What About Traffic Monsoon?

[Bruno Duarte]

Is this program still running?

[Guest mrclean0325]

Nope, the SEC shut them down and took over the site.

[captkirk]

My many years online, I have seen programs like that come and go with the same results. That's why I stay clear of all of them with the same kind of message of making money online.

[chrystalia]

Also, related sites that sell "royalty positions" or any form of "shares" are illegal under U.S. law, as these are considered "unregistered securities".  The SEC assessment of TM was absolutely accurate, BTW--I did the math myself to double check them. They, like a few other VERY well known programs in the "ad pack" business, had sold far more advertising than could conceivably be delivered. Any site that offers "BAP" of any kind is illegal in more ways than one.

 

I'll be the first to admit, there is money to be made in the rise and fall of the adpack, revshare, "crowdfunding" programs. I also take every opportunity to warn people to stay far away from them. I was glad to see the SEC finally get off their bureaucratic backsides and shut this one down.

[Guest mrclean0325]

What also makes these type of sites have a problem is they have key words they use like, "Guaranteed return", "Investment", "Return on investment", and give percentages of return. All of these small things put it under the purview of the SEC since you have to be a licensed securities broker to be able to say or even advertise such terms. They seem to last while they are paying, but not pay the wrong person who makes a phone call and it is all over.

 

There is a reason you don't see "110% return on your investment" in the real world.

 

The other problem is there are SO many they can legally shut down , but the process is SO slow to gather the proper evidence to convict. The other is many of them are on foreign soil and it makes it even harder with more paperwork and procedure to get through. I have even seen some who will not let US people join because they are not legal here and they know it.

 

I was recently reading many state are really cracking down on these types of things and the AGs are going after the members too. It is considered a federal misdemeanor with fines and a 3 year jail sentence too. Scary stuff. Especially the "gifting clubs" (can be any site where you pay money with the outcome being you get paid too from others paying money) and such which ask for money for you to join, have no real product you are selling, and are thinly veiled means of transferring cash between parties. The owners and members were crying, "But it WAS legal, we have a product" but legally - they didn't and that is their downfall. In the eyes of the law, they were just another variation of of a chain letter which are illegal and have been for quite some time.

 

The truly scary part is legally, you sign just a single person up under you in a questionable program that you later find is not quite legal - you are considered an accessory and accomplice and can be charge PER incident OR basically, charged up to 3 years PER member you have under you. Each state has slightly different laws on the matter to further muddy the waters.

 

What will really screw everyone here up is when they finally decide on a way to get sales taxes on online purchases. This will mean you will (a lot of states already have these laws and you may be breaking them even without being aware of it) have to collect sales taxes on each and every transaction online. Right now each state has a certain sales tax percentage, each county has their add on and a different percentage, and each municipality has another add on. As a seller, you will be required to file taxes for each one and it will be determined by where the buyer lives. When I live in PA, USA there is a place on the state tax form where they ASK if you purchased anything online and ASK to pay the sales tax on the total amount of items purchased.

 

Some states, counties, and municipalities require anyone running a "home business" to register and file paperwork. Yes, even if you are "saying" you have a home business, even an "online" home business. You can also be in trouble if your home location is not zoned for a business. Even if you don't make a dime in your home business, you may still be required to file quarterly paperwork or face fines and other nastiness if you don't or are late. If you are required and haven't because you didn't know, makes no difference except much larger fines and nastiness that go back to the time you started your home business.

 

Sorry for rambling, this stuff frustrates the heck out of me and is way too confusing most of the time, but can get the unaware into trouble.

[chrystalia]

What also makes these type of sites have a problem is they have key words they use like, "Guaranteed return", "Investment", "Return on investment", and give percentages of return. All of these small things put it under the purview of the SEC since you have to be a licensed securities broker to be able to say or even advertise such terms. They seem to last while they are paying, but not pay the wrong person who makes a phone call and it is all over.

 

There is a reason you don't see "110% return on your investment" in the real world.

 

The other problem is there are SO many they can legally shut down , but the process is SO slow to gather the proper evidence to convict. The other is many of them are on foreign soil and it makes it even harder with more paperwork and procedure to get through. I have even seen some who will not let US people join because they are not legal here and they know it.

 

I was recently reading many state are really cracking down on these types of things and the AGs are going after the members too. It is considered a federal misdemeanor with fines and a 3 year jail sentence too. Scary stuff. Especially the "gifting clubs" (can be any site where you pay money with the outcome being you get paid too from others paying money) and such which ask for money for you to join, have no real product you are selling, and are thinly veiled means of transferring cash between parties. The owners and members were crying, "But it WAS legal, we have a product" but legally - they didn't and that is their downfall. In the eyes of the law, they were just another variation of of a chain letter which are illegal and have been for quite some time.

 

The truly scary part is legally, you sign just a single person up under you in a questionable program that you later find is not quite legal - you are considered an accessory and accomplice and can be charge PER incident OR basically, charged up to 3 years PER member you have under you. Each state has slightly different laws on the matter to further muddy the waters.

 

What will really screw everyone here up is when they finally decide on a way to get sales taxes on online purchases. This will mean you will (a lot of states already have these laws and you may be breaking them even without being aware of it) have to collect sales taxes on each and every transaction online. Right now each state has a certain sales tax percentage, each county has their add on and a different percentage, and each municipality has another add on. As a seller, you will be required to file taxes for each one and it will be determined by where the buyer lives. When I live in PA, USA there is a place on the state tax form where they ASK if you purchased anything online and ASK to pay the sales tax on the total amount of items purchased.

 

Some states, counties, and municipalities require anyone running a "home business" to register and file paperwork. Yes, even if you are "saying" you have a home business, even an "online" home business. You can also be in trouble if your home location is not zoned for a business. Even if you don't make a dime in your home business, you may still be required to file quarterly paperwork or face fines and other nastiness if you don't or are late. If you are required and haven't because you didn't know, makes no difference except much larger fines and nastiness that go back to the time you started your home business.

 

Sorry for rambling, this stuff frustrates the heck out of me and is way too confusing most of the time, but can get the unaware into trouble.

Yep, and that's just the beginning....

 

According to the Feral Gov't, all of the "direct crowdfunding" sites that pop up occasionally are actually gifting--hence, illegal. TM violated the Ponzi rule for a bunch of reasons, but the big red flag is in giving you back more than you spent for your "product". Under FedRegs, something is only a "product" if it costs you tangible money, or you have traded/bartered time or something else of value for it with no expectation of receiving your money back or profiting. If you get it free--either as a "bonus" or through a purchase with the expectation of resale (like the 100% commission programs like Leased Ad Space the IRS is gearing up to shut down now)--it's not a "product". It then moves into a really grey area called "incentives", that also includes unregistered securities of all types. (can we say "royalty positions", anyone?). 

 

When the feds can go into the forum on one of these rev share sites and record hundreds of people flat out admitting they are only buying the ad packs to "win" 100.00 a day, and find thousands of strategies all over the place for creating an income buying ad packs or "royalty positions", they tend to be less than impressed. When they surf many of these sites like TM, or view the ads on other well known sites of this type and find that site being advertised dozens if not hundreds of times, it's pretty obvious that while the WEBSITE may claim they are "selling a product/service", the "common man" isn't BUYING a product/service--they're investing in a glorified Ponzi. And the feds, and all courts, do take note of the established legal principle of the "common man".

 

From a business model point of view, none of these revshare sites are sustainable, and none of them are legitimate business models. None are legal in the USA either as you so rightly pointed out, which is why I don't advertise them myself, don't recommend them, and want as little to do with them as possible. I have not been successful yet in banning them all from my TE, but I am working on it. Sites with "rental referrals" are also a big no-no--illegal in the USA. Remember when the Feral Gov't won their anti-MLM cases some years ago? That was one of the things they won on--the MLMs were "renting" down lines to people--most notably Nutrition for Life international, but they were far from the only offenders. 

 

I know the AZ state Ag is looking very hard at PTCs with even 1 level down lines that rent referrals, as well as every rev share on the planet--and they are also looking harder at the commission structures and upgrade structures of TEs as well--mostly at the behest of the IRS, since they can't survive on 4 trillion dollars a year..... We shall see what happens.  For the moment I am only promoting one thing outside of my own TE, and I am also working very hard to get myself out from under Paypal now that the feds are leaning on them hard when it comes to our industry.

 

better safe than sorry.....

[Guest mrclean0325]

I have been just reading up on what different state are considering "legal" and "illegal" and it is getting to be quite the quagmire. Each state has a slightly different law since there is no federal law to cover it all. What may be legal in one state is not in another. Having a single member from the "illegal" state in your program will open you up to the laws of that state and then the fun begins. Of course the fed backs up the states and if you cross state lines, it does become a federal matter. Of course it makes the lawyers richer since everyone needs to make sure what they are doing is going to be legal and not get them sent to club fed for a stay. Now I am re-evaluating my stuff I am doing with this new knowledge to make sure I won't end up in club fed...

[txemi]

this is a scam.

[psarpit]

many scam sites are paying once yhen people invest in them and then they find that it was a scam.

[xuanthu]

Thank you all about this information.

[Sharavanan]

This Site Paid me Once but with their Payplan for Members i know it can never Succeed or be in Business for more than 2 years and my Guess was Right.

 

Traffic Monsoon is Shut Down Now . 

[cristi_pc]

 

What about Magic Mailer ?

 

[cristinz]

Traffic Monsoon was clearly illegal, and was also a ponzi.

 

Not sure what the relevance of the question about Magic Mailer is. It doesn't sell "ad packs" (as far as I know) and has a completely different setup from Traffic Monsoon.

[leiana777]

those sites sooner or later collapse, when new investor stop to arrive the site starts to die. use the revshares carrefully.

[ajay_dce]

Not sure if programs like traffic monsoon really end up spikinganyone's wallet

[trevinoweb]

Probably Traffic Monsoon Owner had a good intention but that business model is suspicious for the law so it was a matter of time for authority to suspend the site,

[yats]

Good intention with an interesting idea of revshare. We can say that buying adpacks is like buying company share. However, when they promise to give back more than we spend, they should have another revenue beside selling adpacks (share). Now, what other revenue income does TM have?

 

It could be that they sells credit (without share position).

[Allen Tan]

I had never join this program(Traffic Monsoon)  and I do not know how. As I  I was reading about it there are lots of negative feedback and I think its best to ignore it.  Here today there's a lot to think of when its concern traffic but traffic monsoon is no more in operation.

[cristinz]

"Probably Traffic Monsoon Owner had a good intention" ... hmm, no. The whole thing was a scam and the owner should have known that and probably did. And even if it hadn't been a scam, it would still have been illegal, so the  owner was a 'bad apple' either way.

[Sharavanan]

"Probably Traffic Monsoon Owner had a good intention" ... hmm, no. The whole thing was a scam and the owner should have known that and probably did. And even if it hadn't been a scam, it would still have been illegal, so the  owner was a 'bad apple' either way.

Spot on Cristian as the Owner was bad as well as the Revenue Model too was a Bad one Promising more than what one could deliver.

 

And now due to this there is it the Program is in the Scam List.

[Sharavanan]

Probably Traffic Monsoon Owner had a good intention but that business model is suspicious for the law so it was a matter of time for authority to suspend the site,

I probably think not Mate

[sarfraz]

i have lost huge amount there

[ajay_dce]

I had never registered at traffic monsoon and prefer engaging in zubeezone which is a reliable payment source anytime over traffic monsoon 

[pf4edward]

For those that did use this site for just strictly as an ad platform, can you share your best results (#views, clicks, conversions, etc...). i'd like to see what's really possible with sites like this.

[incomeskills]

Rev shares are not sustainable long term. It only gets uglier from there!

 

Is that a scam? That's up to you.

 

There are plenty of legitimate places to invest money.