IrisCall Review: Murky video email offering…

There is no information on the IrisCall website indicating who owns or runs the business.

IrisCall do have an “About Us” page on their website, however only the following vague marketing copy is provided:

IrisCall started out in 2013 as a collaborative effort between Top Software Engineers in the Field of Communication, an Experienced Marketing Team striving for WorldWide Expansion and a Team of Visionaries who have a Defined Path to Success to follow.

Ironically, on the same page IrisCall list their “core values” as being that of respect, integrity and accountability.

With those core values in mind, it’s worth noting that the depiction of an office on the IrisCall website is doctored:

The image used appears to be an edited stock photo, with edited versions of the same image appearing on at least two other websites:

The IrisCall website domain (“iriscall.net”) was registered on the 4th of July 2013, and lists a “Gerry Dekens” as the domain owner with an address in Antwerpen, Belgium.

Whether or not IrisCall is actually run out of Belgium isn’t clear. In their “anti-spam” policy, IrisCall advises

You may also mail your concerns to us at the following address:

IrisCall International Ltd.
Indigo Icon Tower 608
Jumeirah Lakes Towers
DUBAI

This address is owned by the Freemont Group, who, according to their website, provide “offshore company” registration and “asset protection” services..

Dekens is credited as being the founder of IrisCall:

On his personal website (“gerrydekens.com”), he describes himself as being a

34 year old guy from Belgium.

All my skills are self-thought (sic), I’m not an expert at anything, but I know a little about a lot of things because I’m interested in Everything.

Dekens claims to have gotten involved in MLM around 1995-1996, during which he helped his father build a ‘multi level based organisation in the Netherlands‘.

After working non-MLM related jobs for some years, Dekens returned to MLM as a “country leader” in Global Wealth.

This lasted a year, with Dekens describing the experience as ‘a bad idea. The company management turned out to be untrustworthy.‘

He went on to launch his own company in 2010, but says that eventually failed in 2012 because ‘the partnership didn’t turn out to be a successful match.’

In 2013 Deken’s launched a “co-operative Profit Sharing Association”, which is what IrisCall appears to be a part of.

Why none of this information is provided on the IrisCall website is a mystery.

Read on for a full review of the IrisCall MLM business opportunity.

The IrisCall Product Line

IrisCall’s flagship service appears to be what they call “the IrisCall All-in-One Portal”.

This appears to be an amalgamation of video email, global telecom and “v-services”.

Video Email – The biggest hype in Online Communication today!

Global Telecom – Viral Marketing through address book, building an instant Contact List!

V-Services – Video Services Portal that can offer you any service, as if you were there!

IrisCall advertise their “all-in-one” solution service as being free.

The IrisCall Compensation Plan

The IrisCall compensation plan revolves around the purchase of one of four “business associate packages”, and the recruitment of new affiliates who then do the same.

IrisCall Affiliate Membership Ranks

There are thirteen affiliate membership ranks within the IrisCall compensation plan. Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

• Free and Business Associate – sign up as an affiliate
• Assistant Manager – recruit at least two affiliates
• Team Manager – recruit at least four affiliates
• Elite – recruit at least 6 affiliates
• Premier – recruit at least 8 affiliates, have a downline that has generated at least 14,000 accumulated points and at least 2800 in binary points a week
• Ambassador – recruit at least 10 affiliates, have a downline that has generated at least 40,000 accumulated points and at least 8000 in binary points a week
• Leader – recruit at least 10 affiliates, have a downline that has generated at least 80,000 accumulated points and at least 16,000 in binary points a week
• Silver Leader – recruit at least 10 affiliates, have a downline that has generated at least 200,000 accumulated points and at least 40,000 in binary points a week
• Gold Leader – recruit at least 10 affiliates, have a downline that has generated at least 500,000 accumulated points and at least 100,000 in binary points a week
• Diamond Leader – recruit at least 10 affiliates, have a downline that has generated at least 1,000,000 accumulated points and at least 200,000 in binary points a week
• Global Leader – recruit at least 10 affiliates, have a downline that has generated at least 2,000,000 accumulated points and at least 400,000 in binary points a week
• President – recruit at least 10 affiliates, have a downline that has generated at least 5,000,000 accumulated points and at least 1,000,000 in binary points a week

Note that no more than 60% of the total required accumulated points at any given rank can come from any one unilevel recruitment leg.

Recruitment Commissions

IrisCall affiliates are paid a commission to recruit new IrisCall affiliates. How much of a commission is paid out is determined by how much a newly recruited IrisCall affiliate spends when they sign up:

• Basic -5 EUR
• Bronze – 10 EUR
• Silver -35 EUR
• Gold – 75 EUR

If an IrisCall affiliate recruits at least five new affiliates in their first 30 days with the company, the additional following recruitment commissions are also paid out on the recruiting efforts of those they’ve recruited.

Again, how much of a commission is paid out depends on how much money is spent on IrisCall affiliate membership:

• Basic – 3 EUR to you, 2 EUR to your upline and 1 EUR to their upline
• Bronze – 5 EUR to you, 3 EUR to your upline and 2 EUR to their upline
• Silver – 10 EUR to you, 5 EUR to your upline and their upline
• Gold – 20 EUR to you, 10 EUR to your upline and 5 EUR to their upline

Note that “upline” refers to the affiliate who recruited you. Their upline is the affiliate who recruited them and so on and so forth.

Binary Commissions

Each of the four packs above generates an equivalent point value when purchased:

• Basic – 10 points
• Bronze – 70 points
• Silver – 200 points
• Gold – 400 points

These points are used by IrisCall to pay commissions via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of two binary teams, left and right.

Points are accumulated in the binary based on the recruitment efforts of affiliates in the teams. Commissions are calculated using a 1:2 ratio, paid out when the weaker binary team generates 400 points.

When this happens, 400 points is deducted from the weaker team, 800 from the stronger team and an affiliate is paid up to 20% of the 400 point value.

How much of a percentage is paid out on the deducted points is determined by their IrisCall affiliate membership rank:

• Assistant Manager – 10%, capped at $500 a week
• Team Manager – 10%, capped at $1000 a week
• Elite – 15%, capped at $1500 a week
• Premier – 20%, capped at $5000 a week
• Ambassador – 20%, capped at $10,000 a week
• Leader – 20%, capped at $15,000 a week
• Silver Leader – 20%, capped at $20,000 a week
• Gold Leader – 20%, capped at $30,000 a week
• Diamond Leader – 20%, capped at $40,000 a week
• Global Leader – 20%, capped at $50,000 a week
• President – 20%, capped at $75,000 a week

Unilevel Commissions

Whereas IrisCall pay out binary commissions weekly, their unilevel commissions are paid monthly.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1).

If any of these level 1 affiliates go on to recruit new affiliates of their own, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team. If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

IrisCall cap payable unilevel levels at eight, with how many levels an affiliate is paid out on being determined by their affiliate membership rank:

• Free affiliate – 1.5% on levels 1 to 3
• Business Associate to Team Manager – 5% on levels 1 to 3
• Elite – 5% on levels 1 to 3 and 4% on level 4
• Premier – 5% on levels 1 to 3, 4% on level 4 and 3% on level 5
• Ambassador – 5% on levels 1 to 3, 4% on level 4, 3% on level 5 and 2% on level 6
• Leader – 5% on levels 1 to 3, 4% on level 4, 3% on level 5, 2% on level 6 and 1% on level 7
• Silver Leader and higher – 5% on levels 1 to 3, 4% on level 4, 3% on level 5, 2% on level 6 and 1% on levels 7 and 8

A matching bonus on unilevel commissions is also available. Paid out down four levels, the percentage of matching bonus is determined by an affiliate’s membership rank:

• Elite – 10% on level 1
• Premier – 20% on level 1
• Ambassador – 20% on level 1 and 10% on level 2
• Leader to Global Leader – 20% on level 1 and 10% on levels 2 and 3
• President – 20% on level 1 and 10% on levels 2 to 4

Royalty Bonus

Starting at the Premier affiliate membership rank, the Royalty Bonus uses an affiliate’s unilevel team to pay out an additional percentage of their team’s generated commissions.

• Premier – 1% on level 1
• Ambassador – 1% on level 1 and 2% on level 2
• Leader – 1% on level 1, 2% on level 2 and 3% on level 3
• Silver Leader and higher – 1% on level 1, 2% on level 2, 3% on level 3 and 4% on level 4

Joining IrisCall

Affiliate membership in IrisCall is either free or paid.

Free affiliates can only earn “points” until they spend money.

Paid affiliate membership ranges in price depending on which affiliate package is purchased:

• Basic – 149 EUR
• Bronze – 299 EUR
• Silver – 599 EUR
• Gold – 1299 EUR

Note that the IrisCall compensation plan does mention ongoing monthly costs, however I was unable to find any specifics on the company website or in the official compensation plan documentation.

Conclusion

With IrisCall’s service offered free, the business from a retail perspective makes little sense.

All you’re left with is recruited affiliates paying fees for packages, earning commissions from affiliates they recruit who also purchases packages.

Affiliates can of course join for free, but only being able to generate points renders free affiliate membership with IrisCall little more than a feeder program for paid membership.

As such all revenue entering IrisCall is sourced from affiliates, and paid out according to defacto affiliate recruitment (the purchase of packages).

How much an affiliate pays for their package doesn’t seem to be tied to how much they can earn, however rank promotion is directly tied to the recruitment efforts of an affiliate and their downline.

Given that affiliate membership ranks determine earning potential for much of IrisCall’s compensation plan, this is a red flag.

Another red flag is the absence of “profit sharing” from the official IrisCall compensation plan material. If you just read the compensation plan material you’d be forgiven for not even knowing it exists.

Buried away on the IrisCall website however, are several marketing pitches for Gold affiliate membership (1299 EUR), which mention an included “profit-share incentive”:

The Golden Package as we have known it in 2013 will be changed as of today. In the following months you will be able to offer a new Gold Incentive Package to prospect Business Associates. The Profit Share Incentive has been reduced from 500€ to 300€.

Another marketing pitch refers to it as a “revenue-sharing incentive”:

The Revenue Share Incentive in co-operation with Fortunity Alliance Network will be reduced in two weeks time, on 28-02-2014. We announced this in a newsletter in the beginning of this year.

This means we are going to lower the Revenue Share part of the Gold Incentive Pack one more time, before we completely stop the Incentive Period.

Whether or not this revenue-share is still offered with a Gold Package purchase is unclear, however I will mention again that there’s no word of it in the official IrisCall compensation plan documentation.

Regardless, if it’s still offered today then there’s potential securities issues as the company itself is clearly advertising Gold Package membership with a 500 to 300 EUR ROI incentive.

Furthermore, if the incentive is ongoing, it could be an ongoing drain on the company, rewarding those who “got in early” for nothing more than signing up first and spending money on a Gold Package purchase. Affiliate who joined later would be at a distinct disadvantage.

If IrisCall have since stopped the revenue-share incentive, then that’s indicative of a lack of value in marketing the business opportunity itself. The question of why the incentive was offered in the first place is also raised.

Meanwhile as to what “Fortunity Alliance Network” is, over at “fortunityalliance.com” they describe themselves as a

Co-operative Profit Sharing Association and implies a Strong Unity.

FAN was created as no other entity before, to serve as a Core Unifier for multiple different companies, in multiple different industries, catering to multiple different target audiences.

It is our mission to seek out unintrusively what people want and provide them with it through our Alliance partners.

Our partners pay a fee to us based on revenue for each product sold.

Most of you are well aware of the revolutionary nature of the FAN profit share distribution algorithm. The people who became a member through our partner company IrisCall typically have a pretty good idea of what a FAN Profit Center will mean for them in the near future.

Given IrisCall only sell affiliate business opportunity packages, there’s definitely potential Ponzi scheme issues at play here. Fortunity Alliance appears to also be run by Gerry Dekens, with the cynic in me finding it difficult to differentiate it from a Ponzi scheme attached to his other various ventures.

All in all, if one combines the apparent lack of retail in IrisCall, a recruitment orientated compensation plan, undisclosed monthly fees and the fact that sales revenue appears to be solely generated from affiliate recruitment, and there’s plenty of red flags that reflect on the legitimacy of the company.

Throw in the relationship between Fortunity Alliance, IrisCall’s offshore company registration in Dubai and Freemont Group’s “asset protection” services and well, when things go sour (read: recruitment slows down), what happens next should be pretty obvious.