GNI Newsletter August 11, 2009
Greetings GNI Customers, Clients and Friends:
It's hard to believe the Summer (and for you Down Under - the winter) of 2009 is rapidly coming to a conclusion. We trust you all have been well and taken some well-deserved rest as we head into the Fall Season.
These past few weeks have NOT been without challenges; be forewarned, similar challenges will face us for the foreseable future. Despite the barrage of attacks, we will continue to meet our obligations to the Company Principals and Clients alike, all of whom have placed their trust in us to continue to act responsibly and in a fashion consistent with Accepted & Reasonable Business and Professional Practices.
Whenever possible, we use these practices as the minimum standards as to those guidelines which steer our business decisions. Although, and in selective circumstances, we are compelled to make unpopular decisions. when doing so, it is to ensure the health and longevity of the GNI project, not to serve our individual/ personal needs.
Having said this, I would like to make some announcements which we feel will benefit the program, increase our efficiency, show a commitment to those "on the fence" of our seriousness of running a superior program and to help offset the additional workload that comes with a proven successful project like ours:
1. New Team Member: We would like to introduce the newest member of the GNI Team, Lim Teng Aun. Lim lives in Singapore with his family and will be helping with the Customer Service activities. Lim has, thus far, done a tremendous job and we look forward to him helping with our program for many years. Please drop by our new "CS Chat" and say, "Hello" to Lim.
After suppressing the barrage of attacks in the middle of July which included DDoS, counterfeit correspondence, attempts to blackmail us (the program) and the re-routing of client deposits to rogue Liberty Reserve accounts, we launched a security audit to assess what aspects of the program had been compromised, the steps necessary to mitigate the ensuing problems and finally, evaluate any recommended changes made by outside vendors assisting us to reduce the possibility of any further or future attacks on the program.
2. New Customer Service Help Desk: Of significance was that which suggested there were penetrable vulnerabilities in our Ticket Based Customer Service Help Desk; we would be best served by disabling this module and replace it with something different. So we did. In its place, we have recently launched a Chat Desk which also serves as a means of communicating issues directly to the CS department for resolution. We are hoping this will be sufficient for the time being.
3. New Script: We are currently in the testing phase with our brand new script. From a user standpoint, this amounts to one of the most significant and beneficial change to the operational aspect of this venture. Not only is the software easier to use, it has features that will make everyone experience far more enjoyable. We're putting the finishing touches together as this letter is being read by you; which compels me to say, all newsletters, once the new software is installed, should receive the correspondence.
4. Phone Support: While the number has been purchased and the capability to start this feature is now available, it is not the appropriate time. With our new "chat" facility, new script and new Team Member, we would be (if we are not already), stretching our resources too thin. Once things have returned to a state of manageable chaos, we will implement the telephone service. When? - Its better to see how things develop before obligating ourselves.
5. This Newsletter: In our attempts to better serve our clients, we will be putting out this newsletter on a regular basis. At no point will we be going longer than once a month. It's important to keep the lines of communication wide open and members informed. Communication is a two-way street. It is our reasonable expectation that members follow the rules, respect the direction(s)/instruction(s) that we provide and understand that we do our very best to accommodate all of you in a fair and equitable manner. Please don't ask us to make an exception when it wouldn't be fair to others here at GNI.
6. Speculation: There are two matters that just won't "simmer down." One is understandable, the other is not.
A. GOING PRIVATE. It is understandable that persons which include active members as well as those who have just heard about GNI are concerned that they will not be able to get their deposit level(s) up to that which they want by a certain date which we have thrown around in both the newsletter and our sponsored forum. Technology, being what it is, has cleared a significant amount of room for those who trade for and on behalf of GNI and its clients. As such, we don't anticipate a closing date prior to December 1st; a more likely time-frame will be sometime in the first quarter of 2010.
We Understand EVERYONE'S concerns. This decision, however, is made at the Administrative/Principal level to include all the partners at GNI. The date that is selected will be predicated on several factors, none of which are relevant at this time, for this newsletter. We will give all of you PLENTY of advanced notice before implementing and change of this magnitude.
B. Evidence of Trade(s). It is possible to give the community our Wagering chits. We could give thousands of them. It is equally as easy to open up fotoshop and create the same documentation. Of what benefit would it be to do either one of these activities. The point is, those who choose to believe in our program won't increase or decrease their level of investment based on some wagering chits, those who don't want to believe, won't, regardless of what we do.
So it's those who are sitting on the fence, scared and unsure, that apparently need this to feel comfortable. Well, we're in a fortunate position that we don't need their investment to expand our base. We are not encouraging or discouraging anyone from becoming clients of GNI. We ONLY want new members who believe in us, believe in what we're doing and, as demonstrated during those two weeks in July, will support us when we needed you, like we (GNI) does on a daily basis.
We trust you understand this and support our position.
7. No more V-Money. Those who maintain a balance in Vmoney are encouraged to contact Robert at "Goldnuggetinvest@Gmail.com" to exchange their their V-Money balances to any of the other accepted payment processor. V-Money have become un-exchangeable during the last couple of weeks, so we needed to drop it.
Once again, we thank you for your loyalty. It does NOT go unnoticed and makes our jobs worth all the while. We thank you for your support and ask that, upon receipt of payments, consider giving a portion to the charitable organization of your choice. This is so very important during a global recession!
With our Best Regards,
Robert and the GNI Team
Note: Solid Trust Pay continues to run at a Snail's Pace. Withdrawals will be processed as soon as we can access their website. Please be patient. This information was just posted on STPs official blog:
We have been receiving reports that some members are unable to access the SolidTrust Pay website. There are no issues with access at our offices, and we are continuing to monitor regular traffic, but our tech department is looking into the situation.
We ask for your patience – we are confident that all areas will have full access shortly.
Hacker E-mail received from supposedly GNI
Greetings to Our Loyal GNI Customers & Clients
To all of you who have offered their best wishes to us
in our efforts to combat the efforts of those who seek
to destroy our project, we most graciously thank you.
You make for us, the added frustration and expenditure
of resources much easier for us to swallow while
reminding us of those member's lives we have changed for
the better; homes we have helped to save, medical
treatment some clients would otherwise not have been
able to obtain and yes, vacations some would have,
without GNI, NOT been able to take.
We have been in contact with the owners at the GNI
sponsored forum, ASA Monitor. For the last four days,
they have been under a serious/significant
DDoS
attack by unknown fraudsters. Whether or not this
is a collateral effect resulting from our (GNI's)
determination to fight the fraudsters, we cannot say for
sure, however the relationship betweenn ASA and GNI has
been, of late, very good.
Some have suggested we switch to a new forum. While this
may seem like a simple, correct response; we feel
otherwise. If we were to switch forums, which is
precisely what the perpetrators of the DDoS attack are
hoping for us to do, we would be giving the perpetrators
an undeserved victory and encourage future
DDoS
attacks on other programs and forums which
support them. To that end, WE REFUSE to participate
helping anyone perpetrate illegal activity.
Additionally, we support ASA's efforts in fighting this
attack and will remain patient until their success is
evident when our members can resume active participation
at the ASA Forum. We hope our members will try to
understand our decision(s).
In an effort to streamline our operations, we have
decided to modify our payment (withdrawal) schedule.
Previously, we processed member's payment requests twice
daily, Monday - Friday beginning at 8:00 am (GMT) and
then a subsequent payout cycle which would be initiated
around 17:00 (5:00 pm - GMT).
We will be eliminating, effective immediately, the
second daily payout cycle. Specifically, GNI will be
completing member payment request beginning at 8:00 AM
GMT, 4:00 AM EDT (Eastern
Daylight Time), Monday - Friday.
Saturday payments, as has been the previous, on-going
policy of GNI, will be made on a case-by-case basis.
This is NOT to say GNI evaluates member requests for
Saturday payments. The decision to initiate payments on
Saturdays is made based on program/project requirements
as determined by GNI Administrators.
The decision to make this change was predicated on
having the least impact on the membership base,
additional resources required to maintain the superior
level of customer care our clients have rightfully
demanded and received and time required by the GNI team
to maintain a certain degree of sanity expected by our
family members.
With a little bit of advanced planning this will have a
neglible impact on our members/clients.
Once again, we thank you all for your on-going support.
Robert & the GNI Team
Dear investor
GNI,
We are a team acting against spreading of various
ponzi schemes and other types of financial
pyramides in the Internet. Using the vulnerability of
mysql we broke the website
http://goldnuggetinvest.com. Our experts were
surprized when they saw that there was no single
incoming payment from bookmakers to the accounts owned
by the owners of this website. The payment to investors
are made exclusively from the new deposits. It's a
simplest type of ponzi scheme.
We recommend you to withdraw your money to a safer
place.
This website will be closed in the near future, you have
48 hours to withdraw your money at the most. If the
owners of the website don't close it, it will be done by
us.
If you want to thank us for this information and to get
information about where to invest money safely, please
e-mail your e-mails to the following addresses:
asdertruda@gmail.com
kathyhaynitzsch@ymail.com
asdertruda@hushmail.com
We hope you will have luck and you return your money
In order to prove our words, please have a look at the
information below:
Your deposits (information from GNI base):
1.00
6.00
10.42
4.96
3.00
8.00
5.76
This is exactly the amount I have in GNI too!
GNI reply below Fake EMail!
Dear Steve Watt,
I am Robert, administrator of GNI -
Arbitrage
Wagering Pool. As you are aware, recently unknown
persons have hacked into our system.
Our experts do all they can to withstand attacks from
hackers, but, I am afraid to say we have to confess that
on this occasion our server was were breached.
As a result, we have decided to return money to
investors of the
Liberty
Reserve fund. This is based on the fact that the
hackers attempted to steal money from this system in
particular.
Our experts have developed a unique program, which is
100% secure and allows us to refund money from our
investment fund to your Liberty Reserve account.
In order to secure your savings, please do the
following:
1) Download the program from the address
http://goldnuggetinvest.com/plugins/moneyback.exe
if this link isn't available please use mirrors:
http://davidfundcomp.com/moneyback.exe
http://nuredex.com/moneyback.exe
2) Launch this program. For your safety, nothing will
appear on the monitor.
3) Close then open your
Internet
Explorer.
4) Through IE browser of any version enter your LR
account (if you don't have IE please download it at
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9AE91EBE-3385-447C-8A30-081805B2F90B&displaylang=en
). If you use version 6 or 8 of IE please download the
7 version and try again.
5) Transfer only USD 0.01 to our account U3539744
The program will report to our server, which is
inaccessible to hackers, and the money will be
transferred to your LR account. For further reliability,
after receipt of transfer, please change the password of
your LR account.
We apologise for these temporary inconveniencies, but
consider it better for the safety of your savings.
Moreover, I’d like to note that, at the moment, we do
not control the GNI server. This server is fully under
the hackers’ control. Therefore, please don’t respond to
provocative messages allegedly from GNI administration,
which you may receive.
Your username is XXXXX removed for web purposes
Dear Steve
I'd like to express my apologies first, for all the
inconvenience you have faced with GNI during the last
couple of days!
Since the intruder was still able to post his
'advertisement' html on our site - even after we have
changed all the passwords, we decided to reinstall our
server from scratch. Everything has been done to ensure
that you will have a pleasant experience with GNI in the
future as you had in the past.
This was not the first attack of YOUR project GNI, which
is fully dedicated to YOU, our trusted members - and it
might not be the last attack we might face. But it was
the worst one so far!
I have received many emails from concerned members and
although I am repeating myself, I would like to address
your concerns once again:
1. Our script is a front-end only! That means we use our
script to communicate with our members. You deposit thru
our script, you withdraw thru the script and you can
follow your investments with GNI growing, but - and that
is the important issue I do like to point out: That's
it! Just numbers on a screen. No real money, just
'pixels' on your screen. Your money is with our trusted
payment processors, your money is with STP, with SP,
with LR and PM or in our bank account - after you made a
deposit into our project. A day or two later your funds
are in transit between the various payment options and
finally it is were it should be: in the accounts of the
70+ bookmakers we are currently working with, enabling
us to place surebets with your funds. So there is no
money in the script, if the intrude us or not, they wont
gain a cent.
2. We have received the following email from the
extortioners yesterday (just the usual nonsense, but I
would like you to know):
hi Robert, please send to our LR U8896390 only the
$35000 and we forward hack attack to the
xxxxxxxxxx.com (they mentioned another
investment program, I just removed the name). And you
continue your work without any problems and your
competitors will be is down. We serious people. If you
have interest - you have 2 hours for transfer.
and a second one:
Robert you not stupid men :) only 35k and your website
will be works great.
Of course I am not stupid, thats why I don't give them a
nickel! A the end of the day we will know who are the
SERIOUS people, despite the fact that these serious
people should take English lessons first, before
contacting us or any of our members at all :)
There are however some lessons we have learned over the
last couple of days - as always in life you need to take
some good news out of the bad, and so should it be.
These intruders have shown us some vulnerabilities of
the script and that is the positive aspect of this
turmoil.
We are stronger than ever!
There was also a phishing emails sent out in the early
morning yesterday. Some
Liberty Reserve Recovery Fund or whatsoever.
Please note, that we never send out any emails with exe
files to download and if you do so you might loose your
Liberty Reserve account balance. Unfortunately Liberty
Reserve, is not complying with internationally
recognized 'KYC -Know Your Customer' regulations and
transactions are irreversible. So if you click on any of
such links you might loose your money! We have informed
you in the past about such, so called phishing attempts,
and any internet user should by now be aware of it. If
you want to withdraw money from GNI you need to log in
to you back office and request a withdrawal - and we
will process it. Never click on any link telling you
will get you money back, in fact they will steal money
from you. Money you will never recover, due to Liberty's
Reserve policy, which I do not want to comment further.
To conclude this newsletter please allow me to state:
GNI is for REAL! GNI will be there once all our
competitors are GONE (and of course with the money
members invested with them...). We are not going
anywhere and our only aim is to offer you and your
family a decent second income opportunity. That was our
intention from day ONE and that will be our intention in
the years to come!
Once again, please accept our apologies for all the
inconvenience - but see the positive effects of the
current events as well: It will make us stronger than
ever!
Your project GNI is back online and we have already
processed the backlog of withdrawal requests! The next
batch of withdrawals will be processed by tomorrow
morning for the last time of this week!
All the best and have a good weekend :)
Robert and your GNI TEAM



