lmaorofsbmysh

Rarely am I one to use such "net" symbolism - not spell things out - but in this case ...

Not room enough in subject line

lmao = "laughing my ass off" in case you just turned on a computer for the first time

Add whatever you like to these things, assuming your friends know you ...

rof = "rolling on floor"

I added "sbmysh" = shaking because my sides hurt

Here is why:

A former favourite autosurf admin just sent an update saying, "Starting April 1st we are going to implement membership dues of $1 per day."

He also said, " ... go back and re-read our business model that we posted a few weeks ago. There, if you actually read it, we gave you upfront knowledge that this was coming." May be, but I would not know. You see, when SEC took 12DP offline, this particular autosurf went offline same day - temporarily, without any explanation. Explanation came three days later ...

Since I liked the service earlier, even if it did "copy" too much of 12DP ( as I recall there was even a complaint about its site content from Charis Johnson ), soon as the new "plan" was announced, I signed up again. Problem is ( not really a problem ), I never received my confirmation e-mail to complete the new registration.

I still get e-mails from the service every day just as if I were a full-fledged member ... even though after waiting 10 days I sent this man a polite note letting him know I would not be continuing with his service.

Too bad his admin messages show frustration much more than needs be, but worse, they remind me of some former PTS owners who disappeared without any warning. There is an attitude displayed by some folks that just says " Watch out ! " ... not to say this guy is a scammer. He IS still trying to make a go of it after all - just that his approach is "unilaterally" equal to that of Storm(trooper)Pay ...

Not even sure what the return is for his new site since he will not show it except to members, but a little calculation ...

If the site pays 2% per day, then a member would have to upgrade more than $50 to start out just to make any profit, paying $1 per day as membership fee ... and that means you would have to surf EVERY day even to make that ! Have to wonder what he is smoking, because his bright idea is about sensible as Congress continuing to tax government employees when the court ruled against it ... for which Congress decided too much paperwork - reduced employee salaries instead.

Bye, bye now ... wish you success !

who'd she think she was messin' with ... ?

could happen to me I s'pose ...

No one reads this blog anyway ... do they ?

During time I have recorded nonsense here, two have sent me an e-mail to comment - a positive response.

Thank you Dan and Bob

I know a few friends visit now and then ...

There is another blog you can find on the list at blogspot.com which I have made reference to as an excellent investigative source, but I will not name it just now because ...

Seems someone who knows English as a third or fourth language decided to send out a bulk mailing containing his blogspot URL as if it were some rank HYIP she was promoting ... which coincided with his blog appearing on at least one PTS site that same morning - something of which he was unaware until I told him.

What the spammer WAS unaware of is that she messed with the absolute WRONG guy. Anyone with a First Grade education could recognize that if he can post background details of a list of Ponzis and other ripoffs, explaining in detail how and why they are scams, where they are located, who is running them, not to mention his abilities at literary forensics with which he is able to support valid arguments linking current scams and those which have already relieved some of us of too many dollars ...

... but, Ooooh ! I bet she is aware now !

Take the Last Train to Clarksville

Take the Last Train to Clarksville A Rendition for The StormPay Scam

Take the last train to Clarksville, And I'll meet you at my race track You will see all the improvements made From the frozen funds at Charis' Twelve Daily Pro. Ha, ha, ho, ho, He, he, ho, ho! Cause I got this dirt track fever, I got Crate Racer disease - And I'm takin' funds from everyone Just you read my T & C, I can do a charge back I can suck you dry! And NBC's behind me all the way. Take the last train to Clarksville. I'll be wasted in my Hummer. We'll have time for cavier & cognac And a bit of ponzi talk. I thank you so, Twelve Daily Pro, Oh woah, oh woah! Take the last train to Clarksville, Now I must hang up the phone. It's the BBB & the FBI They want to know about. Twelve Daily Pro, Ho, ho, ho, ho! Ha, ha, ho, ho! And you know that I would never tell a lie! Take the last train to Clarksville, Take the last train to Clarksville, [repeat and fade] http://surfersteve.info/

http://surfersteve.info/

limiting loss ...

Previously I asserted that money was missing from StormPay accounts - that some money had disappeared with no accounting.

I hope that is not true. At this point, I am aware that my calculations were in error.

I have no "evidence" to support the "missing money" assertion at this time.

There remains to be answered the charge that new monies, never previously associated with PTS industry, were taken from StormPay subscribers whose accounts had been zeroed out by chargebacks. StormPay accounts were used by people all across the Internet, for purchasing standalone products, to set subscriptions for services rendered by many different types of websites other than PTS, and for simply exchanging funds with friends and associates.

StormPay allowed an option of having one's StormPay account linked to a personal bank or checking account, so it would be "bottomless" - that is, so that when returns of profit were not sufficient to cover ongoing expenses, the StormPay account would automatically draw from the attached bank account.

The attached bank account had to be in the same name as the StormPay account. Once set up and verified, an account with SP or PayPal is complex to change, as for instance changing PayPal from adroundup.net to jamonbotrading.com would be easier for me to set up a new PP account than try to change the old one.

On the other hand, when your online business receives large amounts of $$ from the public and your processor account is in your personal name as is your bank account, then you may be accused of transferring those funds to personal use when they are withdrawn to your checking account even if it is for business purposes - something which occurs too late to some business owners.

Not everyone put trust in a "bottomless" system because it is too easy to have one's bank account raided when fraudulent transactions are made against an individual SP account. If one chooses to link a bank account to an online processor, such as StormPay or PayPal, a separate bank account in which limited funds are deposited should be used as a way to limit potential loss.

Sadly, not many StormPay subscribers anticipated that StormPay itself would create fraudulent transactions by taking money from outside the PTS system and applying that money to shortfalls created by SP's reducing PTS payout amounts as it deducted its own fees - 3 to 7 % per transaction.

Hopefully we have seen and end finally to StormPay's scummy practices.

Important StormPay Policy Change

Important StormPay Policy Change:
23-Mar-2006 14:21

"Dear Valued StormPay customer,

Effective immediately StormPay Inc. will no longer accept payments for sales made outside of StormPay Auctions. If you are an online seller who wishes to sell your product or service through the StormPay system, your item must be sold using the StormPay Auctions feature. Listing in the StormPay Auctions is FREE of charge unless utilizing our inexpensive upgraded listing options.

Q: Why has StormPay implemented this new policy?

A: StormPay has rendered certain policy changes to insure a safer online experience for both buyers and sellers. This policy change allows StormPay to more closely monitor the products/services sold, insuring that sold items are within StormPay's acceptable use policies.

Under these new policy guidelines, customers may no longer log into a StormPay account for the purpose of sending money to another online user, or "offsite" website sale. All "spends" and "receives" are and only can be for the specific purchase of a user's auction listing and successful purchase of.

Subscriptions (recurring billing) is no longer supported by the StormPay system. All current subscriptions have been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We appreciate your business. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

StormPay Inc."
_______

Unless I am misreading this Policy Change, StormPay seems to be effectively taking itself out as an online payment processor. I am not sure how popular is SP auction - have never used it, nor will.

I am very curious what back room deals are being made regarding SP.

American ingenuity ...

What could have been a "cannot do without" service for the Interet, StormPay offered "Internet payment processor, free auctions, cheap isp, free email, and the option of making pennies by clicking on advertiser links. An all in one convenient service ..."
- http://www.xenacarpenter.info/2006/02/stormpay_to_be_.html

... has become the butt of jokes Internet wide:
http://humorvideo.blogspot.com/2006/02/stormscams-ceo-addresses-public.html
- http://www.stormygear.com/
http://surfersteve.info/

... which in turn becomes big business all over again.

Peek-a-boo - deja vu !

American ingenuity at work !

profit motive ...

The "profit motive," speaking broadly, means a man's incentive to work in order to gain something for himself — in economic terms, to make money. By Objectivist standards, such a motive, being thoroughly just, is profoundly moral. Socialists used to speak of "production for use" as against "production for profit." What they meant and wanted was: "production by one man for the unearned use of another."
- from Leonard Peikoff's Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
_______

As defined by The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy:
- Profit Motive: The ability to earn profits as the reason = for producers to make and sell goods. 1
‡ The profit motive is often called a great good or a great evil in society. On the one hand, it is said to represent selfishness; on the other, it is said to drive the free market system. (See invisible hand.)
_______

Profit defined by Webster:
1 : a valuable return : GAIN
2 : the excess of returns over expenditure in a transaction or series of transactions; especially : the excess of the selling price of goods over their cost
3 : net income usually for a given period of time
4 : the ratio of profit for a given year to the amount of capital invested or to the value of sales
5 : the compensation accruing to entrepreneurs for the assumption of risk in business enterprise as distinguished from wages or rent
_______

Missing from all those definitions is what is in the mind of an Entrepreneur [one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise].

For example, an enterprising young woman recently, in our nation's history, most likely discovered ways to make substantial returns from her investments. She could have accumulated those returns and lived quietly - modestly or perhaps purchased expensive items for herself and family if she chose to do so. Instead, I believe she had a bigger, and maybe better, idea - one possibly similar to my own.

Might be she grew up always wanting to run a business of her own - I do not know, but I believe quite likely she did. I know I did. With her own good mind then, she conceived an idea that would benefit the larger community - the world itself: an autosurf service in which anyone could earn an "unrealistic" (as defined by her own government) rate of return in exchange for performing a few simple tasks each day.

Some bright and well-meaning folks observed the young lady's progress and her not-so-well-defined business model and questioned how she could support payouts as high as she was offering. Most folks are tuned to the rise and fall of the stock market and know little about other strategies, not realizing how much their "caution" is based on history. By now, many of those whose parents lived through Depression years have grandchildren of their own, so quite a number of people are a generation or two removed from "hand-to-mouth" subsistence living - now take for granted much of what their grandparents had to live without while they were growing up in the '20s and '30s and through the '40s in our country.

The nation is now in a time of comfort and societal largesse in which individuals can be more creative with their time than practical as they had to be six or five or even four decades ago. So many of us are still engaged in short-term thinking, however; not connecting to values of history, not seeing future impact of current events ... such as an online payment processor exploiting its position for profit which is purely greed ... while some on the Internet apparently cheer them on.

It should begin to dawn that "profit motive" is not the same for all of us capitalists - that some of us are not motivated by what we can accumulate personally, but instead are driven to explore how we can use our minds for the benefit of others, sharing profits with a wider community. That is what I think motivated the lady who is now accused by the SEC of running what it describes as "almost purely a Ponzi" and I think her downfall is really one common to many innovative entrepreneurs: bookkeeping practices.

Curiouser and curiouser ...

W are getting something of an education about "all this Internet stuff" as we watch the parade ...

EMO has Deposits of $7,000,000, a reported Net Worth of negative $1,100,000

According to Texas AG office, EMO's shortfall is somewhere between $1,100,000 and $2,400,000 - a figure which is unclear apparently because no audit has been done as yet.

Insight: " An undisclosed source ... who has had direct contact with an EMO Corporate Officer has learned that EMO has been working cooperatively with Texas State Regulators to resolve the licensure issue. As for mismanagement or misplacement of funds, it is apparent that the recent influx of funds to EMO has caught the curiosity of the Texas AG. But, what is an unknown cause to the Texas State Government is something with which those of us in the arena are all familiar: EMO took on many new customers and new funds, largely set off by 12DP-related events. Also, assets that are frozen in EMO's Accounts ($1.5 Million) are not regarded as assets because they are frozen, but as a liability, contributing the observation that EMO is "insolvent".

" Also, according this EMO Officer, no audit has been performed by the state, and so the numbers reported on the Texas AG website appear to be calculated without any basis in fact. EMO is working out an agreement with a bank who will provide credit card processing solutions, in order to obtain proper licensure. If, for some reason, the agreement doesn't not work out, EMO will take up the matter in court: in any case, a hearing is scheduled for next week, March 21st , 2006.

" Both this EMO Officer and a email we received directly from EMO CEO Todd Tredeau (as a response to our email we sent to him yesterday) reflect a relaxed, yet professional attitude toward the situation, confident that whatever audits and other investigative measures the Texas Government performs will prove that EMO's business practice has been legal and ethical, with all funds account [sic] for in their accounts. "

Curiouser and curiouser ...

http://whois.sc/emocorp.com
Administrative Contact-
t tredeau:
EMO Corporation Mesa Drive Austin, TX 78731
US Phone- 512-637-1220 Fax-

http://whois.sc/intgold.com
Administrative Contact-
Gold, Internet
3931 Joe Ramsey Blvd Suite C Greenville, TX 75401
US (903) 454-8556 Fax: (214) 292-9685

I looked at the whois info because of a suggested link between Todd Trudeau and IntGold, which does not seem to prove out - only an international customer service number links the two entities as I can find.

There is a message at emocorp.com website today after the site was down for two days.

What is clear is that EMO has been operating, possibly since 1999, in Texas without having a money services business license.
- http://www.freewebs.com/internetincomeforyou/whatisemo.htm

What is not clear is how or why StormPay continues to operate in Tennessee without having a similar license ...

EMO™ - Electronic Money Orders ... insolvent

Posted on Mon, Mar. 13, 2006

Court order against unlicensed online payment service
Associated Press

AUSTIN - Texas has secured a court order for a receiver to take over
operations of an unlicensed online payment service based in Austin
[Texas].

[Texas] Attorney General Greg Abbott today announced the state has
obtained an order to freeze the assets of E-M-O Corporation.

Abbott says the company can't fully account for more than
five-point-four (M) million dollars consumers had in their accounts.

He says E-M-O documents show only three (M) million dollars -- in cash
-- on hand.

Abbott also says the company isn't register [sic] with the Texas
Banking Department and never obtained a license as a money services
business -- as required by law.

Company officials didn't immediately return a call to The Associated
Press for comment.


http://www.oag.state.tx.us

- http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/business/14089392.htm

anatomy of a scam ...

In the Wall Street Journal article I have referenced previously, one line still stands out:

"A key figure in spotlighting the site [12DailyPro] was Barry Minkow, a former carpet-cleaning executive convicted of running a Ponzi scheme in the 1980s who has turned to helping regulators and investigators unravel fraud." I have questioned since the beginning of this mess how the connection was arranged between this felon and an attorney - wondering what plea bargain StormPay must have made to have stooped to such a strategy, and what StormPay was accused of.

When the WSJ article appeared, it was easy to respond to the author of that article, which I did. Never got a response - no indication that any information I provided Mr. Maremont was received by him, WSJ has become "subscription only" now ... : ) - no Internet access without registration.

Mr. Barry Minkow, who is not an attorney but is a convicted felon, and author of "Cleaning Up" - the story of " ... America's most celebrated teenage business hero, his secret world of fraud and corruption, prison, redemption, and a personal crusade to pay back the millions he stole. "
- http://www.barryminkow.com

"Raised in a culturally Jewish family inside a modest Reseda house within the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, Minkow learned his business manners from his mother's job as a telemarketer. At the age of 15 while a high school sophomore he started his own carpet cleaning company, Zzzz Best, in his parents' garage in Reseda. From its humble beginnings in home carpet cleaning by a few employees, in four years it had 1,400 employees and had begun to specialize in insurance restoration business. His frequent television commercials in the Los Angeles market during 1986-7 featured the then young entrepreneur in business suit with tie, confidently extolling the superiority of Zzzz Best."

Minkow worked hard to form dozens of business contacts. His most important contact was Tom Padgett of Interstate Appraisal Services, an insurance claims adjuster who could get large restoration contracts. He was presented as a business success story in magazines and TV shows. Mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley declared a Barry Minkow Day. He lectured in business schools and contributed to Narcotics Anonymous. He had a Ferrari Testarossa and a mansion in Woodland Hills. Zzzz Best' stock rose to $18 (USD) a share on Wall Street, valuing the company at more than $280 million (USD).

However, behind the scenes his company was nothing more than a front to attract investment for a Ponzi scheme. Zzzz Best did not clean anywhere near as many carpets as claimed but generated a plausible paper trail to fool potential investors. Interstate Appraisal Services was formed as a separate company to support this fraud. Minkow raised money by factoring his accounts receivable for work under contract. One of the first contracts he received was from the Genovese Mafia family. He hired reputable accountants and lawyers to boost his image. Later, upon indictment, he claimed that he had intended to form a legitimate business empire and pay back everything, nobody being the wiser."


This is the same guy who called Charis Johnson's attorney from his Los Angeles "office" representing himself to be an attorney. No one at 12DP was aware at that time that StormPay had any office in Los Angeles, so 12DP attorney declined to give the caller any information on 12DP. Most often cited by StormPay as cause for freezing 12DP account was that 12DP would not disclose its business plan.

The anatomy of sleaze. How admirable that someone can pose as a redeemed crook, on a "mission" to pay back "the millions he stole" and do it by stealing more millions, or at least being complicit in the theft ? Only in America, eh ? Minkow may now be a private investigator, but he cannot be an attorney or teacher unless the rules have changed. At least now I understand why the SEC filing against 12DP was in Los Angeles.

John McConnell was quoted in the Leaf Chronicle saying, "McConnell said their records indicate the last payments from 12DailyPro operator Charis Johnson to members was Jan. 8." I received three payments from Charis on January 26 - says so right in my StormPay history. John continued, "When complaints of nonpayment came to StormPay later in January, company officials began to suspect something was wrong after Johnson was unable to answer questions about her business." ... while on another page, Leaf Chronicle reported: " ... Payments to 12DailyPro members continued through the end of January."

The Chronicle might be forgiven for being such a small community paper - not a large staff, focusing on community events. I have wondered how it came to report anything about StormPay. Tennessee state government's apparent reluctance to "enforce" laws and regulations on StormPay might be due to StormPays' having outsourced some of its functions to another country where Tennessee has no jurisdiction. I am following up on that now ...

new WSJ article ...

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB114117720115886022-lMyQjAxMDE2NDAxMTEwNzE3Wj.html

... and my response:

My head is fuzzy this morning, and my vision was harder to focus, even though I slept a little longer ... and my gut is still in a knot over the StormPay fiasco. So it is with the human condition. We can try to confine our decision making to our "good" days, yet even on "bad" days we still have to drive to work, when maybe someone else should be in the driver's seat, for safety of all concerned ...

A new Wall Street Journal article about "Online 'Autosurf' Scams" today made an attempt to cover the "legal angle" by saying :
"... some of which are legitimate businesses." As much as WSJ is trying to do us good service with a little CYA included, clearly focus is still on labelling the online autosurf industry as something to be avoided entirely.

Mark Maremont, author of the latest WSJ article, launches right into who was Charles Ponzi and how he became "famous" - yet Mr. Maremont has apparently still not done real research into what makes any autosurf (or any online business for that matter) a "legitimate business" any more than has Brent Hunsaker of Salt Lake City's ABC4 as far as I can determine.

Mr. Maremont focus is on " ... the recent collapse of one of the biggest paid autosurf sites, 12DailyPro.com" ... and I want to be fair to Maremont same as anyone else, but he does not mention that 12DP never failed to pay its members on time until StormPay.com froze 12DP's account(s) [January 28, 2006] Instead, he says "many investors in the site have turned their ire on StormPay." To me, that is biased reporting.

Maremont said, "A key part of 12DailyPro's operation relied on a small PayPal rival, StormPay Inc. of Clarksville, Tenn. Payments to and from the Web site were made via StormPay and a couple of other small online payment processors."

StormPay was only a "key part" of 12DP because StormPay, which had soaked up generous fees from the entire PTS industry for over two years, attempted to "corner" the PTS market by requiring PTS owners to do business with NO other payment processor, or not do business with StormPay.

Why no mention of that, Mr. Maremont ? Why no mention of the "small PayPal rival" purchasing commercial and private Real Estate and funding a local race track ? Is that fair reporting ?

One of the "small online payment processors" Maremont mentions happens to have gold reserves greater than some small countries. Is that informed reporting ?

"Amanda Pires, a PayPal spokeswoman" says, in regard to PTS sites, " ... these are "a new type of business we are just starting to see on the Web." " Another shuffling fabrication, since PTS activity has been supported by PayPal for over two years. Robert L. FitzPatrick is at least honest when he says PayPal is "trying to narrowly define a pyramid scheme because PayPal makes money every time there is a transaction."

Maremont continues, "Some investors put in as much as $6,000 every 12 days" but he says nothing about how much those "investors" took out (were paid) every 12 days (by 12DP), leading his readers to believe that no one got paid. Hello ? Again I ask, is that fair reporting ?

To say that 12DP "defrauded more than 300,000 people of more than $50 million" is utter nonsense which only serves to show how great is the divide between the Mark Maremonts and Randall Lees compared to the great majority of people worldwide looking to make alternative income - online or elsewhere. Most of those I know involved in "autosurf" do not have $6,000 to put at risk - not even once - but instead are working hard just to make a few dollars profit from what they can afford to spend. Those who do suddenly "jump on the PTS wagon" and deposit the maximum amount ($6,000 for 12DP) without even knowing what they are involved in have nothing to advertise and are, in fact, just greedy people looking for easy money.

Mark Maremont's so-called "reporting" is designed to support (at least not contradict) the so-called "findings" of SEC, suggesting that every 12DP member deposited the maximum amount, as anyone who can do simple math can see by the $50 million figure. That $50 million dollar figure has only one purpose in my opinion - to indict the entire autosurf industry.

Maremont again: "The agency last week moved to freeze funds controlled by the Charlotte, N.C., company that operated 12DailyPro, saying it had defrauded more than 300,000 people of more than $50 million." What he glosses over here is that 12DP's funds had been frozen since the end of January - by StormPay. Maremont does not mention (probably does not know) that StormPay, in fact, did not really freeze the funds in the sense that StormPay operators continued to move funds in and out of frozen accounts (not only autosurf accounts) throughout the whole month of February, at a time when, if there actually was legal action underway, NOT ONE CENT should have moved.

There is no mention in the article that every time StormPay moved funds, apparently as a unilateral StormPay decision, StormPay collected from 3% to 7% of amounts transferred. Again, simple math reveals that if StormPay illegally moved only one fifth of the "$50 million" then StormPay collected somewhere between $300,000 and $700,000 in fees for no reason other than that Mr. John McConnell and / or Mr. Steven Girsky DECIDED to move that $10 MILLION ... and we do not know how much they actually did move !

Yet apparently Mr. Maremont, and Mssrs Hunsaker and Lee still CANNOT see the real theft that has occurred while they are busy chasing their Pulitzers and whatever else motivates them to do what they do. The difference between $300,000 and $700,000 (or a lot more) collected by StormPay lies in how many people purchased NetIBA "certification" at $20 each - all proceeds from which, again, went to Girsky and McConnell.

Maremont's "Ponzi talk" seems to be based on sketchy "evidence" provided by SEC's Randall Lee which says very little of how 12DP actually operated, so Maremont has no basis for equating 12DP with Ponzi - once again, convicting by perception. Is this the way free and proud Americans must live now ?

Now maybe the truth is that 12DP was "almost a pure Ponzi scheme." I submit that none of us really know, and until it is decided in a court of law, as an American I am quite disgusted with an atmosphere of "guilt by association" that is being spread so that we, as Americans, can be kept under collective control - control which allows an entity like StormPay.com to quietly and "legally" collect money in a manner that is no more than outright THEFT from American consumers.

Some of us are questioning whether that theft, after StormPay's attempt to "corner" the market, was not "theft by design" - in other words, not just opportunity to take advantage of a bad situation created by SEC action, but a conscious move by StormPay owners to create the very situation in which such an "opportunity" would arise. If 12DP was even in part a Ponzi, then it would have failed on its own. If StormPay owners thought that was the case, all they had to do was to inform 12DP that StormPay would not act in processing 12DP exchanges, and StormPay could in that way have cleared itself of any wrongdoing.

If I am wrong about StormPay, then please, somebody show me the court order on which StormPay acted to move money - money that should have been FROZEN - from one account to another for an entire month, and in process, "lose" some of those tens of millions of dollars, for which StormPay has yet to show disposition.

So I leave it to you, the reader, to decide whether I am just spitting in the wind, or whether I have good reason to have a knot in my gut for trying to get StormPay shut down, and thouroughly investigated. I sincerely hope you will file a complaint against StormPay if you have losses there, and join us in class action against StormPay.

btw, by the time Mark Maremont does his third article on this mess, since he has opportunity to read what I write, do you think I should be sharing the byline ?

theoretically speaking ...

Let us theorize that I was an attorney, and the firm I worked for had requested my departure. Why ... ?

Well, because as an enterpriseing young lawyer, I had assisted my law partners in solving a problem - purchasing a piece of real estate.

Specifically, the building their practice was in.

Some time later, one of the other partners discovered the approach I used to raise money to purchase the building was not only highly unethical, but possibly very illegal ...

... and every partner's name was already on the documents. Messy situation ... but, everyone would keep their mouth shut, if I would just go away.

Now, let us say the old law firm had removed all indications I worked there.

Let us say that the building the law firm occupies now happenes to be owned by a real esate company.

Oddly, the initials of the RE company are almost identical to that of the law firm, except the real estate company has an extra letter at the end, which happens to be the first letter of my last name ...

The RE company does not seem to own any other property ... and the name of the RE company does not seem to appear in any state register ...

... which makes everything I have said just speculation, Your Honour.

Would you agree ? Just theory ?

My question is, would such a "theory" be sufficient motivation for an online entity to knowingly break the law if that "theory" had been discovered by someone who would "sing" about it ?

fairpatton.com on credibility ...

Today I remembered I still had a NetIBA banner on one of my sites, and I immediately removed it.

Rather than duplicate excellent work already done by John McCallum at fairpatton.com, I will quote from his site here:
.

" Is NetIBA really what it is cracked up to be, or is it a SCAM ???

When NetIBA first came on the market, I was of the firm opinion that here was a program which offered the consumer the protection they were so desperately seeking. I therefore joined the program and acquired a verified email address, I was also given a link to add a signature to my e-mail account. Here is a copy, for obvious reasons I have deleted my email address:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is a NetIBA validated email address. Certificate #568539E. Protect yourself against Internet fraud by downloading the FREE Consumer Protection Tool at www.netiba.com/?641.

Having received this signature I then contacted NetIBA to ask some questions as I could not find the answers on their web site.

I asked, in the event of a verified NetIBA Auto Surf web site obtaining monies by deception, would NetIBA assist NetIBA members who had become victims of a SCAM or FRAUD, and would NetIBA bring pressure to bear on Processors to help stop the fraudulent activities of the few.

NetIBA still has not answered my letters. In desperation I also posted a similar worded question on the NetIBA forum, to which I received no response. I will now outline why I believe “NetIBA is not what it is cracked up to be”.

As NetIBA has seen fit to ignore me as a member, I feel it is right to expose NetIBA for what I believe they are.

I have one web site and two e-mail addresses which are NetIBA certified. (I will NOT be renewing my membership with NetIBA, until NetIBA answer the questions I have asked. If and when NetIBA responds to the questions asked, fairpatton.com will most assuredly publish their reply) The only advantage that I see being a NetIBA subscriber is, I would be able to obtain a debit card from Stormpay as it is the requirements of Stormpay to be NetIBA certified, and receive the reduced fees that Sormpay have just introduced.

NetIBA advertised in the very beginning that they were strongly committed to stopping FRAUD. Well, words are cheap, actions determine credibility."

Please visit: http://www.fairpatton.com/stfrpa/nibasites.htm

Consumer Protection

Since I still see no indication that authorities on any level are investing the activities of StormPay, et al ... this morning I sent the following letter to my Oregon Congressman, Greg Walden, and to both Tennessee Senators, Lamar Alexander and William H. Frist:
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Without ever once providing evidence of a court order to do so, StormPay.com based in Clarksville, Tennessee, has unilaterally declared whole classes of online businesses illegal, and thus frozen the accounts of those businesses. It is my understanding that StormPay is not legally registered to do business in the State of Tennessee, and in fact, the owners of StormPay.com are under an order to cease and desist prior illegal activities regarding TymGlobal.com

Worse, StormPay zeroed out the accounts of many of its subscribers - even those who were not associated with targetted business classes. Subscribers' earnings from targetted businesses were sent back to the business' frozen account(s). Still worse, some subscriber's own funds, deposited to StormPay, which were never associated in any way with targetted businesses were also sent to the frozen accounts of targetted business in cases where the subscriber may have had a prior association with a targetted business.

No one other than StormPay currently has access to those funds.

Worst of all is that some funds belonging to StormPay's non-US subscribers are not accounted for at all - no record of those funds having been "charged back" or having been sent anywhere - no accounting for those funds at all, just an account balance of zero.

StormPay actions are now affecting many who are not nor ever were StormPay subscribers and who have no association with targetted businesses.

An associated business, NetIBA, claims to be a "third-party" verification service. A number of businesses "certified" by NetIBA have disappeared, taking massive funds with them.

I join those who demand all of StormPay, Inc activities and affairs, along with those of the associated business NetIBA, also based in Clarksville, Tennessee, both registered to Mr. John McConnell, be immediately placed in receivership to prevent any further theft from unsuspecting victims. Thank you.