Lucrazon Global Review: Ecommerce revenue-share?
Lucrazon are based out of the US state of California and are set to launch in early 2014.
The company advises on its website that it is headed up by CEO and Founder, Alex Pitt (below right, also credited as “Alexy Pitt”).
Alex is a payment industry veteran for 20 years. He has developed technology such as payment gateways, electronic gift card platforms and specialized reporting systems that allowed his previous company, NMC, to become one of the largest Merchant Service Providers for Concord EFS utilizing BYPASS Front End, Concord Front End and Back End, as well as First Data platforms.
During his leadership, NMC’s portfolio grew to a $1.8 billion, providing services to Baja Fresh, McDonalds, Burger King, MonaVie and other major corporations.
Further research into Pitts’ MLM history turned up nothing. This may or may not be due to claims Pitt is from Russia and using an alias.
These claims popped up in different locations but I personally was unable to verify them. As it stands, apart from the mention of Monavie on the Lucrazon website itself, I was unable to ascertain whether or not Pitt has been involved in any other MLM companies. Lucrazon would appear to be Pitt’s first MLM venture on the executive side of things.
Read on for a full review of the Lucrazon MLM business opportunity.
The Lucrazon Product Line
Lucrazon has no retailable products or services. Instead, affiliates join the company and then purchase access to an e-commerce platform.
This platform includes access to a replicated website and shopping cart platform, merchant services, “marketing and optimization” and a third-party dropship-ready product catalogue.
Lucrazon maintains a payment gateway that provides network connectivity, technology and security for a payment platform that allows its customers to access end-to-end electronic payment processing solutions.
It provides a managed technology and security infrastructure, payment applications, web services, and connections to the TSYS payment network.
The Lucrazon platform allows its customers to offer credit and debit card processing, ACH processing, gift card programs, electronic check processing services, secure hosted virtual terminal, hosted secure payment page, reporting, web services, and support for brand terminals and devices for payment processing.
On the Lucrazon website, the company advertises this service for $1795 and then $99 a month.
Note that the compensation plan material I cited for this review claims that this fee is $1000 a month till early 2014.
The Lucrazon Compensation Plan
The Lucrazon compensation plan primarily revolves around affiliates signing up and spending up to $15,000 on up to 15 “positions”.
Merchant Commissions
If a Lucrazon affiliate signs up an actual third-party merchant, they earn 50% of the processing fees Lucrazon charge the merchant.
Revenue-sharing
Lucrazon pay out a daily ROI on all $1000 positions purchased by affiliates. They don’t specify a minimum maturity period but positions appear to be active indefinitely, paying out an estimated $14 or so a day (taken from a Lucrazon business presentation I viewed).
Affiliates are able to purchase up to fifteen $1000 position, each generating a daily ROI.
In order to qualify for their daily ROI, Lucrazon affiliates must submit the contact details of a merchant every 90 days.
Referral Commissions
Lucrazon pay out a 20% referral commission on the first position purchased by a personally recruited affiliate.
An additional 3% is offered down 6 levels of recruitment on additional positions (not including the first) purchased by non-personally recruited affiliates (affiliates recruited by affiliates you recruit).
Binary Commissions
Each position purchased in Lucrazon is placed in a binary compensation structure. A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of two binary sides, left and right:
As positions are purchased by affiliates, positions in an affiliate’s binary are filled, with commissions paid out pairing one position from the left side against the right.
When two positions are paired as such, Lucrazon pay out a 6% commission on the purchase price of the position (currently $1000).
Binary commissions are capped at $10,000 a day, per position (each purchased position generates its own binary under it).
Joining Lucrazon
Affiliate membership to Lucrazon is currently $1000 for an initial position, and then $99 a month.
Affiliates can purchase up to fifteen positions in total, which would result in a total initial outlay of $15,000. I believe the $99 a month fee is static across the account.
Conclusion
As we head into 2014, it amazes me that people are still launching “revenue-sharing opportunities” with a straight face.
Whether Lucrazon are charging affiliates $1000 or $1795 for revenue-sharing positions, the fact remains that new money flows in from affiliates and is paid out to existing affiliates who have already purchased positions.
In an attempt to add legitimacy to the scheme, Lucrazon refer to the initial position as an “e-commerce position”, and the other fourteen position available as “marketing optimization” positions.
What difference they think that makes I have no idea. As clearly all that is happening is new affiliate money is being invested on the promise of a >100% ROI.
From a regulatory standpoint, here’s the basic breakdown of Lucrazon’s business model.
Affiliates invest between $1000 to $15,000, open up their yellow-pages, submit some random business’ details to the company, sit back and earn a daily ROI as long as new affiliates invest between $1000 to $15,000.
That’s it. Yeah some call-centre is going to call up the number provided by an affiliate but whether or not the merchant actually signs up has nothing to do with an affiliate’s daily ROI. Once those details are submitted an affiliate is good to go for 90 days.
Thus the real qualifier for the daily ROI is the investment of $1000 or more. Why?
Because without that the company has nothing to pay out existing investors with.
Whereas Zeek Reward’s front was a penny auction, Lucrazon try to pass of an e-commerce platform as the attached façade.
Let me be clear that I’m in no way questioning the legitimacy of Lucrazon’s e-commerce platform, replicated websites blahblahblah as a stand-alone services, as that’s entirely not the issue.
The issue with Lucrazon’s MLM business model is the basic mechanic of new affiliate money flowing in at $1000 a pop and being paid out to those who have already paid $1000 a pop for “positions”.
Dress it up any way you want, like every other MLM revenue-sharing opportunity out there this is still just the sale of unregistered securities.
The logic-fail kicks in when you consider the reason an affiliate would pay up to $15,000 to market merchant services and an e-commerce platform to legitimate merchants.
Lucrazon totally makes sense from a passive investor standpoint though. I pay my $1000 and you give me back >$1000.
And I’m not seeing the difference between a merchant signing up and buying a $1000 position or an affiliate doing it. Retail revenue would also appear to be a question mark in Lucrazon’s business model.
A year and a half later and it seems people still haven’t learned anything from the $600M Zeek Rewards Ponzi MLM industry embarrassment. Stop beating that dead horse guys, a Ponzi is a Ponzi no matter how you dress it up.
OZ,
Will
Cool story bro.
Recycling new affiliate money amongst existing investors? Still a Ponzi scheme.
OZ,
Are you absolutely certain that Lucrazon is ponzi?
Is the involvement of this prominent business leader who has served at the highest levels of US and CA government make any difference?
OZ,
I figured that such a respected and prominent leader would have done DUE diligence before joining this company… A MAN IN HIS POSITION CAN NOT AFFORD TO BE MADE TO LOOK RIDICULOUS..
That’s like saying Gerald “I see no Ponzi” Nehra could not be so stupid as having lost his face on two separate Ponzi schemes, is now advising a third. But he is right now.
Don’t use the people or things associated with a scheme to check whether a scheme’s legal. You have to use the scheme ITSELF.
Board of directors is a mostly ceremonial position. The board convenes every once in a while to offer advice on big decisions, that’s all. Their main function is to serve as tie breakers when things get rough, like when John Sculley ousted Steve Jobs back in 1985 from Apple by going to the board of directors.
You also have to realize that other than Mr. Barreto (who resigned from SBA back in 2006?) there is nobody recognizable in Lucrazon. Here’s a photo for your reference: 7 people, only two names.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/aSzkuX5MpVcdqqMqiEyWc2Pm_vqBHz_DWIB2WSTLpHo
That means 5 other UNNAMED co-founders. Who are they?
People I know are saying they are going start calling on merchants as Lucrazon can beat anyone’s merchant transaction fees as they are a “Level 1” provider or whatever. Every merchant should become their client so they can same money on every credit card transaction.
Is that true or is it just a cover story for ANOTHER Ponzi?
BTW, same people I know are joining this as well as the WCM777, the Casino thing and the Better Living…are they all pretty much the same scam with a different “front”? These people are getting glassy-eyed with the idea they’ll make millions.
“A MAN IN HIS POSITION CAN NOT AFFORD TO BE MADE TO LOOK RIDICULOUS”, oh he will, LOL.
Oz, spot on once again, sad part is the same people pimp different schemes knowing it will end badly. Make money on you today, screw you tomorrow, then go to the next one.
I think 2014 we will see some interesting things along the front of Rev Share, let the games begin.
@Daniel P
I remember seeing the usual “we share xx% of our daily revenue claims in the comp plan”. Lucrazon have already confirmed they’re willing to pay out affiliate money with the referral commissions, so there’s pretty much no doubt affiliate investment in positions is being used to pay out existing position investors.
Otherwise where is the money coming from? Merchants? lol.
Some dude being involved in the company doesn’t certify it non-Ponzi. Only an MLM company’s business model can do that. Lucrazon take new affiliate money in exchange for investment positions, and then use said money to pay out ROIs on existing positions.
That’s pure Ponzi.
@putthiminjail
True or not, affiliate positions are being paid a daily ROI with new affiliate money spent on positions. The merchant side of the business (which can be totally legitimate) is smoke and mirrors.
Pretty much. Cloud computing, a casino, penny auction… it’s still just affiliate money being converted into something (positions, points etc.), that pays a ROI from newly invested affiliate money.
I seen one of former top level official and journalist on infomercial for very scammy product. When people are short on money they take any job. Especially if they are not responsible for anything. Happens all the time.
OZ First why is the article author not shown. The author has been cherry picking the information and if they look at our power point presentation they will note the following. We do not pay any ROI, Profit share or anything of the sort. If you send me your contact information I can show you myself.
The Product we have is real and services businesses with merchant accounts, eCommerce websites with full CRM and Affiliate modules. Our marketing services help increase businesses customer base which will increase there merchant transaction.
Another thing for the person that has no clue on how much money they can make from merchant accounts the concept is foreign and outside their scope of Interest. Merchant account portfolios can be sold for amazing profits. You can research that on yahoo finance to find out.
I hope the article writer comes out of the closet and post his contact information so we can find out why he is spinning the facts around and if received bad information from a Brand Partner we will give them the right information. We will be certifying our trainer and presenters in the near future. OG
Because it has nothing to do with analysis and review of Lucrazon’s business model. Any further derail attempts will be marked as such.
Saying you don’t pay out a ROI doesn’t negate business presentations estimating a $16-$30’ish daily ROI. I hear this has recently been “adjusted” to a more realistic figure of $6 a day.
Talk is cheap, Lucrazon’s business model clearly promises a daily ROI on $1000 investments in up to 15 “positions”.
Great. The $1000 affiliate investment positions, deposited with the expectation of a >100% ROI, are real too.
In light of Lucrazon taking $1000 investments from affiliates and using it to pay out daily ROIs on existing positions, it’s also irrelevant.
We’ve heard the “but our product is real” excuses before. Bottom line is if your using new affiliate money to pay out existing affiliates, solely because they have already invested their money (in positions), you’re running a Ponzi scheme.
“Investments” is going to get them shut down as illegal securities. Even if they refuse to call them securities.
What people are trying to tell you is that the “positions” don’t seem to have any COMMERCIAL functions. Its PRIMARY function seems to be about acting as a vehicle for investments in a Ponzi/pyramid hybrid.
“Investment” is when you give your money to someone else and expect to get a positive ROI back after a period of time or after a series of events, based on the amount you have invested rather than on your own work (recruitment isn’t that type of work).
The $99 per month seems to be more than enough to cover the value of the products and services, e.g. if a merchant want to try the solution for a period of time. The investments in “positions” don’t add any commercial value to the products and services.
Lucrazon seems to have been set up to attract Ponzi scheme investors and pyramid scheme participants rather than merchants. A merchant with a sound mind should normally not join neither pyramid schemes nor Ponzi schemes.
It’s going to be a fun new year as long as these great opportunities keep coming along
A few weeks ago a friend proudly announced that she dropped $14k in Lucrazon. She did not understand either the company or the revenue sharing, so I did a little Googling, which, of course, turned up virtually nothing because the company was brand new.
The only thing I was able to uncover: Alex Pitt has a long and turgid history of dissolving companies and starting up new ones. A California / Orange County Case Search turns up a laundry list of actions.
It seems most have settled or been dismissed, and if you look at online comments from people who had complaints–most of them have since retracted. It looks maybe like part of the settlement deal include people scrubbing their online rants.
I broached the topic with my friend a couple of weeks ago–telling her that I thought she should be wary, but she had already gotten cold feet by then. I don’t know what happened, but she simply said that she felt like it wasn’t a very good opportunity anymore.
I may have to ask for more info because I suspect she’d have some inside info. Her red flags are defective, and this is the first time I’ve ever known her to back out of a scheme.
Oh, and, incidentally, even though my friend never mentioned network marketing in any form, I came across other companies that Alexy either founded or was somehow connected with that are associated with MLM.
Here’s a couple names: PayPro Business; National Payment Provider; National Merchant Center. I can’t tell if they’re dbas or completely separate entities. I’m also too lazy and inexperienced to find out his exact relationship with each of these entities, but some angry people on the Interwebs claim he’s the founder.
Interestingly, his LinkedIn omits PayPro and NPP.
He claims that he invented the payment gateway currently used by big corporations like McDonalds and Baja Fresh, and he told investors that his gateway can save merchants [insert stupid percentage here].
It sounded just like those merchant processing cold calls. It’s not impossible that he had a processing company and sold swipers to restaurants, but it just all sounds a little filet o’fishy. Yeah, I did just go there.
Hi there Oz,
In response to your question;
Thanks for your question, its a good one.
It seems that a major point is being missed here which is critical to defending the claim that this is a Ponzi scheme. Its coming from the banks.
Heres how it works;
1) New brand partners purchase a merchant account/ e commerce platform. (a small business)
2) When 10,000 total accounts are purchased, this is then sold to the bank as a portfolio.
3) The bank pays 30-50 million to Lucrazon who then integrates 30% of this this into the daily revenue sharing. That is where the money is coming from.
4) Brand Partners are then able to offer any business up to 30% off their CC transaction fees as well as sell merchant accounts.
This is the 1st time a Non MLM company that is connected to the banks is using a Rev share model.
This has been approved of by Visa/MC and the Bank compliance legal regulatory teams. I think if it were a Ponzi, Visa and MasterCard wouldn’t have approved of it.
@John
I said:
You said:
So uh, the money is coming from
brand partnersaffiliates and being paid out to affiliates via a daily ROI. And you don’t get any bank revenue until 10,000 positions have been invested in.How is this not a Ponzi scheme?
And cut the crap, no bank in the world is paying for 10,000 Ponzi investment positions. What a load of utter garbage.
Not to mention the online stores are total rubbish, not unlike Zeek Rewards online store where everyone sold the same products, that cost more than Amazon, and no amount of SEO’ing would make a difference.
The entire “eCommerce site portal where we give you the products to sell and drop ship, all wrapped in an MLM bow with a rev share model” has been done and failed fantastically every time. Why?
1. Everyone is selling the same products.
2. SEO doesn’t work for replicated stores.
3. Amazon.com
And if you did have an online-store-drop-ship model that work, why would you even need to create individual merchants? You should be the merchant and charge the store owner fees, like Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, etc.
The only reason to make individuals sign up as merchants is to attempt at legitimizing the Ponzi and defrauding banks to buy this portfolio of merchants accounts (like any bank would actually buy it after looking at the average transactions per account).
Do you have any such agreement with a bank?
Without a clear agreement from a bank, that method will be non existing, a typical element of a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes will TYPICALLY have ideas like that, hypothetical ideas about potential profit from some vague business plans.
Another problem with that statement is that it clearly identifies the profit sharing as an investment. The $1,000 “positions” is clearly about investments rather than about commercially retailable products or services. So even if your statement is true, it only makes the program become MORE illegal.
MLM is a commercial type of business model, designed to distribute goods or services out into a market. Commissions in MLM will need to derive from bona fide sales to end users. But Lucrazon is clearly paying out commissions based on investments.
Please elaborate on what Visa and MasterCard actually have approved here?
Visa and MasterCard have registered “partners” of different types. They also have “non partners” = independent third party companies, “Independent Sales Organization (ISO)”.
Lucrazon is clearly not a bank or financial institution. It’s not registered as a Money Transmitter either. It’s probably registered as a “Merchant” or “Merchant with sub merchants”?
Most merchants are actually “customers” of VISA and MC. They will need to sign a “Merchant agreement” with one of the agents. That’s normally the only “approval” VISA or MC will do.
I found both Lucrazon and National Merchant Center listed as registered Third Party Agents (TPA) for VISA, registered August 30 and 31, 2013.
Lucrazon is registered as an agent for Intersec Worldwide, Inc.
* Managed Services
* Other
* Payment Gateway/Switch
* Payment Processing – Internet
** PCI DSS, VISA TPA PROGRAM HRISO, VISA TPA PROGRAM ISO – M
National Merchant Center is registered as an agent for Coalfire Systems, Inc.
Source:
usa.visa.com/merchants/risk_management/third-party-agents.html
http://www.visa.com/splisting/
I will normally not dig deep into details like that, e.g. try to identify exactly what Third Party Agents are registered for. But Lucrazon is registered for Merchant Services rather than for Financial Services (it’s a service provider rather than a bank).
It isn’t “verified” by VISA, the registration isn’t about that.
“The VISA member need to perform due diligence reviews” clearly identifies that VISA won’t “verify” each and every third party agent.
The fact that Lucrazon WAS found in that list also identifies that it’s a third party agent, rather than a VISA member.
So does that support or refute their business model claims?
None of them. It only tells that Lucrazon is registered as a VISA Third Party Agent (TPA).
Lucrazon can legally sell the $99 per month e-Commerce solutions as a service, but it can’t legally sell the $1000 “positions”.
The $1000 “positions” will only attract “wrong types of people”. It will attract passive investors who normally will join Ponzi schemes, and recruiters who normally will join pyramid schemes. It SHOULD have tried to attract normal merchants.
The $1000 “positions” won’t add anything of commercial value to the e-commerce solution. That part doesn’t have any commercial function at all. “Commercial functions” are about distribution of goods or services.
* The $1000 “positions” are illegal. They are INVESTMENTS rather than products or services.
* All the commissions derived from the “positions” are illegal. MLM or network marketing can’t legally pay commissions based on investments.
* The profit sharing derived from the “positions” is illegal. Profit sharing agreement is a type of “security”.
As far as I can see, Alex Pitt has mostly delivered payment solutions and merchant solutions since 2006 or earlier. However, he’s a warm supporter of network marketing ideas like they are presented by “true believers”.
http://alexpitt.com/business-development/network-marketing
I believe the mixture of different types of business logics may be a major part of the problem here.
Lucrazon’s business model doesn’t make much logical sense.
* A Ponzi/pyramid hybrid will normally try to disguise that part behind some “trade idea” or some “work from home idea”, some ideas people can BELIEVE in. The $1000 “positions” don’t meet that criteria, most people will identify them as investments.
* Normal merchant methods should normally revolve around quite different ideas than network marketing methods, e.g. the misleading trade practice methods should normally not be accepted by professional merchants. Network marketing revolves around methods like that.
Lucrazon is reflecting 2 different sets of ideas, in conflict with each other rather than in harmony. Business ideas will need to work in harmony with each other as a part of a whole to work. That’s one of the most basic principles in business, “combine ideas that will support each other into a concept”.
MLM and network marketing MUST revolve around commercial ideas to be able to stay compliant with laws. They can’t legally sell financial investments, or legally sell the income opportunity itself.
If anyone is wondering WHY the profit sharing is illegal, this 13.5 minute video from mlm.com will explain some of the details (what securities are, etc.). The explanation is about ZeekRewards, but it should work for Lucrazon too.
Neither. It’s irrelevant. VISA does not verify what else one of their third-party affiliates do besides promise to process VISA cards accurately and not cheat the transactions.
If the company also offers illegal unregistered securities as investment, that’s none of VISA’s business.
Indeed, this sort of “legitimacy through association” is used very often in scam.
Product X is endorsed by celebrity / doctor Somebody. It can’t possibly be bogus! (O RLY?)
Company X has cooperated with HUGE COMPANY Y (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.) it can’t possibly be a scam! (O RLY?)
And so on and so forth.
Let’s face it… You don’t hire a PI to investigate every boy/girl you got involved with and trace their genealogy through 5 generations… What makes you think a company would do the same to all they work with?
Oz, what’s with the “quote” function? It’s stripping spaces from all the quotes.
I’m trying to address the server errors (500) the site was having problems with. Think I’ve narrowed it down to a caching problem.
Tried a different plugin today and it seemed to work fine, however I didn’t test the quote functionality (something I don’t personally use).
Turns out the new plugin was stripping javascript code (including formatting) on the backend. You’d see the whole quote as intended but if you try to copy and paste the code through JS the cache would copy the stripped version of the text block.
Should be fixed now (I also got rid of the annoying linebreak it was inserting at the top of the comment which I noticed it was doing). Let me know if anything else is playing up. I’m currently monitoring how the different plugin is handling things. Have one more option to try if this doesn’t work out.
I have just seen the Lucrazon oportunity and in the presentation that i have been shown it doesnt say 14$ it says daily bonus will be 10% of the Companys Profit.
Am mostly interested in the merchant account for my online stores if they are cheaper than what i ussually use
JOHN…You sound exactly like the VP who gave the live presentation that I saw. I believe you ARE a Lucrazon insider.
My name say ISO. I am a 10+ year veteran in MLM and merchant service industry. (FYI: ISO/MSP is a “prestigious” distinction given to a company who is willing to pay $15000 to VISA and MasterCard annually renewed at $5000.)
I have a friend who made money in Better Living Global Marketing (BLGM) and now joined Lucrazon GLOBAL, (which is completely separate from Lucrazon, which is registered with Visa).
Remember, this company is called Lucrazon GLOBAL (“LG”). This is an EXACT, let me say, EXACT copy of BLGM. The man who made $MILLIONS in BLGM and is responsible for creating the “GLOBAL” side of Lucrazon. I saw him in both company and everyone “worships” him in both companies.
I’ll leave his name out; but he is an Asian man from Southeast Asia with a very common last name equivalent to “Smith” in USA.
From a guy in both industry, Lucrazon GLOBAL is illegal in two (2) major fronts. Beside its being a Ponzi, it has violated Visa/MC protocols operating it as MLM.
Another thing is Visa/MC does NOT allow a business to accept payment for anything greater than 30 days. Those business has to side-step it. Too long to explain. LG is also duping every single INVESTORS into getting a merchant accounts And have their ROI be deposited into their merchant accounts; another violation.
I saw BLGM a long while back and didn’t join. My friend who invited me thought I was a “Perfect Fit” for LG. She was exactly right. BLGM made her money and BLGM also caused her grief from personal friends who lost money and is NOW crying at the inevitable doom for BLGM.
Too much to cover and I can go on and on… The bottom line is that the people at the meeting don’t know what the heck they are in for.
LG, which is the marketing side, is interested in getting every investor a merchant account where they can charge monthly statement fees, annual fee, and rack up as many accounts as possible. The presentation covers 90% merchant services in LG but the actual business is a Ponzi scheme. It needs to be taken down, NOW!!!!!!
To those who think a high ranking official can’t commit fraud.. WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING?????
By the way…this Asian man who created Lucrazon Global was in Zeek, jumped into Better Living and now Lucrazon GLOBAL. He is a nice man when you talk to him. Always smiling….AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHER.
I wonder how much money Alex Pit will get from him? This guy is an MLM recruiter. You can take ALL of Lucrazon’s earning from it’s merchant service side and would not be able to sustain ONE MONTH of payment that LG has to payout.
THE MONEY IS COMING FROM NEW INVESTORS !!!! ======> PONZI.
More Later….
FYI…His sidekick. Actually upline, is the mastermind of JudingUSA.com. Another spin-off of BLGM and WCM777. Coincidental? You BETCHA!!!
Hi there Oz,
Please refer to this page as we answer your review points here in addition to other questions:
lucrazon.com/alex-pitt-and-lucrazon-global-facts
Thank you – Alice, Social Media Manager
Hi Alice, thanks for taking the time to comment on the review.
My response was too long for a comment so I did a separate writeup on it – https://behindmlm.com/companies/lucrazon-attempt-response-to-ponzi-concerns/
I trust you’ll try to actually answer the Ponzi concern this time perhaps?
This is the Y2K “Skybiz” pyramid scheme resurrected… 13 years later.
http://www.mlmlegal.com/skyscam.html
OZ, I’ve read your article. Wonderful!
Alice Ly? Where’s the main man, Mr. D—-l N—-n. (initial)or VP?
Listen, the attorney general or SEC will take too long to get them. We need to contact VISA. It’s more swift because it’s private with authority to stop them much faster. Heck Merrick Bank may “NOT” even aware of this operation. They may act even quicker.
The merchant industry is probably the most cut-throat business out there. Very lucrative (hmmm..Lucra-zon). For instance, their internal trade shows cost $895 for the price of admission. This is what the public pay to get in. Ridiculous. It’s called the ETA meeting. Check it out.
Don’t know what leverage you have, OZ, but this company along with JUDINGUSA.COM need to cease it’s operation. The same leaders at the top of Better Living are in both Lucrazon and Judingusa.
If you truly want to make a difference, then it needs to stop NOW while it is still NEWLY created. NOT AFTER IT’S ALREADY 6 MONTHS OR LATER!
Faith Sloan, a veteran of Ponzi Schemes, and currently a “SUPER-TOP” US Telexfree promoter is one of the first ones working with Lucrazon:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151912794941909&set=a.10151151461146909.447994.551696908&type=1
A picture is truly worth a thousand word.
That check is as fake as can be. Lucrazon don’t give out checks in even amount like that. In fact, it should be the reverse where Ms. Sloan is GIVING Lucrazon $15,000 for the max investment and NOT the other way around. What a dirty advertisement.
Obviously that’s not a real check. Account number 0123456789? Stuff like that.
This thing needs to be shut down, just like WCM777 and Better Living. What about that casino one? Haven’t heard about it lately…same kind so thing, too.
To many cry babies in this blog. Folk stop crying and let the company operate at least a month before crying so much… MY GOD!!!
Why should that matter unless the business model (compensation plan) changes?
You just sound like you’re upset Lucrazon might not have propagated as widely as you’d have liked.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
This new revenue share plan is pure PONZI and will be treated as such by regulatory authorities when it “gets in the radar” not matter whether there are recognizable people (read has-beens), banks affiliated (probably with the merchant division that was there pre-ponzi that appeared legitimate), or other devices to obfuscate the the real goings-on.
An acquaintance of mine is using all of the above devices to market this and he and I were basically shouting at each other about the legitimacy of this – which is funny – he’s in and out of “deals” quicker than you can say scambam. He never learns and keeps doing this over and over and invests a lot of time, money and effort into these “deals”.
The real toll is to his credibility. He has none. In fact when he and his sycophants are into the next “deal” you can be sure it’s over the legal line – they seem to gravitate to these like the moth to the flame.
I think I found his website. 🙂
firstchoiceecommerce.com
I’m taking bets – how long does this last? 3 months? 6 months? I’m interested to hear predictions.
@Oz,
What do you think about the guess speakers for this company? How come Romney and some other people are going to this event?
Same reply as “how can SVIEF invite Steve Wozniak, Tesla’s CFO… and Ming Xu?”
Too many cheerleaders singing the praises of this unknown company, sheesh. Stop cheerleading for a moment and look at the facts! How is ONE MONTH going to prove things one way or the other? What you suggest doesn’t even make sense!
Great way to answer a question with another question! @k.Chang
I didn’t answer your question with a question. I said it’s the SAME ANSWER as the question I named.
In fact, I think SVIEF also invited Al Gore, certainly more prominent than Romney.
@Eddy
Pamphlet about TelexFree apps arrives in the mail and a big check from Carlos Costa?
Show me the money!
It might actually be funny. Short of duping themselves into believing Ponzi schemes won’t be targeted if the Republicans were in, as I understand it the Latino community isn’t too fond of the GOP.
CEO or some top dog from Google was going to speak at a Telex event last year…Big brag promotion leading up to it and then????………not a word…hmmm?
Another Telex failure to deliver?
@oz
Wow! I don’t know if I should be offended by your sarcasm! Well…. Most Brazilians are very smart when it comes to ponzi or schemes. Remember, around 16 percent of a Portuguese city fell into this Telexfree game. Therefore, you cannot say the Latinos are the only ones who fell into this trap (as you said) and many other background ethnicity fell as well.
As pink stocks (watch the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”), this is all a game. If you are late to the game, you will miss the game. You are a fool, if you are a republican or a Democrat. Politics are nothing more than a chest game.
I already made my money back in Telexfree. I asked a smart opinion about the coming event of Lucrazon global and not about the Telexfree. I thought you were a smart person as you said you were.
Sorry, got my south american scams mixed up. There’s just so many of them these days.
In anycase, replace “TelexFree app brochure” with “irrelevant merchant network brochure” and “Carlos Costa” with whoever sends out Lucrazon checks in my comment above… it’s the same story.
That never happened.
They aren’t the problem…
…people like you are.
It is just a game!!! Mutual fund companies or ponzi companies!!! All the same game!! 2008 almost stock market crash 2013 seek rewards…Lehman Brothers yesterday and today seek rewards and tomorrow Telexfree. Don’t blame the player. Blame the game.
@oz…..
I recommend the movie “the wolf on Wall Street”. Go watch and give me your naive review of the stock market.
Look chief, whatever you have to keep telling yourself to sleep at night is all very well. But you are most certainly part of the problem.
Your ROI didn’t just manifest out of thin air. You stole it from victims who came after you.
If you’re finished with the excuses and movie recommendations, I think we’re done here.
Which part ???
* The part where they know it’s a game, but their victims don’t ?
* The part where the victims lose their money ???
* The part where the guys end up in gaol ??
So go “native” and live in the rain forest and never touch any money, is that what you are suggesting? Maybe you can go join the Yanomami. 🙂
All of the Better Living people are pushing this now. I contacted Samsung to see if they are really sponsoring BLGM.
I noticed that Lucrazon tapped into a BLGM investor pool in SoCal, and now I have to hear about how wonderful it is, and how different it is from every other Ponzi scheme.
I really should start going to these recruitment meetings when I get invited, but I’m just no good at undercover.
I find it interesting that the people that market these obviously bogus businesses often have no remorse. They know they’re in a pyramid (using this to describe the revenue share model like Lucrazon and BLGM, not MLM in general), and yet they don’t care.
They know ultimately they’ll get “found out” as they appear in the radar of regulatory bodies, and when that happens people will be hurt. And yet they still engage with these short-lived timebombs like Lucrazon.
This seems like sociopath behavior to me. “As long as it is good for me, screw the people under me.”
That’s because Ponzi and pyramid pimps don’t get punished, until Burnlounge, when a few top promoters were charged along with the company execs.
I am not sure if the top people were charged in the case of Zeek Rewards, but it appeared that the government was going to go after the top distributors and try to “clawback” money from then to offer some restitution to the people that had lost everything in Zeek Rewards.
That case is ongoing, with the first court hearing on April 14. The current clawback action is only about net winners living in the USA, with a net profit of >= $1,000. It has 19 named defendants, and around 9,000 class members.
Zeek Rewards articles:
https://behindmlm.com/category/companies/zeek-rewards/
The clawback action isn’t solely about TOP distributors, it’s about every net winner. Ponzi schemes are about FRAUD, so even the net winners may eventually become victims. Many of them have been cheated just like the net losers.
I actually know owner. He is from Russian but has been in the country for over 30 years.
NMC and the other companies he was involved in were all straight up legitimate merchant processors. As far as I know he wasn’t involved in the MLM business before.
I was at the launch event. All the speakers were there. They talked about compliance and the scammers that have damaged their reputation.
The people where talking about a Better Living or 777 guy that had scammed people and the company kicked him out. Nobody could believe it.
I was amazed at how they said they are stopping these businesses and not letting it move forward. They said the daily payout is ending too. Maybe they had a rough start but representatives from Visa was there and bank regulators too. The Visa and Bank guys were on stage talking about the company and the technology.
Oz, I have read a lot of your reviews and you are really really good at exposing scams but I think you have this one all wrong.
Uh…
Sounds like I got it perfect. Just because a business decides to stop running a Ponzi scheme doesn’t mean it wasn’t one to begin with.
My review was based on the business model and compensation plan used at the time. If that changes you can’t then go and claim I was wrong.
As per the business model in use at the time of this review, Lucrazon was just another cookie-cutter revenue-sharing Ponzi scheme. I doubt they’ll get very far without the HYIP crowd, as I understand it the merchant services front is mostly unappealing.
PayPro had an MLM component, so, as far as I can tell, he’s hopped from one merchant MLM to another. This one’s shiny and new off the heels of several failed attempts at the same thing.
Because he’s tapping into the same pool of SoCal affiliates that went for WCM and BLGM, he seems to be learning the fine art of spin.
They deliberately reached out to affiliates of BLGM, some of whom happened to leave BLGM for WCM. It was their primary target audience before they even started advertising, and I know a group of them plunked down a substantial amount of dough without even understanding the business.
Somehow I think this is a misrepresentation of what actually went down. I’m gonna’ have to ask my co-worker/Lucrazon affiliate. Lucrazon HQ is right down the street from one of our business locations, so maybe next time she invites me, I’ll take a gander at what’s really going on.
Faith Sloan was big on this, she jumped ship recently citing “comp plan changes”.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out the bait and switch is going to flop. The crowd they initially attracted aren’t interested in marketing merchant services. They just want their passive ROI.
Well, as of April 12th, Lucrazon announced that the Daily bonus of sharing 10% of company revenue and 30% of the bank portfolio sales with their brand partners is now closed to newcomers. So its not an ever expanding amount of new partners sharing in the money pool.
Quarterly sales qualifications of products (merchant accounts, web stores, SEO’s, or new BP’s) are necessary to be made in order to be included in the daily pay.
So having not seen this coming over the last few months, do folks still consider this a ponzi? It is now a closed group, with funds coming from real sales of the company (10%) and real sales from the banks (30%). Variable pay according to the incoming revenue.
In all fairness, considering that folks here didn’t see this limit coming, and it did seem a bit Ponzi see at first, this doesn’t seem like a ponzi. Its real products being sold and real bank portfolio sales being shared with a limited # of sales partners. Any comments?
@Joe
Sounds like they needed investor money to launch the business. That’s still the offering of unregistered securities as all money invested by affiliates was done so on the expectation of a >100% ROI.
Problem is the logic loophole. If the merchant services were viable at a retail level, they wouldn’t have needed affiliate money to initially fund things.
Now they have a constant drain on the business, as affiliates will sit back and wait for their ROI. New affiliates (they’re still accepting affiliates right?) won’t join, because they closed off the ROI scheme (For example, Sloan already abandoned ship when she learnt of the change).
I imagine the whole thing will flop eventually, as whatever little businesses they get to sign up isn’t going to sustain the business and deliver the ROIs initial affiliate investors are expecting. Once investors get antsy, that’s only going to cause more problems for the company.
Bait and switches don’t work in MLM.
What “real products” are you talking about here?
Initially it sold $1,000 “positions” in the program itself?
From the article:
We normally don’t post predictions about potential changes in the future. Did you expect that?
People have been allowed to post all types of comments (as long as it’s factual, non recruitment, non spam, etc.).
* John posted something in post #19, but it didn’t actually legitimize the business model (it was still about selling unregistered securities to investors).
* Alice Ly – Lucrazon posted something. I’m not familiar with the updates from her (I was probably focusing on other programs at the time). But I haven’t made any comments after that either (other than a reply about Zeek).
Please don’t post vague comments about “real products”. Lucrazon has (or had) an MLM/NWM business model. Real products in that context is about RETAILABLE products, something that can be sold to consumers in a normal market, something they can buy without becoming distributors or affiliates themselves.
Consumers do usually not buy “shopping cart solutions”, “e-commerce platform” and similar types of products.
I think the merchants are supposed to be the retail customers here. Which kind of gives it away, seeing as your average MLM affiliate has no idea to pitch integrated accounting systems…
That fact that it WAS a Ponzi makes it illegal.
Ask yourself this simple question: WHICH business needs an internet based payment system, when there’s SquareUp for free, and Paypal and all the rest giving you FREE readers and such linking to your regular checking account, checkout software, and all the rest?
The ONLY reason why any one would choose Lucrazon is because they have done NO research and was sold a bill of good (vastly overpriced) by someone intent on that “profit share”
IMHO, this is an attempt to cut ties from Faith Sloan’s hit by TelexFree, if this was a short-notice. When the hoopla dies down, they’ll likely start a “round two”.
I know everyone there. They most likely got carried away with their MLM people. Alex is not an MLM guy or at least not a ponzi guy for sure. He loves his merchant processing business.
NMC was a 1.8 billion processing vehicle before him and his partner started fighting over it. He does owe people some money but most of it comes from his desire to create a secure processing platform. He has invested millions.
His main problem is he always believed that technology and stature comes first and sales come later. I think what happened is the crazy ponzi people adapted his business a bit but he never intended to build a pyramid.
I think he raised enough money from the useful idiots as well as got a lot of vested “sales people” in. He will most likely avoid direct MLM people from what i think and he will be oq and survive if he gets up to 10,000 merchant accounts. Of course no easy money will be made by the “brand partners”
Lucrazon is nothing but a PONZI Scheme! They continue to recruit a targeted market – people that don’t know anything about Merchant Services. They are sold a LIE and scammed out of $1000s. This has to be sopped.
On a side note, they are not even paying out the so called daily revenue share – why?
Alex only cares about his pocket and does nothing but lie to the field
Hate to bring this back up in a dead topic, but in light of the recently filed suit (see http://patrickpretty.com/2014/12/23/bulletin-lucrazon-program-sued-in-massachusetts-amid-allegations-of-fraud) I started doing some digging on this company.
One thing I find strange, has anyone gotten some outside source confirmation that Hector Barreto is in fact on the board or in any way part of this company. The only places google leads me to that say so all eventually track back to Lucrazon, while none of Hector Barreto’s own bios make any mention of it, some of them get seriously detailed as to his many other affiliations with no mention of Lucrazon.
Is it possible that his only involvement was as a paid speaker at their rah rah meeting in LA last year? There is a mention on the Wiki page about him, but it looks fishy, almost like it was stuck on by someone else than the original author of the bio.
DO we know he even knows who lucrazon is? This man runs a multi million dollar international consulting firm and holds many prominent positions, it really doesn’t add up, even assuming Lucrazon is legit.
I see this exchange all stopped on 12-24-14. Lucrascam is no longer really operating.
We’re out over $15,000 AND the back office reporting for merchant service payments, etc. all stopped in September, 2014 and NONE of the money in that back office was ever deposited in our bank account.
They are done but I wish someone would take them down, along with D_ _ _ _ P_ _ _ _ _o and D_ _ _ _ l G_ _ _ n. Someone needs to stop these guys from continually hurting people financially!!!!!!!!!!
Companies seem to get caught up in the legal battles but what about the people behind the scenes?!?! It takes PEOPLE to put these schemes together.