A British Columbia man already under investigation for duping investors $5,000 at a time doubled down and then went for $10,000, the British Columbia Securities Commission said.
Won Sang Chen Cho, also known as Craig Cho, now has been banned for life from the securities trade, the agency said.
Cho, the agency said, “poses a serious and continuing risk to investors and to our markets.”
In addition, he has been ordered to make restitution of $20,569 to scammed investors and to pay a $200,000 administrative penalty.
BCSC identified Cho’s businesses as Chosen Media and Groops Media. The firms were cease-traded.
Between January 2011 and February 2012, Cho, doing business as Chosen Media, promoted securities on the Vancouver Craigslist website and sought minimum investments of $5,000. The panel found that Cho raised $101,846 from five investors, to whom he returned purported investment returns of $62,000.
Cho admitted to promising extremely high rates of return that were “risk free”, and to telling prospective investors that he would deposit their funds into accounts at various sports betting websites. He admitted that he told investors that profit would be generated by the “generous signup and reload bonuses” provided by the sports betting websites.
The panel also found that in December 2012, during the course of the Chosen Media investigation, Cho sent an e-mail promoting an investment with Groops Media requiring a minimum $10,000 investment. He admitted that this was after he had been warned by BCSC staff that he must comply with prospectus requirements when distributing securities through Chosen Media.
Is it channeling Profitable Sunrise as part of an affinity-fraud/identity-theft reload scam? An enterprise that bizarrely is calling itself “ALL SAINTS CATHOLIC CHURCH LOAN FIRM” purports to have an office in England and appears to be targeting Catholics and Christians in general to be fleeced in a purported “loan” program.
The spam/scam pitch begins, “I am so disappointed of fake loan companies on the internet . . .”
Longtime PP Blog readers are aware that things can be downright diabolical in the fraud sphere, with criminals sometimes using the names of government agencies to create the impression that an enterprise is legitimate or even endorsed by the government or a media company. The aim of the “ALL SAINTS” scammers appears to be to plant the seed that law enforcement has scrubbed the scheme, that the loan program won’t meet the same fate as Profitable Sunrise in Alabama (or elsewhere) and that the PP Blog backs “ALL SAINTS.”
It’s also possible that the “ALL SAINTS” scammers are seeking to use html links to the PP Blog to improve the search-engine penetration of their scam. Meanwhile, there are other, more nefarious possibilities, including bids to affect the server performance of the PP Blog and to dupe people into believing the “offer” originates at the PP Blog.
The “offer” appears to originate at an IP of 180.215.23.27 in Bangalore, India. The PP Blog is published in the United States.
Profitable Sunrise purported to be a “loan” program based in England. In April, the SEC called it a scam that may have collected tens of millions of dollars.
It was not immediately clear whether “ALL SAINTS” had an accompanying, Profitable Sunrise-like HYIP scheme. What is clear is that the “ALL SAINTS” enterprise is fishing for personal information, something that could be linked to identity theft.
Here is part of the fractured spam pitch (verbatim/italics added):
Welcome to ALL SAINTS CATHOLIC CHURCH LOAN FIRM we are international Christian loan firm and Lenders that has offered Loans to various individual and firms in Europe, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world,Are you in need of a loan? Do you want to pay off your bills? Do you want to be financially stable? We offer all types of loan, please email us back with the amount and duration of the loan you require. the bible says” Luke 11:10 Everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
In 2010, FINRA warned that HYIP scammers may provide a “Typo Tip-Off.” In 2013, an enterprise whose affiliates are targeting victims of the alleged Profitable Sunrise pyramid scheme says it is trying to attract “costumers.”
Biwako Bank Limited caught our attention yesterday after a boat-shark appeared on a Facebook Profitable Sunrise site to promote it while making this claim: “**THIS IS NOT AN HYIP , THIS IS A BANK**”
The claim is at odds with a claim on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum that Biwako has a “GoldCoders’ HYIP Manager License.”
Regulators have warned for years that internal inconsistencies are one of the hallmarks of HYIP fraud. In 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) noted that HYIP scammers also often present a “Typo Tip-Off.”
“Watch out for online postings, website copy or emails that are riddled with typos and poor grammar,” FINRA said. “This is often a tip-off that scammers are at work.”
Now, with Profitable Sunrise apparently dead in the water after actions by the SEC and numerous state and provincial regulators in the United States and Canada over the past two months, Biwako is informing prospects in a video playing on its website that the enterprise exists to connect “costumers” to new opportunities. It also claims that compounding is “avaliable.”
Meanwhile, it publishes an investment calculator and appears to imply an association with CNN and Time magazine.
And despite a Facebook boat-shark’s claim that Biwako is not an HYIP, the website of the purported “opportunity” lists four color-coded “plans” that purport to provide daily payouts of between 1.95 percent and 3.05 percent. The highest-paying plan — the “Red Plan” at 3.05 percent a day — advertises a percentage even higher than the purported “Long Haul” plan of Profitable Sunrise.
The “Long Haul” plan claimed to pay 2.7 percent a day.
Like Profitable Sunrise, Biwako also is being promoted on the Ponzi boards.
Also see March 27 PP Blog story about Facebook boat-sharking and March 31 story. (The March 31 story reports that promotions for a “program” known as TelexFree claim participants can purchase an income that varies by the amount they invest. Under one scenario outlined in a video, participants who send in $15,125 purportedly are buying an income of $1,100 a week for a year.)
WFMY interviewed Zeek Rewards receiver Ken Bell as part of its report on an apparent reload scam.
WFMY (CBS/Greensboro, N.C.) is reporting that it exposed an apparent Zeek Rewards reload scam operating on Google’s Blogspot platform — and that Google has removed the offending Blog.
The scam was operating at a URL of ZeekRewardsIsComingBack.blogspot.com, the station reported. WFMY contacted Zeek Rewards’ receiver Kenneth D. Bell as part of its report. Bell told the station that the Blogspot site looked like “another attempt to revictimize” Zeek investors.
Whoever controlled the Blogspot site was telling Zeekers there was a “simple process” to “get your money back,” WFMY reported.
Separately, the PP Blog located content online that suggests the Blogspot site was soliciting Zeek victims to send funds to at least three offshore payment processors: Payza, Liberty Reserve and Perfect Money. All three processors are known to do business with international scoundrels.
On April 1, the PP Blog observed an online pitch for an entity that appeared to be using the name and address of a U.S. government agency while promising “to recover” funds lost through Profitable Sunrise. The fake agency claimed it could recover losses for a sum of less than $50 and encouraged Profitable Sunrise members to send money to purported accounts at the Liberty Reserve and Solid Trust Pay payment processors.
The Blog reported information about the fake site to a U.S. government agency.
North Carolina regulators have repeatedly warned about so-called “reload scams,” including scams that surfaced after the SEC alleged in August 2012 that Zeek was a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme and scams that surfaced after North Carolina brought a cease-and-desist order against the Profitable Sunrise HYIP in February. The SEC has alleged that Profitable Sunrise was a massive online pyramid scheme.
In 2010, the state of Delaware charged a Detroit man with racketeering for his alleged role in swindling a woman who’d earlier been ripped off in a securities swindle. The state deemed the follow-up swindle an “investment recovery scam.” Delaware is among many U.S. states investigating Profitable Sunrise.
Zeek itself is known to have used offshore payment processors. Prior to the SEC bringing spectacular allegations of fraud against Zeek last year, Zeek was auctioning sums of U.S. currency and telling members they’d be sent their winnings through offshore processors.
Here’s the WFMY report on the apparent Zeek Rewards reload scam . . .
From a warning by North Carolina that Profitable Sunrise investors are being targeted in reload scams.
UPDATED 11:28 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The Securities Division of North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall has issued a warning that Profitable Sunrise investors are being targeted in “reload scams.”
North Carolina issued a similar warning in August 2012, saying then that members of the Zeek Rewards “program” — an alleged $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme operating online — also were being targeted in reload scams.
The NC Securities Division has learned that Profitable Sunrise investors are being contacted with promises of help in getting their money back for them. The Securities Division is issuing this alert to warn investors that such promises may be yet another attempt to scam them again through a “reload scam”.
Reload scams hit consumers when they’re down, offering to help them make back money they lost to a previous scam or bad business decision. These scams have been popular for years with telemarketing fraud rings but can also follow other types of fraud, including investment fraud.
Such reload scams were aimed at victims of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme last year. Reload scammers used social media sites and online news releases to tout opportunities to help investors replace the income they were receiving from Zeek Rewards. Similar opportunities are being touted in the case involving Profitable Sunrise. Investors are warned to stay away from such “opportunities”.
At least 35 U.S. states or provinces in Canada went on to issue Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders against Profitable Sunrise. The SEC filed an action on April 4, alleging that Profitable Sunrise was an online pyramid scheme that may have gathered tens of millions of dollars.
Promoters of Profitable Sunrise may have pushed the program without even knowing for whom they were working, the SEC said.
On April 1, the PP Blog observed an online pitch for an entity that appeared to be using the name and address of a U.S. government agency while promising “to recover” funds lost through Profitable Sunrise. The fake agency claimed it could recover losses for a sum of less than $50 and encouraged Profitable Sunrise members to send money to purported accounts at the Liberty Reserve and Solid Trust Pay payment processors.
Profitable Sunrise members also have been targeted by boat-sharks hoping to glean commissions for other HYIP “programs” and purported MLM “opportunities.”
On March 31 — Easter Sunday — the PP Blog reported that a Facebook pitch aimed at Profitable Sunrise members sought to recruit them into a “program” known as TelexFree.
A video for TelexFree claimed members could purchase an income by sending the “program” specific sums of money.
The TelexFree pitch was similar to pitches for the infamous World Marketing Direct Selling (WMDS) and OneUniverseOnline (1UOL) pyramid schemes, which were exposed in 2005 and operated by James Bunchan and Seng Tan. Those scams resulted in federal prison sentences for both Bunchan and Tan and also sparked follow-up probes by the government because a federal prosecutor and witnesses were subjected to death threats by Bunchan.
Like Profitable Sunrise, the WMDS and 1UOL scams traded on references to religion. And like TelexFree and Profitable Sunrise, WMDS and 1UOL prospects were told they could purchase an income.
WMDS and 1UOL members — like Profitable Sunrise members — also may not have been sure of who they were working for. Here is a snippet from an appeals-court ruling upholding the 20-year-prison sentence of Tan (italics added):
“A high-school graduate, [Christian] Rochon became president (in name only, though) for one reason, and one reason only: Bunchan wanted an ‘American face’ for his companies, and his neighbor Rochon (a Caucasian of Canadian decent) apparently fit the bill,” the footnote reads. “And after renting Rochon a suit jacket and taking him to a professional photographer, Bunchan had Rochon’s photo plastered all over the companies’ promotional pamphlets.”
Tan told WMDS and 1UOL members that she’d been sent by the “Gods” to make them millionaires.
A British Columbia man already under investigation for duping investors $5,000 at a time doubled down and then went for $10,000, the British Columbia Securities Commission said.
