Quite a scam....like investing in bogus diamond mines or participating in one of those Nigeria "investment" cons.
"Hey, Baby,... Why don't you come on over here and let me (whispered italics) set your carbon off!
It's the world's greatest, most creative scam. The "victims" are essentially paying people to do nothing and get nothing but paper promises in return for their money.
The sellers of these fatuous indulgences are subject to no real audit of their activities, as other scam operators are. After all, if somebody sells you a bad job of diveway sealing, you know your driveway hasn't been properly sealed and can try to go after the seller. The same's true of a bad investment since the burned investor can go after the scam artist who sold the worthless securities. However, when all you get is a worthless feel good piece of paper, there's absolutely no restraint on the seller's activities and he can go off to Cancun on your money with no real fear of getting caught, especially if he's sold the "carbon credits" over the Internet.