Most of these articles are found on www.vcresearch.info. The generalized investor education articles are on the Open Forum, and specific IDE membership activity are on the Closed Forum for IDE members only.

The following excerpts are newsletters from around 2000. We have left them on this page as examples because the presence of these scams is ongoing even today despite the numerous websites and official warnings to investors about their fraudulent nature.

CLASSIC SCAMS - HYIP OVERSEAS TRADING PROGRAMS

High Yield Investment Programs (HYIPs)...Medium Term Notes...Prime Bank Trading programs...Bank Debenture Trading Programs...'Roll' Programs...a stinkweed by any other name...

This is very simple. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, these trading programs do not exist. Even the Bank 'security instruments' these programs are based on do not exist. Therefore promises of returns are 'de facto' fraudulent.

On a personal level, we track scores of programs, and quit counting when the number of people who lost money on these scams exceeded 30,000.

We've talked to relatives of hundreds of people sitting in jails, who are still convinced their HYIP program would have worked...if only the government agencies has 'left them alone'.

But we have never talked to one person who has make money from these scams. Everyone in them seems to 'know' someone that has make money, but we've never been referred to the person who actually 'made money' despite 10 years of asking.

Whenever someone gives money to someone for a HYIP trading program, it is a triumph of the desire to get rich over commonsense. Money simply does not work by the rules required by a High Yield Investment Program.

We cannot put it any plainer than this...

The Set Up:

Banks (usually the top 100 in the world) need to issue bank notes. They can sell these notes for one price, but if they are turned into securities they can be wired all over the world, are 'worth more', and there are lots of customers clamoring to buy them after they are turned into securities.

The catch is someone has to buy them first, and then a 'Collateral House' can turn them into securities. The Collateral Houses are under the control of 'Grand Masters' (8-10 of them) who are the only persons that the banks will authorize to transact this business.

The 'Grand Master' gets money from large corporations and istitutions at 10$ million apiece in one account. This account buys the bank paper at one price, the paper is then 'securitized' by the Collateral House, and the new securities are immediately resold to an institutional buyer at a higher price. The money in the account is 'rolled' at the rate of $250,000,000 a day for four day a week.

And the profits from this are ENORMOUS.

Now since the banks are skirting the law, these accounts have to be set up in 'non reporting' countries overseas, where the U.S. banks have no authority.

Now, you have been selected to put money into one of these accounts in a 'pool' of funds. They'll split the profits with you from buying and reselling bank paper, which range from 100% a month to 12 million percent a year. (Pick a number). A thousand dollars in this account can literally net you're a million dollars.

They'll help you set up an account overseas as well, so you can shelter you money from the U.S. taxman, with debit cards you can use that are linked to your overseas account.

Of course, it's all very hush-hush, and you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

If you don't believe it they'll send you reams of official looking paperwork, and, even introduce you to bankers who confirm an account has been set up for this, and references of people that have made money at this. They'll even show you ICC 400, the International Chamber o Commerce circular that proves these programs exist.

All of this is so convincing, it's almost a shame that every single one is a scam. And these scams have been going on for 20 years that we know of.

The Federal Reserve Bank, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and every other relevant agency has genied that these programs exist, numerous times.

About twice a month the SEC brings legal action against companies offering these bank paper trading programs. Recently some of the promoters of these scams have received jail sentences of up to 10-20 years. The wording by the SEC is consistent, and to paraphrase it: "The returns cannot be obtained because the trading programs do not exist."

The counter argument by the promoters of the scams is "Even the U.S. government does it, they just want to keep you from making that much money."

The insidious nature of this scam is the amount of credible sounding people that seem to truly believe in them. A Washington attorney, the ex husband of a Federal Reserve Board member, was sentenced to jail because he believed these programs exist.

A lot of credible people vouch for these programs. Attorneys, Preachers, Financial Advisors, and Company Presidents have all been suckered into the idea that there are 'secret' financial transactions going on they can get into, if ONLY they can find the right person to get them into the game.

It's that belief, often approaching a level that is almost religious in intensity that makes these scams so dangerous. Since they believe so strongly, it's easy for you to start to believe. We have seen Corporation Presidents, who should know better, taken for millions of dollars.

Sure, it's possible something like this is going on in banks. But apply a little commonsense. The banks money is what you'll be getting as 'commissions', the same banks that will wrestle you to the ground for a quarter of a point on your new mortgage.

Now you expect to believe these banks... with how many attorney on staff, and controlling how many trillions of dollars?...are going to let someone else walk away with billions of dollars of their money; because all these banks cannot figure out a way to securitize their own bank paper themselves. Especially as these transactions are occurring in non-reporting countries, which would protect the bank as much as it would protect you.

As someone said "The only thing stupider than thinking you can make ten times your money overnight with no risk, is thinking you can find someone that will share it with you."

(See the IDE Jan 2000 newsletter, that names names. The SEC website outlining regulatory actions is at http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases.shtml. Just one example of an SEC action again this kind of scam can be seen on the SEC litigation pages at http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr17523.htm.

And every SEC litigation filing on this kind of scam ends with "This case is part of the SEC's continuing effort to combat prime bank fraud and to alert the public to the risks posed by these phony instruments. The risks of this type of fraud and warnings about how to avoid it are spelled out in the Interagency Advisory: Warning Concerning "Prime Bank" Notes, Guarantees, and Letters of Credit and Similar Financial Instruments (October 21, 1993), and other information which is available through the SEC's Homepage at http://ww.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/primebank.shtml)

CLASSIC SCAM - NIGERIA OIL SCAM

The Set Up:
"Please help me, I have access to tens of millions of dollars I can't get at, and if you help me get it I will split the money with you."

This is a classic confidence game that has been promoted from Nigeria for at least 15 years.

Prior to the advent of email the U.S. Post Office estimated that U.S. citizens were receiving approximately 3 million letters from Nigerian 'oil ministers', and losing $50 million a year. Now the Internet has greatly increased the number, and variations, of these scam 'letters'. Some of these variations are:

1. A Nigeria oil minister who has commissions on oil sales he cannot legally receive, and if you will accept the commissions, he will share them with you.
2. The 'widow' of a government official who needs help retrieving money from overseas accounts.
3. A banker who's client has died without heirs, and since you have the last name the banker whishes you to pose as a relative to claim the accounts.
4. A student who's father and mother died in an accident and needs help in reclaiming money from an overseas account.
5. An accountant for other overseas bank official that has investment money under his control, and needs your help to steal it.