Unetenet Review: “Franchise” investment scheme

There is no information on the Unetenet website indicating who owns or runs the business. At the time of publication, visitors to the Unetenet website are only able to either submit their email address or login as a company affiliate.

The Unetenet website domain was registered on the 12th of March 2009 and lists “Union Business Online” as the owner, operating out of New York in the US.

A Google search of the provided address, “3691 Rt 9, Cold Spring, New York 10516”, revealed a large solitary warehouse type building in the middle of nowhere:

No mention of Unetenet or Union Business Online features on the tenant directory placed at the property entrance.

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.

The Unetenet Compensation Plan

There is no mention of products or services offered by Unetenet on their website, retail or otherwise.

The company’s Terms and Conditions do however make mention of paid affiliate subscriptions (translated from Spanish):

All affiliates with any Unetenet package must pay a subscription fee and a monthly or yearly discount for Active Members to be considered, it remains active for as long as you keep your products and services assets.

These affiliate subscriptions appear to be the only thing Unetenet affiliates can market within the Unetenet MLM business opportunity itself.

The Unetenet refund policy indicates that once affiliate fees have been paid, affiliate are provided access to “products and services”:

To access certain products and services must pay a subscription fee and a monthly or yearly, to be considered Active Members.

Once again no mention of any retail product or service offering is made.

The Unetenet Compensation Plan

Unetenet do not provide their compensation plan to the general public on their website. This likely due to the Unetenet compensation plan and commissions structure revolving around the recruitment of new affiliates and investment in “franchise plans”.

Recruitment Commissions

Unetenet affiliates are paid a recruitment commission for each new paid affiliate they bring into the company:

• Basic – $30
• Basic Annual – $40
• Premium – $50
• Premium Annual – $100

Premium Affiliate Recruitment Commissions

If an International Director ranked affiliate has personally recruited at least three International Director qualified affiliates and filled the first six levels of their matrix for at least 12 consecutive month, they qualify for Unetenet’s Premium affiliate recruitment commission.

The commission is paid out based on what percentage of an affiliate’s matrix is filled with paid Premium affiliates:

• 90% Premium affiliates – $1,000,000
• 80% Premium affiliates – $750,000
• 70% Premium affiliates – $500,000
• 60% Premium affiliates – $250,000
• 50% Premium affiliates – $100,000
• 40% Premium affiliates – $50,000

Matrix Commissions

Matrix commissions are paid out in Unetenet using both a 5×5 and 5×6 matrix structure.

A 5×5 matrix places an affiliate at the top of the structure, with 5 positions directly under them (level 1). These five positions then branch out into another 5 positions (level 2) and so on and so forth down a total of 5 levels.

A 5×6 matrix is identical in structure to a 5×5 matrix, except that it extends down a total of six levels instead of five.

Positions in Unetenet’s matrices are filled via the recruitment of affiliates who pay membership fees, with each membership fee paid corresponding to a filled matrix position.

How much of a commission is earnt on each recruited paid affiliate depends on what matrix level that affiliate falls on, as well as an affiliate’s own paid membership level.

• Basic Monthly ($40 + $19.95 a month) – $1 on levels 1 and 2, $2 on level 3, $1 on level 4 and $2 on level 5
• Premium Monthly ($60 + $59.95 a month) – $3 on levels 1 to 3 and $4 on levels 4 and 5
• Basic Annual ($247 annually) – $1 on levels 1 and 2, $2 on level 3, $1 on level 4 and $2 on levels 5 and 6
• Premium Annual ($697) – $3 on levels 1 to 3, $4 on levels 4 and 5 and $10 on level 6

Beyond level 6 Unetenets affiliates can unlock level 7 of their matrix, with the company paying out a sliding scale commission based on how many affiliate investors (affiliates who have invested in at least one “franchisee pack”) they personally recruit:

• Manager (recruit 3 affiliate investors) – $2 on level 7
• Executive (personally recruit 3 Manager ranked affiliates) – $4 per level 7 affiliate
• Ambassador (personally recruit 3 Executive ranked affiliates) – $6 per level 7 affiliate
• Director (personally recruit 3 Ambassador ranked affiliates) – $8 per level 7 affiliate
• International Director (personally recruit 3 Director ranked affiliates – $10 per level 7 affiliate

Note that unless an affiliate is on an annual Basic of Premium affiliate membership, even if they qualify for level 7 as above they still do not earn on level 6 of their matrix.

Franchise Investment

Under the guise of offering “franchise” positions within the company, Unetenet offer affiliates several investment plans with guaranteed weekly ROIs.

Each investment pack pays out a guaranteed weekly ROI for 12 months.

• Mini Pack ($360 + Basic or Premium membership) – $25 a week ROI ($1300 annually)
• Pro Pack ($990 + Premium membership) – $60 a week ROI ($3120 annually)
• Master Pack ($1800 + Premium membership) – $125 a week ROI ($6500 annually)
• Master Plus Pack ($9000 + three Premium memberships) – $650 a week ROI ($33,800 annually)

Note that Unetened withhold 25% of all ROI payments which affiliates are required to use to re-invest once an annual investment plan matures. Affiliates must also spam the internet daily with ads for Unetenet in order to qualify to receive their weekly ROI.

Franchise Investment Referral Commissions

Unetenet affiliates who recruit new affiliate investors who invest in one of Unetenet’s investment packs receive a 10% referral commission on the amount invested:

• Mini Pack – $36
• Pro Pack – $90
• Master Pack – $180
• Master Plus Pack – $900

If an affiliate has two personally recruited affiliates who have invested in franchise packs under them, they are also entitled to a 2% ROI commission, paid out on the ROIs paid down five levels of recruitment.

Incentives

Additional incentives are offered to Unetenet affiliates who recruit affiliate investors into the scheme. These include

• achieve Director affiliate rank and have and at least 1000 affiliates in your downline – a “2 people cruise”
• achieve Director affiliate rank and have at least 3000 affiliates in your downline – an “electrical car”
• achieve Director affiliate rank and have at least 5000 affiliates in your downline – the choice between a “sports car” and “motor caravan”

Joining Unetenet

Affiliate membership in Unetenet is available at four different pricepoints:

• Basic Monthly – $40 upfront + $19.95 a month
• Basic Annual – $247 annually
• Platinum Monthly – $60 upfront + $59.95 a month
• Platinum Annual – $697

How much an affiliate spends on membership directly impacts how much they earn in the Unetenet compensation plan. Basic and Platinum Monthly affiliates only have access to a 5×5 matrix, whereas Basic and Platinum Annual affiliates have access to a 5×6 matrix, with Platinum Annual affiliates given two matrix positions to earn off.

Conclusion

With no retail revenue source, guaranteed investment returns under the guise of offered franchises and a boatload of affiliate investor recruitment incentives and commissions, Unetenet can be classified as a Ponzi pyramid hybrid scheme.

The Ponzi scheme nature of the business lies within the franchise investment plans. Offering no such thing despite the name, Unetenet’s franchise investment plans require investment from affiliates and pay out a weekly ROI from newly invested affiliate money.

Unetenet’s affiliate’s openly market the fact that “no selling” is required to earn Unenet’s passive ROIs, with the only qualifier being an affiliate’s own invested money.

The more an affiliate invests the larger their weekly return. The ad posting requirement is a common ruse used in these sorts of schemes, deployed to make affiliates feel as if they are “working” for their ROI.

As per the Unetenet business model however, it is how much an affiliate contributes (invests) financially into the scheme that dictates their ROI, rather than any ad postings.

The pyramid scheme nature of Unetenet is evident in the matrix commissions, which simply recycle affiliate membership fees by way of a matrix compensation structure.

Once again, the more an affiliate pays (in fees as opposed to investments), the more they earn from recruited affiliates in their downlines.

The pyramid side of Unetenet collapsed when new affiliates stop joining and pumping funds into the scheme via membership fees.

Given that affiliate membership is required to invest and receive weekly ROIs however, it is far more likely that the investment scheme will cause the collapse of the business. Once new affiliate investment slows down, inevitably Unetenet will run out of funds to pay out existing affiliate investors.

Due to the annual term of affiliate investments made with the company, it is likely that when this happens the company owners will be able to announce a collapse and still withhold a large portion of invested affiliate money.

That is if the regulators don’t get to them first. Despite the provided US-based address, I’m seeing primary promotion of Unetenet in Spanish. Along with the Spanish language basis of the Unetenet website, this would indicate a primary targeting of the Spanish-speaking world by Unetenet’s owners.

Different language, same old Ponzi investment scam.