STDDIOT - Stuff That Doesn't Deserve Its Own Thread

FTC Action Ends Ecommerce Empire Builders Online Business Opportunity Scam

A Federal Trade Commission lawsuit has put a stop to Ecommerce Empire Builders’ (EEB) business opportunity scam that used false promises of large profits to entice consumers into paying for help starting “Ecommerce empires” through online storefronts.​
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EEB and its owner, Peter Prusinowski (also known as Peter Pru), have agreed to a court order that bans them from selling business opportunities and require them to turn over assets to the FTC to be used for refunds to consumers.​
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“The defendants’ brazen scheme took advantage of would-be entrepreneurs,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Today’s announcement shows the FTC will shut down these schemes permanently.”​
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In its complaint against the operation, the FTC alleged that EEB offered training programs that cost nearly $2,000, as well as “done for you” online storefronts that cost consumers as much as $35,000. The company promised consumers profits of $10,000 each month, but the complaint charged that these profits never materialized, and in many cases left consumers with significant losses. The complaint charged that Prusinowski used consumers’ money to enrich himself while failing to deliver on the scheme’s promises.​
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EEB and Prusinowski have agreed to a settlement order that:​
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-permanently bans them from selling business opportunities of any kind,​
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-prohibits them from making earnings claims without evidence to back them up,​
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-prohibits them from offering or enforcing any contract requirements that would prevent consumers from reviewing or reporting their business practices, and​
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-requires they turn over numerous assets, including rental properties, luxury watches, and the balances of accounts held by the receiver in the case, which will be used to provide refunds to consumers harmed by EEB.​
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The order contains a monetary judgment of $9,786,124, which is partially suspended based on the defendants’ inability to pay the full amount. If defendants are found to have failed to disclose or lied about any material asset or financial representations to the FTC, the full judgment will become immediately payable.​
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The Commission vote approving the stipulated final order was 3-0. The FTC filed the order in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The order was entered by the court on May 8, 2025.​
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NOTE: Stipulated final orders or injunctions have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court judge.​

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Source: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/new...ire-builders-online-business-opportunity-scam
 
The last time this happened, and I can't even recall the company that was doing the ponzi scheme, they ended up buying a website I was selling (unbeknownst to me), and my site ended up being the highest earning website owned by the FTC. Funny little trophy I collected.

The controller they had who's job it was to keep the websites earning to pay back the investors, she failed and ended up suing the company and the brokerage (I'll leave them unnamed because it's not their fault), if I recall correctly. Fun times to watch from afar. You gotta be a real doofus to buy into a ponzi scheme.

The owner that time was (again, if I recall correctly) putting his kids through expensive private school, buying boats and a mansion, and other assets similar to above. Not sure why anyone thinks they're going to get away with it, unless they manage to keep some of the crap they bought with the money somehow (probably).
 
Ryuzaki said:
The last time this happened, and I can't even recall the company that was doing the ponzi scheme, they ended up buying a website I was selling (unbeknownst to me), and my site ended up being the highest earning website owned by the FTC. Funny little trophy I collected.

The controller they had who's job it was to keep the websites earning to pay back the investors, she failed and ended up suing the company and the brokerage (I'll leave them unnamed because it's not their fault), if I recall correctly. Fun times to watch from afar. You gotta be a real doofus to buy into a ponzi scheme.

The owner that time was (again, if I recall correctly) putting his kids through expensive private school, buying boats and a mansion, and other assets similar to above. Not sure why anyone thinks they're going to get away with it, unless they manage to keep some of the crap they bought with the money somehow (probably).
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I believe I sold a site to the same company. I kept an eye on the site for some time after the sale and wondered why they were not updating the dates in the titles and products. Then, a few years later, I learned what was going on.
 
Domain squatters suck huh?

$6k for a non-EMD combination of letters.

Ok, then I'll get brand.ai, getbrand.com and brand.app instead.

(probably will pay for it eventually but might not).
 
Well I'm back in... Just spent $3,500 on a domain. .com

Local business is not for me. I missed the digital mines. I thought I could do some philanthropic local business type of thing, but society didn't want it, and the marketing involved to change perception was enormous compared to the return. Driving in a car all over town sucks. Sitting in traffic; deal with peasants. Just dealing with stupid people, even paying stupid people, it's just miserable. But you really get a feel for how these local people are working, all the shit they deal with day by day.

So round 2, I will be building back what I once loved to a bigger scale, much bigger, 1000x bigger. As big as I can humanely go. As much as I can challenge myself.

I'll start a progress thread on here.

Sorry to all who may have messaged me while I was offline for 5+ years building a home, doing offline shit. I just learned SKYPE has been deleted. Maybe slack's still going?
 
I logged in Google Analytics the other day, and wow... All the keyword data was gone. The reporting metrics for deep forensic stuff has vanished. It's so minimal it's almost disgusting how much they have removed from the program. Sad. Very sad to see. I'd rather just go 3rd party or self hosted at this point based on the functionality alone. Maybe there's a paid version I'm missing. I only remember the 100K+ yearly one.
 
contract said:
I logged in Google Analytics the other day, and wow... All the keyword data was gone. The reporting metrics for deep forensic stuff has vanished. It's so minimal it's almost disgusting how much they have removed from the program. Sad. Very sad to see. I'd rather just go 3rd party or self hosted at this point based on the functionality alone. Maybe there's a paid version I'm missing. I only remember the 100K+ yearly one.
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Yes, Google dumped all webmasters, probably because they saw AI coming well in advance.

If you just want basic stats Plausible.io is pretty decent, you can set up goals and such as well.
 
Man Google Gemini absolutely hates ANYTHING non PC. Try generating a firearm image; you can't it will refuse, even if it's a water toy or pillow..

Try talking about anything remotely non-PC, it will deem anything and everything as "hateful" or "harmful", even when it's clearly not.

Still amazing we live in a country where the 1st Amendment and free speech is banned online. It was NUMBER ONE. Not #19, NUMBER ONE. When you control the traffic, it's not even about having options. Even YouTubers know if they leave YT, they are screwed. FB, IG, TW, just banning people for talking about things they don't like.

Maybe they will roll it back someday, who knows... :(

If you think about it.. 99% of the internet is censored. Unless you're going on dark web. It's ALL censored or suppressed. Even on gun forums where it's DEEP RED.. You talk smack about Trump and you get the ban. Talk negative about women, etc. etc. I honestly can't think of 1 place where I could say whatever I want and get away with it.

We no longer live in reality. It's all fake; as are the people in this world.
 
Have a gut feeling AI stock market will crash starting as of a few days ago and we're going down, down, down. I've had it several times and it has corrected tiny bits, but this time is different to my gut.

Welcome to the party. Maybe I'm wrong. Who knows?

I welcome unlimited AI gains; if the market would stop being so emotional. I shall use that emotion to my advantage.
 
Howdy all, hope you are enjoying the cold weather and indoor computer time.
 
I'd like to welcome and draw some attention to PressWhizz.com, our newest sponsor.

They've built a pretty interesting Link Marketplace that's worth looking at even if you're not hunting for links and want to see a pretty impressive SaaS-style implementation. They're API'd to the gills with Moz, Ahrefs, inventory search engines to easily find placements, etc. It puts a lot more choice and power in the buyer's hands.

I thought it was cool, I appreciate their support, and it's a good example of providing customer satisfaction and off-loading decision making to the client (where it should be if you want to reach scale).

You'll find them on the homepage sidebar on desktop and towards the bottom on mobile if you want to re-find them later after reading this post.
 
Nobody's talking about this?

 
The Engineer said:
I'd like to welcome and draw some attention to PressWhizz.com, our newest sponsor.

They've built a pretty interesting Link Marketplace that's worth looking at even if you're not hunting for links and want to see a pretty impressive SaaS-style implementation. They're API'd to the gills with Moz, Ahrefs, inventory search engines to easily find placements, etc. It puts a lot more choice and power in the buyer's hands.

I thought it was cool, I appreciate their support, and it's a good example of providing customer satisfaction and off-loading decision making to the client (where it should be if you want to reach scale).

You'll find them on the homepage sidebar on desktop and towards the bottom on mobile if you want to re-find them later after reading this post.
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Appreciate the shoutout Engineer, and glad to be supporting BuSO again! Hope everyone is doing well!
 
The medical industry is a nightmare... You can be a multi-millionaire and it still sucks, you literally cannot throw cash at it to fix a disease. Currently dealing with this. How can you be fit as hell, eat better than 99% of the planet and still be sick. lol. I will live forever, but damn between waiting for appointments, trying to get Dr's to calm down with the ego/laziness of refusing to run testing that I PAY FOR and request, procedures, etc. Waiting for prescription insurance approvals/denials, etc. Also one of medications non-generic is $22-40k per injection and I need them monthly for life. Pills $2.8k per month. The holistic/med-free, perfect diet, etc. sometimes just doesn't work.

We are literally just observation brains inside these bodies with no way to defrag, diagnosis, zero data other than basic sensory inputs like pain, etc. The human body really is remarkable, but it's also quite stupid and rudimentary. I think most people don't know what it's like to feel fine mentally, but your body is damaged and you feel the pain/suffering, and you can do nothing about it.
 
contract said:
The medical industry is a nightmare... You can be a multi-millionaire and it still sucks, you literally cannot throw cash at it to fix a disease. Currently dealing with this. How can you be fit as hell, eat better than 99% of the planet and still be sick. lol. I will live forever, but damn between waiting for appointments, trying to get Dr's to calm down with the ego/laziness of refusing to run testing that I PAY FOR and request, procedures, etc. Waiting for prescription insurance approvals/denials, etc. Also one of medications non-generic is $22-40k per injection and I need them monthly for life. Pills $2.8k per month. The holistic/med-free, perfect diet, etc. sometimes just doesn't work.

We are literally just observation brains inside these bodies with no way to defrag, diagnosis, zero data other than basic sensory inputs like pain, etc. The human body really is remarkable, but it's also quite stupid and rudimentary. I think most people don't know what it's like to feel fine mentally, but your body is damaged and you feel the pain/suffering, and you can do nothing about it.
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It's your current state of mind that's getting you sick mate, not outside factors.

I think you're too much in your head right now and need to shut the fuck up, leave ego at the door, and start retardmaxxing a bit.

The body knows more about you than your mind does.

Give yourself some rest and stay still for a while. Just being. Not thinking about the future or past, but just being and appreciating what you have now.

You don't will your way through healing.

You hold the belief that you are a healthy person and health will follow.

Take 10 seconds to appreciate the body you have and be grateful it got you this far:

"Thank you for bringing me this far, buddy. Sorry I called you stupid and rudimentary. I still have much to learn."

Hope you get better man.
 
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