07/02/2010. Interview with the admin of GoldenFleeceFund

BEWARE! THIS PROGRAM HAS STOPPED PAYING! PLEASE DON’T INVEST!

Hi everybody! Today for my first post I’d like to bring you this very interesting interview with Felix, known to many of you already as the admin of GoldenFleeceFund. I must say I like such interviews where the admin does not try to avoid any questions, or even simply refuse to reply at all as happens sometimes, but gives a reasonable explanation to everything. I’m sure it will be beneficial to both the program and its members as it surely demonstrates a good level of professionalism from the program’s admin.

While it might be true that there is a lot of room for elaboration on some issues (for example the program’s alleged mining interests) we only have limited time and space to cover them here. Anyone with any follow up questions should direct them to Felix, but as an HYIP admin he does appear to be very capable.

Before we hear from him let me just remind you that GoldenFleeceFund is a long term HYIP that offers you 1.1% interest for 30 days, or 2.5%-4% for 90 days, with both plans returning your principal on expiry. For more detailed information please refer to my original review published here.

“1. Hi Felix, please introduce yourself to the readers of MNO and tell us about your own role within GoldenFleeceFund. What are your own duties within the program? How would you describe a typical working day for you as an admin of an online investment project?

I manage GoldenFleeceFund and participate in the day to day operations. This consists of handling marketing campaigns, managing the website as well as helping with support for our investors. I support my team by doing whatever needs to get done for the day whether it be answering support requests or renewing marketing campaigns.

2. Can you also give us some background on the program? How long have you been running? What were you hoping to achieve by starting it in the first place? Apart from you is there anybody else working on GoldenFleeceFund?

We opened up for public investment on October 20th, 2009. We were hoping to reach a global investor base and take our investment group to new heights and frontiers as cheesy as that may sound. With the economic turmoil globally, my team has looked for a community such as the one we have found through the likes of LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney. It is a fresh and large group of investors looking to make money. The likes of LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney make it so easy to conduct business globally.

Apart from me, we have six other team members. One is totally full time with support, account management, and accounting. Our other five seek investment opportunities, gauge their probability as a good investment, and make those investment decisions with my support. Any investments we make go through the eyes of these five team members.

3. What about the investment plans? Can you explain them in detail to us? What are the minimum and maximum amounts for investment, what rates of interest are on offer and how long do they run for?

GoldenFleeceFund is a single investment fund. We pay interest Monday through Friday for 90 calendar days. We process withdraw requests 7 days a week. GoldenFleeceFund pays between 2.5% to 4.0% daily depending on the deposit amount. $10 is our entry point. We also offer a trial fund at 1.1% daily for 30 calendar days, Monday through Friday if you wish to try out our investment group. We make it quite simple to invest in GoldenFleeceFund as there is no choosing between plans. Whatever investment bracket you reach is the interest rate you are given.

4. Tell us about the payment options available from GoldenFleeceFund. What payment processors are you currently dealing with?

In the beginning we only accepted LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney. As we became more well versed in e-currencies, we have now added the likes of StrictPay, GlobalDigitalPay, and EuroGoldCash. We are looking to add Bank Wires in the near future as a number of people have requested it. Still for the most easy and quickest form of investment is through the likes of e-currencies like LibertyReserve.

5. How highly would you rate the security of your own website? Tell us about your hosting provider and how highly would you rate them as a service provider?

We have come a long ways in the security of our website. We have learned a lot as we have grown in the community. SSL is a must, which we have and DDOS protection is a must, which we have. We use Black Lotus and cannot thank them enough for their service. Anything we need, they are always there to assist. Whether it be upgrading servers or making sure SSL works properly, they are there. We are very proud as to the security of our website and our investors funds. We do not want to tarnish the trust given to us by the immense amount of investors in GoldenFleeceFund. We appreciate the support and open arms welcome into the community.

6. What about your script? Who is the provider and what do you think the benefits of this script are to both the admin and the investors?

Goldcoders is the script we found that most investors are comfortable with and have already a basic understanding as to how it works. We chose it so investors in the community would feel at ease when navigating the website and account panel. We then beefed up security to ensure our investors funds. Between Goldcoders and our efforts, we are most confident in the functions of our website.

7. I know that you recently added SSL encryption to your program. Can you explain to those not that familiar with online business exactly what that means and why is it so important? Why do you think so many HYIP admins are so slow to add this feature?

SSL encryption offers a secured connection to GoldenFleeceFund. Those without SSL are prone to having accounts hacked as the traffic between your computer and the website is not secure. We are more than satisfied as to the results of adding SSL. Our high net worth investors feel more at ease since the introduction of SSL. There is less work for our IT department since SSL was introduced to GoldenFleeceFund.

Administrators of other investment programs may be slow to add this feature because they don’t see it as absolutely necessary. I would say completely otherwise. When in the public domain your investors start speaking of the amounts they have invested, listening ears of computer savvy individuals with bad intentions perk up. It is quite sad to hear when some administrator reports that their funds have been stolen due to hackers. This all could have been stopped by appropriate computer security on the part of the administrator as well as a SSL secured website.

8. After the introduction of SSL and the expansion of your payment processor list, how have things improved for GoldenFleeceFund?Are investors more willing to get involved now and take the program more seriously?

There are some investors who have thanked us for adding SSL and have increased the amount of their investment. We have many new investors in all the e-currencies we provide. We thank all for the support of the work we put into adding the new e-currencies. I believe we have made a true statement of client support and dedication since our October opening.

9. What kind of customer support do you offer? What is the best and most efficient way to contact you if I have any questions? Do you have Live Chat support? What hours (GMT) is this services available during?

The most efficient way is always via email. We do have live chat support and we do have several team members that frequent it. We do not have set hours as of now, but we try to make a presence in many different time zones as our investor base is global.

10. In my review of your program I mentioned that at that stage no principals had yet been repaid. I know that this process has since got underway, so how has the reaction been from the members? Have many re-invested? With the principals now being paid back how sustainable do you think the program is?

Once we started paying back principals was the start of an investor surge for us. We have been growing ever since. Many have re-invested, but the true testament is the investor surge we are in right now. We thank you our investors for your support and trust.

11. What are the benefits of becoming a VIP member? Are you aware that smaller investors who are the lifeblood of any online HYIP might feel a bit disenfranchised by preferential treatment given to wealthier clients?

We include special benefits to VIP members. Without our VIP investors, we wouldn’t have made it to where we are today. We have had tremendous support since the introduction of the VIP program. Do not fret, we value all our investors. This is why we introduced a trial fund and why we are working on new features for our smaller investors such as deposit bonuses. Compounding has been a highly requested feature by our investors of deposits of less than $500. We are taking it into consideration and an investor survey will be going out shortly to our investors to gauge the want of compounding.

12. What other outside business and investment activities are GoldenFleeceFund involved with? What are you doing with your member’s money and how are you generating such profits? Can we see any proof of these activities?

We conduct a lot of business with precious metals distributors, mines, investment funds, as well as stocks. A well diversified fund is a profitable one. We have not quite reached a level yet to offer the investor’s portfolio. With the opening up of a full time investor relations office will be the time for this. We are very hopeful for the future growth of our group and the new heights we will reach because of the expansion of our investor base.

13. Can you also tell us about your incorporation certificate in Belize? I also have one of those for Money-News-Online. Can you talk us through the process of how you obtained it? Does it give you licence to offer financial services?

Offshore incorporation we have found to be a great thing for us. With the increase in a global investor base we have found it necessary to simplify things by incorporating offshore. We have a lot more freedom. Offshore incorporation would not exist if it wasn’t beneficial. We did use an agent after close to two months of discussion over what we need and what is good for us. Belize came out at the top of our list every time. Incorporation is not related to financial services.

14. Many people have said to me that they find your stories about gold mines to be too far fetched and are actually discouraged from joining GoldenFleeceFund because of that. Even people that like your program as an HYIP otherwise. What do you say to that?

I cannot say much besides it is unfortunate some would be discouraged by our profit reports to join our investment group. We would love for those individuals to take a second look or even contact me by email and we can discuss whatever is on their mind. I hope they can at one point join our large group of happy investors.

15. Where is this mine and why, if we are expected to finance your activities, don’t you give us any independently verifiable information about it?

We invest in the gold mining taking place on the African continent. We will make the information available at one point. Most mines are privately owned companies and revealing certain information will be something we have to discuss with them as well during our investor portfolio creation. We are hard at work though on the investor portfolio to make key information that we know people are interested in available to the public.

16. Are there any plans to develop GoldenFleeceFund further in the near future? Do you have any interesting changes or promotions organized? How are you planning to keep the program competitive with so many new HYIPs opening every day?

I believe GoldenFleeceFund speaks for itself more and more every day. We are not afraid of these new programs opening up every day. We have a lot in store for our investors. We have marketing and business plans outlined months in advance. We work on marketing and business plans 6 months in advance of their implementation. We cannot wait to show the community!”

Thanks a lot to Felix for taking the time and effort to return such a good interview. I’d like to wish him, his program, and most of all the investors of GoldenFleeceFund every success in the future.

That’s about it for the moment guys, but I’ll be back as usual a little later this evening with another new review and all of the day’s main news stories from around the industry so stay tuned for that!