Thursday, March 23, 2006

Scampay - the Saga Continues

 Scampay - the Saga Continues

I have never liked Stormpay, became a member only to make a handful of purchases that were not available any other way at the time, and held my nose every time I used them. 

 During the 12DP debacle, I did a lot of digging into their background and found them to be some of the shadiest characters to ever cloud the sunny shores of cyberspace. How they've been able to survive as long as they have proves that in the online world, at least, crooks and scammers are a lot harder to stop than in the real world. 

 Many have said, "I told you so," regarding 12DP, and rightly so. It was rather obvious from the beginning that they and others like them couldn't possibly legally create the kind of revenue necessary to pay the returns they offered. 

Yet Stormpay was happy to be the payment processor for these ponzi organizations, AND happy to certify them as trustworthy companies through their sister company, NetIBA. 

 Furthermore, they collected even more money by convincing Stormpay members who were involved in paid autosurfs to get certified themselves in order to pay far lower processing fees when they used Stormpay to pay and receive payment from the paid autosurfs. 

 As things heated up with 12DP, Stormpay told its members all manner of tall tales, attempting to paint themselves as the good guys, all the while sitting on a small fortune in collected fees from illegal companies they knowingly supported over the past several years. 

 Now, just when you thought that things might get back to normal with Stormpay as the dust settled and they got back to the business of being a "legitimate" payment processor, they've suddenly locked out even more of their paying customers by making it a requirement to do ALL your Stormpay business through Stormpay auctions. Read their announcement at https://www.stormpay.com/stormpay/handle_gen.php 

 What this means to all the legitimate businesses who have been using Stormpay for recurring subscriptions is that ALL their subscriptions via Stormpay have now been cancelled, leaving them with a greatly reduced or even non-existent cashflow even after following all the rules. 

 It is an absolutely disgusting way to treat hard-working, paying customers and a shame to the business world to think that they are peers in business. I personally hope they fall flat and crawl back under the same rock they crawled out from. 

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Stormpay Innocent? Ha!

Stormpay Innocent?  Ha!

While I suspected 12DP of being a ponzi from the beginning, and warned everyone to watch out, I have also dug into Stormpay's background and believe that while they were very likely acting on instructions from federal investigators, they were also cooperating to try to save their own skins. 

The owners have also been involved in a ponzi (Tymglobal) and are intelligent, educated individuals who knew full well what 12DP was doing and willingly cooperated and reaped the benefits of all the processing fees AND the NetIBA "certifications" that they sold to thousands of members INCLUDING 12DP and many other ponzi organizations. 

I have done my research and can confirm that Stormpay and NetIBA are owned by the same people. NetIBA is supposed to be a company that does a thorough background check and then certifies companies and individuals as being "legitimate and safe to do business with." 

They certified 12DP and MANY other Paid Autosurf and HYIP companies. That in itself puts them right up to their crooked little necks in this whole mess. 

Furthermore, their certification process for NetIBA is a complete joke and a scam on its own. I personally went through the process and can tell you, I could have been Santa Claus and still would have been certified! 

Friday, March 10, 2006

Snarky!

Snarky - are you feeling snarky? Or just tired...?

Feeling snarky? Huh?!

There are a lot of smart copywriters out there today, but only a few really know how to spell or use grammar correctly. Furthermore, bad habits that they have developed in their conversations tend to spill over into their writing.

Incorrect grammar, poor spelling, and improper word usage really bother me. Many times, I have come across a really attractive idea or program, only to click away in disgust because there were too many mistakes.

Confused - what does "snarky" mean?

Maybe I'm lucky. My peeve with errors in written communication has probably saved me a lot of money. I am not going to fork over any of my hard-earned cash to someone who promises me tremendous success with his program, but doesn't take the time or make the effort to ensure that his copy is flawless before publishing it.

I'm sure I'm not unique. Some people would say that I'm too picky.

Let me pose the following question to them: Why, when someone is as successful as they claim to be, are there numerous spelling, grammatical, and usage errors in their copy?

One argument would be to say that not everyone excels in those areas. In fact, some really smart people have difficulty putting their ideas into print.

This argument is flawed. There are a lot of people out there who can't come up with a unique idea to save their lives, but they CAN write well. Hire them!

Poor grammar, spelling and word usage is not professional. It makes an otherwise impressive site look downright amateurish.

When I read copy that makes fabulous claims about the success of a program, I struggle to believe it when it's full of errors. If the program is as successful as it is claimed to be, hiring an editor to go over the copy is cheap!

Not everyone IS successful enough, yet, to hire an editor. There are ways to write quite well, without hiring an editor, even if writing is not your forte.

1. Use a good word processing program with a spell checker. There simply is NO excuse for spelling errors any more.

2. Write short, complete sentences, with as few connectors as possible. Try to eliminate the word, "and" from your sentences. Most of the time, you can use several sentences, instead. Furthermore, short sentences are easier to read quickly. As an added bonus, tests have shown that people tend to remember more when the sentences are shorter.

3. Use a lot of short paragraphs. Again, people remember more when there are a lot of short paragraphs. Also, short paragraphs are usually correct. Remember, paragraphs are used to break up points into digestible chunks. (It is interesting to note that teachers RARELY penalize anyone for using too many paragraphs, but OFTEN penalize for using too few.)

4. Do not use words unless you are sure of their usage! Look up the meaning of any word you are not one hundred percent sure of! What does "snarky" mean?

5. Have a friend or family member who writes well read your article. Most people would be flattered to be asked for their input. 6.

Do not be afraid to put your ideas into print. Your ideas are unique to you! You may have the angle that everyone else has missed. Your article may be the catalyst that sparks someone else onto greatness. Just make sure to follow the first five rules!

Now, to satisfy your curiosity, "snarky" is not a word in any of my dictionaries. It IS a word I have used for years, but one, thankfully, that I haven't used in my writing until now.

I decided to look up the word finally, only to find it did not exist. This is one example of improper usage of a word that we commonly use (at least that I commonly use). If I had used this word without an explanation, none of you would know what I meant!

Here is the meaning of "snarky" as I have always used it: Snarky: adjective: feeling miserable, especially, feeling tired, run down and irritable while having a sore throat and sore eyes. From English: snarly + English Slang: yucky

Now YOU can use it!