Federal regulators filed charges and an order to freeze assets of the North Carolina based company ZeekRewards after officials claim the company operated a $600 million Ponzi scheme, according to USA Today.

The action was taken on Aug. 17 by the Securities and Exchange Commission and, according to the site, online marketer Paul Burks allegedly raised money from more than 1 million customers on ZeekRewards.com, the site that he founded.

The venture group Zeek consisted of Zeekrewards.com and Zeekler.com, a penny auction website.

Federal investigators claim the company's profitable for its customers were falsely advertised and that money from new investors were paid to old investors.

Forbes magazine called it "one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history...question[ing] the legality of the operation and whether its promised 1.5 percent daily returns were simply 'too good to be true.' "

Authorities estimate that 1 million customers have been hit by the scheme. According to the magazine, the number of investors affected in Bernard Madoff's $ 65 billion Ponzi scheme was in the thousands, drawing light on the enormity of Burks' illegal ways.

On Aug. 16, Zeek closed its headquarters in North Carolina at 4 p.m. and remained closed for the rest of the week. Both Zeek sites were offline by 9 p.m.

According to Fox 8, the company was receiving heat by the North Carolina Attorney General Roy A. Cooper's office "due to dozens of complaints and inquiries filed since February of this year."

Viewers first became suspicious of problems within Zeek when the company posted on their news site on Aug. 13 that any training, recruiting or leadership calls for the company will be called off for the next few days.