WorldVentures a pyramid scheme in South Africa next week?
Back in September 2015 we reported on South Africa’s National Consumer Commission and Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit conducting an investigation into WorldVentures.
Now, rumblings out of South Africa that the NCC have concluded their investigation – with an announcement expected early next week.
In an unverified report, Cape Town Lately are reporting that not only have the NCC concluded their investigation – but that World Ventures will be declared a pyramid scheme next week.
Cape Town Lately has it on good authority that WorldVentures will be identified as an illegal pyramid scheme in South Africa by the National Consumer Commission next week.
It is believed that the investigation has identified clear distinctions between Multi-level Marketing (MLM) companies and pyramid schemes.
Cape Town Lately has it on good authority that WorldVentures is one of the alleged companies that falls foul when it comes to South African law.
For those unfamiliar with the opportunity, WorldVentures is a long-running recruitment scheme that operates in the travel MLM niche.
I poked around and tried to idependently verify Cape Town Lately’s claims. I didn’t have much success initially and was going to leave this article unpublished, but then I ran into verification that the NCC’s investigation had indeed concluded.
The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has concluded a preliminary investigation into nine suspected pyramid schemes.
The commission’s Trevor Hattingh says they will release a report following the organisation’s investigation into nine suspected pyramid schemes, on Monday.
Several businesses, including world ventures, Kipi, NMT Investments and the MMM Scheme have been probed after the Reserve Bank raised concerns about suspicious account activities.
Hattingh says now that they have completed their investigation, the police will take over.
Looks like we’re definitely getting an announcement Monday South African time, but whether or not WorldVentures itself will be declared a pyramid scheme is still up in the air.
Of note is “the MMM scheme”, which I believe is a reference to Sergey Mavrodi’s MMM Global Ponzi scheme.
Earlier this week a South African bank froze the accounts of several MMM South Africa investors.
Trever Hattingh’s mention of “police taking over” suggests that at least one of the companies investigated will face a criminal investigation.
We’ll be closely watching this story for further developments early next week, stay tuned…
Update 6th February 2016 – Citing a need to preserve the integrity of ongoing police investigations, the NCC today announced they will not be publishing the findings of their investigations.
I wonder if WorldWideSolutionz will be one of the nine named. I sure hope so.
Article updated with news that NCC will not be publishing their findings.
World ventures is no scheme. It’s amazing to see South Africans changing their lives by getting paid to travel and creating a better life for families globally. I bet your still paying for travel.
Getting paid to recruit new affiliates != getting paid to travel.
After looking into this, world ventures does not pay bonus for new affiliates, only pays when memberships are purchased.
I can sign up to be a rep and my upline will not receive anytype of compensation for that. Only when memeberships are sold. Still make it a sketchy company?
That’s pseudo-compliance. Ask your upline how many non-affiliate memberships they’ve sold.
A Norwegian investigation revealed that 95% of revenue generated by World Ventures was from affiliates. That’s defacto recruitment commissions, which makes World Ventures a pyramid scheme.
I’ve noted the RELATED POSTS list above, and the most recent post was dated February 6, 2016. I wondered what happened since the report, and the one dated January 30, 2016, above: WorldVentures a pyramid scheme in South Africa next week?
I just googled ‘World Ventures South Africa’, and the most recent information I could come up with was a post dated October 25, 2016, with headline: WorldVentures opens office in SA, encourages entrepreneurship… bizcommunity.com/Article/196/533/152748.html
Not sure what to make of that? Does that mean the investigation from early 2016 concluded that World Ventures was not a pyramid scheme??? Why would WV go ahead and open an office in SA if they were still under an investigation that has not reached a conclusion?
Just asking! I am not involved in WV myself, and never have been. I did due diligence on WV a few years ago, and decided it was not a company that I would put my reputation at risk with.
I really hadn’t heard anything more about them until just a few days ago when a friend of mine called and wanted to share ‘an exciting’ opportunity with me that she had just gotten involved with.
My due diligence now hasn’t changed my mind any, and I’m still not prepared to risk my reputation with a company that has already had several legal challenges!
Regulatory investigations can go on for ages. Until a conclusion is reached World Ventures and their affiliates are free to operate in South Africa.
WorldVentures has no staff or official presence in South Africa, making it harder for authorities to investigate (they can’t just raid the company and shut it down).
Combine that with the fact that regulation in Africa in particular is somewhat lacking overall and you get a haven for scammers to operate out in the open.
Your friend contacted you to recruit you so she could get paid. That’s the pyramid scheme business model at work.