09/02/2010. Xcelsus Review and Other News

BEWARE! THIS PROGRAM HAS STOPPED PAYING! PLEASE DO NOT INVEST!

Hi everyone! It’s another busy day for money-news so I’ll have a couple of updates for you today. Two new reviews in fact, one of them long term and the other more of a mid term option. All the regular news stories will be here as usual later in the evening of course, but first I want to talk about a program called Xcelsus which was first added to my monitoring page a month ago.

It’s a very low ROI program with five plans but be aware that they are mostly very expensive to join, and run for over three years before expiry. So if you’re after a fast buck then you might want to stop reading now! Otherwise I hope you have a lot of patience. The first plan might have a few takers though, despite the fact that it’s only available for a limited time for testing purposes.

It’s called The Micro Test Plan which is something of a misnomer because for what’s supposedly a test plan there’s nothing “micro” about it. It will cost at least $50 to join and runs for 200 business days. That’s 40 weeks in total. You will get paid once every 4 weeks. At least that how I think it works because it’s more than a little confusing and isn’t all that well explained. For instance it says that the plan matures after one year, or 200 business days. But that’s not exactly as I would calculate that. Surely 200 business days (5 days per week) is 40 weeks and not 52 weeks? I mean anybody that’s ever worked in a regular job knows there are more than 200 working days in a calendar year, right? Anyway, the important thing here is what the admin says, and in this case he states categorically, and I quote, “Note: 1 calendar year = 200 Business days”.

So next is the rate of interest. It’s calculated by the day, though paid only via 10 monthly payments throughout the year. The ROI is variable and incredibly low with a maximum daily earning of just 0.1984%. That makes your actual payment a maximum of 3.968%. A year later you can earn up to a maximum of 39.68% interest on your principal, which is then returned. So as a practical example an investment of let’s say $100 here would bring you 10 payments spread over a 12 month period of not more than $4 each time.

Now there can be little doubt that such low rates of interest can be sustained. And sustainability is one very important factor when deciding whether you wish to join any particular HYIP or not. But the question is do you really want to wait for a year until you see a cent in profit? Is that why you are playing online HYIPs at all instead of keeping your money in the bank? Especially in the face of such strong competition from other long term low ROI programs that have proven track records, are professionally administered, and will have you well in profit a lot faster than 12 months.

There are a number of other investment plans in Xcelsus for you to consider of course. They all run for three years and are significantly more expensive to join. The next one is called The Freshman Investor Plan and will set you back a minimum of $1000 to join. You will receive 30 payments spread over 3 years of variable amounts that will not exceed 2.976% each time. So three years after joining that would add up to a maximum of 89.28%, which means you’re still not in profit until your principal gets returned. The maximum amount you may invest with here is $5000.

But the same principle applies. Sure Xcelsus should be able to meet monthly interest payments of less that 3% but is a three year wait for any profit really the reason you are playing HYIPs? Of course don’t let me answer that question for you, it’s your own business. And is the answer is “yes” then feel free to proceed.

As the other plans only start from $5000 and upwards you may wish to investigate this a bit more thoroughly yourself before getting involved. The maximum deposit is $2million, but if you ask really nicely then the admin might take just a little more. Remember to say “please”.

The payment processors used by Xcelsus include a couple of more unorthodox methods not usually seen in the HYIP industry. There are the usual methods of course including AlertPay, LibertyReserve, and PerfectMoney. But then there are bank transfers, MoneyBookers, WesternUnion, and PayPal.

I can’t really find fault with the hosting of Xcelsus. They are on a dedicated server supported by Dragonara, whose reputation is flawless. I expect there will be few problems there. What I’m a bit less sure about is the script. Not the safety of it but rather the point in having it at all. It’s licensed from MonetarySoft but there is little benefit to the individual member. You can not see any information about your account and you do not know what is going on from day to day. For example your earnings are variable and the admin can pay you anything up to a certain maximum. But you have no way of knowing what that payment is until after it’s made. They would probably be better off (from the investor’s point of view) with no script at all and just making direct payouts like so many programs did so successfully in the past. SSL encryption is unfortunately not being used here.

Customer support is offered through an online e-mail support ticketing system. There is also an email address that you can write to directly and, when the admin is online, an instant message chat feature from Yahoo. Discussion threads are also open on the main forums.

Claims of outside business and investment interests abound as usual, and as usual there is little in the way of solid evidence. Some worthwhile sentiments about Xcelsus being an alternative to the Ponzi based pyramid schemes that dominate the industry are there to be read, but no more proof if offered of this than from any of the others. So as it’s your hard earned money we are talking about and nobody else’s I suggest you be as cautious as you feel necessary and remember when dealing with people anonymously online the risks are never far away. Any suggestions that profits or principals are guaranteed need to be completely and utterly ignored until confirmed by an international bank or insurance company informs you that they are underwriting this guarantee. Over a month online and still only 36 investors (and that includes monitors) you can see that it’s going to be an uphill struggle for Xcelsus.

OTHER NEWS FOR TODAY.

I’m sure many of you would like to know why the withdrawal button in SazaInvestments is still not open though it’s Tuesday already. So I decided to email the admin of the program Ricardo and as I expected he told me that the implementation of the new script took longer than originally planned but that they were quite hopeful that the script would be finally installed today which will allow them to turn on the withdrawal option on Friday as usual. I don’t have any intention to doubt what Ricardo told me as so far SazaInvestments has really delivered good results and the admin always told me the situation and how it was. So let’s just wait till Friday and I hope Ricardo will send a mass email to the members of SazaInvestments once the new script is installed and the payout schedule is defined finally. Here is the email I received last night:
“Hello Paul, We hope that by tomorrow at this time we will have our new script online. Unfortunately it took longer then we expected to implement our design on the new script and that’s why the delay. Hopefully if we put it online tomorrow then we will open the withdrawal on Friday as usual, asking all members by then to continue their normal activities online on our site like before to be able to test the script and see everything is alright. In the mean time any urgent request (like for a health reason or so) for a withdrawal has been proceed manually even if members didn’t posted on forums or so. We can prove this. We apologize for the delay but the programming work is out of our hands and we said from the beginning that we are no online wizards. We really hope that members will be able to understand us and be patient enough.”

As I already told in my review of FundUpgrader (read it here) I considered this autosurf to really stand out from the crowd and capable of running for a long time. I was right as now, after 14 days online the first cycle of 9% daily payouts for 15 days should be completed soon and the admin still reports some good stats and growth during the last few days. He also encouraged the members to support FundUpgrader and to make it last longer by casting your votes on monitors and participating in the forum threads. With over 400 members voting and discussing the program we can be sure it will be successful. I think some good publicity also helps and encourage the admin of FundUpgrader to answer some questions for an interview with MNO I sent a couple of days ago (he promised to do it soon). I would be glad to support a program with a proactive and talented admin which will be for the benefit of all the investors of FundUpgrader. Here is the latest newsletter:
“Greetings FundUpgrader Members,
How was your weekend? Did you enjoy it like I did? Anyway let me get straight to business. First off, we just have to discuss about FundUpgrader‘s success. We are approaching the end of the first cycle and we will be tackling the 2nd cycle on the 15th day of the site. We are just 6 hours away from the 15th day and I am very happy with what we have achieved together. Many doubters at the first week of FundUpgrader said they think it will not reach 1 cycle but they have been proven wrong now because achieving the first cycle is not the goal here but to reach many cycles and that is exactly what is becoming clearer and clearer, that we will reach this goal.
How can we achieve this ? Simple my friends, we just work together and make use of our simple ways of promoting the program. This is exactly also what is happening, because of our lucrative referral offers of 2 levels (6% 1st level and 3% 2nd level), many are happy to do the referring job and get rewarded for their work in a bountiful way.
Although we have 400 members already in our database, I noticed that not many are posting their payments on the monitors and on the forums. I want to personally request your participation on these forum discussions about FundUpgrader. If you may please visit the follow forum links and register then post your thoughts and your payment proofs then add your referral link on your signature there. Then you can surely attract some clicks and signups under you and you get rewarded. Some people think posting on the forums is a waste of time but it isn’t so please try and be active there. The most successful programs had very active forums didn’t they?
I guarantee you that joining the discussion above will make our program better and you will enjoy other members company and of course my company. Ok back to the other subjects I want to discuss.
Let’s talk about the monitors. So what should we do? Ok simple when you get payments from FundUpgrader, then I ask you to please cast your votes on the monitors here on that page. It helps, just like when you post on the forums. Sometimes voters put their ref link on their vote posts then maybe some actually gets some downlines using that too. As long as you expose your referral link everywhere, you can really surely get some referrals.
Ok now let’s talk about the growth of the program. As I said somewhere on the previous paragraphs, FundUpgrader now has 400 members and this is just during its 13 days of being online. We can’t call it extra ordinary but most definitely it is not a bad thing as well. In fact it is a good rate already. What is amazing actually here is the deposits total, at about $21,000 total at the time of writing this email. I can say its all doing great. Some admins actually emailed me and asked how I was able to get that much deposit in a short period of time. Not that it’s amazing also but at these times it is very good already.
Ok, another news I have for you to day is that Money-News-Online has sent me the interview questions and I want to take my time in answering these questions. But surely, this week I will submit my answers and hopefully Mr. Paul Abramson can post it for us on a nice non-weekend day of the week.
This email has become long now and I need to cut it short so I can discuss other things for a later issued newsletter. Ok I should be ending this email now and wishing everyone a great day ahead . Sweet dreams to everyone sleeping and enjoy your day to those already doing their daily grind.
Oh wait the surf bar section has been slightly redesigned too, I hop eyou like it more. Ok that’s all.
Regards, John Palmer”.

The admin of GoldenFleeceFund Felix (interviewed here) already issued a newsletter linking to MNO’s interview with him. I think the interview really came out quite well and my questions were not skipped like often happens. I hope with the promotional effect of the new interview and the new contest about payment posting which is held now GoldenFleeceFund will become even more popular. I remind you that the program is paying 1.1% for 30 days and 2.5%-4% for 90 days with payouts being credited to your account on business days only and the principal returned on expiry. More on GoldenFleeceFund can be read in my review published here. Below is the latest newsletter from Felix, the admin of the program:
“Hello, This is Felix Zeller with GoldenFleeceFund. I would like to remind all our investors that our Post Your Payment Contest is in full swing. The details of the post your payment contest is below. There is also a new interview with me that I believe was very well done. You can view the interview on the money-news-online blog at this address: http://money-news-online.com/blog/2010/02/07/07022010-interview-with-the-admin-of-goldenfleecefund/
Post Your Payment Contest Details:
To participate and possibly win you must post in the forums below. The more you post, the more likely you will win. You must take a screenshot from the account you deposited with showing we sent you a payment of interest. 5 winners will be chosen and sent $100 to the account you invested with (LibertyReserve, PerfectMoney, etc.).
5 winners randomly chosen will receive a prize of $100. This is a bump up from our $25 prize. I hope more of you join this time around as well.
Post your interest payment screenshot in the following forums for a chance to win!
Each post counts a single entry. The more you post, the more entries in the contest you have. Between now and February 10th, 2010 you can make your screenshot posts of interest we have paid you in the forums above. 5 posts will be randomly chosen and those users will each receive $100 to the account they deposited into GoldenFleeceFund with.
Sincerely, Felix Zeller. GoldenFleeceFund Manager”.

There is a story published in the latest newsletter from InvestProxy (reviewed here) which made me think hard about the legitimacy of such programs and about their creativity in creating a good image among the investors by paying them constantly making them to sell their houses and throw all their savings into online programs in the hope of living happily ever after receiving the stable percentage on their deposits. I think it’s a widespread misconception in all HYIPs which are mostly very risky ventures and of course you must not rely on your income from any HYI program including InvestProxy. They may present this to you as a good idea and InvestProxy even told that your investment was guaranteed, but by whom? What is the insurance company that will agree to back up your loss in any online HYIP? Let me tell you that you will not find any and such encouragement creating a false sense of security of your funds in any online venture is simply dangerous and misleading. After reading the newsletter below from InvestProxy think twice if “Hillary” is so smart after the way she was depicted by the admin (I don’t think she’s particularly clever at all!):
“A brief story.
Some times ago one of our big investors, Hillary, invested $23,xxx. She is a very close friend of mine from the BDD fellowship. It was all the errand money she had. Mortgage, groceries, etc, all need to be taken care of at the appropriate times.
I told her: InvestProxy assures your principal and profit, so you have nothing to worry about. But you cannot leave your hands empty without funds if your investment is on the weekly plan. She had a daily expenses of more than $50 so I helped her rearrange her finances. She now have an investment of $20,xxx. If you need help anytime with your finances, please let us know and someone will assist or guide you. If you do not fully understand the difference between the daily and weekly plans, please let us know and they will be explained to you.
This is the principle of InvestProxy. Your Principal and profit is assured, and you can request for your principal any time you wish.
InvestProxy is NOT a 2 or 3 month program. InvestProxy does not pay admins for good reviews or paid to post, we will never do that. We earn our reputation.
Regards. David Arthur. CEO InvestProxy Inc. InvestProxy.”

I have received some reports from investors stating that GoldNuggetInvest (reviewed here) resumed the payouts and that they had been paid. I must say I’m still waiting for my payout but I’m sure I will be paid in due course. Also I will consider moving GoldNuggetInvest back to Paying status on my blog soon after making sure that every single investor received his/her payment. Hopefully you will send me your feedback about that and it will be appreciated and help me define the real status of GoldNuggetInvest on my blog. At this moment the program is still On Hold.

I have to move two new short-term programs to Problem status on MNO. It seems they are collapsing like dominoes these days. The first one to go is NowInv and I was kinda suspicious when I received a request for an interview from the admin of the program yesterday. My suspicions were true as I received one complaint stating that a substantial payout was pending since Saturday and that there was no reply from the admin regarding this. I did receive a reply from the admin but actually he told me NowInv had some problems (I guess it’s a problem with the cashflow) and they are trying to fix it. Well, I suggest the admin of NowInv to fix it without help from MNO and I’m not supporting any programs on the verge of collapse. So I moved NowInv to Problem status on my monitoring and suggest you not to invest there at this point even if you receive any payouts which may still be made selectively in hope of getting more more money. I can assure you though that from my experience there is little chance the program will be able to survive after this. So I guess you’ve been warned!

Apparently the admin of VacationProfit appeared to be just a cheap scammer using the model of the gradual increasing of the minimums as bait for an investors looking for a more stable short-term game. Although the payouts should be done instantly I’m still waiting for my first cashout on the 120% in 5 days plan and as far as I know many investors were not paid either. I have no choice therefore but to move VacationProfit to Problem status on my monitoring page. Also I encourage you not to deposit any funds there to save you from losing them.

A new promising program I would like to introduce to you today is DreamWealthBuilder and this is really something original which I haven’t seen before. While there is no need to create any account in the program you can just make your investment into each of the plans to receive your daily or weekly payouts. You can make your investment in each plan in DreamWealthBuilder starting from $10 and up to $2,000. The payment processors in use are LibertyReserve, PerfectMoney and StrictPay. Since there is no script involved the interest will be paid to your e-currency accounts directly on a daily and weekly basis. The daily plan will give you 120% profit for 15 days and you will receive your payments daily. The most interesting thing is that you will get a variable daily interest which will be increasing by 1% each day. So the first day you will get 1%, on the second day – 2%, on the third – 3% until 15% maximum which you’re going to get on the final 15th day of your investment. If you want a higher return you might look at the weekly plan offering you 150% over a 4 week period. The payout schedule is also unusual for this plan: 10% of your investment will be returned to you automatically straight after depositing (I have already received mine), then you will get 10% payouts which will be processed each week for 4 weeks. However, it’s the profit only, while the principal will be returned to you on the 3rd and 4th week of your investment with the division of 50%/50%. I know this is hard to understand so I’ll try to do it better in my upcoming review of DreamWealthBuilder which is going to be published on my blog tomorrow. Just now I can say that the layout of the program is very good, close to perfect actually. The team of the admins seem to be professional and they answered every single question very fast. DreamWealthBuilder is hosted on a dedicated Staminus server and as I said already there is no script involved, you just make a deposit and receive daily or weekly payouts. All other features of DreamWealthBuilder will be thoroughly described on MNO tomorrow so stay tuned for that as the program really looks promising.

That’s it for now but I promise to update my blog again later tonight with another review and the most up-to-date news from the Industry. Ok, I gotta go for now and explore a bit more of Newcastle. See you soon, guys!