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Investigator
Brian Ingram's opinion of www.ClickityCash.com and www.1heluva.com
I
am Brian K. Ingram, owner and founder of Consulting
Investigation Services, a Private Investigations company
duly licensed by the State of Texas.
I have been specializing in and investigating Internet
Crime and Fraud since 1996 and am a recognized expert
in the field, both nationally and internationally.
I invented and teach most of the modern methodologies
used in Email Tracing and Internet Profiling that are
in use today. |
I was
asked by Bill E. Branscum of Oracle International to consult
on a case in which Fred Srock markets and sells an MLM enterprise
known as 1Heluva.com. I learned in my investigation that Srock
also owns ClickityCash and BubbleBucks.com. These sites have
one thing in common; they are all rip offs designed to take
your money and make Srock rich while not paying anything near
what is advertised.
Let's
look at a history of Srock first:
In 2001 Srock claimed to be the VPP (whatever that is) of
a company called 3 Step Marketing. 3 Step Marketing is another
MLM site based in Canada. Srock, in this ad he placed in a
Usenet Group, was advertising for a Computer Programmer to
work developing a new site. (remember this because it will
be relevant later)
In 1995 Srock promoted an MLM scheme in which customers were
paid commissions based on how many ISP subscribers they could
get to join the scheme to promote PowerNet. This one soon
went out the window and in a quote from Srock himself:
"But the provision of Internet Services is really just
an excuse
to get everybody to pay monthly fees on which everybody else
makes commission - a LOT OF COMMISSION
This promotion was done using a CompuServe account. I guess
Srock didn't believe in the product he was promoting!
Srock,
in the same year, tried to convince millions that they could
get rich selling a chili recipe called Cincinnati Chili. This
one he touted as the $64 Million Secret and explained that
a person could make tons of cash by reselling recipes and
getting others underneath them to resell them too. Sounds
kind of stupid, but I'm sure some folks bought into it. Funny
thing is, I've read the recipe he posted to the Internet,
so if he posted it out there where anyone could find it, why
would it then have a commercial value if I can get it for
free? Makes you stop and wonder doesn't it? The worst thing
of all in this scam, was that the recipe called for Kidney
Beans to be in the chili! Aghast are you? Well me too. Every
self respecting Texan, where chili was invented by the way,
will tell you there AIN'T NO BEANS IN CHILI!
Oh, so now on with the show.
BubbleBucks.com. Lets first look at the history of this domain.
IN 2000 this domain was owned by:
Elliott Middleton, Ph.D and was a site dedicated to explaining
the economic situation of the times using the term bubblebucks
to describe the over-inflated value of the market and dollar.
I don't know from the cursory research I have done, if Middleton
was ever associated with Srock, but his archived version of
Bubblybucks.com doesn't look or feel anything like the current
version. The domain of BubbleBucks.com was bought by Srock
on 17 Feb. 2003, at least from domain registration records
that is the date. The new site promotes the a "money
bubble" in which a person buys into the bubble with their
money in the form of e-Gold and once the bubble UNDERNEATH
their bubble has enough cash in it to pay the PREVIOUS bubble,
that bubble bursts and everyone supposedly gets paid. Notice,
that on that site's faqs page, Srock clearly states that the
payment of one bubble is dependent on the bubble underneath
it taking in enough money to pay for the previous. There is
NO product, NO service, just an elaborately worded pyramid
scheme designed to take your money. Oh, the kicker, the ADMINSTRATIVE
costs that Srock takes to pay himself and for his bandwidth
on the Internet. In one of his sites, he claimed this bill
was $4100 per month.
So, bubblebucks
doesn't sound like a good idea? It gets even better. Payment
is made in the form of e-Gold. e-Gold is an online currency
based on gold bullion in some vault,somewhere in which you
give money to a broker and you supposedly get ownership in
a certain amount of gold bullion. When BubbleBucks.com does
pay you, it is in the form of e-Gold transfers. Try going
to the grocery store and giving them an e-Gold card for your
purchase. Won't work!
BizzOpp.com,
an Internet Marketing review site has rated Srock's endeavors;
BubbleBucks has a 1 and so does ClickityCash and 1heluva.com.
Kind of low rankings for something that the referrers are
advertising will give a 600% Return on Investment in the first
year.
Folks,
NOTHING gives you a 600% return on
investment in the first year except spending time with your
kids, period!
1Heluva.com: Ok, so now to the meat and potatoes. Srock was
having a hard time with ClickityCash so he reincarnated it
as 1Heluva.com. The payouts and complaints to him about clickitycash
must have gotten to the point where he needed a fresh influx
of cash to pay off the previous investors. Hey wait a minute,
doesn't that sound like a Ponzi Scam? Hmmmm, well you'd be
right.
One former
member of 1heluva.com, Brian from Liverpool, England, writes
on his site, "this thing has turned into a pear,
don't believe anything I wrote before and stay away from this
one..."
1heluva
is a progressive rebate scam in which a person is supposedly
paid for clicking on other members web-sites. My question
is this: Where does the money come from to pay the rebates?
If you only get paid if you click and the people that you
are clicking on are also members that have paid to click,
this thing is a vicious circle, a closed loop that depends
on an ever constant influx of members, paying for premium
services to actually pay out the rebates. It cannot support
itself without fresh investors and money. That, is a ponzi
scam and Srock is a master at the fast talking, flim flam
selling and down right con man of the highest order.
I could go on and on, but I believe this will suffice. I have
NOT seen ONE endeavor that Srock is involved with, with the
exception of the Resume Writing service he seems to have started
with, that even MIGHT be legal and legitimate.
Oh, remember the ad for a computer programmer? Well on one
of his many sites, he has a FAQ's section and one of the questions
is, "where did this program come from...?" Srock
answers that by saying that it came from him and his 25 years
of programming experience with Perl, MySQL and various other
computer programming languages. Well, that add, pasted below,
was seeking a programmer for just those languages...seems
maybe Srock is only a master at stealing candy from babies
and single women. As for the retaliation against former members
of 1Heluva, that has been reported.......Srock I got a few
words directly for you......bring it on!
From: Fred Srock (fsrock@career-pro.com)
Subject: Programmer with vision required
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl.misc
Date: 2001-03-08 13:46:07 PST
From the desk of;
Fred Srock, VPP, 3STEP Marketing Group
1 804 323 0120
1 613 962-4531 x236 (through March 5)
We are currently searching for an individual
who
possesses confidence in their programming and web
development skills, but more importantly someone who
has the desire to leverage their time and maximize
their income by using the programming knowledge,
skills and abilities they possess.
If you believe you have the following career
attributes,
we want to talk to you:
** A desire to secure your financial future
through infinite
residuals on the money made by the programs you write.
** The ability to commit yourself to providing
your technical
expertise, time and vision to existing and developing programs
with a dynamic, successful internet marketing group who can
maximize the distribution and revenue of the applications
you
write in support of our marketing expertise.
** The willingness to devote unmitigated and
exclusive time to
helping us build toward a multi-million dollar sell-out in
5-7 years.
WHAT WE REQUIRE:
===================
** 2+ years programming experience with PERL, MySQL, Java,
PHP,
HTML and/or other web development tools.
** Immediate debugging and completion (in
support of existing sales)
of one program and full development of three more comprehensive
programs by the end of 2001.
** Exclusive access to your time following
completion of your
current commitments.
** The ability to solve problems as they occur
immediately with
extreme defference to our organization and client base.
** The ability to assist in developing a strong
support staff
capable of providing top quality technical support, installations
and contract maintenance for high volume software sales.
WHAT WE OFFER:
================
Negotiable Monthly Minimum:
- 10% of Net Revenue on all sales of software you
develop for us to our specifications:
- 10% of Net Revenue of Participant Purchases
[ * Above revenues based on sales of software
you develop
and participant purchases in online marketing programs we
operate within our corporate structure.]
- Customer Software installations: $240 &
up, each
- Customer monthly service contract guarantees
- Top residual commission placement in all our coporate
operated program networks.
Your earnings expectations for this position
should be in excess
of $100,000 the first year and increase significantly each
year
thereafter.
If you're ready to earn what you're worth,
please respond to vpp@3step.com
with your telephone number and I'll be happy to call you and
discuss this
position further.
Brian
K. Ingram
Owner
Consulting
Investigation Services.
I
welcome your comments,
questions and suggestions.
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