AutoSurf Schemes and The 12 Daily Pro Disaster

by Kelly Carroll

In April of 2005, an internet site was created called 12DailyPro which advertised a 44% return for investors who invested between $6 and $6000 in12 days. The only stipulation was that the investor would have to launch an automated program via the internet site and watch a series of advertisements lasting 30 seconds each, for each of the 12 days. At the end of the 12 days, the investor would be able to cash out his/her original investment plus the 44% earned by adhering to the program.

The program was very attractive to many webmasters since they were able to get their websites listed in the daily commercials viewed by the thousands of people who participated in the program. This in turn helped them to build traffic to their websites while turning a profit off their website in just 12 days.

12 Daily Pro was not the first to launch such a scheme. Other schemes are still in existence and new ones continue to launch including 13dailypro.net, alientrust.com, 365GlobalProfit, among hundreds of others. Different payouts but same strategy - invest some money, get it back with extra, get traffic to your website, cash out, then re-invest and start all over.

The problem with these programs is that the only way payouts on investments are possible is when new people continue to sign up for the program. As soon as the signups taper off (a top program usually generates about 300,000 members before the membership enrollment flattens out), the program cannot keep up with the payouts since an insufficient amount of capital exists to do so.

People who invest early on who can estimate when the signups are beginning to taper off are the only ones who realize profit from the program's payouts. They are at closer to the top of the pyramid, whereas those who sign up toward the end of the cycle will not only have no chance at earning a profit, but will lose their investment altogether.

In 12DailyPro's case, this happened around late December of 2005. However, the case was slightly different. Instead of new investors tapering off, their primary fund processor, Stormpay (which you were encouraged to use to deposit and withdraw for most of the duration that the site was running), claimed that they all of a sudden recognized 12DailyPro as a Ponzi scheme, and froze all the site investor's funds until an investigation was launched.

The owner of 12DailyPro, Charis Johnson claimed that Stormpay was interfering with her legitimate business, but could do nothing to get them to release investor funds. This led to the ultimate crash of the system, and a court order was summoned to terminate the operation.

As of 7/17/2006, millions of dollars were turned over to a US District Court appointed receiver named Thomas F. Lennon, while the mess is sorted out. Investors were advised to join a class action lawsuit in order to attempt to recover any monies lost in the program. However the litigation is taking months to resolve. Investors will most likely only be able to recover a fraction of their net investment, if that, once the case is resolved. For the latest information on this suit, visit http://www.tlennonfor12dailypro.com/.

What about Charis Johnson? She is off and running a new website called Startup Street where she advises against people investing into the very scheme she made tons of money on. Her new site is geared toward enticing people to buy products that show them how to make money on the Internet.

Kelly Carroll has owned and operated KC Web Designs since 2003. She researches new products on the Internet and is currently posting her findings for others to review. Her goal is to provide Internet users with quality articles they can use to make sound judgements before purchasing any new products over the Internet.