Almost 1 year ago, in March of 2005, a simple, seemingly ordinary, dinky little paid Autosurf company by the name of 12DailyPro flew high above the radar. It offered prospects 12% of their "upgrade amount" per day for a 12 day cycle followed by a 7-9 day float and then an automatic cashout to the client's Stormpay or Egold account.
Almost sounds too good to be true, but when you factor in the facts that the clients don't keep their initial principal then the net daily earning is something more like 3.6%. Then you factor in the 7-9 day float which gives 12DailyPro more time to "earn" and "pay others" with your "pending cashout." Also factor in that they were allegedly earning money from the sale of advertising (see: The Case for a Sustainable 12DailyPro), and they were earning sizeable commissions from Stormpay fee commissions (which run 6 levels deep) and NETIBA, Stormpay's "Third-Party Verification" (which wasn't really third-party at all but rather owned by Stormpay), not to mention the highly unlikely possibility that they were actually investing successfully in places like Forex and Betonmarkets.com...then it begins to seem plausible and far easier for one not-in-the-know to justify personal involvement.
We also need to consider the possibility that 12DailyPro might have been lasting as long as it had due to the accumulated funds from any number of previously failed questionable ventures.
But as you'll soon see, this whole affair turned into an "Internet Tsunami" when (what we were told) Stormpay issued an ultimatum to all autosurfs, "Use only Stormpay, or take your money and leave." Well, many didn't like that and chose to take their money and leave. Stormpay justified this as a means to prevent major fraud and then issued a scant 2 bulletins, one of which implicated autosurfs as ponzi schemes.
Because the owner of 12DailyPro, going by the name of Charis, has been such a communicative and charismatic figure, (a Grand Sociopath, in my opinion), Stormpay immediately became the target for the anger of an alleged 350,000 12DailyPro fanatics.
As a result, a large movement of disgruntled 12DailyPRO "investors" began calling newspapers, radio stations, tv stations, government agencies and all kinds of institutions, hoping to crack Stormpay wide open so they could get some kind of remuneration (aka retribution). What has come out since then has been nothing short of what I had already suspected...that 12DailyPRO is NOT being run by a benevolent Charis. That there may BE a Charis, but that it is more likely being run by two men who are adequately protected via an offshore LLC (incorporating) on the island of Nevis (so say the reports coming in).
Who really knows? Shall we speculate more and continue to be wrong as so many have already? Or shall we just report our woes to the proper authorities and let them do their job of sifting through the mountain of details to get to the root of this fiasco?
No matter how it turns out - once again, we have proof that there's "a sucker born every minute." In the absense of a spiritual discipline, Greed can infect large swaths of human beings and make them act irrationally. What most of them do not realize is that their ignorance places a huge burden on us all so when, on a fine sunny day 3 Octobers later they go to blame the next world leader for not doing A or B, and not providing them with relief from X or Y, then they only need look back to their own blindness that cost the government Z dollars to investigate the results of their gullibility (for starters).
Full disclosure: I invested and lost $6k in this. I am not judging anyone and when I refer to "ignorance" or "ignorant people" I am also accepting that I am not perfect and susceptible to such things. And I have proudly believed I was immune, so all the more reason for you to be extra vigilant in your online dealings.
When it seems too good to be true...or when no effort, other than clicking a button, is required to make money, then it's time to pinch yourself and to double check with friends and family instead of thinking, "oh, they just don't get how the internet works..."
What follows is a lot of the information being uncovered in the ensuing madness. Use it as a research tool, use it to make yourself more aware. Watch and learn.
Sam Freedom
PS. Make sure to check out my other blog:
Sam Freedom's Internet Marketing Controversy Blog
and the home page of The Coolest Guy on the Planet
Technorati tags: Autosurf, 12DailyPRO, 12Daily, Stormpay, Internet, Internet Marketing, Computers & Internet, Current Affairs, Ponzi, HYIP, Investment, Investing, Fraud, Scam, Scams, Enron, Forex, Forex Trading, Tennessee, Sociopath, Sociopathy, Charis, Girsky, Steve Girsky, Brett Hubbard, Kevin Wessell, Lifeclicks, Sam Freedom, SamFreedom,
2 comments:
"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."
The Usual Suspects
Who is Keyser Soze?
PONZIs are illegal aren't they? Anyone ever read TOS at Stormpay? Too good to be true folks usually means someone has to lose.
What a sc(h)ame
http://jimallenlive.com
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