Blatant Forex HYIP scams – Robo Profit, Pure Invest, Profit Trust, etc. – Internet ponzi schemes about as obvious as they come

Posted on October 22nd, 2009 by Mr. Ryz

If you dare enter the domain of HYIP gambling (and I highly recommend you DON’T, for the records), you’ve probably come across programs offering outrageous rates of return. Some of these blatant ponzi schemes actually claim to offer their members 100% ROI in a single day.

However, if you think that return sounds outrageous, wait until you get a load of the industry’s new blatant scam series. The very first program in this scam ring that caught my attention was a website known as Robo Profit, offering up to 2500% in just 1 day! In fact, if you want to just sit around and drink a cup of coffee for 10 minutes, you can let your money turn a 350% profit according to the advertisements on the main website. See for yourself:

I thought the madness ended with the Robo Profit scam, but after examining the advertisements on the site, I discovered three more obvious HYIP scams offering very similar ridiculous returns: Pure Invest, Profit Trust, and West Forex Investment Corp. West Forex even advertises 20,000% in one week!  All these scams essentially claim to trade forex in order to deliver profit to their investors, but obviously there is no market in existence that can generate such absurd ROIs.   These are all blatant “Forex HYIP” scams.

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What’s the connection between these scams?

I’ve seen scamming networks like this before, and essentially the administrator / operator of the Robo Profit scam is running all the other similar scams and linking them to each other. Whoever is behind this ring of junk programs probably realizes that the vast majority of people who visit one or more of his HYIP websites will simply laugh and click “back;” however, an occasional HYIP novice may fall for the hype. After all, think about this – if the scammer suckers just $20 away from random people on each of his sites per day, that’s $80 a day and $2,400 per month that this thief is stealing on a regular basis.

Also, make sure you don’t fall for the deceptive account information numbers available on the sites. On Robo Profit’s main site, for example, the account info box displays total deposited of “$11.1 Million” and nearly $0.98 Million” withdrawn. The operator of this scam is clearly displaying false numbers; just another trick to attempt to entice novices to throw their money away in this ridiculous ponzi scheme ring.

This particular ring of scams may have been easy to spot, since the rates advertised are beyond laughable. However, be forewarned that other groups of internet ponzi schemes that offer a slightly more reasonable rate are composed of a very similar nature.  Be very careful to look for signs of “fishy banner advertisements” or other suspicious endorsements on any program’s websites. Absurd ROIs aren’t always the best ponzi scheme giveaways in these situations.

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- Mr. Ryz

www.PonziSchemeAlert.com

Tags: forex HYIP, Forex HYIP scams, HYIP gambling, HYIP scam, internet ponzi scheme, ponzi scheme, Profit Trust, Pure Invest, Robo Profit

Guardian Equity Group Scam or Forex Wonder? Could the private forex HYIP be legitimate and not another ponzi scheme operation?

Posted on September 7th, 2009 by Mr. Ryz

During the past year, I’ve had many friends call me up and several random people e-mail me about my thoughts concerning the Guardian Equity Group. The reports of their successful “trading” and payouts have reached the ears of many people who have been sick and tired of the dark HYIP / Autosurf Industry.

For the past 1.5 years, the Guardian Equity Group has generated an average of 5.6% per week for members. If a member decided to cash out his or her earnings each month, a 25% fee would be charged. However, those conditions were recently changed and a new policy was adopted: A 12.5% fee is now charged each month, whether the member withdraws money from his account or not. Weekly compounding has also been downgraded to monthly compounding.

What does this indicate? Well, if you’re searching for ponzi scheme red flags in Guardian Equity Group, technically any new policies that decrease earnings or add to the manager / administrator’s pocket do increase the likelihood that the program is attempting to slow the exponential drain on the ponzi money pot. However, this policy change alone is not enough to convict the group of operating a scam, in my opinion.

What does confuse me is the reasoning behind these changes according to GEG. The group states that these measures were taken to ensure that member’s money would never “run into risk,” based on “market uncertainties” during these days and months to come. I have spoken with experienced traders this past month, and none of them have mentioned any rising levels of “market uncertainties.” I would think Guardian Equity would have been wise to elaborate on this point, though in any case, I suppose a professional forex trader could always argue he “acknowledges trends that others don’t.”

What is my stance on the Guardian Equity Group?

I believe I was officially introduced to the GEG concept last November. I decided to watch on and stay updated within my own inner circle of private forex HYIP researchers. Eventually, I decided to decline any participation Guardian Equity Group, because I just wasn’t convinced their evidence for legitimate, long-term trading was strong enough.

These are the primary reasons I did not become involved with Guardian Equity Group:

#1. GEG traders have supposedly been earning over 5% each week. On average after compounding, that’s 20 – 25% per month. Now, I am most certainly willing to recognize and state that producing consistent profits in the 20 – 30% ROI range for short term intervals is very possible. I know some stock day-traders that have earned closer to 50% per month in the short term and kept their role or “lucky streak” (as one called it) going for more than 1 full quarter.

However, notice the key words here: SHORT TERM. All expert forex traders that I’ve discussed monthly trading performance with agree that turning a 20% profit or higher each and every month is essentially impossible. It doesn’t matter how advanced or particular your forex bot is – you can NOT have a perfect record and earn profits of those heights each and every month. As stated in previous articles, some of the richest forex traders in the world make over $1 Billion a year and don’t make any more than 5% per month. That’s something to think very seriously about.

#2. I haven’t met a single individual within the Guardian Equity Group that has seen even a shred of evidence regarding the existence of GEG’s trading activity. I acknowledge the standard argument: Trading reports are privileged information and cannot be publicly distributed. Sure, that’s quite understandable, but I’m surprised even some of the more loyal members haven’t been presented with any proof of legitimate profits. Even if someone were able to honestly claim they had seen the trading records, I suppose I would be at least somewhat relieved. From what I gather, no real evidence is available.

#3. Discussion of all Guardian Equity Group related topics is completely forbidden on all other forums. In fact, on one popular HYIP related forum, Money Maker Group (MMG), a member even threatened to report all other GEG members to the program’s administration if they were found posting about GEG related topics. Why is such strict censorship needed? I can understand if GEG wanted to restrict the full, private details about their investment activities and trading secrets to a specific level of membership. However, the acts of silencing all discussion about GEG on public forums does raise that inevitable question: “What exactly are they trying to hide?” To even obtain the information I have presented thus far, I had to bang on the backdoor of private contacts.

The Verdict on Guardian Equity Group: Scam Land or Road to Riches?

I know some current GEG members will reach this point and be compelled to rant along the lines of “How DARE you put the words ‘Guardian Equity Group scam and ponzi scheme’ together!!” Yet others who have heard of GEG and are dying to know the truth will be asking- “So, should I invest or not?”

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough evidence to make a strong prediction one way or the other at this given time. I have trained myself to carefully inspect any and all red flags that suggest ponzi scheme elements, and I will say that the Guardian Equity Group does have several characteristics that make me extremely skeptical. Most of these have already been summarized above, though I will provide updates if any shocking news should come my way.

What is my recommendation to current GEG investors? Well, I always had a golden rule back in the day: If a program ever started showing any signs of potential ponzi scheme elements, I made sure to immediately cash my money out and wait 6 – 12 months before re-entering. If the program is legitimate and can exist without new member’s investments, it will survive for another year. When most long term HYIP ponzi schemes start showing major red flags, they don’t even survive for another solid 2-3 months. Therefore, if you recognize the signs, make your move and make it fast!

In fact, here’s another golden investing rule worth mention: If you haven’t put yourself in a safe position, I recommend you immediately start taking money out so you are merely playing with profits. That way, if the worst should fall upon GEG, at least you didn’t lose any of your hard earned money. Good luck!

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- Mr. Ryz

www.PonziSchemeAlert.com

Tags: forex HYIP, GEG, Guardian Equity, Guardian Equity Group, Guardian Equity Group scam, ponzi scheme