11/12/2010. MNOFridays (tenth issue) and Daily News from the Industry

Hi guys! Saturday is here again so I hope you’re all having a good weekend so far. And it also means it’s time for MNOFridays which is occasionally published on this day of the week. Publications on a more detailed analysis of the HYIP industry is done deliberately at the weekend as this is the quietest period for HYI programs and we all have time to reflect on the current state on things without too many distractions.

Anyway, today is the tenth issue of MNOFridays and for this I would like to talk about the naysayers and trolls. Previously I already discussed a little bit about cheerleaders and fake voters in previous issues so I believe now it’s time to start having a proper look at trolls. Especially it’s necessary to make analysis of the recent trolling campaign against CherryShares which was launched a few weeks ago and eventually this campaign led to widespread panic among investors and the subsequent collapse of the program. It wasn’t the only factor I suppose, but it certainly didn’t help matters and undoubtedly sped up the process.

That got me thinking about that again and so decided to create an MNOFridays devoted to this problem. To clearly comprehend what we are talking about let’s first ask the question: What is the definition of trolling and attacking on public forums?

To answer this question maybe go to Wiktionary http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/troll and analyze the meaning. “A person who posts to a newsgroup, bulletin board, etc., in a way intended to anger other posters and to cause drama, or otherwise disrupt the group’s intended purpose.” So in our case trolls are the people who attack the programs not because they have any reasonable complaints about their performance but are just doing it without any reason (seemingly). But is that true? They only do it without any reason or agenda? To find out more about that let’s first try to answer the following question:

What are the methods trolls are using when they post on forums and write on their blogs and other media?

Well for one thing to try and show that the program will collapse soon. They will eventually be right anyway, so it’s pretty easy to do. You just keep kicking the program until it collapses, and it doesn’t mater how long it takes because they’ll be right eventually. The faster it collapses the more satisfaction the troll will receive. The most dangerous troll from that category is hyip.con who proudly steals money from HYIP admins (openly admits to it in fact) and attacks the program which he hates due to his personal reasons and agendas.

Then of course there’s the wish to show that the program has no real source of income. This is also a pretty easy task, as I know with 100% certainty that all HYIPs are ponzies so you don’t have to be a genius to expose something unusual in the legends that HYIP admins create to attract newbies. This way you will also gain some reputation which you can use later for your personal needs.

But what are their reasons to troll and attack any one specific program? There are thousands of such online schemes, so why does one, which may have in fact put a lot of people well into profit, find itself the target of such attacks while the other more blatant scams that never paid a single dime to anyone remain untouched? I would identify the following types of trolls based on their motivation.

First of all it’s to attract other people’s attention to themselves, or their signature, or whatever promoted program they would prefer you to be a part of. If people see you were eventually right about the program you attacked you gain their trust and can involve them in your own scam more easily. That also means they are building their reputation by attacking others (mostly big programs) and by saying in the end – you see, I was right about that, I’m a real expert in my field, join my investment program and you won’t regret it.

This not only applies to HYIP haters, there could be also some people like Liegao or hyip.con who deliberately provoke conflict by issuing fake warnings and/or monitoring other programs closely affiliated with their admins. They usually try to mislead you by stating that there are certain HYIPs that can be real and by attacking others they deliberately defend their own HYIPs which they protect and cherish. Of course you shouldn’t forget that such people always have a vested interest in keeping you spending as much of your money as possible. So they attack certain programs in hope of re-directing your attention to spend money in such a way that favors them.

I think that if you run your own ponzi-based program you have no moral right to discuss other HYIPs and give recommendations as you will remain biased at all times (despite that you may not even be unaware of it) or warn about something you don’t like. I know some other bloggers who previously ran their own HYIPs and now proudly advertise new programs by opening a blog where I’m sure you can find some programs run by themselves. So please be very cautious about such people who are trying to increase their popularity by badmouthing programs which sometimes they don’t even monitor. Be smarter than them and try to look into their possible agendas and motives.

There are others who for their personal and selfish reasons choose their targets and do everything to destroy one or another program. For some perverted reason they are almost orgasmic with satisfaction when their target collapses and the belief that it’s all due to their endless efforts. This is the most dangerous trolls of all (example, the TG team that destroyed CherryShares) as they consider themselves as crusaders and have no other reason for trolling other than their deep psychological complexes or issues connected with their possible personal losses from HYIPs in the past. Beware that the main aim of those people is to destroy the HYIP industry and the good paying programs that are an essential part of it, although they consider themselves as saviors and angels who try to keep you out of the industry completely. The most galling thing here is the smug sense of satisfaction that follows the “victory”. Don’t mind that hundreds, possibly thousands, of people lost money they didn’t have to. These guys will just continue with the backslapping while the members, 99% of whom were responsible adults who know 100% perfectly well that these things were high risk ponzies but freely decided to play anyway, have their chances of earning money vastly reduced.

Then there’s trolls hired by particular HYIP admins to spread lies about potential competitors and therefore get a bigger piece of the pie that may otherwise have went to the HYIP they are attacking. Please be aware of that as this method can be widely used in the HYIP industry and more often than you think. And just like DDoS-attacks on the technical side such paid attacks can be a mighty psychological tool in hands of unscrupulous and dishonest admins. So please be aware of that!

And of course let’s not forget the blackmailers. This happy bunch tries to blackmail admins to pay extortion money. Sometimes quite significant amounts if they don’t want them to start spreading rumors about their programs on forums. The only difference between this category and the previous one is that those teams of blackmailers are usually acting on their own and have only their own financial interests rather than the guiding hand of other admins.

Other persons who try to get revenge on the admin for some reason. These reasons are usually personal and everybody who reads my blog for a long time might remember a person who simply attacked everybody who dares to think that the Pickash admin is not running every second program. This is kinda like an obsession in my opinion and for some personal problems that person now can’t get a life and keeps garbaging every discussion platform available to him from time to time.

Others are trying to take revenge even after they collected some nice profits from the admin. I have a memorable case from recently when a member of one particular program did everything to make it collapse despite being $600 in profit from them, just because the admin deleted his account for a serious breach of the program rules. Rules which he agreed to before joining. And no, he was not a newbie but was perfectly aware that that money he demanded from the admin by continuously badmouthing him on forums was a “legitimate” attempt to get another $2,000 at the expense of other members of the program, as he was perfectly well aware of the fact that the program was a ponzi and meaning that the profits are paid from his fellow investor’s pockets and not from the admin’s. So by his selfish actions he took revenge on a program from which he was in profit resulting in others losing money. But that didn’t bother him. Oh no! He only thought about his own profits and couldn’t care less if the program collapsed due to his actions which did eventually happen.

These are some most prominent types of trolls in the Industry. But now after all we’ve said let’s try to analyze the role of trolls in the industry.

Trolls are a sometimes essential evil (for HYIP admins) and good (for HYIP newbies) in the industry. The experienced players should pay attention to what they say but always look for some hidden agendas as everybody in this industry has one. Be very careful about trusting the trolls because they might dangerously mislead you, just like cheerleaders but in the opposite way.

They believe they can do anything as they are protected by anonymity. And sometimes they become a really dangerous thing for even the strongest HYIPs. They keep striking until they plant some seed of doubt in the minds of the regular investors who then start withdrawing and the programs collapses. They might think of themselves as the Robin Hood’s of this industry saving the money of unsuspecting investors from another scam. But at the same time they destroy big ponzies due to which people lose thousands of dollars. Look at the recent example with CherryShares – hundreds lost their money also due to such trolling activities but you can be damn sure the admins of CherryShares were not among them. No way. They made off with a ton of cash a long time before any of this started. So it’s all relative and depends on which side of the fence you are looking at it – from the side of the winner or from the side of the loser. Sure, it was always going to happen eventually. But if anyone really, genuinely, wants to combat online HYIPs then there are legal channels open to them they can pursue. Deliberately causing those who freely decided to join to lose their money by bringing about the collapse of the program – as opposed to it’s closure by the authorities – are really only helping the ultimate fraud and the escape of the admin behind it.

The part played by trolls is very much destructive and they only help the programs collapse faster. Although you should read what they write but also look into their hidden agendas. Only then you will be able to differentiate between a troll and a sincere person who puts what he thinks into words. I think MNO blog can be described as such because I honestly tell you the truth about HYIPs on MNOFridays and hope you appreciate my honest thoughts and views. Thanks for your attention and see you in the next issue of MNOFridays!

DAILY NEWS FROM THE INDUSTRY.

As expected yesterday the administration of RussianOilFund (reviewed here) posted some news regarding their so-called “joint venture agreement in HongKong”. I would like acknowledge the excellent work of the publicist writing their news stories and they look really believable to an average investor. Anyway, something really prevents me from believing that RussianOilFund is actually involved in oil production at all. And first of all, the thing that the program operates exactly like a regular HYIP – accepting only LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney anonymous e-currencies without the right of reversal for your transactions to the extremely high-paying plans (compared to what real offline business can offer you). I remind you here that RussianOilFund promises to pay from 2% to 2.9% on every business day during 90 calendar days plus you will receive your principal on expiry. So I don’t believe that pure profit of 135% + principal back can be achieved in a 90 calendar day term. Well, it’s simply too good to be true and only online investment programs can offer such high returns unheard of in real business. Of course it doesn’t mean I consider RussianOilFund a bad program – quite the opposite – this is a really good program with a phenomenal team of speechwriters. Just have a closer look at the newsletter issued by RussianOilFund today and see that it’s excellently phrased and very convincing:
“RussianOilFund signs Joint Venture Agreement in Hong Kong. As we have previously announced, the purpose of a ROF Joint Venture agreement is to acquire funding for the prospect, production and refinement of crude oil.
The board of RussianOilFund has come to terms with the ROF Joint Venture agreement. Originally proposed in our year long oil delivery contract we signed earlier in ROF’s Board Hong Kong trip. The signing of a ROF Joint Venture Agreement begins the process of forming a formidable successful oil exploration and production arm of RussianOilFund.
December 10th, in Hong Kong, RussianOilFund board members signed the Joint Venture agreement into effect.
This Joint Venture agreement allows for the continuation of the year long oil delivery contract that was signed in Hong Kong. 14 million barrels will be delivered from February 2011 to February 2012 as stated in the year long oil delivery contract signed. The contract is to be fulfilled as well as part of the Joint Venture agreement.
We would like to announce the first major change as part of our Joint Venture agreement.
By March 31st, 2011, a ROF Hong Kong Field office is to be established to facilitate all aspects of RussianOilFund affairs within the Joint Venture agreement.
ROF Hong Kong Field office will be put in charge of handling all prospecting, production and refinement of crude oil in the Russian Federation allowed for within the funding of the Joint Venture agreement.
ROF’s Hong Kong Field Office will also become the home of all existing oil prospecting projects RussianOilFund is already involved in. To create a more streamlined and organized prospecting arm of RussianOilFund, ROF’s exploration and production arm will be based out of the Hong Kong Field Office.
RussianOilFund would like to thank all its supporters and investors. You are our family and we look forward to having you with as we move RussianOilFund to new heights.
Thank You, RussianOilFund”.

PerfectMoney payment processor went offline for many hours today but since it has only a tiny fraction of the assets of their main rival LibertyReserve this service disruption didn’t affect the HYIPs using them all that much. The announcement about this scheduled maintenance appeared on the PerfectMoney website today while it was down:
“Scheduled maintenance
Due to scheduled maintenance, the PerfectMoney.com Website will be unavailable on Saturday, December 11, 2010 from 10.00 to 20.00 GMT+1.
We will be upgrading our system as part of our ongoing efforts to improve Perfect Money’s performance.
We apologize for any inconvenience.”
At the time of writing the PerfectMoney website is still down, so I guess the maintenance period has been extended.

Not much else on the news front to report today, so I’ll just wrap things up with the list of MNO monitored programs that paid me for the last 24 hours:
MetalicFund, FxEconomy, InvestPlatforms, GainBucks, AssetManagement, AllianceAdvantage, FenixTrust, Konstant, LrPmBrokers, MutualTreaty, PandaTrade, ReProFinance, TetraMetals, YamaFinance, FelixFunds, YesInvestment, Flamanta, FondosMayores, ECashBroker and RealFunds.

And finally just to remind you that the poll currently running on MNO that asks the question “What is your investment strategy for Black December?” will be closing tomorrow and I will be publishing the results. The possible answers include:

a) I will skip this month completely and will not invest in any HYIPs until the new year.
b) It’s a dangerous period and I know it so will keep my investments to an affordable minimum.
c) I will still try to make some money in HYIPs during December because I need some easy money for Christmas.
d) I will be investing as usual as I don’t believe December is always bad. There is still a lot of opportunities there.
e) I will be investing in the programs that have a better chance to survive Christmas and stay in 2011 as I believe I can make more money this way.

So if you haven’t done so already this is your last chance. I’ll be launching a new poll then connected with the theme of tonight’s MNOFridays piece. So enjoy the rest of your weekend and see you all tomorrow, guys!