinated posts on “discussion boards.” One of the boards referenced in a Secret Service affidavit aimed at seizing tens of millions of dollars in “criminal proceeds” linked to HYIP hucksters and other scammers was TalkGold.

    Yes, that TalkGold, the Ponzi cesspit, the same TalkGold to which promoters of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid race to fire up “I got paid” posts to help sustain a scam that advertises an annualized return of 730 percent on top of two-tier downline commissions totaling 15 percent — more, if members choose to “compound” their “earnings” by leaving them in the system.

    JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid promoters are doing this on the Ponzi forums even after CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, announced a JSS Tripler-related action late last month and certain promoters’ websites in the United States suddenly have gone missing this month. Frederick Mann is the purported operator of the scheme.

    It was not the first time TalkGold’s name had been referenced as a place from which massive fraud schemes were promoted. The board was referenced in 2010 filings by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in the Pathway to Prosperity (P2) case. So was MoneyMakerGroup, another Ponzi and fraud cesspit.  P2P operator Nicholas Smirnow was charged criminally, and investigators described P2P as an HYIP scheme that had spread to at least 120 countries and created as many as 40,000 victims. The alleged P2P haul: about $70 million.

    Courtroom references by the Secret Service to TalkGold in the context of fraud schemes date back at least to 2007.

    Here is how the Secret Service affidavit from June 2011 described the activities that occur on TalkGold and elsewhere. (Italics added):

    “Most of the individual posts to the boards are from those who invest in the pyramid schemes and those who operate and promote the illegal investment scams.”

    Based on the Secret Service affidavit and voluminous evidence culled in the aftermath of the 2007 E-Gold investigation that had led to 2008 guilty pleas on charges related to unlicensed money-transmitting and money-laundering, the judge authorized the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the E-Gold accounts of alleged scammers who’d set up shop through E-Gold to fleece the masses.

    On June 20, 2011, U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander ordered the money “arrested.” The forfeiture is pending, and the final sum seized is unclear. But the website of a court-appointed claims administrator includes this notation. (Emphasis added):  “Approximately $90 million has been seized and/or restrained from the sale of e-metal held in accounts at E-Gold.”

    These things are exceptionally noteworthy in the context of the forfeiture case:

    • E-Gold is assisting investigators in ridding itself of corrupt proceeds warehoused as a result of the money-laundering allegations in 2007. It has cooperated with prosecutors in identifying accounts linked to HYIP scammers and other hucksters.
    • The Secret Service agent who filed the affidavit is the same agent who led the 2008 AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme investigation, which resulted in the forfeiture of at least $80 million and criminal charges against ASD operator Andy Bowdoin.
    • Even though the agent allegedly has been targeted with false liens by so-called “sovereign citizens” for his work in the ASD Ponzi case, he continues to serve in a capacity that is vital to the security of the United States. He has conducted numerous investigations involving money-laundering and other crimes. These cases, according to court filings, have resulted in the seizure of more than $300 million in “criminally derived proceeds.” That is more than a quarter of a billion dollars. The agent and his colleagues have worked with a Task Force whose members reverse-engineer fantastically complex financial crimes.
    • The court-appointed administrator handing the claims process is the same company that handled a similar process in the ASD Ponzi case.

    E-Gold has done the right thing in cooperating with investigators.

    Coming Soon To An ATM Near You

    Any person who spends so little as five minutes on the Ponzi boards knows that Canada-based AlertPay is conducting business with serial promoters of outrageous frauds — frauds that have grave consequences to individual pocketbooks and frauds that have grave ramifications to national and international security.

    And now, according to posts that originate on forums referenced in multiple U.S. court filings about massive international fraud schemes, AlertPay is sending debit cards to the scammers.

    “Thanks Mann & Co.,” the excited poster announcing her coup on MoneyMakerGroup said, adding five smilies to accent her glee after her earlier reference to ATMs and stores that now could be used to offload profits from a scheme that advertises a return of 2 percent a day.

    In an earlier post, the MoneyMakerGroup member said she received the AlertPay debit card in her mailbox in North Carolina.

    “Now I’m able 2 get my money out FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!” she roared.

    Below her post was a link to a “program” known as “Expert Invest Group” that purports to pay “up to 20000% After 30 days.” The company says its accepts AlertPay, Perfect Money and “Liberty Reserver (sic).”

    A (Brief) Pictorial Study In Contrasts

    1.

    MoneyMakerGroup post from Feb. 16 by promoter of JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid. The post highlights the utilty of AlertPay debit cards in joining other "programs" and offloading profits at ATMs and retail outlets.

    2.

    From Paragraph 55 of a U.S. Secret Service affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland on June 3, 2011.

  • UPDATE: Alleged JSS Tripler Promoter Referenced In Probe By Italian Securities Regulator CONSOB Also Is Pitchman For U.S.-Based Text Cash Network; Promoter’s Individual Domain Name Suspended; Ponzi-Forum Cheerleading Continues As JSS Tripler Website Encounters Problems

    Certain images will not load today on the website of JustBeenPaid, a "program" tied to JSS Tripler.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: HYIP critics long have pointed out that many Internet-based schemes have members in common and that the interconnectivity of certain schemes creates a condition in which fraud proceeds circulate from scheme to scheme to scheme. Such fraud schemes can mushroom to involve tens of thousands — or even hundreds of thousands — of participants.

    The logistical challenges of reverse-engineering such schemes are enormous — and it’s often the case the combined international hauls of the schemes also are enormous.

    A man referenced in a JSS Tripler-related action by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, appears to have lost access to his U.S.-based website — and appears also to have been a pitchman for Text Cash Network, a U.S.-based “opportunity” linked to serial hucksters Joe Reid and Phil Piccolo.

    TextCashNetwork purports to be an international text-advertising business involving cell phones. The “opportunity,” though, is decidedly murky. Affiliates have described Text Cash Network vaguely as “a new division of a five year old communications company owned 100% by The Johnson Group.” Other promoters have claimed it was owned by the “Johnson & Johnson Group,” a possible bid to leech off the brand of the famous pharmaceutical and consumer-products company.

    TCN Promotional Tie To JSS Tripler

    On Jan. 23, CONSOB announced the JSS Tripler-related action. Included in CONSOB’s statement were references to an individual named Mauro Messina and a website styled gruppounitoworld.com.

    That website, which appears to have been hosted in the United States, now beams this message: “I’m sorry, but this account has been suspended.” No reason for the suspension was provided.

    The message appears even though the domain registration is good through June 30, 2012, according to registration data.

    The name Mauro Messina also appears on an affiliate site for Text Cash Network. The affiliate ID on the Text Cash Network site is “gruppounito” — the first 11 letters of the now-suspended site referenced in the CONSOB probe. (See comment from PP Blog reader Tony here. Kudos, Tony.)

    Driven by a relentless hypefest, Text Cash Network or TCN launched late last year — with Reid leading the cheerleading as he had done previously for Data Network Affiliates (DNA), a Piccolo-associated entity that mixed and matched itself with One World One Website (OWOW), another Piccolo-associated entity.

    Both DNA and OWOW appear to be defunct corporations, but appear also to maintain a web presence that in part has been used to drive traffic to TCN. Strangely, the DNA website now is publishing a “STOP SOPA” graphic, referring to antipiracy legislation in the United States that became part of well-publicized opposition campaigns by Google and Wikipedia (among others).

    DNA, which claimed it was a data company with a cell-phone arm and appears never to have delivered on either count, has a history of brand leeching and divining ties to causes, including the U.S. AMBER Alert program and child poverty. Among other things, DNA — despite the fact its Nevada corporate registration is listed as “Dissolved,” asks prospects to “Help DNA Feed A Million[:] OVER 1000 AN HOUR DIE.”

    It also purports that children are “The Heart Of D.N.A.,” even though the corporation is defunct and DNA received an “F” grade in 2010 from the BBB and is the subject of a BBB alert. After apparently abandoning its purported data and cell-phone arms by July 2010, DNA claimed it was morphing into the land-mine business of offshore “resorts” and “mortgage reduction.”

    Like DNA, TCN purports that it has or will engage in philanthropic pursuits.

    And like TCN, DNA also purported to do business from Boca Raton, Fla. — and to operate a “processing center” there while providing “tax” benefits.

    ‘Ricochet Riches’ Also Referenced By CONSOB

    CONSOB’s Jan. 23 announcement also referenced an entity known as “Ricochet Riches” and a dotcom by the same name. On the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum yesterday, a cheerleader for JSS Tripler 2 or T2 — an enterprise that appears to have appropriated the name of JSS Tripler — published an “I got paid” post for T2.

    Below the post was a link to Ricochet Riches.

    Incongruities that challenge description and involve both JSS Tripler and JSS Tripler 2 are occurring all over the Ponzi boards. Both JSS Tripler and JSS Tripler 2 have promoters in common. Regardless, Ponzi-board posters are pooh-poohing the CONSOB action or ignoring it — even as they champion other opportunities referenced in the CONSOB action, including Ricochet Riches.

    A JSS Tripler/Club Asteria Tie

    CONSOB last year took action against promoters of Club Asteria, another Ponzi-forum darling. “Andrea Viz,” another JSS Tripler promoter referenced in the CONSOB action, also has been linked to Club Asteria.

    The Club Asteria promo appears on a domain styled vizconsigli.com, which is referenced in the CONSOB announcement about JSS Tripler. That domain, too, appears to be based in the United States.

    Hank Neeedham, one of Club Asteria’s purported principals, formerly was a pitchman for AdSurfDaily, which the U.S. Secret Service described as an online  Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million.

    Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS Tripler, also was an ASD pitchman, according to a 2008 promo that appeared online during the same period in which Needham — who simultaneously was promoting cash-gifting schemes — also was promoting ASD.

    Over the weekend, JustBeenPaid, the entity that purportedly operates JSS Tripler through Mann, appears to have encountered website problems that are affecting its ability to publish certain graphics.

    There is at least one Ponzi-forum report today about JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler problems:

    “. . .  sites all messed up chat room no mods no admins little odd,” a MoneyMakerGroup poster claimed.

    The JustBeenPaid site includes information attributed to Mann on AdVentures4You (ADV4U), a “program” that collapsed in 2009 amid reports its operator had been threatened.

    In the remarks, Mann asserted that he made a pile of money through ADV4U prior to its collapse.

    “The biggest difference between JSS-Tripler and AV4U is that JSS-Tripler is indefinitely sustainable, while AV4U had a design flaw that ensured its eventual failure,” according to the remarks attributed to Mann.

  • DEVELOPING STORY: U.S.-Based Website Listed In JSS Tripler-Related Action In Italy Suddenly Will Not Resolve To Server; Redirect To The Netherlands No Longer Works

    Are the Ponzi clouds darkening for JSS Tripler?

    On Feb. 4, the PP Blog reported that a JSS Tripler-related website listed in an action by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, was based in the United States and had been programmed to redirect to the Netherlands several days after CONSOB announced the action.

    That domain — JSS-Tripler.com — now is throwing a server error and no longer is redirecting the traffic to Europe. The site generates an “Unable to connect” message in the Firefox browser and an “Unknown error: 1214” message when pinged, meaning the server is in a black hole.

    The circumstances under which the server went dark are unclear. It is not known, for instance, if law enforcement, the hosting company or the JSS Tripler affiliate — purportedly a woman — caused the domain to stop working. Its registration is valid until Feb. 24, according to records.

    Earlier this week, the site was directing to a JustBeenPaid subdomain styled “marketing.” JustBeenPaid and Frederick Mann are the purported operators of JSS Tripler, which advertises a return of 2 percent a day. The return computes to an annualized return of 730 percent.

    Despite the CONSOB action, cheerleading for JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler continue on the Ponzi cesspits such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    Just BeenPaid/JSS Tripler makes members affirm they are “not an employee or official of any government agency.” In addition, it makes them affirm they are not “acting on behalf of or collecting information for or on behalf of any government agency” and not “an employee, by contract or otherwise, of any media or research company.”

    The Terms alone appear to be an invitation to join an international financial conspiracy. Regardless, the Ponzi-forum cheerleading continues.

    JustBeenPaid has traded on the names of American icons Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Zuckerberg — and even the name of fictional spaceman “Mr. Spock” from the Star Trek series on American television.

    Frederick Mann was a cheerleader for the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008, according to promos. ASD was based in Florida.

    In May 2008, Mann asserted that “[p]ast performance indicates a strong probablility (sic) that ASD will continue to perform as advertised,” according to a promo.

    Two months later, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from bank accounts linked to ASD President Andy Bowdoin and others.

    Some ASD figures are known to have ties to so-called “sovereign citizens” — and any number of ASD members have invested in crackpot legal theories such as all commerce is lawful as long as parties agree to a contract.

    Such bizarre constructions would legalize slavery, securities fraud, tax fraud, Ponzi schemes and narcotics-trafficking, among other pursuits.

    And because some “sovereign citizens” believe they can divine a contract out of thin air and demand a litigation result from judges, prosecutors, investigators and creditors, bizarre courtroom clashes have been occurring across the United States.

     

  • JSS TRIPLER 2 (T2) UPDATE: Serial Ponzi-Board Huckster ‘Strosdegoz’ Deletes MoneyMakerGroup Link That Showed T2 Presence In The United States, Italy

    Prior to its killing, this post yesterday by Ponzi-forum huckster "strosdegoz" showed a DNS propagation map for JSS Tripler 2 (T2) when a link in the post was clicked. The page that loaded showed that T2 was accessible via wire in the United States. The post vanished without explanation in less than an hour.

    “strosdegoz,” the serial Ponzi-board pitchman who claims to have a presence on at least 35 forums or websites that promote “programs” that advertise preposterous returns, has killed a MoneyMakerGroup post he created that showed JSS Tripler 2 (T2) is accessible via wire in the United States.

    The original post, which appears to have been created because some T2 members were complaining they could not access the T2 site, was replaced with a single word: “Edit.” A note below the substituted one-word post explained it had been “edited by strosdegoz.”

    Prior to its killing, the post had included a link to this DNS tracking service. When that link was clicked, it showed that the JSSTripler2 domain is accessible in the United States. It also showed T2 is accessible in Italy. (More on the potential importance of T2’s reach into Italy below.)

    “strosdegoz” did not explain his decision to kill his post and the link. Nor did he say whether he was properly registered to sell securities to U.S. or Italian citizens. Nor did he say whether T2 was properly registered to do so.

    T2 was known to be accessible in the United States even before “strosdegoz” killed the link that showed multiple points of contact on U.S. soil from the East Coast and the West Coast and places in between. Still, the DNS map provided a compelling visual of how scammers from all parts of the world can reach into the United States (and other countries) and recruit the unknowing into the murkiest of investment enterprises.

    T2, which preemptively denies it is a Ponzi scheme despite advertising returns that dwarf the return rates of Bernard Madoff,  purports to pay a return of 2 percent a day, a figure that computes to an annualized return of 730 percent. The “opportunity” claimed for weeks that it had suspended member cashouts, blaming the development on an AlertPay account freeze.

    AlertPay is a processor based in Canada.

    But T2 now says is has regained access to the frozen funds, a development that led to a flood of “I got paid” posts on MoneyMakerGroup, which is listed in U.S. federal court filings as a place from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

    After having posted the DNS tracking link and later deleting it, “strosdegoz” — also known as “manolo” — virtually simultaneously posted an “I got paid” post for T2 at MoneyMakerGroup.

    “I got paid today already,” the post read. “Fast as usual.”

    Only days earlier, T2 purportedly was paying no one. Its explanation of an AlertPay freeze was a virtual concession that the enterprise was insolvent and could not pull from other resources to meet its obligations. “Opportunities” such as T2 pretend liabilities do not exist or conceal insolvency by treating liabilities as assets. Any significant interruption of cash flow can create a crisis that potentially affects thousands or even tens of thousands of participants.

    Both the edited DNS post and the “I got paid” post below it had a time stamp of 7:11 p.m. (The original DNS post had a time stamp of 6:21 p.m; the edit occurred at 7:11 p.m., according to the time stamp, and the follow-up “I got paid” post also was time-stamped at 7:11 p.m.)

    T2 Reaches Into Italy As Promoters Of Namesake ‘Opportunity’ JSS Tripler Are Under The Lens

    T2 purportedly created its name by appropriating the name of JSS Tripler, another “program” that advertises a return of 2 percent a day. JSS Tripler promoters have come under the lens of CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator.

    Like T2, JSS Tripler is accessible in the United States — with no corresponding evidence that the program itself as well as its promoters have any registrations as issuers of securities or broker-dealers.

    JSS Tripler promoters have pooh-poohed the CONSOB action, preferring instead to flood the Ponzi forums with “I got paid” posts.

    Compellingly, the DNS link “strosdegoz” posted at MoneyMakerGroup yesterday for T2 — JSS Tripler’s purported namesake — showed that T2 is accessible in Rome, the capital of Italy. CONSOB is headquartered in Rome.

    Club Asteria, another Ponzi-forum darling, came under the CONSOB lens last year — even as “strosdegoz” was leading Club Asteria cheers. The Club Asteria “program,” which traded on the name of the World Bank, first slashed weekly payouts and then eliminated them — amid reports of a PayPal freeze.

    Some Club Asteria cheerleaders claimed the “program” provided a “passive” return of up to 10 percent a week. “Ken Russo,” one of “strosdegoz’” fellow cheerleaders on the Ponzi forums, posted purported Club Asteria payment proofs totaling in the thousands of dollars.

    Even as accused AdSurfDaily Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin was pimping a murky “program” known as “OneX” while awaiting his September 2012 criminal trial that potentially could land him in prison for 125 years if found guilty on all counts, “strosdegoz” also emerged as a OneX pitchman.

    Among other things, Bowdoin is accused of selling unregistered securities to U.S. residents. He also is accused of using wires that run through the United States to sell prospects into the massive ASD scam, along with securities fraud.

    As “strosdegoz” was hawking T2 and OneX by wire, he turned his attention to a “program” called “HugeYield.”

    T2 purportedly is operated by “Dave,” now said to be venturing to Cambodia after previously venturing from England to Thailand during the purported AlertPay freeze. “Dave” posts on MoneyMakerGroup as Peakr8.

    JSS Tripler, meanwhile, is purported to be in the stable of “JustBeenPaid,” a “program” purportedly operated by onetime ASD promoter Frederick Mann.

    Like its Ponzi-forum cousin Legisi — which became the subject of an undercover operation by U.S. law enforcement that resulted in fraud charges — JSS Tripler makes members affirm they are not government spies or media lackeys.

     

  • UPDATE: JSS Tripler 2 (T2) Pulls An Andy Bowdoin; T2’s ‘Dave’ Comes Back For Second Bite Of Ponzi Apple To Chorus Of Forum Cheers

    Although accused Ponzi schemer and AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin appears not to be among the promoters of JSS Tripler (T2), T2 appears to be relying on a Bowdoin-like playbook in announcing a restart after having earlier suspended payouts.

    The bizarre international spectacle created by JSS Tripler 2 (T2) is continuing — and gets stranger and more insidious by the day.  The purported “opportunity,” which is trading on the name of a murky entity known as JSS Tripler and apparently cloning its Ponzi business model, has announced a restart after weeks of existing in a state of suspended animation purportedly caused by the freezing of a one-time T2 business partner’s AlertPay account.

    T2 now claims it has regained access to the frozen AlertPay funds.

    A week or so prior to T2’s purported restart, promoters of JSS Tripler, the purported “opportunity” upon which T2 based its name,  became  the subject of a securities investigation in Europe. Ponzi-forum hucksters — some of whom are promoting both T2 and JSS Tripler — scoffed at the CONSOB probe and flooded the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum with “I got paid” posts.

    It is axiomatic that all successful Ponzi schemes pay. That an “opportunity” pays is not evidence that no underlying criminality exists.  The timing of T2’s restart — indeed, the restart occurred after the Italian regulator CONSOB announced that JSS Tripler promoters were being scrutinized — demonstrates that the serial hucksters driving T2 are turning a blind eye to the serious issues being raised in Europe.

    The development is hardly unprecedented, given that core groups of scammers who populate the Ponzi boards and simultaneously maintain their own fraud sites thumbed their noses after law-enforcement moved against “opportunities” such as Pathway To Prosperity, Legisi, Gold Quest International, Imperia Invest IBC and others, including AdSurfDaily.

    Like its namesake JSS Tripler, T2 advertises a return rate of 2 percent a day, twice that of ASD. In 2008, the U.S. Secret Service called ASD an international Ponzi scheme. Tens of millions of dollars were seized from bank accounts, and ASD operator Andy Bowdoin later was arrested on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    At least $110 million found its way into ASD or related coffers, prosecutors said. Several million dollars were moved into Canada just prior to the seizure of ASD-related assets in August 2008, according to court filings.

    In early 2007, according to prosecutors, ASD suffered a Ponzi collapse that in part was blamed on “Russian” hackers. Bowdoin claimed the hackers stole $1 million, but he never filed a police report.

    Like T2 did between at least December 2011 and February of this year, ASD existed in a state of suspended animation for months in 2007. Bowdoin eventually restarted the “opportunity” under a different name and different website — ASDCashGenerator, as opposed to AdSurfDaily — and began the process of picking pockets anew, federal prosecutors said.

    Unlike ASD, T2 did not claim its payout problems were caused by Russian hackers. Instead, the “opportunity” claimed a onetime business partner known as “Chris,” purportedly living in England, was to blame.

    Like ASD, however, T2 claimed it was changing names, morphing from JSS Tripler 2 to T2MoneyKlub. The name change was explained to be part of an overall restart plan in which T2 would create revenue streams by building prefabricated websites and offering them for sale at a tremendous profit. The plan, which appeared to be exceptionally forward-looking while making preposterous assumptions, presented fallacies of logic such as these:

    • That T2, operating with an in-house skeleton crew and volunteer members, no declared base of operations and no compliance arm despite reaching into dozens of countries each with a unique set of laws, could at once be a web-service provider while managing a “program” that promised a return rate of 2 percent a day or 730 percent a year on top of recruitment-commission payments.
    • That web-service customers would pay a premium for sites built by a murky entity whose operators simultaneously were offering investors returns that would make Bernard Madoff blush.
    • That the fees generated by the sale of websites at a future point uncertain somehow could sustain a scheme that promised to pay out twice as much as ASD, whose operator already was under indictment on Ponzi-related charges and had advertised the same sort of payment schemes.
    • That there would be any reason at all for T2 to continue to offer an investment program that advertised a ludicrous return if its purported sale of websites could result in handsome, self-sustaining profits for the web-service venture. (Longtime PP Blog readers will recall that the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf claimed at one time that it, too, was morphing into a company that would offer web services as a means of propping up an initial investment scheme. AVG, like ASD, promised to pay out half of what T2 claims. AVG disappeared in June 2009, only weeks after its morphing announcement.)

    Also like ASD, T2 preemptively denied it was a Ponzi scheme, despite an absurd confluence of payment schemes in which T2 claimed an ability to pay an annualized return of 730 percent on top of recruitment commissions.

    As previously noted, T2’s advertised return rate was double that of ASD, which prosecutors said had no meaningful revenue streams beyond payments by members. Those payments simply were recycled and returned to other ASD members in the form of classic Ponzi payouts.

    Even though T2 — like ASD — purported to be changing its name, the name change appears to have hit a snag. T2 initially announced it would emerge as T2MoneyKlub on Feb. 1. That didn’t happen, according to Ponzi-forum chatter, because T2 did not have an AlertPay account in its new name.

    T2, according to chatter, then defaulted back to its original name, a circumstance that apparently means the purported “opportunity” can both receive and send money, shelve its new name for the time being and reposition itself under its “old” name to reach into the pockets of new investors.

    “Dave,” the purported operator of T2, according to Ponzi-forum chatter, once was a member of JSS Tripler, one of the entities referenced in the CONSOB action. It appears as though “Dave” was unmoved by the CONSOB action, so much so that he restarted JSS Tripler 2 even though claims about namesake JSS Tripler are under scrutiny and the already-radioactive name easily could become even more radioactive in the weeks ahead.

    T2 payouts will come from “AlertPay, SolidTrustPay and LibertyReserve,” Dave announced on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum, posting as “Peakr8.” All three of the named processors have reputation for being friendly to fraud schemes. Both AlertPay and SolidTrustPay are referenced in court files in the ASD Ponzi case.

    MoneyMakerGroup member “jieroz” quickly fired up an “I got paid” post for T2 today, saying the $25 payment had come from AlertPay.

    Veteran huckster “strosdegoz” quickly congratulated “jieroz.”

    “Congrats, that was fast … As usual . . .” strosdegoz blathered.

    A poster purportedly from India and using the handle “hemsagar” also joined in the cheers.

    “WTG! WTG!” he exclaimed in approval.

    A link under the approving post of “hemsagar” led to a “benefactor” promotion in which he claims he’ll pay people to join T2 by sending them money through AlertPay.

    Amid the cheerleading in the MoneyMakerGroup T2 thread, “Dave,” posting as “Peakr8,” announced he was taking a trip to “Cambodia.” This trip apparently follows on the heels of a trip “Dave” purportedly had taken earlier from England to Thailand during a period in which T2 was not paying members.

    “Dave” conceded that T2’s restart had resulted in problems at T2’s in-house cheerleading forum.

    “I know there are bugs, but we will stamp on em one by one when I get back from Cambodia,” Dave posted on MoneyMakerGroup as “Peakr8.”

    Below that post, another post from “hemsagar” appears. Although his brief MoneyMakerGroup bio at the left of the post claims he is from India, his post about the bugs in the T2 forum makes this claim:

    “Its back up here in the Ukraine.”

    Whether “hemsagar” is a citizen of India now living in Ukraine is unclear.

    Serial huckster “strosdegoz” later proclaimed “we need to pump up” the T2 forum and “also . . . every place else.

    “I have to do my dozens of forums too,” strosdegoz acknowledged.

    Regulators have warned the public repeatedly that scams involving hundreds of millions of dollars are spreading virally on the Internet through forums and social-media sites. Pathway to Prosperity, which was pushed on the Ponzi forums, eventually made its way to 120 countries, according to court filings.

    The scheme had a take of more than $70 million and created at least 40,000 victims, according to court filings.

    ASD may have created a similar number of victims, according to court filings. Legisi and Imperia Invest IBC also created victims by the thousands, investigators said.

    Included in the Imperia victims’ count were thousands of people with hearing impairments, investigators said.

  • DISTURBING: JSS Tripler-Related Domain Listed In CONSOB Action Is Based In United States — But Suddenly Starts Redirecting To ‘JustBeenPaid’ Site In The Netherlands; Claim That ‘We’re Not Located In Any Unfriendly Political Jurisdictions’ Exposed As Rank Deception

    On Jan. 23, CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, made public an action against promoters of JSS Tripler, a “program” that advertises an annualized return of 730 percent. The claim alone would be enough to make Bernard Madoff or Charles Ponzi himself blush.

    Or projectile-vomit.

    But if the CONSOB action were not trouble enough, one of the JSS Tripler-related domains listed in the agency’s action is hosted in Utah, according to domain records. The domain, which forms its root with a hyphen splitting the proper name of JSS Tripler — i.e., JSS-Tripler.com — continued to serve pages from Utah for several days after CONSOB’s Jan. 23 announcement. The domain, for instance, published daily updates on the number of days JSS Tripler itself purportedly had been in action.

    Among the graphics on the Utah-hosted landing page was an image of a JSS Tripler pitchwoman who appeared to be Asian in descent. Assuming the woman actually exists, her nationality remains a mystery. At a time uncertain between Feb. 2 and Feb. 3, however, the site stopped serving content and instead began to redirect to a JustBeenPaid subdomain styled “marketing” that is hosted in the Netherlands.

    Whether a U.S. resident or citizen of another country who reached across international borders applied the redirection is unclear. What is clear is that the United States could join Italy in exercising  jurisdiction over JSS Tripler and its promoters if it chose to do so. The site also is accessible through individual U.S. states, meaning regulators at the state level also could exercise jurisdiction.

    A state’s choice to exercise jurisdiction over the sale of unregistered securities is hardly unusual in the HYIP sphere. Florida, for example, exercised jurisdiction over AdSurfDaily and operator Andy Bowdoin. North Dakota exercised jurisdiction over Pathway to Prosperity and operator Nicholas Smirnow. Oregon exercised jurisdiction over an abomination known as “I Need Cash,” a cycler operated by Kristopher K. Keeney.

    JustBeenPaid and Frederick Mann, a murky figure who once claimed to be an ASD promoter, are the purported operators of JSS Tripler. The Netherlands subdomain shows an image of a man at the top of the page. That man is described on the site as “Louis Paquette, JBP Affiliate Sales & Marketing Director.”

    The redirection, which occurs in Utah, according to server data, is virtually immediate — meaning that the previous content and photo of the woman of Asian descent no longer load and that the traffic is switched to the Netherlands page that shows the purported image of Paquette.

    Among other things, this development raises questions about who caused the Utah server to redirect to the Netherlands domain and precisely why the change was made on the heels of the CONSOB action. Whether JustBeenPaid or JSS Tripler themselves had control over the Utah domain is unknown.

    At a minimum, though, the presence of the Utah domain may be evidence that JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler not only sold unregistered securities to U.S. citizens, but did so from inside the United States with a U.S. promoter or a promoter from another country with access to the Utah server at the helm. And because the redirect to the JustBeenPaid subdomain in the Netherlands occurs from inside the United States, it exposes a JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler lie that the “opportunity” protects itself and promoters from investigation and/or prosecution.

    Even if the redirection were not occurring in the United States, the CONSOB action destroys the myth that the “opportunity” is outside the reach of law enforcement.  So does the simple fact that any regulator in the world could take action against the “opportunity” and its promoters. Indeed,  the cross-border nature of the scheme puts investors in virtually all jurisdictions at risk. Individual promoters could be targeted for investigation/prosecution in multiple jurisdictions — and if actions such as those begin to occur, the access of Just BeenPaid/JSS Tripler to cash sources could dry up.

    A claim by a MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi-forum promoter that Just BeenPaid/JSS Tripler has paid out more than $10 million to investors may demonstrate the vast reach of the “opportunity” and its ability to tap funding sources while siphoning undisclosed sums for itself. Just BeenPaid/JSS Tripler may be no Madoff, but $10 million still is a massive sum, one that should raise eyebrows in the worldwide law-enforcement community.

    Content accessible from the Netherlands-based JustBeenPaid subdomain — marketing.justbeenpaid.com — raises other troubling concerns. This statement (next paragraph) appears at the bottom of a “login” page in the JustBeenPaid root domain. The statement is accessible through the “marketing” subdomain. (Indent/italics added):

    Secure Offshore Servers
    — Our servers are in a strategic location.
    We pay special attention to security.
    Our servers are organized so upgrading and expansion are very easy.

    Offshore Business
    — Our business operations are geographically decentralized.
    We don’t have any central office.
    We’re not located in any “unfriendly political jurisdictions.”

    As a practical matter, the mere fact the page is accessible through a redirect that occurs in the United States may destroy any claims that JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler protects members against “unfriendly political jurisdictions.” Any transaction that occurred or occurs through the Utah domain necessarily involves wires in the United States.

    Regardless of the domain or email address through which business is conducted, any U.S.-based promoter of JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler is using wires inside the United States, a situation that brings wire fraud into play — in addition to the securities issues.

    A more troubling question, perhaps, is why JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler even would have the need to make such a claim if its international business is above-board. The same enterprise also claims to have a U.S. patent, a specious claim in the context of securities because the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office does not regulate the securities markets of the United States or any other country.

    Is JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler The BCCI Of The HYIP World?

    In the early 1990s, a corrupt international banking enterprise known as Bank of Credit and Commerce International created a worldwide financial scandal. The bank perhaps was best known by its acronym — BCCI — and purportedly was designed to be “offshore everywhere.”

    JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler is making the same sorts of claims associated with BCCI, a spectacularly bright red flag if ever there was one.

    But if that bright red flag were not enough, other content accessible through the “marketing” subdomain of JustBeenPaid sends signals that positively glow of danger. Indeed, a “Member Agreement” link accessible through the site includes this language. (Indent/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.

    Any political jurisdiction in any part of the world easily could construe those words as an invitation extended by JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler to investors to join an international conspiracy engaging in organized crime and mass-marketing fraud.

    The same type of claim became an element of the Legisi HYIP prosecution in the United States. The Legisi prosecution, which ultimately involved the SEC, began as an undercover operation between the U.S. government and the state government of Michigan.

    Even more land mines emerge when one considers that JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler  is being promoted on Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold, both of which are referenced in U.S. federal court files as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

    Veteran forum and social-network hucksters are promoting JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler, including promoters linked to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case in the United States and CONSOB’s earlier action involving Club Asteria, another Ponzi forum darling.

    Depending upon how the universe lines up, JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler could find itself starving for cash in very short order. It is a program that is thumbing its nose at law enforcement across the globe — and its willfully blind promoters could find themselves named in individual actions just about anywhere.

    It is the very definition of an international financial conspiracy of the most dangerous sort, a sort of emerging BCCI of the HYIP world.

    BEFORE

    This is the top of the page at the JSS-Tripler.com domain as it existed on Jan. 30, 2012.

    AFTER

    This is the top of the "marketing" subdomain of JustBeenPaid.com as it exists today. Prospects who visit the Utah-based JSS-Tripler domain referenced in the "BEFORE" screen shot above now are redirected to the Netherlands-based "marketing" subdomain of JustBeenPaid. The switch occurs in Utah, according to server data.