i don't see it as that simple...

stormpay zeroed many accounts not associated with autosurfs or such...accounts like mine, as well as an account held by one of my colleagues who had much more at stake than i.

in my case, i have these two clients--north american citizens--working some art deals in st. petersburg that use my services. i've had these clients for 6 months or so and typically they pay me through paypal, but paypal won't allow them to log in from a russian ip address, even though their bank accounts are in the US. so we switched to stormpay for the time being. my account was zeroed last week, but neither i nor my clients know yet if the money was charged back to them...because now they cannot log into their accounts owing to the country from which they are trying to log in is now somehow disallowed. the chargeback has yet to be credited to their cc accounts. my inquiry to sp stated that my business activity is fraudulent. um, no.

and i have not involved myself with autosurfs. that said, i don't necessarily see that all autosurfs are fraudulent or ponzies. of course some are; there can be no question. but the advertising industry is in a real bind to make up for the shrinking audiences of the on-air/cable & print media market. all advertising agencies & consultants are as heavily--in some cases, more heavily-- invested in online media as traditional.

i used to make my living with television commercials, but i don't anymore. actually i left that industry for the interactive & online media world in 1995...long story, that. i still do marketing consulting, mainly for media companies.

but i am also a professional trader. and i think the ratio of fraudulent-to-nonfraudulent trading & investment schemes is fairly close to that of the internet "gpt" or short-term investment schemes, if i had to hazard a guess. the fraudulent, to-good-to-be-true trading schemes have a certain aroma--so to speak--just like those of the "gpt" & online investment schemes.

but i digress (i know, this time a lot!). but i wanted to point out that, in my opinion, something of a solid model of ad unit delivery will evolve from this autosurf thing--so long as it is significantly based upon solid advertising & marketing principals. my opinion is informed somewhat by the fact that i don't believe that content explicitely around product is viable longterm, i.e fashioning film & tv content around a car model. i know product placement works, but it works only so far as the content moves them--i have faith real content with real purpose will prevail in the long run. in any case, the population with disposable income uses vastly different media than it did just 10 scant years ago. so the delivery has to change too.

sorry for the ramble.
just my .03 (inflation, you know)
renee

> This was posted in the 12DailyPro thread way at the bottom of the board by
> Michael Webster and I figured most people wouldn't see it down there:

> "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that both the FBI and SEC have
> begun an investigation:
> http://www.startupjournal.com/runbusiness/failure/20060213-maremont.html .

> If you're currently involved in any autosurf programs or even thinking
> about it, you absolutely need to read this.

> One day I was reading some of the autosurf boards, and it blew me away how
> The Believers are blaming StormPay. They're carrying on and on about
> StormPay running off with the money, *NEVER* use StormPay for *ANY* of
> your transactions, they're *THIEVES!!!!!!!* etc etc.

> The reality...

> "In recent days, amid those probes, the main payment processor for
> 12dailyPro, StormPay Inc., has frozen the funds it was supposed to pay to
> members."

> ...goes completely over their heads because they're suffering from the
> dreaded Wanna Believe Syndrome .

> Luv,