Money in MLM/Affiliate MarketingMoney Making Opportunities Online

GNI members, including myself, received a disturbing email yesterday from an extortionist group that were able to grab data form the GNI database. Members are worried and with good reason.

But the hack seems to have been a simple MySQL injection in my point of view as the accounts were not messed with. I never panicked and told others to not do so, as Robert would take care of the problem as soon as he woke up. And he did. Here is his email newsletter concerning the matter.

You may have received a malicious spam email in the last couple of hours, claiming to be from a team acting against spreading of various Ponzi schemes. They state that they used the vulnerability of mysql and broke into our database.

They are also reporting that they haven’t found any trading activity with our script – what is by the way true, since the script is nothing more than a front end for our members and us as well, to manage and calculate your funds . Furthermore they are warning that our website will be closed in the near future, if not by us, by the senders group. And of course the obvious bla bla that you should withdraw you funds with us – and surprise surprise, they added three email addresses you may contact to receive information where to invest you money safely smile.gif

This is the really important fact of this SPAM email – thats what it is!

It tells us that the only intention of the sender is to disturb our operation and to grab you intention to another investment program, which is for sure a PONZI scheme, since no serious entity is using the means of SPAM to get your intention.

GNI is operating for almost three years, is as you know a legally registered corporation and has proven over the time again and again that we are a serious and reliable second income opportunity.

There is absolutely no need to panic and nothing and NOBODY will shut us down, not as long as I am in charge of this operation. Since we went public last year we have been attacked, threatened and blackmailed on a weekly base. The last email we’ve received last Friday and the blackmailer tried to extort $20,000 from us. Most probably the email you have received is a result of this extortioner.

This is the downside of such an operation! Our only aim is and was to generate a second income for you, our trusted members and thus offering us an business opportunity to support our families as well. As you all know, we are working hard to achieve this goal and have always sorted out any obstacles along the way. And so we will do again – today as well as tomorrow!

We are currently investigating how this SPAMMER got access to our database and assure you that we will take all necessary steps to protect our members privacy and integrity, what unfortunately is not a simple task, in times where even government databases get compromised. We can however confirm that the database has not been altered.

I don’t want to hide the fact that quite some of our esteemed members panicked and requested a withdrawal of their principal, as a result of this SPAM email, what is understandable, since you don’t know what is going on. We have decided to sent all withdrawal requests back to our members account balances, giving you the opportunity to reconsider if you like to stay with us – or not, now where I got the chance to address this issue. If you still decide to withdraw your principle, please request it again and note that it might take up to 7 days to process principal withdrawal requests, depending on the availability of funds in our payment processor accounts. This is according to our TOS. We will process withdrawals again in the evening hours today (GMT timezone).

Finally let me express my warmest gratefulness to those member who expressed their support of GNI and are believing in our project. I have received many encouraging emails from trusted members. THANK YOU ALL!

With best regards,
Robert and TEAM

One more note:

We are only processing withdrawals to Payment Processor accounts where the deposit was made from. So there is no way that someone can withdraw any of our members funds!

Update:

Several days ago Todd, GNI’s support, told us some great news was coming soon, he even had the members guessing. But since the hack, we were told that the surprise was going to be a much better script with much more security in place. This will be much better for the members safety and that of the program.

Gold Nugget Invest continues to be my number program at the moment. This one seems rock solid for now.

Here are just a few questions asked on the ASA forum of Todd from support and his answers:

Guaranteed or Risk Free

What does GNI mean when they state risk free?

This question seems to go around and around….I’m going to let Robert answer the finite details, but let’s get something clear. Risk-free and guaranteed are not synonymous; at all.

Arbitrage trading, by definition is Risk-free. The returns, having laid stakes on both sides of the wager are known before during and after the event transpires, hence “risk-free.”

Guaranteed payments implies that the client/customer is paid whether a nuclear bomb detonates, the world comes to end or otherwise. The source of said funds guaranteeing payouts could be by GNI’s operating funds, reserve funds and/or contributions from the organizations principals, partners or otherwise.

The only time, however, that such extraordinary measures to make payments to our trusted investors is in the event an event such as one I described (breakdown in market conditions, etc…) actually comes to fruition. Keep in mind adverse economic conditions is often a catalyst to the sports wagering sector of any given economy.

I hope this helps clear up some definitions as we see them at GNI….

Email Support Issues

Due to GNI’s scripting and security measures, members who don’t use GMail sometimes do not receive email from the script. This is a problem for those who are emailed a new automatic log-in PIN after their IP has changed and can’t receive them, causing an excessive amount of support issues. Todd has recently stated that now you need a GMail address to register for an account.

It seems the GMail service is more forgiving of the type of email GNI’s script sends out.

Finally had the good sense to change the sign-up requirements mandating the use of gmail as a condition of enrollment. If I had done this after propagating the new servers I could have saved responding to 700 or 800 service requests, not to mention all of the unnecessary frustration you good people have had to endure….

Sometimes i feel like I’m a few cards short of a full deck, I tell ya….

Onward…