Scams Don't Always Have To Be Sophisticated To Be Effective
I was reading this story earlier and found it interesting.
Some snippets -
Twins Alexander and Thomas Hunter were just 16 years old when they devised the "elaborate" online scam that fooled around 75,000 people, US officials say. In 2007 the brothers allegedly invented a fictitious "stock picking robot" and claimed on a series of websites that the highly sophisticated computer trading programme could identify stocks that were poised to rocket in value. [snip] However, the stocks were not generated by any technical analysis and in fact the brothers were paid by companies to promote their shares [snip] Legal papers filed in a New York federal court claimed investors paid $47 newsletters listing Marl's stock picks and $97 for the home software. [snip] The twins promoted the scam on websites doublingstocks.com, which claimed the robot's stock analysis earned returns of 34% per week, and daytradingrobot.com, it is said. Meanwhile, the Hunters, now 20, received at least an additional $1.86 million (£1.15m) in fees from stock promoters for their stock touting services, which was advertised on website equitypromoter.com. [snip] In November, Newcastle Crown Court ordered Alexander Hunter to pay back nearly 1m US dollars after he admitted providing unregulated financial advice, according to the BBC. He was given a suspended 12-month prison sentence. |
You'll see mention of how those who asked the vendor directly for a refund were ignored, but others advised them to go directly to Clickbank in which case they were refunded.
HERE is an example of someone who sent emails to two of the addresses that were listed on the salespage as the email addresses of people giving testimonials. They became suspicious when a boiler-plate reply was sent out in return to both emails with only a few details changed, claiming great success.
Someone else was complaining that they started receiving spammy emails promoting penny stocks to the email address which they used to purchase it.
HERE is an early question about it on Yahoo answers.
HERE is a sceptical Squidoo review.
HERE is a Squidoo review that claims that the product 'rocks!' with the URL including the word 'scam'.
Note this line from the newspaper story -
And once investors followed the bogus advise the shares value and volume would instantly increase. |
Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
Wibble, bark, my old man's a mushroom etc...
---> [URGENT] Here's How To Build Wealth With Gold And
Silver And Earn Up To $7,000 Per Week!