Thread: Banners Broker HYIP ponzi scam

I'm an investor in BB....oops! sorry, not allowed to use that word as it's non-compliant!
I thought I'd give it a go and invested a small amount which I could afford to lose: I wrote off my money at the time I invested it.
After 4 months of monitoring BB, TalkingBB and Realscam, am convinced of BB being a huge scam. I had to work this out for myself.
TalkingBB is a sham forum which auto corrects words that it doesn't like. It will not allow criticism, it locks or removes posts that are not singing the praises of BB. There are two moderators. Ian Sheriff and Jamie Waters who I'd love to meet on a dark night!
Before I invested in BB I went to a meeting hosted by Ian Driscoll. My immediate opinion of him was that he was a low life scumbag, however, I was curious, so I put some money in. I'm not regretting what I did because I've profited from learning about MLM's and Ponzi scams. It has been educational and has added to my business knowledge.
What I'd like to know from this forum is how may I be able to report these crooks? I'm resident in the UK.
As far as I understand it, if you invest in a business then that business cannot change its terms of engagement without offering a refund. Furthermore, that business cannot close your account and seize your monies. When BB talk about compliance, surely this is non-compliant in any countries law??
If there is a UK authority that I may address this with, please forward me their details.

Originally Posted by Douglasdog

I'm an investor in BB....oops! sorry, not allowed to use that word as it's non-compliant!
I thought I'd give it a go and invested a small amount which I could afford to lose: I wrote off my money at the time I invested it.
After 4 months of monitoring BB, TalkingBB and Realscam, am convinced of BB being a huge scam. I had to work this out for myself.
TalkingBB is a sham forum which auto corrects words that it doesn't like. It will not allow criticism, it locks or removes posts that are not singing the praises of BB. There are two moderators. Ian Sheriff and Jamie Waters who I'd love to meet on a dark night!
Before I invested in BB I went to a meeting hosted by Ian Driscoll. My immediate opinion of him was that he was a low life scumbag, however, I was curious, so I put some money in. I'm not regretting what I did because I've profited from learning about MLM's and Ponzi scams. It has been educational and has added to my business knowledge.
What I'd like to know from this forum is how may I be able to report these crooks? I'm resident in the UK.
As far as I understand it, if you invest in a business then that business cannot change its terms of engagement without offering a refund. Furthermore, that business cannot close your account and seize your monies. When BB talk about compliance, surely this is non-compliant in any countries law??
If there is a UK authority that I may address this with, please forward me their details.

Hi Douglasdog, Welcome to Realscam. Great to have you here!
This is the link to UK fraudline:
Action Fraud | Report fraud and internet crime
Please let us know how you get on?

Yup, it's still down. I saw on Finch's site someone claim they (BB) have moved to an in-house server because they cannot get hosting elsewhere; I wonder if this is so?

Of course a professional company, honest, legit, run by an IT and Maths genius would be able to get proper, high-grade hosting, right?

Originally Posted by Douglasdog

I'm an investor in BB....oops! sorry, not allowed to use that word as it's non-compliant!
I thought I'd give it a go and invested a small amount which I could afford to lose: I wrote off my money at the time I invested it.
After 4 months of monitoring BB, TalkingBB and Realscam, am convinced of BB being a huge scam. I had to work this out for myself.
TalkingBB is a sham forum which auto corrects words that it doesn't like. It will not allow criticism, it locks or removes posts that are not singing the praises of BB. There are two moderators. Ian Sheriff and Jamie Waters who I'd love to meet on a dark night!
Before I invested in BB I went to a meeting hosted by Ian Driscoll. My immediate opinion of him was that he was a low life scumbag, however, I was curious, so I put some money in. I'm not regretting what I did because I've profited from learning about MLM's and Ponzi scams. It has been educational and has added to my business knowledge.
What I'd like to know from this forum is how may I be able to report these crooks? I'm resident in the UK.
As far as I understand it, if you invest in a business then that business cannot change its terms of engagement without offering a refund. Furthermore, that business cannot close your account and seize your monies. When BB talk about compliance, surely this is non-compliant in any countries law??
If there is a UK authority that I may address this with, please forward me their details.

Hey i'm pretty much in the same boat as you. Please do what i did and report the fraud here and you will be given a Crime Reference Number.

Action Fraud | Report fraud and internet crime

I am currently waiting on forms from Barclay's fraud team to claim back part of the money i invested. If you deposited by debit card within the last 120 days you may be able to claw back your money through a charge back claim. If you paid by credit card then it appears you have a greater possibility under the Section 75 law. Hope this helps.


Jamie

Originally Posted by Douglasdog

I'm an investor in BB....oops! sorry, not allowed to use that word as it's non-compliant!
I thought I'd give it a go and invested a small amount which I could afford to lose: I wrote off my money at the time I invested it.
After 4 months of monitoring BB, TalkingBB and Realscam, am convinced of BB being a huge scam. I had to work this out for myself.
TalkingBB is a sham forum which auto corrects words that it doesn't like. It will not allow criticism, it locks or removes posts that are not singing the praises of BB. There are two moderators. Ian Sheriff and Jamie Waters who I'd love to meet on a dark night!
Before I invested in BB I went to a meeting hosted by Ian Driscoll. My immediate opinion of him was that he was a low life scumbag, however, I was curious, so I put some money in. I'm not regretting what I did because I've profited from learning about MLM's and Ponzi scams. It has been educational and has added to my business knowledge.
What I'd like to know from this forum is how may I be able to report these crooks? I'm resident in the UK.
As far as I understand it, if you invest in a business then that business cannot change its terms of engagement without offering a refund. Furthermore, that business cannot close your account and seize your monies. When BB talk about compliance, surely this is non-compliant in any countries law??
If there is a UK authority that I may address this with, please forward me their details.

This link may be helpful. The Financial Services Authority have a register of dodgy companies as well. this page gives you instructions on how to report a scam and the FSA has a Helpline as well.

Scams and swindlesScams and swindles

Here we go again:

Some comments from unhappy affiliates over on the official BB FB site (apologies for cut and paste again!)



Website down again, no communication with you affiliates as to these on going problems, we are the first to do what we are told by BB Management. A simple facebook update, a simple tweet, not sure if you know this but this can all be done but a SMARTPHONE lying next to your bed or in your pocket. Please explain how we are meant to get new affiliates when we go to look at the website and file not found AGAIN. ITS BECOMING A JOKE
about an hour ago · Like

..OKAY this is 50/50 guys in terms of positive and negative.... and then again there is the realistic. The problem is NOT the amount of traffic packs, the problem is panel movement is unable to match future projections. If the rate of panel capping is too low then this is a busted flush. BUT if BB does manage to present the same rate as it was at Christmas time then it is all good. Its in the hands of BB....a company being greedy on profit margin at the expense of users will destroy the profit model.... Having an unstable platform is unprofessional but many novice companies have started off with great ideas and learned on the way. But a multi-million dollar company surely would be able to afford stable servers and a quick and easy transition in porting across. It is more than evident that there is another reason why the BB site is down and it is not technical..........there are two contenders for this, either BB is trying to put in longevity through growth forecasts and everything is hunky dory but unfortunately the BB Tech dept is run by inept technicians (and that scenario is quite plausible) or it really is a ponzi-scheme. As an optimist I think it is the former.....as a a realist.....
15 hours ago · Like

Cant login into my account -.- and the recover doesnt work too. never recieve the email. This is stupid
14 hours ago · Like

Good communication? we're on day three of being down - i would just love an eta of when it will be back up
Friday at 20:53 · Like · 1

Oh dear!

This made me laugh...

Closed | My Unofficial Banners Broker BlogMy Unofficial Banners Broker Blog | Make money with Banners Broker ?

Most appropriate!

Originally Posted by Della Cate

This made me laugh...

Closed | My Unofficial Banners Broker BlogMy Unofficial Banners Broker Blog | Make money with Banners Broker ?

Most appropriate!

Some interesting comments here & death threat already.

Bannersbroker.com - Is Banners Broker Down Right Now?

Originally Posted by Joe_Shmoe

Some interesting comments here & death threat already.

Bannersbroker.com - Is Banners Broker Down Right Now?

Yes indeed, Joe Shmoe. I found this by Steve McCarty interesting - here is an extract:-



To All:

Let see the new rule, which I also call April 1 (Crazy day) rule. 1/3 of panels have to be qualified using traffic other than TrafficPack. We have to use Organic traffic, traffic from referrals ....

If you do not have any referral, the only way to make great amount of Traffic is by blogging. As far I know, if blog article is approved, they will give you 1500 traffic for each blog you have submitted.

That is fine, if you account is small, but if your account is big, hehe, prepare your self to be a full time blogger if you want to keep your panels qualified.

Let see some math:

Imagine that currently you have 3 green, 3 blue and few other smaller panels that need to be qualified.

2 blue and 2 green can be qualified using Traffic Pack. after that, you cannot use traffic pack until you qualify 1 panel using other type of traffic, so actually from this point, no matter how many traffic pack you have accumulated.

So, we need to qualify 1 blue and 1 green panel, which need in total of 180000 traffic

180000 / 1500 = 120 blog article submission. That is 4 blog submission of at least 250 words every day.

No big deal :) we all can do this.

Now lets say your account is much bigger, so lets add 3 red and 3 black panel. Again 1 red and 1 black have to be qualified using traffic other than traffic pack:

1 red + 1 black = 1620000 traffic required / 1500 per blog = 1080 blog entry which is 36 blog / day

hmm, as far I see this getting more harder to do it since all blogs should be unique ....

And again, the example I have used was not even a big account. I know people with much bigger account than this.

He then does some further calculations and goes on to say:-


If we say that black finish in average 7 month, it will give you the need of 60 blog every day.

Can you do that? I mean every day?

Beside, BB cannot even keep up with a good server, so how the heck they are going to check and validate all these blog submission?

Well, quite. I fail to understand how anyone with an ounce of common sense cannot see through all this nonsense. I can only think that people are desperately wanting to believe because they have invested so much into it - time, money, emotion, hope etc.

Originally Posted by Della Cate

Yes indeed, Joe Shmoe. I found this by Steve McCarty interesting - here is an extract:-



To All:

Let see the new rule, which I also call April 1 (Crazy day) rule. 1/3 of panels have to be qualified using traffic other than TrafficPack. We have to use Organic traffic, traffic from referrals ....

If you do not have any referral, the only way to make great amount of Traffic is by blogging. As far I know, if blog article is approved, they will give you 1500 traffic for each blog you have submitted.

That is fine, if you account is small, but if your account is big, hehe, prepare your self to be a full time blogger if you want to keep your panels qualified.

Let see some math:

Imagine that currently you have 3 green, 3 blue and few other smaller panels that need to be qualified.

2 blue and 2 green can be qualified using Traffic Pack. after that, you cannot use traffic pack until you qualify 1 panel using other type of traffic, so actually from this point, no matter how many traffic pack you have accumulated.

So, we need to qualify 1 blue and 1 green panel, which need in total of 180000 traffic

180000 / 1500 = 120 blog article submission. That is 4 blog submission of at least 250 words every day.

No big deal :) we all can do this.

Now lets say your account is much bigger, so lets add 3 red and 3 black panel. Again 1 red and 1 black have to be qualified using traffic other than traffic pack:

1 red + 1 black = 1620000 traffic required / 1500 per blog = 1080 blog entry which is 36 blog / day

hmm, as far I see this getting more harder to do it since all blogs should be unique ....

And again, the example I have used was not even a big account. I know people with much bigger account than this.

He then does some further calculations and goes on to say:-


If we say that black finish in average 7 month, it will give you the need of 60 blog every day.

Can you do that? I mean every day?

Beside, BB cannot even keep up with a good server, so how the heck they are going to check and validate all these blog submission?

Well, quite. I fail to understand how anyone with an ounce of common sense cannot see through all this nonsense. I can only think that people are desperately wanting to believe because they have invested so much into it - time, money, emotion, hope etc.

This is obvious madness! But what is about running the Campaigns? I See people posting their links and asking friends to click. With each click they receive traffic. Does does anybody know how this is supposed to work? How much hits per click? Can it work at all?

Originally Posted by theguardianuno

Quick update on the Simon Stepsys selling panels for direct cash

If anyone ever needed confirmation Banners Broker is all over bar the shouting, this is it.

When insiders start selling the imaginary products of a HYIP ponzi fraud for cash, you just KNOW the end has arrived.

It's happened with every "next big thing" HYIP ponzi since way back before P.I.P.S.

Read back on the history of Zeek Rewards and you'll see the exact same selloff of "bids" for cash by the insiders just before the crash came.

Originally Posted by littleroundman

If anyone ever needed confirmation Banners Broker is all over bar the shouting, this is it.

When insiders start selling the imaginary products of a HYIP ponzi fraud for cash, you just KNOW the end has arrived.

It's happened with every "next big thing" HYIP ponzi since way back before P.I.P.S.

Read back on the history of Zeek Rewards and you'll see the exact same selloff of "bids" for cash by the insiders just before the crash came.

LRM, think you have answered my question?

So are you saying that if I had, hypothetically speaking, a blue panel , showing as valued at 10,000 on my BB page, I could offer that panel to you at a discount of say 50% / 5k? I would take your 5k cash and transfer the panel ( which I know to be just a number on a screen) to your BB account therefore giving you the belief that you now had this imaginary money working for you? Meanwhile I m 5k richer?

Originally Posted by Brenda

LRM, think you have answered my question?

So are you saying that if I had, hypothetically speaking, a blue panel , showing as valued at 10,000 on my BB page, I could offer that panel to you at a discount of say 50% / 5k? I would take your 5k cash and transfer the panel ( which I know to be just a number on a screen) to your BB account therefore giving you the belief that you now had this imaginary money working for you? Meanwhile I m 5k richer?

Got it in one, Brenda.

That's EXACTLY how it works.

Originally Posted by littleroundman

Got it in one, Brenda.

That's EXACTLY how it works.

so now I'm thinking that Simon no more left the BB gala pretendy thingy in Bolton because of illness but instead as soon as he got a sniff of v2.9 went running like a journalist with a scoop, straight for the hills to work out how to maximize the opportunity for him! He knew it was going to be a sh!tshow!

Over on Finch's site, Ken Roklin has posted this, very sensible, advice which is worth repeating for the benefit of any BB affiliates who check out this site (and I bet there are some!) Bold is mine.

This is worth repeating as I see posters stating they invested money they couldn’t afford to lose in these scams. When being offered “new opportunities to double your money in a short time” read the following tips and see if any one of them applies to the “opportunity”.

By:

“Jeffrey S. Posta
Member of the Bankruptcy & Creditor’s Rights Group

Here are some tips to recognize or prevent these schemes:

1. Exaggerated earnings claims should be scrutinized, especially when there seems to be no real underlying product sales or investment profits. The plan could be a Ponzi scheme where money from later recruits pays off earlier ones. Eventually this program will collapse.

2. Offers of commissions for recruiting new distributors are suspect, particularly when there is no product involved or when there is a separate, up-front membership fee. At the same time, do not assume that the presence of a purported product or service removes all danger.

3. In the sale of a product or service, check to see whether its price is inflated, whether new members must buy costly inventory, or whether members make most “sales” to other members, rather than the general public. The presence of any of these conditions may indicate that the purported “sale” of the product or service hides a pyramid scheme that promotes an endless chain of recruiting and inventory loading.

4. Claims of a secret plan, overseas connection or special relationship that is difficult to verify, are suspect. Charles Ponzi claimed that he had a secret method of trading and redeeming millions of postal reply coupons. The real secret was that he stopped redeeming them and used new money to pay old investors.

5. Delays in meeting commitments while asking members to “keep the faith” are a red flag. Many pyramid schemes advertise that they are in the “pre-launch” stage, yet they never can and never do launch. Pyramid schemes can never fulfill their obligations to a majority of their participants by definition. To survive, they need to keep and attract as many members as possible. Promoters will try to appeal to a sense of community or solidarity, while criticizing outsiders or skeptics.

6. Hi-tech or newly deregulated markets are prime territory for these schemes. Every investor wants to become wealthy overnight, but most hi-tech ventures are risky and yield substantial profits only after years. Similarly, deregulated markets can offer substantial benefits to investors and consumers, but deregulation seldom means that no rules apply, and that a pyramid or Ponzi scheme is suddenly legitimate.

7. Regular field audits should be completed by a trusted, independent third party.

8. The third party should scrutinize even the most trustworthy of customers as closely as it would a suspicious person or entity.

9. Do not rely solely on records provided by a company or its so-called captive accounting firm. Independent accountants should verify the information; the added cost may save you millions.

Ponzi and pyramid schemes rely on funds from new investors to pay returns, commissions or bonuses to old investors. Both require an inexhaustible supply of new investors to be sustained, since neither has a profitable product nor an effort to make a profit through real work. They have been around a long time and show no sign of slowing down. Do not become yet another victim.”

Originally Posted by littleroundman

Got it in one, Brenda.

That's EXACTLY how it works.

Isn't that, um, like money laundering? Tax avoidance at the very least? I mean, how can you sell a virtual product for actual money?

If true, isn't this now getting to be a matter warranting Police investigation?

I'm very naive about this sort of thing, never having encountered it before I came across BB. I never "believed" in BB myself, I thought it was all rubbish from the very first; but from what people have been alledging recently, it goes way, way beyond selling people something that cannot be proved to exist. I feel like a big stone has been overturned and some very nasty things have come crawling out!

Originally Posted by Della Cate

Isn't that, um, like money laundering? Tax avoidance at the very least? I mean, how can you sell a virtual product for actual money?

If true, isn't this now getting to be a matter warranting Police investigation?

I'm very naive about this sort of thing, never having encountered it before I came across BB. I never "believed" in BB myself, I thought it was all rubbish from the very first; but from what people have been alledging recently, it goes way, way beyond selling people something that cannot be proved to exist. I feel like a big stone has been overturned and some very nasty things have come crawling out!

Now you know why REALSCAM.com exists.

It is all you have described, and more.

You name it, fraud, mail fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, conspiracy, it's in there.

Think about it. Zeek Rewards passed $600 MILLION through it's accounts (that is known about so far)

That is SIX HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS.

Unregulated, untaxed, unreported and ended up who knows where.

Does anyone REALLY know where the proceeds of Banners Broker ended up ???

A couple of good ol' boys playing harmless gambling games, my a**

Originally Posted by Della Cate

Isn't that, um, like money laundering? Tax avoidance at the very least? I mean, how can you sell a virtual product for actual money?

If true, isn't this now getting to be a matter warranting Police investigation?

I'm very naive about this sort of thing, never having encountered it before I came across BB. I never "believed" in BB myself, I thought it was all rubbish from the very first; but from what people have been alledging recently, it goes way, way beyond selling people something that cannot be proved to exist. I feel like a big stone has been overturned and some very nasty things have come crawling out!

Every method of extracting money from BB constitutes money laundering....

There is something I just can't get my head around, how could any introducer have sold panels or membership to BB and kept the cash?

Surely any newly joined affiliate would have had access to their accounts in line with BB which would have contained their investment details, panel movement etc?

I just can't figure where the opportunity arose for anyone to siphon off cash or certainly any amounts worth being caught for!

Originally Posted by Brenda

There is something I just can't get my head around, how could any introducer have sold panels or membership to BB and kept the cash?

Surely any newly joined affiliate would have had access to their accounts in line with BB which would have contained their investment details, panel movement etc?

I just can't figure where the opportunity arose for anyone to siphon off cash or certainly any amounts worth being caught for!

Stick around the HYIP ponzi scene a little bit longer, Brenda, and you'll be amazed at what happens.

Banners Broker have imposed impossible conditions on members WRT their "panels" growth.

Snakes like Simon Stepsys are only too glad to offer a helping hand to any members desperate enough to pay for such help.

Over the coming days or weeks, you'll see many offers on the usual suspect HYIP ponzi forums of "panels" for sale at a massive discount in cash only sales.

It should also be remembered that "insiders" have little or no money of their own in these things.

Their income comes in the main from recruitment commissions and kickbacks from those behind the HYIP ponzi du jour

That would be kickbacks in the form of "panels" or "adpacks" or "bids" or whatever form of imaginary product is featured on the "next big thing" of the moment.

Evert cent made by Slippery Simon and his ilk from the sale of "panels" can be considered to be pure profit.

* He didn't pay for them in the first place

* In reality, they don't even exist.

In fact, here's a perfect example of how it works, from the P.I.P.S. HYIP ponzi fraud back in 2005.

The fraudsters behind P.I.PS. created a virtual currency to facilitate such transfers between members.

Here's an exchange between members on one of the usual suspect HYIP ponzi forums just before P.I.P.S went belly up:



(BTW, E-Gold was the HYIPers payment processor of choice at the time. It was shortly after this time it was busted and those behind it prosecuted by the USDOJ)

yes brenda, well what they do is instead off the new affiliate depositing money into their e-wallet they buy the package for them and the panels and then transfer them to the new affiliate.The affiliate pays then directly to the transferer ... they get the money instead of BB ...
you only can transfer unqualified packs and panels .... so for expample you can say i have here 100 unqualified yellows at 10$ = 1000$ i transfer them to you for 750$ :D

Banners Broker - training - Transfer a Panel or Package - YouTube

i know they have changed the rules in transfering the packages but can't remember what and can't log in to check :D

kind regards
brenie

Originally Posted by brenie

i know they have changed the rules in transfering the packages but can't remember what and can't log in to check :D

kind regards
brenie

To be entirely correct, that should read:

i know they have pretended to have changed the rules in transfering the packages but can't remember what and can't log in to check

It should be remembered, NONE of this is real.

NONE of it exists.

There ARE no rules.

"RULES" are exactly like "PANELS"

They exist only in the minds and on the screens of members

Those behind Banners Broker couldn't give a damn if people transfer panels, they only want to make members THINK they care.

They want people to THINK Banners Broker is a legitimate business whose owners do care.