International Law

ASD Fraud at $93.5 million

Posted on September 02, 2008
Image via Wikipedia From David Arnett, at Tulas Today, about the growing AdSurfDaily Ponzi,"The U.S. Secret Service has identified and frozen additional funds from AdSurfDaily, Inc (ASD) raising the total from approximately $53 to $93.5 million, but the worldwide investigation first reported on Tulsa Today continues...

CPA Watchdog?

Posted on September 02, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Does anybody know if this affiliate protection will work?"CPA Watchdog? is announcing the launch of their new site, which will feature a revolutionary new suite of affiliate verification services for the CPA (cost per action) affiliate advertising industry...

ACN MLM == Pyramid Scheme

Posted on August 29, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Here is an interesting exchange between Kenneth Woodruff and a unnamed friend, with Kenneth drawing out his friend about ACN."(10:01:55 AM) kennethpwoodruff: dude(10:01:57 AM) kennethpwoodruff: really?(10:02:02 AM) kennethpwoodruff: who hooked you into this?(10:02:48 AM) CloseFriend1: i have 2 neighbors that are already doing it(10:02:53 AM) CloseFriend1: and making money(10:03:25 AM) kennethpwoodruff: that still doesn't make it "not a pyramid scheme"(10:03:50 AM) CloseFriend1: no doubt(10:04:07 AM) CloseFriend1: it's just better than any one of them that I have seen before(10:04:13 AM) kennethpwoodruff: you're going to have to make $23K / year just to break even(10:04:29 AM) CloseFriend1: how do you figure?(10:04:40 AM) kennethpwoodruff: There are cost of being ACN Rep...

Amway - Vulnerable?

Posted on August 29, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Robert FitzPatrick, on his new blog, writes about Amway"Amway is foundering and fighting for its life. New upstarts are challenging it, riding on the political and legal highway that Amway paved. Though Amway is huge, it also is hugely vulnerable, a house of cards...

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Wextrust Ponzi Expands

Posted on August 29, 2008
Image via Wikipedia In an unsurprising move, the SEC amended its Complaint against Wextrust Capital"its principals, and four affiliated Wextrust entities, to add defendant Joseph Shereshevsky's wife, Elka Shereshevsky, as a relief defendant, alleging that Joseph Shereshevsky attempted to hide more than $900 thousand in investor funds by placing them in accounts putatively in her name...

Confidence In The Con

Posted on August 29, 2008
Image via Wikipedia In a historically inaccurate and misleading manner, the NPR has a radio interview with A and B on confidence schemes, or cons."The confidence scheme certainly seems like an American obesession -- the golden age of grift came courtesy of the Jazz Age -- and boy does Hollywood love a huckster...

Self-Organized Traffic Flow

Posted on August 29, 2008

Truston Receives 2008 Shaping Info Security Award

Posted on August 28, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Hey, this looks pretty interesting.  (And no I am not an affiliate of Truston!)Tom Fragala, writing at Truston, announced that his product for identity theft:"Info Security Products Guide has honored us with the Shaping Info Security 2008 award...

Final Farewell to Mary Kay

Posted on August 28, 2008
Image by .sanden. via Flickr Interesting retrospect from JTA, writing at Pink Truth about a ex-distributor complaining about Mary Kay's representations about how much she would earn;"It took me months and months and months to take the position that the Mary Kay business is fatally flawed...

S&P Rating For Tupperware

Posted on August 28, 2008
Image via Wikipedia From Rachel writing at OP Tree, we learn that S&P has raised their rating on Tupperware debt from BB to BB+"While S&P feels that Tupperware has made significant improvement, they still feel that it will be necessary to keep a close eye on the company...

How Much is A Bratz Worth?

Posted on August 27, 2008
Image by JimmyMac210 via Flickr I had been following this trademark case, between Barbie and Bratz, because I was fairly sure that litigation was the wrong move for these parties.Mattel was incensed that its designer moved on and took his drawings of Bratz dolls with him; the designer Carter Bryant was incensed that his great ideas of Bratz dolls fell on deaf ears at Mattel, until MGA took his idea, ran with it, and improved it...

Discus Comment System

Posted on August 27, 2008

Are You Too Easily Impressed?

Posted on August 27, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Robin Hanson certainly thinks so.He has a provocative post at Overcoming Bias about the relationship between expertise, credentials and rationality."Yesterday I reported that top med school docs are no healthier for patients.  Today I report that even at private schools, teachers who are fully certified do not help students perform any better on math and science tests: Data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 (NELS:88) were used to investigate the effect of teacher licensure status on private school students' 12th grade math and science test scores...

Wheels of Justice Grind Slowly - Biofuel Scam

Posted on August 27, 2008
Image via Wikipedia From the FBI Press Release on an Bio Fuel Scam, and some nice detecting work from the Police using the internet:"U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich today sentenced KARL and HELEN REHBERG for their involvement in a biodiesel fuel scam in Lakeland, Florida in the 1990's...

Hedge Funds Investors Defrauded Out of $20 Million

Posted on August 26, 2008
Image via Wikipedia From the FBI Atlanta Press Release:MANYU OGALE, 44, of Jacksonville, Florida, was arraigned today before United States Magistrate Judge Russell G. Vineyard on charges of wire fraud related to a "Ponzi" investment scheme.United States Attorney David E...

Citi Bank Admits to Stealing from Customers

Posted on August 26, 2008
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Sometimes when you are wondering about economic view of the world, which leaves out fraud, then think about this story, from the AG in California about fraud. Citibank after a three-year investigation into the company's use of an illegal "account sweeping" program...

Ad Surf Daily Money's Seized

Posted on August 26, 2008
Image via Wikipedia The US Government has responded to the Ad Surf Daily's Emergency motion.The Government has a number of interesting arguments.First, they note that:"Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises, Inc.; Adsurf Daily, Inc.; and Mr. Thomas A. Bowdoin, Jr...

Fake Authority

Posted on August 26, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Are you that person who knows everyone?You met JFK just before he died, Obama asks for your advice on economics, and just possibly you might have worked for CIA.In other words, are you a fake?Obtaining indirect authority because you surround yourself with people who accomplished something?Well, USANA was playing the fake authority role at the Olympics...

Ad Surf Daily Not a Ponzi Scheme - Legal Expert Says So

Posted on August 25, 2008
Image via Wikipedia So is Ad Surf Daily a Ponzi scheme? Well, the Gerald Nehra, the MLM lawyer says no.In his affidavit, in support of the Ad Surf Daily's motion for relief, Nehra claims that Ad Surf Daily is not a Ponzi scheme.Nehra has submitted an affidavit tendering himself as an "expert witness" for Ad Surf Daily...

Are Ads are the New Online Tip Jar?

Posted on August 25, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Seth Godin, a well respected internet marketed, bucking conventional wisdom about Adsense stated:"I can say this because there are no ads here but,If you like what you're reading, click an ad to say thanks.Pretty simple, but not an accepted online protocol, at least not yet...

Ronald Keith Owens Agrees to Pay Nearly $2.5 Million Restitution

Posted on August 25, 2008
Image via Wikipedia From the FBI Press Release about a Ponzi Fraudster: Ronald Keith Owens, 72, of Mineral Wells, Texas, pled guilty in federal court last week before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney to an Information charging offenses related to an investment scheme he ran, announced U...

Lies, Liars and Con-men

Posted on August 25, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Russ Sears, writing at Daily Speculation, has nice post about the Klondike Gold Rush, and the role of con-men.Wherever there are rational people responding to instinct, doing foolish and irrational things, you will find a swarm of lies and deception...

Goffman on Fraud and Rationality

Posted on August 22, 2008
Image via Wikipedia One of the major themes in this blog, running through the examples of fraud and deceit, is that fraud, misrepresentation, and lies are not anomalies in civil society. They are the very fabric of social life and rational action.Accepted sales techniques, persuasion by attorneys, and calls to action by politicians use the same methods exploited by shills, con criminals, and fraudsters...

Christian Fraud II

Posted on August 22, 2008
Image via Wikipedia An email from an advance fee scammer:Although beloved in Christ,    I am Sister Martine Zago, Kuwait. I am married to Mr. Dea Tacita end Zago, who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast during twenty-six years before his death in 2006, after a brief illness that lasted only five days...

Franchise Review in NZ and Mediation

Posted on August 22, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Part of  the text of the speech by Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel at the Business Opportunities & Franchise Expo, Auckland, on 16 August 2008"The particular focus is on whether those entering into franchise agreements have adequate information to make good business decisions, while ensuring that we don't impose unnecessary compliance costs on the sector that are disproportionate to the risks involved...

ASD Fights to Re-Open Business

Posted on August 22, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Roman Lillie, of WCTV, write about Auto Surf Daily:"Advertising company Ad Surf Daily has filed a motion to re-open its door after being shut down by the Feds. But the U-S Attorney's office will now have extra time to respond to that request...

MLM Danger of Autoship Programs

Posted on August 22, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Rachel, writing at Op Tree, unwittingly described a legal trap for network marketers, the autoship program:"Reliv International has just launched a new auto ship program that they hope will increase customer retention and enables its independent distributors to increase sales and build stronger, long lasting relationships...

Arbitration and Statutory Franchise Fraud

Posted on August 21, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Fascinating case from the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals concerning the relationship between the validity of an arbitration clause and the statutory failure to disclose all material information in the Franchise Disclosure Document...

Weight Guru Banned, Yet Again

Posted on August 21, 2008
Image via Wikipedia William Zale, writing at Trade Regulation, reporting about poor Kevin Trudeau"Infomercial producer and weight loss book author Kevin Trudeau--held in contempt for intentionally violating a 2004 injunction by making an infomercial that misrepresented his book's content--was ordered by the federal district court in Chicago to disgorge infomercial royalties conservatively estimated at more than $5...

Scammer Jailed

Posted on August 21, 2008
Image by _Massimo_ via Flickr From the FBI Press Release:A Burbank man was sentenced today to nine years in federal prison after being convicted earlier this year on charges related to a fraudulent investment scheme. Thomas Mitchell Johnson, 53, was convicted in February on charges related to a scheme in which he defrauded a North Carolina man out of more than $8...

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