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The More You Know - A QuizLaw PSA
The internet, as it turns out, is quite a hotbed for illegalities, as federal regulators continue in their attempts to put the kibosh on illegal or unethical activities, including SPAM, chain e-mails, solicitations from Nigerian business men, etc. Recently, the dealings of Charis Johnson have been brought to our attention. Ms. Johnson is a Charlotte, NC business woman who parlayed an online ponzi scheme into over $50 million through her site, 12dailypro.com, which has recently been shut down. The site basically offered an alleged 12 percent daily return on membership fees, ranging from $6 to $6,000, for viewing a dozen Web sites daily, and it also allowed members to include their own sites in 12dailypro’s rotation of sites for promotion. So this autosurf program promised a 44 percent return in 12 days, which was enticing enough that Johnson was able to obtain around 350,000 members, many of whom lost thousands of dollars in the scheme.
Fortunately, just last month, the SEC finally put a stop to it, causing her solicitation of investors to cease and freezing all her companies’ assets. A receiver has also been appointed to take control of the companies’ operations. According to the SEC complaint:
The 12daily Pro website, recently ranked as the 352nd most heavily trafficked website, solicited investors to become “upgraded members” by buying “units” for a “fee” of $6 per unit, with a maximum of 1,000 units. 12daily Pro promised to pay each upgraded member 12% of his or her membership fee per day for 12 days. At the end of 12 days, the member purportedly would have earned a total of 144% of his or her original membership fee, 44% of which would be profit on the membership fee. To receive the promised payment, a member purportedly must view at least 12 web pages per day during the 12 day period. The amount of returns that 12daily Pro would pay its members, however, was in fact dependent solely on the amount of each member’s investment, not on the amount of website-viewing or any other services rendered.
Here’s the irony for me, however: Mrs. Johnson has recently launched a new website, expressing remorse for setting up the get-rich scheme that “crumbled before [her] eyes” and, in a backhanded way, blamed God for its inevitable shutdown, noting that “there was no way [God] was going to let that stand or thrive.”
Somehow, that seems like empty consolation to the thousands of folks Charis Johnson managed to rip off before the SEC stopped her operation. If you have fallen prey to her shenanigans, you should call your credit card company and have them reverse any charges; if that doesn’t settle it, contact her receiver by e-mail to tfl@tlennonfor12dailypro.com or by FAX at (619) 465-9288. Failing that, file a complaint with the FBI at www.ic3.gov.
For other, less-real public service announcements, please check “The Office” website, which will instruct you on the merits of The Fugitive, the hidden dangers of cake, and how to protect yourself if approached by a bear.
