What the (#@*&@ happened to stormpay?

[stonedsage]

Apparently now ripping people off for over 3 million bucks.

Anyone get burned? I lost about $50 .. suppose I should count myself lucky for that one :)

[sanjay]

Something wrong with stormpay ? Sorry if i sound out of date on the topic but would love to know whats the fuss all about. :)

[digitalnature]

they had DDoS attacks constantly for a few days

[ABhishek]

First of all,
Hello all, am new here, a young dev/designer/writer/SEO person
from India, but have been around the business|investing scene for quite a long time now, was never interested in SP.. all I did was use PayPal & egold .... Did a bit of research on the recent SP trouble... and it appears that there seems to be some problem with SP & (Charis) admin of 12dailypro(the biggest autosurf investment program)...
Please read on,
This is what SP read on February 11, 2006

StormPay Inc. is currently suffering from DDOS (Distributed

Denial of Service) attacks which prevent StormPay from sending

or receiving email communications as well as prevents customers

from being able to access their StormPay accounts through the

StormPay.com website. These DDOS attacks in no way compromise

the security of your StormPay account as they are only designed

to prevent legitimate traffic access. Federal authorities are

investigating the origination of the attacks and have confirmed

that they are very close to making arrests in connection with

the DDOS attacks.

We are sure that many of you are aware of the recent

controversy with Charis F. Johnson and other "Auto-Surf

websites". The funds of those merchants and specifically Charis

F. Johnson have been locked in their StormPay accounts as

investigations are ongoing into what appears to be massive

illegal Ponzi schemes. Any payments you may have received from

these "Auto-Surfs, that were still within the StormPay system

have been restored back to the accounts of those "Auto-Surf"s

where the funds are protected and preserved in an effort to try

and refund customers who may have been victims of these

programs. We can confirm that there will not be enough money

available to get everybody reimbursed but we are formulating an

orderly plan to reimburse victims to the limited extent that

may be possible.

The problem we are seeing is that customers are viewing their

"earnings" from the "Auto-Surfing" websites and believe that

StormPay Inc. is holding funds sufficient to cover those

"earnings". StormPay is not holding funds sufficient to cover

the alleged "earnings" or "payments" or "payouts" that are

reflected on the Auto-Surf's website (we suspect we are holding

only a small fraction of what is being reflected as "owed" to

customers on the websites). Some customers that received a

"payout" from these "Auto-Surf"s received that at the expense

of somebody else who contributed to the program but who may

have never received any "payout". Consequently, the reason that

we have restored funds back to the accounts of these so called

"Auto-Surfs" that represent payments that some members received

was so that we can attempt to reimburse as many people as

possible. In the usual Ponzi scheme, if you received a payment

from the program it had to have come from the payments that

another member made to the program. Therefore, if you have

received a payment, you received someone else's money. That is

the problem with a Ponzi scheme, once it collapses a lot of

people get hurt. There is no way to make everybody "whole" and

most people will lose money as there simply won't be available

funds to make everybody "whole." The reason that is, once

people withdraw their "payouts" or "earnings" out of StormPay,

that represents other peoples money, and if the only money

coming in is from new "investors" (and not any other source),

there is no "new" money available to make payouts or even

refunds to some members.

Assume you have a customer (customer #1) who funds their

StormPay account with $1000 and sends that money to one of

these "Auto-Surfs". Then customer #2 follows up by funding

their StormPay account and thereafter sends $1200 to the same

"Auto-Surf". Thereafter, the "Auto-Surf" sends $1200 to

customer #1 for their percentage of promised "return" on their

original "payment" and thereafter, the program shuts down as it

did in these cases. In a Pyramid type operation/program/scheme

there is no longer any new money coming into the program to pay

back customer #2. Customer #2's payment was what was used to

pay customer #1. If this is not a Pyramid operation there

should be money to refund customer #2 but there is not in this

case. StormPay Inc. cannot allow customer #1 withdraw the money

in his StormPay account (which was received from the

"Auto-Surf") into his own personal bank account, since it is

really the money belonging to customer #2. The only solution is

to reverse as many of the funds as possible so that many more

victims of the ponzi/pyramid schemes can be reimbursed their

original "investment". Keep in mind that many of the first

people into the schemes have already withdrawn the funds

rightfully belonging to the later participants. Despite our

best efforts to correct the seemingly wrong doing of these

"Auto-Surfs", there simply will not be enough remaining monies

to make everyone "whole". Again, this is due to those admins

and other participants of the programs who have withdrawn

monies rightfully belonging to others. StormPay Inc. is

currently undergoing an audit, near completion, and done with

our absolute and complete cooperation, which will show that

every penny of money we have ever had control of can and has

been accounted for.

StormPay does not permit the processing of payments for any

illegal program and our Terms of Service expressly prohibit the

processing of any payments for any illegal Ponzi or Pyramid

scheme. Our Terms of Service do expressly provide:

"17. Get Rich Quick" Schemes: Get Rich Quick Schemes are

prohibited resell items by StormPay. Get Rich Quick schemes

include any type of self-employment, start-up businesses, or

investment opportunity where the claims of profit or returns on

investment are unrealistic or unsupported. By law, if a

business opportunity costs $500.00 USD or more, the promoter is

required to support any claims regarding earnings or profits

with written documentation.

Pyramids don't pay. StormPay Inc. and the Federal Trade

Commission caution consumers about clubs or programs that

promise quick money for recruiting new members. Don't bank on

the pyramid promise that someone else will pay you. For more

information on get-rich-quick schemes, visit the FTC at

www.ftc.gov."

There are claims afloat that StormPay Inc. has performed

unauthorized charges from customers' bank accounts or credit

cards. StormPay can, and will prove to any and all

investigators that all charges made were made from each

individual's own computer, or a computer from which the

customer has accessed, and was an authorized charge by that

customer. StormPay Inc. intends to investigate each and every

assertion wherein it has been claimed that StormPay Inc.

initiated and unauthorized bank or credit card debit, and will

prosecute those persons, and seek recovery of all funds

wrongfully charged back, including all costs involved to do so.

StormPay Inc. would like to take this opportunity thank it's

customers for their continued support - past, present, and

future. We very much look forward to the time in which all

investigations have been completed and the truth is revealed to

the public and our valued customers. We anticipate having

access to our website in the coming hours and resuming normal

business operations.

Sincerely,

StormPay Inc.
1690 Golf Club Ln.
Clarksville, TN 37043

[ABhishek]

This is what a member writes in a famous HYIP forum
went to my bank today (where I got my credit card)I added all my funds into StormPay with only my credit card...I went there today explained everything to the woman, she called up the high people in charge and they have been receiving complaints from this company aswell... No Surprise.
She told me that I will get 100% of the money back that I added
into stormpay,So, now the interesting part...
StormPay WENT INTO MY ACCOUNT AND TOOK ALL THE MONEY OUT
They actually went into my checking account and took all the money out... Can you believe that? Its funny how they are saying all these HYIP/Autosurf programs are fraud/scam but, They are causing fraud by taking money out of my account without my authorization.
Because of this, my bank is getting my money back... and perhaps legal issues of my own will occur If you have a StormPay account, log in (if you can) and delete all the information on your account A.S.A.P!
I also had my credit/debit card cencelled because of this (for
obvious reasons)
Dont listen to these people saying "dont do a chargeback", from
what I' m noticing the government is definatley involved and
you may not see your money for a very very long time.

Got this off the 12daily forums

Stormpay has just lied again to the newspaper in their hometown. I need all of your help immediately to prove their lies.Here is was they told the newspaper, "McConnell said their records indicate the last payments from 12DailyPro operator Charis Johnson to members was Jan. 8. When complaints of nonpayment came to StormPay later in January, company officials
began to suspect something was wrong after Johnson was unable
to answer questions about her business."This is a blatant lie. I believe they are trying to get away with stealing all of the money we paid to members since Jan 8 by saying the payments were never made.
The truth is we paid thousands of members through StormPay AFTER Jan 8. If you were paid after Jan 8, please post here and please email markhicks@theleafchronicle.com with any proof you have.
The fact is payments to our members did not cease until the day
StormPay froze our account.
This will prove once and for all that StormPay has been lying
since this whole thing began.
http://forums.12dailypro.com/smf/ind...2990#msg152990

And more ....
12DP-AdminCharis
Administrator
Posts: 319
Please ask StormPay...
« on: Today at 01:55:45 PM »
We have been unable to get answer to this question. Perhaps if enough of you ask, they might feel compelled to answer...If they are charging back (without our permission or knowledge) all monies paid to 12dp members and are re atempting to 'reverse' all transactions made between 12dp members and 12dp, how do they account for stealing money from members that were paid as referral commissions earned from upgrades purchased on
another payment processor?
These are funds that were never put into the StormPay system,
so how exactly does StormPay have the right to take it from
user's accounts and funding sources?
------------------------------------
12DP-AdminCharis
Administrator
Posts: 319
Re: Please ask StormPay...
« Reply #11 on: Today at 02:17:00 PM »
Law enforcement agencies at this point are simply at an
information gathering stage. The autosurf industry is a
completely new thing for these investigators. They have to
gather and review information from many, many sources and they
will take time. They are probably not able to make any fast
actions at this time becuase StormPay's terms are shiedling
them. But I will imagine it won't be long.
In the meantime, our attorney has made some demands from
StormPay trying to get them to live up the terms of the joint
agreement they forced us to post and we are still awaiting a
response.
----------------------------------------
12DP-AdminCharis
Administrator
Posts: 319
Re: Please ask StormPay...
«Reply #34 on: Today at 02:51:13 PM »
Thank you for the information. I am going to post a notice to
see if this is a widespread occurance. If so, it would appear
that someone is trying to cover their tracks.
----------------------------
This was all at the 12dp site at this topic:
http://forums.12dailypro.com/smf/ind...0330#msg150330

[sanjay]

I went through many forums today and have seen people associated with these autosurfs making mass complaints to local BBB and anywhere they can call upon to tell what has happened. While IMHO i belive that stormpay is right as pyramid what they talked about is actually kinda fake, its only with time we would know who wins over , till that time, lets keep our fingers crossed and see how it goes. :)