30/01/2011. Interview with the admin of GorgonProjectInvest

BEWARE! GorgonProjectInvest is paying selectively! Do not invest!

Hi all! Hope the weekend’s been going well for you so far. As is so often the case on Sundays there’s not much in the way of news to report on today so this is going to be my only update. But what I do have is something I hope you’ll enjoy just as much. One of the better long term online investment projects to open recently – arguably one of the best new ones to open in six months – is probably almost universally agreed by now to be GorgonProjectInvest. And today I’m pleased to have an interview with the admin of the project, Paul Tromans.

Since launching just one month ago (incidentally, long enough for the first investors to be in profit already so congratulations if you took my advice and are one of them) it’s not difficult to see why GorgonProjectInvest is slowly working it’s way into the portfolios of more and more online investors. On one hand they’ve got the two most basic requirements needed for any successful HYIP which is profitable and sustainable plans combined with a dependable security network. Throw an ambitious and professional admin and a highly original and imaginative business plan into the mix and you get the first bona fide long term hit of 2011. Or at least that’s what the program is on its way to becoming.

Before we hear from Paul let me just remind you that GorgonProjectInvest offers terms of 1.9% for 30 days, 2% for 90 days, and 2.2% for 180 days, with your principal returned on expiry. Prior to this interview the admin took part in a Live Chat session with MNO readers – giving out some generous prizes in the process – and you can see the transcript here. You can discuss the project or add your own comments on the MNO forum thread here, but before all of that I suggest you start by reading my original review of the program first published here.

“1. Hi Paul, please introduce yourself to the readers of MNO and tell us about your own involvement in GorgonProjectInvest.

Hello everyone, my name is Paul Tromans, I live and work in Western Australia as the Administrator of the GorgonProjectInvest web site. My main role is the set up and day to day running of the web site. I have 15 years experience in IT mainly with databases and Customer Relationship Management software. This is the first High Interest Investment web site I have been personally involved with.

2. Can you give us some background information on GorgonProjectInvest? How many others are involved with the program or are you operating alone? How long have you been online? What are you hoping to achieve with it, both in terms of personal ambitions and as an online company?

The groundwork of our business was started 5 years ago when a group of friends and business associates clubbed together to buy some land in the Pilbara region of Western Australia as we could see some big projects were going to happen up there. All of the 9 investors were (and still are) working in the mining industry in various different sectors and managerial positions and were able to gain inside information about future projects. Armed with this information it was easy to pinpoint the best and most lucrative investments before they were announced. An example would be, if a new project needs drilling equipment and heavy machinery, this needs to be leased or purchased months before its actually needed, so if an order was received it is easy to see where the work is going to take place and the size of the project. We are heavily involved with a huge private leasing company supplying the mining industry, so it is scenarios like and many others where we have a unique competitive advantage.

Two years ago we made more investments with property and shares in various companies and decided to take the business offshore to avoid issues with tax and licensing requirements.

On December 21st 2010 we launched the web site to fund further investment.

We aim to continue using our knowledge over the coming years to cream off large profits from investments made before major announcements and to reap the rewards from our existing portfolio.

3. How much does your program depend on new investments or are there other income streams to keep GorgonProjectInvest going? I’m already aware of the information surrounding your investment activities but doesn’t every business basically depend on cash flow?

Our program does not rely on new investments to keep afloat. We are not a pyramid or ponzi scheme. We have a large pool of funds and can cash in shares or sell property if the need arises. If we find the web site is not producing enough investment funds for us, we will stop new investment plans, pay up the existing plans on their anniversary and simply close the site. We are positive we won’t need to do this, but at least all investments will be covered and everyone can be confident that their principal is safe.

4. Speaking of which, there’s plenty of freely available news sources covering the Gorgon gas exploration project itself but are you claiming any sort of “official” attachment to it?

We are categorically and totally NOTHING to do with the management or ownership of the Gorgon Gas Project. We are only investing in various components of the project either privately or through public investment channels like the ASX (Aussie stock market) and other markets.

5. What plans are available to investors in GorgonProjectInvest? Explain them in detail to us. What ROIs are on offer. What are the minimum and maximum amounts to invest? What payment options are you accepting at the moment?

At the moment we have 3 plans:

The 30 Day ‘Dampier’ plan is really a ‘starter’ package aimed for new investors who want to test us out. The minimum spend is (USD) $5.00 up to a maximum of $5000. The daily interest paid is 1.9% paid 7 days a week, giving a modest overall Return of Investment of 57%.

Our second option is the 90 Day ‘Karratha’ plan. This is a longer term choice that has an investment minimum entry of $25.00 and maximum amount of $25000. It yields 2.0% daily and is paid 7 days a week with an excellent ROI of 180%

Finally (for the moment) is our longest term plan, the 180 Day ‘Pilbara’.
Minimum entry level is $25.00 with a higher maximum of $50000. This plan pays 2.2% daily, 7 days a week and gives a very impressive 396% ROI.

We have a good variety of payment options.

Liberty Reserve, Global Digital Pay, AlertPay, Perfect Money, Pecunix and direct bank wire to our Australian bank service.

We plan to add Solid Trust Pay soon along with domestic Australian bank transfers for our Aussie investors.

6. How secure is the website of GorgonProjectInvest? What are you doing to protect it and members’ accounts from hackers? Are you on a dedicated server? Who is your host? What kind of anti-DDoS protection do you have?

We have gone to great lengths securing the web site and creating safe and effective defenses against hackers and cyber terrorists.

Our Dedicated server is hosted in Malaysia using Katz Global hosting service. Our Server is using the proxy Anti DDos service from Block Dos meaning traffic is first directed to Block Dos servers in the USA, filtered and then sent to Malaysia.

On our actual server we have a hardware firewall and a new anti hacking defense mechanism called Dot Defender which blocks hacking scripts and other methods used by hackers.

The web site is SSL protected and the software has a secondary level of security utilizing a Security PIN function for withdrawals and if you need to edit your account details.

7. Can we see any statistics regarding the site? How many members have joined since the beginning and how many are active at the moment? Are you pleased with the support from the members so far? How important a role do they play in bringing in new members?

We have over 900 members who have invested into our plans already. We have over 1200 actual registered users and we are very pleased with this response. In fact we are impressed by the level of support we have received and the positive feedback. It seems there are a lot of active members frantically referring people which is great as there is a great opportunity to earn a good income stream from our referral program which, don’t forget, is a 3 tier system, paying 3 levels deep. So even if you are not quite sure of our Investment Plans or unable to invest, there is still a way to participate with GorgonProjectInvest.

8. How can members contact you if they have any questions or support related issues?

Our Live Support help Desk is online at least 18 hrs day and we have a standard support contact form that responds to queries generally within 12 hours.

In the coming weeks we will add multiple language support. We do not plan to add telephone support yet.

9. What have been the most common questions and problems you’ve had to deal with so far? Is there anything you wish to say here so that members can avoid having to contact you later?

We seem to still have an issue with Perfect Money deposits not showing up on users accounts after they use our deposit system. We of course add them manually when we spot them, but sometimes there may be a small delay from when the payment is made to when it actually shows up on the account. We are trying to fix this problem.

The No.1 question we receive is, ‘Will my deposit be returned at the end of the term’. The answer to that regarding all of our plans is a categorical YES!

10. How have you been promoting the program so far? What advertising strategy have you been using? How are you getting new members to join?

We initially started a low key approach by choosing some poplar monitors whom in turn created threads in most of the more active forums. We purchased some banner ads in a select few Forums, bought some signatures etc, but have not overspent on the major forums as we believe the prices are extortionate and will take funds away from out profits.

We are not a quick hit HYIP. We have a long term plan and hope to rely on word of mouth, trust and a small amount of continued advertising. We purposely do not release multitudes of endless e-mails harping on about how good we are and how our users need to invest more. This is tantamount to SPAM and believe users just end up not reading them anyway. We update news on our web site when necessary, but not just to mention things for the sake of it. It may seem a little ‘maverick’ using this type of strategy, but we are not your usual investment program. People will see we run a professional and tight business and our reputation over the coming months will create more members who will enjoy receiving profits for a long time to come.

11. I notice you list a mailing address in Singapore while the project itself is in Australia. How come? Is this just a virtual office or do you have actual staff members located there?

The mailing address is a virtual type office. All administration is handled there as well as accounting. We do not have any staff that could assist with the daily operation of the web site in this office.

12. In the recent interactive chat session on MNO you remarked that you’ve been an observer of the HYIP industry for some years and say that you’ve learned quite a bit. Would you care to expand on that? Can you tell us about your own experience and maybe share some advice with someone coming into the business for the first time?

I have been a keen observer of the HYIP industry for a long time. I was around when Evocash, OSGold and INTGold were some of the main payment processors along with e-gold and I dabbled with some investments winning and losing along the way.

I have learned to pick and choose the right investment, as so many are utter rubbish from the start. I was in a private program for 2 years which I made a large profit from, there were over 3000 investors and I never saw it advertised anywhere and was told of it by an Exchanger. The best HYIP’s in my opinion are the long term quiet achievers which offer good tangible programs with realistic interest rates and terms.

I knew the most difficult job for GorgonProjectInvest would be convincing investors we are not a scam, it will be and continue to be the main problem but I believe our strategy, professionalism and longevity will gain us respect and hopefully even put a bit more belief and confidence back into the whole industry.

13. Are there any further changes or improvements planned in the near future? Particularly in relation to the investment plans but also to the general operation of the program as a whole?

We may add a longer term plan next month (February) likely a 365 day plan offering higher interest and a bonus for larger investments. More news on this soon.
Also we will have Spanish, French, Italian and Russian versions of the web site being released over the next 2 weeks. The translations have been done, we just need to put the pages together.

In my opinion our web site will never be complete. We will constantly be adding to it and updating when necessary. We of course would like to hear from our investors if there are improvements they would like to see us make.

14. Finally is there anything else you’d like to add that you feel not covered in this interview? Anything in the MNO review that you want to comment on that you may not have agreed with and give another point of view?

It may have initially been perceived that we were trying to give the impression that we were involved in an ownership or managerial way with the Gorgon Gas Project. We of course are not, but we are involved with entities, investments and businesses that are providing services or assets to the project. We do have shares with some of the bigger companies that are involved, but over the first few years our profits will come from land sale, property rental (the area is the highest rental in Australia), heavy machinery hire and dividends and share sales from local and International investments. It’s a different approach, it’s exciting and extremely rewarding, personally and financially and we hope readers of Money News Online will take a leap of faith and invest with us. We promise to look after you.”

That’s it for today guys, except to say thanks to Paul for taking the time to complete the interview and wish him all the best with the program in the future. And more importantly I want also to wish the best of luck to any MNO readers who have decided to sign up with GorgonProjectInvest.

I’ll be back as usual tomorrow with all the latest news from the industry so stay tuned and see you all then!