SEC file charges against $600M Zeek Rewards Ponzi
Speculation has run rife over the past 24 hours following the surprise closure of Zeek Rewards home office in Lexington, North Carolina.
It was originally believed that the North Carolina Attorney General might have ordered the closure but this was later denied by the NC AG’s office.
Following this announcement, it was then reported by North Carolina’s “The Dispatch” that Secret Service agents had rocked up to Zeek’s offices to take statements from affiliates.
When approached by the Dispatch, Special Agent Glen Kessler informed them that the Secret Service were working with the SEC on an investigation into Zeek Rewards, but that ‘the Secret Service does not comment on ongoing investigations’.
Just hours later, it was then announced the SEC had filed fraud charges in Charlotte, North Carolina and an emergency asset freeze against Zeek Rewards, Zeekler, Rex Venture Group and CEO Paul Burks (photo right).
The SEC claim Zeek Rewards was a $600 million Ponzi scheme on the verge of collapse and that their emergency action to freeze company assets will ensure that ‘victims can recoup more of their money and potentially avoid devastating losses‘.
According to the SEC’s complaint, ZeekRewards has paid out nearly $375 million to investors to date and holds approximately $225 million in investor funds in 15 foreign and domestic financial institutions. Those funds will be frozen under the emergency asset freeze granted by the court at the SEC’s request.
Confirming initial and ongoing analysis of Zeek Rewards’ business model, compensation plan and cashflow by myself and BehindMLM readers for months on end now, the SEC also claim that
most of ZeekRewards’ total revenues and the “net profits” paid to investors have been comprised of funds received from new investors in classic Ponzi scheme fashion.
Last month, ZeekRewards brought in approximately $162 million while total investor cash payouts were approximately $160 million.
If customers continue to increasingly elect to receive cash payouts rather than reinvesting their money to reach higher levels of rewards points, ZeekRewards’ cash outflows would eventually exceed its total revenue.
After months and months of Zeek Rewards affiliates, supporters and consultants shouting down the laws of basic mathematics, it’s great to finally see that at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, regulators are interested and only interested in following the money to determine whether or not a business is a Ponzi scheme.
When questioned on the amount of affiliate money being paid out as a daily ROI to affiliates, Paul Burks repeatedly stated that this was “proprietary information”.
When then COO Dawn Wright-Olivares was asked on a radio show whether or not Zeek used new affiliate money to pay out existing members, Troy Dooly interjected and warned that the answer to that question would “put Zeek out of compliance”.
“The obligations to investors drastically exceed the company’s cash on hand, which is why we need to step in quickly, salvage whatever funds remain and ensure an orderly and fair payout to investors,” said Stephen Cohen, an associate director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
“ZeekRewards misused the power of the Internet and lured investors by making them believe they were getting an opportunity to cash in on the next big thing.
In reality, their cash was just going to the earlier investor.”
Zeek Rewards’ recently appointed COO, Greg Caldwell, even went so far as to just last week claim that all of Zeek Rewards’ critics were ‘acting on false information‘ and behaving “unprofessionally”.
Unprofessionally you say?
Burks has personally siphoned several million dollars of investors’ funds while operating Rex Venture and ZeekRewards, and he distributed at least $1 million to family members.
If only I had a dollar for every time someone left a comment here on BehindMLM about how great of a man Paul Burks was and how much they trusted him.
As for the future of Zeek Rewards,
Burks has agreed to relinquish his interest in the company and its assets plus pay a $4 million penalty.
Additionally, the court has appointed a receiver to collect, marshal, manage and distribute remaining assets for return to harmed investors.
No word yet as to the futures of the rest of Zeek Rewards’ corporate staff, their accomplices or their cheerleaders.
Troy Dooly from MLMHelpdesk, credited by Zeek Rewards as an “official company trainer”, only minutes ago put out a video claiming that the SEC “didn’t close Zeek Rewards”. Whether or not Dooly has seen the latest news regarding the SEC court filing is unclear.
The SEC put out a press release less than an hour ago titled ‘SEC Shuts Down $600 Million Online Pyramid and Ponzi Scheme‘.
What is clear however is that Dooly appears surprised over criticism from fellow network marketers over his involvement with Zeek Rewards over the past few months.
Dooly claims recent criticism directed at him from within the industry “was not expected”.
Much has been made of Dooly’s reluctance to critically analyse the maths behind the Zeek Rewards business model, compensation plan and commissions structure, with one possible reason being this admission:
I’m not even sure that the Zeek Rewards business was the problem… without a doubt there were times that, just out of spite, I would side with Zeek cause I got frustrated seeing all the negative crap.
Here at BehindMLM I spend a great deal of time analysing MLM business models and whilst I’m no expert, guru or any other such nonsense, I maintain that analysis of a business model, in particular following the money through a compensation plan, wholly is neither “negative” or “positive”.
To assert this is beyond childish. Today the SEC didn’t shut down Zeek Rewards because they felt negative or positive about the company, they shut down it down because investigation into the business model revealed it was a Ponzi scheme.
The same conclusion I reached when I first looked at Zeek Rewards back in September 2011.
The basis for this conclusion? Nothing more than analysis of the company’s business model and compensation plan. Positivity and negativity never even factored into the equation.
Stay tuned for any live updates on this breaking story and in the meantime, feel free to join the live discussion below in the comments.
Update 6:46am August 18th, 2012 – The original SEC complaint can be read here.
In it, the SEC claim that
since approximately January 2011 through the present, the
Defendants (Rex Venture Group and CEO Paul Burks) have raised more than $600 million from approximately 1 million investors nationwide and overseas by making unregistered offers and sales of securities through the ZeekRewards website in the form of Premium Subscriptions and VIP Bids.Unbeknownst to its investors, ZeekRewards is, in reality, a massive
Ponzi and pyramid scheme.Approximately 98% of ZeekRewards’ total revenues, and correspondingly the purported share of “net profits” paid to current investors, are comprised of funds received from new investors.
As I type this update, I’m listening to Troy Dooly on an Aces Radio show, being broadcast live claiming that US laws “are antiquitated” and how Zeek Rewards was seemingly misclassified as an MLM company, rather it should be classified as a “Direct Marketing” company.
Point missed much?
Where does it rank
Madoff: 65 billion
Zeek 600 million
Lol, my coworkers sister just sent in her money yesterday. I wonder how that will play out.
Meh, Zeek will just show the SEC that they stopped using the word “investment” and will be allowed to go back into business.
Where is Otis Campbell and the other Zeek defenders who were claiming that Zeek could pay off everyone if all affiliates cashed out 100%?
Otis was a pretty staunch defender of Zeek, but his absence today is noticeable.
http://www.patrickpretty.com/2012/08/17/urgent-bulletin-moving-sec-calls-zeek-600-million-online-pyramid-and-ponzi-scheme/
i can’t believe the words coming out of this Troy Dooly person’s mouth… like its okay for people to steal peoples money so one women can see her husband, blah,blah,blah
excuse me while i throw-up!
Troy is still in denial, I think. He claims that this is “just an investigation,” yet as we read above Paul Burks has agreed to give up all rights to the company and its assets, plus pay a $4 million fine. Sounds like admission of guilt to me.
NOW who gets the last laugh all you zeek haters? While you were sitting there just hating on Zeek, all us Zeek heads were helping a blind woman see her husband for the first time! Blaahaaahaaahaaaa!
Troy’s last video was obviously made before the official announcement that Zeek was shut down by the SEC.
I can’t believe Troy does not step up and just cover Zeek for being shut down by the SEC. We are over nine minutes in the call so far.
Troy, why not be more sorry for the people I know who just put $10,000 in, or their last $870 as one woman said, in the last few months who lost money.
The heartfelt stories of the lady with the laser surgery on her eyes…paid for by someone is screwed today. The pastor…paid by someone ripped off from zeek. The couple who couldn’t make their house payment…paid for by someone ripped off by zeek.
Ponzie’s aren’t network marketing and they give us network marketers a bad name. That’s why we’re mad and upset!
I mean really? Troy’s heart is breaking for the people who made millions that know longer have their “opportunity”? Not one word about the people who got screwed.
While it was made before the announcement, I am not buying he didn’t know it. I think this was more of a CYA than anything else.
Wonder if he will make a new one now that he knows everyone knows the SEC/Secret Service shut them down and said Zeek was a “Classic Ponzi.”
Troy keeps getting more egg on his face.
Oh, really?
Then he should make a new one ASAP and admit that he was wrong before he loses what little credibility he still has.
That’s what I said, Jimmy. Does anyone really think that Zeek would have closed their doors voluntarily without an SEC investigation?
Well, Troy is doing his radio call now.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jimgillhouse/2012/08/17/troy-speaks-out-on-family-plus-breaking-news-about-zeek
You can tell Troy is just getting info, he sound flustered!
yes, he is just reading the report! LOL
Troy still in denial on that video:
“Pot shots at hurting people”? Really? What about the hundreds of thousands that lost money because the Ponzi sucked all of that money from them to give to those Ponzi investors who came in earlier?
Troy, we’ve (I’ve) been bashing you the whole time…not the other affiliates. I feel for the affiliates and for the record, we are blaming you.
Ok, troy you are really getting stupid, cut the crap it was a ponzi!
Oz,
Please dedicate all efforts to stop people from believing the bidify scam as well. When I first heard about bidify, was back in Feb or march, and at that time their website was an exact copy contentwise that zeek’s was.
Down to the 1.4% avg return, to the 99% auction satisfaction. I knew instantly it was bs, as how can you know your ‘percentage of daily profit’ if the company hasn’t even started yet? How do you know it works out to 1.4% daily? How do you have a satisfaction rate of auction customers when you haven’t run a single auction yet.
It was a total joke, and obviously everything changed when they finally to gear towards going live. But I am sure you’r magical powers of research can pull up a cached copy of the bidify and bidsson site from back in feb/march.
Hopefully, people that have experience with zeek are smart enough will know to stay away, but the people that don’t need to be warned.
We want you all to donate to the zeek relief form, Troy is the president!
Wow, that video from Troy was some real fluff and happy stuff. How about facing the facts? It was a scam. It doesn’t take 10 minutes to say that. Man, that video was weird.
You get a thousand points for every dollar1
He is talking about Vitel..the company that has been all over the Zeek affiliates like vultures. I will never touch that company.
Troy, listening to your radio show now, these people were not just like me!, facing a dream, yes I would like to make tons of money with no work BUT I used my brain to decide if Zeek was legit and the answer was NO!
I heard you before, in the precceeding months, but was convinced you were only a Zeek cheerleader so I dismissed you early on and made my own choice based on my own research to determine Zeek was a ponzi.
I did not invest in Zeek because I was sure it would fail shortly, and I also paid attention to the critics on this website and others, I heard what they were saying and could see what they were saying was what my own research showed.
I did not let greed overcome my common sense, something you Troy should also regain control of. You have ZERO credibility in my books. Man Up Troy, you were wrong, are wrong and continue to defend this illegal ponzi scheme, Shame!!
Oh, dear. I called it, didn’t I?
If it wasn’t the AG’s office, it’s gotta be the Feds. And I was right.
Yes. I think he is a total nut job!
Troy, Is ADD he has forgoten all about zeek>
Yeah KChang…I called an August shut down date! How do you like them apples?
No , my income is in mlm, tROY U R A NUT!
From the SEC statement:
OK, follow me on this. That is pretty stout stuff that they have gotten Paul to agree to. I doubt that they reached that deal between, say, yesterday morning and yesterday afternoon. This has had to be in the works for at least some more significant period of time.
Problem with that fact is that it points out that this thing has REALLY been about to hit the fan for a little while and yet Zeek Rewards was still operating as usual during that time. What a bunch of bastards.
They just kept on selling the snake oil knowing full well that they were about to bite the dust.
So is bidify next? I’m not involved in any of them..thankfully.
@e u called it !
I called it too! I said in late Jan and early Feb it would last 6 months!
A few Zeek supporters challenged me.
I offered 5-to-1 odds where they put $10k in escrow and I put $50k several times. Also did so on another forum. No one took me up on the offer. HA!
This radio show is absolutely worthless…
I know Jimmy…I was offering in January a $1000 bet to any zeek distributor that they would shut down in August….not one taker though. Bummer!
@ Jimmy OK OK you did also 🙂 I LOV all the work you did here!
I wonder when did Darryl Doulgas, Dawn, and the other insiders get paid? Did they get paid while the rest of the affiliates were not?
so are there really ay legit mlm/networking marketing companies out there??
SEC revelation shows that Burks personally siphoned off millions into his own coffers:
http://www.goupstate.com/article/20120817/ARTICLES/120819648/1083/ARTICLES?p=1&tc=pg
I guess the web was even WIDER than we had suspected! The Feds knew ALL ALONG!
What r they talking about?
Let’s see, Nehra said ASD was not a Ponzi and the judge disagreed. He said that Zeek is not a Ponzi and now the SEC/Secret Service disagree. Not exactly a stellar record of performance is it.
By the way, Bidify is run by a convicted felon who ran the Plex Pay Ponzi out of Sweden, was an investor in PIPS (a Ponzi), an investor in Solid Investment (a Ponzi), and I’m sure if I dug deep enough I would find more. I’m sure he has turned over a new leaf. Gag, cough, gasp.
That call was a waste of time.
its a total scheme it doesnt even make sense how money is being made or at all. My boyfriend tried to sign me up and i didnt feel right about it, but i thought oh well and did anyway…..
I have fraud protection my debit card from previous times i had been a victim so it wouldnt work, thats when i said this cant be legit, my fraud protection light it bright red…..
So how is Bidify not being shut down…..or only a matter of time.
What about Global one?
Oz, your SEC link isn’t working.
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2012/2012-160.htm
RE the 6:46 update and Troy Dooly being on a radio show. What is it with Troy Dooly, did the Zeeksters implant some kind of device in his chest that will go off and kill him if he tells the truth about Zeek?
WOW!!!
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2012/comp-pr2012-160.pdf
Fascinating to see that thousands of affilates are now ‘signing a petition’ to send to the SEC to ‘keep zeek going’ and how it has changed their lives for the better.
Clearly they still are totally brainwashed by the lust and greed of making money without doing anything.
This Company is the worst of it’s kind – A con man / woman is bad enough, but these guys got thousands of people from all over the world to do their conning for them.
The directors of this company have acted without conscious to line their own pockets – filthy!!
I’ve had 2 hours sleep in the last 26 hours but detailed analysis of the SEC complaint is underway.
After that I’m taking a break. I see Jimmy is already publishing some of the highlights!
Let’s see if they go after Dawn, Darryl Douglas, Todd Disner, Owen Schweitzer, and all the other top affiliates who raked it in at the expense of others.
All the pain we’ve felt over the past 11 months, and especially the last 6 months as Zeek was experiencing “growing pains”… all vindicated & validated by the SEC.
I’ve never been called so many names before for doing something I felt was so right. Oz, PPBlog, the RealScam guys, K. Chang, and a host of others all took even more daggers than I.
I remember the RealScam guys telling K. Chang that there’s no way in holy heck that Zeek would voluntarily step in a court room with their threats to take down K. Chang’s Zeek hub. And even today, Paul Burks staying away from the court room at all costs by accepting the plea deal.
I wonder if there will be criminal charges beyond the SEC deal? What about all the lies from Darryl Douglas and Dawn and others? All the deception on the support forums?
MY GOODNESS. What a day.
What I want to know is what happens to the 2012 tax stuff now
Will all affilates have their earning reported or will very one get to run away because the company has just fallen
I mean I bet most doesn’t have the documentation since they can’t get into their back office And the company can’t report or send out anything now or can they
@chang you have done a good job of posting astute information until yesterday when you said ” I may go as far as say that Troy Dooly himself may have been hoodwinked by Dawn and company”
Troy Dooley is a supposed “expert in “network marketing” yet I someone with no experience could see from the moment I looked at this scam.. I knew it was a Ponzi scheme and i thought to myself anybody would be really stupid or greedy to join ths scheme.
When presented with these types of “opportunities” all one has to do is look at the end product to see if has stand alone value or intrinsic value or in other words would you buy the product if it was not tied to a money making opportunity.
With Zeek and its crappy website with boot leg rinky dink products the obvious answer was no. So how on earth would they be able to pay the 1 to 1.5% a day to investors? Anyone whit any common sense and with the desire to see truth could have smelled this scam a mile away.
I think its really pathetic until the very end people like him and others are still making excuses.
I have no doubt this guy and large percentage knew this was a scam and the greed factor dominated their little minds. Shame on the schemers and a wake up call to the uniformed.
I have no way of knowing, but these things do take time. If you think the Secret Service/SEC just started this investigation when the NC AG issued his CID, you would be mistaken. My guess is this investigation was started sometime last fall.
Just because nothing has happened doesn’t mean that something won’t happen. All we can do is wait and see.
@Jimmy…those sensitive to all the Zeek distributors…we were all attacked by zeek distributors! Why doesn’t Troy comment about the distributors that were commenting and liking on facebook the post about Paul sleeping with our moms!
I’ve said some stuff to piss people off, but I never went after their moms LOL!
Even though investments in Zeek followed my risk tolerances, It’s still tough to swallow the loss of profitibility and my credibility.
I just hope all my friends will understand how I felt when I forced them into Zeek. Sadly one guy just sold his property to pour money into zeek.
Lesson learned, what goes up fast, will come down fast. But zeek goes down too fast.
What’s really funny is on that website “isitdownrightnow” they are still posting messages about “please don’t shut down Zeek”.
Kchang. There are some true believers and cant accept the fact. When invesments dont work out, just take the loss and move on to the next opportunity.
I was also a zeek maniac with all the profits made last couple month but this is clear enough to move on. Hope get 30-50% existing zeek points.
Troy Dooly is an embarrassment to the legitimate industry of MLM/Network Marketing. It was obvious to me that Zeek was a Ponzi masquerading as an MLM. Troy is not that stupid… at least I don’t think he is.
For him to say “there were times just out of spite, I would side with Zeek just ’cause I got frustrated seeing all the negative crap” is utterly ludicrous. Either he is totally stupid or he was getting compensated very well. Maybe both. 🙁
I have numerous friends and acquaintances who are/were with Zeek. When I questioned them about the validity of the business model, many would reference Troy’s endorsement.
Having been a full time Network Marketing professional for over a decade, Troy needs to shut down his MLMHelpDesk – I shudder to think of the people he ‘helped’ to stay in Zeek with his positive spin over the past few months.
Nice picture on the CNN article:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/17/technology/zeek-rewards-ponzi-scheme/index.html
I am not buying that Troy didn’t know this was a Ponzi. He was a big supporter of ASD, and if he didn’t learn from ASD what a Ponzi is then he is not the brightest bulb in the lamp.
Funny how he never mentions that bit of news isn’t it.
http://www.ncdoj.com/News-and-Alerts/Alerts/Information-about-Zeekler-Zeek-Rewards.aspx
Started operating in January 2011. So much for 14 rock solid years in business.
Its great the way affiliates love to “stretch” the truth. No one cares that lighthouse the dormant parent company was around way back when. Zeek Rewards The ponzi money scheme with an roi started in 2011.
I am still flabbergasted.
$600 million and you have the ugliest looking back office ever, terrible IT, and can’t even pay for enterprise voice conferencing but use free conferencing. And don’t forget the Adsense blocks on the ZRN blog.
ROTFLMAO.
Zeek rewards affiliates: I’m offering a free meal of soup as a consolation for all of you who are now struggling. It will boost your moral and starving appetites as you get ready to now look for jobs.
Keep your head up zeekheads. The sky is not falling. Oh yeah tips are appreciated.
can anyone guess if and how the freezed assets will be divided between the affiliates ? Do you think each will at least recieve the initial investment ?! (oops… is it in compliance to use this term now ?) lol
laughs aside, I sincerely hope that at least those who have not managed to cash out their initial pay will get it all back !
I wonder if hippiediva cashed out her account before the feds moved in. Can someone be accused of insider information if the security is illegal to begin with?
Fox 8 now has a news story about it here:
http://myfox8.com/2012/08/17/62643/
Well, there *is* an explanation: that Troy Dooly went in hoping that Zeek’s NOT a scam, and Zeeksters shown him exactly what he hoped to see. it’s classic “foot-in-door” technique, first impression and all that.
Is it the “correct” explanation? Only Troy Dooly would know.
As I said, I am willing to give Dooly benefit of doubt… just as I did for Zeek… UNTIL they tried to shut me down. THEN I really knew they are a scam, but then, that’d be my own opinion.
Whats great is how the cheerleaders touted the “complicated” business model as genius and groundbreaking when it was nothing more than a simple ponzi that anyone could run. Money in-money out.
Meanwhile Dawn, Paul, and Todd Dinser(ASD), sat together at a table at red carpet events knowingly taking money from senior citizens who were probably cashing out their retirement funds to line their greedy pockets with, knowing all along that this alone was the only source of their wealth.
Unwitting participants willing to fork over their lives savings in hopes of striking it rich.
Hey there fine people…. Sorry about the downtime. Zeek is just going through some ‘growing pains’.
We got the ZeekGeeks working overtime to break us out of jail in a few weeks, and we can spin up the next Ponzi for y’all. Dawn will be posing in her orange (jumpsuit)umm blanketcape!
Please send us some donations in the meantime so we can pay for our legal defense….
Say goodbye – another one bites the dust 🙂
BASTARDS!
Paul Burke may want to go into hiding for along time!
If anyone should be jailed it should be Dawn. She was the face of the company until they fired her…”How could this sweet mother in a blanket cape be a swindler?”…
Will there be criminal charges?
Could they have controlled this? Do you think at one time the penny auctions were paying distributors and then the compounding points just got too high?
Couldn’t they just have lowered they daily pay out, put higher priced items on the auctions and put a cap on points?
Maybe Dawn could get a job at Burger King when she gets out seeing as how she loves burgers so much.
She would have to be careful tho and not give the burgers away, BK does not offer a 1.5% roi.
Let the fireworks begin.
Just shows Troy is an Idiot! denial, denial denial even though SEC says it shut it down!!!!!
The SEC claims they have taken hold of the funds at the last minute so they could distribute them back to the investors who got hurt by the ponzi.
can anyone say or guess what this means ? does it mean all investors, world wide, will at least get their initial payment back ?! thanks
You’ll be lucky if you see your money again due to the number of affiliates. In other words don’t count on it any time soon.
These things take time. Some Ad Surf Daily members are still trying to recoop their funds.
Kudos to KSchang and BehindMLM for doing everything to warn everyone. But so many people had a CULT-LIKE attitude…reminiscent of the Primerica days…
WHen you defend something you truly dont know and put all your faith in it in the face of logic, its called blind faith, which leaves to idol worship……and you should only have blind faith in religion…not money!
THis a HUGE lesson for many MLM people who looked up to Troy Dooley that misled them, and had so much blind love and blind faith in Zeek….
Men,lie, women lie, dogs even lie(down)…but numbers dont lie!
Unfortunately what these criminals typically do is purchase an old defunct business and use their name as the parent company. All businesses are registered with their respective Secretary of State and the registering agents information is public record.
Criminals contact the old owners and offer them a few bucks to sell them their business. This way the original formation dates stay in place and the affiliate businesses can then claim that they have been around for years/decades.
Zeek is changing lives…
30 cents on the dollar if you’re lucky, especially since so much of the affiliate money went to “investors” oversees. The feds are going to have a very difficult time recovering that money.
CNN has picked up the story
http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/17/technology/zeek-rewards-ponzi-scheme/index.html
I was hoping to get an update to Zeek Rewards News telling me the zeek geeks are working on it and everything is well in zeekland.
I’m sure the silly petition going around is going to convince the SEC that Zeek is not a ponzi and has changed alot of lives and allow them to keep operating as usual and everyone will benefit from the endless money tree ad infinitum.
I’ve been getting all the petitions to sign in an attempt to save Zeek in my email. I didn’t.
Hell, there was no saving this Zeek ponzi. My entire upline was lapping up all the “we’ll be better & stronger after the investigation” Kool-Aid. Listening to the Messiah Dooly spin & spin the last couple of days. Unbelievable!!
If he didn’t know this was coming for the last 6 weeks, well, brain failure. He had to know but yet was still luring in the suckers with all the “all is well” crap and collecting his money under the table… that’s what I think.
So now he can see ZeeBates was needed to add external funds so that this Zeek wasn’t the most obvious ponzi going. Come on Troy. It was a ponzi before and ZeeBates wasn’t going to change that. ZeeBates wouldn’t have generated enough income to pay 1 of the top 12 affiliates.
I knew 7/6/2012 this house of card was falling down. Yet, I couldn’t warn the blind & faithful in my upline.
I’m just glad I got my 10,500 out of it to and that money is back in my bank. Turn out the lights, the party is over.
CNN, USA Today, Reuters, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal all have articles on Zeek Rewards. It’s funny that all they do is report what happened in the past. What ever happened to investigative reporting?
Kudos to Oz, K.Chang, and everyone else for doing the dirty work!
Isn’t that part of why they demand that no documents or material be touched, so they could figure how much each affiliate deserves ?
I searched the verdict’s protocol but couldn’t find anything specific to the redistribution of the funds…
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2012/comp-pr2012-160.pdf
Wow. So glad I listened and cashed out! Thanks to you all!
Its nothing more than fancy mlm wordsmithing. In other words LIES. These types of schemes try to spin anything in their arsenal to their advantage to make themselves look legitimate.
Zeek tried too hard to look like a legitimate business. If they didn’t try so hard to not look like a scheme and market to poor old grannies and remained in the shadows like JBP and other money schemes the wouldn’t have caught as much scrutiny of authorities.
For the worse now
Hell if anything these dummies were just burying themselves with that petition. What legitimate business or even investment for that matter needs people to petition in a cult-like fashion begging authorities to not dry up their free payday?
The petition drew even more scrutiny to Zeek and the nature of how fraudulent it was.
All I can see is the headline of Troy’s new post…website is still screwed up. I don’t need to read the article to respond though.
Troy’s Headline: WHY DOES NETWORK MARKETING COMMUNITY SHOOT OUR WOUNDED? ZEEK REWARDS AFFILIATES SHOT DEAD
1. Troy, they weren’t a network marketing company, they may have been disguised as one, but like we told you…they were a Ponzie scheme. Different industry all together!
2. I don’t see a whole lot of comments directed towards the zeek wounded as individuals. Sure, there are a few random dumb asses we’re forced to take shots at. I see the negative comments directed at zeek as a collective.
However, my critics want to kill me and Paul Burks slept with my mom (and other skeptics), according to haters.
3. You want us to give you the slings and arrows instead of distributors. We have been all along. At first in a reasonable manner…later on in a more pissed off manner. Not we’re just baffled by your comments. You’re deflecting BIG TIME.
4. You still haven’t shown any concern for the distributors who were f******. Some of them invested after seeking you out as a credible expert. You’re still weeping about the fraudulent millionaires who’ve lost the goose that lays the golden eggs.
5. According to the numbers the SEC is reporting, Burks and corporate new this was a Ponzie all along. You can keep denying it to keep your rep, but you’re looking foolish.
6. Yes, I told you so.
What’s BB? Bastard Burks
I put in 20k in this scheme. How much effort am I going to invest worrying about getting back the Investment? (everyone can now use the word we do not speak, Voldemort is dead).
Very little. I knew the risk going in, I was aware of the red flags, and it will be a long time before anyone is returned money. My energy will be focused on my other businesses and earning another 20k.
Consider this.
Those that created their own/friend/family customers to get 20% commission and matching VIP points could LOSE MONEY if the courts do a clawback.
Say you purchased 5k as a ‘customer’ but only bought in for 1k under your affiliate aaccount. The receiver will see you only buying in 1k and not give you credit for the other 5k (they were under different names). This could hurt some affiliates.
Zeek is changing lives.
thanks sprinter. have any idea how long this could take ?
To see a true ponzi Zeek people just read the charges Specially from 33 on. Paul Burks lied to you!!!
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2012/comp-pr2012-160.pdf
Get over it and move on my friend. No telling how much he has did offshore for his family…..
Having been someone who has been in Network Marketting for sometime.. I have come to the epiphany about the Truth of MLM.. Troy you are guilty as anyone of obfuscating the truthe and promoting the lie of MLM/Network Marketting.
Here’s the TRUTH.. Network Marketting is nothing more than gambling. It’s no differnt than playing the lottery, yet the MLM companies and insiders, like casinos promote the idea that all you have to do is play to win, but unlike casinos they mask the truth about the odds of winning.
Here’s why they are the same.. All MLM require you to participate (Play), they requrire you to place your monthly autoship or subscription.. (Place your bet, buy your ticket) And the hope of fortunes is predicated on you getting the right downline (Lucky numbers).
Like the lottery or placing your bet on the roulet table, the reward is hardly predicated on any skill you personally have or possess.. but it’s predicated upon the chance that someone you know, knows someone who knows someone etc and you can build a large and dynamic downline…
99.9% of all who play the game don’t get the magic downline combination.. A select few who have are up on stage telling you all you have to do is play the game.. But in reallity all you have to do to win the lottery is play the game.
So Troy.. level with people.. MLM is gambling.. And Paul Burks was a thug who promoted a Ponzi scheme.
I joined Zeek and it seems to me a slam dunk SEC case.. If he paid out 160millon last month and only took in 162 million then that 160Million did not represent 50% of the profits of the company and he knew it. Clear case of fraud.
Well, MB, many of my referrals aren’t so fortunate, having reservs to spend on “epic adventures”, but rather shed blood and sweat to put in a mere 2k, which they loaned with interest, and now – lost.
I am very near ground zero, and I have heard many stories of new affiliates taking CASH to sign up at the Zeek headquarters in Lexington (up to $10K a pop).
It is hard to believe that all that cash made it into the bank. I suspect that Mr. Burks took quite a bit more than the $11M alleged in the SEC complaint.
James
MLM is not gambling., It is a business and to many fast money people are sold as you say. But it is business when set up legimately and you have to go to work. It does not build on its own.
If you think you do not have to work you are being lied to and look for a real one. It takes work and hard work just as opening your own business..
Can anyone else get into the Zeek Rewards website? If I can’t post my ad, I’m going to totally miss out on today’s RPP!
Did you read in the SEC complaint that 0.25% of the 10 billion VIP bids purchased were ever spent on Zeekler.com?
For one, that seems high to me, but for another, SEC must have been talking with them/investigating them for a LONG time to get the kind of numbers that they have. The SEC didn’t disclose how long they’ve been investigating Rex Ventures, did it?
I’d only be speculating (as I am with the 30%) but i’d guess at least 12 months, because first the Feds have to conclude their case, because if Burks is found innocent then they would look pretty silly if they not only seized all that money, but actually paid it out.
Given the fact that it look like Burks is going to settle without going to trial, it will undoubtably expedite things, but there are A LOT of moving parts here so it will be a while.
Zeek was five time the size of ASD with many times more foreign investors.
can there be a lawsuit against zeek to recover some or all of the money lost?
You’ve been in networking marketing for “some time” but you think it’s “nothing more than gambling”?
Either you’re just making this up or you’ve never had success with network marketing.
There are a lot of respectable companies out there that have a network marketing or MLM model built into them. But they all take hard work in order to build the business so that one can see the kind of success they wish to achieve.
With some people, that can be enough to pay off a bill, pay the car payment, the mortgage, their kids’ college education.
But the important thing to remember is that any valid network marketing or mlm business must have a real product, and must provide value to the customer.
Without that, there is no real opportunity.
Burks can’t be proven innocent, he already settled with the SEC.
how i get my money back
I hate to say it guys, but you were right all along… Moving forward, are there any MLMs that you guys have reviewed, and feel are on the level?
I understand if you do not feel comfortable naming specific companies, so if that is the case, can you point me in the right direction??
Instinctively I would have figured that mlmhelpdesk would be a great place to look, but with all that has gone on with zeek, I am not so sure anymore.
I really don’t think he had any bad intentions, but it definitely makes me question his judgment.
Not exactly, he has “agreed” to settle, but if additional regulatory agencies or AG’s get involved and pile on charges, things could change.
As I mentioned above, it looks like he will not go to trial as the evidence is clearly stacked against him, but things aren’t set in stone yet.
I said he can’t be proven innocent. I didn’t say he couldn’t be proven guilty. There is no way to undo the SEC agreement. It can only get worse for Burks, not better.
It could’ve worked. If Ebay would’ve opened it’s doors to 1 million investors, they would’ve made 1 million millionaires. Instead, they kept it all for the 10 or so that got it off the ground.
Zeek was supposed to be buying another company which would increase profits and get it back into the safe zone. I did hear that all would get their initial investments back.
Once again, the rich get richer, and the middle class struggle.
I’m sure he’d be happy to settle out of court for 4 million and not have the other millions shipped offshore, because US banks weren’t big enough to cope, brought into scrutiny.
Looks that way
THere still may be criminal charges against Burks by feds….You have multiple countries involved also…
This is a write off, until notified of different…
I’m sure it’s semantics at this point, but per the SEC statement he has “agreed to settle”. If the ink was dry, the statement would say the SEC has “settled claims”. all it takes is one idiot attorney to convince Burks to fight this. Government agencies often hold open cases until the other regulatory agencies involved complete their investigations and bring formal charges as well. This helps avoid a double jeopardy situation between jurisdictions as well as makes their plea offer more compelling to the accused.
There is many quit their jobs and depending on this program to provide for their families and put food on their table but yet now it’s all over for all and yet they want us all to have a job and seek better jobs and other ideas but yet they want to take them away.
we know who the real boss is here the ones who took them down. And they get paid and didn’t even have put a ad out as well. Very SAD. God Bless all who are hurt by this.!
Where are the zeekheads now? Still making all that money now?
It’s all tactics.
The SEC civil action allows for “emergency relief” IOW, Zeek is stopped dead in its’ tracks and the money is frozen.
Criminal charges don’t allow for that to happen IOW, the accused is considered innocent until proven otherwise.
People should remember that the Presidents’ Interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is multi agency for this very reason.
As was done in the ASD case, the task force is able to employ both civil and criminal law to stop Zeek dead in its’ tracks and protect the money and assets while it takes its’ time nailing the offender/s to the wall.
I notice the whole compliance course idea of not calling Zeek Rewards an investment doesn’t appear to be saving Paul Burks much, as the SEC affidavit refers to the selling of unregistered securities.
Somebody has to get the ” Emergency Webinar ” I heard T. Lamont did.
Blamed the goverment for takin zeek and paul burkes away from us, the stole it from us, the goverment wanted all that money for themselves. Heard it was a laugh riot.
Just shows to the guy on face book put a comment out that Paul was bigger than Jesus I think the lord didn’t like that. And that guy Val was his name who is a idiot.
You can here on the calls that dawn was a fake con and that why they try to hire other ones.
Have you guys not figured out what Troy’s role was? He’s part of the Ponzi up to his eyeballs.
Think how much better the scam works if you have a legitimate-looking front man who doesn’t appear affiliated with the company to dispel any doubts people might have.
???
http://fox2now.com/2012/08/17/zeekler-com-closes-hq-after-sec-investigation/
Incredibly the Zeekheads are still claiming that Zeek will return. Go to Youtube and check out the comments on the “Don’t listen to the Zeek Rewards BS” video.
I wish Troy would get his needle off of affiliates that were marketing out of “compliance”.
That had nothing to do with what Zeek was from the outset.
I mentioned to Troy on his site that I didn’t think Paul Burks could “accidentally” create a ponzi.
The fact that he lied every single day and simply made up the value of the RPP shows he is not a decent human being with sincere intentions.
They seem to be a bit behind in their reporting.
@Dreamer
eBay isn’t a MLM company. Fail.
From the SEC affidavit that Jimmy pointed out earlier:
I remember saying long ago that Zeek would have needed to make millions of profit on their penny auctions every day in order to cover the outstanding point balances. Just no way in hell to do that with 100-200 auctions per day. But I don’t think any of us figured upon 3 billion points.
Just think how big the points balance would have been if this had been allowed to continue another several months.
I also remember pointing out that since their top 12 people were earning over $1 million a month, they’d need 1200 people investing $10,000 each month just to cover those 12 people, not to mention how many more investors to cover everyone else.
This illustrates why the SEC said that this ponzi was nearly bankrupt anyway. I think it would have been hard to find 1200 people each month with $10,000 to spare.
Apparently it wasn’t, considering they took in $162M last month in new revenue.
@Lost members
They got paid because they didn’t quit their jobs to chase Ponzi dreams.
In hindsight it’s a good thing the people whose jobs it is to investigate Ponzi schemes and take them down didn’t quit, or who knows how many more people might have been sucked into Zeek Rewwards.
LOL!! I am Val! Didn’t you get it that I was just mocking the lunacy of what others were posting? 🙂
They brought in 160 mil last month ..and if the SEC only has 235 mil of zeek money .. That only leaves 75mil to cover the rest of the people who have yet to cash out there initial investment.. So NO u won’t be getting all your money back
If wait 90 days to cash out it will take u 25 days of cashing out 100% daily to get ur initial investment back plus at least 14 more days to receive the last payment so at least 129 days so about 4.5 months off new affiliates that havnt got their money out!!
235 mil only covers about 1.5 months of new comers investments !! .. Makes them about 450 mil short ! Not to mention all those people that jus been letting there point grow for months
y I’m glad you were Val I thought there was really some Idiot out there that really thought Paul was bigger than Jesus now I can sleep better knowing that there’s not one out there thinking of such a thing that.
although now the daily awards are gone and taken away it was fun posting ad for a while gave me something to do and watch the computer just come all to a crash.
Just like a thieve in the night the lord will return.To all Jesus is lord not some fake computer scam artise get your faith back you should have all known better.(;
I am here for the lost members and all there familys stay and have faith not that the company will open back up but instead your blind eyes it’s over for the company. (;
we all knew that zeek rewards was a ponzi. you would have thought a man smart enough to create a 600 million dollar ponzi would have been smart enough to have an exit plan. what were you thinking paul burke?
Wait until FTC, SS, IRS, AND the AG office bring charges. You’ve only seen the SEC in action, because they can order asset freeze. Other agencies need more time.
i know some really smart people that got taken by zeek. what were these people thinking?
This is a repeat, but…
Folks, for reference, here’s what happens to Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes in the US
http://kschang.hubpages.com/hub/How-Pyramid-Schemes-and-Ponzi-Schemes-are-Prosecuted-in-the-US
And specifically Ad Surf Daily
http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2012/07/scam-study-ad-surf-daily.html
if you are wondering how to get your money back, you have to wait. Feds have already appointed a guy to take over all RVG assets (and possibly clawbacks from those who were paid before this all went down, like they did with Madoff’s case) and it’ll take him a couple months to sort through the mess, then a couple months for him to put out a “restitution program” where you all can register as victims, then your bonafides verified. Finally, you’ll get paid, It took 2-3 years for ASD victims.
if you didn’t get back everything, you can write off losses as tax deduction, but you’ll need to look up how yourself.
Really smart doesn’t mean they are skeptical in all area. My favorite story was Dr. Stephen Greenspan, who literally wrote the book on gullibility. He’s a Madoff victim.
http://kschang.hubpages.com/hub/How-does-a-person-become-gullible-and-why-How-can-it-be-corrected
@Lost members will all live still
It was like I had to make absurd posts to try to nudge people to think just a little because very few of the people there seemed to want to use any reasoning…
They were short a lot more than that. There was 3 billion on VIP points that had not yet expired. It was exactly as we predicted on here the last 11 months.
Total scam.
RPP % was fake, not irregular enough, no changes for holidays or IT glitches.
Fake customers.
External revenue a tiny fraction of the actual revenue.
Affiliates paying affiliates = Ponzi.
BehindMLM and its brethren investigators NAILED IT.
how much $$$ will Dawn’s cape bring on E-bay?
Troy Dooly is so full of donkey crap/bull shix.t. I once asked him if Zeekrewards is 100% legit and his answer was yes.
Folks, in my opinion I think Troy was an affiliate of Zeekrewards.
Wow, couldn’t disagree more, you should not have blind faith in anything unless you are brain dead and unable to think for yourself. Especially religion, OMG No!
Folks, be very careful about the VITEL COMPANY. Troy Dooly’s son is the sponsor of that company.
I agree, I think he had a lot of skin in the game. He was also the drinktender at the company kool-Aid stand.
We told you so. I’m glad I spent not 1 cent in this crime. I want to thank Oz and Kschang and PP, realscam.com and scam.com for being champions of this cause. You were right, I will continue to follow your blogs/ websites.
I can however say I will never EVER believe A WORD that comes out of TROY DOOLYS mouth. Troy you have absolutely NOT ONE SPEC of credibility remaining.
Give it up Troy, you’re a nobody now, get a real job, go clean toilets or something where you belong scum!
Old Val Tomescheski and his “comments” on the Zeek FB page were hysterical. And most of the Zeekheads didn’t even get it.
Here are a few highlights of his work for old times sake:
There were many more. Thanks for making it so much fun looking at the now defunct ZR Facebook page back in the day!!!
They were blinded by the dollar signs in their eyes.
It’s this level of ignorance that is quite alarming. And what about all the food they took OFF the table and money they stole using false promises from the people that got scammed. Oh yeah, they don’t count, right?
If you quit your job not knowing this was an obvious ponzi scheme, there’s a Forrest Gump quote that comes to mind.
@Al
All hail Val Tomescheski! I loved reading the ZR FB page because of you. I even liked a few of your comments.
They were thinking that 3 Google searches that found people extolling the virtues of the Zeekler and the ZR profits they were making amounts to adequate due diligence.
The guy that tried to recruit me never even heard of Ads Surf Daily, just goes to show what kind or research people did (which looks to be about as much effort as placing the daily ad to get their daily “profit” share).
Smart people didn’t fall for it.
@Dan:
To borrow a quote from someone else on this blog, there were more red flags raised around Zeek than all of China. Too bad they all bought into the get rich quick idea.
You’d think they’d learn that saying about too good to be true by now. That’s the main reason I was suspicious of it to begin with. What company is ever going to pay people huge amounts of money just for posting one spam ad on the internet each day?
“Hang Down Your Head Troy Dooly…”
Great job guys, been following your updates since the first day I was approached by a Zeek affiliate and you have saved me a ton of money!
HAHA LOSERS
You keep speculating here while I’m watching my money grow exponentially. These are just growing pains, from which Zeek will come out stronger and better, and biggering and biggering, everybody do do do do do do do do need a Zeek. (that’s a children book reference)
On a more serious note, thank you and kudos all around, and thank you authorities for killing it in a year or less. I’ve spent the last several hours gathering evidence on local (Israeli) leaders, contacting the media, and who knows.
I urge anyone in position to do so to reasonably and legally do what they can to make those lizard-like leaders pay.
And on a personal note, my mom just called me to thank me from stopping her from going into it several months ago. Her friend (who’s been vehemently trying to recruit there ever since) did get in, and now she lost the money that she loaned people to join under her.
Oz and friends, keep up the good fight. I will now soldier on with you against fraud and deception, doing my share in my little part of the world, that seems so fertile when it comes to this sort of hogwash.
(forever wrapped in her blanket cape)
At least the SEC will have a nice list of people to clawback from 🙂
There was a lot of people who made money, some a little some a crap load. Do you think everyone who made a profit will get hammered even if they had no idea what was going on ?
I think the people with a huge downline must have known something to get all those people to sign up.
I found this but still a little fuzzy, can some one check this out and try to make an educated guess if everyone who made money over and above their initial investment has to pay back profits ?!
http://www.theworldlawgroup.com/files/file/docs/United%20States-Clawbacks%20in%20the%20Aftermath%20of%20Madoff.pdf
This man got me for $150. I’ve been involved 6 months and never counted my chickens, that’s why I had very little invested. But I have no sympathy for someone who quit there 9-5 so they could sit home and put 2 min a day and no effort into being successful.
I was just some guy who was hoping to cash in before s**t hit the fan! So the $150 joke is on me. Troy also had some great moments like the blind lady who was helped by zeek! Haha Great story Troy!
Also I forgot to add, Vote for Paul Burks in the 2012 presidential Elections! This man obvious has a knack for generating money and can revitalize our economy.
NOTE: I am the source from a previous article on Zeekler. My comments here are from first hand knowledge and experience.
Paul Burks is no “great man” both he and Dawn who cooked up this scheme together knew exactly what they were doing.
In fact, the last time I spoke with Dawn in May, she was trying to distance herself form the inevitable and stated clearly, she was betting on her new MLM with e-cigarettes to be successful by the time Zeekler crashed. So, they expected a crash of some king with Zeekler.
The math never made any sense to me, so for all the time I was offered bids or a place in the “matrix” I never took them up on it. As a consultant, I wanted fair pay, simply because this entire program never made a lick of sense to me.
And truth be told, I occasionally questioned if I was the dumb one when everyone around me was making major coin.
I am saddened that Troy’s entire reputation will be tainted from his affiliation with Zeek. I expect that OH Brown will also have his reputation marred. They acted as cheerleaders for this organization, inciting thousands of new affiliates to invest their monies in it based on their respective reputations.
Troy is making himself look the fool by continuing to cheer on Zeek and make bold statements and hypothesis that there will be no criminal charges, that Zeek shut down entirely on their own (I am sure they were heavily pressured into doing so).
I am shocked he would ask for compassion for Paul Burks – what about all those affiliates he helped drive into this scheme that have now lost their money? That would be like asking compassion and understanding for Bernie Madoff.
My personal opinion is that Paul and Dawn both need to be brought up on charges. As I provided to OZ, I had direct knowledge of their lies to affiliates regarding payment gateways and technologies to explain why payouts could not be made at certain times and knowledge that Dawn knew this was eventually going to end in an SEC inquiry as far back as February 2012.
For those of you still loyal to Paul and Dawn. Here is the real history. Dawn worked with Paul on various projects prior to this. Her addiction to pills, opiates and cocaine affected her ability to continue being successful in business and raise her children. So, Paul helped her get clean.
She went on a trip to the far east with her now boy toy, Alex. When they came back, Dawn came up with the idea for Zeekler, having seen many penny auctions in Asia. Together Dawn and Paul put together an MLM for penny auctions and launched Zeekler and Zeekrewards.
Zeekler was never profitable and they never made money on anything other than the MLM side of the business. In fact, Dawn was nearly destitute prior to the launch of the rewards program.
Both Paul and Dawn took large sums of money form the company in compensation for themselves and their family/friends. (Ozedit: removed comments about Dawn’s personal life that don’t have anything to do with Zeek Rewards)
Paul and Dawn’s personal character’s are suspect and while I hate airing their dirty laundry, I am sickened that Troy is trying to make anyone feel sorry for them.
On a personal level, I am sincerely sorry to all those affiliates involved in this venture. Those of you that ever reached out to me know I warned against your continued involvement based on facts I knew. I am hopeful some of you took my advice.
I joined Zeek Rewards 2 months ago on the suggestion and success of a friend. I did no research, I’m not familiar with ponzi of mlm problems, I just joined on faith.
Was this wise on my part, no, but I have always believed there is good in this world, so acting on the faith of a trusted friend it was easy.
This is how the masses are recuted, For some it my be geed, for others somthing else. but i think most people are blind to the big piture and simple trust a friend. My belief is this is how it is so easy to recute a million plus affiliates (who doesnt trust an old friend).
I dont blaim my friend for my losses because he trusted an old friend as well. The people who design these business are to blame because they know no one will trust them directly but they will trust an old friend.
My Vote Shut Down Zeek and all companys like them. They are turning American People’s trust for one another into their profits by design.
I found this post on talkgold.com just now… here’s part of it…
How are they still defending zeek after this? lol
Does anyone have any insight on where this stands among other ponzi’s? 600 million seems like quite a bit. Can’t find many others claiming more damages.
IMHO, I believe this was the “plan” from the beginning. Paul knew this wouldn’t last. His attorneys and the top people involved knew this would happen way before it did.
Probably even hoping for it so when the “shut down” went public, it would leave affiliates with the “dang, now I LOST my money” diversion, so most of them would just chuck the initial investment up as a lost.
In addition, part of the plan was to generate hundreds of millions so they could use a large portion of the money to pay any and everyone they could to stay out of prison whilst siphoning millions to have after the dust settled.
Truthfully, I questioned Zeek when I saw how makeshift the websites (both Zeek Rewards and Zeekler) were. Being a web designer myself, that was the first red flag to me.
Trust me folks, Paul is not running around with butterflies in his stomach. He planned this. I read somewhere he was involved in a ponzi years ago. Not completely sure on that however.
I wanted to join even though I KNEW the money from the profit share was new affiliate money, but over a decade in NW and MLM experience, I had a lot of questions that couldn’t be answered. And the information on behindmlm made me question Zeek rewards even more thoroughly, so thanks to Oz and other commentators.
You know (sort of off Zeek), over my years in MLM and NW, I discovered that over 90 percent of them are PURPOSELY DESIGNED for most of their affiliate, distributor, associates and representatives to fail. This is why they have things such as PV’s and GV’s that must be met each and every month.
Think about it. If there were no “monthly quotas” or monthly requirements, most people would have the opportunity to advance to the next compensation level or what have you, and the company would be paying out money to most of its distributors and that’s not what the company is in business for. They are in business to make money, not pay it out.
Zeek basically capitalized on people’s laziness. This is why I know they had this planned from the beginning.
I bet Paul’s first thought when the “Fed ran up in there” was, “sheesh, what took ya so long.”
Not necessarily “has to” but definitely can be asked to.
The cases are different in that the amounts involved in the case of some of Madoffs’ clients are in the multiple millions, their real names are known and the costs involved for the receiver/s attempting to recover smaller amounts is likely to be prohibitive.
Having said that, if I was one of Zeeks’ heavy hitter big winners I’d most certainly be soiling my underwear BIGTIME.
From about the time of the CEP ponzi prosecution, there’s been noticeable change in official attitudes to clawbacks
That is one very powerful post, Mr Source! And I am afraid I was one of the ones who went to watch Troy Dooley because I thought he was/is a type of “watch dog” for the MLM industry and as such was someone we could all trust.
I do hope that he was duped as well as the rest of us and was not a “part” of the whole scheme; but in hindsight, it almost seems like he was a part of it from at least Feb 2012 on. Or else he was paid off!
As for Paul burks and Dawn Oliveras, there has only ever been good information put out about them and how Paul burks was an upstanding businessman only interested in “feeding” the little people.
It is still very hard to accept that the SEC thinks our subscriptions were actually “stocks/bonds” in the company. I never, ever thought my subscription gave me any proprietary interest or ownership in the company, nor did the company ever try to sell me that concept.
According to MLM rules and regulations we have to get something for our subscriptions so we got four websites PLUS 250 bids a month for use in the auctions. So for those people who think the bids were not paid for, we did pay for them every month.
And most of us (as affiliates) did not use our bids to buy anything so in reality there were always lots of “paid for bids” that get used PLUS there were only certain auctions that we could use those bids on.
There were only certain auctions that FREE bids (that customers got from us) could be used on, also. I watched lots of auctions that could only be bid on by using “bids purchased from the auction site it self”, that the company made lots of money on, even when the customer only had to pay a portion of the price of the article.
I do think that by “settling” with the SEC, Paul Burks has diminished whatever reputation he may have ever had. That saddens me in that many people only ever joined because of his honorable reputation.
As a Zeekrewards affiliate, I may be blinded, but I can only hope that someone will look at this with a fine toothed comb over the next few months and decide that maybe there really is no fraud being committed and Zeekrewards will be able to rise up again, even if it has to change some things to make the SEC more amicable to this form of business.
This post is not to defend or deny anything and the government will make it’s own decisions, I only think that maybe they aren’t looking at the whole scenario.
I know I will get boos and catcalls for this post but I feel it is necessary to counteract a bit of the “i told you so’s” and the “holier than thou” attitudes that I have seen displayed on this page.
Dawn now into “fake” cigarettes?
How appropriate. What a redneck.
Gwen: Are you still hitting the kool-ade?
A little update of what’s been going on around here:
I contacted an Israeli business newspaper this morning. We spoke on the phone for half an hour, and shortly after it the story was up on their website. Two more Israeli news websites picked up the story later.
As of now, the stories have received tens of reader comments and hundreds of Facebook likes, and I expect this snow ball to start rolling now (there’s probably around 20k “affiliates” here), and the people to sharpen their pitchforks.
The little punk (marketing himself as a twenty-something big shot) who *used* to run the Israeli forum, after censoring me and eventually banning me for asking some inconvenient questions today, has now completely emptied the message boards. It is now an empty skeleton.
He removed all of his Zeek videos from his Vimeo account. Luckily for him, I saved them all this morning to my hard drive, so he’ll never have to miss them.
He also removed the most incriminating videos from his YouTube channel. Luckily for him, I saved those as well.
Dazy: good for you! You can be the Batwomen of Israel.
Living the Epic Adventure (in prison).
There is a mother and son team who were big recruiters for ZEEK in nyc Chinese community. Unfortunately, they can’t run back to China. They also recruited in China.
Lol actually I’m a dude, it’s a somewhat mispicked nick name based on some inside joke with a lady friend.
And yeah, I hope some more big shots can soon enjoy each other reminiscing in prison about this wild ride.
Dazy, your new behindmlm is ” Dazy Cutter “. Good job.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=87e_1205410376
Gwen can’t be serious, no one is that dense not even a zeekhead, I think. Zeek rise up again–too funny!!!
Haha, sold!
Yes Darrel they are, some think Paul just needs to pay the $4 million fine and get it back up and running…that’s all there is to it…right? 🙂
@jimmy .. I was responding to those askin if they would get there money back ,and reffering only to how much money they froze to pay back the initial investment of people who have not yet had the opportunity to cash out, not to cover the fake points!
Seems to me based on the figures released that it would take about over 700 mil to cover that and they only recovered 235
@erin, so they think it is just the $4 million fine that is keeping the zeekers down? What about the filed SEC fraud charges pending in court, the frozen assets, the Secret Service investigation, the NC AG investigation and probably soon an IRS investigation.
So all they think is keeping them from their imaginary fortune is Lord Burks paying a fine?? Wow!
The 4 million dollar fine was just a way for the SEC to get the party started.
Darrell, just pay an inconvenient little fine and all will be well. All that other stuff? Pah…it’s just government meanies keeping the little guys down. The government wants all the money for themselves.
This was actually said amongst the Zeeksters.
I believe there could be criminal complaints handed down over this. The SEC got involved not necessarily because the subscriptions could be construed as securities but because the payouts came from new member monies not profits from the penny auction. That is the definition of a Ponzi Scheme.
It is clear they knew of this because dawn even publicly stated that unless affiliates deposited more of their earnings into their e-wallets, the company would be in trouble.
@LF I AGREE W YOU! I was brought in to assist with design and development and they simply refused to take the steps necessary to make the primary sites viable.
Those are sites written in ASP – spaghetti code strung together in ridiculously insecure and unstable ways. They knew this and refused to invest any money into redeveloping them.
That always surprised me because of how many issues they had with the sites. But it became clearer over time when I realized the whole thing was a scam why they never invested in fixing their technologies.
That was a wise decision, “covering the need for information locally in your own area”. I haven’t done it this time, but I will usually do something similar in my own local market.
A local market may have other needs than the general market, e.g. translation to the local language or some extra focus on the local situation, or whatever other needs. So there should clearly be a need for someone doing that job.
Note that I used “market” rather than “country”, a more flexible definition for the size of the “local area”.
Troy’s been emailing me. I think you’ll be hearing a statement from him soon.
Hey Idiot Troy…….You are completely at fault my man! You led people right off the plank because you PRETEND to be a guru and full of information. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA……so you can read, big freaking deal!
MLM is a joke and you are the biggest joke of them all! “and if your in network marketing, act like it!” HAHAHAHAHAHA hilarious dude. Goo job ruining peoples lives with your BS shows and videos!!! Sleep well
All That I know is that we have done our research and where at Red Carpet event in NC and met Paul Burks and his staff of very loyal competent people and it all appeared to very compliant to us. They where doing all that they could ensure compliance.
It appears that the state is looking for cash and will go to any length to get it, as corrupt as they are.
I also find in life that all these people that are being negative about this program, which has paid out 100% of it’s commisions and never was it ever implied to me in anyway that this was an investment. Which we know that if you put $$$ into an investment that you can get it out tomorrow, of course with a penalty.
Most of the people who I have known who got into Zeek started for free and then made a decision to move up or upgrade to another level. it was always their decision to do that. I am of the belief that as with most situations like this there is a rule that stands true.
“Most people have the most to say about what they know the least about” sad ins’t it that the governing bodies of our countries can just arbitrally destroy good and wholesome people who have created a movement that has helped so many people, in so many ways.
Our Prayers are with Paul Burks and his group for a resolution and return on going for all. PJ
Craig’s List didn’t allow ZEEK ads. Who would have ever thought that the ads in Craig’s List for “Massage from Young Asian Girls” would be more believable than any ad for ZEEK?
is there any chance that some of the affiliates will be charged with crimes? (fraud, selling securities without a license)
@lee…can you forward me that had, I’m feeling a little tense. 🙂
I mean ad…
One thing for sure, Paul Burks is going to be broke after this drama is over. I hope the Fed will go after Dawn (her step son and her boytoy), Douglas, Laggos, Troy Dooly(#1 cheerleader/scammer-in my opinion).
Troy Dooley brags that he conducts himself following the military code of being honest and being trustworthy.
His reputation has sunk so low that even the soldiers from the Abu Ghraib scandal avoid him.
e: For many there in no happy ending answering massage ads, and Zeek ads.
Sweet, now I see that the producer of one of the most popular radio talk shows here is urgently looking for local victims. Break out the tar and feathers!
@lee LOL!
@PJ
You did your research and concluded that running an investment scheme that pays out a daily ROI that consists of 98% new affiliate investments was “compliant”?
With all due respect sir, are you fucking blind?
Yeah… $4 million. The SEC shut down Zeek Rewards just so they could build a new side-walk. You might not be blind but you certainly sound delusional.
Facts are neither negative or positive. Zeek Rewards was a Ponzi scheme all along.
Sorry what? Ponzi schemes are always investments and they operate on the very principle that you can’t withdraw straight away. Not until new investment money has been sourced.
How you get into a Ponzi scheme is irrelevant. Nor does it change the fact you’re participating in a Ponzi scheme.
Yet here we are with clowns claiming that Zeek Rewards was not a Ponzi on the basis that “Paul Burks and his staff (were) very loyal competent people”.
Get your hand off it son.
Thanks Oz.
I feel horrible at not just the FINANCIAL/ECONOMICAL LOSS that we ALL are facing because of this… but more importantly, OUR PERSONAL/PROFESSIONAL INTEGRITY.
For those of us that BELIEVED in Mr.Burke, His “Integrity” and his supposed knowledge/ethical behavior within the company. I have tried to hold out Faith that Zeeks/Zeekler was/is the “REAL DEAL” and to do my best to grow the business in order to get out of debt, move and enjoy a lifestyle that is free of debt…living from pay check to pay check.
IF in fact, that Mr. Paul Burke IS TRULY GUILTY of said crimes/negative business practices, then I DO BELIEVE that he should NOT ONLY Have to pay the HEFTY FINES, but I also believe that HE SHOULD BE CRIMINALLY LIABLE for his actions.
I believe that ALL THE ‘VICTIMS’ IN THIS UNFORTUNATE FINANCIAL MISHAP SHOULD BE GIVEN ALL THE MONIES THAT ARE IN THEIR VIP POINT BID ACCOUNTS & SOLID TRUST ACCOUNTS, (or any other acct) NOT just what they put into Zeek initially.
Mr. Burke, his family and associates got to enjoy the money that was accumulated, NOW, I feel that it’s OUR TURN to GET THE MONEY THAT WE DESERVE AND HAVE WORKED FOR!
Mr. Burke, I also feel that IF in fact, YOU ARE GUILTY OF THESE CHARGES, THAT YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO RETAIN ONE PENNY OF THE EARNINGS THAT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY/ASSOCIATES TOOK, AND THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE TO SPEND TIME IN JAIL… SERVING THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR BEHAVIOR!
I SECOND THAT AND I CERTAINLY HAVE FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT THEY KNEW BECAUSE I QUIT ONCE I FOUND OUT WHAT THEY WERE UP TO!
I WELCOME ANYONE FILING A CIVIL SUIT TO CONTACT ME. I WILL SIGN AN AFFIDAVIT.
THE NAMES OF UNNAMED CONSORTS ARE: ALEX DEBRANTES, DAN OLIVARES
@Cindi
Was somebody else running Zeek Rewards and manually calculating the daily ROI percentage paid out to affiliates each day that consisted of 98% new affiliate invested money?
Yeah so that’s the thing about Ponzi schemes, there’s never enough money to pay out.
Your VIP point balances were always just a virtual currency pegged to the whim of Paul Burks and how much new money was being invested into the scheme. Nothing more and certainly not a cash balance that can be quanitifed in dollars.
Investing money and expecting infinity returns is not “work”. Neither is spamming the internet with Zeekler ads or recruiting new investors.
Any CPA that prepared and signed your zeek 1099 tax could be charged with professional misconduct. There no way he could understood the “we buy bids and give free bids away” crap.
If he dug deeper into Zeek rewards he could have landed on this page. What competent CPA would sign off on a ponzi scheme?
This just in regarding criminal charges:
http://business.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981559517
Does anybody really think to get out of running a $600 million Ponzi scheme for a year and a half, all you have to do is pay a $4 million fine?
Just ONE security guard?
Wonder if my entire cult upline simply seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth for the same reason.
Kerry Graves is head of “Graves Investigations”. He ain’t no “just security guard”.
http://gravesinvestigations.com/
He was supposed to be attending a panel on Sandusky investigation. Guess he won’t be going if he’s gotta guard Paul Burks.
NEWSFLASH: Federal Court appoints Ken Bell as receiver of all RVG assets. Process will take several months. Appointment order is here (thanks to Forbes report for the link)
http://www.ponzitracker.com/storage/order.pdf
I wonder how all the top level affiliates feel about having been bilked into giving upwards of $5K each to Dawn to buy Paul a Rolls Royce Ghost as a “thank you” for being such a savior to them all?
Yep, Dawn had top level affiliates buy Paul a ridiculously overpriced car with monies they donated to this cause while Paul was actively stealing their money. It was presented to Paul with a big red bow on it at a Red Carpet event. I’d say that adds insult to injury!
Not only was this guy stealing from the company, the very people he was stealing from were duped into thanking him by buying him a car! Down right despicable.
Again, if anyone needs an affidavit of what I know first hand, please let me know. I never invested any money, only worked as a consultant but was privy to far more than I would have liked to have been. You can reach me on skype at marymary6344.
Let me quarterback this real quick…
Paul WILL NOT go to jail; neither will any of his ponzi business associates.
Paul will not go broke! Think about it, he was running an investment ponzi, that was ULTRA-PUBLIC. Do you really think he didn’t already plan on it being shut down? Do you think he ran this ponzi without a financial back up plan?
Everyone involved with him knew all along, or at least had an idea. And I know it was brought up in discussion between them.
How many times in U.S. history has someone or some company made hundreds of millions of dollars by scamming U.S. citizens, and barely received a slap on the wrist? Does Enron ring a bell? Or any mortgage companies or financial institutions…take your pick.
Yes this is all pretty entertaining to discuss, but come on guys, this is a white male (don’t take this racially, because prejudice is not my intent) in American running a multi-million dollar scam with large law firm attorneys backing him and now our corrupt government is involved…and to top it all off, $600 Million!
The money will be divided up amongst the above mentioned and life will resume.
Sit back and watch what I just said comes to pass.
@LF – you obviously haven’t read up on the history of Ad Surf Daily.
@LF
I think Andy Bowdoin would disagree with your assessment.
Criminal charges and jail are not a guarantee, but are definitely a possiblity.
LOL Wow…and guess what?
HE’S STILL NOT GOING TO JAIL!
Well Andy might not agree…but Paul will not see the inside of prison walls.
The government didn’t just find this out. It’s been over a year that this ponzi ran. They didn’t just all of a sudden bust in the second they found out about it…they had to have been watching since day 30 at least…
The government was just waiting for the piggy bank to fill up to the brim, so they could basically do what they’ve always done…take our hard earn money and give us nothing in return.
Well in this case, take the affiliates hard earned money cause I never joined, thank the Lord.
No Jimmy I haven’t. This whole mess ins’t that important to me.
But if Ad Surf Daily speaks of anything about Paul going to jail…they are wrong.
Sorry LF, I’m not a conspiracy theorist.
I’m no fan of the government and I know there is plenty of corruption, but I don’t buy your kind of conspiracy theory.
Of course they’ve known for a while. Then they investigate and take action if needed.
They did the exact same thing with ASD.
As I said, you may be right about Paul not getting charged criminally, but I don’t share your reasons why.
@LF, it seems you just open your mouth and let words fall out without doing any real research. If it’s not that important to you, then why are you here making opinions?
@ e
Also, so you’re saying I need to do research to state Paul will not face jail time. Maybe you need to take the long route to determine things, but not I…said Mr. Jeremy Fischer…LOL
This will be my very last reply to you e, so insult all you want, just be sure to smile while you do…
I’ve been full time for 17 years and got into multiple yelling matches with leaders telling them the math doesn’t work. So if I’m wrong have them open the books on one day and prove their payout. Over a period of about 16 months no one would ever prove their math.
And what I think is awesome is that all the leaders that looked the other way for greed are going to be getting a knock on their door to give the money back or go to jail. lolol
This also proves that Troy Dooley is nothing but a paid monkey and anyone can buy his words. Just like Zeeks (Reputable) lawyers. They’re all the same.
@LF, you obviously don’t know me thinking I lost money in zeek. You have no idea exactly what will happen to Paul at this time. Paul going to Jail is a possibility.
I wonder how many people will get killed because they got a bad guy with a gun in because they didn’t know any better and can’t pay him back. Or how many people will commit suicide because they lost everything.
And the most messed up thing is that most of the top leaders in their heart knew the truth and just want to ride the wave as long as they could before this happened. I just couldn’t talk myself in to doing that to people.
Lol, LF’s comments certainly were amusing:
‘Hay guys, I can say with 100% certainty Burks is not going to jail and no criminal charges will be filed. Guaranteed or my name’s not Andy Bowdoin.’
‘huh? Ad Surf Daily? Never heard of them and I fail to see what they have to do with anything. Honestly people, since when has history ever affected the future? Sheesh we’re talking about white old men here, wake up!’
The largest ponzi scheme in history in terms of investors affected…most certainly someone is going to jail.
I totally understand your reasons for disagreeing with me, but I’m 100% sure the lucky son of a gun won’t see jail time.
Now if I was Paul, I’d be sitting in jail right now.
@LF…WTF are you talking about?….I mean in terms of making any sort of sense whatsoever? Put the bong down and pick up a book or something.
What’s funny is when Paul doesn’t go to jail…I wonder what everyone will say then.
Everyone seems to be under the impression that whether or not Paul gets to roommate with Buh-Buh as an argument of who will be right and who will be wrong.
All I’m saying is he won’t face jail time and I’m 100 percent certain of it. Why is my opinion (factual one) bothering the children here.
Was my statement that strong and offensive…? Sheesh, grow up folks.
For an idiot that doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he sure is getting under the skin of the “completely educated” know it alls. Goodness!
I think everyone here should head on over to Troy Dooley’s site at mlmhelpdesk.com and see his response. No matter what you think, it takes a big person to admit his part in this.
I think he is as flabbergasted as the majority of us right minded people are that the regulatory agency involved has taken the stance it has on this issue.
@LF
Probably the same thing they said when affiliates were claiming the regulatory investigations were going to be “the best thing that could happen” to Zeek, that the company had voluntarily shut down, fired all employees, changed their locks and was going to re-open next week after paying a minor token “admininstrative fine” that was just “standard business practice” and “nothing to worry about”.
Have a Zeektastic weekend!
@Gwen
Like I’ve been saying for the past three years, regulatory agencies don’t give a shit about psuedo verbal “don’t say this/don’t call it this” compliance.
At the end of the day they perform the same analysis anyone else does and that squarely revolves around looking at the business model, compensation plan and mechanics of the commissions structure.
The difference? We have to make educated predictions on the information at hand and corroborate it with real life member experiences and analysis of the data at hand (which is always made public and open to public scrutiny.
As evidenced yet again, maths and numbers don’t lie. Burks might have been able to fob the public and members off with “that’s propretiary information” bullshit but when the regulators came knocking and the details made public, there were absolutely no suprises in Zeek’s numbers.
Our analysis of course stops there but it proves you don’t need access to the numbers to work out what’s going on. You just need half a brain and the ability to objectively deconstruct a business model and compensation plan.
With Zeek Rewards paying out a daily 1.5% ROI Pul Burks was manually inventing each day, 98% of which was new money invested by affiliates and the penny auctions providing next to no revenue with just 0.25% of bids even being used… what exactly did you think the regulatory agencies were going to conclude???
^^ And let’s all note the fact that Oz and K. Chang and others have steadfastly hammered home this point at least (literally) a thousand times since Sep 2011 and with increasing frequency beginning Feb 2012.
I believe I started the comparison of the “don’t say it is an investment” to how on Harry Potter no one would say “Voldemort” … as if not speaking the name of the true nature of something made any difference.
You’re assuming SEC action is all that you’ll see. Stop.
Ray Cooper’s office can still bring charges against Paul Burks including fraud and such. It ain’t double jeopardy. State and Feds are different jurisdictions.
Let’s not forget IRS, FTC, and Postal inspectors can still bring their own charges. Paul Burks ONLY settled with the SEC, no one else.
The only reason Paul made the deal was to avoid jailtime right now. He is still going to jail, just at a later date. That statement you can take to the Zeek bank!
Not true. If Paul Burks delay jail time for as long as possible, he would not have made the agreement. Instead, he would have fought it tooth and nail like Andy Bowdin. Even if he was arrested he would’ve posted bail and dragged everything out for an extra few years.
He probably took the deal because if he didn’t, the SEC would have pushed for a much stricter emergency order and Paul would’ve been left with nothing.
He may still lose his $ at the end of the criminal trials, but at least now he can spend it on his wife and try to hide as much of it as he can. Plus his family have money that he disbursed from his Zeek profits that might not get touched.
Might be going on air soon with Israeli TV and/or radio. Fingers crossed…
The SEC complaint is a CIVIL complaint.
Civil complaints can NOT result in jail time.
The SEC itself has no ability to prefer the CRIMINAL charges which would be necessary to attract a jail sentence.
CIVIL action of the type taken by the SEC is designed to:
-Stop the fraud
-Prevent any further harm
-Freeze the assets
-Lock down everything and everybody
-Protect the interests of those affected.
Thus give the authorities time to dot their “i”s and cross their “t”s before they institute criminal action
It’s one of the main reasons the SEC is involved in the Presidents’ Task Force which was formed for exactly this situation.
Previous to this approach, offenders had months, if not years, to destroy the evidence and hide the proceeds before they even got near a courtroom.
This is EXACTLY the same process used in the prosecution of the AdSurf Daily/Andy Bowdoin ponzi case back in 2008.
Troy Duly has lost all credibility. Zeek promoters jumped all over Troy’s supportive video commentaries on Zeek and they used these videos to lure more people into the SCAM.
It is abundantly clear now that Troy Duly’s staunch backing of Zeek Rewards makes him an accessory to the Illegal PONZI Scheme.
All the signs were there. So the SEC and the Feds will take care of Zeek. That was the risk of putting money in a ponzi. There was enough intelligent warning on this website.
And for Troy that insulted me for telling him that you didn’t have to be an expert to realize that zeek was a ponzi——You loose!
I agree with a lot of members here—Get out Troy of the industry, because you lost big. I don’t care for Zeek, since it was obvious a Ponzi from day one.
I do care for the MLM industry, and it is my opinion that Troy does not have a right to speak about it anymore. So everytime Troy speak I will only see and hear 2 words—ZEEK AND PONZI.
I did my due dilligence and warned my friends of not joining Zeek. They did and I did my part. I’m proud of myself for not falling into greed. Thank You Oz and all the guys for and excellent work-)
He should change his name to Droy Tooly because he was an obvious tool for ZR.
We are all hurt by this. Zeekrewards gave us hope in this bad economy. It made us dream and planned our future, but for the people above us, I can understand that this is your source of income and lots of it.
Now you have to asked yourselves, what about the people below you that worked hard to share it with others, and the ones that you shared it too, they probably put in their last money, just to make ends meet and hope for the best.
The bottom line is WE ARE ALL BETRAYED BY ZEEKREWARDS. THAT WHY IT HURTS SO MUCH. PEOPLE THAT TRUSTED AND RESPECTED US WILL NO LONGER LOOK AT US IN THE SAME MANNER.
@gwen
Sure there are other opportunities to make the same kind of money as you did in Zeek. There is drug running, gun smuggling, bank robbery, robbing little old ladies(you already have experience in that one), running a prostitution ring etc.
These are all illegal just like Zeek was and you were happy with it.
LOL. You need to take MLM-101. He didn’t help the little guy, he stole from the little guy.
From Dooly –
This was up earlier today, but in case some of you aren’t ardent PatrickPretty readers, I like Greg Evans calling it like it is:
http://www.patrickpretty.com/2012/08/19/post-zeek-guest-column-who-are-these-experts-anyway/
Most of us have felt for months exactly what the article describes. Now that the SEC has laid bare the financial details and the completely fraudulent nature of the RPP, we have definitive confirmation for what we’ve logically concluded all along.
Well, almost all of us. Troy Dooly is still in denial along with a feel Zeek-supporter loons who believe this is all a government conspiracy to steal everyone’s money.
I am just interested in providing information for any affiliates to file claims for reimbursement.
The N. Carolina AG link: zeek@NCDOJ.gov
and the 919-716-6046 telephone number will be helpful. Any other links or phone numbers will be appreciated.
Many people were worried by the e-wallet delays and other Wbfuscations encountered. We just wanted to make money and thought a slice of internet advertizing was the way to break into a new and exciting field.
Most of us weren’t sophisticated or knowledgable enough to evaluate a Ponzi scheme…afterall there were products being sold through the penny auctions and the internet hit on Zeeks site(s) seemed accurate.
The Zeek vultures are everywhere. More than half the “news” results for the SEC shutdown of Zeek Rewards are from sites that syndicate from PRWeb and similar sites.
The story just steals paragraphs from other news articles with no new content, but within each there is a single sentence or two as a call to action, which always takes you to a capture page for yet-another-bizopp. You have to give them your email, of course, in order to “see the other side”.
Zeek’s downfall won’t just harm MLM in general, as many have said on here, but online bizopps in general will reek from Zeek’s stench.
The fact that zeek paid 1.5% daily didn’t sound alarms?
Let alone the idea that a business was going to make everyone filthy rich just for posting one spam ad a day… That, and the idea that you’re buying something which is totally intangible, and then giving them away.
Actually now that it’s all over, I wish I’d have gone to one of the recruitment meetings and asked hard questions.
@joe
I dont’ think you could have sat through the whole meeting. How many times do you need to hear “it’s growing pains”.
By the way, when was this expression first used, and by whom, on zeek facebook? I know it was used in response to my posting in April 2012.
Ever since I first heard of Zeek and started looking into it, each & every problem they were having was chalked up to “growing pains.”
I heard that phrase so much I thought Kirk Cameron and Alan Thicke were going to show up.
@joe:
run away from any company that uses that phrase again.
also: It’s a bumpy ride, but it will be worth it in the end. Don’t bring your negativity to this forum. It’s not an investment, it’s a business opportunity. Go see what Troy Dooly posted.
Oh don’t worry, I’m an MLM and get-rich-quick scheme skeptic. I can tell the cultish behavior of people involved in these kinds of things. The more I see, the more wary I am.
Just received this from NXPay by email:
I bet NxSystems sure regrets the whole Zeek partnership. It’s going to cost them a lot of man hours to go through the reconciliation process. Maybe they can petition the court for compensation?
So what the hell? is Burk going to jail like Madoff? I don’t hear anything to that affect. No he pays 4 mil of our money and gets off… whats happening..
LOL…That’s what I said too!
You know, I build a bonafide Network Marketing business. The next time someone asks me if it’s a ponzi or a pyramid scheme, I’m just gonna tell them “you bet it is…lets get you in at the top so you can make all the money.”
It seems that’s what everyone wants to join these days anyway. 🙂
I saw comments about dismissing other regulators as being bribed and not knowing what ASD was. LF’s comments have been sent to the spam bin.
Obvious troll is obvious.
@ e
The Dark Side is very tempting at times.
Speaking again of “growing pains,” wasn’t it back when Zeek was kicked out of their bank that Dawn made the comment about being “too big to stuff in the tube at the bank?”
This was a couple months ago when Zeek would have started running out of money. Dawn had to know what was going on so I think she’s just as complicit as Paul.
Where is Dawn?
Nobody seems to know, but I wonder if the authorities are keeping tabs.
I think Troy Dooley should be investigated, he was a BIG influence on peoples decisions. I thought ZEEK was a good biz op because Troy Dooley the MLM “watch dog” said it was also.
Should be interesting to find out how much he pocketed. I’m sorry I doubted this website on the criticism of ZEEK , my apologies.
I heard that call and thought it was bizarre…the hamburger call too I heard. The hamburger analogy was so complicated that I never got it…she just babbled on and on about it.
Honestly, I guess she thought she was doing a good job of explaining thins for we morons but it only made me feel very uneasy because it was clear the woman was not a professional. Just weirdness…
Well you know what they say: If you can’t blind them with brilliance, baffle them with bulls–t. I think that’s what Dawn was doing with that hamburger analogy that made no sense.
Of course she was trying to backpedal from her comments of “we can’t pay affiliates until other affiliates fund our NXPay account.” I don’t know, though, she could have just been a complete moron.
Got two more emails today from my esteemed upline crooks.
One, from someone I have no idea who they are apologizing for how sorry they are for me…hate to take advantage…but here’s another opportunity I can screw you over on….to which I politely responded – “Shove it.”
Two, from someone I’m sure at the top of the rung, probably one of the Founders Club, who wanted to encourage me that Zeek was gonna be okay and more mumbo jumbo about petitions, some such nonsense. Frankly, I couldn’t even read any more of it…
Guess I’ve just got to get over being mad every time I get one. It’s just so hard not to react.
Keep them as evidence.
Are you serious? If, so, should I print the one with my reply of “Shove it” in two inch tall bold red letters? I am now being serious.
One of the two biz associates/friends we signed in was totally influenced by Troy Dooley…it was the reason he joined.
In fact, he brought Troy to my attention two months ago. I didn’t even know who he was till my friend told me how well respected he was, etc…it was the deciding factor in his signing in.
And then after that, I would watch Troy’s videos from time to time and if anyone asked me, I used him as a source. I told people he was like the Ralph Nader of MLM.
Talk about the blind leading the blind. Just thank goodness the blinders were ripped off before I really hurt anyone.
It was hard but I had to muster up enough to open the infuriating e-mail again…how I’m livid. In addition to my having thrown $6000 into their slush fund, I can further deplete my finances by helping them cheat and defraud me through PayPal. Here’s the excerpt –
Wow, wow, the depravity of mankind…
I’ve been warning everyone to not fill out the petitions. They are just getting your contact info to sell you on more crap, or scam you out of your money.
All the Zscustomers and AdSmartZ type services could target all of their Zeek customers as well. After all, they have nothing to lose, with Zeek down they can just go ahead and try whatever scam, sell the mailing list, lots of possibilities…
I did not sign a petition. I subscribed to his email updates just to see what he was saying.
He is technically not in my upline but my sponsor used to get his updates that he would forward to us.
Any word on the 1099’s at the end of the year.. Anyone have a answer..
PLEASE ADVISE..