This is how many scammers react to questions...

When you ask some scammers (or scammer-taught sheeple / judas goats) about their scheme, they may react this way:

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-04-27

OLD NEWS: World Ventures busted in China, Taiwan, and Malaysia back in 2014

According to Chinese news (Hunan TV) World Ventures, i.e. "WV", was investigated by Changsa Public Security back in October 2014. Other sources indicate that World Ventures was also met with legal challenges in Taiwan, and Malaysia, where it was accused of operating illegally.

Ministry of Labor and Commerce Enforcement Agents along with Public Security raided a facility that had a huge sign with the WV Logo and slogan outside, and asked the two present, a male and female, to show the business registration papers for WV. The two refused, claiming they had nothing to do with WV, but is instead a university career training workshop, and thus is not licensed and not for profit.

When confronted with the sign outside, the male "supervisor" deny any and all knowledge about the banner, claimed they had nothing to do with the banner. During the search, a business card was discovered with the supervisor's name on it, and even had the WV logo, but the man still refused to admit he runs a local WV branch, but instead tried to explain "I merely suggested some trip ideas to my friends and relatives."  PS personnel then found the documents saved on the company computer and printed them out, which contains WV promotional material and comp plan. When confronted, the man continue to deny, claiming it was left by visitors. He was then confronted that his own printer printed those off his own computer. Then he had nothing else to say.

Labor and Commerce enforcement bureau spokesperson explained that WV is suspected of illegal pyramid selling, but most of the websites used to promote such are located outside of China, and thus making investigation and enforcement difficult.

When the Lies Don't Even Make Sense: "Bluechip Business Bonds" HYIP

Another HYIP (read: small online Ponzi scheme) that hit the scenes recently is "Bluechip Business Bonds", which obviously has nothing to do with business or bonds. Instead, it's promising up to 4% DAILY interest. Yes, daily. It can't be real, obviously.

But when it writes fiction... well...

Let's take an example, under people: it showed a "Peter Boskin", who allegedly received a MBA from Bowdoin College.

First of all, that is a photo of Pyotr Volkov, head of Department of Stock Exchange Operations of Gazprom, the Russian energy company. The faker trimmed the photo and mirrored it to throw off the image search. Here's the original photo for comparison.

Furthermore, Bowdoin College doesn't offer MBA program. It's a liberal arts college.

And why does it say "Reed served in the Peace Corps"? Who's Reed? That turns out to be "Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix. Here's Crunchbase data on Mr. Hastings:

Exact same wording, except the perp added a "M" in front of BA to embellish it. Tsk tsk tsk. Naughty, naughty, naughty.

Ah, wait, there's more.

More on "SVM Global" possible scam warning signs, and how people "whitewash" their reputation with fancy titles

Previously we've covered a potential scam called "SVM Global" where the operator, "Sheila V. Tabarsi" claimed to be able to turn 100K into 1M in 90 days, with minimum buy-in at $990, and may be targeting veterans, the poor, and so on.

But who is "Sheila V. Tabarsi"? That answer turned out to be much more difficult to answer, as it turned out she may have used at least 8 different names, includes:

• Sheila V. Tabarsi (current)
• Sheila V'Eleos Tabarsi (variant)
• Sheila Tabarsi (variant)
• Sheila Hibbitts (former)
• Sheila A. Hibbitts (former)
• Sheila V'Eleos (ordained name)
• Sheila V (psychic)
• Sheila Tucker (mom's maiden name? married name?)

Sheila apparently served in the US Air Force before and part of SVM Global's hook was "we will turn closed US Air Force Bases into economic zones (and end poverty)". How interesting that she's moving from New York to Costa Rica to do so, hmmm?

from Sheila V. Tabarsi's Google Plus profile

But how did she get so many names? She currently calls herself:

Sheila V'Eleos Tabarsi is a 4th Generation Native Cherokee / African American Spiritual Life Coach, Universal Life Church Minister, Business and medical Intuitive, with 17 active years of practice performing Clair-emphatic healing and various forms of intuitive readings....
excerpted from sheilavmission.org

But what is "intuitive healing"? Or Clair-emphatic? Turns out, that's a fancy term for "psychic", yes, crystal ball and tarot cards and all that. This kind:

Psychic sign: Psychic, Tarot Cards, Crystal Readers, Reader, Advisor

"Clair-empathic" is attempting to appropriate the "clair" in clairvoyance to mean telempathy.

Is a Scam Targeting Veterans "to end poverty" citing a FAKE JAG lawyer?

A potential scam called SVM Global is soliciting participants that promises "100K to 1M in 90 days"

SVM Global promises 100K to 1 Million in 90 days, WTF?!

So what the heck is this thing? It's ran by a "Sheila V. Tabarsi". SVM, of course.

This is from her Pinterest Profile:

Sheila Tabarsi, via Pinterest profile

And this is from her Google+ profile:

Sheila Tabarsi, via Google+ profile

Let us be absolutely clear... There are NO LEGITIMATE PROGRAMS that can turn 100K into 1M in a year, much less 90 days. This can't be legal, period. Money doesn't grow on trees, or multiply like bread and fish in the hands of Jesus.

BehindMLM came to the same conclusion: it is a ponzi scheme. And apparently grandmas are pawning jewelry, and single parent with 3 kids and trouble making rent are still fronting up $900 to join. WTF?!?!

But that's not the really WTF part... that would be that she may be referring to a FAKE lawyer.

MLM Basics: Critical Thinking for MLMers -- Errors in Perspective

Previously MLMSkeptic have pointed out various reasoning problems of many participants in MLM, but someone pointed out why don't I have a guide on what *should* be done instead?

So here's the effort, called it "How not to argue for MLM" series. You can also think of it as "Critical Thinking for MLMers".

Many of these have been covered previously as "Bad Arguments".

There are many kinds of errors in your thinking process. As the old saying goes, "To err is human." However, one must learn from the errors to improve oneself. Today, we will discuss "Errors In Perspective".


What is Errors in Perspective?

Errors in perspective basically means you have a biased perspective of the world; you don't see the world as it really is, but only as you saw it. It's as if you've been wearing a bad set of tinted glasses all your life that you didn't even know it was there. And that's why they are very dangerous for you to think critically... You may *think* you are doing so, but you're doing it from the wrong perspective / viewpoint.

If you are not in MLM, keep in mind that many MLMers will accuse you of having the wrong perspective, with bad argument such as "unless you're in it you don't have the right perspective" (i.e. "you have to try it to know it / criticize it")

There are many different types of errors in perspectives.


Unwarranted Assumptions

One of the hardest errors in perspective to detect are unwarranted assumptions, because they are usually implied, rather than stated outright, and thus, you almost have to read between the lines to see them. A lot of "folks wisdom" or "commonly held facts" are actually unwarranted assumptions.

Not all assumptions are unwarranted, as you can't live a life without some assumptions, like the guy you pass on the sidewalk is not going to jump up and stab you, or your car will start in the morning, and so on. You may be wrong sometimes, but most assumptions you made every day are based on your knowledge or experiences. It is when you assume too much, more than justifiable by the circumstances or experiences, that you get unwarranted assumptions.

One of the most frequent unwarranted assumption held by victims of scams is "because Scheme X paid someone, therefore Scheme X will pay me (in the future)." When you think about it, this is basically "the sun will come up tomorrow" assumption. It makes sense for the sun, but it makes no sense for Scheme X, no matter how good / honest / rich Scheme X appears to be.  Furthermore, pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes always pay a few people and make them "judas goats" to draw other people in. Some people (even you) getting paid does not prove everybody will continue to get paid indefinitely.

So how do you stop making unwarranted assumptions? First you have to FIND the unstated assumptions, THEN you have to logic check them to determine if they are warranted or not.

Scam Basics: When you're beyond "not right", but into "not even wrong"

Why do victims of a scam never seem to listen to reason, before, during, and even AFTER the scam?The problem is, at least partly, due to lack of skeptical mindset.

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows."
-- Epictetus, Greek Philosopher (55-135 AD)

If a victim already believes he knows all that he needed to know about a company or the product (usually by listening to some PR copy, and/or attended some cheerleading meetings), he will not do any further investigations, and will discount or ignore what other people tell him about the company or the product, esp if he already put money in or worked on promoting it ( also see IKEA effect)

Unfortunately, the demand for "MLM confidence" has produced a TON of so-called "internet marketers" that refused to understand they don't know ANYTHING about what they claimed to be doing. As a result, they believe blindly the bad info they have learned (or been taught), and attempt to deny reality with it. That, is dangerous behavior.

Here's one example... A gentleman by the name of "David Cant", who claimed to be internet marketer out of Australia.

First a little background info.  Mr. Cant created that website of his because he had a scheme that sells virtual units to alleged estores and you get paid if other people also buy into these virtual estores. It was reviewed as a pyramid / ponzi scheme. Mr. Cant was not pleased with the review and created the "counter" website (from which the above screenshot was taken).

This was what he wrote on his counter website about what was his definition of pyramid and ponzi scheme. Yes, I emphasize, this was *his* definition. Any red markups are mine.

Which has absolutely NO correlation to the actual laws of Australia on "pyramid selling schemes". Cant's definition basically picked and chose bits and pieces of Wikipedia along with a lot of wishful thinking ("there isn't any get rick quick schemes", yeah right) and some outright denial ("I don't agree with the definition"). As a result, the claims on his website bears NO resemblance to reality, such as actual laws and legal definitions.

In other words, Mr. Can't thinks he knows what pyramid schemes and ponzi schemes are, but he actually has absolutely NO IDEA. It's basically an incoherent rant by someone denying reality. Which is quite amusing since he claimed he used to work sysadmin at the Aussie Supreme Court Library in his LinkedIn Profile.  Yes, I checked. It's the SAME GUY. He's right next to tome of legal information that had he bothered to look up he'd have FOUND the actual definitions. Instead, he created this website to deny reality.

As the saying goes... "your position is not only not right, it's not even wrong."