The Autosurf Demise - A Summary

In my last post I explained that "get-paid-to" Autosurf sites are not nearly as attractive today as they were two years ago.
In case you have not been following the industry lately, here is a quick breakdown of the Autosurf demise:

October 2005

StudioTraffic (ST), one of the largest autosurf programs in 2005, expands to China and invests in several subsidiaries around the world in what turns out to be a last attempt to secure their business.

Late 2005
ST runs into financial problems. Their in-house payment processor StudioPay cannot keep up with outstanding payments. StudioPay accounts are frozen to prevent customers from withdrawing money.

December 2005

Many other Autosurf programs which depend on the StudioTraffic investment have to close doors. Most programs are abandoned, sold or rendered useless in another way. Even traffic-generating Autosurf sites come to a halt with the exception of some "evergreens" like BreedTraffic and Autohits.dk which are still rock-solid programs to generate traffic in 2007.
INTGold, a huge payment processor which has been offering a card to withdraw money from online accounts, is subject to a raid and is forced to close down business.

February 2006

It is hard to keep track of the market, bad news arrive hourly. The StudioTraffic/StudioPay bubble bursts. A hacker gets access to the customer database and sells it via email. Website is defunct, nobody is able to withdraw money. Company is subject to an investigation by the FBI.

An FBI investigation is also started against another major player in the Autosurf business, 12dailypro.

After INTGold, another major payment processors becomes a victim. Being accused of supporting pyramid schemes due to the FBI investigation against 12dailypro, Stormpay decides to freeze accounts of all Autosurf program members. Even after an agreement with 12dailypro is made, both companies soon find themselves unable to maintain a business relationship.

Stormpay is out of business as an autosurf payment processor, yet "survives" as a payment processor for online auctions only.

March 2006 - Today
After that, everything went downhill. The two major programs were already taken down and most of their members lost 100% of their investment.
The smaller Autosurf programs had themselves invested in 12dailypro to be able to maintain their high interest programs. After 12dailypro went down, most programs were unable to pay their own members resulting in a collapse of the Autosurf economy.
Some members were able to get their money back by withdrawing it before the crash or by the use of legal means, but most were left with nothing but the sore feeling of "being ripped-off".

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) subsequently created a set of simple "rules" based on U.S. law that Autosurf programs in the United States have to follow in order to stay in business. An advisory paper concerning Autosurf websites has also been released by the SEC to help customers understand the risks of investment programs with pyramid schemes.

Since 2006, few new Autosurf programs hit the market and even fewer old programs managed to survive the shutdowns of February 2006.
Foreign programs which do not follow the SEC rules seem to have a hard time attracting new members. Apparently, the SEC measures against fraudulent Autosurf businesses were successful to some extent.

Compared to Autosurf, FOREX trading websites as well as HYIP s(High Yield Investment Programs) picked up a lot. These businesses both show a higher amount of new members. Customers who want to invest money properly rather than getting scammed by trusting a company with a non-existent investment plan (or in one word: actual Investors) are more likely to be busy with FOREX trading than willing to join another Autosurf program nowadays.



Related Tags:
12dailypro - studiotraffic - autosurf - scam - fraud - hyip- forex

Autosurf Blog Relaunch

AUTOSURF.BLOGSPOT.COM is back!

After over 1 and a half year of silence, I decided to relaunch the Autosurf Blog - with a twist. Instead of just focusing on Autosurf sites, the blog will now expose more ways to make money online other than Autosurfing. I will also comment on one or the other "traffic gem" which I hope proves being useful to those of us with a website.

That being said, the blog will be restructured in the near future with the following categories in mind:
- Making money online WITHOUT a website for everybody with an internet connection ("Get-paid-to" programs)
- Making money and generating traffic WITH a website for webmasters ("Traffic gems", Link sales, affiliate programs, "Traffic exchange Autosurf" etc.)

In fact, when it comes to "making money online" there have been huge changes since 2006 and I feel that the slight direction change will be a benefit for all readers.

In my opinion, classic Autosurfing (as in "get-paid-to-surf" programs) has dwindled up to a point where it is not worth the effort to join any Autosurf website anymore. However, the traffic generating programs still prosper and I will continue to comment on those and recommend the ones I still use - some of them for over 3 years straight!

From now on, I strive to regularly present you the best opportunities to make money in a compact format.

StudioPay hacker sells personal data via e-gold

And so the payment processor madness continues...
StudioPay, StudioTraffic's very own withdrawal option, has been hacked. Appearantly, the hacker was able to collect the personal data of all members and it seems that they were not encrypted.

I don't know what to say. Every site can get hacked, but you cannot have data like bank statements and passports lying around on some hard disk completely unencrypted. Breathtaking!


I just received this mail from "Hack990" via a yahoo email adress:

All member identifycation data has been stolen

read full story at:
http://talkgold.com/forum/r74023-.html

Offer :
1. Completed cheerleader / studiopay staft identification
for sell...

1 set , including :
- passport scan,
- Bank
statement and bank information.
- Bill statement
- Credit card front and
back image scan
- Photo Id
guarantee : name and address is same for all
identification

Only $50.
Make payment to e-gold.com account number
: ******* ( hack990 )
in memo, place your email



2.
Remove Identification .

If you feel, you have submit your identifycation
at studiopay.com , send me $25, And I'll remove your identifycation in my
hardisk, and will not sell to anyone.

inform me what is your full name,
address, and what identifycation you have submit at studiopay. I'll search your
type identifcation in my hardisk, and will deleted it.

Only $25.
Make payment to e-gold.com account number : ******* ( hack990 )
in memo,
place your email.


3. 322500 email studiopay pay user. (very good for
advertising your hyip program )

only $500
Make payment to e-gold.com
account number : ******* ( hack990 )
in memo, place your email.


Regards

Nobody
**********90@yahoo.com

Outlook Screenshot:

Stormpay.com facing 19,000 customer complaints

Internet payment processor StormPay.com is currently facing over 19,000 complaints by members of various autosurf programs.

The storm arose when StormPay froze about 40,000 accounts in an act of "Consumer Protection" as the word was out that 12dailypro and other paid-to-surf programs did not pay their members for over 3 weeks. On Feb. 1, StormPay smelled fraud and froze accounts of owners and members.

While members were left shocked or clueless because of the weak information about the whole case, a dispute between StormPay and 12DP about the 12dailypro business model and paid autosurfing in general started. Many sources say that the program is currently under investigation by the FBI but there this cannot be confirmed thus far. Supposedly it is investigated for being a pyramid scheme but there is no valid source available to confirm this either.

The situation got out of hand when StormPay.com was hit by a DDOS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) and was rendered useless for more than 2 business days.
The story was picked up fast by various online newspapers and the autosurf business once again hit the news in a negative way.

Appearantly LifeClicks, the company behind 12dailypro, and StormPay are in the process of coming to an agreement regarding the frozen member accounts right now. Before, 12dailypro was believed to contribute to about 2% of all StormPay transactions.

StormPay enforces "one and only" policy

One of the "big 3" in online payment (Paypal-Egold-Stormpay) released a new policy for online merchants.
They require merchants to have StormPay as there "one and only" payment provider if they want to keep StormPay on their website.

Whatever you think of this move, it's time to decide pro or contra StormPay in these days.

<<
31-Jan-2006 14:40
Due to high volumes of fraudulent transactions made to merchants with commission based business models, StormPay can no longer process payments for those type of merchants who choose to accept more than one payment processing solution.

Using more than one payment processor is exactly the situation that “fraud” seeks out. This enables the fraudulent user to set up a fake profile with either of the processors, make a purchase or join the program, and then withdraw their earnings to the other processor where the real identity is used. This sort of activity makes it nearly impossible for either processor, or law enforcement to properly handle the fraud because the “trail” comes to an end. This is the cause for a great many chargebacks to those merchants which can be avoided.

As of 1/30/2006 StormPay must require Merchants with a commissioned based business model who choose to accept StormPay, to only accept StormPay. StormPay certainly does not wish to dictate how our merchants run their business, all merchants are free to choose any processing solution that best suits their needs. We understand you have choices and certainly hope that choice is the online leader – StormPay. However, if another payment solution is used, please immediately remove StormPay from the associated website as a funding option and continue to use the StormPay account funds to finish payments to those members who paid using their StormPay account.

At StormPay we truly care about our merchants’ and the overall success of their business and sales and for that reason we have implemented these very necessary changes. Thank you in advance for your understanding in this very crucial matter.

StormPay Inc.
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