myadvertisingpays-logoFor decades the hotel pitch was the acquisition method of choice for Ponzi fraudsters.

And although largely eclipsed by online webinars, Facebook groups and Google Hangouts, today the hotel pitch is still a staple for many MLM businesses.

One of them, MyAdvertisingPays, attemped to organize a series of events earlier this month, only to have the hotels had booked them at cancel at the last minute.

Research reveals the first of these cancellations appears to have taken place in late June, with The Cumberland Hotel pulling the plug on a planned July 4th pitch.

The Cumberland Hotel in located in London, England, with the planned pitch to be presented by Simon Stepsys:

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It is believed The Cumberland Hotel cancelled the event after receiving an email or emails alerting them to the fraudulent nature of MyAdvertisingPay’s business model.

Two days later the July 4th event, now rescheduled to take place at The Holiday Inn in Regents Park, was again cancelled.

In an email to Tara Glassia (owner of the linked blog “Tara Talks”), The Holiday Inn staff wrote:

I would like to assure you that this event is not taking place at our hotel, and the gentlemen is not someone we have associations with.

The unnamed gentlemen in question is believed to be Simon Stepsys.

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Stepsys (above), is credited as a MyAdvertisingPays top earner.

Stepsys was recently written up in the UK’s The Mirror. Given the opportunity to explain why MyAdvertisingPays wasn’t a Ponzi scheme however, he instead chose to decline The Mirror’s attempts to contact him.

Sometime after June 26th a third hotel, the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel, was booked for the event – but they too cancelled on July 2nd.

Faced with little to no time to rebook for a fourth time, MyAdvertisingPays called off the event.

This defeat didn’t go down well with MyAdvertisingPays, who rely on newly recruited investors to sustain payouts to existing investors, with the scheme engaging lawyers in the US.

Presumably at some point one of the three hotels to cancel the planned July 4th event, revealed the email address(es) that sent them a heads up about MyAdvertisingPays.

MyAdvertisingPays have now engaged the Illinois lawfirm Hart & David LLP, who sent a cease and desist to Google.

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It is believed the cease and desist was sent to Google due to a Gmail address being used (Google own Gmail).

Referenced in the July 21st notification are the three hotels who cancelled MyAdvertisingPays events:

Reference is made to a series of emails sent via the online handle (removed) (hereinafter “account” or “the account”) and directed toward one of, or a combination of, the following businesses:

a) Holiday Inn – London – Bloomsbury
b) Park Plaza Victoria London
c) The Cumberland – Guoman Hotels

We are informed and believe that the original purpose of these emails was to materially affect the nature and course of
business being conducted by MAP at the aforementioned hotels.

As you may well know, this action, as well as its well anticipated result, constitutes tortious interference with business relationships, tortious interference with contract, and tortious interference with business expectancy.

We are further informed and believe that you have been, and continue to be, engaged in defamation, placing MAP in a false light, (further and repeated) tortious interference with MAP’s economic advantage, and unfair business practices.

It is MAP’s belief that your conduct is tortious and highly suggestive of a fraudulent scheme designed to artificially drive down the public perception of MAP while simultaneously improving your own public perception through theoretical “Scam Busting” and/or self-proclaimed “public service”.

Applicable law provides remedies for such conduct. Moreover, MAP believes that these actions may be part of a broader campaign to further affect the business practices and contractual relationships of MAP in the future.

Your tortious conduct must cease and desist immediately and be corrected.

Hart & David LLP don’t clarify why the hotels in question cancelled MyAdvertisingPay’s bookings or why whatever the reason(s) those decisions were based on are wrong.

MAP hereby demands that you:

(1) cease and desist the above defamatory, false light, tortious interference, and unfair business practices;

(2) provide written confirmation of your compliance with this demand; and (3) retract and correct, publicly, previously made false and misleading statements.

Accordingly, you are hereby placed on written notice that MAP and its partners have claims against you for violation of federal and state laws.

You are hereby required to take immediate action to preserve all documents and information, including electronic communications, which in any way relate to MAP.

Failure to maintain and preserve relevant documents and information will be deemed spoliation and may subject you to further damage and sanction by a court of law.

Failure to comply with all of the above cease and desist demands by August 1, 2015 will result in MAP pursuing all available
legal remedies, including but not limited to

(a) bringing a lawsuit against you for defamation, false light, tortious interference, and unfair business practices, among other claims; and,

(b) seeking monetary damages, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees against you and any person associated with or employed by you who has participated in your unlawful conduct.

Needless to say, your liability and exposure under such legal action will be considerable.

Before taking these steps, however, my client wished to give you one opportunity to discontinue this harmful conduct by
complying with this demand within ten (10) days.

In a nutshell, Hart & David LLP are seeking written assurance that the owner of the Gmail account in question will not be sending out any more “scam busting” “public service” emails.

Or they’re threatening to take the owner of the address to court.

Whether or not Hart & David LLP themselves have done any due diligence into MyAdvertisingPays’ business model is unclear.

BehindMLM reviewed MyAdvertisingPays back in May 2014, concluding that it was yet another advertising credits based Ponzi scheme.

MyAdvertisingPays affiliates invest in $49.99 positions, through which ROIs are advertised, paid out of subsequently invested funds.

I myself don’t have access to, nor have I seen, what information was sent to the three hotels in question. I believe however that if cross-referenced against MyAdvertisingPays’ business model, that they likely pertain to MyAdvertisingPays being a Ponzi scheme.

If that is the case then I wholly agree. And if anyone at Hart & David LLP is familiar with securities law, specifically in the area of offering unregistered securities, then they probably want to be looking into MyAdvertisingPays’ business model sooner rather than later.

I did check the Hart & David LLP website, noting that neither securities or MLM law appears on the firm’s list of specialties.