Better Living Global Marketing raided, Luke Teng arrested?
Last we checked in with Better Living Global Marketing, it’s owner, Luke Teng, was attempting to solicit new investors to cover the scheme’s “cash flow problems“.
In his efforts to schmooze potential investors, Teng (right) made all sorts of claims – one of which was the revelation that he was “seriously considering” taking Better Living public.
Better Living Global Marketing’s cash flow problems began back in early 2014, with affiliate ROI payments grinding to a halt.
Over the past year, BLGM’s failure to pay out its advertised ROI resulted in seventeen BLGM investors lodging complaints with Hong Kong police.
This prompted an investigation by the Commercial Crime Bureau, which ran parallel to Teng desperately trying to attract new investors.
The Bureau’s investigation has now apparently concluded, with Hong Kong police yesterday raiding Better Living Global Marketing’s offices.
Residences of key-insiders of the scheme were also raided, with five arrests made. One of those arrested is described as the owner of the scam, and is believed to be Luke Teng himself.
The arrests of the group, including a man and four women aged 50 to 59, were made when officers from the Commercial Crime Bureau swooped on a number of residences in Kowloon and the New Territories on Wednesday morning.
The members of the group were arrested for conspiracy to defraud and were detained overnight.
Police officers also raided two offices of the online auction company at New Mandarin Plaza on Science Museum Road in Tsim Sha Tsui on Wednesday, seizing computers and documents for investigation.
Notably the South China Morning Post report doesn’t mention either Luke Teng, Better Living Global Marketing (the Ponzi scheme) or Bidder’s Paradise (the attached penny auction) by name.
The details surrounding the investigation and arrests however certainly seem to fit:
Police said they had received complaints from 17 people between April to October in 2014 about an online auction investment scheme run by a local firm since early 2013.
Investors were invited to pay at least HK$10,000 to buy points on the online platform so that they could make retail purchases with prices lower than market rates.
The items on sale included watches, mobile phones and handbags.
Online auction users were also urged to use a certain number of points daily to earn cash rewards. Referring more people to the scheme also rewarded members with extra cash. The rewards were to be deposited into the members’ accounts, the firm promised.
The Ponzi points model is a favourite of MLM penny auction scams. It was first pioneered by Zeek Rewards, which was revealed to be an $850 million Ponzi scheme after it was shut down by US regulators in 2012.
Better Living Global Marketing initially competed openly with Zeek Rewards, but switched to a model of supreme secrecy following the US regulatory shutdown of Zeek Rewards.
It is believed Luke Teng thought believed that by operating his scheme out of Hong Kong, that regulators would turn a blind eye to his operations.
Admittedly this did seem to be the case, as the months dragged on and Teng publicly went about soliciting new investors – without so much as a peep from Hong Kong’s regulators.
Now, with Better Living Global Marketing shut down and Teng in custody, we turn to what happens next.
As per information from local authorities,
Police believed the firm managed by the arrested man had allegedly conned the clients using the model of a pyramid scheme.
After the seventeen victims approached police, it was believed that about HK$4 million ($515,000 USD) in funds were involved in the alleged scam, but police now think that as much as HK$50 million ($6.4 million USD) may have been involved from the estimated 50,000 members joining the auction site.
Hong Kong (China) is largely viewed as a money laundering haven by the MLM underbelly, with many schemes recently flocking to Hong Kong-based payment processors in an attempt to bypass US money laundering regulations.
Whether Teng stashed the funds he stole from investors locally or offshore has yet to be revealed. The results of any recovery efforts (if they exist) and return of funds to Teng’s victims have yet to be revealed.
At the time of publication, the Better Living Global Marketing website was unresponsive. The attached penny auction, Bidder’s Paradise, was still online but inoperative (a maintenance message is on display, indicating access to the site’s databases has been severed).
Confirmed, it is indeed BLGM.
This article referred to the company raided by CCB was “Bid to Rainbow”, which is the Chinese name for “Bidder’s Paradise”, the attached penny auction scheme of BLGM, and mentioned Luke Teng by name.
According to the article, Luke Teng is son of a famous pastor, and is current age of 55.
CCB actually was on the case last April when they found an affiliate couple (also pastor/wife) using this, and 17 victims came forward, leading CCB to start a long investigation to capture the head.
chinese.gospelherald.com/articles/24858/20150212/%E6%BB%95%E8%BF%91%E8%BC%9D%E4%B9%8B%E5%AD%90%E6%B6%89%E9%A8%99%E6%A1%88%E8%A2%AB%E6%8D%95-%E7%89%A7%E8%80%85%E6%8F%90%E9%86%92%E6%AD%A3%E7%A2%BA%E7%9C%8B%E5%BE%85%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6.htm
Got another link for you:
hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20150213/19040479
Translation as follows:
So, yeah, this scam is toast.
immediate bail? that’s just too easy for teng!
and his family member is talking about holding a press conference? i don’t think people on bail, can address the press or comment on the case? maybe lawyers will do the talking!
will be interesting to hear what they say. stay on top of this, chang!
Here’s Yahoo’s coverage. They apparently reprinted Tsingtao Daily’s coverage.
hk.news.yahoo.com/%E5%BF%85%E5%87%BA%E5%BD%A9%E8%99%B9-%E6%B6%89%E6%A1%88%E4%BA%94%E4%BA%BA%E4%BF%9D%E9%87%8B-%E7%96%91%E5%A2%AE%E7%B6%B2%E6%8B%8D%E9%A8%99%E5%B1%80%E4%BF%9D%E5%AE%89%E5%93%A1%E5%85%B8%E7%95%B6%E9%81%8E%E6%B4%BB-221110549.html
NOTE: the blame game has begun. In the first paragraph, it says the office has a sign outside, that says the company has always followed the law, blames bad members in a hurry to chase profits, lied to the new members and severely damaged the company’s reputation.
Teng apparently used his Christian father’s name to recruit a lot of Christians, and was able to prolong the scam by giving virtual points instead of actual goods.
There’s also various promises of cooperation with “other media” like earning profit through web ads, and even IPO in other countries.
The Nepalese guy mentioned in the other article said he noticed the company had cashflow problem months ago, but was basically strung along with more and more excuses.
In fact 3 months ago, he apparently was told he can get “VIP Profit sharing” and put in another 300K HKD, wired into company’s Shenzhen China account.
The Nepalese guy had to resign 2 months ago and basically showed up twice every week.
The pawning jewelry part mentioned in the other article was his own doing… he has no more cash and had to pawn to keep food on the table for his family of 7, and even showed off pawn tickets to the reporters.
Thanks for the additional background work Kasey.
I was 99% sure it was BLGM based on the description and timeline, your further research all but confirms it.
Wow This is just a scam
@kchang
Thank you so much for your continued work and efforts in exposing the scam community. Your language abilities really help everyone get to the bottom of information in an accurate manner which translate applications just don’t hold up.
I have inside emails from Luke Teng and his female associate who were indeed arrested, the servers confiscated along with files.
Luke Teng also claims the servers are being returned and the website will be back up in 72 hours because he claims they have already determined that no crimes were committed.
Right…
I sued the guy who signed me up after knowing the payments had stopped last November 2013. I won a judgement and collected the money. No attorney needed.
I also filed a complaint with the federal SEC in USA. The prosecutions will begin in the USA soon.
Did you pay directly to the person who recruited you?
Some people in some schemes use that method to avoid clawbacks or taxes. They receive payments directly from the people they recruit, and use their own “back office money” to pay for the new member’s investment.
BLGM had that method available, and TelexFree had it.
I have pointed out that the method is risky. It may offer some protection against clawbacks or taxes, but the people they recruit can sue them directly (just like you did).
Yes I paid him directly and he basically sold me Hong Kong dollars that he had accumulated in his BLGM account. This alone he is acting as an unlicensed money transmitter.
I sued him under Anti-Pyramid Laws which every state has. I sued him in my state, not his.
Also the feds are looking at all the big players in the USA who took US currency in exchange for worthless (because BLGM has no money to pay out) virtual Hong Kong dollars.
Did you pay the guy who signed you up with cash or check? What did you need to provide as evidence to win your case?
A lot of people I know paid in cash.
The big question is this. Where is all this cash going that Luke Teng takes in?
Running the website is cheap. The offices are real and in an high rent area of Hong Kong, The products you win on the actions are real, in Hong Kong you can simply go to the offices and pick them up.
I know people who have been there. But the expenses of the office do not account for all the real US currency and real Hong Kong currency going into this program.
Where is the money going?
Yes I paid in cash and I kept the deposit receipts to his bank account and used that as evidence. I did not hand him cash.
Actually just the fact that strangers are depositing cash from other locations into your bank account will get your accounts closed these days. I reported this to his bank too.
The issue is this…. My “sponsor” knew the payouts had stopped when he signed me up. AND Luke Teng should have never allowed the virtual Hong Kong dollars to be transferred to new people.
Therein lies your problem in the US. In Hong Kong they buy in with real Hong Kong dollars. The “sponsors” in the US who took real US currency are big trouble.
I really appreciate the time invested in tracking down the Asian news reports and translating them for those of us who are limited to English.
Although it’s been another mind-numbingly slow process to see law enforcement finally move on these crooks, I’m hoping we all get to see Luke Teng and his cronies prosecuted.
I think the 6.5 million guestimate of what they took in may be understated by 300-400 million, but that’s just a guess on my part based on the chatter I followed.
Another one bites the dust.
People shouldn’t be TOO eager to sue, either, but it can be an option for some people.
I identified some risks for BOTH parties when I initially looked into it. Even if people have paid directly to a sponsor and can prove it, they’re not guaranteed to win a case.
It will matter WHEN, HOW and WHY they used that method. They must have been cheated in some way by the sponsor to have a solid case.
For SpeakAsia Online (India), the payment method was presented as one of 3 normal payment options. I only have a copy of how it was presented to existing members, but it was probably presented in a similar way to people joining the opportunity too.
Option 3 was “Create a new account from your back office, in the name of the new member, and sell that new account directly to the person you have recruited”.
It saved time (7-21 days) and money (bank transaction fees) for both the sponsor and for the new member, so it could be used in a legitimate way.
I have 2 years waiting for my money
Are there any more related links to this incident?
As mush as I believe this, I would like to verify it a bit more…
I used the “Search” function (upper right side of this website), and found 5 BLGM articles + 1 BLGM pre-launch.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
(pre-launch roundup)
behindmlm.com/companies/mlm-penny-auction-opportunity-prelaunch-roundup/
– – – – – – – – – – – –
(Review)
behindmlm.com/companies/better-living-global-marketing-review-99-day-rois/
– – – – – – – – – – – –
(when payment problems started in late 2013)
behindmlm.com/companies/better-living-global-marketing-bid-inflation-woes/
– – – – – – – – – – – –
behindmlm.com/companies/teng-better-living-global-marketing-has-cash-flow-problems/
– – – – – – – – – – – –
(this article)
behindmlm.com/companies/better-living-global-marketing-raided-luke-teng-arrested/
– – – – – – – – – – – –
behindmlm.com/companies/hong-kong-police-launch-blgm-investigation/
– – – – – – – – – – – –
Only the last one there seems to be relevant. You asked specifically about “this incident”.
I did not join the sceme (too sceptical). But recruiting is still going on, in Europe. How is that possible?
Are the recruiters keeping the money adepts pay for themselves? I was told a European Bank would be establised in order to pay out the adepts.
Sounds like your fellow Europeans are recruiting new investors, who are likely paying them directly.
Making false promises about the establishment of a bank would appear to be the marketing hook.
Otherwise as far as I know, BLGM is dead.
A close friend promised to show me the BLGM-website and how they work on it. Maybe I should let them show me that website??
Sure why not.
I mean if you’re going to ignore the obvious Ponzi business model, legal troubles in Hong Kong and base a decision on imaginary work taking place on a website, why not go for it.
I don’t mean that, Oz 🙂 I meant that I could look at the website and how they are proceeding this in order to know more (proof in case that is needed, I am a lawyer :-).
Personnally, I was always very sceptical and never invested in this, it seemed that so many things did not add upp (like “we are looking for small investors, don’t want big investors”, off course, the big Investors did not want them 😉
Now it seems that my friend is plainly stealing money from her friends. She says that several other friends inveted about €3300.
I don’t think they pay to her, but to another private person here in Sweden. So, I have the impression my friend does not operate alone.
P.s. I find it very awkward that those pyramide thing take themselves in in networks of friends (i may have to re-define the definition of friendship here 🙁 But that is exactlty how they operate.
Each time I talk with my friend sge bends the conversation to Better Living. I plan on buying a house in the future and ask advice, within 5 min. the conversation is about Better living (off course, my Money is probably better off there ;-)!!)
Before it was Nu Skin. The people doing this con are also in Nu Skin. I am not in Nu Skin either, had doubts about that too, was at one of their hysterocal ‘summits’.
BLGM stopped paying money out in October / November 2013.
People could still earn “Hong Kong dollars” to the back office, but they couldn’t withdraw anything.
The only way to make money after 2013 was to recruit other people, use the “Hong Kong dollars” to buy new units and sell those units for real money to people they recruited.
The program continued to generate “Hong Kong dollars” and new units long after the program itself had collapsed. It even introduced some new components. I’m not familiar with those new components.
ZEEKREWARDS CLONE
All the MLM penny auction programs started in 2012 were variations of ZeekRewards recruitment program / Zeekler.com penny auction website.
Most of them failed shortly after Zeek was shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 17 2012. BLGM relocated to Hong Kong, and managed to keep itself alive until late 2013. A few of the others survived for a short period of time.
HOW CAN A COLLAPSED PROGRAM CONTINUE?
Ponzi schemes are based on “false profits”, e.g. some non-monetary payouts of ROI to a back office that can be reinvested and generate more ROI to the back office that can be reinvested etc., a closed circle of payouts and reinvestments of “monopoly money”.
The brain can’t see the difference between “monopoly money” and real money unless you tell it about the difference. If you don’t tell it about the difference, it can easily accept the idea that “Hong Kong dollars” are real money.
Some of your “friends” may have accepted the idea of “real money”.
As I understand it a whole bunch of people from Sweden were last to invest in BLGM before it was shut down.
It therefore doesn’t surprise me that there’s a bunch of people in Sweden trying to recover their losses by roping others into the scheme.
Sucks that it’s your friends :(.
Thank you for your explanation! My friend who tries to recruit me invested in the program after Nov. 2013 and she in her turn recruited quite some other friends. She is also much eager to meet new people. Very dangerous!
In the meantime I got an invite to meet the woman who also is active in Nu Skin recruited my friend, mt friends upline. I don’t think so…:-)
It is certainly a mind-set, M_Norway. As for what I see it has nothing to do with intelligence, very intelligent people fall for it. Maybe more women than men (but I’m a woman too).
Dangerous and astonishing. The 1st thing I thought when visiting my only Nu Skin summit, where people were standing up and cheering for absolutely nothing, was that Hitler in a similar way had succeeded in manipulating nearly an entire country to commit the biggest possible crimes.
I have made withdrawal request of HK$63000.00 on 04th Sep 2014. I have not received any money from BLGM. Is this company shut down in Hong Kong now?
How to recover my investment? Can someone give me some solution to recover my lost?
Looking in to my account they are still paying bonuses in to my accounts but problem is when I will get my money as I have requested for withdrawal 6 months ago.
How to make complaint to Hong Kong Police and how to register as a victim of this big scam.
Please e-mail me if someone can help me to recover my lost.
@mjgrg
Hate to be the one to tell you this but chances of recovery of your funds from HK are little to none.
There’s a reason the MLM underbelly has flocked to China in recent years.
@mjgrg
I requested a withdrawal on November 5, 2013.. The next day I bouth 6 more units and I havent seen a penny of that money. thats over 12 thousand dollars gone!
Were those investors actually investing in BLGM or one of Teng’s other scams?
In the beginning of the video (which I did not watch all the way through) he seems to be abandoning the penny auction in favor of his MSP products and anti-aging (?) schemes.
There are people recruiting in the U.S. too, but after reading your comments, I think they may be operating independently too.
For all the leaked correspondence over the last half of 2014, I’m not convinced we truly know the structure of BLGM.
Teng spent time in the Philippines and seemed to have tendrils all over very specific communities in the U.S.
In the Venn diagram of Ponzis, there’s definitely some overlap between WCM, BLGM and Lucrazon.
AFAIK everything was tied to BLGM. He might have used different smoke and mirrors ruses at any given time, but BLGM was what people were investing in and being paid out from.
Just got wind of this….if he was arrested and everything why are both websites up and running.
And BLGM just updated with stupid lies again.. phase 2 to 3.. bullshit..
@got scammed
Teng is currently out on bail, he hasn’t been charged with anything yet. That’s likely coming next month, when he has to report back to police.
If Teng is still actively operating the BLGM website, he’s just digging himself a deeper hole.
FYI: was told through the grapevine that BLGM will be closing accts that have the membership has been expired or have not renewed yet. (that stupid 98HKD/yr per unit) that way they don’t have to pay out more than they have too. show less debt owed.
I’m also a victim…so i got nothing to lose so i just renewed all my units.
Seems to me, from my small learning at “original slide show presentation” (but I retain memory) the company earns funds by your using your bids.
Meaning what? Meaning, if you do not bid, the company earns slowly, and if you do not bid, you also are losing your global earnings (one, of the five categories of bonuses, is lost if you do not bid, AND if you do not bid, the company earns funds slowly).
So, why would anyone choose to not bid? Memory loss? Typical memory loss from typical “non-involvement” from typical “get something for nothing” ideology from typical “enslave someone else” breeding.
(Ozedit: Offtopic waffling about your mother and oil removed)
Meanwhile, all investigations have resulted the same result: Look to the written materials; if you do not utilize the bids, and if others do not utilize the bids, you limit yourself and you limit the company, and yet the company continues moving forward to Phase 2 and Phase 3. Yay little me !!!! !
I recruited none, as the model uses “no recruitment needed” principles, relying on your (ahem) bidding, compensating yourself from units you transact and place under yourself, without relying on “recruiting” even I remember from the original slide show presentation. Yes?
The use of the bids is immaterial. The funds invested under the guise of bid purchases are what’s used to pay off existing investors, based on how much the initially invested and continued to re-invest.
That’s how these penny auction based Ponzi schemes work.
That BLGM was a Ponzi scheme.
The only people still in denial about it are those chasing the scam dream.
Someone has to recruit or new funds don’t enter the system. A lack of recruitment was why BLGM was struggling in the months before regulators finally arrested Teng.
Is that really true, i.e. does BLGM earn money when you’re using the bids in auctions?
A company will normally earn income from monetary transactions, e.g. from customers transferring monetary units from credit cards or bank accounts when they pay for goods or services.
From my understanding of it, bids are not monetary units. Your back office isn’t a bank account, so anything you have stored in your back office or in internal e-wallets will not be about real money.
* When you’re paying for bids from an outside bank account, it will be a monetary transaction.
* When you’re paying for bids from an internal wallet, it will be a non-monetary transaction. It will not add anything to the company’s revenue.
I’m unable to see any monetary transaction when people are using bids in auctions. Bids are not a type of monetary unit.
No. By Luke Teng’s own admission, the company earned (past tense) from the pre-purchase of bid packs.
Because the auction still required “winners” to purchase the item at full price on the promise of reimbursement for the difference. There have been NO CREDIBLE confirmations that anyone was ever reimbursed, even when the scheme had funds. Now the scheme has no funds, so the auction is a moot point.
Investigations have not ended at all.
You don’t even have a firm grasp of the structure of the scam.
There was no income to BLGM without reimbursement. Thus, the Luke Teng video earlier this year where he said that there was no income without recruitment and the penny auction made no money at all.
One of the videos (and probably a part of slideshows) tried to trick people to believe that BLGM would make money when the bids were used.
So william did remember correctly. He only failed to check how correct the idea was.
I had a lengthy discussion about “the value of bids” in the review thread, whether bids were worth $0.58, $0.01 or $0.00 per bid.
$0.58 the PRICE people paid ($1160 for 2000 bids)
$0.01 how much each bid would increase auction price
$0.00 “no monetary value”
We received “How can this website be trusted, when you have failed to mention the profits from bids used in auctions?”.
From my understanding of it, bids have no monetary value. People can’t use bids to pay for groceries or to pay bills. Bids can’t be added to a company’s revenue.
You’re assuming the written materials are actually telling the truth. They are not.
This Scam was Big on Facebook. A friend acted like he was making big money.
I asked what he was doing and he had someone fb message me from Hong Kong.. He wanted me to send several thousand dollars… LOL, ROFL.
There was a huge group in Cali, then it all just stopped and all the offices disappeared.
Has anyone been to one of the offices in Hong Kong, I heard a lot of people were picking up checks in the office because the business was still operating in Hong Kong.
Anyone?
With Teng arrested, there’s nothing going on in Hong Kong. BLGM died there about the same time it died in the US (when it ran out of money).
I don´t think he is arrested, he is in Sweden now. What that means….
Last I heard he was out on bail. If he’s fled Hong Kong (to hide with his latch batch of major investors no less), then that’s something else.
Life on the run isn’t fun.
I have noticed some of my accounts are not getting the Sustainability Wallet bonus points. Has it happened to any of you?
I would like to contact the Hong Kong office, Has anybody got a contact phone number or email address so I can contact them directly regarding the S Wallet bonus points.
This is scheme business please don’t invest. I wired $2500 to a recruiter in another state here in the USA.
Please worn others. I don’t blame anyone except my stubid devotion.
Can somebody help, I bought 30 units cash to an up line in Garden grove California, his name is Danoel Nguyeng.
he sold me the unites from his back office, can I sue him? , And probably collect my money back, any advice please thanks.
At least one investor in BLGM successfully sued his sponsor, and he posted a post about it here in one of the BLGM threads.
I will usually not recommend that method. I see lawsuits as “troublesome and costly”, even if you have a solid case. So I would probably have tried to get information first, e.g. your sponsor may have acted on behalf of someone higher up in the system.
BLGM stopped paying money out in October / November 2013, but people still continued to receive “Hong Kong dollars” to internal accounts. “Hong Kong dollars” are similar to monopoly money = they only work inside a game or a system, and they don’t have any value in the real world.
Most people knew BLGM had collapsed in March / April 2014. If you bought units after that date then you have clearly been cheated by someone. That “someone” may either be your sponsor or someone higher up in the system, i.e. your sponsor can have been cheated too.
here in southern California still have no news. They tell us this winter we well begin to get our withdraws that’s any body knows anything about it?
Your money is gone. Unless new investors get on board (enough to pay off EU investors who funded the last round of withdrawals), that’s it.
BLGM stopped paying money OUT (withdrawals) in October or November 2013. But people didn’t post anything about payment problems before a few months later, about February 2014.
Here’s a list of the BLGM articles we have here:
behindmlm.com/category/companies/better-living-global-marketing/
I wired 4500$ cash my sponsor get scamed and he scam me too. I’m stupid lesson learned.
Hi, im an investor from sweden. tell me more about this please… should i go to the police?
are u guys SURE its a scam and that i wont get any money??
they say that we all should be start getting money now in october, november or december, not later…
is this a chinease site and u chinease people? do you have some kind of proof that luke teng was arrested?
i knew this shit was 2 good 2 be true… I also know that luke was visiting sweden about a week ago, do u guys mean that he lives her cuz hes wanted in china?
Please answer me. / Jessica
Yes, we’re sure. BLGM stopped paying out money in October / November 2013, almost 2 years ago. You may find a few “payment proofs” on the internet after that, but it collapsed in 2013.
They said the same in December 2013, January 2014, February 2014.
I’m from Norway, Oz is from Australia, etc. — many different countries. The articles here will usually be documented with links to sources.
List of BLGM articles. It seems to contain the same 5 articles / news stories you will find just before the comments — under “Related posts”.
behindmlm.com/category/companies/better-living-global-marketing/
I’m not familiar with that story. BLGM was acttive as a topic here in mid 2013 → early 2014. It hasn’t been very active after that, but it has been updated with a few new articles when people have posted something of interest.
Which part of “arrested by HK police” did you not understand? Look at the links I dug up in the initial comments and ran it through translator yourself.
It’s been dead for MONTHS and you only now heard the news… I think in Chinese that’s 後知後覺 (belated realization)
Here’s the news from HK newspaper:
hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20150213/19040479
Any other questions? 還有什麽要問嗎？
Jessica is from Sweden. The program itself hasn’t been shut down. It still pays out “Hong Kong dollars” to the back office, which can be reinvested in new “units” (or something).
It will still accept new members to be signed up, or at least it did it for a very long time after 2013. It only stopped paying out any money (withdrawals).
“How can it work without an owner?”
The co-founders in USA haven’t been arrested. BLGM initially launched in USA in mid August 2012, a few days before the shutdown of ZeekRewards.
It hastily retreated to Hong Kong when Zeek was shut down, and it operated in “stealth mode” until June 2013 = almost no marketing on the internet in English, only a few videos and a slideshare presentation.
If you invested after March/April 2014 (when most of the existing investors should have known that BLGM had stopped accepting withdrawals for 6 months), then you should first try to get your money back from your sponsor — or you can go to the police.
We can’t give you any advice. You probably have more knowledge about BLGM’s “current state of operation” than we have.
BLGM probably have a local organizer in Sweden, one who keeps the other investors updated wih information. Try to identify him or her, i.e. try to identify people higher up in your upline as high up as you can.
Share relevant information with other people.
Based on her English, I took a hasty guess that she’s Chinese living in Sweden rather than Swedish. We shall see who’s right.
The odds are in my favor. “Based on her English” isn’t a very reliable method to separate between “Swenglish” and “Chinglish”. 🙂
“Bidders’ Paradise” (bp8.hk) is currently most active in Thailand and the U.S.
Better Living Global Marketing (blgm.hk) is most active in Thailand too.
So the program is still “alive” in some countries. Sweden was high up on the list one year ago.
Scams are like cockroaches. You just can’t seem to kill them dead permanently.
The real founders are probably from the U.S., from where it initially launched. Luke Teng first popped up after BLGM relocated to Hong Kong.
Everett P. Hale and Sheila Oien fronted it locally from January 2013.
The Facebook page was still active in August 2015, but not very active.
facebook.com/BLGM.MN
That email copy was posted on August 8 2015.
This one was posted on September 14:
Haha, that Luke Teng email is some major bullshit.
They were running a Ponzi and it imploded when recruitment stopped. Lol @ “we’re going to be the next Google”, the song never changes….
I only posted it to show that BLGM is still “active” in some parts of the world, and to show the type of activity.
I stopped following BLGM as a topic in early 2014, so I haven’t kept myself updated. The email also showed some changes — “BLGM’s current modus operandi”.
Jessica can probably add some information, e.g. give a quick overview or something. I tried to give a quick overview myself.
* what we know = the list of articles.
* her main question about payment = BLGM stopped withdrawals in late 2013
* “Go to police” = we can’t give her any advice for that, but I believe she should try to get her money back first by using other methods.
* “Luke Teng in Sweden” = I’m not familiar with that story.
* I also tried to show that I can find some updated information myself on the internet, but I will mostly find pieces of information and not the whole picture. She will need to add some information herself.
I’m a swede. I was in a hurry when i wrote (today aswell) therefor my “bad english”.
I just got my 20th unit at blgm, (still hope this works). It’s just so hard to believe that my sponsor would trick me into this…
My mother got some money out of this when me and my grandmother joined. (about 40000 kr, 4000 euro).
It collapsed in October / November 2013 = it stopped paying out any withdrawals.
Internal payouts were not affected. Internal payouts are similar to “monopoly money” = they only work inside a game, and they can only be used for reinvestments in “monopoly investments”.
Then you should try to get some money back from her, and she should try to get some money back from her sponsor.
You can both pay that sponsor back in “Hong Kong dollars” from the back office. “We prefer to get our Swedish Kronor back, but you can get an equivalent value in Hong Kong dollars (just like you gave us initially). You can even get our units”. 🙂
@Jessica
From where (or whom) did you get that story about Luke Teng coming to Sweden? From local upline in Sweden, or from some “global leader” in another country?
BLGM was active in Sweden in 2014. It currently isn’t very active there, it has moved to Thailand and other countries.
If Luke Teng is STILL scamming people, just not in Hong Kong, jurisdiction is going to get really fuzzy.
But Jessica, there is NO doubt that Luke Teng was arrested early 2015 in Hong Kong. It was reported even in Christian papers and BLGM was closed in Hong Kong at least for a time.
I’ll try to dig Chinese media, but usually those only cover arrests, not resolutions unless it’s big enough. It’s not as open as the West where we can look up arrest records.
Many of scams stopped in Hong Kong resurfaced elsewhere. Interush, another scam stopped in Hong Kong in 2014/2015, was reportedly recruiting in Southeast Asia again. But usually they wouldn’t dare to feature the same head. Interush’s principals in HK were never named.
If Luke Teng is indeed back doing Bidder’s Paradise / BLGM, Hong Kong Police’s commercial crime bureau may be interested.
It’s also possible that someone is just writing stuff in his place to keep the scam going and they’re simply going to cancel his appearance last second citing some “unforeseen circumstances” in HK.
There was virtually no mention of BLGM in the news since the February raid at BLGM HQ. There is one mention that it had gathered victims all over the world, esp. overseas Chinese.
There was a story in the Chinese Business Gazette of London (in Chinese) that a certain lady sank over 6000 pounds into BLGM and was able to squeeze her upline to get about 1000 pounds returned. She had to involve local police AND Hong Kong police though, AND the media.
NOLINK://www.chinesebg.com/Article/40450123-3d4a-e511-80c2-00199923975b
it did mention that “the leader was bailed out” soon after arrest, which is also consistent with other reports.
Victim went to the HQ in Hong Kong after getting nowhere with her upline, right after the HK police raid, so it’s closed and locked. Later she went back, and talked to a Mr. Yang, who told her “the company does not offer refunds”.
Luke Teng was mentioned as co-owner with two other minority partners.
The Apple News HK video report specifically mentioned that the FOUNDER of BLGM, Luke Teng, along with four females, were arrested by HKPD’s commercial crime bureau for suspicions of operating a pyramid scheme.
youtube.com/watch?v=7yp_JytJUYU (in Cantonese)
WHOIS records:
bp8.hk (Bidders’ Paradise) was registered 2012-07-22 (July 22 2012), Luke Teng.
blgm.hk was registered 2012-08-23 (August 23 2012), 6 days after the shutdown of Zeek Rewards, 10 days after BLGM launched in the U.S. = they must have had another website before that one.
blgmworld.com was registered on 2013-03-02 (March 2nd 2013), Everett P. Hale. He fronted BLGM from early 2013, along with Sheila Oien. They are both from the same MLM downline in Youngevity (if I have interpreted it correctly).
The only way to make money in BLGM is to do like your mother did = recruit other people, get real money from them, use your own “Hong Kong dollars” to pay for units, give those units to the new member. And take the blame if they feel cheated.
That’s not a good idea. Some people will demand to get their money back, and they will have the right to do so.
Here’s another article (the last part of it), November 16 2013.
behindmlm.com/companies/massachusetts-sec-halts-wcm777-blgm-closed/
@Jessica
I have found one description in Swedish, describing Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3 etc. — some “short term and long term goals” for Better Living Global Marketing.
betterliving.nu/sv-SE/om/nul%C3%A4ge-27424832
2015: Better Living is still in phase 1, trying to get Alexa rating. Durng autumn 2015 a number of “super products” will be released in the Chinese market. One of them is MSP. A sales organization of 8,000 people … (etc. etc.).
My comment:
They have told stories like that since early 2014, but nothing has really happened. 🙂
BLGM was a collapsed Ponzi/pyramid hybrid, disguised as “MLM penny auction profit sharing program”. It doesn’t have any legitimate business operations in any country.
It has tried to add different “projects” after it collapsed to prevent lawsuits from investors. And so far that strategy seems to have worked in Sweden. They have even managed to recruit new investors many months after it collapsed.
MSP Power Marketing seems to be an old (2011) MLM program based on fuel additives. It may have been legitimate enough, but the Ponzi scheme it organized (or was involved in) was clearly illegal.
Sweden
Sweden seems to have its own “local organizer” = a person high up in the organization. That’s how they have managed to keep BLGM alive in Sweden long after it collapsed globally.
@Jessica
The most relevant parts of my answer were posted in post #57 and post #61.
The rest of the posts are simply about me trying to get a more updated picture of “BLGM’s current operations — locally in Sweden and globally”.
“No real business activity”
BLGM doesn’t really have any business operations. It has some websites pretending to be about real business, designed to keep the investors happy.
* blgm.hk — the main “program”
* bp8.hk — the “Bidders’ Paradise” website
* betterliving.nu — the Swedish website (it has one “presentation page” in other languages too = Danish, English, Espanol, Norwegian, Polski).
* msp-power.com — “the other business component”
* probably a few more websites
None of those websittes are really active. They receive less traffic than this website behindmlm.com, so they are not about real business.
METHODS I HAVE USED
I have tried to check “business activities”, so I have used online tools to check Alexa rankings, number of visitors (domain statistics), number of customers for Bidders’ Paradise (I had a quick look at the website), existing marketing.
My conclusion:
None of the websites seem to be about real business.
MY RECOMMENDATION
1. Collect and organize some of the info you can find here — the relevant details. When BLGM was launched, when it stopped paying money out, etc.
2. Try to identify more of the people in your upline, e.g. there seems to be a local organizer in Sweden.
3. Try to get some money back from your upline. But try to identify the right person first, it may be higher up than the nearest sponsor.
4. Try to add some information here, to help other BLGM investors in Sweden.
I just got home from a recruting meeting so it’s still very active in Sweden.
They say the European hedquarters are going to open in Gothenburg shortly. And that the payouts are going to start early next year.
The big guy in Sweden is someone called Alexander and they say one unit cost 11000SEK but they recomend you to buy at least 3 units. And one unit is supposed to be worth, right now, 50SEK/day but the expected worth will be round about 300SEK/day. It’s unbelivable how people can buy this!!
They even tell you not to read up about it on the internet because it’s just all lies!! If that right there does’nt scary you of then nothing will!!
You only really have to ask yourself why aren’t payouts happening now to figure it out…
Does any one know if I am able to withdraw the money that I have from BLGM?
The status says that it is still in process? Shall I go to the HK police and report this? or is it a waste of time and I have lost my money?
I am very confused at the current situation and to hope some can shed some light on this.
Thanks!
BLGM hasn’t paid out anything (withdrawals) since October / November 2013.
It may have paid a few people after that, in the first couple of months.
The internal payouts haven’t been affected. It doesn’t cost much to generate “Hong Kong dollars” in a back office account, so it can continue for a very long time.
We can’t give any advice for that. A general advice is “try to get some of your money back first” from the ones who recruited you.
I would have investigated the situation first, and then made a decision.
Try to identify your entire upline first. One of them have got your money. You may be able to get some money back from that person if you handle it correctly. It normally means that the other person must make a voluntarily decision about it, and he or she must also have the money.
Jessica got some information from me in a few posts here, e.g. about where to find the other BLGM articles.
It doesn’t have much online activity. I have googled it from Norway, e.g. I first tried to find marketing activities and then I checked the statistics for betterliving.nu, blgm.hk, bp8.hk and a few other websites.
Tell them (the one who invited you) that a general advice from me has been “try to identify your entire upline” (advice to the people in Sweden). Another general advice has been “try to get some of your money back from people in your upline”.
Thanks. It saved me a lot of time and work. I googled “Alexander blgm” and found a post in the Flashback forum — Alexander Engström.
Those other articles can be found between this article and post #1 — “Related posts”.
It looks like this …
People won’t need to read all the material, but they will need to know where to find it and what it is about.
OTHER SOURCES
My search for “Alexander Engström network marketing” brought up another BLGM review + “How to get your money back” (too old to really be useful for that purpose).
– – – –
June 17 2014
How to Get Your Money Back From BLGM
retirehealthywealthyandwise.net/how-to-get-your-money-back-from-blgm
– – – –
January 27 2014
My Better Living Global Marketing (BLGM) Review
retirehealthywealthyandwise.net/my-better-living-global-marketing-review
522 comments
– – – –
I don’t have time to check any details there. He has screenshots of negative user comments from January 2014. Here’s one positive comment he found (in January 2014):
Here’s one solution from Canada …
He offered to pay 20% to 20 people in downline. That may be decent enough.
– – – –
BLGM pretended to be active in Sweden in June 2015.
That post identified one “Bailey” as an upline in another country. It also identified a local Swedish “Bidders’ Paradise” — bp8-sweden.
That seems to be Bailey Yeung from Hong Kong, BLGM’s Customer Service Manager.
BLGM is still active in Sweden. I am (luckily) not involved in it, but hear about it.
People who are active in BLGM are also active in One Coin.
They are both Ponzi schemes of some types, i.e. they use money from new investors to pay old ones — to simulate profits on investments. But they are based on different “stories” about how the profit is or was supposed to be generated.
BLGM in Sweden seems to have become some type of “habit”. People have got used to the idea that the program hopefully will pay out a profit sometimes in the distant future. They have accepted vague stories about different “phases” and future income from advertising for a very long time.
Some of them have accepted stories since October 2013 without losing faith. 🙂
All this bullshit since Nov. 11, 2013, endless lies and promises.
A way to try and get advice on possible actions people like Jessica could take is going to the Consumers’ guidance of the cuty where one lives (‘Konsumentrådgivningen’).
This could at least be a way to raise awareness.
That’s one method … but I’m not sure Consumers’ guidance (or Consumer Ombudsman) is the correct type of authority.
BLGM is primarily about investments, about fraudulent ones. The scheme itself is operated from a different geographical jurisdiction, i.e. it will be impossible to find a counterparty that can respond to a complaint or an investigation.
“Consume awareness”
I would probably have tried realtid.se (the online financial newspaper) for that purpose. “Contribute with relevant facts for a story”.
That’s what we do here. We try to focus on relevant facts, e.g. what the scheme is about and who the organizers are, where it is located, where it is promoted, many details about how it operates, local organizers, regulatory actions, etc. etc.
But we don’t write specifically for any specific group of people (e.g. reporters, government agencies, lawyers).
We don’t specifically cover “local situations” either. It will usually be covered by local readers (if there are any), i.e. they will try to keep the topic updated for that specific part.
“Internet / Flashback.org”
If the scheme is actively being promoted on the internet, then some online activity against it can have a function.
The Swedish Flashback forum have several anti pyramid scheme threads. I found two BLGM threads there, but they are not very active.
flashback.org/t2198075
flashback.org/t2306237
Now I would say Lotteriinspektionen. Lotteriinspektionen recently reported Another MLM-‘company’ to the police for being a fraudulent sceme.
There are certainly people in Sweden who also can held responsible for this.
Hello, this is Marcos I was checking out this page Im not sure it this is a great time I have a question and may possibly anyone can help.
I was scanned by bette living global marketing and put some good money in it. I was trying to renew my account until I was notified it is just a scam.
I was looking into possibly getting my money back. Is there anyway i can contact you by a cell number? Thank you for your time.
Marcos.
Money is long gone Marcos. Barring further regulatory action taken against Teng, you’re probably not getting anything back.
Such is the reality of Ponzi schemes.
Hi. Please keep studying the scam. It appearly is linked to i2g and other global scams of Rick maite and his team.
Dates all to 2013 2014 for the con team to get major pay in then default on returns and Jeep money for personal profit. Sad.
Any news? I have the impression Better Life is still active in Sweden.
Better living global marketing, blgm (not better life) is still active in Sweden, no money so far…
Any news about blgm?? I’m from Scandinavia.. Website not working anymore..
Uh, BLGM collapsed in 2014. There’s been no news since then.