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 ?
... 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 ?
posted by JamesB at 9:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home