Startling New Revelations in newly released FBI file on Notorious BIG

Yesterday, the FBI unveiled their new reading room on their website for FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) documents.  The FOIA section on government websites contain their most commonly requested files that are requested by the public, media, journalists, etc who have an active interest in what they are investigating.  In new documents released by the FBI on their website was included, for the first time, the file maintained by the FBI on Christopher Wallace, rapper Notorious BIG aka Biggie Smalls.

For those of us who have been following the saga in the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie, the document comes as a revelation -- almost confirming suspicions and allegations that have been made about their unsolved murders.  Tupac and Biggie were both, and still are, extremely popular and influential rap artists of their time and for fans, their murders have been a rallying point.  No one has ever been prosecuted for either of their deaths and since that time, many theories have popped up putting forth a wide array of who could have been involved, their "means, motive, and opportunity" as it were.

This new document released by the FBI essentially confirms what has been put forth for years about the murder, and even essentially names who was involved.  But, because of privacy laws, readers will find the document both tantalizing and extremely disappointing as most of the critical names are redacted (blacked out).  Regardless of that fact, simple conclusions can still be drawn from Wallace's FBI file that are hard to dispute.

The Facts


The facts in the murders of Tupac and Biggie are widely known.  Both were shot in drive by shootings that were eerily similar.  Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas in September 1996 after attending a Mike Tyson fight and then getting into an altercation with a gang member in the lobby of the MGM Grand.  A few hours later, Tupac was gunned down while he was riding in Death Row head Suge Knight's BMW.  He lingered on life support for several days but died after his mother made the decision to withdrawal it.  Biggie was killed, in a very similar fashion, in March of 1997 in Los Angeles after attending a rap music award ceremony.  While riding with rival Bad Boy Records head Sean "Puffy/P Diddy" Combs, he was killed by a person driving an SS Impala who met up with him at a stop light.  Both cases remain unsolved, their killers still at large.

After their deaths, it was implied that each was involved in the rivals murders in and "East Coast vs. West Coast" rap feud.  Speculation has pointed fingers at numerous people, including both Suge Knight and Puffy for vengeance in this feud, but these allegations have never been proven.  Both artists raps included many verses about their fear of impending death by unknown forces, and this new documentation shows that it was clearly justified.  Both artists were in grave danger by their affiliation and associations and it seemed only a matter of time before each met a tragic end.

The Wallace FBI File


Information only hinted at for years can now be mostly confirmed by this documents release, but finding justice for Tupac and Biggie seems to be a lost cause.  The document makes clear that powerful forces were almost definitely conspiring to keep the killers and the people behind the killers from ever being brought to court for their crimes.  The following is speculative information, but almost certainly accurate, pertaining to who pulled the triggers and why.

Death Row Records was a criminal organization.  Death Row Records was the pinnacle of west coast raps most successful recording artists of all time until its eventual collapse.  Started by Bloods gang member Suge Knight, the ATF and IRS were both investigating Death Row for money laundering and breaking firearms laws.  It is suggested from the document that Death Row was involved in smuggling cocaine to the east coast from the west and then using the record company to launder the money.  The fact that they were a successful record label is quite possibly secondary to these intentions.

Both Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace were almost certainly killed on orders by Suge Knight.  Although Suge Knight was riding in the very same car that Tupac was killed in and injured himself, it is made plain through the FBI File that Tupac Shakur was owed huges sums of money in back pay from Suge Knight and Tupac was preparing to leave Death Row, quite possibly threatening to reveal the information he knew about Death Rows criminal enterprise to authorities.  The Shakur homicide appears to have been staged before hand by Suge Knight himself in order to silence Tupac before he could snitch on him to authorities.  The east coast/west coast feud was probably secondary, even though in Tupac's mind he may have seen east coast forces conspiring against him, his main threat was from his own record company president.  Although these are not new allegations, and the names in the file are redacted, reading other documents and viewing films on the case, the main cast of characters is well known.  It can only be speculated as to how planning Tupac's murder went down and the possibility of why Suge Knight was riding in the same car at the time he was gunned down can only be guessed at, it is quite clear that Christopher Wallace was not involved.  Both murders were setup from the start to appear to be a gang retaliation of LA based Crips against Bloods, it now seems that this was not the case.  Although gang members were recruited to do the shootings, they were probably on paid orders from Suge Knight to carry out the murders.

Update: Many people have disagreed with my theory that Suge Knight was involved of the death of Tupac.  I contend that this is a hard position to get across.  The most obvious problem with this hypothosis is the fact that Suge was in the car with Tupac when he was shot, and, was hit and injured himself.  So, it is completely reasonable to ask why would Suge put himself in mortal danger if he had setup the hit in the first place?  I will put forth a theory on my part which is based entirely on speculation.  It seems possible to me that Suge had either organized the hit beforehand or offered an underground reward to anyone who might be able to kill Tupac for him.  Meaning, in essence, that he did not specify a time and place for the attack to happen, but simply asked that it be done.  The killers knew that Tupac was in Las Vegas and wanted to kill him, but it was pure happenstance that they came across him at a red light and decided to commit the act then and there while the opportunity arose.  The true details of that night will never be completely known, as the main participants are probably dead or not speaking.  However, most of the evidence seems to indicate that the shooting was merely an act of revenge by Orlando Anderson, the man seen getting jumped by Tupac and his Death Row posse at the MGM Grand hotel while he was leaving the Mike Tyson fight he had been attending.  Nonetheless, I put forth that there is still a large body of material that points the finger at Suge Knight in the death of Tupac Shakur and it is almost without doubt that he was behind Biggie's murder.

Biggie was killed by rogue members of the Los Angeles police department (LAPD).  This is almost without a doubt that the LAPD intentionally covered up involvement of their own officers in the murder of Biggie Smalls.  The shooter and his accomplices, although not named, were known to be gang members of the Bloods and were affiliated with Suge Knight.  These officers were hired and paid by Suge Knight through Death Row Records to act as security, but behind the scenes, they were gang associated criminals.  The shooter of Biggie was identified as driving a black Impala SS, shooting a 9mm glock, and most importantly, using an extremely rare type of ammunition not available to the general public.  Identified in the document, the rounds that killed Biggie were 9mm Gecko (or GECO) ammunition, manufactured in Europe, and something that law enforcement might be expected to use.  Information on this type of bullet is hard to come by as it is so rare, only gun enthusiasts and experts might seek it out and use it.  From a forum on Glock firearms, Glocktalk.com, the following is said about these rounds:

Up until early to mid 2000 Geco brand 9mm was readily available. It was loaded with a 124gr gilding metal clad mild steel jacketed bullet. Geco brand 9mm ammo hasn't been available since around 2004. Dynamit Nobel A/G of Troisdorf, Germany, made ammo that was headstamped Geco, DAG & RWS. RUAG Ammotec of Switzerland now owns the rights to many of the European brands of ammo, including Geco, DAG, RWS & Norma to name a few. The current Geco ammo is reportedly made in Switzerland, just like the new production RWS 124FMJ that's on the market right now. 

Other information about the Christopher Wallace murder reveals that the gunman knew and understood police tactics and had radio equipment to monitor police transmissions so as to carefully calculate when and where to kill Biggie.  This was not the act of a gang member, but a trained and hired assassin.  All of these facts were well known to the LAPD and there were many witnesses ready to come forward to both the LAPD and FBI to testify as to who killed Biggie.  The LAPD intentionally conspired to cover up the fact that the murderer was one of their own officers and thus stifle any chance of his murderers being brought to justice.

The gunmen and the people behind them will never be charged with a crime.  Too much time has passed and too many powerful forces are at work to prevent the true killers from ever being brought to court and justice being served for Biggie or Shakur.  Law enforcement in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and even federal authorities have stopped investigating these crimes.  Although Biggie's mother has pursued civil action against the LAPD it will almost certainly never result in a criminal trial.  The best outcome that can be hoped for is the LAPD will admit their wrongdoing and be forced to pay a stiffen to Wallace's mother.

Update: To my surprise, I have come across a little known home video that was taken by an amateur the night of Biggie's killing in Los Angeles on March 9th 1997 which appears to show the black Impala that was involved in the killing, as well as audio of the gunshots that night.  I had never seen this video previously and discovered it almost by accident.  I consider myself to have researched these killings a great deal and was surprised to find this footage.  Because of this, I assume many other people are not aware of it either.  It has never been alluded to in anything I've ever read or heard on the subject.

Black late 90s model Chevrolet Impala photographed outside the event Biggie Smalls was attending the night of his murder.  This is the same model and color car revealed in statements to be involved in the shooting.

There is much more information that can be learned from the FBI file on Christopher Wallace, but it is now in the realm for journalists and film makers to explore the truth behind both Tupac and Biggie's tragic deaths.  Both now and in the future generations will know them for their music and their message, but the truth about the details of their homicides will never be fully known.  Even decades from now when all the players in the cast of characters die and their names can be listed in the FBI file, it will come too late for Tupac and Biggie.

Read the Christopher Wallace FBI File

Please also check out my article on Nick Broomfield's documentary on the Tupac/Biggie Feud!

Update: Media picked up on this topic after it became widely posted and added some additional details.  Unfortunately, they were mostly only interested in the fact that Biggie was carrying large condoms with him when he was killed, a completely trivial fact that shows their complete disregard for the larger story that two peoples murders have quietly gone unsolved for over a decade.  From AVClub: 

According to the FBI’s findings, Biggie Smalls, real name Christopher Wallace, was killed with “Gecko 9mm armor-piercing ammunition,” a type of bullet deemed in the report to be “very rare”—so rare it could only be found at two distributors in the U.S. And yet, that very same ammo was found at the home of former corrupt LAPD cop David Mack—long named as a “person of interest” in the case because of his off-duty job working as a bodyguard for Suge Knight—after Mack was arrested for robbing a bank that same year. In addition to the ammo, detectives also found what they described as a “shrine” to Tupac Shakur, as well as a black Chevy Impala SS, the very same car that’s named in the FBI report as being driven by Biggie’s assassin.

From Entertainment Weekly:

Officials hoped they could link the bullets to other crimes to find the murderer, but none was discovered. They were also hoping to link Biggie’s killing to Tupac Shakur’s six months earlier—and did find individuals who were present at both scenes. 

Please comment and let me know what YOU think!

Whatever happened to Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan?

Craig Titus - Mug Shot (LVPD)

One of the most common searches to my blog is for Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan.  Both Titus and Ryan were alleged to be involved in a murder of their assistant, Melissa James, during a fight possibly fueled by heavy doses of narcotics.

Although the story is covered pretty well, there are still a few lingering questions about the tragedy.  There were always rumors of a sex tape involving Kelly Ryan, Melissa James, and Craig Titus, but that has apparently never surfaced.  Some people claim to have seen it or clips from it, but to my knowledge, no substantial proof that it exists has ever been released. What is clear is that Kelly Ryan and Craig Titus lived a drug fueled party lifestyle and probably had a situation of an open marriage where both partners were free to swing and engage in outside relationships.

Kelly Ryan - Mug Shot (LVPD)

The fact that Melissa James came to live with Kelly and Titus is a perfect example of this relationship.  It would seem somewhat unusual for a married couple to need a young female live in assistant when they had no children and their occupation was professional bodybuilding.  What it came to in the end was apparently the result of jealousy on the part of Kelly Ryan towards Melissa James.  There were accusations that Melissa James was stealing money from them.

Although Craig Titus still doesn't freely admit that he intentionally killed Melissa James, he does admit dumping her body in their car and setting it on fire in the Nevada desert.  Both Ryan and Titus copped plea deals, making them eligible for parole in the future.  Titus will be eligible for parole in 2026 when he is 61 years old, while Kelly Ryan could be eligible for parole as early as next year (2011).  Whether or not the parole board will see it this way is yet to be determined.

A true crime novel called Fire in the Desert has been written about the ordeal, but it is explained pretty thoroughly in the 48 Hours piece, "Vegas Heat", produced by CBS that I've embedded at the bottom of this article.

• Craig Titus - Wikipedia
• Kelly Ryan - Wikipedia
• The Titus-Ryan Files - FlexOnline
• Free Craig Titus (no longer maintained)
• Titusandryan.com (also appears to be no longer actively maintained)

48 Hours - Vegas Heat

Watch CBS Videos Online
If for some reason you can't get the video to play, you can watch online at cbsnews.com

This is a follow up on two earlier stories I did IFBB Pro Craig Titus & wife Kelly Ryan Wanted for Murder and Titus and Wife Captured!

FBI & New York Police on the Trail of StudioTraffic

StudioTraffic was once one of the largest paid to autosurf sites on the net. It had existed for several years and was branded as one of the safest and most long lasting investment sites on the net, somewhat akin to AllAdvantage. StudioTraffic paid out a 1% daily investment on whatever money the user inputted into their account through their own payment processor system, StudioPay. All they had to do was run the auto-surf script everyday to make their 1% income. Investors were assured that the money put into StudioTraffic was being used, by their other companies, such as an upstart record label, a web hosting company, an internet cafe was in the discussion of being open. All the while, the investors did not know that what they were participating in was an age old scheme known as a prime bank fraud and ponzi scheme.

This was the time of the auto-surf boom, and another company just springing up was 12DailyPro, which paid out at a rate of 12% cycles over 12 days of a persons investment. In the end, the SEC shut 12DailyPro down and most of the last investors are left with very little money to be had, and not expecting much from the government.

At the end of StudioTraffic, it crumbled slowly. A hacker broke into StudioPay and posted online thousands of pictures of individuals who had submitted their drivers licenses and other personally identifying information. It is not know what has become of this data and what other security risks might have been brought from that incident. However, the staff at StudioTraffic sent out an email to it's members which seems to insinuate that they not only did not know what happened, how to fix it, or what action to take.

Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:52:47 -0600 [02/21/2006 12:52:47 PM CST]
From: service@studiopay.com
To: xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Hello

Dear Member

Security issues have been our priority recently following claims
from an individual that he/she hacked the StudioPay information on some
members accounts.

At this point in time we are investigating this issue and
working closely with authorities worldwide to trace this person.

In the following link you will find some advice about identity theft,
how to discover it, who to contact and also some preventative measures.

http://www.fightidentitytheft.com/identity_theft_learn.html

This information is specific to USA, but any member can enter "identity
theft" into a search engine and get information specific to their
own country.

Until our investigations are complete we feel that we should treat these
allegations seriously. To this end we recommend that you take any
steps you feel necessary to protect yourself.

Our recommendations are:

Report to your local police station the possibility that your
identity information has been compromised. In the event that this
does arise then there will be a record for you to refer to.

Make a report to your credit card company if you used your credit card
statement to verify your account. By doing this your credit card
account will be noted and both you and the credit card company can w
be vigilant and watch for unusual or suspicious transactions.

If you used your bank account statement to verify your account submit a
report to your bank, again this will ensure that your accounts
are noted.

Please follow any advice that your bank or other companies you contact
give you.

At this point in time we are unable to determine how much, if any,
informaton [sic] this person has obtained. As stated earlier, we are
working closely with authorities in different countries try and track
this individual.

We are introducing some new security features. You may recall that you
were asked to change your StudioTraffic password recently. The same
security feature, planned for StudioPay, has now been introduced ahead
of schedule and we would ask that all members change their StudioPay
password immediately. You will be prompted to change it every
three months (every 6 months in StudioTraffic). In doing so please
ensure that you use a strong password that cannot be easily worked
out.

Any steps you take now may be of huge importance in the future. The
security and safety of our members is our utmost priority and we
urge you to err on the side of caution and follow our recommendations.

Should any of our members experience fraudulent use of their personal
information into the future please contact us and we will work with
you and the authorities to resolve the situation.

For now we will continue to investigate the situation and should we
be able to pinpoint any members that may be targetted we will
contact those members directly.

Regards

StudioPrograms Admin Team

Soon, members of the inner circle of StudioTraffic began to break ranks and posted the truth behind ST and it's sister companies. Although it was clear that ST was on it's way out, some people still heldfast to the belief that StudioTraffic could make it, and continued to donate to it to keep it alive, all to no avail in the end.

The StudioTraffic website was taken down with the help of members at the talkgold forum, by contacting the administrators of the ISP who was hosting the site. They decided that the manner in which ST operated was not in compliance with their Terms of Service and/or Acceptable Use Policy. Prior to that, the anonymous John Horan, owner of the site, sent out an email to all users regarding the situation.

After that, all went quite for several months. User's submitted their complaints online, and we did not hear much about it since then. In May 2006 I received a call from the
Onondaga County Sheriff's Dept. requesting information on my interactions with StudioTraffic and StudioPay, which seems to have been registered in Brookport New York, and was operating as an illegal unlicensed money transfer service. I spoke to a detective with the Sheriff's department and told him everything he knew. His name was John Scarson and, with his partner, Jamie Bloomer, they were investigating the StudioPay lead. They told me they had gotten my number off the complaint I filed at the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). After that, I hadn't heard much, until I got this email in my inbox a few weeks ago.

Date: 20 Dec 2006 18:08:07 -0500 [12/20/2006 05:08:07 PM CST]
From: Do not reply
Subject: Studiopay/Studiotraffic investigation

Dear xxxxxxxx:

Studiopay/Studiotraffic is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and Onondaga County Sheriffs Department. Investigation of this matter has developed information that you have had financial transactions with one, or both, of these companies. If you have been victimized by either of these companies please file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at the following website:

http://www.ic3.gov/

Please reference Studiopay as the subject of the investigation when filing your complaint. Provide as much detail as possible pertaining to monies invested, individuals contacted, method of contact (telephone, mail, E-mail etc...), amounts, and dates of payment and any amounts received from Studiopay. If possible, include dates of contact, the Studiopay employees contacted and brief summaries of the conversations.

I verified that this email was actually from the FBI's IC3 department by examining the headers of the email. So, now it seems that the FBI and the Onondaga County Sheriffs Department are dedicated to tracking down the operators of StudioTraffic and bringing them to justice for their crimes fraud, deceit, and total disregard for anything but their own selfish money stealing scheme.

So, if you have further information about StudioTraffic or StudioPay or any of their related dealings, please send them to the IC3 site above. You may also contact the FBI at their HQ in Washington, DC. At the time I spoke to the Onondaga County Sheriffs Department their phone number was (315)435-1401 and fax (315)435-1402, although I am not sure these two numbers are still valid.

You can find more information about the legacy of StudioTraffic on these sites.

• Studiotraffic.co.uk: living memory of one of the biggest Internet scams
• StudioTraffic Scam
• Wikipedia's entry on StudioTraffic
• Many old posts with quite a bit of information (albeit very disorganized) can be found in the TalkGold forum archives. Simply do a search for "StudioTraffic" in that section and you will come back with many results.
• Internet Archive: StudioTraffic & StudioPay
• Two Better Business Bureau in Canada's reports on ST at two different addresses. BBB Reliability Report: Studio Traffic (1) BBB Reliability Report: Studio Traffic (2).
• Many reports on Ripoffreport.com on StudioTraffic

With your help, we can put the owners, operators, and propagators of StudioTraffic where they belong and finally bring this criminal regime down to smoke, ash, and to the rust bin of history.

Introducing Secret Cash Card - A Legit Anonymous Credit Card

Secret Cash Card - A Legit Anonymous Credit Card... is unfortunately what I had posted on my blog for quite some time. I no longer recommend this company to my visitors because of the excessive amounts of complaints I've heard regarding this company and the services they provide.

When I first came in contact with SecretCashCard.com the company was a legitimate service. They provided a virtual anonymous MasterCard to customers who paid a flat one time fee of $39.95 (now $49.95) and the user could then reload the card using the GreenDot Universal MoneyPak. I read about the company and who backed it and emailed and asked to become an affiliate for it. I spoke to the owner, Jerry Klein over the phone and he was very upbeat and sincere about the card and the company. He told me about other companies he was starting to form and everything sounded good. I had been recommending the card to friends and other people and heard no complaints. I received one affiliate payment for referring several people to the card. I also emailed Jerry's partner, Joshua Finer and made numerous suggestions on how services and access to the card might be improved.

After about six months or so I started receiving emails from people telling me that they had been ripped off by SecretCashCard (SCC) and that it was fraudulent. I didn't think much of it, since many companies have occasional problems and and I told the people to contact customer support and they should be able to take care of it for them. I also forwarded the emails to Jerry and Josh to see if they could help out. I started to not hear replies from them. I emailed them and tried to make contact with them numerous times over a long period, but received no response. Then, I started checking the stats for my affiliate sales and noticed that although I had accumulated several, I wasn't being paid, and then the amounts that were showed being sold disappeared. So, I started searching around and seeing a large number of complaints all over the web. People on forums, Ripoffreport, and the BBB all had complaints with this company - most of them applied for pay day loans and then received the card without requesting it. They were forced to pay the fee for the card and could not get in communication with the company to cancel it or be reimbursed. I stopped recommending the card to friends and other groups, but I left the issue alone. I was busy and hoped that the situation would resolve itself.

Now, after a long period of inactivity and non-response from SCC, I've decided to remove the post on my blog which talked about the card and recommended it. I believe that although the company and the people who ran it started out with good intentions to provide a legitimate service, somewhere along the road greed got in the way and now they are not a reliable company. I recently checked the Better Business Bureau's report on this company and was started to see that there were over 200 complaints made. Because of this, I have decided to publish the details about the two individuals who ran this company in hopes that anyone who was ripped off by them can have their complaints addressed and their money refunded. I too am a victim of this company. I signed up to sell a service which I believed was trustworthy and receive a small profit for doing so, but instead, people who I recommended the card to and purchased it were left with a basically unusable card and me spending time advertising for a company and was not paid as promised for my time and effort.

Please note that some of the links below contain an addition from anonym.to. This removes the refer of the originating website (my blog). I have done this to try and protect myself from liability issues from releasing the data I have online. Please also be aware that the information posted below is my owned saved data and could be out of date. I collected it some time ago and the persons in question could have changed addresses and phone numbers. I am not accusing anyone of committing fraud, a scam or any type of crime. I am simply making this information (which is available publicly through various search engines) available to those who wish to view it.

---

SCC was originally started as Jerry Klein as a subcompany of another service he provided called Private Date Finder. According to him, this site was started to allow men and women already in relationships the ability to look up other people online for "dates" outside of their relationship and still keep the information private from their partners. SecretCashCard was started to aid this service by allowing the users of Private Date Finder to keep their credit card bills secret. When you bought the card, it also came with software that allowed the user to clear their browser history and cache so as to prevent their partners from discovering what they had been up to. I was offered the chance to also be an affiliate of the date finder service but I declined because I was more interested in offering people the privacy and security of an anonymous credit card. When the service was first started, it was called PrivateICard and was covered in a story by Adult Video News. Although the PrivateICard site now redirects to SCC, it can still be viewed in part on the Internet Archive. The original fee for the service was $9.95. PrivateICard also had an affiliate program that allowed webmasters to sign up and offer the card to their visitors. Here is a copy of the original pitch given to potential "partners":

NEW! PrivateICard (safe online debit card), payout $from 50%, scaled on volume
Description: The first payment card designed for confidential and private online purchases. It's a unique new offer for a FREE virtual Visa debit card and over $200 in benefits including a proprietary patent pending Web based privacy service. Debit card offers are doing very well and they generally require fees and minimum loads in excess of $50, privateIcard requires absolutely no fee or initial load to be issued a Visa card.
Payout: from 50%, scaled on volume
Action required for payout: Sale
Action require payment?: Yes
Desired media: Email, Newsletter, Popups, Banners, Textlinks, Affiliate networks.
Target market: Offer appeals to anyone seeking privacy with online purchases and those with sub-prime credit that need a Visa debit card.
Review creative samples: http://www.privateicard.com/creative/email2.html
Landing page link: http://www.privateicard.com
Partner sign-up site http://www.privateicard.com/partner.html
Contact name: Jerry Klein, First Privacy Financial
Email: jerryklein@cox.net
Phone : 949.388.5530
Fax: 949.388.4421
Comments from Advertiser: This is a member benefit business model with an initial $9.95 to join and compelling values in excess of $200. Launched in early November 04 and over 200,000 virtual debit cards have already been issued. No credit required and card is instantly activated.

The links are no longer active, but I believe that the email address and phone numbers are still valid. The registration data for privateicard.com now shows up as a proxy domain registration.

SecretCashCard now has a "F" rating on the Los Angeles BBB for having over 200 complaints. You can read some of the complaints here. According to the LA BBB,

Complainants generally allege that they received unauthorized drafts from this company for $49.95 for a product that they did not order or were applying for pay day loans and were subsequently charged for this service which they did not agree to. Some complained that they never received any debit card from the company.

The company generally responds by providing refunds and stating that while applying service such as cash advance loan applications customer legally authorized us to debit his bank account and that they have authorization details including the computer number (IP) etc.

There are also many reports (71 at the time of this posting) on RipOffReport.com for SCC.

The address I have for Private Date Finder, the parent company of SCC, is:

Private Date Finder, LLC.
14 Monarch Bay Plaza , # 301
Monarch Bay , CA 92629
888-394-1053 x 3

This data came from another website (currently offline, but cached in the Internet Archive) called EverPrivate.com. The domain registration data for this site is also now registered by proxy and I am not sure if the above information is still valid. I could find no such company registered in the State of California called Private Date Finder, LLC. The only company registered in the state I could find was First Privacy Financial, LLC.




Another company owned by Mr. Jerry Klein and affiliated with both companies is NothingButResults.com. The information on the contact page corresponds to the WHOIS registration data which is:

KLEIN, JERRY **

23731 Montego Bay
Monarch Beach, CA 92629
US

Domain Name: NOTHINGBUTNETRESULTS.COM

Administrative Contact :
Klein, Jerry
nbnr@pacbell.net
7 MARSEILLE
LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA 92677-5402
US
Phone: 949.415.0411
Fax: 949.415.0441

The other individual involved with SCC was Joshua Finer, who runs a software company called Finer Technologies. The domain, finertechnologies.com, redirects to Software4Parents.com, a site that sells software to assist parents in helping prevent their children from accessing unwanted content on the internet. The WHOIS data for finertechnologies.com and software4parents.com gives the following address:

Finer, Joshua joshua@finertechnologies.com
Finer Technologies, Inc.
101 Parkview Way
Newtown, Pennsylvania 18940
United States
2153967334

Joshua Finer wrote the software that is given away "free" along with the purchase of the SecretCashCard and is also sold as PrivateIZapper, available at privateizapper.com. This site has the same registration data as the two domains listed above, but is registered under the company "First Privacy Financial, LLC".

According to the State of Pennsylvania, Finer Technologies is listed with the current information:

Business Corporation - Domestic - Information

Entity Number: 3008170
Status: Active

Entity Creation Date: 6/1/2001 9:12:53 AM

State of Business.: PA
Principal Office Address: % HAMBURG RUBIN MULLIN MAXWELL CORP
SERVICES INC
PA 0 -0
Mailing Address: No Address

Officers

Name: JOSHUA F FINER
Title: President
Address: 61 PEPPERRELL DR
LANGHORNE PA 19054-0

Where to complain to?

Besides the BBB and RipOffReport.com, there are three other companies behind SecretCashCard. SCC is essentially a PrivaCash card. All of their available products are licensed through MasterCard. Privacash is backed by Key Bank. So, those are the three other companies you could complain to regarding the operation of SCC.

You can contact all three companies and tell them about your experience with the card. If many consumers complain, they can remove licensing rights from the card which would basically put the company out of business. If you received your card from a service that provides payday loans, you probably want to complain to them as well as to the FTC. But, I would recommend you not use payday loan services in the first place. They are very much like modern loan sharks, charging extremely high interest rates and have very shady terms. The only real difference is they have a store front. Read the FTC alert on payday loans for more information.

You can also complain to your attorney general as well as state and consumer protection agencies in PA and CA. Order a free copy of The Consumer Action Guide (or read it online - PDF format), the indexes provide the information for the two links above.

Finally, I also recommend an article I wrote myself on situations like these that has helped many people in coming to a resolution for customer problems. Pogue's Blog: "How To Resolve Complaints and Get your Money"

---

In the meantime, if you are looking for an private credit card, PrivaCash offers the same services as SCC, usually at little or no cost. It acts as a reloadable debit card that you put money into and all information is kept private. Be aware that there are lots of people out there that claim to sell anonymous credit or debit cards. Some do and some are legitimate, however, there are also many scammers out there.

If you know of any other legitimate anonymous or private credit or debit cards please let me know or post a comment. Also, if you find any errors on this page or want to post your experience with this company, feel free to do the same.

Dr. James Shortt Convicted and Delicensed

Dr. James Shortt, an MD in South Carolina, who dispensed anabolic steroids and growth hormone to his patients has been convicted of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and delicensed by the South Carolina Medical Board. Dr. Shortt ran a longevity clinic and promoted anabolic steroids and growth hormone as a way to treat many injuries and ailments. On his homepage he has an article entitled "Steroid Use vs. Abuse". Recently many doctors who have promoted the use of steroids and other unconventional methods of medicine have come under a great deal of scrutiny in the national wide steroid scare.

Dr. Michael C. Scally, a Harvard Medical School graduate, is being pursued by the medical board of Texas for his use of anabolic steroids in treatment of conditions which would be considered "off-label" by the FDA - basically meaning using steroids to treat conditions of which they are not commonly prescribed for.

Unfortunately for Dr. Shortt, he also used another controversial treatment of chelation therapy, where hydrogen peroxide is given to patients intravenously. This apparently lead to the death of two of his patients who are now suing him. Chelation therapy is looked upon as quackery by many in the medical community.

Dr. Stephen Barrett who runs Quackwatch had the following comments:

In March 2006, James Michael Shortt, M.D.,
http://www.drshortt.com/bio.html who practiced "longevity medicine"
in Greenville, South Carolina, pled guilty to conspiracy to
distribute anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. Press reports
indicate that some of the recipients were professional football
players. Shortt's plea agreement states that over a six-year period,
he unlawfully conspired with others to distribute and dispense
testosterone, stanozolol [Winstrol], nandrolone [Deca Durabolin],
fluoxymesterone [Halotestin] and oxymetholone [Anadrol].
Based on this admission, the South Carolina Board revoked his
license and fined him $10,000, the largest fine it is permitted
to impose. Shortt's criminal indictment
http://www.casewatch.org/doj/shortt/indictment.shtml and plea
agreement http://www.casewatch.org/doj/shortt/plea.pdf are posted on
Casewatch. Shortt is also being sued by the survivors of two patients
he treated with hydrogen peroxide. One had multiple sclerosis.
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/shortt.html The other had prostate
cancer. http://www.casewatch.org/mal/shortt/bate.shtml

Texas Attorney General Shuts Down Bogus "Gas Pills" Scam

A new scam product making it's way through the channels of MLM was called BioPerformance, a new "gas pill" that claims to increase gas mileage by altering the hydrocarbons of fuel to change the flash point and make it burn more efficiently. This product is sold as pills and powder to be added to an automobiles gas tank during fillups. The claims made by this company about the product are outrageous and fraudulent. I first learned of this product through a posting on a message board by an individual who was a "reseller" or downline for the product and was trying to promote individuals to join in under him. After this, I reported the company to the National Fraud Information Center. Now, just recently, the Attorney General of Texas has filed a lawsuit and brought a restraining order against the company for operating as a pyramid scheme and selling a bogus product using false advertising.

After looking at the claims made by the company I determined that the product is potentially dangerous and can even cause damage to your cars engine and fuel lines, as admitted by the company in their disclaimer, which stated "BioPerformance, Inc. does not guarantee that the product works whatsoever and does not guarantee that you will earn any income whatsoever. BioPerformance, Inc. makes no income or product claims whatsoever."

The claims that were made by the company were completely bogus and meant to sound scientific to fool consumers into believing that the product is capable of doing what it claims to do by relying on a lack of knowledge. The original description of the product read the following:

How do the gas pills work?

The gas pills have the property of modifying the fuel'’s molecular structure and liberating the energy contained within.

* This is achieved by Brownian motion which consists on the molecular movement of the components of the polymeric chains contained in hydrocarbons.

Because the gas pills are a catalyst, they are capable of speeding or retarding a chemical reaction, without breaking down or changing the chemical reaction and producing a transformation which modifies the molecules. The result is the liberation of the total energy contained within.

* The main property of fuels is the heat value, or the quantity of energy that the fuel liberates during combustion.

* The volatility or evaporation of a liquid fuel is determined by the air/vapor ratio that can be achieved at a given temperature. This is the result of the FLASH POINT (the temperature at which the quantity of vapor is enough to form a mixture of air and flammable fuel). Each type of combustible has a different flammable point according to the norm ASTM D92-52 and D93.

* Now, when lowering the flash point temperature, one can obtain a dew point, with more evaporation, achieving an air and fuel mix with a bigger energy saturation. This produces more heat value with less combustible and a better and more complete combustion mix. The effect of the gas pills allows to diminish the combustion point increasing the concrete characteristics of evaporation that all fuels have at normal pressure and temperature. This is why we obtain a flash point at a lower temperature, increasing the amount of burning gases.

* The enzymatic catalyst has countless applications in the food, textile, paper, alcohol, organic, chemical and other industries. Its manufacturing is especially designed for liquid petroleum-based fuels.

* The gas pills have the property of modifying the physical state of these fuels, accelerating the breaking of molecular connections.

Of course, there is no chemical on earth that could do what this company claimed their product could do. And the main ingredient? Naphthalene - an ingredient found in moth balls and lighter fluid. Napthalene, also known as Naphtha, is commonly used as a stain cleaner and the main ingredient in Ronsonol Lighter Fluid. If you have ever had a Zippo lighter, you have probably seen the yellow Ronsonol bottle. Naphthalene is also listed as a possible carcinogen.

The company who sells the product is run out of Irving, Texas - a suburb of Dallas. But, their domain registration lists a P.O. Box. Now on their website, however, they are advising anyone to only contact them by email, and the BBB (see below) has reported that their listed phone number does not work.

Domain Registration Info For:
http://www.mybpbiz.com/

Owner, Billing Contact:
Gustavo Romero / Lowell Mims (ID00219213)
P.O. Box 612503
Dallas, TX 75261
United States
Phone: +1.2147647917
Email: gus@bioperformance.net
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
e-advisors Inc.
Francisco Borja (ID00045362)
1580 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway
Suite 130
Sunrise, FL 33323
United States
Phone: +1.9548398255
Email: fborja@eadvisors.net

The web page has now changed since the action taken by the Texas AG, but you can see the original page through the Google Cache of the Original BioPerformance Page.

In addition to the dubious claims the company made about the product, the Texas AG states that BioPerformance is simply a pyramid scheme and the ingredients in the product are harmful to humans.

According to the Texas State Attorney General:

The Attorney GeneralÂ’s lawsuit alleges violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the promotion of an illegal pyramid scheme, which can result in penalties of $20,000 per violation. The suit requests restitution to consumers who have been financially harmed by the false promises of this operation. These false income promotions include slick Web site come-ons for new sports cars, mansions and exclusive vacations "just for helping Americans save money on gas."

The Attorney General'’s scientific expert also found that the chemical compound used in these pills can be harmful to humans. Short-term exposure to naphthalene by humans via inhalation, ingestion or skin contact can result in anemia and neurological or liver damage.

The company also has a poor record with the BBB who states:

Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to its failure to substantiate or modify advertising claims.

Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to failure to respond to a complaint. However the business has resolved most complaints presented to the bureau.

The Bureau has received complaints alleging that the product, BioPerformance Fuel gas pills, does not work as advertised. Complaints also allege non-delivery of product; difficulties in cancelling auto-ship orders; and difficulties getting in touch with the company.

On May 5, 2006, a company representative told the BBB that the company does not have a telephone number for customer service. The company requests that customers write to the company at the address above, and that distributors contact the company through the customer service module of the distributor's Web site.

Advertising Review

On the Web site, and in the "Product Presentation", BioPerformance, Inc., makes claims that the product BioPerformance Fuel provides fuel savings and reduced smoke and gas emissions, among other claims.

On March 15, 2006, and March 29, 2006, the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Dallas sent requests to BioPerformance, Inc., for substantiation of the product claims. The company provided information, including unidentified tests, that did not substantiate the claims. On April 26, 2006, and on May 8, 2006, the BBB sent requests to the company to stop unsubstantiated claims.

On May 10, 2006, the company provided a summary of a test done in Mexico at the company's request at the Vehicular Emissions Laboratory of the DGCENICA, the Head Office of the National Center for Environmental Research and Training of Mexico.

The summary shows that only one vehicle was evaluated, a 1985 Volkwagen with standard transmission. The first evaluation showed the starting measurements. The second evaluation, three months later, showed the measurements after the product was added, with no significant increase of the "yield in fuel". At the request of the company, a third evaluation was done the same day, and according to the summary, showed "a 25% increase in fuel yield".

However, the laboratory states, "... the tests performed are not sufficient to provide results with regards to the performance of the product called Bio Plus Fuel. We recommend performing additional tests by first establishing a statistical plan in order to confirm the product's effectiveness." Among other recommendations, the laboratory recommended testing "at least 50 vehicles, different makes and models, and up to 10 years old, selected at random .."

The information provided by BioPerformance, Inc., does not substantiate the product claims and the company continues to make the product claims.

In addition, the BBB notes that on its Web site, the company states: "In accordance with American Legislation, this product is registered with the Environmental Protection Agency ... "

The BBB asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about this statement. The EPA advised: "An additive by the name of BioPerformance was recently registered. Registration involves providing a chemical description of the additive ... Registration does not involve verification of performance claims made for an additive. You should ask the manufacturer for the data that support any claims of improved fuel economy, etc."

Government Actions

On May 17, 2006, the Texas Attorney General's office filed suit and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against BioPeformance, Inc. The suit alleges that the company is organized as an illegal pyramid scheme and that the company falsely claims that its product will boost gas mileage and save consumers money. According to the Attorney General's office, tests show the product is mainly napthalene, the chemical found in mothballs, and the product could decrease engine performance. A hearing for a Temporary Injunction is set for May 30, 2006.

For now, BioPerformance is telling its representatives the following:

DO NOT MAKE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING CLAIMS:
1. Will reduce the emission of gasoline or diesel powered vehicles;
2. Improve gasoline efficiency or fuel economy of gasoline or diesel powered vehicles, or
3. Are safe and non-toxic;

[...]

No BioPerformance IBO should be giving interviews to the media. If accosted to the press, simply decline to respond. If they follow after you, decline. If they insist: DECLINE! You may confidently say: "All media inquiries are being answered by Advent Communications which you can reach at 214.378.6280 x1192. Or you may contact Dr. Jolley, President of Advent Communications, at clifton@adventcommunications.com."

Since I originally heard about these fuel saving pills, I have seen several others pop up. This isn't the first time in history though that people have attempted to sell such a product. During the oil crisis in the late 70s, similar bunk products were sold to consumers looking for any way possible to save on gasoline. According to the FTC, the EPA has tested many devices and products that claim to save fuel mileage and "very few" had any benefits.

Watch NBC4 of LA's Report on BioPerformance:

More news on the elusive Charis Johnson

In my last post regarding the legality of Charis Johnson's new company, StartUp Street, she (or someone pretending to be her) left some comments for me indicating I was out to get her and somehow supporting the auto-surf industry that she herself helped to create.

The next day, a news reporter from her home town of Charlotte, NC was almost run down in Ms. Johnson's brand new Chrysler PT Cruiser trying to interview her about the pending case against her from the SEC and the investigation by the FBI.

Since 12DailyPro was shut down by the SEC, Charis Johnson has been trying to start a new business called Startup Street, and an online "institute" to educate people about the dangers of auto-surfs and HYIPs.

So are these just efforts to make herself look remorseful during the sentencing phase of her upcoming hearing? Or has Ms. Johnson legitimately turned the other cheek and has seen the light. Only time will tell. But, on her blog, she has refuted the claims that there was an another accomplice behind 12 Daily Pro, which ABC4 was hinting at.

You can watch the news stories below. The first is from Charlotte NC's WSOC, and the second is from ABC4.

As I posted in my follow up comments to Charis's inquiry about me and my intentions, I still invite her to be interviewed by me on whatever topic she so chooses. As a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, I have a set of ethics that I follow as a journalist. So, I encourage you to contact me if you're reading this Charis. I have nothing against you and would just like to help you spread your message and intentions, whatever they may be, without any bias or distortions.

Otherwise, stay tuned to Pogue's Blog for the latest news on 12DP, Charis Johnson and anything and everything related to it.

SEC Attorney Kelly Bowers comments on Charis Johnson's New Business

As promised, I followed up on my initial promise to contact the SEC regarding Charis Johnson's new business venture, Startup Street. I first contacted the SEC's press inquiry office who referred me to the individuals responsible for the initial filing against Ms. Johnson and 12 Daily Pro, the SEC's Pacific Field Office. In the press release by the SEC, three individuals are named - Randall Lee, Michele Layne, and Kelly Bowers. Each of these are attorneys working for the SEC's field office and are responsible for filing the injunction against 12DailyPro.

After contacting Randall Lee, I was referred to Kelly Bowers. Mr. Bowers was kind enough to speak with me regarding the questions about Ms. Johnson's new business. I asked him whether or not the SEC injunction prevents Charis Johnson from starting a new business and he said that it does not. The SEC filing only prevents Ms. Johnson from advertising and selling unlicensed or fraudulent securities and nothing else. So, at this time, Charis Johnson is free to start any new business she likes and to continue starting and running any new ventures, as long as they do not have anything to do with the selling of unlicensed securities. Mr. Kelly Bowers told me he could not comment further on the legality or legitimacy of Charis Johnson's new business, but the injunction does not prevent her from running it. This would presumably also make her blogging legal.

This answers the question of whether or not Ms. Johnson is allowed to run a business under her previous company name, LifeClicks LLC, or her new business name, BizClicks LLC, at least as far as the SEC is concerned. As I have previously posted, the registration info for the domain startupst.com was registered under LifeClicks LLC, which was the same name used for the now defunct 12DP registration. Even though, as some people have pointed out to me, that the company is registered under the name BizClicks, the domain registar WHOIS data clearly shows otherwise.

Still, the purpose and function of Startup Street is uncertain. Since it first opened, the site design and functions have changed quite a bit, and it now seems to only carry tutorials and guides for individuals on how to make money and is only selling information and referrals to affiliate programs and advertising companies, such as AdBrite. Many people have expressed concern that the site is just a simple ruse to collect individuals personal data to be sold to third parties for marketing purposes, but that has yet to be shown.

The site does come with a legal disclaimer though, which states the following:

Legal Disclaimer

All of the programs and website listed here were researched by our staff. We do our best to provide you with accurate information and recemmendations. However, we make no representations or guarantees of the quality of the products or services that you may individually purchase from these vendors. We also make no guarantee that you can or will earn any particular amount of money with any site or program listed on our site. Your sucess and earnings with any online venture are directly related to your own efforts, not in any way to information provided on this website.

Clearly many people will still be skeptical of anything Charis Johnson does now and in the future because of her past association with 12DailyPro, which the SEC labeled as a "massive ponzi scheme". Yet, there are still faithful and true believers in Ms. Johnson and might continue to follow her like a lemming to the edge of a cliff.

But, as Mr. Bowers stated before we ended our phone conversation, that as for the legitimacy of the work of Ms. Johnson, I would need to read between the lines and "draw my own conclusions".

ABC 4 Reports on Charis Johnson's New "Business Venture"

As reported to you in my last post, I contacted ABC4 regarding Charis Johnson, and her new business, Startup Street. The business is in direct defiance of the court order issued by the SEC, yet she continues to try and take peoples money and harvest their personal information. On her blog, she even contradicts herself and admits that auto-surf programs are nothing but rip offs.

But heres the real bombshell: While promoting her new program, Charis Johnson blasts her old program.

Once the queen of the auto-surf industry, heres what she's saying now: "If you are currently participating in online surfing programs or riskly high-yield investment programs, the reality is 99% of these programs will fail because they are illegal, run by the unscrupulous or not meant for long term viability. Either way, if you entrust these types of programs with your financial future, you will be sorely disappointed. We want to help you eliminate the need for such risky ventures and give you a sense of pride for accomplishing success on your own terms. You need to take the power to control your destiny out of the hands of those programs and into your own."

Hopefully the SEC will put a stop to Charis Johnson before anyone gets suckered in to this new program. I would advise anyone to report this new company to the SEC and any other relevant consumer watchdog groups and government agencies.

ABC 4 - 12 Daily Pro Mastermind Back in Business

Charis Johnson Back in Business?

Charis Johnson, owner of the now defunct auto-surf, 12DailyPro, which bilked customers out of a reported $50 million, appears to be back in business. With a new company called BizClicks LLC, registered by the same attorney who registered her previous company, LifeClicks LLC, and two new websites. One website, charisjohnson.com seems to be her personal blog and is registered through a proxy address. This is redirected from her other personal blog she started after the demise of 12DP. Her other address and new company is called Startup Street which seems to offer many products to startup new businesses, including a store front, affiliate position, and other "business opportunities". Charis Johnson seems to have wasted no time in starting a new business after the SEC shut down 12DailyPro for the unlicensed sale of securities and appointed a receiver to the account.

The new address provided for the domain registration for startupst.com is registered to Apartment #1234 which seems suspicious. If it turned out to be false, it would be in violation of ICANN policy.

Registrant:
MyLifeClicks

12800 Laurens Ridge Rd
Apt 1234
Charlotte, North Carolina 28273
United States

Administrative Contact:
Johnson, Charis mysterycharis@aol.com
MyLifeClicks
12800 Laurens Ridge Rd
Apt 1234
Charlotte, North Carolina 28273
United States
(704) 583-4742

LifeClicks LLC is the name of the company which Ms. Charis Johnson ran 12DP under previously and was under a court ordered injunction by the SEC to halt all activity related to the business. So is Johnson in violation of the SEC ruling? Hard to say for certain. ABC4 reported the following:

In the stipulated order signed by her attorney, Noell Tin, and by a Federal Judge, Charis Johnson is forbidden from making any statements in the name of 12 Daily Pro, LifeClicks "or any of their subsidiaries and affiliates" without the consent of the receiver.

I have sent an email to Brent Hunsaker of ABC4 and Thomas Lennon, the 12DP receiver appointed by the SEC for an answer. Stay tuned...

UPDATE 4/26: I contacted the Pacific Field office of the SEC and spoke with attorney Kelly Bowers regarding Startup Street. Read about it here.

StudioTraffic's Web Site Suspended - The End for ST?

It appears that repeated calls and emails sent to Studiotraffic's provider, FastServers.net, have succeeded in shutting down the online auto-surf gone rotten. Visiting StudioTraffic's website now displays the message that the account has been suspended. Meanwhile, StudioTraffic's other website, including their forum, remains online, while it's "investors" and other people who have held out hope in recovering their money can still chat about StudioTraffic under the watchful eyes of the moderators who are continuing to try and not let damaging information about the program be disseminated.

The purported owner of ST, John Horan, has been discovered to be an alias. The domain is registered to a company in Panama called Overseas Incorporation Services Overseas Incorporation Services which claims to offshore company registrations and other services. Contact to the company has been made and they are quoted as saying that they have no knowledge of a person named John Horan and that Studiotraffic is not in good standing with the company. However, they have refused to release records about ST unless forced to by law. Many people are still trying to track the whereabouts of the other owners and operators of ST and report them to law enforcement and other agencies.

Whether or not this is the death nell for ST remains to be seen, but under ever increasing pressure, and outside individuals who have lost money continue to report ST and it's owners to consumer affairs divisions and government agencies, it's likely that the company doesn't have much longer to exist.

UPDATE 4/2: Studiotraffic's forum is now offline. They claim the cause is due to "abuse" from members, despite the fact that they haven't allowed people to register for the forum in months.

Sorry - but due to constant abuse and mistreatment, we have a lack of forum staff. The board is unavailable at the moment.

Please try the 2 alternative private forums.

http://com1.runboard.com/bmembersofsthelpingmembersofst

http://com2.runboard.com/bmelleen

Studiopay's website has also disappeared showing up simply saying that "there is no website configured at this address". Whether this is only temporary remains to be seen. But, it looks like this is a victory for those of us who have worked to prevent anyone else for falling victim for this scam as ST is currently out of business. We will still have to wait and find out if any funds are recovered to anyone or if any of the owners or operators are brought to justice.

The latest updates and news about StudioTraffic can be found on TalkGold's ST forum.

StormPay Policy Change - Now Only an Auction Service

StormPay has made an official change to their terms of service which now makes it only a site that allows money to be sent and received for auctions sold within their site. Any other outside payments or any other types of payments are not allowed. This seems to leave only PayPal and possibly e-Gold as the few online payment processors that are still in existence and are licensed to transfer money.

Important StormPay Policy Change:
23-Mar-2006 14:21

Dear Valued StormPay customer,

Effective immediately StormPay Inc. will no longer accept payments for sales made outside of StormPay Auctions. If you are an online seller who wishes to sell your product or service through the StormPay system, your item must be sold using the StormPay Auctions feature. Listing in the StormPay Auctions is FREE of charge unless utilizing our inexpensive upgraded listing options.


Q: Why has StormPay implemented this new policy?

A: StormPay has rendered certain policy changes to insure a safer online experience for both buyers and sellers. This policy change allows StormPay to more closely monitor the products/services sold, insuring that sold items are within StormPay’s acceptable use policies.

Under these new policy guidelines, customers may no longer log into a StormPay account for the purpose of sending money to another online user, or “offsite” website sale. All “spends” and “receives” are and only can be for the specific purchase of a user’s auction listing and successful purchase of.

Subscriptions (recurring billing) is no longer supported by the StormPay system. All current subscriptions have been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We appreciate your business. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

StormPay Inc.

This change is most likely being done to limit damages and liability for purchases done outside of their network since there were such a huge amount of complaints made against them to state & federal agencies after they froze 12DailyPro's assets. This move officially kills StormPay as a payment processor. Many people will probably disagree with me, but I feel that this is unfortunate. It seems more and more online payment processors are disappearing, which leaves only PayPal to operate as an exclusive system to move money back and forth between users, as well as being used as an online shopping cart system for people who don't use merchant accounts.

How The Mighty Have Fallen - StudioTraffic Near Collapse

Another large auto-surf, StudioTraffic, is starting to crumble under pressure and lack of new customers. A recent announcement made by owner "John Horan" shed light on the problems ST is facing and the fact that individuals who are "in profit" should not expect to get paid.

Studiotraffic was at one time, considered the most solid and only stable auto-surf/HYIP available, as it had been in operation for several years, running several side companies which claimed to help keep it in profit.

Hello,

I received this news few hours back. Our top management has resigned. This means that offices in US, Canada and Spain will be closed.

With this shocking news and with recent problems with stormpay, I am sad to inform some changes which will affect members.

Members, who are in profit, please stop surfing as we can no longer afford it. We hope you will understand that we have done our best and this is something similar to natural disaster which is beyond our control. If you have funds in studiopay or in your studiotraffic account, please take note that in our TOS, we have never guaranteed payout. Your payout is determined based on our advertising revenue. Less advertiser revenue means that we need less people surfing. You can, however, still use your account for advertising purposes.

I am sure there are people who lost money with stormpay. We are victims too. Stormpay is still taking money from us everyday, we are not sure when they will stop and have expected that we lost our reserves (hundreds of thousands) we have with stormpay.

All is not lost as we can still depend on local funding from our offices worldwide. However, with top management resigning and offices closing down, we will lose almost 90% of funding.

Members who are not in profit, please send email to notinprofit@studiotraffic.com. What we will do is that in the coming months, we will seek venture capital and raise funds. Once we raised these funds, we will send it to you. Do take note that we are not obligated to do refunds or to send you back what you sent in. When you upgrade, you are getting accesses set with different account level so you can advertise your products or services better. When you upgrade, we have a refund policy where we will return you what you sent in, in the first 7 days. After the initial cooling period of 7 days, we are not obligated to do any refund as it is assumed that you accepted what you received.

We are doing this because we want nobody to lose any money with us. Please give us a reasonable time to do this as we need time to get it arranged. You can, however, still continue to use your account for advertising purposes which you have paid for. There is no need for you to continue surfing. All of you will automatically receive shares to all studio programs. If we cannot manage to raise venture funds, we will sell your shares in all studio programs and pay you back so it is the same.

We will close down studiopay website for a couple of months because with Studiopay staff resigning, we do not have enough manpower to handle it. We will do a complete restructuring with a new management team in it. Once ready, we will bring studiopay to public.

I hope all members will understand that we have done our best and what happened is something beyond our control. All studio programs will continue to run. We will continue to allow signups to basic accounts. Most of our current advertisers have mentioned that they do not need high level account holders to surf. As long as we can get a lot of people to see their ads, they are willing to continue to advertise with us. Our expenditure will be reset to the lowest because we will be getting only basic accounts members to surf.

After this, we will, most likely, have less than 15 staff working on this. Due to shortage of manpower, we can only attend to non profit members for the time being. Please send to notinprofit@studiotraffic.com.

As for other members, once we get everything back, we will continue to get you back to surf. Please give us some time to work things out. Please do not send emails because we do not have enough manpower to handle it.

Members please do not worry. As long as we start afresh, we are confident to turn things around and it will be better than before. Many of our staff has indicated that they would like to continue to help out without any payout. If you like to help us further, please email to support@studiotraffic.com.

I hope all members will understand that we are doing the best we can. We will continue to work hard and make sure no one loses money with us.

Sincerely,
John

It should now be clear to anyone who is involved or associated with ST that is simply another auto-surf ponzi, just like 12DailyPro and needs to be shut down completely. If you have a StudioTraffic account, I recommend immediately emailing the administrator and demanding that your money be withdrawn and your account be closed. It is also important to complain to the authorities in the United States, where the program is supposedly based. You can complain to the following agencies for fraud at Studio Traffic - even if it doesn't recover your funds, it might help stop anyone else from signing up for this site.

Internet Complaint Center
Federal Trade Commission
SEC - Investment Fraud
National Fraud Center
GPT Boycott
Ripoffreport.com

StudioPay was/is acting as an unlicensed payment processor which is illegal in many states. You can find out where to report StudioPay to at this thread on TG.

Unfortunately, there is only sketchy information on the address of ST and it's associated companies. I have no idea if the below information is correct, but was taken from individuals on talkgold.com and from domain registration records. If anyone has the correct information, please forward it to me or post it in a comment.

Administrative Contact:
Domain Registration
Ben Stellar (admin@studio5000.com)
+1.5413453276
Fax: +1.5413453276
Ramon Arias Avenue, Maheli Building,
Office 12-E,
Panama City, NA
PA

Address:

214 Courtwright St.
Fort Erie
Ontario, L2A2R8

Phone number:

(905) 994-1066

Fax number:

(905) 994-6699

Tax ID: 203117670

Lorraine Brennan Yahoo IM: impatientlywaiting2001
Jennefer Cullinan Yahoo IM: dreamcatchersps

John has changed his yahoo id, used to be studioplayer2005.

They have a variety of domains that include
www.studiotraffic.com
studiopay.com
studiowalker.com
studiorocks.com
studiocafe.com
studiocares.com
studiohug.com
studiotraffic.org

A sample complaint letter should look something like this

On xxxxx (date) I signed up for the Studiotraffic.com web site program which is advertised as being an 'auto-surf' program that pays you to view ads (rotating websites) at a certain percentage per day. Upon initially signing up, you are given a free upgrade of $10 to start with. In order to be paid 1% (the advertised rate) you must view 300 web sites per day through their viewing system. On xxxxx (date) I upgraded my account by sending $xxxx dollars through an online payment processor, StormPay (or egold, etc), to Studio Traffic to be able to receive 1% daily interest of the investment, which would equal $xxxx monthly. After the upgrade, each day you were required to view 100 websites daily for the 1% interest and to receive credits to be used to advertise a web site of your choosing to be placed into the auto-surfing rotation. You are also invited to sign up members under you as referrals in a type of downline system where an individual earns a percentage of the payment that the referred member puts into the system.

At the end of each month you can request a pay out through their payment processor called StudioPay, which required me to fax in a copy of my drivers license, a bank statement showing my address, and a voided check. It also required me to show a valid credit card number and link to my checking account through its routing numbers. Once the payment was requested through Studiotraffic, it was processed through StudioPay which took out a percentage transaction fee, and then was withdrawn to StormPay (or whoever) which took out another transaction fee.

At some point in time Studio Traffic stopped processing payments to me and many other members and began closing individuals accounts and freezing their money. I received an email today that my account had been frozen because I was "in profit". (If this happened to you - otherwise, describe your specific situation) I attempted to contact their customer service to ask what this meant and was told that because I had made more money than I had put into the system my account was suspended and I could request a "settlement" of $xxxx, which I was unable to do because of supposed system errors.

Recently there has been rumors online that Studiotraffic's online payment processor, Studiopay was hacked. Individuals posted pictures of user's drivers license, checks, credit cards, and other relevant information from their accounts on online message boards and discussion forums. Studiopay sent an email out asking people to inform their local police that their id had possibly been stolen and inform their banks and any other agency relevant to identity theft.

Please order a free copy of the Consumer Action Handbook for 2006 put out by the US government.

If you're looking for a real investment program, try ING Direct which is FDIC insured.

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