“WE NEED INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE PARTNERS: #1 must have minimum $25,000 deposit. #2 must have a good name in the country. #3 must be very honest and trustworthy. If you know of such a person in your country have them send a request to [deleted]@textcashnetwork.com.” — Feb. 13, 2012, Blog promo for Text Cash Network
From a TCN Blog promo on Feb. 13, 2012.
UPDATED 12:07 A.M. ET (FEB. 16, USA.)
Following a previous pattern of scams linked to MLM huckster Phil Piccolo, the purported Text Cash Network (TCN) text-advertising “opportunity” now is fishing for great sums of cash, according to affiliate Blog posts that appear not to even to question the offer.
The posts appear to be based on an email affiliates received from TCN , with affiliates simply copying and pasting the content on Blogs.
TCN, according to the posts, is seeking “INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE PARTNERS” willing to plunk down a “minimum $25,000 deposit.” The posts are tied to a purported TCN celebration for being in business for 100 days.
The promos also are hyping something called the “VIP Plus Advertising Package,” which purportedly will debut March 16 at a cost of “$499 + $60 Monthly x 11 Months with 100% of the additional funds going to the VIP Plus Agents.”
Some TCN affiliates are simultaneously encouraging recruits and prospects to send money to TCN via Western Union to buy in as TCN distributors at levels between $129 and $399. Such tactics have been associated with advance-fee scams and other forms of fraud.
“Western Union will allow you to put it on your credit card!” one TCN affiliate promo roars. “Call Western Union for details.”
In November 2010, a Piccolo-associated entity known as One World One Website (OWOW) solicited members to send in cash amid promises the contributions would earn “24% Annual Interest.” The offer led to questions about whether OWOW, which is listed as a defunct Wyoming corporation while it maintains websites that are unable to process payments, was selling unregistered securities as investment contracts.
“The 24% Annual Interest On Your Money … Did you know that many PROS are receiving 24% Annual Interest on their money. The deadline for 24% annual interest paid in monthly increments of 2% will end on 11/30/2010 . . . Any funds deposited thereafter will pay 18% annual interest in monthly increments of 1.5%,” the Nov. 18, 2010, OWOW email read in part.
In July 2010, Data Network Affiliates — another venture associated with Piccolo — said it was offering an offshore “resorts” program through a vendor. Members could buy into the purported program through a “No Interest Easy 24 Month” payment plan of of $625 a month. DNA solicited members to spend $14,995 on the resorts program, suggesting that some prospects would put the entire amount on a credit card.
Like the current TCN invitation soliciting deposits of $25,000, the OWOW email from November 2010 included an email address. Prospects with access to cash were encouraged to use the address to contact the company to discuss the offer.
Recent scams with which Piccolo has been involved — including OWOW and DNA — have featured Piccolo as a background player. Other individuals emerged as the faces of the company.
TCN has ducked questions about Piccolo. The firm lists Brett Hudson as its president. Both TCN and DNA operate in the region of Boca Raton, Fla.
DNA’s former CEO resigned within a matter of weeks in early 2010, saying that various email missives from the company were “bull” from a “backdoor guy.” Both TCN and DNA purport to operate “processing centers” in Boca Raton.
DNA’s corporate registration is listed in Nevada as dissolved. Like OWOW, Text Cash Network filed corporate paperwork in Wyoming. OWOW’s registration is listed as “delinquent” and “Inactive – Administratively Dissolved (Tax).”
OWOW effectively died in November 2011, the same month TCN was born in Wyoming, according to records. OWOW got a 10-day head start on other TCN affiliates in early November, according to web promos that explained OWOW was helping TCN test its system.
Why TCN would choose OWOW as a key, early business partner is unclear.
Another common thread among TCN, DNA and OWOW is the presence of Piccolo business associate and MLM huckster Joe Reid. TCN has accented the purported “tax” benefits of joining, something DNA also did.
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.
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.
The pitchman hosting a 90-day anniversary call yesterday for Text Cash Network introduced fellow TCN pitchman Joe Reid as an “absolute legend.”
“In this industry, folks, facts tell, and stories sell,” a pitchman identified as “Eddie” said in remarks introducing Reid.
“This gentleman is a legend — an absolute legend in the industry,” Eddie said. “This gentleman makes money. This gentleman makes BIG money. He’s made millions and millions of dollars over the years in the network-marketing industry . . .”
But “Eddie” said nothing about Reid’s involvement in Data Network Affiliates (DNA) and One World One Website (OWOW), bizarre and crashed opportunities linked to Reid business associate and fellow MLM huckster Phil Piccolo amid claims that affiliates were not getting paid. Piccolo also has been linked to TCN.
Among other things, DNA claimed it could help the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children, later claiming it offered a “free” cell phone with “unlimited” talk and text for $10 a month.
DNA appears to have assisted in the rescue of no children, but it did complain that the AMBER Alert program had a bloated budget. It later removed its cell-phone offer, claiming it had been duped into making the offer by a huckster. OWOW, for its part, claimed it had products that cured or treated cancer — while also claiming a “magnetic” product helped prevent leg amputations and helped produce tomatoes that would grow to twice their ordinary size — all while assisting dairy herds in producing more milk. (Use the search button in the upper-right corner of the PP Blog for more info on DNA and OWOW and their series of ambiguous and confounding offers.)
As he is doing now for TCN, Reid led cheers in videos or conference calls for DNA and OWOW. (TCN is using the same conference-call software as DNA.) While researching an offer by OWOW, the PP Blog was advised by the Des Moines Police Department (Iowa) that certain addresses that appeared in online promos for OWOW were nonexistent. Lower in this story, you’ll find a reference to something the Boca Raton Police Department reported after the PP Blog asked it to visit a local building.)
An Emerging Bromide
Despite “Eddie’s” assertion that “facts tell,” he provided no substantiation of his claims about Reid and offered no information on Reid’s DNA/OWOW ties, apparently preferring instead to focus on the “stories sell” part of his emerging bromide.
Reid’s story yesterday offered platitudes that “exciting things are happening” at TCN, with Reid adding that the purported text-advertising firm had “tremendous leaders” who’d created “great excitement.”
Reid, whose TCN cheerleading appeared to be somewhat subdued during the call, then passed the call back to Eddie.
Without providing any factual foundation and again apparently defaulting to the “stories sell” part of his bromide, Eddie again assured listeners that Reid was a “legend.” He added that TCN had set all of the following records:
Fastest to 10,000 members.
Fastest to 20,000 members.
Fastest to 50,000 members..
Fastest to 100,000 members.
Fastest to 200,000 members.
“And most recently, folks, we were the fastest company to 300,000 members — in under 90 days.”
Participants who weren’t excited about those numbers need to check their “pulse,” Eddie ventured, predicting later that there would be “seven-” and “six”-figure earners.
Like DNA and OWOW, strange events and incongruities have marked TCN’s existence.
The TCN Photo Mystery
Despite oddities such as the existence of a promotional photo that shows TCN’s name affixed to a glistening office building in Boca Raton and a public statement by the Boca Raton Police Department that the name is not affixed to the building, Eddie asserted that TCN is a company that “makes sense.”
TCN Tax Claims — After Similar DNA Claims
TCN also may be playing with fire by wooing recruits with claims about the purported tax advantages of joining.
“What about the tax benefits that you receive from owing a home-based business?” Eddie asked yesterday’s conference-call listeners. “You can literally bring home 3, 4, maybe $5,000 — up to $7,000 a year in tax benefits. So many people are completely unaware that, just by being a part of a home-based business, they can save thousands of dollars every year by being a part of a home-based business.
“Guess what? Join us with Text Cash Network and start saving today . . .” Eddie instructed while focusing on the purported tax advantages.
Screen shot: Like DNA, TCN puports to operate a "processing center" in Boca Raton.
Another oddity associated with TCN and DNA is that both firms
Screen shot: Like TCN, DNA purports to operate a "processing center" in Boca Raton.
claimed to operate “processing centers” in South Florida, but the addresses appear to be rental services.
Meanwhile, both TCN and DNA have OWOW — another Piccolo-associated entity — in common somewhere in the food chain.
The earliest promos (early November 2011) for TCN appeared on OWOW’s website.
Like DNA, OWOW appears to be a defunct corporation that continues to produce a website that sometimes goes missing and sometimes is rerouted to other sites.
The management structure of TCN, DNA and OWOW also has been murky, with all three firms claiming to be operated by top professionals while simultaneously publishing ambiguous information. Some TCN promoters, for instance, have claimed TCN is owned by “The Johnson Group.”
Promos that originated through OWOW, however, added an ampersand and extra proper noun, declaring that TCN was owned by the “Johnson & Johnson Group.”
Affiliates of TCN, DNA and OWOW have complained publicly about not getting paid. All three firms have explained away those concerns in largely the same fashion: that payments have come or will come once a series of launches and prelaunches and website adjustments are completed.
Each of the schemes spread in part through social-media sites such as YouTube and Facebook.
One poster on a Facebook TCN site dubbed the “Text Cash Network- Official Group Page” complained today that “power line stats” are not working.
“It stopped on the 12/28/2011,” the poster claimed.
On another Facebook site — one dubbed simply “Text Cash Network” — a poster spammed an offer for JSS Tripler. Promoters of JSS Tripler are under investigation by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator.
From YouTube: Mr. P. prowls the stage for OWOW in 2010.
UPDATED 5:05 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Did One World One Website Inc. (OWOW) — the Phil Piccolo-associated company that appears to have been given some of the top positions in Text Cash Network (TCN) and recruited a huge downline with the knowledge of TCN management — try to fix its own problems last year by hatching a Ponzi plan in which money sent in by new members would be used to pay commissions owed to original members?
A bizarre OWOW promo dated July 30, 2011, on Dealslinker.com suggests so. The promo, which claimed that “O.W.O.W. Management left town a long time ago” and “gave up for many reasons,” further claimed OWOW was implementing a restoration plan and suggested that the company was being run by “leaders.” The “leaders” were not identified.
Incongruously, the promo claimed that “[i]t is actually not the current O.W.O.W. that is in Financial Trouble. It is the baggage from 10/10/2010 to 3/10/2011 that has brought us down. And is a Ball and Chain around the current O.W.O.W. Team.”
“WE NEED YOUR HELP ‘OR’ THE HELP OF BRAND NEW PEOPLE…” the promo urged. “THE SOLUTION IS ‘FOUNDER OWNERSHIP’ YES… FOUNDERS…”
With those words in July, OWOW introduced a scheme by which “FOUNDER PACKAGES” would be created in four tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum) and sold online to right the OWOW ship. The purported packages were priced between $500 and $5,000, and purchasers who bought in at the $5,000 level were promised they would get “20 shares in a (sic) 5% of The Sales Profit Pool from 8/8/11 to 12/12/12 of The O.W.O.W. Program…”
The claim leads to questions about whether OWOW was offering unregistered securities as investment contracts and effectively creating an investment pool while using unregistered broker-dealers to sell the offer.
Purchasers who bought in at the lower-priced tiers were promised a smaller number of shares, according to the promo. Members at the $500 level would get one share; members at $1,000 and $2,500 levels would get three shares and 10 shares, respectively.
Despite the claim that OWOW’s profits would be shared among certain members through Dec. 12, 2012, the business registration in Wyoming of One World One Website Inc. is listed as “Inactive – Administratively Dissolved (Tax).”
Whether OWOW sold any of the purported packages referenced in the July 2011 promo is unclear. But about three months later — during the opening days of November 2011 and while OWOW apparently was still reeling — OWOW appears to have been given a 10-day head start to sell TCN.
Some TCN members now say that TCN has delayed commission payments to members for a fourth time and that members have been encouraged to send money via Western Union and money orders to both the company and individuals associated with the firm.
A pulldown menu on TCN’s website says money can be sent via Western Union to three individuals: Tyler Johnson, Brett Hudson or Jane Johnson. TCN purports to have hundreds of thousands of members globally.
Brett Hudson is listed on TCN’s website as the firm’s president. TCN purports to operate from Boca Raton, Fla. OWOW and another Piccolo-associated entity know as Data Network Affiliates (DNA) also purported to operate from Boca Raton and environs. The Better Business Bureau issued an alert about DNA in 2010.
Why TCN is asking members to send funds to individuals via Western Union is unclear.
TCN purportedly is owned by “The Johnson Group,” although descriptions about that company have been vague and ambiguous.
Here is what TCN says about itself:
“Text Cash Network Inc is a USA Corporation and is own (sic) 100% by a five year old communication company which is another USA Corporation owned by The Johnson Group. We have not disclosed the communication’s company name or contact information in fear that THOUSANDS OF AGENTS may or should we say would call them for information prior to our official launch of 12/12/2011.”
The date TCN advertised as its launch date — Dec. 12, 2011 — was precisely one year ahead of the date through which OWOW promised to pay tiered members who purchased shares in a pooling arrangement: Dec. 12, 2012.
Curiously, TCN promoters associated with OWOW added an ampersand and extra proper noun to the name of TCN’s purported ownership group, describing TCN’s owners as the “Johnson & Johnson Group.”
Whether the addition of the ampersand and extra proper noun was a bid to trade on the name of Johnson & Johnson, the New Jersey-based Dow and S&P 500 component, is unclear. TCN came out of the gate trading on the name of Groupon, but a Groupon logo that once appeared on the site has been removed.
Returning to the subject of OWOW, money from the purported OWOW “FOUNDER PACKAGES” would be used in part to “pay off all of the past commissions and money owed to suppliers,” according to the bizarre OWOW promo, which was attributed to “Mister P.”
“Mister P” is an alias used by Phil Piccolo. Strangely, though, the OWOW promo was positioned as a “personal letter from J.P. aka Mister P.” Why the initials “J.P.” were used is unclear.
Other Oddities
The July 2011 OWOW promo referenced in this post appears to be a bid to sell both OWOW and a program known as ThatFreeThing. Indeed, the headline on the promo reads, “OWOW Wholesale Direct and MyFreething – ThatFreeThing.”
Despite the headline reference to That Free Thing, the promo does not contain a link to the That Free Thing program.
That Free Thing uses an address in Westminster, Colo., and publishes a picture of an office building with the name of the company affixed in large letters to the side of the building.
TCN promos have featured images of a building in Boca Raton with the company’s name affixed in large letters near the crown of the building. The Boca Raton Police Department said on Dec. 14 that TCN’s name was not affixed to the building — despite what promoters led recruits to believe.
“Mister P,” meanwhile, also is referenced in a promo for something called “MY FREE EVERYTHING,” which appears to be operating through a domain styled “TheDebtFreeCard.com.”
Visitors to that site are told about a “100% PASSIVE!” program through which they can earn through the sale of “$50,000 to $250,000 JVP FOUNDER LOAN PACKAGES.” Like the OWOW promo, the My Free Everything promo raises questions about whether the purported firm is selling unregistered securities as investment contracts and whether promoters are serving as unregistered broker-dealers.
Amid confusing claims on the site, visitors are told this: “If you are within 10 Levels of This Sale you will EARN IMMEDIATE MONEY… $500 to $2500… or If you personally sell one $5000 to $25,000… However THE BIG PICTURE will be THE RESIDUAL INCOME because THE SALE was made in YOUR DOWNLINE… There are many DOCTORS and OTHER PROFESSIONALS looking for PASSIVE INCOMES… All you do is FIND THEM and The Leadership SELL THEM… ”
Separately, promos for OWOW on LinkedIn are asking viewers to visit a YouTube site to “see [an] Oprah” video on OWOW.
When a link in the LinkedIn promo for OWOW is clicked, however, visitors are taken to a video that has nothing to do with Oprah Winfrey, the entertainment icon and business titan whose name often is appropriated by MLM hucksters and affiliates unwise to their ways.
Instead, the video is about a product known as PhoneGuard, an app that purportedly keeps teens and children safe by shutting off a cell phone’s texting capacity while they’re in automobiles.
See this story about DNA, another Piccolo-associated program that used Winfrey’s name. DNA purported to have ties to Anthony Sasso, who was described as DNA’s data expert and a “special board consultant.”
Sasso, who reportedly once had a role in PhoneGuard, is a convicted felon who was charged in a South Florida racketeering case. DNA, the Piccolo-associated entity, hyped him as “The King Of Data For Dollars” and Sasso was said to be the “owner of the largest database of text numbers in the world.”
Some affiliates have claimed Text Cash Network (TCN) is part of a company known as “The Johnson Group.” Others have added an ampersand and mimicked the name of an internationally famous company, saying TCN is part of the “Johnson & Johnson Group.”
Now, yet another TCN flap involving a company name is emerging. The name appeared on TCN’s purchase-agreement page in recent days.
“I understand that this agreement may not be transferred or assigned without prior written consent of REX Venture Group, LLC a/k/a/ T.C.N..com (sic), which consent shall not be unreasonably denied,” the TCN purchase-agreement page read in part on Dec. 22, according to Google cache. The language appeared below a clause labeled “ASSIGNMENT.”
Largely the same language appears on a page for a program known as Zeek Rewards, which leads to questions about whether TCN had copied the language and swapped in the name of its own company without consent.
But the name of REX Venture Group no longer appears on the purchase-agreement page of TCN’s website, and the “ASSIGNMENT” clause has been reworded to read, “I understand that this agreement may not be transferred or assigned without prior written consent of Text Cash Network, inc. a/k/a T.C.N., which consent shall not be unreasonably denied.”
It is unclear when the changes were made.
TCN has claimed to employ an “attorney,” but does not name the attorney. It also has claimed to use a “host of traditional domestic and international legal representatives.”
Whether TCN consulted the purported attorney and the purported “host of traditional domestic and international legal representatives” before posting the assignment clause — and later editing it — is unclear. Also unclear is whether TCN ever consulted with the Rex Venture Group, the firm whose name now has been deleted from TCN’s purported assignment clause.
Why TCN claimed it also was known as the Rex Venture Group also is unclear.
TCN has promotional links to Ponzi scheme boards and to MLM huckster Phil Piccolo and Piccolo-associated firms such as Data Network Affiliates (DNA) and OWOW, which stands for “One World One Website.”
Significant incongruities and vagueness over TCN’s ownership structure have marked promotions for TCN. Similar incongruities marked promos for DNA and OWOW.
1.
Google took a cache shot of TCN's purchase-agreement page on Dec. 22. Here is a screen shot of part of the page, which shows the name of REX Venture Group LLC. The name no longer appears on the page, leading to questions about whether TCN had simply copied-and-pasted terms from another MLM opportunity.
2.
Section from TCN's purchase-agreement page as it appeared on Dec. 27. The section has been reworded, and the name of REX Venture Group LLC has been removed.
AutoXten came out of the gate during the summer, amid claims $10 could turn into nearly $200,000. Promos claimed the "opportunity" was using Canada-based AlertPay to avoid PayPal restrictions and that AutoXten was suited for "churches."
AutoXTen, the absurd matrix cycler that came to life this summer even as the state of Oregon was issuing a public warning against pyramid schemes and ordering a $345,000 penalty against a cycler pitchman, has gone missing.
The AutoXTen website is registered in the name of Jeff Long, an MLM huckster who sang the praises in 2010 of both the Narc That Car (NTC) and Data Network Affiliates (DNA) license-plate schemes before abandoning both programs and warning his followers to “Stay away from ‘EZ MONEY’ pitches and claims.”
Long, though, appeared not to have followed his own advice. After the failures of Narc That Car and DNA, AutoXTen came out of the gate with a claim that members could “Turn $10 into $199,240.”
Prior to the apparent collapse of AutoXTen, remarks attributed to Long on the AutoXTen help desk claimed the program was appropriate for “churches.” DNA made similar claims about one of its “programs” last year.
In 2010, Jeff Long's YouTube video for Narc That Car was referenced by Fox News 11 in Los Angeles as part of the station's Narc coverage. The original Narc video was repurposed by Long into a YouTube text pitch for DNA, but later edited to insert an announcement Long had left both Narc and DNA.
DNA’s website also has gone missing. The DNA program was associated with MLM huckster Phil Piccolo, as was a program known as One World One Website (OWOW). OWOW emerged last month as a launch ground for the emerging Text Cash Network (TCN) scheme.
Despite the appearance online of a photo of a glistening building in Boca Raton, Fla., with the words “TEXT CASH NETWORK” affixed in large letters near the crown of the building, the Boca Raton Police Department said Wednesday that the company’s name does not appear on the building.
Questions have been raised about whether Long performs any due diligence on the “opportunities” he embraces or blindly defaults to the company line or manufactures a convenient truth while recruiting participants by the hundreds into scheme after scheme.
Long was among the conference-call cheerleaders for DNA, along with Joe Reid, who went on to become a cheerleader for TCN.
Reid also was a cheerleader for OWOW, a company Piccolo positioned as the provider of a “magnetic” product that could prevent leg amputations and help tomatoes grow to twice their normal size.
This video in which Jeff Long was driving an automobile and pitching the MLM license-plate schemes of DNA and Narc That Car was edited to insert the red balloon and annoucement from Long that he had dumped both DNA and Narc — and to warn prospects to stay away from "EZ MONEY'" MLM schemes. Long then turned to AutoXTen amid claims the firm's matrix cycler could turn $10 into nearly $200,000 and was appropriate for "churches."
Whether Long participated in OWOW and TCN was not immediately clear. What is clear is that the AutoXTen website is not resolving to a server only months after the purported miracle program’s launch.
When pinged, both the AutoXten and DNA websites are returning this message: “Unknown error: 1214.”
Both NTC and DNA carded scores of “F” from the Better Business Bureau. Some NTC members then attacked the BBB, and DNA changed the name of one of its purported offerings to “BBB” in an apparent bid to trick search engines.
AutoXTen was hawked in part through posts on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.
AutoXTen gained a head of steam in part through promos by well-known Ponzi forum pitchmen “Ken Russo” (as “DRdave”), and “manolo,” both of whom also promoted Club Asteria.
Club Asteria, which purports to have a philanthropic arm, suspended member payouts months ago and acknowledged its PayPal account had been suspended.
An AutoXTen email attributed to Long, Scott Chandler and Brent Robinson as the opportunity’s “Founders/Owners” also shows the firm traded on U.S. patriotism.
“This weekend here in the United States of America, we celebrate our freedom and independence as a nation and a Country,” the email read in part. The email was posted on the TalkGold Ponzi forum by “manolo” on July 1, 2011, during the run-up to the Independence Day holiday in the United States.
“We want to wish EVERYONE a HAPPY Independence weekend, please be safe, have fun and as you are celebrating, know that you are also celebrating your new life should you choose to step into it here with AutoXTen!” another part of the email exclaimed.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This information is presented in the form of briefs.
Georgia HYIP/Ponzi pair sentenced: Geoffrey A. Gish, 57, of Lawrenceville, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for his role in a $29 million “high-yield” scam that fleeced investors of more than $17 million.
Myra J. Ettenborough, implicated in the same scam initially unmasked by the SEC, was sentenced to seven years. Like Gish, Ettenborough, 56, of Roswell, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell Jr. to pay more than $17.245 million in restitution.
The scam involved pooled funds that “supposedly involved ‘high yield trading programs,’” prosecutors said.
An FBI agent said the scammers were greedsters.
“Mr. Gish and Ms. Ettenborough exhibited total disregard for their victim investors while displaying an almost limitless level of personal greed,” said Brian D. Lamkin, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office.
Florida HYIP/Ponzi globetrotter sentenced: John S. Morgan, the Sarasota man whose high-yield Ponzi venture took him to Europe and later landed him in jail in Sri Lanka, has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew to 10 years and a month in federal prison in the United States.
Morgan, 52, who ultimately cooperated with the government, may end up serving less time than his wife, who took her chances with a jury and was convicted in September on all 22 counts filed against her.
Marian Morgan, 57, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 20.
Her jet-setting days at an end, Marian Morgan complained from Sri Lanka to a U.S. judge about “filthy” conditions in the overseas jail, noting she was being housed alongside “murderers and heroin dealers,” according to court records.
The Morgans were returned to the United States in 2009.
TVI Express ruled a pyramid scheme in Australia: TVI Express, an MLM company whose pitchmen used images of Donald Trump and Warren Buffett in promos, has been ruled a pyramid scheme by the Federal Court of Australia.
The case was brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
“It is beyond question that new participants in the TVI Express System are [led] to believe that they will receive payments for the introduction of further new participants,” Justice Nicholas said, according to ACCC.
“Indeed, the only way a participant can earn any income in the TVI Express System is through the introduction of new members to the scheme,” Justice Nicholas said, according to ACCC.
Some MLM scammers routinely use images of Trump and Buffett in promos. Affiliates of Data Network Affiliates (DNA), a firm associated with huckster Phil Piccolo, published images Trump and Oprah Winfrey in their promos last year.
When flogging DNA during a conference call last year that featured Piccolo associate Joe Reid, a fellow DNA huckster claimed the company had “certain people on speed dial that’s incredible.”
Reid emerged last month as a pitchman for Text Cash Network (TCN), which came out of the gate trading on the names of Groupon and Google Offers, among others. A firm known as One World One Website (OWOW) was an early promoter of TCN.
Screen shot: This OWOW "Store" lists a street address in the Bronx and touts a "GRAND OPENING" on an unspecified date. The store URL is linked to PayPal, although the store appears to have lost its ability to collect money via the online payment processor. Separately, the store's apparent parent company — One World One Website Inc. — is listed in Wyoming records as "Inactive – Administratively Dissolved (Tax)." Earlier this month, OWOW led the charge to promote Text Cash Network (TCN), according to affiliate promos. OWOW is associated with Phil Piccolo and Joe Reid. Reid has led the conference-call cheerleading for TCN after previously leading the conference-call cheerleading for Data Network Affiliates (DNA), yet another company associated with Piccolo. Reid also has appeared in at least one video for OWOW. Piccolo is known online as the "one-man Internet crime wave" and has a history of threatening critics. Promos for DNA, OWOW and TCN describe the firms as "free" opportunities that create wealth for members.
UPDATED 12:46 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) One World One Website Inc. (OWOW), the company linked to MLM huckster Phil Piccolo, has been listed in Wyoming as “Inactive – Administratively Dissolved (Tax).” The state lists the firm’s “inactive” date as Nov. 10. OWOW’s ownership is not listed, although records suggest the firm organized itself to float 1 billion shares of common stock. Whether the stock was public or private is unclear. Also unclear is whether any actual stock was issued.
Separately, web records show that Text Cash Network (TCN) — a purported text-advertising firm promoted on the OWOW site earlier this month — uses the same four DNS servers and an IP address in the same string as Data Network Affiliates (DNA), another venture linked to Piccolo. Records also suggest that the TCN domain name originally was registered last month through an entity known as OWOW Wholesale Domains before the registration was made private.
Meanwhile, a site known as OWOW Wholesale Direct that uses the One World One Website Inc. logo is soliciting orders for a number of products, including two products OWOW positioned last year as cures or treatments for cancer. The order page links to PayPal. When visitors press the PayPal button, this message appears:
“This recipient is currently unable to receive money.”
If prospects visit the main OWOW website — as opposed to the OWOW Wholesale Direct site — they are told they need to enter the site through an affiliate link to purchase products, including the two purported cancer cures or treatments. When a visitor arrives at the main OWOW site through an affiliate link, they can place items in a shopping cart — but when they are about to be forwarded to the payment page, these messages appear: “This Connection is Untrusted” (Firefox); “The site’s security certificate has expired!” (Google Chrome); “There is a problem with this website’s security certificate” (Internet Explorer).
The presence of the shopping cart on the main OWOW site and the presence of the PayPal buttons on the OWOW Wholesale Direct site suggest the firm or its affiliates provided customers two different ways to pay: PayPal and perhaps an independent credit-card processor whose identity remains unclear because of the problem with the security certificate on the orders site.
A graphic on the the OWOW Wholesale Direct site suggests the firm has a “store” in the Bronx at 11 E. 213th Street, “Just two blocks from Gun Hill Road off of Jerome Avenue.”
The headline in the graphic reads, “Earn THOUSANDS Giving Away A FREE Opportunity.”
It is unclear whether OWOW sold franchises to affiliates or operates the store as a self-owned retail outlet. In 2010, DNA claimed affiliates could pay a fee to open their own cell-phone stores.
DNA, however, appears never to have released its promised cell phone or opened any stores. The firm purported to be a player in many businesses, including a license-plate recording business to assist law enforcement, a mortgage-reduction business and an offshore “resorts” business.
In 2010, OWOW claimed that people who sent it money before Nov. 30 (2010) would earn “24% Annual Interest.” If members missed the Nov. 30 date, they’d earn only 18 percent, according to the promo.
The November 2010 email led to questions about whether OWOW was selling unregistered securities as investment contracts.
“Did you know that many PROS are receiving 24% Annual Interest on their money (sic),” the OWOW pitch read in part. “The deadline for 24% annual interest paid in monthly increments of 2% will end on 11/30/2010 . . . Any funds deposited thereafter will pay 18% annual interest in monthly increments of 1.5% . . .”
DNA-Like Culture Of Threats Emerging At TCN?
In 2010, DNA threatened critics while trying to manage its operations in an information vacuum. Upon its appearance online early last year, DNA had neither a contact form nor a contact email address on its website. Virtually the same circumstance has presented itself at TCN.
Late last winter — after DNA placed a Gmail address on its site after considerable howling from critics — a person who sent a note to the Gmail address received back an autoresponder message with a headline of “Top 16 Customer Service Issues.”
Item No. 5 on the Top 16 list read: “The D.N.A. Management is Aware of many FALSE Rumors . . . The D.N.A. Legal Department is on top of such and is taking Legal Action . . . You can not become the #1 record breaking company in THE WORLD . . . Without people taking cheap shots at you . . . In the mean time keep on keeping on . . .”
DNA also claimed the reason its original domain registration used privacy protection and an address in the Cayman Islands (while leeching off the name of the U.S. AMBER Alert system) was to prevent management from having to “put up with 100 stupid calls a day.”
TCN, according to an affiliate’s Blog, now is saying this (italics/indentation added):
“The Internet is The WILD WILD WEST when it comes to what people say about anything. The laws are very different today than they were even 3 years ago. They finally passed several laws that will allow a company like T.C.N. to protect it’s (sic) good name and business model. And we will use the full extent of the law to protect T.C.N. when made available to us. Please note that many of these blogs or so called M.L.M. SELF PROCLAIMED CRITICS produced no legal documentation not (sic) substantial facts. Instead they hide behind such disclaimers such as IT IS MY OPINION or SO AND SO SAID OR CLAIMS. Now on the other hand if a Licensed MLM Practicing Attorney were to say such please let us know ASAP. NOTE ALSO: Many people who write these blogs hide behind bogus names, e-mails and even hide their ISP. If you ever come across someone who does slander or prints mis-information about our company and you have a real name and contact information please pass it on to our legal department located in your back office.”
The same TCN affiliate site also suggests there may be tax advantages if prospects enroll in the upstart opportunity.
“T.C.N. Corporate has a 100% separate division set up to call on traditional businesses worldwide. V.I.P. Agent will need to sell only 1 V.I.P. Advertising Package Annually,” according to the affiliate site. “A sale to self to resell, to personally use or to just give it away as a gift would count as such. In fact when you personally use it or give it away as a gift it just may have some tax benefits. Check with a professional tax accountant.”
And TCN — like DNA before it — also is offering an explanation for why is does not use a contact form or publish a contact email address, according to the TCN affiliate’s Blog, which is hosted on Blogspot, Google’s free platform (italics/indentation added):
“Text Cash Network Inc is a USA Corporation and is own (sic) 100% by a five year old communication company which is another USA Corporation owned by The Johnson Group. We have not disclosed the communication’s company (sic) name or contact information in fear that THOUSANDS OF AGENTS may or should we say would call them for information prior to our official launch of 12/12/2011. They are not an MLM or Marketing Company set up to handle such incoming calls. Once T.C.N. Customer Service Center is open they could then just re-direct such calls to T.C.N.”
Like OWOW, a company named “The Johnson Group Inc.” is listed in Wyoming records as “Inactive – Administratively Dissolved (Tax).” It is unclear, however, whether The Johnson Group entity in Wyoming is the same firm that owns TCN.
TCN and OWOW use the same registered-agent service in Wyoming, according to records. TCN’s corporate registration became effective on Nov. 8. Records suggest that, just two days later — on Nov. 10 — OWOW’s registration was listed as “Inactive – Administratively Dissolved (Tax).”
Affiliates of TCN say the firm is operating in the region of Boca Raton, Fla., as an arm of The Johnson Group. DNA also operated from Boca Raton, and OWOW listed an address in nearby Deerfield Beach.
Are TCN Affiliates Creating Another Flap?
Even through TCN says it is owned by “The Johnson Group,” some TCN affiliates whose promos also reference OWOW have added an ampersand and an extra proper noun to their TCN ads. These promos identify TCN’s owners as “The Johnson & Johnson Group.”
Johnson & Johnson, a component of both Dow Jones and the S&P 500, is the internationally famous maker of pharmaceuticals and consumer products that are household names. Johnson & Johnson, which is based in New Jersey, also is known under a “Group” version of its name.
Several TCN affiliates — including international affiliates whose native language may not be English — are claiming this in promos (italics/indentation added):
“O.W.O.W. is ONLY promoting TEXT CASH NETWORK Inc
HERE IS WHY… #1 they pay like 100 times more than ANY OTHER and #2 is that: TEXT CASH NETWORK is owned and operated by The Johnson & Johnson Group.” (Emphasis added).
The promos go on to list “Mr. T. Michael Johnson” as “C.E.O.” of the “Johnson & Johnson Group” and “Mr. R. Christopher Johnson” as “President.”
Some affiliate promos for TCN that also reference OWOW have described “The Johnson & Johnson Group” as a player in the “Internet Software Business since 1994.” Promos for TCN that do not included the ampersand and the extra proper noun have described “The Johnson Group” as a “communications” company.
On Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson — the New Jersey-based Dow and S&P 500 component — said that it “will look into” whether the TCN promos and the Johnson & Johnson Group references could create any brand confusion.
“I am not aware of any affiliation they would have with Johnson & Johnson,” a company spokesman said about TCN and The Johnson Group.
One TCN affiliate promo that referenced the Piccolo-associated OWOW entity and used the name “Johnson & Johnson Group” blared this message (italics/indentation added):
“Why did O.W.O.W. get a TEN DAY JUMP START with this Incredible Opportunity? Two words “JOE REID”… One of The Johnson & Johnson Group management team was once in the referral marketing industry and knew of Joe’s reputation for taking companies into the marketplace. Joe started off consulting with them and is now the only person direct to the company.
“O.W.O.W. management convinced Joe that they should not open up the flood gates and that they should use O.W.O.W. as their TEST TEAM and get any bugs out of the system,” the message continued. “Joe convinced J&J to do a WHISPER LAUNCH… And we got the gift of a lifetime.
“Our team recruited over 1000 people in less than 24 hours… We estimate our team will build a 10,000 team in 10 days . . .”
When DNA — yet another company linked to Piccolo — came out of the gate last year, it claimed it was “going public” and used the names of Martha Stewart, Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey. Joe Reid was one of DNA’s principal cheerleaders.
Reid has emerged in the same role for TCN, which is using the same conference-call software DNA used last year. Reid has suggested TCN could become the next Groupon. The Groupon references were made before Groupon’s stock price plummeted to below the $20 IPO level earlier this week.
Analysts have fretted about the Groupon business model and emerging competition.
TCN purports to be in a business by which members will receive up to five text advertisements per day to their cell phone. Its site is filled with errors of grammar and usage, but the firm says it has recruited more than 80,000 members in just days.
Among the claims on the TCN website is this:
“Here are two mathematical examples of maximum revenue sharing. A 2×10 Referral Structure Pays A Maximum Earnings (sic) of $76.75 Per Day or $2,302.50 Per Month plus Matching Bonuses. A 3×10 Maximum Earnings = To (sic) High Of A Dollar Figure To Put In Print.”
In this Nov. 13 post, the PP Blog published a list of red flags concerning online promos for Text Cash Network (TCN), purportedly an emerging business “opportunity” involving text advertising and cell phones. A promo for TCN appeared — and then vanished — from a website linked to huckster Phil Piccolo, known online as “the one-man Internet crime wave.” Piccolo has been associated with other schemes that involved cell phones, namely Data Network Affiliates (DNA).
This post raises another red flag — and once again, the issue is about Piccolo’s potential TCN involvement or the involvement of Piccolo associates. In the DNA scam, the purported firm used generic YouTube videos to drive traffic to its purported opportunity. In 2010, for example, DNA incongruously posted a YouTube video known as “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” to its website, using the video to promote DNA.
The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” video — a You Tube smash — had absolutely nothing to to with DNA. The video was designed in part to create awareness about domestic violence and to publicize the Sheila Wellstone Institute.
Sheila Wellstone was a human-rights advocate. She and her husband, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., were killed in a plane crash in 2002. Their daughter, Marcia, died in the same crash.
After conducting a “prelaunch” event with much fanfare on Nov. 11 — Veterans Day in the United States — TCN now has added a You Tube video to its website. An all-caps line of “OFFICIAL LAUNCH 12/12/2011” appears below the video, which plays in miniature on TCN’s site.
But the video also is playing in full size on YouTube’s site. Text on the YouTube site dubs it “THE OFFICAL TEXT CASH NETWORK (TCN) – RIGHT HERE – RIGHT NOW” site. The upload date of the video is listed as Nov. 15, 2011: yesterday.
The same video, however, appears elsewhere on YouTube — and its upload date is listed as Jan. 26, 2009, nearly three years ago. Despite the upload date, the video also is promoting TCN, whose website appears to have been registered just last month.
Both videos raise questions about whether YouTube is being gamed by TCN and affiliates. Meanwhile, the videos use the same soundtrack by Fat Boy Slim: “Right here, right now.”
Among other things, Piccolo is known to use all-caps presentations and to hype “prelaunches” and “launches” for weeks. He also is known to hype launches by publishing the names of top promoters — something TCN is doing — and to try to stay in the background of “opportunities,” as opposed to becoming the public face of them.
Joe Reid, a known Piccolo associate, has served as a conference-call host for TCN. Reid also hosted conference calls for DNA, which was linked to Piccolo last year and served up Theatre of the Absurd and a sea of incongruities.
DNA, for example, misspelled the name of its own CEO — and didn’t advise members that the CEO had left the company for nearly a week. The former CEO told the PP Blog last year that the firm was engaging in “bizarre” conduct and a campaign of “misinformation and lies.”
After the former CEO agreed to an interview with the PP Blog, a PR handler who described himself as a conflict-management strategist” sought to intervene. As the year proceeded, DNA appeared to have both entered and exited the cell-phone business in a matter of weeks — while planting the seed that it would pay enormous rates of return to customers who provided it money, even as it purportedly entered businesses such as mortgage writedowns and offshore “resorts” after apparently abandoning its purported core business of helping police recover kidnapped children.
At one point, DNA was urging members to record the license-plate numbers of cars in a purported bid to assist the AMBER Alert program — while it was selling a purported “protective spray” that would make it impossible for cameras placed by police at intersections to snap usable photographs of the plates.
In 2009, another purported “advertising” opportunity known as Biz Ad Splash (BAS) used the same Fat Boy Slim soundtrack. Walter Clarence Busby Jr., the purported operator of BAS, is a figure in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and is the former operator of Golden Panda Ad Builder. Golden Panda surrendered more than $14 million in the ASD Ponzi case, and the SEC said that Busby was involved in three prime-bank schemes in the 1990s.
The SEC has not responded to requests for comment on the emerging TCN “opportunity.”
As of now, it can be said that two “advertising” schemes — BAS and TCN — are using the same music in what appears to be largely generic promos for business “opportunities.”
It also can be said that DNA, one of the “businesses” associated with Piccolo, also used generic videos and caused them to play in miniature on “prelaunch” and “launch” sites for “opportunities.”
It also seems possible — if not likely — that certain MLM promoters have found a way to edit YouTube sites to make the content appear “current” or to store generic videos and use them for multiple “opportunities.”
Questions
Why does one video for TCN show an upload date of January 2009 while the “official” site shows a video upload date of yesterday — when it is the same video and TCN purportedly is a “new” opportunity?
Did TCN exist in an earlier form as far back as 2009? If so, what happened back then — and why is it reemerging now?
Are certain MLMers simply using generic videos they uploaded earlier to YouTube — and then editing the YouTube sites when a new “opportunity” comes along, thus potentially maintaining a search-engine advantage no matter what “opportunity” comes along?
Why would a company that purports to be a market and technology leader use what appears to be a generic video as its “official” video?
Why did a promo for TCN that appeared on the website of OWOW — a site linked to Piccolo — suddenly go missing last week?
Why does TCN appear to be closely following “prelaunch” and “launch” strategies associated with purported Piccolo “opportunities?
Screen Shot 1
This YouTube video for Text Cash Network bears an upload date of Jan. 26, 2009, even though TCN claims it is a new company proceeding from a "prelaunch" in recent days to "launch." The video is a duplicate of a video dated Nov. 15, 2011 that claims to be TCN's "official" video.
Screen Shot 2
This YouTube video for Text Cash Network bears an upload date of Nov. 15, 2011, even though the same video for the purported TCN opportunity appears elsewhere on YouTube and bears an upload date of Jan. 26, 2009, nearly three years ago. TCN claims it is a new company proceeding from "prelaunch" to "launch." TCN claims the Nov. 15, 2011 video is its "official" one. Both video sites feature all-caps when addressing prospects and content that is virtually the same.
Screen Shot 3
This 2009 YouTube video for the purported Biz AdSplash "advertising" program used the music of Fat Boy Slim. An emerging "advertising" opportunity known as Text Cash Network is using the same Fat Boy Slim music: "Right here, right now." While BAS purported to deliver "advertising" to computers, TCN purports to deliver it to cell phones.
Until four days ago, the OWOW website associated with Florida-based huckster Phil Piccolo shared this message about Text Cash Network (TCN) with visitors. Joe Reid, a Piccolo associate, is leading conference call-cheerleading for TCN. Reid previously led cheers for Data Network Affiliates, another business linked to Piccolo.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A “program” known as Text Cash Network (TCN) that purports to share “advertising” revenue from text messages is spreading virally on the Internet. This column includes information prospective TCN members might want to consider before joining and asking others to join. There are red flags galore. Last week, the PP Blog compiled some research and sought comment from the SEC about the emerging program because the name of Brett Hudson, billed in TCN promos as the firm’s “president,” appears in a 2005 “press release” that quotes Hudson and Richard A. Altomare. The SEC acknowledged receipt of the Blog’s inquiries, but did not comment.
Altomare, of Boca Raton, Fla., was sued in this 2004 SEC action amid allegations of penny-stock fraud coupled with bogus press releases. The case, which involved an Altomare company known as Universal Express Inc., evolved to become an exceptionally ugly one. Altomare ultimately was found in contempt of court for flouting judicial orders and ordered jailed in New York. The court-appointed receiver in the case allegedly received threatening emails from individuals unhappy about the SEC’s action and follow-up events.
Here are quotes from two of the threatening emails, which allegedly were sent by investors. The quotes appear in an exhibit filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York:
1.) ” . . . you are going to be hit with a shit load of lawsuits, and if justice doesn’t prevail the good old American way then I will make it my personal duty to enforce the justice and I along with others will come and beat your ass to a bloody pulp, along with Judge (jackass) Lynch . . .”
2.) . . . you fu[!!!!!] slut . . . don’t get smart . . . you have no idea what could happen to you . . .”
Hudson, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, was not named a defendant in the SEC case. TCN promoters have identified him as president of Universal Cash Express, a company with a name similar to Altomare’s Universal Express Inc. entity. The 2005 “press release” that quotes Hudson and Altomare also identifies Hudson as the president of Universal Cash Express. Altomare’s title was not listed in the 2005 release, but the document was issued under the name of Altomare’s Universal Express entity ensnared in the SEC probe.
Until a few days ago, TCN was prominently featured on the website of OWOW (OneWorld, One Website), a site linked to Data Network Affiliates (DNA) and serial MLM scammer Phil Piccolo. Piccolo is known online as the “one-man Internet crime wave.”
Like Altomare’s Universal Express Inc. entity, DNA was registered as a Nevada company. DNA, like Universal Express Inc., also conducted business from Boca Raton. (See the Better Business Bureau listing for DNA, which purported to be in the business of helping the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children — while also purporting to be in the cell-phone, mortgage-reduction and “resorts” businesses. Although DNA appears to be defunct, it maintains a website — one that once redirected to the OWOW website. While actively conducting its purported business, DNA made bizarre claims about “going public.” Such claims have been associated with penny-stock scams and securities fraud.)
Joe Reid, a Piccolo business associate who helped DNA flog its mind-numbing mess to the international masses, was one of the speakers on a Nov. 11 TCN conference call. TCN is proceeding out of the gate in largely the same fashion DNA came out of the gate: conference calls featuring Reid, claims of rapid expansion involving tens of thousands of new recruits in days, a launch-countdown timer (now removed), suggestions of incredible earnings potential 10 levels deep, Blog and website posts, YouTube videos.
Here, now, a list of additional red flags and some additional background . . .
RED FLAG: Piccolo has a history of threatening to sue critics and of planting the seed that, if lawsuits do not work, he knows people who can cause critics to experience physical pain. He is known to operate in the area of Boca Raton, although Piccolo also has been known to operate in California.
RED FLAG: DNA promos in 2010 referenced a purported texting and data expert by the name of Anthony Sasso. Sasso, a convicted felon arrested in a 2005 racketeering case in Broward County, Fla., was described in DNA promos as “The King Of Data For Dollars” and was said to be the “owner of the largest database of text numbers in the world.” Although Sasso appears not to have been referenced in the context of TCN, both DNA and TCN purport to be in businesses that involve texting.
RED FLAG: Early affiliates of TCN have identified Brett Hudson as the president of Text Cash Network Inc. Records in Wyoming show a company by that name was registered in the state on Nov. 8, 2011 — just days ago. Affiliates also have vaguely described Text Cash Network Inc. as “a new division of a five year old communications company owned 100% by The Johnson Group.” No state of registration was listed in promos that referenced The Johnson Group, and the “communications company” and the “division” under which Text Cash Network Inc. purportedly operates are far from clear.
Wyoming records show a company by the name of The Johnson Group Inc., but it is unclear if it is the same company referenced by TCN affiliates. The Wyoming records of The Johnson Group entity contain this notation: “Standing – Tax: Delinquent.” The firm appears to have used a residential dwelling in New Jersey as the address of its corporate headquarters.
RED FLAG: TCN’s website design and “prelaunch” approach are similar in a number of key ways to the tactics employed by DNA, which planted the seed last year that it could help the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children by paying DNA members to record the license-plate numbers of automobiles for entry in a purported database. (Some of these commonalities are referenced lower in this story.)
Until four days ago, a promo for TCN appeared on the website of OWOW, a site linked to Piccolo. (Referenced in Editor’s Note above.) The TCN promo then vanished mysteriously, possibly because Ponzi forum posters were questioning whether Piccolo was involved with TCN. The OWOW website previously was linked to the DNA scam, and also was linked to purported cancer cures.
DNA — as is a Piccolo signature — sold the purported tax benefits of joining the DNA “program,” which traded on the names of Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump and also purported to offer a “free” cell phone with “unlimited” talk and text for $10 a month. The purported cell-phone “program” used the intellectual property of Apple Inc., claiming that DNA had a “branding” relationship with the company led by the late Steve Jobs. No DNA cell phone appears to have emerged in the marketplace. No branding deal with Apple appears to have existed.
RED FLAG: On its pitch page, TCN currently is publishing the logos of Groupon, Google Offers and Bing Shopping, among others. Last year — in addition to using the intellectual property of Apple and the images of Winfrey and Trump — DNA used email pitches to compare itself to “FACEBOOK, GOOGLE & WALMART…” It is common for hucksters to tie an upstart business to an established business as a means of creating the appearance of legitimacy. Brand leeching is common in the worlds of MLM scams and securities swindles.
RED FLAG: Joe Reid, the Piccolo business associate, has led the conference-call hype for TCN and has suggested TCN is the next Groupon, which recently conducted an IPO. Reid also led the conference-call cheerleading last year for DNA, which purported to be “going public” while making a bizarre reference to Martha Stewart. DNA appears never to have gone “public.” Some members said the firm never paid them, but continued to charge them — and at least one website is claiming that Piccolo (aka “Mr. P.”) stiffed it on orders for bottled water in the OWOW program.
Things got so strange at DNA that the firm asked members to imagine that an earlier “launch” (March 2010) had not occurred and to reimagine a relaunch that occurred last summer (July 2010) as the only time the company had launched.
DNA members were told it was the “MORAL OBLIGATION” of churches to pitch the firm’s purported “program.” Some DNA promos accented DNA commissions purportedly paid 10 levels deep. TCN also is accenting a 10-level payment plan.
RED FLAG: Like DNA, TCN also is being promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as MoneyMakerGroup.
When things went south at DNA last year, the DNA site began to redirect to the OWOW site, which was hawking products linked to Piccolo, including a purported “magnetic” product that prevented leg amputations while also helping garden vegetables grow to twice their normal size.. The DNA site then mysteriously stopped redirecting to the OWOW site — on a date uncertain, but after Piccolo started promoting OWOW products as cancer cures or treatments. At least one OWOW affiliate was trading on the name of the National Institutes of Health.
RED FLAG: Both the TCN site and the DNA site are using Alexa charts that provide viewers the same sort of fundamentally meaningless comparisons — while the sites accent the word “free.”
RED FLAG: Like the DNA site, there is no obvious way on the TCN site for prospects to contact Support.
RED FLAG: Like the DNA site, the TCN site is using Google Translate. The use of the Google service — along with other commonalities on both sites — leads to questions about whether TCN and DNA are using the same designer.
DNA, like TCN, is using an Alexa chart. Both sites use Google Translate software.TCN, like DNA, is using an Alexa chart. Both sites use Google Translate software.
A few weeks prior to the Aug. 1, 2008, seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, Bowdoin apparently believed it prudent to plant the seed that the ASD autosurf had amassed a giant pot of cash and would use it to “hammer” critics. His willfully blind followers helped spread the word on forums that ASD detractors soon would feel the sting of being sued back to the Stone Age.
Here, according to federal court filings, is what Bowdoin told ASD members at a company rally in Miami on July 12, 2008:
“These people that are making these slanderous remarks, they are going to continue these slanderous remarks in a court of law defending about a 30 to 40 million dollar slander lawsuit. Now, we’re ready to do battle with anybody. We have a legal fund set up. Right now we have about $750,000 in that legal fund. So we’re ready to get everything started and get the ball rolling.” (Emphasis added.)
Bowdoin thuggishly suggested that ASD had hired a law firm and that the firm was experienced at “bringing the hammer down on people that need it.” It is worth noting that federal prosecutors included the remarks attributed to Bowdoin in a document labeled “Government Exhibit 5.”
Meanwhile, it’s also worth noting that “Government Exhibit 1” consisted of the 2006 SEC complaint against 12DailyPro that accused the firm of operating an autosurf Ponzi scheme. It was the government’s way of showing that autosurfs such as ASD rely on willfully blind promoters to proliferate. “Government Exhibit 2,” meanwhile, was the SEC’s 2007 complaint against the PhoenixSurf autosurf. The inclusion of this exhibit was another way to show willful blindness.
One of the interesting things about the PhoenixSurf complaint was that it referenced Virtual Money Inc., which federal prosecutors in Connecticut later linked to alleged money-laundering by a narcotics cartel in Medellin, Colombia.
Robert Hodgins, the operator of Virtual Money, is an international fugitive wanted by INTERPOL. ASD also used Virtual Money, according to promos for the firm. In December 2010, federal prosecutors said ASD also had a tie to E-Bullion, a shuttered California payment processor whose operator was accused (and convicted) of arranging the brutal slashing murder of his wife in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage. ASD also had a link to E-Gold, a processor convicted in a money-laundering conspiracy case. So did PhoenixSurf.
“Government Exhibit 4” in the August 2008 ASD Ponzi case consists of surveillance photos taken in ASD’s hometown of Quincy, Fla. The date upon which the photos were taken is unclear, but it is known that the U.S. Secret Service began to investigate ASD on July 3, 2008, a little more than a week before the Miami rally.
The entry of the Secret Service in the ASD case fundamentally sent two signals: The U.S. government believed its financial infrastructure might be under attack by an organization — ASD — that was trading on the name of the President of the United States. The SEC has said nothing about the ASD case — at least not in public. Bowdoin was indicted on criminal charges in December 2010. If he is convicted on all counts, the man who once claimed to have a giant pot from which he could draw to “hammer” critics could face up to 125 years in federal prison, fines in the millions of dollars and forfeiture orders totaling at last $110 million.
In the earliest days of the ASD probe, at least three media outlets — including a local newspaper, a Blog and a regional publication — were threatened with lawsuits. Bowdoin ended up suing no one. In fact, within months he was consumed by litigation directed at him from virtually all fronts. Multiple civil-forfeiture complaints were filed, as was a racketeering lawsuit. These things occurred as a criminal investigation was unfolding slowly.
For all these reasons and more, Bogdan Fiedur — and members of the AdLandPro online “community” — should perform a sober assessment of Fiedur’s recent threat to sue RealScam.com, an antifraud forum.
Threats to sue journalists, media outlets, forums, Blogs and other websites that publish information about online schemes are bids to chill speech. These bids are occurring as an epidemic of white-collar crime and securities fraud is sweeping the globe during a period in which government budgets are strained and literally thousands of fraud investigations are under way that reach into all corners of the world.
It is clear that online fraud is responsible for billions of dollars in global losses. These worlds are exceptionally murky. No one knows for certain where the money goes when fraud schemes disappear — as they so often do. It is equally clear that criminal puppeteers behind the schemes are taunting investigative agencies. From the standpoint of the U.S. government, the government and financial institutions are facing attacks of thousands of tiny cuts.
Lanny Breuer, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that the “convergence of threats” posed by transnational organized crime is “significant and growing. ”
“Transnational organized crime is increasing its subversion of legitimate financial and commercial markets, threatening U.S. economic interests and raising the risk of significant damage to the world financial system,” Breuer told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism.
Despite worldwide headlines of one massive fraud scheme after another — and despite the fact that the financial lives of real human beings in all corners of the world are being reduced to rubble by serial Ponzi schemers and scammers — Bogdan Fiedur is threatening to sue RealScam.com.
At a minimum, it is a PR blunder of the highest magnitude. Bowdoin made the same mistake. So did Data Network Affiliates (DNA), a purported business “opportunity” associated with serial huckster Phil Piccolo, who once planted the seed that, if lawsuits didn’t work, he knew the type of people willing to break legs to silence critics. One apologist for Piccolo and DNA planted the seed that a former federal prosecutor, federal judge and director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was a suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
It doesn’t get much more bizarre than that — unless one is willing to consider that Bowdoin now is trying to raise funds for his criminal defense on Facebook and claiming that God established a program known as OneX to help him do just that.
OneX is among the “programs” promoted by members of the AdLandPro “community” — as were ASD and Finanzas Forex (and many others) before it.
And yet Fiedur apparently believes he can chill RealScam.com into stop doing what it does by registering a domain titled “RealScamClassActionSuit.com.”
Inverting reality, the purported class-action site ventures that “RealScam encourages cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking by allowing the creation of anonymous accounts and by allowing the users to present of (sic) unproven accusations towards individuals of their targeted organization. The RealScam.com turns out to be just a harassment and bashing site with no verification of facts and indiscriminate attacks at anyone who looks like an easy target.”
It’s easy to imagine Andy Bowdoin or Phil Piccolo saying the same thing — while doling out accolades to the AdLandPro “community” for its excellent judgment about the types of “programs” the world’s masses should be joining.
“The wealth generated by today’s drug cartels and other international criminal networks enables some of the worst criminal elements to operate with impunity while wreaking havoc on individuals and institutions around the world,” Breuer of the Justice Department observed yesterday. “Generating proceeds often is only the first step — criminals then launder their proceeds, often using our financial system to move or hide their assets and often with the help of third parties located in the United States. Indeed, international criminal organizations increasingly rely on these third parties and on the use of domestic shell corporations to mask crimes and launder proceeds under the guise of a seemingly legitimate corporate structure.”
And then Breuer asked the Senate panel to enact legislation that would strengthen money-laundering and asset-forfeiture laws and broaden the federal RICO statute.
Whether the Senate — and the Congress as a whole — will listen is unclear. What is clear is that, at least in the context of online fraud schemes, victims are piling up in numbers that America’s largest sports stadiums cannot accommodate. Losses are in the billions. Vast sums of wealth have been taken from rightful owners and placed in the hands of criminals.
It is simply beyond the pale that Fiedur asserts that RealScam.com is a menace, when it is one of the few sites in the world that tasks itself with exposing the menace of international mass-marketing fraud that occurs over the Internet.
One final thing worth mentioning: A few weeks before Breuer ventured to Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate panel, he carried out another important public duty.
On Sept. 26, Lanny Breuer joined U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in announcing that ASD victims who filed successful remissions claims in the civil Ponzi case were getting $55 million back.
“We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to bring justice to the citizens defrauded by these insidious schemes,” Breuer said.
