Thread: Awareness of Fraud & Scams

This is a forum I have in Adland. Okay, I know how most of you feel about that one. Please bare with me. Since it is a cesspool of where people advertise their fraudulent programs, I wish to keep members informed.

If those of you who could help me with exposing more of them, I would be happy to post it in Adland. I like the social community and Bogdan Fiedur, I would not like to see it close down. Sorry, but that is 'honestme'. What I would like to do is keep members aware of what is happening and things they need to avoid.

All I can do is give them the information, if they choose to ignore it, then it is their neck/wallet.

Here is the link to one of My Forums.

honestme11:

While I admire your wanting to provide information to those at the Adland forum, why would any of us give you the information so you can go post it? We would just go there and post it ourselves?

Sounds to me like you don't want to do the research yourself, but instead want it handed to you on a silver platter for you to post. The information is out there. How do you think we all find it? So go get it and post it on whatever thread at Adland you want to warn people.

If you think that if you say the info came from someone else believing that will keep you from being banned, think again. They don't care where the information is coming from, it is who is posting it that will get banned. Especiallly if the scammer is paying big bucks to have his program advertised there, which they are paying.

So I don't think you are going to get any takers of people giving you information so you can then go and post it yourself. But this is just me talking, and I don't speak for anyone else.

Honestme11. They may sound like harsh words from EagleOne but he has been actively and effectively scam busting for many years and knows the score. Whilst one can have a certain sympathy for you in your wish to keep AdlandPro as a happy social place , it is not possible to separate the Happy Place from the place where scams are advertised. They are one and the same. Perhaps is hasnt crossed your mind that the advertising and memberships from the scams finance the non-income generating fun stuff. The owner is no newbie and knows this. If scams are there it is because they are permitted. Eagle is certainly right on the money when he tells you that posting other peoples links wont protect you from banning, if they dont like the content of the your posts. We have all seen naysayers eased out of Adland many times over the years.

I will however agree to (respectfully) disagree with EagleOne insofar as I can't see any reason that we shouldn't provide additional details about WHY these programs are scams for you to post on Adland, although you can do some homework yourself so that you can post information. Googling the name of the program and "scam" usually produces some interesting data.

Originally Posted by EagleOne

honestme11:

While I admire your wanting to provide information to those at the Adland forum, why would any of us give you the information so you can go post it? We would just go there and post it ourselves?

Sounds to me like you don't want to do the research yourself, but instead want it handed to you on a silver platter for you to post. The information is out there. How do you think we all find it? So go get it and post it on whatever thread at Adland you want to warn people.

If you think that if you say the info came from someone else believing that will keep you from being banned, think again. They don't care where the information is coming from, it is who is posting it that will get banned. Especiallly if the scammer is paying big bucks to have his program advertised there, which they are paying.

So I don't think you are going to get any takers of people giving you information so you can then go and post it yourself. But this is just me talking, and I don't speak for anyone else.

Thank you EO. I am sorry but I don't want the 'glory' from making the post, just information that is worthy to inform and not to link to you or anyone else except the main sources (SEC, FTC, StopFraud, etc.)

I understand from the following post that you have been doing this a long time. I have just started. No, I do not expect anyone to do the work for me. I have spent a considerable amount of time online doing research.

Of course you can go there and post it, I don't think you will be banned but I don't know. Usually it is spammers/scammers who get banned and the girlie pics. Or some members who tend to get real mouthy with other members.

Actually, you can probably see I have spent a bit of time on here searching through forums trying to find out what you guys already know.

Thanks for your input.

Originally Posted by honestme11

Thank you EO. I am sorry but I don't want the 'glory' from making the post, just information that is worthy to inform and not to link to you or anyone else except the main sources (SEC, FTC, StopFraud, etc.)

I understand from the following post that you have been doing this a long time. I have just started. No, I do not expect anyone to do the work for me. I have spent a considerable amount of time online doing research.

Of course you can go there and post it, I don't think you will be banned but I don't know. Usually it is spammers/scammers who get banned and the girlie pics. Or some members who tend to get real mouthy with other members.

Actually, you can probably see I have spent a bit of time on here searching through forums trying to find out what you guys already know.

Thanks for your input.

After reading what I wrote (should have done it before posting) I can see where my comments came off rather harsh. I didn't intend for it to sound that way. I do applaud you for wanting to "educate" those on Adland forums about scams and why they are scams.

I also realize that sometimes it requires a "different" messenger to warn people. I think if you visit a lot of the threads here at Realscam, you will soon learn and know the "how's" of these scams and the "why's" they are scams. Information that you can post at Adland.

I did not mean to discourage you from your efforts, and I do applaud you for wanting to help others. Nor did I mean to imply you would take credit for others comments or information. For myself, I don't care how much of my information is used by others to warn people on other forums. I highly encourage it. Sometimes it is better received coming from others than coming from me.

So don't give up in your quest to help. We need more like you warning people. If you have a specific program in mind, post it and you will get all the comments you need to help you warn others. I apologize I sounded so harsh in my previous post. That was not my intent. All the best.

Originally Posted by WishfulThinking

Honestme11. They may sound like harsh words from EagleOne but he has been actively and effectively scam busting for many years and knows the score. Whilst one can have a certain sympathy for you in your wish to keep AdlandPro as a happy social place , it is not possible to separate the Happy Place from the place where scams are advertised. They are one and the same. Perhaps is hasnt crossed your mind that the advertising and memberships from the scams finance the non-income generating fun stuff. The owner is no newbie and knows this. If scams are there it is because they are permitted. Eagle is certainly right on the money when he tells you that posting other peoples links wont protect you from banning, if they dont like the content of the your posts. We have all seen naysayers eased out of Adland many times over the years.

I will however agree to (respectfully) disagree with EagleOne insofar as I can't see any reason that we shouldn't provide additional details about WHY these programs are scams for you to post on Adland, although you can do some homework yourself so that you can post information. Googling the name of the program and "scam" usually produces some interesting data.

WT, I would like to also thank you for commenting. It is true that I don't really 'fit' here because I like the Happy Places Yes, it has 'crossed my mind' about where the money comes from, I am not as dumb as I look. I am also not Blonde! Just consider my dumbness as being GREEN at this. I want to learn this info quicker than I have time to spend online and I just thought by trying to learn what some of you already know would speed it up. I do not want the praise and would not link directly back to you as a source. It would have to be something official.

One thing about Google that I heard on the news and we need to be aware of, when we google something, we might get the wrong results on the 1st page. It seems hackers have been able to break through and make the front page of Google now. It might be harder now to really find what you are looking for. I have registered with several scambusting groups to receive updates. Mainly government agencies...

Yes, information is what I am looking for but if people don't want to share, I can't see how that helps this community do what I thought it was trying and that is to stop as much scam and fraud as possible.

Honestme,

I know that you are sincere in your belief that Bogdon is not aware of the scams and scammers that have flooded his community in the last year. I believe that Bogdan can not keep his community alive without revenue from scammers and anarchists. I think he is deliberately protecting people like Jill Bachman and Franchisco DeJesus.

Anybody who tries to bring scammers down at Adland gets themselves banned but there are two exeptions to this erstwhile rule.

1) I did my best to warn Adlanders about scams when I returned after a three year break. I set up a forum entitled "Who Is Metaphorically Screwing Whom in Cybersspace" Who Is Metaphorically Screwing whom in Hyperspece | View Forum | AdlandPro Community

I made a post on the PatrickPretty blog to say that I had been banned from Adland and that this forum had been deleted. Miracle of miracles, the site was reinstated and most of my comments have been restored. I have been too disgusted by events at Adland to post again but anybody from RealScam can make posts on this forum and I do not think any posts will be deleted. Bogdan has more sense than to delete information which is held by PatrickPretty.

2) Your forum will not be deleted and you will not be banned at Adland because Bogdan is well aware that information recorded by Lynne and scam busters here is too hot for him to play sillyBs.

Think you are overreacting a little HM. You need to understand that not everyone here shares your rosy view of AdlandPro. I stopped going there a long time ago, as I got sick of the pages being full of scams, cheerleading and personal attacks, whilst the owner kept protesting that it was a business community.

Ironically, when I was dumb enough to fall for a scam, AdlandPro was a great source of recruits. I would love to be able to go back and post not only my apologies to anyone who joined AdSurfDaily with me, but also the truth about that program and the consequent prosecution, but I also know that it will be deleted by the owner who does not tolerate dissent, especially when it's true.

Unfortunately, as Wishful has already said, in AdlandPro the bad goes with the good, and finances the latter. It is impossible to have one without the other now. The "good old days" when web site design and promotion advice were available to members by other members have long gone.

Google is not such a bad source of information. You simply have to be discriminating. The Government sites are great for scams already stopped or in the process of prosecution, but there are many many more that fly under the radar or simply haven't been stopped yet. These will not appear on the official pages and it is our job to bring them to light and report them. Government resources are simply inadequate to discover even half of them.

I am not sure I understand your statement: "It is true that I don't really 'fit' here because I like the Happy Places." What exactly are the Happy Places?

There are several reasons that I like this forum, personally. I find it to be very positive. First off the Mods. Mom, LRM, Ann and Glim. They are very well respected and do an incredible job. We also have a little history together. The posters. The best of what used to be on Scam for the most part have come here.

This place does not allow scammers to come and use it for a venue to try and recruit and bilk people nor to advertise their latest and greatest floportunity. The owner and Glim and SMB as the admins especially, have made it a point to bend over backwards for the members, add features, listen to comments and enact the things that members would like to see here. It is rare to find that on other forums on the net. Very rare and very much appreciated and part of what makes this place a team effort, a family, unique and the great and ever growing and evolving forum that it is. The owner and the admins and Mods actually give a rats and are very active.

We had some real growing pains in the beginning, believe me. We had some scum from scam that came here and started all kinds of flame wars and negatively because we all bailed from that cesspool and because of all the b.s. that went on there for so long. It wasn't pretty. But that is all far behind us now and every month, things continue to get better here and we continue to move forward in a positive direction. We have shaken the dust off our feet as some should probably start to do with other places where they are indeed wasting their time. Sometimes it is better to simply move on and leave the garbage on the pile behind instead of jumping into it head first or hoping the the garbage collectors will at come and dotheir job and that things will change. I know that this isn't easy after investing time and effort, but at some point reality has to hit home. We have all been there.

This place new as it is, gets a fair amount of attention on the net, again due to the owner's efforts. We are growing and will keep growing. I find this place a haven, frankly from all the other so called scam sites, with a few exceptions. Very few, like Quatloos which is excellent and Patrick Pretty and the work at Eagle (outstanding). Most sites have no interest in protecting coonsumers, being honest, not taking money from scammers, not letting scammer advertise their scams and I don't find them worth ten minutes of my time. That would include Talk Gold, Adland and certainly Scam.

This is not a full time mission for me. I have a business to run, activities/hobbies, a family, freinds and a life. I only have so much time to research and discuss various subjects on here. I think most people, are in the same boat and a few have their own sites. Therefore, I concentrate my efforts and I am dedicated fully to seeing this forum succeed. I am not the least bit interested in ever posting on other forums to enlighten others about scams, therefore. If people are not bright enough to do some research and due diligence before they turn over their hard earned cash to fraudsters, that is their problem to deal with. If they do some searching on the net, many searches will lead them here.

I am more interested in getting new members to continure to come to this forum, and I certainly will not be posting info that would be taken to another forum and used there as I kinda consider that a slap in the face to this forum. I don't mean that info should not be shared but it's no one's job here to do the research into scams for another forum or for members of other forums. My energies and efforts are directed here and only here. I only post here and a couple of aviation forums that I have been a member of for many years and that's it. I have loyalty. Especially to SBM.

You either have to do the research yourself to counter scams or invite people here where we will be more than happy to help them. They will get our best efforts, the truth and not a snow job either. That would be a win, win for everyone, as I see it. They will be free to post and ask questions and free to get the truth without the fear of being banned and they will have some fun hopefully and meet new people. We don't like or need melodrama and soap operas here and try our best to quell such behavior and not encourage it, like you see on other forums. We like to get along and we all make an effort to fit in and manage to do a pretty good job of that.

As I have mentioned before, it takes a while to get the feel of a forum when you join it, get to know the members/posters etc. That is why the off topic from scams forums that we have and were graciously recently added, do such a great job of that and I find them a lot of fun, entertaining and often informative. It's a good way to break the ice and get to know others on here. I like them and pm with people also. Everything in life requires a positive attitude and an effort. We get back, what we put out there, eventually.

People on here are more than willing to share, but we do that here for the most part. We are trying to build up this forum and make it a safe place where people can come and get the honest truth and perhaps some education. I think you should be able to understand this. We are a community, right here. Many of us don't feel that we need to be posting elsewheres and many of us do not have the time, especially on forums that cater to scam artists and let them run amok. Big waste of time. We have freedom here that you will not find on other forums and don't have the nonsense of being banned for speaking the truth or not being the favorite, or worrying about being banned. Why would we want to go to a place like that? lol I know I don't. I don't have the patience or time for that kind of nonsense to begin with.

Again, you can pm whoever you want to on any forum and invite them here. I hope you take the opportunity to do just that.

Just so you will know, a few years back, scammers caught on to others trying to look up info on their floportunities and they now use key words such as "Scam", "Rip-off" and "Phony" and other such like words in the titles or subject matter of their posts and home pages to promote their garbage and throw people off. One has to search through several pages to get to the meat, use many resources, serach blogs and forums, sites where you can track website owners and much more justt to stay abreast of them these days and get to the truth. This is nothing new, this tactic has been going on for a few years now. Scammers are slime, but they aren't all stupid.

So for me, this place is exactly what other forums should be more like, will never be like and wishing that they were, will simply not make it so. It's just not going to happen. That is why this forum was created. I celebrate that and that is what I call a Happy Place. Believe me, after Scam and what I have seen/read on Talk Gold, Adland. the MLM forum and other many sites over time, this place is paradise. lol

I guess ALA is sort of right when he says that this is indeed a Happy Place. It gets my vote because no one here is ever going to be sold a scam by their "best internet friend" and the non scam forums here are good fun, even if everyone is not as verbose as ALA

Everyone is welcome to come over here from Adland or wherever they like to ask questions about the programs they are being invited to join, or have already joined. Some of the finest scambusters on the net are to be found here and there are experienced posters from scam, Talk Gold and Patrick Pretty's blog and many other places to help answer questions.

No one has any problem with people posting links to this forum on other forums. They can come over here and read the information and may even find information about other programs they were curious about at the same time.

The team here have worked very hard to build up Real Scam from nothing and to do their stuff with SEO so that information can be found on the net. Links back to it are great. Copying short comments posted here may be ok,(SBM? Glim?) as long the source (realscam.com) is given.

You seem very keen to help stop fraudulent schemes at AdlandPro which is all to your credit, and there is no harm in acknowledging your source of information. Believe me, it will give it even greater credibility. Some of the newbies over there may not recognize the names here, but believe me, the scammers that promote them will do.

Originally Posted by WishfulThinking

Honestme11. They may sound like harsh words from EagleOne but he has been actively and effectively scam busting for many years and knows the score. Whilst one can have a certain sympathy for you in your wish to keep AdlandPro as a happy social place , it is not possible to separate the Happy Place from the place where scams are advertised. They are one and the same. Perhaps is hasnt crossed your mind that the advertising and memberships from the scams finance the non-income generating fun stuff. The owner is no newbie and knows this. If scams are there it is because they are permitted. Eagle is certainly right on the money when he tells you that posting other peoples links wont protect you from banning, if they dont like the content of the your posts. We have all seen naysayers eased out of Adland many times over the years.

I will however agree to (respectfully) disagree with EagleOne insofar as I can't see any reason that we shouldn't provide additional details about WHY these programs are scams for you to post on Adland, although you can do some homework yourself so that you can post information. Googling the name of the program and "scam" usually produces some interesting data.

I am involved in a forum that tracks Traves Brownlee - the con artist behind GEG - and have met EagleOne in person. He is dedicated to shutting down these scams. Information is power and the more information out there about how these scams work, the better for the "suckers" (like me) who are too trusting or don't do their due diligence before investing.

But I believe the reason the why scams are scams aren't posted is because it's too easy to glean the hows of a scam and start your own. P.T. Barnum was right and there are a lot of minutes in a day. Deconstructing a scam can be time-consuming insofar as details go, but the easiest thing to do is see who gets paid, how much and when, then do the math. Almost all of the time, it won't add up. Check with their sources (if they're trading, the trades will show up on the markets in which they're trading). If they're doing any kind of futures trading or Forex, and do business in the United States, you can can also check with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to see if they have the required license to trade for U.S. customers.

Why a scam is a scam isn't really that important in my book. The defense of these "programs" is that "the rich and powerful don't want you to become rich and powerful". I agree they don't but if this is why they urge you to keep "below the radar", it's a scam. If the program is legitimate, they will actively encourage you to investigate them, and encourage you to use your OWN sources rather than trust to theirs. A hell of a lot of people with ill intentions are out there promoting scams in which they've invested early, reap a big profit and from which they will withdraw early to avoid losing money. If they can get innocents to go out and spread the word, even better for them.

But if there's even a HINT that it's a scam, it should be put up and announced that it is. In today's economy, there's no excuse for a program to not be utterly transparent and above board. I'm less interested in why a scam is a scam these days. It's enough for me to know it may have issues. That will make people do their due diligence through their own sources and find out for themselves (just as the person you were responding to should do).

The forum I'm on doesn't allow ANY advertising of ANY "programs". It's there to get Brownlee and his crew - or at least provide the blow by blow once the wheels of justice move on them.

But there are far too many scams out there, with far too few investigators and way, way too many people willing to trust an Internet connection to make money with. I learned my lesson the hard way. I won't be taken like that again. So to the user who want's to keep your forum a safe place to post ads, yes, warn them it's a scam and encourage your members and visitors to do their due diligence and find out for themselves. Provide some means and methods of doing that - but NO LINKS. Tell them to Google things, contact authorities and legitimate traders and research what they're putting their money into BEFORE they put their money into it. THAT service is invaluable and if you do it ENOUGH, the scammers will find your forum a bad place to advertise, leave it and you will have the kind of forum you wanted to have in the first place.

Originally Posted by path2prosperity

Honestme,

I know that you are sincere in your belief that Bogdon is not aware of the scams and scammers that have flooded his community in the last year. I believe that Bogdan can not keep his community alive without revenue from scammers and anarchists. I think he is deliberately protecting people like Jill Bachman and Franchisco DeJesus.

Anybody who tries to bring scammers down at Adland gets themselves banned but there are two exeptions to this erstwhile rule.

1) I did my best to warn Adlanders about scams when I returned after a three year break. I set up a forum entitled "Who Is Metaphorically Screwing Whom in Cybersspace" Who Is Metaphorically Screwing whom in Hyperspece | View Forum | AdlandPro Community

I made a post on the PatrickPretty blog to say that I had been banned from Adland and that this forum had been deleted. Miracle of miracles, the site was reinstated and most of my comments have been restored. I have been too disgusted by events at Adland to post again but anybody from RealScam can make posts on this forum and I do not think any posts will be deleted. Bogdan has more sense than to delete information which is held by PatrickPretty.

2) Your forum will not be deleted and you will not be banned at Adland because Bogdan is well aware that information recorded by Lynne and scam busters here is too hot for him to play sillyBs.

Thanks to new member Farthion for bringing this back up. I started this as honestme and I still am but scrathycat just turned up and took over. :)

We are up to a new level on this one. I am no longer affiliated with Adlandpro and now we have some differences going on with both communities. For whatever reason, it remains that scam, fraud, ponzis, pryamids, and online crime are prevalent. It was good news yesterday that the SEC has brought down 3 more and there will be others. For each one who has contributed to helping expose these schemes, you should feel good about it.

P2P, I was happy to see your forum link you posted still exists in Adland.

Originally Posted by scratchycat

P2P, I was happy to see your forum link you posted still exists in Adland.

It is only up there because Boggie knows, that influential people have copies and that he would be caught out, if he deleted it. You will remember when either Boggie or LaNell deleted a whole forum thread of mine. Other members here may not remember so here goes.

I lambasted Jim Allen111 on Adland about his association with and eulogies about Gary Calhoun ( promoter of free groceries swindles.) The posts which were in one of LaNell's forums got deleted. After that, I make sure that all my posts about Adland have been saved or I have screenshots.

Originally Posted by path2prosperity

It is only up there because Boggie knows, that influential people have copies and that he would be caught out, if he deleted it. You will remember when either Boggie or LaNell deleted a whole forum thread of mine. Other members here may not remember so here goes.

I lambasted Jim Allen111 on Adland about his association with and eulogies about Gary Calhoun ( promoter of free groceries swindles.) The posts which were in one of LaNell's forums got deleted. After that, I make sure that all my posts about Adland have been saved or I have screenshots.

Found a better way than screenshots P2P, I will send you an email!