It's kind of like an infomercial but with fewer incompetent idiots trying to accomplish basic tasks like using Tupperware and cracking eggs.
Before we get to the video, let's get to the press release from the SEC:
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges and an asset freeze against the operators of a South Florida-based Ponzi scheme targeting investors through YouTube videos and selling them investments in a product called virtual concierge machines (VCMs) that would purportedly generate guaranteed returns of 300 to 500 percent in four years.
The SEC alleges that Joseph Signore of West Palm Beach, Paul L. Schumack II of Pompano Beach, and their respective companies JCS Enterprises Inc. and T.B.T.I. Inc. falsely promised hundreds of investors nationwide that their funds would be used to purchase ATM-like machines that businesses could use to advertise products and services via touch screen and printable tickets or coupons. Investors supposedly needed to do nothing to earn returns on their investment in a VCM, which would purportedly be placed at such locations as hotels, airports, and stadiums where they would derive revenue from the businesses paying to advertise through them. However, instead of advertising revenue serving as the driving force behind the returns paid to investors, the two men and their companies paid returns to earlier investors using money from newer investors. Signore and Schumack also diverted millions of dollars in investor funds for their personal use and other unrelated expenses.
“Signore and Schumack touted VCMs as a revolutionary enterprise and fail-safe investment based on a stream of advertising revenue that would generate the guaranteed returns paid to investors,” said Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “However, the advertising revenue was virtually non-existent and investors aren’t enjoying the riches touted on YouTube.”
Wait one doggone minute here… are you guys telling me I won't be getting a pool and a nice car like that trustworthy young man mentioned in a YouTube video? Shocked, I tell you.
The SEC actually included the YouTube video in their press release, we include it here below for your viewing pleasure.
If you've ever been bamboozled by an As Seen on TV product (DAMN YOU, SHED PAL, YOU ARE A LIE!!), you see the problem here. Gullible people actually fall for this stuff? Apparently, at least enough for the SEC to have to call it out.
