Much of the confusion and uncertainty surrounding Rippln can be attributed to the manner in which the creators have marketed the scheme.

A silly affiliate NDA, lack of information on the corporate structure and ownership of Rippln, a compensation plan and business model that appears to have not been finalised,  nothing concrete on the app the company is supposedly based around… and the list goes on.

Despite the company’s best efforts to thwart those interested from conducting thorough due diligence into the company, a purported 200,000+ people have handed over their personal information and signed on.

At the time of publication, any and all efforts to acquire specific details on the MLM side of Rippln have been met with a tin-can “we are currently in buzz marketing mode now and not accepting payment from affiliates, so we’re not currently  disclosing anything further” type response.

Despite these efforts however, today we take you behind the Rippln veil and share what has thus far been uncovered. [Read the rest of this entry...]

The Mind Money Body 60 website domain (“mmb60.com”) was registered on the 3rd of March 2013 and lists a “Matthew Spurlock” as the owner.

A mailing address is provided in the US state of Alabama. No corporate address is provided on the Mind Money Body 60 (MMB60) website, with the company requesting visitors only contact them by “phone or E-Mail”.

Despite Matthew Spurlock being listed as the owner of MMB60 website domain, Jason Spurlock is credited as the “owner and founder” of the company on its website.

The email address provided with Matthew Spurlock’s name on the MMB60 domain registration has been used in the past by Jason Spurlock (photo right), so I’m not too sure what’s going on there.

In any case, Jason Spurlock’s past MLM ventures include the founding of Network Marketing VT back in January 2011. Jason Spurlock was credited as the CEO of Network Marketing VT, with Matthew Spurlock’s name again appearing on the company’s domain registration.

Network Marketing VT was a recruitment driven income opportunity, with affiliates selling $98 memberships to the company itself. 100% commissions were paid out, with each affiliate having to pass up their first three membership sales to the affiliate that recruited them.

After just over two years of operation Network Marketing VT crashed in January 2013, with the company failing to pay its affiliates from around September 2012.

In late January Spurlock officially pulled the plug on Network Marketing VT, blaming affiliates for spreading ‘negative emotions in the social networking space based on wrongful assumptions that they were never paid fairly‘.

Now, three months later, Spurlock is back with MMB60.

Read on for a full review of the MMB60 MLM business opportunity. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Universal Private Banking describe themselves as being ‘an international financial institution specializing in investment and wealth management‘.

The company’s website provides no information as to who owns or runs the company, however the Universal Private Banking website domain (“uprivatebanking.com”) names a “Universal Private” as the owner.

Universal Private provide an operational address in the US state of Massachusetts, however this appears to be a PO Box with both Fedex and DHL operating out of the supplied address (click on image below for Google Maps):

Additionally Universal Private does not appear to be registered as a corporation in Massachusetts:

Other than being listed on the domain registration for Universal Private Banking, I was unable to find any further information on Universal Private.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Products this good aren’t on store shelves. Natural. Full strength. Always safe. Never watered down. Nothing you don’t want; everything you do.

We spend money on what goes inside the packaging, not on advertising it which is why our customer and members don’t hesitate to purchase Waiora products month-after-month.

-Official Waiora Product Overview

Natural Cellular Defense is a nutritional supplement marketed by Waiora. The company states that Natural Cellur Defense (NCD) is ‘(the) only choice when it comes to removing heavy metals and toxins from your system‘.

Natural Cellular Defense – is the cleanest and purest on the market. It is the most effective zeolite on the planet. Period.

Back in January 2012 a consumer fraud class action lawsuit was filed against Waiora in a US Federal Court. The suit, filed in Florida, claimed that ‘the company sold a mineral-enhanced anti-aging product that, in reality, contained little more than water‘. [Read the rest of this entry...]

In what is fast becoming what appears to be a business platform released without an actual finalised business model, Rippln released a FAQ yesterday that it hopes will address many of the current concerns surrounding the company.

Much of the FAQ (labelled “version 4.0″) is about the technical side of the business from an affiliate point of view but towards the end, does address widespread concerns that have been voiced by those in both the MLM and tech (app) industry.

Unfortunately rather than address these concerns in their FAQ, Rippln have adopted the “dismiss the messenger” strategy. [Read the rest of this entry...]

LabActive describe themselves as a “social commerce company” and claim the company is

a place where premium brands, cutting edge technology, and unparalleled compensation converge!

There is no information on the LabActive website indicating who owns or runs the business. Rather than provide background information on LabActive and executive management, the company’s “About Us” page informs visitors that LabActive is ‘the absolute apex of entrepreneurship (and) quality of the highest order‘.

In LabActive’s Terms and Conditions, a mailing address is provided in the US state of Nevada.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Ownership of Zazzed based on the information publicly available is a little uncertain. Operations wise Zazzed provide an address in the US state of Wyoming.

On the company’s website Jim Lynch is listed as an “advisor” to the company and credited as the CEO and owner of “Green Fuel Tabs LLC”. Green Fuel Tabs LLC appear to be an independent company marketing green fuel tabs, along with its own affiliate program (non-MLM).

The nature of the relationship between Zazzed and Green Fuel Tabs is unclear, however they both appear to market the same product.

The other executive management position disclosed by Zazzed on their website is Robert Wood (also known as Bob Wood), who holds the position of Chief Technical Officer.

Wood launched CloudZow early last year, marketing online “cloud” storage services. CloudZow still appear to be in business with it being unclear whether or not Wood’s position in Zazzed will have any effect on CloudZow’s operations.

The Zazzed website is currently hosted on the same server as CloudZow (image right).

Finally a “Dr Bob Moore” is listed as the owner of the Zazzed website domain (“zazzed.com”). An address in the US state of Georgia is also provided, differing from the corporate address provided on the Zazzed website.

Bob Moore’s name does not currently appear anywhere on the Zazzed website, however in information that has since been removed from the website he was credited as being Zazzed’s Chief Marketing Officer:

Why this information was removed, along with who is actually running and owns Zazzed is not clear.

Read on for a full review of the Zazzed MLM business opportunity. [Read the rest of this entry...]

One of the minor irritants of a Ponzi scheme is that sooner or later the money being withdrawn exceeds new money being invested.

This can usually be sustained for a short while but sooner or later those payouts have to stop.

Last we checked in with Wealth4AllTeam they had just come off the relaunch of their Ponzi scheme (“a total passive investment only program“) they claimed would pay out a guaranteed 1.6% daily ROI, sourced from “new deposits”.

2 months or so later this new reboot scheme failed, with Wealth4AllTeam citing “low membership” (no new investor money) as the root cause.

Rather than just come clean and admit they were simply running a Ponzi scheme that ran out of new investor funds, a notice published on the Wealth4AllTeam website indicates CEO Danny Cianciulli are going to try to continue the charade well into 2013.

Hacker attempts, stolen money, fraudulent accounts… these are the usual porky pies Ponzi scheme admins spew out when they run out of new investor money. Over at Wealth4AllTeam things are no different. [Read the rest of this entry...]

When it comes to children as a marketing tool in MLM, thankfully the practice is generally frowned upon. By and large it leaves people with a bad taste in their mouth as it’s difficult to distinguish the technique from out and out shameless exploitation.

One of the more recent examples would be pairing of children’s charities and penny auctions. Using the affiliate funded Ponzi points scheme we’re all familiar with by now, Bids That Give sought to add a layer of obfuscation to the business model by heavily marketing that the company was donating to and “working with” children’s charities.

With children plastered all over the Bids That Give website today and knowing full well the mechanics of the “revenue sharing” Ponzi points MLM business model, I personally can’t help but find Bids That Give’s marketing efforts coming off as anything other than unapologetically sleazy.

MLM is a highly competitive environment and is often plagued with manipulation and cut-throat marketing practices. Everyone is searching for that edge over their competitors and adding children to the income opportunity equation is like throwing quadraplegics to the sharks.

Thankfully companies like Bids That Give have restricted the use of children as marketing tools to the non-affiliate side of the business. You participate in Bids That Give and children’s charities receive money, to the best of my knowledge children themselves aren’t participating in the opportunity itself (at least not publicly).

All too keen to take things one step further however and introduce child affiliates to the industry comes Empower Network. In true “badass” form, yesterday saw Empower Network parade a 12 year old “earner” on stage to the rabid applause of its affiliates.

Evidently children aren’t just MLM marketing tools anymore, they’re active income-generating affiliate marketers themselves. [Read the rest of this entry...]

DXN are based out of Malaysia and operate in the coffee niche of the MLM industry.

The company was founded in 1993 by Lim Siow Jin. The DXN website states that Lim ‘started the business in quest of the benefits of mushroom on human health‘.

In his DXN corporate bio, Lim is credited with being ‘a graduate from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology’ and having ‘a deep interest in utilizing the fullest potential of Ganoderma‘.

I wasn’t able to find any prior involvement in the MLM industry by Lim so DXN would appear to be his first MLM venture.

Read on for a full review of the DXN MLM business opportunity. [Read the rest of this entry...]