PatrickPretty.com

Tag: Phil Piccolo

  • STATEMENT: PP Blog Experiencing Unusual Traffic Pattern During Anniversary Week Of Last Year’s Crippling Attack; Blog Confirms It Received A Claim Of Responsibility In April For Springtime Outage

    Part of today's unusual traffic pattern of multiple international IPs simultaneously pulling the same "old" story. (Also see screen shot below.)

    At approximately 2:06 p.m. EDT Monday, the PP Blog began to experience an unusual traffic pattern. In the past, such patterns have been the precursors of sustained electronic assaults against the Blog.

    The unusual pattern reoccurred yesterday, and the Blog contacted a federal law-enforcement agency.  The agency is aware of a server-killing assault on the Blog that began a year ago this week. It also is aware of subsequent attacks. The Blog believes that one or more criminals is responsible for the unusual traffic pattern, which mostly features multiple international IPs attempting to pull the same “old” stories simultaneously.

    Although Monday and Tuesday’s unusual traffic eventually dissipated, the pattern resumed today and caused the Blog’s server briefly to exceed its normal operating parameters. Not all of the unusual activity is captured in the screen shots published in this post.

    PP Blog Today Discloses Nature Of April Incident

    In April 2011, the Blog reported an unusual incident to the same federal law-enforcement agency referenced above.  The incident involved a claim of responsibility for a crippling springtime botnet flood against the Blog by a person who claimed to have carried out the attack on behalf of a specific, U.S.-based company with an international presence. The “opportunity” purportedly provided by the company was widely promoted on Ponzi scheme boards earlier this year, and the person also claimed to represent other companies. In making the claim of responsibility, the person described the Blog as “your little vicious blog.”

    The Blog provided the agency information about the April event, which the Blog viewed as a bid to chill its reporting. The implication of the April incident was that the attacks could continue at the will of a self-described “master of execution” for online investment schemes until such a time the Blog devoted between $60,000 and $72,000 a year to deflect the traffic.

    In the claim of responsibility, the self-described attacker used the phrase “TOP HYIPs” and the name of an HYIP purveyor.  He described himself in menacing language.

    Although the Blog is maintaining a full publishing schedule and its server has returned to normal operating parameters today, the signatures of certain “calls” to the Blog’s editorial well are troublesome and will be monitored closely in the coming hours and days.

     

  • UPDATE: ‘JustBeenPaid’ Promos Trading On Name, Likeness Of Oprah Winfrey; ‘Click On The Oprah Banner Below,’ Ad Instructs

    Screen shot: Pitchmen now are trading on the name of Oprah Winfrey to hawk JustBeenPaid. The name and likeness of Warren Buffett also have been used in JustBeenPaid pitches, and Ponzi forum chatter also includes the name of Charlie Sheen.

    UPDATE: In addition to trading on the name of Warren Buffett, the JustBeenPaid “program” is trading on the name of entertainment icon and business titan Oprah Winfrey.

    Actor Charlie Sheen’s name also has been referenced in Ponzi forum chatter about JustBeenPaid, an “opportunity” whose braintrust once recruited members for Florida-based AdSurfDaily. ASD, according to the U.S. Secret Service, was operating a $110 million Ponzi scheme.

    YouTube recently has been deleting JustBeenPaid promos.

    JustBeenPaid became a darling of the Ponzi scheme boards earlier this year. The Winfrey development occurs against the backdrop on a September incident in which Club Asteria — another Ponzi board darling — published a likeness of actor Will Smith in a promo.

    Club Asteria later removed the image, which featured Smith’s likeness over a “JOIN NOW” button. It is common for schemes to plant the seed that a famous person or entity endorses a “program” — even when no such endorsement exists.

    Winfrey’s name and likeness repeatedly have been used by scammers to sanitize their fraud schemes, leading to litigation filed by Winfrey herself, the Federal Trade Commission and the attorney general of Illinois.

    “Click on the Oprah banner below,” a prompt for a current JustBeenPaid promo urges. A likeness of Winfrey appears below the prompt, which creates the appearance that she has endorsed the “program.”

    “The Profit Program for the Most Special Moneymakers!” the promo exclaims.

    When the image is clicked, a page for a JustBeenPaid affiliate loads.

    An appeal for visitors to join “OneX” appears on the same page that abuses Winfrey’s name and likeness. OneX and Club Asteria, which trades on the name of the World Bank, were among the “programs” pitched on the Ponzi boards by “manolo” earlier this year.

    In April, “manolo” used the name of JPMorgan Chase when pitching a “program” known as ThatFreeThing.

    In 2010, the DataNetworkAffiliates “program” linked to Phil Piccolo traded on the name of and likeness of Winfrey. Piccolo has been called the “one-man Internet crime wave.”

  • UPDATE: MLM Pitchman Jeff Long Warned Against ‘EZ MONEY Pitches’ When He Fled DNA, Narc That Car Last Year; Long Now Promoting AutoXTen Cycler Amid Claims That Members Can ‘Turn $10 into $199,240’

    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 now is promoting AutoXTen amid claims the firm's matrix cycler can turn $10 into nearly $200,000 and is appropriate for "churches."

    Jeff Long, one of the purported founders of the AutoXTen matrix-cycler scheme, warned his followers last year to “Stay away from ‘EZ MONEY’ pitches and claims.”

    A year later, Long appears to be ignoring his own advice.

    The 2010 warning appeared in a YouTube video Long edited after he had led his troops into registering for the Narc That Car and Data Network Affiliates’ (DNA) license-plate MLM schemes. Long first joined Narc, but quickly abandoned it in favor of DNA. He then touted DNA online and hawked the Phil Piccolo-associated scheme in a DNA sales-hype conference call.

    Long, billed as DNA’s top recruiter,  then abandoned DNA. Both Narc and DNA came under Better Business Bureau and media scrutiny, and Long’s YouTube video became part of a Fox News local affiliate’s scam coverage. (See graphic below.)

    Eventually Long edited the video to insert an announcement in a red balloon with white type that he no longer was with either DNA or Narc and to warn about “EZ MONEY” claims.

    But Long now has emerged this year as a central figure in the AutoXTen cycler scheme.

    One promo for AutoXTen claims members can “Turn $10 into $199,240.”

    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 coverege. The original Narc video was repurposed by Long into a YouTube text pitch for DNA, but later edited to insert an annoucement Long had left both Narc and DNA.

    Remarks attributed to Long on the AutoXTen help desk claim that AutoXTen is appropriate for “churches.” DNA made similar claims about one of its “programs” last year. After Long pulled out of both DNA and Narc after reportedly recruiting hundreds of participants, he noted in his YouTube red balloon that he hoped affiliates would “Be Blessed!”

    Officials in Oregon yesterday announced a $345,000 penalty against cycler pitchman Kristopher K. Keeney, saying he was promoting a “pyramid scheme” and acting as an unlicensed seller of securities — while selling unregistered securities and lying to prospects of a collapsed matrix known as “InC” or “I need Cash.”

    Keeney’s Oregon fine was broken down as follows, according to the state:

    $100,000 for 221 violations of ORS 59.055 for “selling unregistered securities.”

    $15,000 for 1 violation of ORS 59.055 for “offering to sell unregistered securities in Oregon.”

    $100,000 for 221 violations of ORS 59.165(1) for “selling securities without a license.”

    $30,000 for the “untrue statements of material facts made in connection with the sale of securities” in violation of ORS 59.135(2).

    $100,000 for the “omissions of material facts in connection with the sale of securities” in violation of ORS 59.135(2).

  • Is Ponzi Legend ‘Ken Russo,’ AKA ‘DRdave,’ Now Performing PR Work For Club Asteria In Wake Of Negative Findings By Italian Regulator? Infamous Forum Pitchman Who Claims To Have Received Thousands Of Dollars Via Wire From Firm Posts 854-Word Club Asteria Puff Piece On TalkGold

    Club Asteria promoter "Ken Russo," aka "DRdave," posted this purported $1,311 payment from Club Asteria June 2 on the TalkGold Ponzi forum.

    Club Asteria updated its news website yesterday for the first time since July 21, a period of more than a month. But the Virginia-based company did not address a new order issued Monday by the Italian regulator CONSOB in its three-month-long investigation into how Club Asteria was promoted in Italy.

    And neither did Club Asteria promoter “Ken Russo,” who simply copied the entire 854-word puff piece Club Asteria posted on its news website yesterday and pasted it into the Club Asteria thread at the TalkGold Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum.

    Whether “Ken Russo” understands that legitimate companies would be aghast if their affiliates trolled for business and performed PR outreach on known Ponzi forums linked to international fraud schemes that have gathered huge sums of money is unclear. What is clear is that “Ken Russo” is using TalkGold as a cheerleading outlet for Club Asteria — even as he uses it to cheer for other schemes.

    Whether Club Asteria will take any sort of action against “Ken Russo” for trolling for business on TalkGold or reproducing 854-word Club Asteria PR pieces verbatim on a known Ponzi forum is not known. “Ken Russo” is hardly the only known Ponzi pimp who has led cheers for Club Asteria on the Ponzi boards, and Club Asteria has benefited from the Ponzi board cheerleading though a series of “I got paid” posts and reports that the firm’s membership roster had swelled into the hundreds of thousands.

    Club Asteria now is conceding that it is having trouble launching a suite of new products — and that the delay in launching the suite could extend for another 60 days. Club Asteria buried the news about the specific length of the delay in the fourth paragraph of the puff piece “Ken Russo” regurgitated on TalkGold, after congratulating itself in the first paragraph for its diligence in implementing a new scheme and assuring members “how anxious and excited we all are to see all these new items being produced, tested and the logistics worked out so they can be introduced to our members.”

    “Ken Russo” posts as “DRdave” at TalkGold, which is referenced in U.S. court filings as a place from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. He is a figure who elicits nearly constant criticism from the antiscam community for turning a blind eye to fraud schemes while seeking to create plausible deniability of any personal responsibility for permitting fraud to mushroom globally by accepting claims made by “opportunity” sponsors at face value and not questioning obvious incongruities.

    If an “opportunity” claims a unique ability to pay spectacular, higher-than-market returns with an accompanying, unverifiable claim that external income streams enable the returns — often in the mind-blowing region of hundreds of percent on an annual basis — “Ken Russo” accepts the claim at face value and parrots it.

    On Talk Gold, “Ken Russo” made a claim about Club Asteria that projects to an annual payout of more than 200 percent. Other promoters have claimed Club Asteria had the capacity to pay out more than 500 percent annually — all while claiming Club Asteria also paid affiliate commissions to recruiters. The confluence of payout schemes — combined with the lack of any verifiable information on Club Asteria’s sales figures and income streams and the highly public presence of known Ponzi scheme promoters — strongly suggest that Club Asteria was conducting a global Ponzi scheme

    “Ken Russo” previously has claimed on TalkGold to have received thousands of dollars in compensation via wire from Club Asteria, including payments received after Club Asteria’s PayPal account was frozen in May and after CONSOB opened its probe during the same month. Some Club Asteria members, including “Ken Russo,” have claimed they were paid through AlertPay, a payment processor based in Canada.

    The full effect of Monday’s order by CONSOB remains unclear because a reliable English translation was not immediately available. The PP Blog has asked both CONSOB and Italy’s Embassy to the United States to provide one, owing to the virality Club Asteria achieved worldwide and the presence of thousands of Club Asteria promos in English. TalkGold features a 137-page thread in English on Club Asteria.

    Neither CONSOB nor the Embassy has declined the Blog’s request, which may signal that an official translation could be released in the coming days. CONSOB raised concerns in May that Club Asteria was being promoted illegally in Italy on websites, forums and social-media outlets such as Facebook.

    Club Asteria said in June that it was experiencing a cash crunch and that its revenue had plunged “dramatically,” blaming members for events and comparing the situation to a  bank run. Club Asteria first slashed members’ weekly cashouts from an apparent norm of between 3 percent and 4 percent a week, and then suspended cashouts altogether.

    Some Club Asteria members claimed that the company paid out up to 10 percent a week, and scores of promoters globally are believed to have offered prospects inducements to join, including the partial reimbursement of sign-up fees. Many — if not most — of those members likely locked in losses for both themselves and their downlines by offering the inducements because their costs could not be retired after Club Asteria itself suspended cashouts.

    It is common on the Ponzi boards for posters to offer inducements as a lure to attract prospects to join schemes of all stripes. When “Ken Russo” was promoting the purported MPB Today “grocery” program on the Ponzi boards last year, he advertised that one of his downline members was offering prospects cash rebates of $50 to join MPB Today.

    An untold number of Club Asteria promoters offered similar inducements to their prospects while encouraging new enrollees to do the same, a situation that could have caused Club Asteria’s coffers to fill with cash. It is not known if Club Asteria affiliates who pledged to partially reimburse their recruits sign-up fees have honored their pledges in the aftermath of the firm’s decision to suspend weekly cashouts.

    What is known is that the Club Asteria offer was targeted at the world’s poor — and that the firm may have gained penetration in 150 or more nations. Italy is believed to be the first nation to publicly ban Club Asteria promoters.

    Club Asteria promoter "Ken Russo," aka "DRdave," posted this purported payment of $5,462.80 from AutoXTen July 13 on TalkGold

    When not regurgitating Club Asteria fluff on TalkGold, “Ken Russo” is helping an “opportunity” known as AutoXTen gain a head of steam on TalkGold. On July 13, “Ken Russo” claimed on TalkGold to have received a payment of “$5462.80” via AlertPay for “AutoXTen.”

    “Thanks AutoXTen!” “Ken Russo wrote, posting as “DRdave.” Join us today! Just $10 to get started!!”

    AutoXTen has been linked to Jeff Long, a pitchman for both the Data Network Affiliates (DNA) and Narc That Car MLM schemes last year. DNA, in turn, was linked to serial MLM pitchman Phil Piccolo, known online as the “one-man Internet crime wave.”

    Both DNA and Narc That Car carded an “F” grade from the Better Business Bureau, the BBB’s lowest score. Some promoters then attacked the BBB.

    Long now says the AutoXTen scheme is appropriate for churches — a claim DNA made about its scheme.

    “Ken Russo” also is promoting Centurion Wealth Circle, an AlertPay-enabled scheme whose earlier cycler scheme collapsed. Centurion, which also was widely promoted on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold, now is attempting to revive itself by incorporating a new cycler known as “The Tornado.”

    On July 13, ClubAsteria promoter "Ken Russo," aka "DRdave," posted these purported payments from Centurion Wealth Circle totaling $276 on TalkGold.

    On July 11, two days before he reported a payment of “$5462.80” from Long’s AutoXTen scheme, “Ken Russo” reported on TalkGold (as “DRdave”) that he had received three Centurion payments totaling $276.

    This claim followed on the heels of claims by “Ken Russo” (as “DRdave”) that he had received $2,032 from Club Asteria between late May and late June.

    The claims raise the prospect that multiple schemes, including Club Asteria, AutoXTen and Centurion, have come into possession and redistributed money from other fraud schemes promoted on the Ponzi boards.

    And because “Ken Russo” is hardly alone in his Ponzi forum efforts to promote Club Asteria and any number of schemes in addition to Club Asteria, it raises the prospect that every single one of the schemes is shuffling fraud proceeds back and forth.

    “Ken Russo,” for example, could have used proceeds from any number of schemes to join Club Asteria and any number of emerging schemes — with his downline members doing the same thing.

  • Former DNA/Narc That Car Pitchman Jeff Long Now Says Churches May Join Matrix Known As AutoXTen; Company Says It Uses AlertPay To Avoid PayPal ‘Limits’; Web Pitchmen Say $10 May Fetch Nearly $200,000

    U.S.-based MLM pitchman Jeff Long is one of the purported founders of an “opportunity” known as AutoXTen that is collecting money through Canada-based AlertPay and says churches may join the AutoXTen matrix. Early promos for AutoXTen claim members can “Turn $10 into $199,240.”

    Long’s recent flops include Narc That Car, which came under fire from Fox News outlets, and Data Network Affiliates (DNA), a Phil Piccolo-affiliated firm that claimed it was the “MORAL OBLIGATION” of churches to pitch a purported mortgage-reduction program.

    Long himself says churches may join AutoXTen, according to a post bearing Long’s photo on what is billed the AutoXTen Help Desk.

    “Yes a church can join, there would be no issue with this,” the post under Long’s name and photograph read.

    Both Narc and DNA purported to pay members for recording the license-plate numbers of automobiles. After leaving Narc last year and quickly setting up shop with DNA, Long also left DNA.

    AutoXTen appears to be a matrix program.

    “We are only accepting Alertpay,” according to the AutoXTen Help Desk. “Paypal limits the amount of transactions we can make per day, and we would have to cap people off from becoming paid members. ”

    Still in its early days, AutoXTen has claimed a “malicious hack” into its database that “altered and in some cases deleted member data,” according to an email members received in late July.

  • BULLETIN: Data Network Affiliates’ ‘Expert’ Was Convicted Felon Charged In Racketeering Case; New Flap Involving Anthony Sasso Emerging In Florida

    Anthony Sasso's mugshot from his 2005 arrest in Broward County.

    BULLETIN: A man described as the data expert for an online MLM program that purported to pay participants for recording license-plate numbers to help the AMBER Alert program recover abducted children is a convicted felon who was arrested in a racketeering case brought by the Broward Sheriff’s Office as part of a sting operation in 2005, the PP Blog has learned.

    Anthony Sasso is referenced as a “special board consultant” in numerous online promos for Data Network Affiliates (DNA), which now appears to be doing business as “One World, One Website” or OWOW. It was not immediately clear if Sasso continues to be affiliated with the firms.

    Also unclear was whether the sheriff’s office would open a probe into DNA. The agency had no immediate comment today.

    DNA, a company associated with one bizarre claim after another, had no affiliation with AMBER Alert. It remains far from clear whether DNA, which misspelled the name of its own departing chief executive officer last year after withholding the news of the resignation for nearly a week, had the capacity to help AMBER Alert do anything.

    The firm also claimed it delivered free cell phones with unlimited talk and text for $10 a month, while at once claiming it was the “MORAL OBLIGATION” of churches to sell a purported MLM mortgage-reduction program to people facing foreclosure. The firm, which touted Christianity in its sales pitches, also claimed to be in the offshore “resorts” business.

    The 2005 sting that led to Sasso’s arrest was known as “Operation Money Car.” It targeted a “cloning ring” involving stolen automobiles, according to records at the sheriff’s office.

    DNA was associated with Phil Picollo, described online as the “one-man Internet crime wave.” The firm, which used addresses in Nevada and Boca Raton and conducted business behind a domain that listed a Cayman Islands address, emerged early last year in part by trading on the names of Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey. The firm scored an “F” from the Better Business Bureau for not responding to customer complaints.

    Trump and Winfrey are believed to have no ties to DNA. In a radio interview last year arranged after Piccolo threatened to sue the host, Piccolo positioned himself as a man of God — but later said he knew people who could cause physical harm to come to critics.

    By the time 2010 had come to a close, the DNA website was redirecting to the OWOW website. One OWOW promo traded on the name of the National Institutes of Health, positioning an OWOW bottled-water product as a cancer-fighter. Meanwhile, Piccolo claimed OWOW offered a “magnetic” product that not only had prevented a leg amputation, but also had helped gardeners grow tomatoes twice the size of ordinary tomatoes while helping dairy cows produce more milk.

    Sasso also was part of a Boca Raton company known as Phone Guard, which markets an application that prevents texting while driving. Phone Guard was endorsed by teen sensation Justin Bieber, according to promos for the firm.

    The Broward-Palm Beach NewTimes carried a story this morning on PhoneGuard and the Bieber promotion. The publication reported that Sasso had been asked to resign.

    Options Media, the holding company that markets Phone Guard, had no immediate comment on Sasso when contacted by the PP Blog late this afternoon. The Blog left a message for Scott Frohman, the chief executive officer of Options Media. Frohman was said to be at a meeting.

    Sasso 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.”

    Another oddity associated with DNA was a claim the company was about to go “public.”

    “A publicly traded company has to answer to the SEC,” the firm said in an email to promoters. “No messing with them. Ask Martha Stewart.”

  • BULLETIN: FLORIDA — AGAIN: FTC Seeks Contempt Sanction Against Firm That Allegedly Hawks Deceptive ‘Food Stamp’ Guide And Credit-Repair Services; Bizarre Website Linked To Defendants Rails Against ‘Greedy Politicians’

    BULLETIN: The Federal Trade Commission has gone to federal court in Fort Myers to seek contempt sanctions against Florida companies accused of encouraging prospects to misrepresent information on applications to receive Food Stamp benefits.

    Prospects who followed the advice could be charged with a crime, the FTC said.

    The companies and their principal also are accused of violating a March 2010 court order that prohibited them from marketing credit-repair and debt-elimination programs deceptively. Named in the contempt petition are Sam Tarad Sky, Allrepco LLC, Credit Restoration Brokers LLC (CRB), and Debt Negotiations Associates LLC.

    “In violation of the Stipulated Settlement Order, Contempt Defendants Sam Sky and
    his companies have launched a scheme to defraud economically distressed consumers who
    may be interested in receiving food stamps,” the FTC charged. “Specifically, taking cynical advantage of the recent economic downturn, Sky and his companies deceptively market a ‘Food Stamp Eligibility Tool Kit’ . . . to consumers seeking financial help. Sky and his companies market the product as an ‘automatic,’ ‘hassle free’ method by which ‘virtually
    everyone’ can receive food stamps ‘without any risk.’

    “In fact,” the FTC continued, “eligibility for food stamps remains strictly limited and the vast majority of Americans do not qualify. To side-step these longstanding limitations, Sky’s ‘guide’ encourages consumers to provide so-called ‘ideal’ information on their food stamp applications thereby misrepresenting their income and expenses. Following such advice is hardly ‘without any risk.’ Rather, it puts consumers at considerable risk of criminal prosecution for public benefits fraud. Finally, Contempt Defendants also violate the Stipulated Settlement Order by unlawfully requiring payment before performance for credit repair services and refusing to make required disclosures about the timing and risk of debt negotiation.”

    Today’s filing is rich with coincidences. For one, one of the accused firms — Debt Negotiations Associates — uses the acronym DNA. The DNA acronym also has been used by a separate, unrelated company known as Data Network Affiliates, which also operates in Florida. Data Network Affiliates offered a purported debt-reduction program tied to purported mortgage re-writes, while at once advising prospects it was in the business of gathering data to help the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children.

    Data Network Affiliates, which is associated with Internet Marketer Phil Piccolo, later appears to have morphed into a company known as OWOW, which offered purported cancer cures and a “magnetic” product purported to have prevented a leg amputation. The purported “magnetic” product also was positioned as a device that could help tomatoes grow to twice their ordinary size and dairy cows produce more milk.

    In another rich coincidence, promoters of a Florida company known as MPB Today targeted Food Stamp recipients last year in promos that implied Food Stamp money could be used to join the MPB Today MLM program and that a $200, one-time purchase could result in free groceries for life.

    One promo for MPB Today even advised prospects to sell $200 worth of Food Stamps to a family member to raise the cash to join the MPB Today program. The promo, which appeared in the form of a news release, purported to be the byproduct of a thought that had popped into the promoter’s head on a drive home from “church” on a “beautiful Sunday afternoon.”

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture said last year that it was investigating certain claims about the MPB Today program.

    Read the extraordinary allegations outlined in the FTC’s contempt petition against Sam Tarad Sky, Allrepco LLC, Credit Restoration Brokers LLC (CRB), and Debt Negotiations Associates LLC.

    Among the allegations was that Sky had started a “new ficitious business” known as “Florida Consumer Assistance” to hawk the purported Food Stamp guide. The new scheme also featured the creation of a website known as MyFoodStampCard.com, according to the FTC.

    The website, which is still active, appears to make a series of political statements. Under a subhead of “THE SICKENING STIGMA,” for instance, the site says this:

    “The sickening stigma – most all of us grew up in a time where our parents and grandparents – worked hard – never took a hand out and wouldn’t ever let their credit go bad, or even miss a house payment! This is not the same America – ‘Political Greed is destroying our children’s future’ and our retirement opportunities.

    “If you 100% disagree with the previous sentence – then leave this website now.” the site barks.

    “Good people need to wake up!” the site continues. “Good people have lost their homes and lost their savings trying to do the ‘right thing’ – but what they didn’t understand is the ‘right thing’ is really now the wrong thing. Back in the day, doing the ‘right thing’ would’ve NEVER put good people in the positions that they’re in today.”

    The site eventually asks for “1 Easy Payment Of $99.95,”  instructing prospects that “You do not have to pay a private social worker $599 to give you assistance.”

  • BULLETIN: National Institutes Of Health Says OWOW Multilevel-Marketing Firm Using Agency Press Release On Cancer Research Inappropriately; Separately, Piccolo Says ‘Magnetic’ Product Prevented Amputation — And Also Helps Tomatoes Grow

    Phil Piccolo, also known as "Mr. P.," strides the stage to hawk OWOW products. Piccolo claims the company's magnetic line assists in hair retention and even prevents the surgical amputation of limbs. The products also improve dairy production and help home gardeners grow tomatoes double the size of ordinary tomatoes, according to Piccolo.

    BULLETIN: The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said this morning that the OWOW multilevel-marketing program was using agency materials on cancer research inappropriately.

    OWOW is associated with Internet Marketer Phil Piccolo. The company has positioned at least two products sold MLM-style as cancer cures or treatments, including a bottled water.

    On Dec. 26, the bottled-water product was touted on an OWOW affiliate’s website. The site included a link to a Dec. 21 news release by NIH about cancer research, specifically research pertaining to “a rare cancer of the digestive tract . . . linked to a shutdown in an enzyme that helps supply oxygen to cells.”

    The affiliate claimed that “OWOW Water Is THE ONLY WATER that brings Oxygen to the cell from within the cell.

    “Now check out this Article written almost on the day that OWOW received the exclusive marketing rights to our Oxyengenated Water,” the affiliate instructed, pointing prospects to the NIH website.

    “NIH does not endorse products and this promo is an inappropriate use of a press release that has a tenuous connection to this product at best,” NIH spokesman and senior science writer Michael J. Miller told the PP Blog this morning.

    How the agency would proceed was not immediately clear.

    See earlier story on bizarre events that ensued after OWOW made a cancer claim about a nonwater product.

    A “Non-Affiliated Support” link on the OWOW website includes no contact information for the company and no form through which prospects or members of the media can submit questions.

    OWOW appears to be the successor company to Data Network Affiliates (DNA), which purported to be in the business of creating a database to help the government and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children.

    No evidence has emerged that DNA had the capacity to help the government do anything.

    Separately — and on the same OWOW-connected website — a series of videos appears. Piccolo, also known as “Mr. P.,” is featured in a video that hawks purported magnetic products positioned as treatments for everything from bruising and hair retention to preventing the surgical amputation of limbs.

    Meanwhile, video viewers also are told that the magnetic products can be used to help tomatoes, vegetables and fruits grow “twice the size.”

    At the same time, the products also are positioned as helpful to dairy farmers.

    “Dairy farmers who feed their cows through this here unit right here produce more milk per cow,” Piccolo claims in the video.

    Family pets hearing a call from the grim reaper can extend their lives if their owners use the products, Piccolo instructs viewers.

    “Your pets? If you have a pet and your pet’s on its last leg[s], bring them a Magnetic Shower,” Piccolo coaches. “You won’t believe what it will do for your pet.”

    See Video

    “If it wasn’t for magnets, I really believe I’d be in a wheelchair right now,” Piccolo says in the video. Piccolo asserted he’d been bucked off a horse and suffered the worst bruise his doctors had ever seen — but used magnetic products to save the day quickly, heal bruising and maintain his ability to walk.

    One man who suffered a heart attack was able to avoid a leg amputation by using the magnetic shower head, according to the video.

    It perhaps was a good idea to purchase the product before “Monday,” because the price was going to increase, Piccolo tells the audience. The date upon which the OWOW video was recorded was not immediately clear.

  • STRANGENESS PILES UP: OWOW ‘8G Zip Drive Stick’ Offered From Non-Existent Address Of ‘123 Internet St.’ In Des Moines, Iowa; Similar Bogus Address Of ‘123 Online St.’ Advertises ‘Global Gifting Connection’

    Advertising a Des Moines, Iowa, business address of 123 Internet St. and claiming the “owow 8g zip drive stick is the new face of data network affiliates,” an affiliate of DNA/OWOW is seeking to drive business to the firm.

    But the Des Moines Police Department told the PP Blog this morning that no such street address exists in the city, despite multiple online listings encouraging prospects to do business with OWOW at the address.

    A separate Des Moines address — 123 Online St. — that advertised something called “Global Gifting Connection” also was bogus, the police department said. It is unclear if the same person placed both ads.

    Why bogus addresses were used to advertise OWOW and a cash-gifting program was not immediately clear.

    “[I]f you would like use this product or learn how to grow a team to market it,” an ad in Des Moines said about the OWOW stick, “I have help top leaders place over 30,000 people into this company and i will be happy to help you.”

    The OWOW ads appear at online venues such as MerchantCircle and HelloDesMoines.com. The business has not been verified, according to the MerchantCircle website. The ad on the HelloDesMoines site carries a photo of the OWOW stick.

    The Des Moines development follows on the heels of a prompt by OWOW, which is associated with Internet Marketer Phil Piccolo, to recruit prospects by planting the seed that a product known as OWOW TurboMune cures cancer.

    It also follows on the heels of a bizarre bid by an OWOW affiliate to suggest that Michael Chertoff, a Harvard-educated former federal judge and federal prosecutor and the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was a “suspect” in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks on the United States and that Israel had conducted the attacks.

    The bizarre claim was made despite the fact that Chertoff’s nomination to the DHS post was approved by a 98-0 vote in the U.S. Senate more than three years after the attacks occurred.

    OWOW is the apparent successor company to DNA, a Nevada-registered company that operates from Florida and claimed it was developing a database to help law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children.

    No evidence has emerged that DNA has the capacity to assist either law enforcement or the AMBER Alert program, which the firm chastised earlier this year by suggesting it had a bloated budget and had rescued “ONLY” about 500 children over the years.

    A “Non-Affiliated Support” link on the OWOW website includes no contact information for the company and no form through which prospects or members of the media can submit questions.

    OWOW also has advertised that it pays an annual interest rate of 24 percent to members who send it money. Questions have been raised about whether the company is selling unregistered securities as investment contracts.

    One link in the MerchantCircle ad for OWOW prompts visitors to visit a site that redirects to video promos for  an “opportunity” known as Monitium and a cycler program known as 150 Cash.

  • OWOW Defender And Phil Piccolo Apologist Demands To Know If PP Blog Is ‘Israeli’; Says Blog Spreads ‘Islamophobia’ And That Terror Scares Are ‘FAKE’; Suggests Cover-Up Followed 9/11 Attacks

    Hours after the PP Blog published a story about the FBI foiling a bid to detonate a bomb targeted at American children and families at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., a poster defending OWOW — the apparent successor company to Data Network Affiliates (DNA) — demanded to know if the Blog was “Israeli,” planted the seed that the Blog was racist and accused it of spreading “Islamophobia.”

    “On a sep[a]rate note, [I] was shocked to discover that you are also spreading Islamophobia, so not only are you a two-bit hack, some might say that you are a racist,” a poster identified as “John” wrote in a comments thread below a Nov. 21 story that referenced OWOW. “For your information, most educated people know that the terror scares are FAKE, and that the Sept 11th attacks were carried out by another group, Israel being prime suspects.”

    “John” also railed against the SEC, in response to a comment by the Blog that raised the question of whether OWOW, which is associated with Internet Marketer Phil Piccolo, was offering unregistered securities as investment contracts by advertising that it paid 24 percent annual interest to members who sent in money.

    Piccolo has gained a reputation online as a “one-man Internet crime wave.” During a radio program in August, Piccolo threatened to sue critics and planted the seed that he could cause them to experience physical pain.

    Rather than answering the question, John wrote, “The SEC? In between watching porn all day? The same SEC covering up the biggest financial crime i[n] history, IE the long term manipulation of the Gold and precious metals markets? That SEC?”

    Earlier this year, the inspector general for the SEC said he was investigating reports that some SEC officials had used government computers to view pornography.  Such an announcement, though embarrassing to the agency,  did not legalize securities fraud or create a new defense for securities violations or potential securities violations.

    DNA is a Nevada-registered company whose website is registered behind a proxy in the Cayman Islands. The company explained months ago that it registered the domain privately in the Caymans to prevent management from having to “put up with 100 stupid calls a day.”

    Dean Blechman, DNA’s former CEO, resigned suddenly in February after just weeks with the firm, saying later that the company was engaging in “bizarre” conduct and a campaign of “misinformation and lies.”

    Despite its Caymans’-registered domain, DNA asserted it was paying members of its multilevel-marketing (MLM) program to write down license-plate numbers at churches, “doctors’ offices” and retail outets such as Walmart. The plate numbers, according to DNA, would be entered into a database that was being developed to help law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children.

    The license-plate program raised privacy concerns, and no guidance was given members in the areas of propriety, legality and safety. DNA later morphed into a purported cell-phone company, proclaiming it had destroyed all competition on earth overnight by offering a free cell phone with unlimited talk and text for $10 a month.

    Members flooded the Internet with ads. DNA later said that it had been hoodwinked by a vendor that had led it to believe it could deliver the $10 unlimited plan. In a bizarre email, the company acknowledged that it had not studied cell-phone pricing before declaring itself the world’s low-price leader. Just weeks before, the company sent an email to announce its cell-phone venture in which it made the all-caps claim of “GAME OVER — WE WIN.”

    By July 4 — and with no new cell-phone plan announced to replace the failed venture — DNA said it was entering the mortgage-reduction and resorts businesses. The purported mortgage-reduction program was positioned as the “MORAL OBLIGATION’ of churches to promote.

    Later in July the company announced it was selling a “protective spray” that would help buyers obscure the license-plate numbers of their cars to guard against getting traffic tickets. The spray purportedly would block cameras from snapping usable photos of the plates, and DNA said the spray protected against “wrongful ticketing by city cameras worldwide.”

    DNA did not explain the incongruity of saying it supported law enforcement in its efforts to locate abducted children while at once working against law enforcement in its efforts to enforce traffic laws. Nor did DNA say whether it believed criminals who abducted children and sped off in cars would find the “protective spray” useful when making a getaway.

    Even as DNA was announcing the availability of its purported “protective spray,” the company announced it soon would adopt a browser-based “DNA World Wide Alert Button” to let members know when a “child is reported missing in your immediate area.”

    It is unclear of DNA ever developed such a button.

    What is clear is that multiple domain names associated with the company now redirect to a website known as “One World, One Website” or OWOW.

    Members have been prompted to send prospects an email that advertises a cure for cancer.

    (Italics added):

    Invest 90 Seconds to earn $4,600 to $46,000 Monthly
    Send A Simple E-mail “The Secret Cure For Cancer”

    JUST FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW…
    YOUR PERSONAL WEBSITE IS EMBEDDED IN THIS E-MAIL…

    Invest 90 Seconds + Send out a Simple Cure for Cancer e-mail… Earn $4,600 to $46,000 a Month within 100 days or less…

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++
    The Simple & Short E-mail
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Most likely someone you love will die of Cancer or
    some type of Flu type Disease and when it happens
    you will say I wish I could have done something…

    The SECRET CURE FOR CANCER…
    Are you ready for the Simple & Secret CURE…
    Here it is “DON’T GET IT”…

    THE BOTTOM LINE IS
    Take TurboMune & DON’T GET IT & If you GOT IT
    Take TurboMune To Help You Get Rid You Of IT…

    This product use to sell for $150 a capsule…
    It currently sells in ASIA for $300 a bottle…
    OWOW sells the product as low as $19.95 a bottle…

    ++++++++++++++++++
    Invest 90 Seconds

    The PP Blog first reported the existence of the email Saturday. The Blog also reported that Phil Piccolo had been a member of a company in California that had been expressly warned by the state not to make false and misleading claims in promotional materials and not to advertise that tax “write-offs” were available for joining an MLM company.

    DNA advertised that members who recorded license-plate numbers on its behalf could qualify for hefty mileage deductions despite the fact that no evidence has surfaced that the firm’s license-plate program is a legitimate business.

    “Did you know about your DNA Tax Benefits . . .” the DNA pitch began. “Imagine driving 10,000 miles for your DNA Business = up to a $5,000 Tax Deduction… “IRS Announces 2010 Standard Mileage Rates” IR-2009-111, Dec. 3, 2009… and this is just one of many…”

    Less than enthused about the PP Blog’s reporting, “John” apparently embarked on a strategy of trying to discredit the Blog by advancing a conspiracy theory about the 9/11 attacks, the “the long term manipulation of the Gold and precious metals markets” and tying the Blog to Israel.

    “John” even demanded that another poster answer a question about whether the Blog is “AN ISRAELI?” He also observed that “Millions consider the [Food and Drug Administration] to be a filthy cabal of criminals” and suggested there was nothing misleading about Piccolo’s cancer-cure email to OWOW members.

    The Blog specifically asked “John” why someone would plant the seed that the OWOW TurboMune product cures cancer.

    “THERE YOU GO AGAIN, wrong AGAIN, spreading lies AGAIN,” John claimed. “The email says ‘The Secret Cure For Cancer” IS ‘Dont get it.’”

    “John” offered no comment on the part of the email that read, “THE BOTTOM LINE IS
    Take TurboMune & DON’T GET IT & If you GOT IT Take TurboMune To Help You Get Rid You Of IT…”

  • Egg-Themed Domains Used To Promote HYIPs That Flushed Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Go Missing — Plus, An Update On Data Network Affiliates Amid Suggestion Thyroid Cancer Sufferers Can Benefit From Product Called ‘O-WOW TurboMune’

    Four egg-themed domain names used to drive business to HYIPs that ended in spectacular flameouts and foreshadowed a warning from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have gone missing.

    The domains — including one that redirected to an HYIP site known bizarrely as Cash Tanker, which used an image of Jesus Christ to promote a purported payout of 2 percent a day — first were promoted on the pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum  by a poster who used the handle “joe” in December 2009.

    The egg-themed promo featured a pitch that HYIP participants were wise to spread risk by not keeping all of their eggs in “ONE BASKET.” It also hawked Gold Nugget Invest (7.5 percent a week); Saza Investments (9 percent a week); and Genius Funds (6.5 percent a week).

    Despite an active criminal investigation into the business practices of ASD President Andy Bowdoin and alleged co-conspirators — and despite a RICO lawsuit filed by members against Bowdoin and repeated warnings from various regulators about the dangers of HYIPs and autosurfs — the egg-themed promo claimed in all-caps that “I MAKE 2000.00 A WEEK” and directly solicited ASD members to part with their money.

    One Surf’s Up member dissed critics of the promo, calling them “dead wrong.”

    “I also make a lot of money from those four and your remarks tell me you don’t know anything about them,” the member claimed. “[T]hey are very reputable [companies] who have been around for years….and the money is NOT made from ‘new’ people’s money….google them and look at various forums and see what others have to say about them….I don’t even know Joe, but I can vouch for the programs!”

    A  series of spectacular collapses that consumed each of the HYIPs then followed over a period of just weeks, demonstrating that spreading risk across multiple HYIPs by putting eggs in multiple HYIP baskets was spectacularly poor advice that had produced a recipe for financial disaster.

    In July, FINRA said that Genius Funds cost investors about $400 million. The regulator launched a public-awareness campaign, one component of which was an ad campaign on Google designed to educate and inform the public about HYIP fraud.

    “Open the cyber door to HYIPs, and you will find hundreds of HYIP websites vying for investor attention,” FINRA said. “It is a bizarre substratum of the Internet.”

    Records show that the government of Belize had issued a warning about Gold Nugget Invest nearly a month before the egg-themed promo had appeared on Surf’s Up and at least two members had vouched for the program.

    FINRA also pointed to criminal charges filed by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in May against Nicholas Smirnow, the alleged operator of an HYIP Ponzi scheme known as Pathway To Prosperity that fleeced more than 40,000 people across the globe out of an estimated $70 million.

    Gold Nugget Invest (GNI) collapsed in early January 2010, about a month after the egg-themed promo had appeared on Surf’s Up. Surf’s Up went offline just days prior to the collapse of GNI, which was explained in bizarre fashion.

    Using baffling prose, a purported GNI manager claimed the program ended after it had attempted to gain “a crystal clear vision of our financial vortex” during the fourth quarter of 2009.

    After the collapse of the programs in the original egg-themed pitch on Surf’s Up, the domains then were set to redirect to other HYIPs.

    Some ASD members later turned their attention to promoting MLM programs such as Narc That Car/Crowd Sourcing International (CSI), Data Network Affiliates (DNA) and MPB Today.  CSI and DNA purport to be in the business of paying people to write down the license-plate numbers of cars for entry in a database. MPB Today purports to be in the grocery business.

    DNA, which once instructed people of faith that it was their “MORAL OBLIGATION” to hawk a purported mortgage-reduction program offered alongside the purported license-plate program, now appears to have morphed into a program known as One World One Website or “O-WOW.”

    An email received by members of the O-WOW program this weekend purported that a man suffering from terminal thyroid cancer had derived benefit from an O-WOW product known as “TurboMune” and that members somehow can earn “24% Annual Interest on their money” by giving it to O-WOW.

    If members don’t pay O-WOW before Nov. 30, they’ll earn a lower rate of interest (18 percent), according to an email received by members.

    Like DNA, O-WOW is associated with Phil Piccolo. During a radio program in August, Piccolo threatened critics with lawsuits and planted the seed that he could cause critics to experience physical pain. DNA has an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau. So does CSI. So does United Pro Media, a company formerly operated by MPB Today’s Gary Calhoun.

    See the PP Blog’s Dec. 4, 2009, story on the egg-themed pitches on the Surf’s Up forum.