Scam investigations have been launched on a Quincy, Florida-based Internet marketing company, AdSurfDaily (ASD), for allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme. Florida Attorney General’s office took this step after receiving 20 or so complaints from subscribers to the company’s services.
ASD is said to have solicited businesses to avail of its online advertisement package. Doing so, it claimed, would hand out a 150 percent return to subscribers.
According to the complaint, ASD offered its scheme as a business opportunity to those who owned websites. Such members were asked to subscribe to the company’s online advertising service through which their websites were guaranteed with a huge viewership. This would translate to an increase in revenue generated from sales by the website.
Those who wished to subscribe were asked to pay a fee, sometimes amounting to thousands, upfront.
Subscribers were also offered the opportunity to earn some money by agreeing to view websites of other subscribers for a certain amount of time each day.
Authorities believe the company was really operating a scam that mainly benefited officials at its helm. The complaint alleges that the company was not making any real revenues. It was simply presenting to old subscribers the money received from new ones. This would go on until the program would go bust. It is said to have made $100 million from investors in the Florida region in this manner.
AdSurfDaily is now faced with a civil lawsuit, a criminal investigation, and the prospect of getting released a substantial part of its funds frozen by federal authorities. Legal action has also been initiated against its president, Thomas Andy Bowdoin Jr.