01/01/2010. MNO Investigates Registering a Company and Other News

Hi guys! For the first update of 2010 let me start by wishing each and every one of you and your families a very happy new year!

I just realized that I have been doing this blog for what is now entering its third year. At the start I never really thought about it running beyond the next couple of weeks yet here I am still at it today. It never ceases to amaze me how people still seem to find it from places I can only dream of visiting yet a connection is still made. So let me say say what a great experience it has been to “meet” so many interesting and diverse people from around the world. Even if it has only been online, it has still been a humbling but enriching experience. I know one thing for sure – 2009 wouldn’t have been so good if it wasn’t for you guys and I hope 2010 will be even better. For all of us.

Anyway, getting back to business a lot has changed in the last year. In fact a lot has changed in the last week! For one thing, I am no longer writing to you as just another internet blogger. No sir. I’ve become a Very Important Person you see. I am no longer Paul Abramson, blogger. I’m now Paul Abramson, Company Director! Because money-news-online is now a registered business entity in the UK and I have all the documents to prove it.

The idea first occurred to me in the summer. Some of you may remember I decided to to check out the addresses of certain HYIPs that were claiming to be operating from offices in London. You can refresh your memory and read about that by clicking here, but suffice to say it was an eye-opening experience. I got a lot of positive reaction to the article from readers so I decided to look a bit further into how one acquires an office in order provide an address for a business that essentially doesn’t really exist in anything other than name and to make that virtual business a legally registered company. Why exactly it took me until December to do it is another story, but now that I have I’m only sorry I didn’t do it earlier. In fact the whole thing was so easy I’m actually struggling to put the words together to describe how I did it.

But the next time you see an online HYIP that tells you they are a registered company then I’d like you to refer back to this page and see first of all how easy it is and secondly how utterly meaningless it is. Meaningless with regard to the security of your money at least. Because I have just appointed myself as director of a company that I created and registered myself. I have as I already said all the legal documents, but nobody in authority has asked me to verify my identity. I’ll have to do that later but I’ve still managed to obtain a legal Certificate of Incorporation without having to prove a thing. In fact I never even had to get off the couch. The entire deal took place online and the hardest thing I had to do was go downstairs and collect the mail when the postman arrived with the hard copy of that certificate. It really is that easy.

You can see the certificate here. My company number is 07113984 and you can enter that in the government’s own companies house website to check it out for yourself. But somebody else did all the work. There are a number of companies on the net offering such services and after a quick search on Google I selected one pretty much at random. The most important thing any of them will ask you anyway is to pay, and once you do that then they will do the rest for you. I’d say it took me no more than ten minutes to register some personal details and set some security questions so that they know they are dealing with the real me should I ever need to speak to them. They asked me the nature of the business though for some reason they neglected to mention this on the official companies house website. For want of a better word I told them it was “advertising” but come to think of it I could have told them it was “space exploration” for all they’d have cared.

Anyway, 24 hours after I paid I received an electronic copy of my certificate to my e-mail inbox. Another 24 hours later and a uniformed officer of Her Majesty’s government (the mailman!) arrived with the actual physical hard copy. I think I’ll have it framed and put it next to the certificate I received as a qualified Whiskey Taster that I got from the Jameson Distillery when I spent the weekend in Dublin last year. That one was actually more difficult to obtain! That’s not the only thing I got from them however. I also received a thing called a “memorandum of association” which is a fairly lengthy document outlining various rights, obligations, and responsibilities that I am subject to while managing the company. I haven’t really had the time to study it too closely, but it’s not really all that relevant to what I’m talking about here. And the main point I want to get across is that anybody can register their own company and not be asked for any kind of proof of identity or any kind of proof of address before doing so. They can go ahead and ask all the questions they want now, it’s too late and I’ve already got my certificate.

Something else I’ve been provided with is an address. Somebody else’s address that is. In getting Money-News-Online registered I opted for a slightly more expensive premium service that now permits me to use an actual serviced office as my own. You can see it yourself again on the link to the Companies House website. For those of you who know London “my” office is on Finchley Road in north London. It’s quite close to Hamstead Heath and I’m actually familiar with the street as I used to spend a bit of time up there during the summer. I can assure you though, I have never once set foot inside that building and am unlikely to ever do so. I must admit I am kinda curious about what would happen if I phone them on Monday morning and ask to speak to myself. Might be very amusing! I had been thinking about going up there earlier and taking a photo but it’s pretty cold today and I found a picture online anyway. Anyone who’s really interested can just put the address into Google Street View and see it.

If you wish to call and visit personally then you are free to do so. But you won’t find me there. You might find somebody who has heard of Money-News-Online, but I can assure you that you won’t find anybody there that will give you my real address. That’s confidential and will require a court order. I mean it’s not a secret that I live in Fulham but just don’t expect anybody in that office to tell you that.

And there you have it. That’s all it takes to legally register your very own company. And if I can do it this easily under UK and European Union law with so few questions being asked, then imagine how easy it is in let’s say Panama or Belize. No disrespect to those countries but I doubt the laws are strict about these things as they are here. And remember that the whole deal took place online. Meaning I did not necessarily have to be physically in the UK in order to register my company here.

So do yourself and your wallet a big favor and remember this the next time you see an online HYIP that tells you they are a legally registered business entity, in the UK or elsewhere, and give you an actual address where supposedly you will find them. Sure, it demonstrates that the admin is a bit more serious than most and it is an additional expense that they will want to recoup, but you can do it in ten minutes and for a cost of under $50. I paid a little extra because I wanted to show you how easy it also is to get a fictional address. Well ok, the address isn’t fictional. The address is real but you’re not going to find me there if you call.

And what’s more, the Certificate of Incorporation is nothing more than an A4 size sheet of paper, sold to anyone who has the money with no background checks whatsoever. So why then does everybody take them so seriously? It tells you nothing about the company you are investing with and guarantees even less. You need a license to carry out any finance related business anyway, and a Certificate of Incorporation is not that. Ever wonder why so many HYIPs will give you a link so you can see their details at Companies House, but nobody ever gives a link to the website of the Financial Services Authority register? Or ever even mentions them? You certainly won’t find Money-News-Online there – I have no right to ask you to allow me to invest your money on your behalf. That is because anybody can register a company, but not everybody has the right to start soliciting money from you in return for profit.

Just remember what I said the last time I looked into the addresses of a couple of HYIPs that claimed to be in London. Nothing is ever as it appears in this business. Take this as a warning if you like. Nothing illegal takes place in the act of registering a company by itself but it is done, usually but not always, with the intention of misleading you. It’s much easier to convince you that it’s a great idea to hand over thousands of dollars to a complete stranger because they have the appearance of being somehow professional and legitimate. But always remember that the appearance of careful management is more likely the careful management of appearances!

Now, as my first official act as a company director I think I’ll hire a secretary, no, better make that a personal assistant to go make me a coffee. While I get busy giving myself a raise.

Other news for today.

Taking into consideration the above post we can easily dismiss any claims about proper registration as a guarantee for your investments from such HYIPs as: AtlantisMutual, MoneyPlus, StarkFund, WestFinance, DreamFunds and many similar programs. It’s no wonder to me now that they all refuse my requests to visit their offices in London and other UK cities. As you could read from my article it’s impossible as those addresses are only virtual and having nothing to do with reality.

And in the light shed by the above article we can hardly get too angry at ArbsFund (reviewed here) who claimed to be registered in Belize. A couple of days ago the information was published on the official website of the Belize International Financial Services Commission warning about that. Here is the warning:
“Warning notice
ArbsFund Inc.
It is notified for general information that ArbsFund is not licensed by any competent authority in Belize to engage in online gaming business, asset management, or to offer any other international financial services. The representations made on its website to that effect are false and fraudulent.
All persons concerned are asked to take note and exercise caution.”
Well, what does that give us? Nothing new really. I was not concerned about these claims made on ArbsFund website about registration as they simply didn’t provide any registration documents confirming it (like I did with mine, for instance). I didn’t believe in their stories about arbitrage betting either as no evidence was presented whatsoever. So what do we have here? A pure ponzi-game with 8.5%-10.5% weekly payouts which will run for a while. Yesterday I noticed on the site of ArbsFund that there was another plan added offering 15% weekly forever for the deposits starting from $500. However, at this point when the lies about the registration became clear I would not be in a hurry to invest in this plan and rather wait for another update from the admin clarifying the situation. I hope the payments will continue as usual and ArbsFund will stay online for a while unaffected by this notice.

From this angle we can also look at what many consider the questionable registration in Belize made by GoldNuggetInvest (reviewed here). I have a copy of their certificate in hand and can confirm that the registration is real. However, after what I told you in my article you should have dropped ant illusion about certificates actually guaranteeing you something. If MNO Limited wanted to start an HYIP and put the certificate of incorporation as a proof of our investment activities it would be not true to say the least. Any certificate (even issued in the UK) is not indicative of anything other than that person has a number in a government office where his company is listed. So that was the real reason of the warning issued by the same Belizean commission about GNI stating that GoldNuggetInvest was “not licensed by the Gaming Control Board or any other competent authority in Belize to provide online gaming or any other international financial services”. So GNI never claimed they were. They simply registered their company in Belize like I did it in London. However, that doesn’t give them (or me) a right to carry out any financial activities as we are not legally sanctioned to do so. For this you will need a special license to be granted which will involve a much stricter controls. So I hope there will be no confusion regarding those incorporation documents anymore. Those don’t mean anything and are totally useless as was proven by myself and those who state otherwise are simply misleading you. But with GNI the point is that they don’t have a gambling license. Fine. That’s not what they do. I mean it might be an activity that they as private individuals are involved with and they may be financing it with your money, but the most important thing is that as a business, gambling is not an activity they are inviting you to participate in.

Let’s leave this topic for a while and get back to our investment programs. Many of them sent their warmest congratulations to their members. Let’s start with XagaEnterprise which I just reviewed again here and which is certainly looking as one of the most promising low-ROI programs for 2010. Here is the latest from the admin of XagaEnterprise Kevin (interviewed here):
“Happy New Year 2010!
XagaEnterprise has reached 2000 members mark!
I would like to say thank you to all of you. Especially to those who are with me since the beginning and to those who put all their trust on XagaEnterprise.
Second team has been formed and will fully operate in 2010. My brother will lead this team. This team will operate at Borgata, Trump Marina, and Harrahs.
XagaEnterprise will rock in 2010! Stay tuned and Go Xaga!
Thank you! Regards, Kevin and Team”.

The admin of DreamFunds (reviewed here) also left a short message on his website marking the new decade:
“Hello dear members, Leave 2009 behind and look forward to 2010, not only a new year but a new decade. And hopefully it will be a Happy New Year for you all. Happy New Year, Best Wishes, DreamFunds LTD Group”.

The admin of AimTrust (reviewed here) also sent his greetings to the programs members and reminded us that the next few days will be a vacation for the program. Here is the latest news from AimTrust:
“Happy New Year, friends and investors into AimTrust!
This year, 2009, has almost gone. We have lived thru it with development of multiple activities, plenty of new members appeared and joined us in our co-operation work. We have achieved good results, and the coming 2010 will certainly bring us more.
All the world will be having 1st of January the New Year’s Day. So, will we, too.
The 2nd of January is the Traditional Holiday in Canada.
Both days are the days off, yields won’t be accrued.
Best regards, AimTrust Online Support team.”

MoneyPlus (reviewed here) is also on holidays and their normal service will resume only on Monday. Here is the latest newsletter from MoneyPlus:
“On the Eve of the coming New Year 2010 MoneyPlus Service would like to congratulate you with this holiday!
Your presence is very important for us and on the threshold of New Year we would like to thank you for your cooperation with MoneyPlus Service.
We wish all the best, good luck and a good health to you and your family!
Happy New Year!
Our service will be glad to starting from January 4, 2010, Including interests, request process and account verification.
Best Regards, MoneyPlus”.

Despite the holidays the cashout button in INSPremiumAds autosurf (reviewed here) will still be open for the day. I’m not sure if at the time of writing the cashout button (which is enabled only once a month) is still on. I made my own cashout request last night and am hopeful of getting paid within the next 15 business days as usual. The next couple of days will be surfing free in INSPremiumAds and the admin of the program Ubaid mentioned this along with his New Year congratulations to the members of his program:
“Happy new year to all my members thanks for all of you support and love wish all of you many happy new year and I wish this year will bring for us more prosperity and success.
Cashout button is enabled from now all members can cashout or compound their funds now. Tomorrow will be surfing free day like sat and sun since Forex market is closed from today so enjoy long weekend till Monday.
Have a good week and year to all…
Ub. Admin”.

The admin of AtlantisMutual (interviewed here) notified the members that for the next five days the program support will not be working. However he also emphasized that it will affect neither the withdrawals which will be still processed in an instant and automatic mode nor the deposits which can still be done via LibertyReserve or PerfectMoney as usual into all the five investment plans AtlantisMutual is offering (read more about the plans in my detailed review of AtlantisMutual published here). Here is the New Year’s update from the program:
“New Year holidays
Due to low level of business activity and forthcoming bank holidays AtlantisMutual asset management team is on a vacation from January, 1st to January, 5th. Since no trading operations will be performed on holidays, deposit term counter will not be updated either. Withdrawal and support requests will be processed instantly as usual.
As Hal Borland once said: ‘Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us’. We wish you a Happy New Year!
AtlantisMutual team”.

As far as I know SazaInvestments (reviewed here) has finished their weekly payouts already which the members of the program should have requested on Thursday this week (instead of the usual Friday which came to New Year’s day this year). I guess everybody should be happy with their 8%-10% earnings and please check your account if your requested amount was put back to make sure that you requested it to the same payment processor you had deposited with. Here is the latest email I received from SazaInvestments:
“Next payday will be next Friday. In the next few hours we will finish all payouts as they were so many. We will let you know when we have finished them all. Thank you for your patience. Regards, SazaInvestments Team”.

They rightly say that when one opportunity closes another one knocks. So it goes with InstantMoneyBets (reviewed here). As you might be aware recently their AlertPay account was suspended which forced the admin to remove AlertPay completely and asked members to write to AlertPay and request a refund. Today though another great payment processor was added – StrictPay. So from now on you can make a deposit into any of the plans InstantMoneyBets is offering (1% for 1 day, 1.9% for 42 days, 2.23% for 120 days, 18.2% weekly for 202 days) via StrictPay as well. More details about the program can be read in my interview with the admin (published here). Here is the latest news from the program:
“Today we have finally deleted AlertPay from our Website.
Please request directly a refund by AlertPay, we will delete your AlertPay Balance this week, only the interests will be change to LibertyReserve Balance.
But we have added StrictPay as an new Payment Way.
Also we have a new Partner with Daniel Allen from the USA he will do the English support and will do the Payments.
We wish all Members a Happy New Year, have a nice Party today.
Michael, Martin and Daniel”.

Unlike InstantMoneyBets another sports arbitrage program ArbisPro (reviewed here) which also had to drop AlertPay a few days ago due to the same suspension issues made a better effort and actually made all the refunds to AlertPay members. I remind you that ArbisPro is a program offering you weekly payouts of 10% to 12% (depending on your investment amount) without an expiry date (you can request your principal back in 10 weeks). Now ArbisPro will continue as usual but with only four payment processors:
“First, I must congratulate you for a successful 2009 and a happy beginning for 2010. Hope you guys had a wonderful holiday season?
The good news today is that all AlertPay refunds has been initiated by us. This is in line with our earlier promise to all AlertPay depositors in our site. It is our resolve to keep to every promise made in ArbisPro because we value our members and you value us too.
If you still have any issue with your account after this, please do not hesitate to let us know as we will be very glad to help you. Below is a list of some of refunds made.
Enjoy this new year ahead.
Andrea Beck. ArbisPro Admin”.

I always like to see that some admins actually care about the members and update them all the time when their site is down. I can name Mitja, the admin of FinanceNova (interviewed here) as one such dedicated admin. The program has been successfully running for several months and the payments for both plans offered by FinanceNova (2.15% for 365 days and 11% for 53 weeks) are going smoothly every day. You can read more about the FinanceNova program in my detailed review published here. And below is the latest apology for a short downtime along with New Year greetings from Mitja:
“Our site was down for about 4 hours because the server crashed some how. The issue is fixed now and FinanceNova is up and working.
Please accept our apology for this inconvenience and Happy New Year.
Best regards, Mitja Majerle
CEO at FinanceNova”.

Due to the constant abuse of the affiliate program the admin of PTVPartner Garrett (read my interview with him here) made a decision to restructure it from one level of 6% commissions to three level commissions paid as 3%-2%-1%. Moreover, the commissions will be paid 7 days after the referral makes a deposit. There are also some other changes outlined by Garrett in the published below update. I guess these abusive tactics used by some members of PTVPartner really did some damage to the program’s cashflow as the admin even considered removing the affiliate program altogether. Anyway, I believe PTVPartner will still stay as one of the best short- to medium-term programs and continue well into 2010. You can read more about PTVPartner in my revised review of the program published here. This is the important update from Garrett for all PTVPartner promoters:
“New Affiliate Program Structure
We have a new Affiliate Program that will begin immediately.
The fact is, the affiliate program has been heavily abused. Far too many members are self referring to create a free commission and then they withdraw the referral commission and redeposit to create yet another commission. We have considered eliminating the Affiliate Program altogether. However, we decided to restructure it in an effort to allow it to remain yet eliminate the abusive tactics being used. We feel that the restructuring will actually be a benefit to those that participate honestly. It will definitely deter those that have been abusing the program.
No longer will it be a benefit to members to withdraw commissions and redeposit. They will actually lose money if they continue this strategy. No longer will it be a benefit to RCB programs to insist on their members withdrawing their Principle and Return then re-depositing to create additional referral commissions on monies that have already created a referral commission.
The new policies will remove the abusive tactics, allow the members to continue to earn from their marketing efforts, increase the commissions to those that are marketing and provide PTVPartner with additional capital for contests, upgrades, improvements and overall progression.
Starting today the affiliate program will pay out on 3 levels
Level 1) Pays 3% – these are your personally referred members.
Level 2) Pays 2% – these are the referrals made by your personally referred level one members
Level 3) Pays 1% – these are the referrals made by your level 2 referrals
This 3 Tiered, or Multi Level, structure will provide a very lucrative opportunity to those that have the ability to market it.
ALL referral fees will be paid to your ‘Withdraw’ account 7 days after your referral makes a deposit.
Members that continue to abuse the program will be eliminated from membership altogether. If your desire is to take advantage of this opportunity in a way other than what is intended by PTVPartner, then your account will be closed, your principle will be returned at the end of its term provided you are not already in profit. If this restructuring is of no effective, we will eliminate the Affiliate Program altogether.
The majority of our membership has been honest in its dealings with PTVPartner. The minority seems to be the issue. It is unfortunate that the minority often creates problems for the whole. This is a sign of the times and one of the primary reasons the world as a whole is in the condition it is in. Our desire is to provide a program where all can benefit. However we refuse to continue to provide a structure for those that would cause damage.
We will also start a referral contest within a day or two.
The Ultimate High Yield Asset for your Offshore Financial Portfolio!!!
Start the Experience … join PTVPartner to … Free your Life!!!”

During the last 48 hours I was paid from the following programs:
FxStar, GlobalFund, StarkFund, InstantMoneyBets, MoneyPlus, CedexInvest, ArbisPro, GeniusFunds, TradeZoom, SazaInvetsments, NanoMoneyCorp, InvestmentForge, Verifield, RefMotor, MandarinInvest, HugMoney, CSMFinance, AtlantisMutual, AsiaInv, FaithInvestment, FinanceNova, OneDailyPro, ZenithInvestment, TheKapital, Vegamex, DreamFunds, KobelCapital, RosalinFinance, Caziroca, XagaEnterprise, Flanita, ArbsFund, Investorum, PTVPartner and AtoxFinance (the first payment received).

That’s it for today, guys. Check out my blog tomorrow for a detailed review of the new low-ROI program AtoxFinance and more of all the news from the Industry!