I have been caught in the compounding trap many times in the past two years. The most recent  incident occured last month with Compactsurf. While I am in profit now overall, my gains over the past two years would have been significantly higher if I had been more prudent with my compounding. It is very easy to fall into the compounding trap. We put our money into a program with the hope that in a few months or years it will make us better off. Some of us put our money into a program with a specific goal in mind (buying a car, taking a vecation, saving for your kids college fund and so on). What better way to reach our goals than to compound in our favourite program? In the case of Compactsurf, I was determined to max out my account as fast as possible. In my zeal to accomplish this goal, I ended up with a $1000 loss. Had I been less aggressive with my compounding, I would have been a few thousand in the green instead of a thousand in the hole. Why haven't I learned my lesson after 2 years? The answer to this is simple; one is always thinking that the current program is different and shouldn't be judged in the same light as the ones that got you before. Will this happen to me again? Very unlikely. I have finally learnt my lesson and will be making principal retrieval a priority going forward.

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I have been reading mix reviews on these guys the past year and a half since they have been in business. Some report having a good experience with them, while others say they are scams. I have heard too many scam stories for me to take these guys seriously. Therefor, I would suggest that you guys avoid them as an exchanger at all cost. There are better exchangers out there without the controversies surrounding this particular one.

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A few months ago I mentioned that EMOCorp (a well-known payment processor) was shut down by the Texan government and was put into the hands of a receiver. Now it appears that steps are being taken to refund those that have money stuck there. I have about $150 there myself and was able to login to check the balance recently. Those that have accounts there should have received an email from the receiver around June 28th.

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I received this e-gold phishing scam message in my junk mailbox twice in the last few days:

" ** e-gold Security Update **

4. Reboot your computer (not necessary if you have Microsoft Windows XP installed). "

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I was updating the About page and it dawned on me that it is now 2 years since I have been in this arena. It was May 15th, 2004 that I made my first spend into a high yield program. The name of this program is People in Profit Systems (PIPS). For those of you that have not never heard about PIPS, you can learn what happened to the program here and here. While I was able to make a few dollars from the program myself, a lot of people lost a lot of money in the program. PIPS was setup in such an elaborate and convincing way, that I would have probably rated it a B+ if it was still in operations today. This was a program that had real offices and businesses with real people answering the phone. Furthermore the administrator was known to a lot of people around the world. In fact, I met him personally twice — once when he visited Toronto, and last year when I went to the PIPS convention in Hawaii. Still, there were no definitive proof of investment for the returns that were being offered — only speculation. In some ways, the Udachu Diversified fund which I rated a B+ is similar. We have no way of telling for sure how Udachu Diversified fund is able to generate their returns every month. Still, Udachu Diversified's 10%-12% per month (on average) is a lot more believable and sustainable for what they claim to be in (stocks, real estate, forex etc.), than the 2% per day that was being offered by PIPS. 

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I have had at least 10 people contacted me within the past week and a half asking me what I think about egoldspinner. 50%+ daily for 5 days have ponzi scam written all over it. There is no doubt about this. The site is even fitted with the famous (for all the wrong reasons) ponzi / scam script. If you have a burning desire to try it out, treat it as a gamble and try to get your principal out as soon as possible.

I just want to take the time to wish my readers (at least those that celebrate Easter) a happy holidays. I just realized that I have not posted an update since April 5th. Where does the time go? Seems to to fly by so fast. Anyhow, I am going to use the long holiday weekend to catchup on things. You can look forward to several posts over the next few days.