What a difference a year can make.

12 months ago, auto surf programs were at their peak. More and more people were investing some serious cash hoping to multiply their money by as much as 12 times within a few months. At the center of this craze was Stormpay, the payment processor of choice by most of these paid-to-surf programs. Stormpay, you see, caters to a more global market. Whereas PayPal operates in selected territories, Stormpay has a wider reach. At that time, it was the best choice for auto surf companies, given the fact that Stormpay would open the doors for more people to join their programs.

And it worked.

The auto surf industry became a bustling field, where the companies as well as the investors enjoyed unbridled success. Investors were able to recoup the money they have expended, with profits soaring to fantastic rates in such short periods of time. And the companies were able to amass enough capital to finance their operations.

But that was then.

2006 welcomed the paid-to-surf industry with the grimmest news. Stormpay froze the accounts of auto-surf programs, and up to this writing, a lot of investors have yet to receive the money that have accrued to them. For those who managed to receive their pay in their accounts, they cannot withdraw the same as such amounts are traceable to the auto surf companies.

Why did things come to this?

There are two sides to the story. Stormpay claims that some of these paid-to-surf companies are using the pyramid model, which is generally outlawed since such companies do not have real assets. The auto surf companies are claiming that Stormpay is merely using the alleged irregularities as a smokescreen when the truth of the matter, according to them, is that Stormpay doesn't have enough funds to cover the withdrawals from the auto surf companies' investors.

If you would conduct your own research on the matter, you're bound to get more spins to these tales. Which is true? We'll never know until formal investigations conclude and a judicial decision is reached.

Hardest hit in this controversy is 12dailypro.com. We could even say that 12dailypro.com is the epoch of the issue, as they are the ones who were targeted by Stormpay's sudden crackdown.

But here's the deal: why penalize the innocent investors? If Stormpay wanted to cut its ties with the entities it perceives as unlawful, why bring down the investors as well, when such investors under such reasoning would be considered as "victims" rather than "accomplices?"

Again, the matter needs to be resolved before we could derive some conclusive answers.

Nonetheless, a lot are wondering what the state of the paid-to-surf industry is today, after the Stormpay crackdown.

For starters, more people are warier about auto surf programs. They are now afraid to invest their money, since, as Stormpay has demonstrated, their funds could be frozen at any time, without notice at that.

But the crackdown on some paid-for-surf programs have opened the doors for new players, as well as established ones that weren't affected by the controversy. Investors who have tasted the potentials of an opportunity like this have quickly jumped to other programs offering the same system but without the frightful possibility of getting killed. You may have received unsolicited emails advertising emergent paid-surf programs. Though spam mails like this are quite irritating, they may point out to a resurgent industry.

The question in everyone's mind is this: is the auto surf industry dead?

No, it is not. It suffered a setback, from which many lessons can be learned. But it has, almost instantaneously, made a comeback. The current players are a mixture of old and new parties, but the concept remains the same, albeit with more caution against possible attacks. This caution is now borne by both the companies as well as the investors.

The Stormpay-12dailypro incident may not be pretty. But it did leave us with something that will prove beneficial in the long run: the moral of a tale that would make the industry sturdier.