No Bullshit HYIP Blog, A Part of No Bullshit Network

Last spring, a web site called 12dailyPro.com began offering viewers an amazing financial deal: a 12% daily return on membership fees. (We all know the story and how it all started). But we didn’t know that the federal and state authorities were investigating 12dailyPro and other sites making similar offers. 12dailyPro being the biggest in the industry was the target for investigators. The sites have drawn scrutiny amid a widening law-enforcement focus on Internet crimes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has made Internet fraud the agency’s third-highest priority, after counterterrorism and counterintelligence, and says its Internet Crimes Complaint Center received 207,000 complaints in 2004, up 66% from the prior year. However, there was only a small percentage of those that were investment frauds.
Peter Norell, a securities-fraud supervisor at the FBI’s Los Angeles office says ” We are definitely seeing a bunch more scams on the Internet which allows criminals a measure of anonymity and the ability to operate from anywhere. Autosurfing sites can in theory be legitimate,but often are straight ripoffs.

Members of 12dailyPro were promised 12% daily returns. The actual returns were far less, since the amount returned by the company included the initial fee paid by members. A member who invested $600.00, for instance, would be credited 12 days later with $864.00. Because $600.00 of that included the original investment, the actual return was $264.00, or 44% over the 12-day period. This is an average of 3.67% a day - still more than any bank would pay.
One customer of the site was Mike Wing, an unemployed bookkeeper in Grand Ledge, Mich., who said he heard about 12dailyPro from a business contact in December and decided to give it a spin. “I was chasing a dream”, he sail. “I was looking at making $700.00 to $1,000.00 a week.” Tapping into his Individual Retirement Account, Mr. Wing said, he initially put in $1,000.00 then added $1,000.00 a week later. After getting paid his return on the first investment, he plowed in more and eventually recruited 10 Internet acquaintances to join 12DailyPro. The site promises members who recruit others a share of the newcomers earnings. Mr Wing said he worried that “something was not quite right” about the high interest rate but was attracted by the stories of big payouts to others. Then, last week, a $1,700.00 payment he was expecting didn’t come through. A few days later, 12dailyPro announced its funds had been frozen. “I feel like an idiot,” he said ” I won’t ever get back into the autosurf” business.

Another investor, Ryan Hartman, a Houston lawyer, sent LifeClicks a threatening letter on Feb. 7th demanding $1,432.24– what he said was his $996.00 initial investment made in late December plus 44% interest over 12 days, based on the returns offered by the site, or he would commence a lawsuit.

The story continues with more stories of people loosing their money to 12dailypro and other get paid to surf sites, But here is where the story really starts.

There is a key figure in the spotlight named Barry Minkow. Barry launched his own investigation of 12dailyPro in December, later contacting the Fbi and Stormpay, based in Clarksville, Tenn.. Stormpay conducted their own audit and later suspended funds from what they called Ponzi/pyramid schemes.

Barry Minkow is no stranger to Crime. Before he was even old enough to drink, he had bank accounts, a Ferrari, a mansion, a multi-million dollar corporation, and a desperate little secret. It was all a lie. Barry made headlines for being the youngest person in United States business history to take a company public through an S-1 registration statement before he was 21 years old. However, his company ZZZZ Best.Co. Inc. (which at one time had a $300 million dollar public stock evaluation) was built on fraud and deceit. Barry Minkow was able to secure three clean audit opinions from two seperate accounting firms, a cold comfort letter on the ZZZZ Best Co., Inc. registration statement from a large , prestigious Wall Street law firm, another quarterly review and cold comfort letter from a Big 8 accounting firm. He amassed over $20 million in loans from 15 different banks, including three investment banks and several private individuals- all for a company whose actual revenues were 90% less than what they reported and who never earned a profit in the five years ZZZZ Best Co.. Inc. was in business (October 1982 to July 1987).
Unlike most white-collar criminals, Barry Minkow did not receive a slap on the wrist and an 18-month stay at a golf course prison camp for his crimes. He spent seven years in maximum and medium security facilities.Since his release from prison, Barry has traveled the country speaking to law enforcement agencies like the FBI, pubilc accounting firms, the Institute of Internal Auditors, private business, and even the Pentagon. His subject matter varies from disclosing the techniques perpetrators use to deceive their victims to the methodology of curcumventing current due diligence, to the psychology of fraud. Barry Minkow also earned a Masters of Divinity Degree from Liberty University and serves as the senior pastor of Community Bible Church in San Diego, California ( March 1997 to present) For the last 12 years, Barry has made monthly restitution payments to the victims of the ZZZZ Best Co. fraud. He is also the co-founder of the Fraud Discovery Institute where he uncovered over a billion dollars worth of investment scams.

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