DOJ Busts Internet Ponzi Scheme [smcb]

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The USDOJ has expressed their intention to seize the property and $53 million in assets of Florida-based "Internet advertising company" AdSurfDaily, according to WebProNews today. The Department of Justice alleges that the company was scarcely a cover for a Ponzi scheme.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Ponzi schemes are commonly confused with multi-level marketing, which are close but generally lack the strong affiliate marketing cover story and strictly rely on new investors money to pay off earlier investors. The scheme can be counted on to always end in financial disaster for investors at the later stages, but this doesn't prevent there from being a strong community  of folks on the Internet who consistently play the odds, dragging in the unscrupulous to invest and chronicling the rises and falls of the various 'ventures.'

In the case of AdSurfDaily, it operated under the thinly-guised motif of a "paid auto-surf program,' a common term for modern Ponzi schemes. 'Advertisers' were enticed into the program by promises of a return on advertising dollars spent of 125% - 150%. To recieve the benefit of the full return on investment, advertisers also had to agree to view a few websites that would rotate every day.