PatrickPretty.com

Tag: Ponzi scheme forums

  • 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.

     

  • ASA Monitor Ponzi And Criminals’ Forum Locks MPB Today Thread — Again; Naysayers Scolded By Mod For Challenging ‘Ken Russo’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The ASA Monitor Ponzi forum now has reopened its thread on the MPB Today MLM program — with a warning in red to “Play nice . . .”

    UPDATED 9:54 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A forum infamous for promoting Ponzi schemes and other criminal pursuits has locked the thread from which the MPB Today 2×2 matrix cycler is being pitched.

    The official explanation for locking the thread was that naysayers challenging ASA Monitor member “Ken Russo” needed a “temporary cooling off period.” (See Editor’s Note above: The thread now has been unlocked.)

    “Ken Russo” is a reliable cheerleader for Ponzi schemes and highly questionable business pursuits on ASA Monitor and other forums. ASA Monitor’s name is referenced in a May criminal case filed against the alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors said the scheme mushroomed globally, gathering about $70 million and defrauding more than 40,000 participants.

    A similar program known as Legisi gathered more than $70 million and also fleeced thousands of participants, according to the SEC. It, too, was promoted on the Ponzi forums. A court filing in the Legisi case specifically references the MoneyMakerGroup forum, another venue from which MPB Today is being promoted.

    This marks the second time the MPB Today thread has been locked at ASA Monitor. It was locked earlier this month and then reopened amid similar circumstances. ASA Monitor initially deleted several references to the PP Blog in the initial closure of the thread, but later restored them.

    One of the principal incongruities of the MPB Today program is that it is being targeted at people of faith from a known Ponzi forum. Because ASA Monitor members routinely promote Ponzi schemes, some of the funds being passed to MPB Today could be criminal proceeds from Ponzi and other fraud schemes.

    “Ken Russo,” for example, promoted the alleged Regenesis 2×2 Ponzi scheme. Like MPB Today, Regenesis used a 2×2 matrix cycler. The U.S. Secret Service executed search warrants in the Regenesis case in July 2009. The agency said in court filings that it had linked the scheme to a convicted felon.

    Spectacular international frauds have been promoted at ASA Monitor. Meanwhile, some of MPB Today’s own members have said there are liars and thieves in the organization, including liars and thieves who are using false information to recruit prospects. The claims have been made in public on YouTube. Incongruously, they have been positioned as reasons to join the program under specific uplines that purport to be honest.

    How MPB Today’s payments to members could be clean if it has come into possession of money tainted by the lies of its own pitchmen and money tainted by Ponzi schemes promoted on forums such as ASA Monitor is left to the imagination.

    Last week the PP Blog reported that a “news release’ that appeared online encouraged MPB Today prospects to sell $200 worth of Food Stamps to raise money to join the program. One of the URLs referenced in the release also was being promoted on ASA Monitor by “Ken Russo.” Other information suggests that promoters of the judicially declared CEP Ponzi scheme are promoting MPB Today.

    Some ASA Monitor members use a strategy of playing dumb to promote Ponzi schemes. One form of the strategy is to repeatedly accept at face value whatever a company says in sales literature — and then blame the company and dishonest affiliates if a scheme collapses or is taken down by law enforcement.

    Another form of the strategy is to include links to the sites of other promoters, apparently on the theory that favorable commentary about an “opportunity” demonstrates that no scam could be occurring. If the opportunity later proves to be a Ponzi or a fraud scheme, promoters who employ the play-dumb method point out that others got taken, perhaps through the actions of a fraudster who was particularly clever.

    Yet another form of the play-dumb method is to position an opportunity as a matter of free choice. Such wink-nod efforts are part of numerous Ponzi schemes.

    In February 2010, the Secret Service said in a search-warrant application in Minnesota that it believed a company known as INetGlobal was operating a Ponzi scheme. In court filings, the agency said an undercover agent was introduced to INetGlobal by a member of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme, describing the introduction as a wink-nod deal.

    ASD, which was accused of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme, also was promoted from websites and forums. Federal agents seized about $26 million in the INetGlobal case, which is still under investigation. Steve Renner, the operator of INetGlobal, is in federal prison for income tax-evasion in a case linked to his money-services business.

    Court records show Renner-related ties to at least four Ponzi schemes.

    Among the targets of promotions for MPB Today were victims of the alleged ASD Ponzi scheme, foreclosure subjects, the unemployed, Food Stamp recipients, senior citizens, college students and other vulnerable populations.