12DailyPro, a website that paid people to click, is being nailed by the SEC. Allegedly a Ponzi scheme.
“Started last spring, 12DailyPro promised “members” that they could earn 44% returns on their money in just 12 days simply by viewing Web advertisements. Thousands of people from all over the world put up membership fees of as much as $6,000 every dozen days. For a while, some got the profits promised. But early this month, 12DailyPro essentially shut down after its primary online-payment processor, StormPay Inc., froze the company’s funds, saying it had been alerted that 12DailyPro may have been conducting a fraud.”
WSJ story (may require subscription, I’m looking for a better link)
A curious side story: Remember Barry Minkow, who started the ZZZZ Best Co carpet cleaning company that was subsequently busted as a massive fraud? It was was a classic story of 80’s greed. Barry served some hard-core time in prison and subsequently wrote a couple of self-redemption books, including one entitled Cleansweep. (I only know this as I was given the book as a gag gift years ago because I launched a product by that name at Quarterdeck.)
Well, Barry helped bust this site:
“A key figure in the shutdown of 12DailyPro was Barry Minkow, a former carpet-cleaning executive who was convicted of securities fraud in the 1980s before he turned to helping regulators and investigators detect other frauds.”
Good for him.
Alex Eckelberry
(Hat tip to Richard)