Hi; Wow! To reply to bits and pieces... Shannon said ========================================= I don't see how the government can come after the members of 12DP when they were apparently blatantly mislead. I'm not saying they may not try, but I seriously doubt it. It is my personal belief that this is the first in a "sweep" of such companies in an effort to protect the unwary ========================================= I tend to agree with you. I think it's the ones who were boasting that they are in personal communication with the owner and have 'inside' information, etc., etc. that might need to be afraid. I tend to think that the innocent people that were misled by the claims posted on the site and claims made by the biggest promoters will be handled differently. As you say, when the Feds sweep in, their intent is usually to protect the unwary... Martha said ========================================= I had not even heard of autosurf until starting to read the forums here... ========================================= You and me both. And I've been online since 1995 -- and I NEVER heard of these things until I came back here last fall. Mark said ========================================= As I've said before you posess uncommon sense, regrettably it takes events such as these to underline the fact. If as you say people are losing their homes over this than that's so sad. I've been there when people have been evicted - its not nice at all. ========================================= Thank you for the kind words. And you're right, it is sad. And, for people paying major repercussions, it's not nice. Not nice at all. Winston said ========================================= I think it's also counter constructive/productive. It's much better to know that the facts are out there . . . now . . . what did we learn? And how can we use that information to our best advantage in the future. ========================================= For the people that were duped by assurances of a "friend" - indeed, it serves no purpose to rub their noses in it. For the people that were roping them in, urging them to put more in and assuring them it's safe, perhaps this will be enough to prevent them from ever pulling that kind of garbage here at Adland again. Even tossing one or two rotten apples out of the barrel can make a difference for all the other apples. : ) Linda

Dear Peter, I agree with most of what you said, lol, and I am very grateful that I approached this cautiously and didn't have any referrals before their downfall. Take Care,

Hi Shannon, I agree with most of what you said Well most is a good start :) The real fact here is people will only listen to any advice if they want to. I, or anyone for that matter, can post information and provide links to as much real infromation as we want, in the end it is up to individual to make whatever decisions they feel will work for them. As an example, if I knew that you, as an example, were about to do something that could quite possibly ruin your credibilty, would you listen to what I had to say? What if others also gave you similar advice as I might, and I mean credible people whose opinion you might trust and respect more than mine. Would that make a difference? In the end each of us will do whatever we want to and are comortable with. Sometimes we will heed the warnings, other times we might not. If we follow something Cheri and others have spoke of, and we understand that sometimes our posts are indexed in the search engines, and if people are looking for our business sites, or a site offering what we might have to offer, and they follow a link to a post made in a forum and it turns out that what they see does not present a level of credibility we might be wanting them to know us for, would we still want to continue in whatever "adventure" they might find those posts in? It might not be the post that removes the credibility, it might be the location of the post. I still have some 10 to 11 year old search engine listings for contributions that I made to the the Adland digest when it first started. They show a level of credability for what I do and have done in the past. While people always will make mistakes, when they are presented with the opportuinity to not make them and they ignore the warnings, it is a decison they make for themselves.

I too feel sorry for all the people that lost money in that program and find it hard to believe that many are still defending it. When I first joined Adland, it appeared that most members were promoting the program in their invitation to be friends. All the best to everyone! Julie

Hi Forumites, When it comes to the law ignorance is no excuse or justification for actions. For instance, if you drive down a one-way street and you get busted by a cop you will find it really difficult to convince a magistrate in court that you didn't know that it was only a one-way street. The Magistrate will not care. You will be guilty as charged. All those who participated in these schemes will probably be busted. The proponents who duped others into participating have a lot to be worried about. As these schemes were extensively discussed on this forum the authorities will probably be aware of its existence (the forum). The claim of ignorance, weak as it was before, will then be non-existent if it is introduced as evidence against those who carped against the warnings given here. Prosecuting lawyers are extremely adept at finding all sorts of evidence. I wouldn't be surprised that the warnings at this forum were found and used as such. Like I said, some people have a lot to be worried about. Gary Simpson