PIU : Scam or Incompetent Administrators?

My personal schedule has been hectic to say the least, but I thought I'd just share some more thoughts on this matter since a couple of people have inquired. Those who have read the 'reports' seem to think PIU were indeed hoodwinked.

Scam
Let's just say the arguments for PIU in this catergory is really high.

1. For starters, where in the world did this third party fictional(?) investment company come from??? All along I (and alot of others) was led to believe that PIU did all the trading. I've never once read on any forum nor in their newsletters that they had outsourced our money to a third party company. They had always inferred that trading and other investment vehicles were done by 'their traders'.

Now all of a sudden they dropped the bombshell that they had put our money into another company. Sounds like a desparate attempt to deflect attention. Now, let's say the reports are true, I'm still maintaining that I was scammed. Had I known there was a third party involved, my decision COULD have been different. That's of course not saying that I wouldn't jump in with a punt anyway.

2. I don't believe a word of the reports, nor any of the screenshots between PIU and their 'investment company'. If I had that amount of time (1.5 months, probably more) and that amount of money in my pockets, I would sure as hell have alot of motivation to learn photoshop and do my own screenshots. Moreover I believe the plans laid for this 'disclosure' probably happened much earlier.

3. They are discouraging us from reporting them to the authorities....for our own good. Right, I have to be 10 to be believe that. If I had treated this one like a real investment, and not another hyip game, and plunged a 5 digit sum in here, you can bet I would be pulling all the stops here, if not to see any of my money back, but to see these scammers put where they belong. Lucky them I only have the minimum $100 spend here. They had never given any concrete reason to put in more, although I admit I was seriously tempted.

4. Their newsletters are pathetic to say the least. My disdain for it is well chronicled in the MMG forum. With the exception of the last 2, it all seems like motivational crap. Half the time reading them, I felt like I was listening to some sermon in a cult.

5. I'm nitpicking here, but they actually had the audacity to wish us a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! The nerve!

Incompetent Admistrators
I skimmed thru their 'report' on their DD done on this fictional(?) investment company and personally I'm shocked. If you're pouring in 7 freaking digits into an investment company based in the US, then the first things you should be doing is to check if they are SEC compliant.

You would also think spending abit of money to actually visit the company and view the trading floor would be part of that DD package. I'm shocked, astonished and utterly amazed that they didn't.

Sounds like someone got greedy with our money, passed it on to some other scammers, and now they want to get away scot-free.

Conclusion
Seriously, you don't believe that bunch of crap right? Or did you buy it hook, line and sinker?

For what it's worth, the money's lost, one way or another. If you see any of it back, you should be laughing all the way to the bank....literally.

I'll end this with a quote in their latest newsletter. Things have indeed gone bad, and I'm showing my reptilian head. My hiss is, unfortunately, worse than my bite.

We know that it is of the human being to be closed when things go bad and react with the reptilian brain, but we will even though that you are responsible for your own acts to try to tell you that WE ARE VERY SORRY AND THAT WE DID THE BEST WE COULD TO OFFER YOU A GOOD PROGRAM.

Private Investors Union Bites the Dust

Yup, this one's as good as dead. If you're a member, log in and read the latest news. It's not good.

Good thing I only had the minimum here. This one almost bit me had it not been for the announced holiday period. I had kept away from adding more money into the program until the 'trading' resumed.

While the website(s) are still up (PIU and BFG), it's as good as an empty shell. Of course the charade of investigation and scapegoating continues to fool anyone who cares to listen/read. And as with all programs which pull similar stunts, I'm sure it will go on for some months till everyone's forgotten about it. The one thing's for sure is that no one else will be seeing another cent anytime soon.

E-gold Stutters

I haven't been paying attention to the blog for sometime due to attending the 'stag party of the year' (good friend's), and probably wouldn't be around much in the next couple of weeks either, in preparation for the 'wedding event of the year'. Adding to that, I'd be busy entertaining some friends/traders (ex-colleagues) who will be dropping over to Singapore for a holiday.

Anyway on to the post before I give a detailed schedule for January. If anyone has noticed, e-gold has been having fits the last couple of days. Maybe it's just the timing I tried to access e-gold, or the after effects of the Taiwanese earthquake, but I've not been able to reach the e-gold website on numerous occasions. Judging from the forums, I'm not the only victim here.

It's probably nothing really important, nor devastating, but one can't help but return to the last time something marginally similar happening back in Dec 05. Back then, the e-gold offices were raided and e-gold was unavailable for about 2 weeks. Of course, e-gold being e-gold returned to business and normalcy was restored.

However, that period did cause a large number of short-term hyip to go bust, being ponzi in nature. I'm not saying, nor suggesting a similar thing is happening here. But all the same becareful in playing with wildly speculative hyips/autosurfs until everything stables down. Even if the website access is just based on my locality, scammers will use the excuse to run (not that any excuse is really needed).

Just keep your eyes and ears open. I'm holding on to my gold for now....only if I can just login.....

Infinity Shares Has It's Own Blog

Infinity Shares
IS just launched it it's new blog. I've updated the relevant entry.

Mida-Surf
For some reason I'm still getting emails from this scam for the past few weeks. The good thing is that this one's just a waste of space. The bad thing is that it's persistent as hell. The anal thing is that I can't delete my account coz my password's been changed, so unless I email them (which I wouldn't), I'm stuck with stupid updates from a program that's ceased payments.

JR Exchange
Looks like this local exchanger is back and working again. It probably came up somewhere during the week.

AsianPay News

I'll be the first to admit that I've not keep up to date with anything remotely related to AsianPay. But I have been receiving emails from readers asking bout feedback regarding the program and subtle invitations to join their 'investment' program. I hope that everyone who got a reply from me did heed my advice and stayed away. For those of you who are clueless, I got this from NoBS.

Reason why I never joined AsianPay
There were concerns that what they did wasn't legal.

It had a branch in Singapore. To accept money in the form of investments or loans, you need a license. As far as I'm concerned, they did not have a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to provide any sort of financial services. You can find a list of companies that have a license here. And luckily for us it's the beginning of the year so the list is pretty much updated.

Not too sure what happened for them to make the changes. Probably someone did file a complain with the MAS, hence the changes. No one knows for sure. Personally I don't really care. All that matters is that I avoided this one, so did my friends.

Infinity Shares

Update (05/01/07) : Infinity Shares just launched their own trader's blog. Feel free to take a look at it. It brings us closer to the moves of the resident trader.

__________

I've been in Infinity Shares since June 06, and was hoping it would remain low profile for sometime. The current membership level is still low, and the amount deposited is not astronomical. Unfortunately, the lid's been somewhat blown off via DD reports done by a variety of people. Some I trust, others I have no idea even existed. You can read them here:

High Yield Weekly Digest
NoBSHyip
PPP

Not that any of that matters. Fact of the matter is that I've been pleasantly pleased with what I've been getting from this program. The rewards are not high by any means, but I have reasons to believe that goes on behind the scene is real forex trading. The current trader, Christian, is someone whom I've known in some obscure (and now defunt) forum since the middle of 2005.

As for how the program goes, it's imperative to sign up in their forums to read the FAQs. It holds a wealth of information as well as instructions on how to participate in the program. In a nutshell, you purchase shares which are traded and subsequently dividends (profits) paid out upon request. Sometimes profits are reflected by increasing the share prices (or your net value). Losses are reflected by the share price. The FAQ explains in greater detail.

The other things that stands out here is the level of communication. As investors, we're kept informed of matters regarding to the program. So far there has been an open line of communication, and nothing has been kept from us, from holidays to switching of brokers.

Another thing to note is that the currency used here is e-gold (Euros) and not e-gold (USD). This is due to the current broker they are using.

Past Performance

2006
May 06 = 16.01%
June 06 = 21.53%
Jul 06 = 5.25%
Aug 06 = -0.43%
Sep 06 = 0% (No Trading)
Oct 06 = -3.4%
Nov 06 = 1.83%
Dec 06 = 6.46%
Jan 07 = 10.97%

Unfortunately if you're thinking of signing up, you DO need a sponsor to join the program (either a random VIP member or me). So, here's the link:

My Link