SEC shuts down 12dailypro.com ponzi scheme
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060228/wr_nm/sec_dc

Interesting article.. seems like a few other sites operate the same way..

I'm a little suprised that "stormpay" is withholding $50 million of their money though .. didnt think that many people fall for that shit..

and

"12dailypro.com was the 352nd most highly visited site on the Internet, according to the SEC"


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators last week charged the owner of 12dailypro.com and her two companies with fraud for running a $50 million Ponzi scheme, according to a statement released on Monday.



The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Charis Johnson, 33, raised more than $50 million from more than 300,000 investors by convincing visitors to the Web site that they could earn a 44 percent return on their investments in 12 days by looking at Internet advertisements.

The scheme, which the SEC calls "paid auto-surf," required users to buy $6 "units" -- up to a maximum of 1,000 units -- and to view advertisements from what were described as paying advertisers.

While investors were led to believe that their returns would be generated by advertising revenue, payments were made almost entirely from cash generated by other unit buyers in a classic Ponzi scheme, the SEC alleged.

Johnson and her companies, 12daily Pro and LifeClicks LLC, agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying guilt.

As part of the settlement, Johnson and her companies agreed to stop seeking further investors, to freeze assets and to accept a court appointed receiver over corporate assets.

The commission is also seeking the repayment of ill-gotten gains and further fines. The complaint alleged that Johnson transferred about $1.9 million to her own accounts.

According to Johnson's attorney, Noell Tin, a Clarksville, Tennessee, credit card payment processor called StormPay.com "is holding about $50 million of 12dailypro.com's money."

"That's where the money is to get folks repaid," Tin said, adding that "they (StormPay.com) are definitely going to be giving it to the receiver."

Follow the money

According to a February 7 Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee statement, however, StormPay.com "generated more complaints to the BBB than any other Middle Tennessee or Southern Kentucky business" in the first six weeks of 2006.

The consumer protection group said it sought the assistance of federal authorities after receiving 18,926 inquiries checking on the reliability of StormPay.com in the 7 days prior to February 7.

The majority of complaints filed with bureau were related to "auto-surfing" programs, the BBB statement said.

According to Tin, 12daily Pro and Johnson are completely independent of one another.

Calls to StormPay.com's headquarters were unanswered.

The SEC also declined to comment.

Asked if the $50 million he believes StormPay.com is holding is enough to cover investor losses, Tin said, "I don't know. What I do know is that there is a substantial sum of money sitting there."

As for the $1.9 million Johnson allegedly moved to her accounts, Tin says his client has already returned $1.4 million to 12dailypro.com members.

The SEC also released a general warning on paid auto-surf schemes on Monday at http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/autosurf.htm.

12dailypro.com was the 352nd most highly visited site on the Internet, according to the SEC

What's funny is stormpay started as a haven for ponzi schemes to accept payments. Now they freeze funds for it, haha.

Good thing some got there money out when they did..........

thats like a $1.67 a person

wtf ?:helpme

There are 6 zeroz in a million.

Thats like $167 per person

So is this what the emthree guy on here invested into?

Or similar. Has he posted again since this came up?

Not that I'm aware of. Perhaps he's busy selling his M3 to cover his losses?

dam thats pretty fucked up :1orglaugh the shit people think they can get away with these days... when your making that much money someones always got an eye on you

More like $166.66 per person.

Shhhh, don't tell him. I'm trying to make a deal to buy his sites. I figure with his math, I can get it for approximately $2.50. Thanks.

:thumbsup :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

lol :1orglaugh

Very interesting article. I can't find any mention of these charges or settlements in the 12DP news, or member forums.

The admin was also asking for donations for a legal fund to fight Stormpay. If that $1.9m figure is true (and she was able to magically return $1.4m) then she's been lying to her members all along.

Unfortunately the member forums don't allow new registrations. I'm sure that article will find its way there soon enough.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

If StormPay was Paypal they would charge a large "fee" for that $50 million

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

12DP may have been an outright fraud, but Stormpay smells too. They set up an address verification company ( www.netiba.com ) and certified themselves. A clear conflict of interest and abuse of trust.

Here's more info on 12DP and Stormpay

http://www.fairtradeauthority.com/st...pro_report.php

I think so.

you'd get a better return feeding $100 notes to the dog

lesser of two evils.

I don't use stormpay anyway for a number of reasons...

Don't fuck with the bank. My guess would be that StormPay doesn't have the money, the bank does as reserves.

Actually with the way 12DP works you end up with pure "profit" after something like 3 pay cycles; you've made back the value of your initial investment at that stage. It's the guys who just got into it that will lose part or all of their principal. In a ponzi scheme profit is generated from new memberships so in reality you're getting someone else's membership money as payout.

If emthree was doing it for a while and wasn't suddenly ramping up his reinvestments (eg going from $500 to $6000 a cycle or two before it died) then he's probably still in the black.

"To those watching for a comment from me on the 12dp forum regarding today's SEC press release and the cooresponding filing, there will be none there.

The website is to now be under the control of the SEC and thus I am unable to post anything on the site without approval."

Owned by the SEC! :1orglaugh

http://newclicksinfo.blogspot.com/

This is the original SEC release, looks like a monkey from Reuters just rewrote it.

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2006-26.htm

The whole economy is a ponzi scheme.

I had my doubts when an email came to me about that site.. re; http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showth...ght=12dailypro

i think the people who fall for that shit should get nothing.
that will teach them :)
they deserve it
i say donate the 50 million and put it into the general education system :1orglaugh

ok fuckos so i missed a zero or two,:1orglaugh

and speaking of missing zeros goodnight!:drinkup