Issue #001 - Back in the Saddle

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It's been about 3 months since I sent a full newsletter. Time to get back at it. The paid to surf business has changed. There are also many question marks stemming from the Stormpay/12DailyPro situation.

I'm going to be firing off several newsletters over the next 3-4 weeks. They will be educational and opinionated. They will be designed to make you think about the views you hold regarding the paid to surf business.

Some of you may no longer be interested in autosurfing. If that is the case and you wish to remove yourself from this mailing list, there is an unsubscribe link near the bottom of this email. For those that are still involved or curious about paid to surf, I look forward to sharing my thoughts and opinions on the critical issues autosurfing is currently facing. I'd also like to welcome all new subscribers.

Please note I changed the name of the newsletter from "Autosurf Weekly" to "Autosurf Central Newsletter". Hence this is officially is sue #001.

Today I'm going to ease into things. I'm going to give an overview of the current paid to surf landscape. I'll touch on the types of programs, the processors, and the legality facet of this business. Don't want to go real in-depth today, just want to grease the skids for future newsletters. In fact the titles of the next 2 newsletters will be "Advertising or Investment?" and "Autosurf & Morality". Both will be sent next week.

April 2006: The Programs
About a month ago myself and a buddy of mine sat down and took a quick inventory of the programs available to autosurfers. We knew going into the project that there would be many programs offering 8% daily and higher. The results of our study proved the high percentage trend was real.

Here's what we found:
372 total active programs
56 offering 1% or less per day
54 offering from 1.1% to 2% daily
35 offering from 2.1% to 3% daily
59 offering from 4% to 5% daily
54 offering from 6% to 9% daily
91 offering from 10% to 19% daily
23 offering from 20% to 55% daily

When I started autosurfing back in December 2004, there were roughly 40 programs and about 35 of them offered 1% daily if you surfed 100 sites per day. There were three or four 2% programs and one 4% program. It's easy to see how things have changed over the course of 16 months. Not only have earning percentages skyrocketed but the number of sites required to receive your daily earnings has plummeted to an average of about 15 per program.

In my opinion these changes are not for the better, they are for the worse. In order for a business to be legitimate it has to have a product or service. Our product is advertising. And yet this business has become all about the money. The majority of autosurfers only care about one thing: getting paid. You can log in, get your earnings, and log out of most programs within 5 mintues these days(I do some in less than a minute). That just doesn't make sense and it is a problem.

In general the higher percentage the higher the risk involved. Of course there are many others variables to consider(i.e. the business plan behind the program and the honesty/competency of the admin). I'll be diving into this topic pretty heavily over the next 3-4 weeks.

Please note the data we took was from March of 2006. I believe 50% of programs popping up are offering 10% or more per day. Now you might say that 10% is not the actual profit you receive and you would be correct. However any actual profit over 0.7% daily is definitely unrealistic to sustain. Most 10% programs are in the 2.3% to 3.3% range for actual daily profit.

The Processors
Paypal, Stormpay, and egold used to be the main processors utilized by paid to surf programs. 2 of those 3 are now out of the picture. Most of you are familiar with the recent history regarding Stormpay. Paypal's relationship with paid to surf programs has always seemed rocky and they now appear to be severing ties with this business completely. Gee, I wonder why? Go back to the data I provided above about the type of programs we are facing. Paypal doesn't want to be mixed up in scam and fraud of which there is currently too much in this business. Don't get me wrong. There are some honest people running both low and high percentage programs. However scammers/fraudsters are currently thriving especially in the high percentage market.

So egold is the last man standing. Sure we have AlertPay as the new kid on the block. And there are a few others that some programs utilize. But egold is king in this business right now. What if egold encounters a serious problem or gets pressured into changing the type of businesses they deal with? Yikes! It's another risk that must be considered whether you are a long time autosurfer or brand new. Some programs are switching to a debit card format. I believe that is a great idea and simplifies the deposit and withdrawal of funds immensely.

The Legalities
I don't have a law degree and I've never studied the security laws that govern the United States. Based on what I've read and heard, I don't believe it's clear whether current security laws apply to paid to surf. I do feel it is important to pay attention to the information that the Securities Exchange Commission and other governmental bodies provide and to adjust as necessary. In my opinion the paid to surf business is a different beast that has never been dealt with from a legality standpoint. Rather than wait around and see what the authorities decide regarding paid to surf, I'd rather be proactive and find ways to bring legitimacy to this business before it's too late.

When I first got into autosurfing I thought OK I'm going to purchase advertising and get paid to view other advertisers' websites. Cool concept. Great idea. Well my take on the situation has somewhat changed. As I mentioned earlier this business has become all about the money. It's difficult to play the advertising card when trying to explain this business to somebody new. For a variety of reasons, advertising is currently a weak argument for legitimacy. That needs to change. The next newsletter will look at the ongoing debate about whether or not an "upgrade" can be considered an investment. In other words are paid to surf programs selling securities? I'll give my take on the situation next time.

Thanks for reading this issue. I look forward to sending the next one.

Wishing You Success,

Jim Polak

Getting around a DDOS attack

In case some of you are still having problems getting to any site thats under a DDOS attack, - here is the solution:

1. Click on START at the bottom left of your screen.
2. Click Run
3. Type in cmd, then press the ENTER key
4. When the DOS screen comes up, type in at the Prompt> ipconfig /flushdns
5. Press the ENTER key
6. Once completed - you will get the following message: "Successfully flushed DNS Resolver Cache"
7. Close the DOS window, and open your browser. You should be able to successfully find the site now.


cheers

Vincent

DDOS attack and e-gold account hack these past week

GIT's website is back online and working perfectly.


Here is a recap of what happened:

Sometime around 7:30pm EST on April 11th, our
website came under a DDOS ATTACK from a source
that is being tracked down as we speak. These
acts are illegal and the person(s) who perform
such acts can, if caught, be prosecuted.



A brief explaination of what a DDOS Attack actually
is can be explained in this short paragraph:

On the Internet, a distributed denial-of-service
(DDoS) attack is one in which a multitude of
compromised systems attack a single target, thereby
causing denial of service for users of the targeted
system. The flood of incoming messages to the
target system essentially forces it to shut down,
thereby denying service to the system to legitimate
users.

GIT's programmers stayed on the job day and night
to make the neeeded adjustments to re-establish
our website to being functional once again.

This mission was completed just a short time ago
and many thanks to all of the hard working persons
responsible for correcting the situation.
____________________________________

Surf 2 Prosperity Admin

Good Morning everyone.

I wanted to let everyone know that we had a member that had their account hacked and I need for everyone to go in and make sure their egold numbers are correct, especially before requesting cashout. I always look to make sure the number is the same as the ones used to upgrade, so please let us know if you have had a problem with this.

I also caught another person trying to steal from us by using Italian money, I will be deleting their account. Please realize that if you want to try to steal from me or cheat me, and I catch you, you will be gone and if you have earned money, OH WELL!! I treat everyone with respect and I expect the same back. And most of our members are the best!! But, some people see that we are doing good and instead of earning money like the rest of us, they want to steal it. These are sad, sick people. I will do my best to keep them off of our site that we have all worked so hard to build together.

I will be working on payouts and I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!!

Lee
_________________________________________________________________

ATTENTION!!!! ALL EGOLD USERS PLEASE READ!!

	ExtraCash-Flow ( A Paid Surfing SITE)			)

This is a mass email going out to all users.

The system was hacked tonight and they redirected 2 upgrades from our egold site to another egold number and they stole over $400 worth of upgrades...

The NUMBER that was paid to is: 2871596

The correct number to pay is: 2700490 Extracash flow.

I have notified egold that this happened, But if you upgraded within the last 6 hrs, You will need to report this as well..

It is with great regret that I have to write and inform these members that their money is lost...

I can\'t cover money that is sent to the wrong e-gold account. I will help you in any way with a report, But the money was stolen and I can\'t afford to replace the money.

This is a blow that the person that has been trying to get me to bend to his "Blackmail" and give in, He hasn\'t stolen just from the members, He has stole from me as well..

This site will continue, But it needs all Upgrading members to make sure the EGOLD number you pay is the same...

I did not change this number.. 2700490

Any, I repeat, ANY upgrades made to any other number will be voided.

Regards,

Randy

Admin of ExtraCash-Flow.com
I have the egold number that stole this money
____________________________________________

Dear TMD Member,

We are very happy to welcome you to the sixth newsletter of The Matrix Daily.

Contents:

1.) DDoS attack annoyances continue & defeated again


1.) Our site has been through another wave of difficult DDoS attacks that partly penetrated the high grade protection firewall proxy we have outsourced from a third party. You may have experienced difficulty in accessing the site and may continue to do so. However with the help of our ISP we have again fortified our top notch servers to handle the higher amount of incoming malicious traffic and expect the situation to stabilize soon.

The purpose of these attacks completely evades our comprehension, as we have received absolutely no extortion demands or threats that are usually associated with such attacks. What are these wicked persons trying to achieve by striking the most innovative and leading sites in the business only in attempt to shut down those who make a positive difference? Nevertheless, the result is only more angst and disappointment as they begin to comprehend their limited capacity against a genuine and determined operation such as The Matrix Daily.

While we struggle to gain a deeper understanding of the attackers' core values, the situation can perhaps be best described by a TMD member comment posted to autosurfs.net (which is the cutting edge autosurf rating site):

"screw al****rust. crap site with crap admin, stole $200 of my money.
matrixdaily is a VERY good site, and good sites always get attacked by goobers that think it's funny to do so."

Yeah. Cheap fun for cheap goobers.

Scammers who are trying to ruin Eye Surfer

Response from InvestDaddy admin to Eye Surfer Admin We have received the following email from the admin of InvestDaddy in response to our request to remove the malicious votes. We are reposting it here (with permission) so that you can see their view. Hi Admin, I am unfrustrated as you with these scammers who are trying to ruin good programs yet I would advise you to have those malicious votes around. Reasons: 1) Your faithful members can vouch for you and it strengthens your reputation 2) You have left comments there which show your proactive and participation which members favour 3) Everyone can take note of this two scammers (name & IP address) I see it as a good opportunity for your program marketing. Anyway you are still in DIAMOND class and PAYING status. I think the InvestDaddy admin makes some good points here.

Important cashout update and T-shirts are ready!!

ALIEN TRUST NEWS
13. April 2006 @ 18:03



Hey Guys and Gals,

First off I would like to thank you all for coming in and reading this post. As you know, this is the main place to get all of the Alien Trust updates and this is a big one.

As many of you probably have already seen, our T-Shirt sales are officially open for business. You can get all the details about purchasing AT gear at http://shop.alientrust.com

Now on to some exciting news regarding the Virtual Money cards and cashouts for next week. The payouts for tomorrow are going to go on as scheduled, everyone that can request, will be paid as normal to egold. Next week is a different story, we are going to be transitioning money into the Virtual Money card system starting as soon as payouts are complete for this week. This process is going to take longer than 7 days, so next weeks (4-21) payout will not be happening. Make sure you understand why again.

To be able to start the V-Money Card system, we have to transition all the funds from our online processor accounts and bank accounts to the V-Money system to get ready to begin funding cards!! The system is going to be worked on all next week and hopefully completed for payouts on the 28th.

The process will be very simple - Purchase the card - Receive the card in the mail - Activate online - Get ready for funding the card! This is a large step in getting back control of the funds. Too long have we had to be restricted to using 3rd party processors. Well, not any more guys!! We are evolving and together, we will make the industry stop in their tracks to see what we have going on now! We are the leaders in this industry not because we pay every week like clockwork, but because we stand for honesty, integrity, and most important, never being satasfied. We are always striving to be the best in everything we do and this is no different. We will revolutionize this industry by making this jump and we will take all of you with us!

Get ready everyone! As a member in the forum said, "GET READY FOR THE ALIEN INVASION!!" We are almost ready, please remain patient and optimistic on all of the recent changes and know they are happening to help sustain the program for years to come.

Thanks and have a great Good Friday and happy Easter!

Brian Sams
Managing Director
W3MA, LLC.

News -eyesurfer and Phoenix surf rumors

Received this email from hyinquire-investmentrankings.

Hi everyone,

Sorry that this mail comes a little late.  There has been something of
a family emergency which keeps me off the computer most of the time.
Just to let you all know that the latest edition of Pay-Dirt has been
uploaded and people can access it from the downloads section.

Phoenix Surf is continuing to pay on the bigger sums, as is Eye-Surfer.
I want to take some time to comment specifically on some of the claims
that I have heard about PS which I believe are false and started by
competitors in order to draw funds away from PS to their own programs.

I have had people email me claiming that the IPs of PS and
AutoSurfInvestigators are the same.  They are not.
Autosurfinvestigators IP: 67.15.8.69
Phoenix Surf IP: 66.98.245.23

This could have developed because someone said that the two programs
share the same ISP.  People think that this cannot be a coincidence? I
sharethe same IP, Everyones Internet does a lot of reselling.  If you
register with any of a number of companies you will find that you share
the same ISP.  This is not evidence.

I have heard claims that someone called "Chris" who is "Close to the
program" is a rather shady character.  All I can say to this is that the
principals in NME and PhoenixSurf have convinced me of their integrity
and I have seen proof of identity.  I have no doubts about the
intentions of the management and I personally believe the program will be
around for a long time.  As far as I know this came from a google of one of
the names of the people involved in the program.  Googling a name is
not an investigation.  If you google my name, you will learn that I was
hanged by the government of Malaysia about 15 years ago.  I can assure
you, I am still alive and well and the criminal who shares my name has
nothing in common with and is of no relation to ME.

I am sold on PhoenixSurf and while they keep paying, they can continue
to enjoy my support.

Thank you and goodnight,
hyinquire

ADVICE ON WHAT NOT TO DO!

This article taken from TALKGOLD.COM

After the failure of a few programs, and some scares in a few others, it has angered us greatly at the degree of ignorance some HYIP investors have. Recently many individuals have complained to E-Gold.com about certain programs, some which collapsed and some which had only glitches in their systems. Many ignorant HYIP investors often email E-Gold with complaints of scams, ponzi's, and fraudulent sites. What are these people thinking? They should know that any HYIP that they put their money into has a high risk of de-railing eventually. Remember high Yield also means high risk. If you are going to gamble on any HYIP, you have to realize that not every one will last long enough to make you a profit. Another thing that angers me. Many HYIP's have small down times. Down times of 2-3 days are not uncommon due to server problems, script problems, etc. Many individuals feel it is appropriate to run off and call a program a scam, reporting it to e-gold, after only 2 or 3 days of it being offline.

This is not going to help you a bit. It will only cause E-gold to freeze the main account of the HYIP, which could cause the HYIP to close prematurely.

To sum things up. If you are going to take the risk of investing in an HYIP, then invest your money with the same mindset as if you were playing BlackJack in a casino. If you win, great! If you lose, oh well, it is money you can afford to play with. When a program closes, or has a downtime, quitely take your money and walk away. Complaining to E-Gold will not do anything except throw the whole HYIP market into a tailspin.

Consumer Tips for Using Resume Writing Services

Copyright © 2003-2006.
Posted on Privacy Rights Clearinghouse web site with permission of Pam Dixon, World Privacy Forum
February 2003. Revised September 2005.

Consumer Tips for Using Resume Writing Services

Resume writing services charge anywhere from $100 to $800 and up for their services. Most of these businesses accept credit card payment.

1. Privacy policy. If you do not see a privacy policy posted at a resume writing service site, you should think very carefully before deciding to use the site. A privacy policy is a legal document, and it is enforceable. It does give you some legal protection. However, if you use a site without a privacy policy and then you have problems, you have no viable legal recourse regarding privacy, and can end up very frustrated.

2. Policy tips. Things to look for in the privacy policy include credit card encryption, refund policy, and an explicit statement about resume sharing.

1. The privacy policy should state that it protects your credit card transaction. The term to look for is "SSL," or "encryption."
2. The policy should state that the business will not share, distribute, or sell your resume.
3. The policy should state how and under what circumstances you can get a refund if you are unsatisfied with the results of the service.
4. If the site says it only shares your resume "with your permission," you need to get a firm definition of what permission is from the business. Does the business get your written permission? If not, then how does the business get your permission? This is a very important follow-up question for you to ask if you see the term "permission" used.

3. Locating the policy. If finding the privacy policy is a lot of work, treat this as a red flag. Look for privacy policies that are clearly and conspicuously posted on the business Web site.

4. Payment services. If a business allows you to pay with PayPal, take it up on the offer, as it gives you more ability to keep your credit card information private.

5. Web seal programs. A Better Business Bureau (BBB) Seal on the site is positive, but only if it works. Many people see a BBB Seal on a site and take it at face value. Here's how to check to make sure a seal is active:

1. Click on the Seal.
2. You should see a page pop up directly linked to the BBB site. The page will have a date, the company name, and a description of the business along with the business address and phone numbers.
3. The Seal should be current, and not out of date.
4. Please note: some browsers may not allow pop up windows. If that is the case, see below.

Problems with seals:

1. If you click on a seal and it doesn't open, this is an indication that the seal no longer is active. Or, you may have a browser problem. If you click on a seal and a dated seal with the company name does not appear, go to www.bbbonline.org and look up the company on the BBB site at www.bbbonline.org/consumer/.
2. If you click on a seal and it leads to a search page at the BBB, this too is a sign that the site is just trying to make it look like they have a seal.
3. If the site has a BBB seal but not a privacy policy, the site is in technical violation of the BBB seal program. The BBB requires that all sites with a posted seal also post a privacy policy.

If you have any questions about a seal, call the BBB and inquire about the seal's validity. Reliability Seal Program: (703) 247-9370
Privacy Seal Program: (703) 247-9336
Online Privacy Dispute Resolution Intake Center: (703) 247-9333
Fax: (703) 525-8277

6. Checklist. Here is a checklist of the things you can look at to help you make a decision about the quality of the site:

1. Does the site have a privacy policy?
2. Does the site have secure credit card payment?
3. Does the site give you a guarantee or warrantee before you buy?
4. Does the site ask overly intrusive questions? For example, does the site ask for mother's maiden name, bank account numbers, or your physical characteristics? No resume writer needs this information from you, and valid resume writing businesses will not ask for this information.
5. Does the site ask for date of birth or your Social Security number? If it does, you should not use the site, and you should report it to the FTC, (877) FTC-HELP.
6. Does the site have adequate and correct contact information listed for itself? Have you tested the contact information?
7. Does the site belong to a BBB? Have you checked the appropriate BBB for complaints against the business? www.bbb.org Does the site post an online BBB Seal? If so, is it a valid seal? www.bbbonline.org
8. If you send a privacy query to the site, does it answer with an affirmative response to you

Help for Job Seekers

Help for Job Seekers

For updated tips on online jobseeking safety, consult this publication on the web site of the World Privacy Forum web site: "Job Seekers' Guide to Resume Databases: Twelve Resume Posting Truths," at
www.worldprivacyforum.org/resumedatabaseprivacytips.html

If you believe your resume or personal job search data, including your email address or your name, has been shared or used in a way inconsistent with a job site's posted privacy policy, you have recourse through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

You may file a consumer complaint with the FTC by calling (877) FTC-HELP or by using the FTC's online filing system, located at http://www.ftc.gov/. Click on "File a Complaint Online."

If you have identity theft problems resulting from your resume posting, or if you are unsure about a company, visit the Web site of the World Privacy Forum, www.worldprivacyforum.org, and send in a complaint. Also, visit the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse www.privacyrights.org/identity.htm and the Identity Theft Resource Center www.idtheftcenter.org for facts and helpful information. The PRC provides other fact sheets relating to SSNs and financial information located at www.privacyrights.org/fs.

Pam Dixon gratefully acknowledges the Rose Foundation Consumer Privacy Rights Fund, whose financial support made this research possible

The Golden Rules of HYIP

HYIP stands for High Yield Investment programe.The following article is from hyinquire
---------------------------------------

The Golden Rules of HYIP
Never play with money that you cannot afford to lose and never get into debt to invest in HYIPS.

Always recover your principal. No matter how good a program looks, any program can fold.

Diversify, spread your money through various programs. Ideally ten or more. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.

When you lose. accept your losses and move on. We all know that this is a risky game, don't be discouraged by your losses, learn something from them.

Plan, there is no such thing as being over prepared in this game. Make a plan and stick to it. Follow your plan through. Of course, plans can change, but never change your plans because of greed.

Research, just because you are already in a program does not mean you should stop learning about it.

You need to know when it is time to take the money and run.

Join some forums and stay informed. Get in there, make posts and get to know people. Don't accept information from just anyone. Take everything with a pinch of salt, but it will give you an idea about the HYIP atmosphere of the day.

Security Recommendations
Security has been a major problem especially in relation to E-Gold accounts. E-Gold is by far the most popular payment solution on the Internet, it is also anonymous. With size and anonymity come risks. You should take the same precautions that you take with E-Gold with any payment processor or indeed any Internet site that contains personal information.

Whenever you connect to a site, you should make sure that you are properly linked to your payment processor. Always check the URL for accuracy. THERE HAVE BEEN A NUMBER OF PHISHING ATTACKS IN THE PAST AND SEVERAL IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS.

In particular, if you click on a payment link that takes you to a payment processor make certain that you are connected to the proper site. Payment processors will not automatically link to their IP address and it is common for scammers to redirect to similar looking sites. Never be complacent.

We urge all of our members and visitors to take great care with there PC security, we offer the following suggestions:

E-Gold
Set your account sentinel security settings to medium or high (if you have a static IP, definitely use high). We recommend opening a second account. Use one account for receiving funds from exchange providers and another for investing or saving. Use a unique alphanumeric password. We recommend the use of Roboform for storing and recalling passwords, it makes your job a lot easier and it allows you to quickly and painlessly generate long random passwords.

HYIP and Auto-Surfers
Never use the same password that you use to access your E-mail accounts. Never use the same passwords that you use for E-Gold. Always create unique passwords whenever you sign up and always double check the URL when you make payments through a site.

Basic PC security
Make sure that you have a good firewall in place. There are many to choose from, zone alarm, Norton, etc... check reviews on sites related to security issues. Update your definitions regularly.

Check your pc regularly for spy ware or ad ware. Check your "Task Manager" processes for any unusual programs that may be running.

In your control panel select "Internet Properties," then choose the menu "Security Settings," Click on the "Custom Level" button. Make sure that you disable Active X and set "Allow Paste Operations via Script" to disable or prompt.