Zeek Rewards banning members due to politics?
I’ve been tracking this story since it broke about a week ago now, hoping that Zeek Rewards would put out a press release explaining just what is going on regarding the recent banning of members from six countries.
Unfortunately despite banning accounts of Zeek Rewards members based in these countries over a week ago, to date the company has yet to put out any official explanation.’
Instead, I’ve had to piece together what’s happening from members themselves and what little snippets of info have been made public by Zeek Rewards’ support staff.
Approximately a week ago, members from Serbia, Slovenia, Belarus, Egypt, Croatia and Macedonia woke up to find their Zeek Rewards account deactivated. No explanation or information was given as to why.
Initially staff at Zeek Rewards support centre had no idea what was going on, but over the past few days a number of responses have indicated some rather dubious explanations for the outright strange reasons for the ban.
Yesterday, the first response from Zeek Rewards support regarding the issue was made public.
We do not have total knowledge of what happened. What I do know is that it is something with your countries government policies (not the Serbian people itself), that has required us to not list your country anymore.
This was in response to a Serbian Zeek Rewards member’s concerns but appeared to apply to all six named banned countries.
Grossly inadequate, given that a week or so had passed since members had been banned, the response only raised further questions.
First and foremost, how is it that six independent countries all got together and coordinated political restrictions against Zeek Rewards?
Secondly, with Slovenia being a member state of the European Union, how is it that they alone have a unique political climate that required Zeek Rewards to ban members from there?
From Wikipedia:
The EU has developed a single market through a standardised system of laws which apply in all member states.
If political reasons were truly the reason behind the ban of members from Slovenia, then surely the same political reasons would apply to all EU member states?
Finally, there’s the fact that, as far as I know, no other MLM company has had to ban members from these six countries. This of course begs the question as to what these ‘government policies’ are that Zeek Rewards staff are citing.
Why is Zeek Rewards alone having to ban participation in what is supposedly a legitimate MLM opportunity in these six countries, whereas other MLM companies are carrying on business as usual?
One possible answer to this is that regardless of how much compliance you have or what terminology you insist your members use to promote your scheme, you’re not really changing the fact that you’re running an unsustainable investment scheme that relies on new member investments to keep afloat.
Requests for further clarification on the matter by banned Zeek Rewards members has since been met with ‘no comment’:
We apologize for the difficult position that this creates for you and us, but we are not able to do anything more than refund whatever purchases and subscriptions you have paid.
We are being advised that we any not make any further comments about the issue. It is unfortunate political situation and we are all affected by it. We wish you well. thank you for contacting Zeek!
With some of the affected banned members having been with Zeek Rewards for a year, understandably ‘no comment’ is an abysmally inadequate response.
Offering refunds on subscription amounts and purchases is a start, but only further highlights the virtual currency nature of the Zeek Rewards business.
All those VIP points these now banned members accumulated aren’t worth jack. Do Zeek Rewards have any liability (90 days or otherwise) on ROIs to pay out to these now banned members?
Not according to Zeek. They’ll just pay out the original invested money and wash their hands of the members they’ve banned.
Along with illegal business model admissions, gargantuan amounts of fraud occuring, dodgy as hell looking penny auctions, banning members with no formal reason or justification can now also be added to the list of problems that has plagued Zeek Rewards these past few months.
With no official announcement on the horizon but this still very much a developing story, I’ll keep the article updated as more news comes to hand.
Perhaps Zeek Rewards members in other countries should take note of what the actual value of all those VIP points they’ve invested in really is.
Can you think of any other MLM company that would let earn commissions from supposed sales for a year, pay you out a fraction of these commissions whilst letting you re-invest the rest back into the company, and then after a year ban you and only offer you your initial membership fee and personal sales purchases?
What a joke.
Pure speculation 1: those countries have started looking into ZeekRewards
Pure speculation 2: Zeek’s advisors told them to stop marketing to those countries
Pure speculation 3: Those countries are cheating the **** out of Zeekrewards using fake CC and such.
#3 doesn’t go away by banning those countries. Couldn’t a crook in, say Croatia, just go to another country?
Keep on speculating 🙂
Maybe a better question to ask, as Oz mentioned above, is why even let the speculation occur in the first place?
This is either one of most amateurish and inexperienced group of business people, or they are doing something decidedly deceptive, where the damage in being transparent is worse than the risk of being entirely opaque and wrapped in so much secrecy even the front line customer support reps don’t have the information.
I invest 2,5 G in zeekler. Should I worry?
Depends on what countries are you in, I guess. 🙂
Thank you for this post. It is all truth! I leave in Serbia. We have here some big international MLM companies like Swedish Oriflame – open this market in year 2000. and some others. No ever any “MLM issue” in Serbia before.
Also, as you said Slovenia is in EU. Craotia is one step to EU, Serbia two steps. If a PayPal can operate in Craotia which on-line payment issues we can have?
There is simple explanation – ZR is pure SCAM! And this is just a test before thay do the same scenario somethere else.
You should only worry if too many other people worry and withdraw 100%, then this ponzi fails.
I started withdrawing last 2 months cause i reached 10 000 vip points and had a lot of downine.
Simple answer: ponzi , no more money to give us and deactivated!
I am from Slovenia and so i am one of the people who woke up wednesday, 28th march, and have found that his account is not anymore active. I am very glad to know that at least here i can find something about this our problem. Thanks to have written all the true about this problem.
I hope that this post will see as much people possible, so maybe one day the owners of zeekrewards will be forced to finally tell us all the true about this. In fact how they are treating us people, it is so humiliating, that i hope that no one ever will pass through something like this! ….
Again, thanks to have posted this blog. 🙂
This are messages a see when try to log into my ZeekRewards account.
Today is April 7. I have not been able to log into my Zeek Rewards account for ten days because my username is inactive. The same has happened to people from Croatia, Slovenia…(I am from Serbia), Macedonia, Belorus….
This countries are not accepted for signing up as an affiliate any more. For ten days no answer, no explanation, no support, … like we do not exist.
We invested a lot of work and money, we where not warned, we where just deleted, and now we are living in uncertainty and we are afraid of loosing everything. We are shocked the way we are treated. Without respecting our elementary human rights.
Simple as that , they just inactivate those 500 accounts and no explanation for 10 days after hundreds of emails and live chat.
By the way live chat is pure s…! No help no knowledge of anything. I would agree with posts above that it is a scam and that the money is an issue here. 28th was beginning of end for those countries , who knows which are next and when. I started to withdraw already cause I dont wanna loose my money.
This is not a way legit company is handling issues.If they had some they would announce it, since they didnt it is obvious that it is a lie.SCAM !!! AVOID IF YOU LOVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY !!!
All truth from up above. All my downline is inactive and we all lost all our profits and now we have to beg for our initial deposits.Is this the way real legit company is doing bussines ??!! No way !!
This is the way crooks , liers and scamers are handling bussines.Think about hard what you read in here and if you have account start to withdraw money asap because who knows which country is next in line. If you dont have it PLEASE GO SOMEWHERE ELSE OR JUST SPEND THAT MONEY CAUSE YOU WILL LOSE IT WITH ZEEK.
Something is wrong with this copmany and only time will tell that to general public. With what they did to us is clear that they wanted to hide this.
AVOID AT ANY COST !!! Thank you.
have you seen what it is written in mlmhelpdesk about our 6 countries? 🙁 …i must say that i am now also more disappointed about all this…especially if i look at the statistics…
in fact our 6 countries are neither mentioned in this statistics, but we have been blocked like we would be the worse cybergang of the world…this is really sick, uh…..however, i am still waiting for the answer from zeek owners…who knows if i will ever seen it, hm….
Troy at mlmhelpdesk is often quoted as impartial but he fails to see flaws in many MLM’s and scams. He has a history of cheerleading any MLM when the owners or officers agree to do an interview with him. It is as if they are given instant protection once they agree to do a video or phone interview with Troy.
Troy even admits to this day not to know the Zeek business model. He made glowing reviews about Zeek and discussed the tax issues not realizing that Zeek has a virtual currency model and it takes 90 days (with risk) to “withdraw” money.
Finally, Troy doesn’t address the most important issues in Oz’s articles:
1) How come other MLM’s have had no political or legal issue operating in these countries? Answer: Zeek is not just an MLM but also an investment ponzi.
2) How come Zeek gave no notifications to affiliates and just silently terminated without a word?
3) How the 500 or so terminated affiliates lost their points balance which has some value. Keep in mind some spent real money advertising Zeek business in order to recruit others, plus time put in with training, etc.
4) How that if you are really fighting cyber crime, what do international borders matter? Why can’t the fraudsters move to another country?
5) Why can’t Zeek review each account on a case by case basis to determine where the fraud occurred? The affiliate who invested $10k and didn’t recruit and didn’t chargeback any credit cards surely are not fraudsters.
Why all I hear Is when everyone takes out set at 0% the ponzi fails ? The longer the person takes out the lesser it becomes . max 3 months total . Then they will take a 1099 hit and risk a possible long term easy income loss.
Zeekrewards is a monster, it won’t be going anywhere any time soon . New things are surfacing. ewallet ect . If the payout went above 90 days then you would have a point .
IF A person in the 100,000’s club it will soon be in the 10,000’s then 1,000’s. the last retirement would be around 1500 and the person will have 1500 VIP points then 0
good said, Jimmy, congratulations!:) …in fact i am still waiting for all these answers, especially because i know that when in any online business the admin find out a bad guy, he doesn`t block all the country, but just this one bay guy…and this is always, also in the most stupid online business….
here in zeekrewards they have blocked all these 6 countries for some bad guys?!….i really don`t believe that this is the true….in fact if it would be the true, they wouldn`t created this mysterious silence arround all this thing……
no no, here is something else in the back….and i really hope that i will hear one day the real true direct from zeek news…
Pure Speculations 4: they decided that cutting these countries off will add a chunk of revenue to their bottom line as they don’t have to pay on those VIP points.
MLM Helpdesk doesn’t do any detailed business analysing, so I’ll guess that’s why Troy Dooly is rather slow in detecting problems at an early stage. He consider Zeek to be “yet another Penny Auction”, and he doesn’t see the huge number of investors with growing investments.
Why would anyone mix in irrelevant factors when they analyse something?
Being a character witness for the owner, with focus on “patriotism”, “capitalism” and other personal factors, instead of doing a strict analysing of the business itself? Most affiliates have no plans for marrying the owner’s daughter.
Troy, the “hidden agenda” is trying to detect the true nature of the businesses we review, and to expose possible problems. And we will usually ignore factors like “patriotism”, “strong believer in the U.S. Constitution” and similar stuff. And we don’t see the businesses from the owners’ viewpoints most of the time.
Europeans please keep us up to date. We were told that 85% of Zeeks people were in Russia, I fear a scam and will make an effort to pull out immediately
To this day, Troy does not know that you can invest in Zeek and do nothing except daily ads and earn a huge ROI (assuming Zeek continues to pay when you decide to cash out).
His previous videos on Zeek talk about hard work and recruiting and how wonderful the leaders are (he says that about every MLM… has he met an MLM where he didn’t like “the leaders”?).
Troy must have at least looked at this part of the business model as he did mention Ad Surf Daily at one point in the early videos, but his subsequent ones focus only on recruiting without addressing the ponzi aspect of the passive investment earnings.
Interesting. This blog make them to speak about this event in public for the first time during last ten days. Even all Troy said did not make sense.
I’ve responded to Troy’s comments, the comment is awaiting moderation.
I too have no idea where he’s brushing off the information here using the ‘working for a competitor’ line. Zeek Rewards staff themselves introcued the political reason into the issue and that’s what I wrote on.
I’ll weather Troy’s criticism and leave it at that. Readers can make up their own minds.
@Damir, natasha, Dragica, etc.
Accept any offer for refund of money, if you get some offers. Usually it’s better to get SOME money voluntarily than to use legal actions, because legal actions can last for years.
“Accept any offer” doesn’t mean “accept any conditions”. It’s possible to say YES to something without saying yes to all conditions they may offer.
Some legal actions you can do yourself is to ask them to preserve data (when you became an affiliate, your initial investment, amount you have withdrawn, your current balance when the account was deactivated, number of people in downline, etc.) – all the data you mean is relevant when it comes to calculating the economical factors. You can also ask them to send that information to you.
Since I’m not a ZR member, I don’t know which information they have. To make it easier, you can probably ask for “all data related to my account”.
Preservation of data is a needed step in any legal action. The company has to preserve data to protect themselves against unjustified legal claims, and you will usually have the right to get a copy of the data that relates to you, as a party in a possible case against them.
NOTE:
Set a time-limit for reply, like 3 weeks or something. You’ll have to offer them enough time to reply, but you shouldn’t offer them too much time.
Any next step in a legal action is to use the correct authority to assist you in preserving the data and send it to you, in case the company is unwilling to do so.
Should I worry, if I am in the U.S? Should I begin cashing out? What is your take on this? This is worrying me.
Troy is falling into the trap of being MLM’s defender and at the same time one of it’s watch dogs. There is so much rampant criticism of the industry and not all of it is earned so there’s a distinct “circle the wagons” mentality when it comes to defending one of their own.
Where that gets him into trouble is it seems that absent at least one indictment he’s reluctant to call anything a “scam” if there’s any way to avoid doing so (check his site for his Global Verge coverage for an example).
You can’t be a cheerleader and a watchdog at the same time and while Troy gives grounds for disappointment in the calling a scam a scam department, he does a fine job with those pom poms.
I’ve listened to two conference calls hosted by Zeek affiliates (i.e. “leaders” with large downlines) and they are saying the sanctions are due to US policy against doing business in those countries. I don’t believe this to be true, and this probably is another example of why a company being secretive causes more harm than good.
If Zeek really did have an official US policy they could cite, they would have done so and been very public about it. The list of sanctions against countries as far as I am aware is: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx
I wish Troy at MLMHelpDesk would address this more specific issue of lack of details, and specifically how Oz pointed out that Slovenia is part of the EU.
Perhaps Troy could comment on how in his experience in MLM, lack of communication on adverse action by corporate has always had a more negative affect than the truth (unless the truth is that it’s a scam). All the chatter hear, other message boards, and amongst affiliates has been speculation and nothing I’ve heard has painted Zeek in a good light.
It’s so easy for unaffected affiliates to say “tough luck” to those affected as long as they are getting paid.
Further, I still don’t quite understand what credit card fraud has to do with US policy on country sanctions? If the issue was just CC fraud, Zeek could just force affiliate in those countries to use one of the third party processors.
That transfers the risk to the third party processor and Zeek is unaffected (this is why all the HYIP’s and Ad Surf’s use the same third party processors).
My, it’s like Dooly’s tongue is connected to some contraption that zaps him whenever he says anything less than positive about Zeek Rewards. The FBI? Cybercrime gangs? ZR themselves didn’t say anything, how come you always assume the problem couldn’t be with them?
I hope he never finds out I work for the competition, though. I get nada if I blow my cover before this plays out.
today one guy have posted in another forum what has said his upline about all this:
so now i am asking me….if all this is true, why they just don`t send at us this new law? why so much mistery? and why slovenia, which has nothing to do with these other countries?
….i think that this is not the true and that we must wait for the real true….will we hear it someday?!
What laws are Zeek Rewards citing? And how come no other MLM companies seem to have had to resort to banning members from these countries?
Furthermore why didn’t they just state this already when they first banned accounts two weeks ago?
These deliberately cryptic politcal answers just continue to raise more questions than they answer.
@m_norway
…i just can`t accept their condisions…in fact if i would, this would means that i will accept that they refund me 70$ and at my children both 30$….in fact this is the money we have invested here…but we were here 9-11 monhts!!!…and we have posted ads each day for them….for free????
no no, i am not accepting to be refunded in this way….they must pay us also for all our work!!!
….and, also more….if they are so correct company, like they want we see it….they must reactivate all the accounts in slovenia, because we have nothing to do with all this…we are part of europe already 20 years!!!
I have a feeling (unsubstantiated) that Troy takes stuff very personally. Any one that “kiss and make up” to him gets velvet glove treatment. Any one that tries to be nasty (basically, f*** you!) gets the full nasty treatment (must be a scam, etc.)
His updates on TVI Express stopped full two years ago, LONG before they were served cease and desist in Georgia, much less had ANY followup in the other countries such as South Africa, and so on. Out of sight, out of mind.
All the coverage, on the other hand, is on people who send him stuff, like free T-shirts, free samples, and so on. Every other episode he cheers on some new outfit. And of course, big problems.
I hate to say this, but I’ve check most of the so-called MLM reviewers / critics, and ALL of them have some sort of weakness.
Rod Cook at MLM Watchdog is a bit more critical of scams, and less cheerleading, but his stuff is badly indexed and hard to follow. And he does support some MLMs.
There’s MLM critics like Fitzpatrick, who basically says ALL MLMs are inherently scams. They’re a bit too far to the right, IMHO.
The MLM lawyers like Grimes and Reese, Kevin Thompson, and so on are obviously pro-MLM and will say things to defend it.
And Oz here… well, Oz is often a bit fast in calling something a recruitment scam. 🙂 (But the truth is there are a ton of them out there)
Furthermore, I think Troy was the first one to spread the rumor about TVI Express hiring Grimes and Reese, after it was claimed by one of the uplines without evidence. It was NEVER proven.
@natasha
Accept the payment, not the conditions – if the conditions are unacceptable. I didn’t know they had offered any conditions at all?
Zeek will probably go belly up within an unknown timeframe, a couple of months or so. And then it will be much more costly and time consuming to get any money.
I also wrote something about legal actions, the ones that you can do yourself = ask them to preserve the data related to your account and send you copies. This is a legal step most lawyers will recommend (or do for you as a client).
I will consider the following “legal procedures” to be needed:
* Identify yourself with your username, number, etc., and maybe your real name too. Make it easy for them to identify your account.
* Get a confirmation from Zeek Rewards that your account has been deactivated, the date is was deactivated and the reason they had for doing it.
* Get other information related to your account, as described in my previous comment (balance, downline, etc.).
* Ask for if the deactivation is permanent or temporarily?
* Ask for which refund policy they will use.
All in the same e-mail, and not too long or too detailed. You are not arguing about details in the first legal step, you are only collecting facts and information – the facts that ZR has registered. Let them make the first offer for any refund, to see if they are willing to offer anything at all.
Note:
I haven’t evaluated any family members in this one:
You can probably represent family members too, in the same e-mail. But identify yourself as the main member, and have the other members separated from yourself.
The collecting of data is a “legal procedure” I learned from a lawyer some years ago. He used “Send me all the information you have” as a standard legal procedure, to establish the facts and preventing other documents from popping up later in the case.
It’s impossible to guess which laws they refer to.
I found something about embargo for some of the countries, from 1993, 1999 and 2001 – related to specific persons in those countries (or some of them).
I have also found some embargos related to software that can be used for military purposes.
ZR’s management will have to identify exactly which rules they are following. None of the rules I have found seems to apply in this case.
@m_norway
well, i must say that you have suggested me a really good thing – to collect data, thanks:) …
however, this is their problem….that they want give us the data….but i will try, of course….at least i will maybe know something new about all this thing….anyway, if they will offer me my 30$ (i am talking about the money which have invested my children here!), i really don`t know if i will accept it…
30$ – with this money in my country i can cook the lunch for 2-3 days!!!….in 9 months of work have back for can eat for 2-3 days?!! i would prefer if they would spit me in my face, believe me
@m_norway
maybe they have just roll the dice or joke at the roulette…and which country came out, this have been than eliminated, who knows
@M_Norway
And why they ignored them for over a year…and why they terminated accounts without any explanation to the account holders… and why, outside of support staff replies management have been silent on the issue for 2 weeks and counting.
@Oz
right, Oz, good said!…. thanks:)
however, we are just a few of us who want this true….the most of people with still active accounts find us annoying and for them this problem is just ours and we are just disturbing their business with our posts:( …
if also the people think in this way, than you can imagine how much we can be important to all the company…nothing, sure!….but if we would have all the people on our side, the situation would change instantly…they would be forced to tell us the true…now they are just laughing of us:( …
just a question….when i write in google the world “zeekrewards”, i can see that this site and this so great post don`t come out, but just the last post of mlmhelpdesk and this is really bad:(….do we can do something that the people could see also this post?
Using the global google.com (they have other versions, too):
“Zeekrewards” alone gives hit for one of the other articles as number 10.
“Zeekrewards Slovenia” (or Egypt, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Belarus) gives hit for this article as number 1 or 2 – top of the list.
Usually we don’t do any “extra” to manipulate the search results. We don’t sell anything here, so we don’t compete with people who are dependant on having their websites as number 1 or 2.
Having one article between 1 and 10 is good enough if people are looking for information. Most people will also check page 2 in the search results if the information is important. And Troy Dooly mentioned “Behind MLM” several times inhis video. 🙂
We compete with some when it comes to the content of the articles, trying to present factual information at an early stage. Most other sites are biased in one direction.
@M_Norway
in fact i am really grateful at this site to have given me the oportunity to finally talk with some great people, like you for example, and Oz and many other intelligent people like are you 2….
in fact in all other sites it seems that people just don`t think…in fact trying to make me quiet to can do their business like nothing would never happened…they are just closing their eyes….in fact all this could happen at all of them tomorrow!!
here i finally feel really good and also for this reason i would like that this site it would be visible the most possible in the first 4-5 places in google…to give at all the people the possiblity to know about what is going on!….
in fact who don`t know about this problem, he will never write “zeekrewards slovenia” in google, but just “zeekrewards”….however, i really hope that slowly all the people will find this great article, yeah:)
M_Norway, again….thanks for your great suggestions…i have thought a lot about them in the last hours and i must say that more and more i am thinking about them, more i like them:) ….so i will surely write to zeek staff and ask them about all the possible informations…and, naturaly, i will post their answer here…if they will ever answer me, of course…
i really like to see that still exist people like you on this world 🙂 ….you are really special 🙂 …thanks again 🙂
Hi Guys,
Just got this information…
Sanctions Programs and Country Information
OFAC administers a number of different sanctions programs. The sanctions can be either comprehensive or selective, using the blocking of assets and trade restrictions to accomplish foreign policy and national security goals…
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx
Zeek email for refunds ZeekOFACRefunds@gmail.com
ZR finally put out an update indeed citing political reasons (I wonder what Troy Dooley has to say now).
First and foremost… cmon guys, it took you over a year to realise your members were from these countries?
Then on the link provided, I can see
-something about the blocking of property to Macedonia and Soutern Serbia
–the mention of Belarus and blocking of payments (regarding property in the US?)
I don’t see anything on any of the other countries listed (unless I’m missing something??). The banning of Slovenia is of particular importance, as it’s a EU member state and I’m pretty sure there aren’t any sanctions against the EU.
The Sanctions regarding former country of Yugoslavia (i.e. Balkans) have already been lifted:
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/76_FR_38000.pdf
Besides, the sanction is against the then regime.
As for the sanctions against Belarus, the prohibition is, again, against the regime and any national assets (state-owned enterprise), not with individual citizens.
I have no doubt the rest of the countries on the list would be just as ridiculous for ZeekRewards.
ZR must be reading these posts.
Didn’t I post the link to the list of US govt sanctions originally?
And didn’t I ask the question how in the world this list justifies the 6 mentioned countries? (Oz said the same thing, and Oz raised Slovenia as an issue in the main article. Troy- if you are reading all the comments, I think you need to take a more objective view of Zeek despite having given Dawn softball questions in that interview in Vegas.)
From the US Dept of State website. http://www.state.gov
U.S.-SLOVENIAN RELATIONS
Slovenia enjoys excellent relations with the United States and works with it actively on a number of fronts. Since Slovenia achieved its independence in 1991, the two countries have developed strong, cooperative relations on a broad range of issues, from promoting regional security to developing closer bilateral trade and investment ties.
The United States was very supportive of Slovenia’s entrance into NATO and other Euro-Atlantic agreements and institutions.
U.S.-CROATIAN RELATIONSBilateral relations between the U.S. and Croatia are very strong. The United States opened its Embassy in Zagreb in 1992. U.S. engagement in Croatia is aimed at supporting Croatia’s development of a democratic, secure, and market-oriented society that will be a strong partner in Euro-Atlantic institutions.
The U.S. also welcomes Croatia’s desire to play a positive and stabilizing role in the region.
U.S.-MACEDONIAN RELATIONSThe United States and Macedonia have enjoyed good bilateral relations since Macedonia gained its independence in 1991. The United States formally recognized Macedonia on February 8, 1994, and the two countries established full diplomatic relations on September 13, 1995.
The U.S. Liaison Office was upgraded to an Embassy in February 1996, and the first U.S. Ambassador to Skopje arrived in July 1996. The development of political relations between the United States and Macedonia has ushered in a host of other contacts between the two states.
You know I have to say this is good reporting despite what Troy Dooly at mlmhelpdesk.com says. What a POSER TROY IS.
I remember when I was in Global Verge, All the crap and NON JOURNALISM he showed then, I think Troy is scared that your honest and good reporting may just expose maybe he is getting kick backs. Its just a shame for him to come out and bash you on his site.
I remember he also did this with that Chris Grecco fella, and said there was judgements and what not, Well after doing MY DUE DILLEGENCE I see no judgements anywhere, TROY DOOLY is one of the FIRST AND ONLY BLOGGERS TO SENSATIONALIZE a STORY.
GLOBAL VERGE, GLOBAL GAS CARD, GRECCO, PANTHER MOBILE, I can go on and on here, DNA, I mean this guy is such a Fu**ing Poser.
Troy Dooly grow up, Behind MLM is reporting the REAL NEWS, Not the sponsored crap you feed people every day that is why your rankings and ratings are going down, So attack another blogger! What a lame!!
All I can say is go dig up Global Verge, Grecco, or one of your other BS Stories, Zeek Rewards is being exposed for exactly what they did, You show me in detail where this is sensationalized, What an ass.
Thanks for the good work behind mlm.
I am confused. There is one story about sanktions, another about credit cards criminal.
Should I avoid joining USA company sites in the future. Or will it be possible at all? I am from Serbia. At the moment I am an affiliate of the membership site based in USA.
Paul Burks is acting as a “hobby-lawyer” again? And messing things up as usual?
I hoped he had learnt his lesson the last time. It seems like he’s reading too many laws in the evening, and wake up next morning with a feeling that they all relates to him (much like a hypocondriac reading articles about diseases, and gradually feeling all the symptoms he has been reading about).
His latest “disease” seems to be “Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten International Stabilization Efforts in the Western Balkans” from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Troy Dooly was probably right in his descriptions.
* “A strong believer in the U.S. Constitution” (and almost any other law he might find).
* “patriotic” (people in foreign countries are potential enemies)
* “use the same MLM-lawyer as Troy Dooly” (but doesn’t seem to know how and when to use him).
At least, finally Paul Burks admits that the money from affiliates are some kind of “investments” and has to be blocked.
The other options can either be that he consider bids to be a military weapon, or that the software can be used for military purposes – and hasn’t dicovered that these UN initiated embargos have been lifted (Slovenia became member of NATO in 2004, Croatia became member in 2009).
Good try, Paul Burks. Try again?
@Dragica
You should possibly avoid companies owned by “hobby-lawyers” in the U.S. (or any other country).
Zeek Reward’s story on sanctions do not make any sense. Slovenia had sanctions in 1998, but that was lifted in 2000.
Slovenia is part of the EU. Slovenia joined the Eurozone in 2007. Slovenia joined NATO in 2004. You can buy from Amazon and pay from plus ship to Slovenia.
You can join Google Adsense and Amazon Associates from Slovenia – these are the 2 largest independent “affiliate” sites on the internet. You can sign up as an affiliate at Linkshare, Commission Junction, and Shareasale from Slovenia – these are the biggest “affiliate” marketing site available.
So what is it about Zeek Rewards that the US govt is forcing “sanctions” against being an “affiliate” in Slovenia?
I want the truth,
JC
honestly, after have read all the last posts here and in MMG forum, i don`t know if to laugh or to cry…..in fact this person really doesn`t know what to say at us and so he has found out so much excuses, that all this is just ridiculous.
uh….anyway, guys, can we do something to change all this and to have our accounts reactivated? do you have any idea about how and what? what about the possibility to write all this story in some great newspaper? ….any other suggestion? …
Agree with Norway, seems Burks got a “FYI” from someone, like “Look at this and make sure you’re compliant”, and he’s like “OMG! I HAVE TO BAN EVERYBODY TO PROTECT MYSELF!”
Hilarious.
Funny how none of the increasing VIP balances of those people in the 6 countries are being paid out, only the original subscriptions and purchases. Sounds a little too convenient. Maybe the VIP point balances were getting a little too big????
Makes you wonder if we are going to have the random banning-of-the-month approach to keep those VIP point liabilities in check. I would imagine this compliance course coming up will be another excuse to ban people as well, but this time it will also include the US as well as other countries.
I am waiting for my last check to be paid out in about 3 weeks and I will be done with this joke of a ponzi scheme.
@natasha
I don’t think so, as far as I know it’s up companies which countries they do business with.
I also imagine there’s a clause somewhere in the T&C that state ZR can terminate accounts at any time for any reason. You could still however run off to the SEC and other regulators and see if they’ll take a look.
Might not get your money back but it could hold them accountable. There doesn’t seem to be any basis for the banning of the countries… the explanation holds no weight under further scrutiny as others have pointed out above.
@cashing outThis is key, as it highlights the true value of members to the company. All that advertising these members did is utterly worthless – the only thing of value ZR will refund? Money personally invested by banned members.
The money members invest with ZR is all that counts… everything else (including giving bids away and publishing ads) is just pointless noise to attempt to make the scheme look legal.
Otherwise banned members would be getting rightly compensated for their “work”.
That’s about it for me. I’ve never heard of Dooly before doing my research on Zeek, and I hope I never do again.
When I asked the one trying to recruit me some difficult questions, all he had to say was “here’s that Dooly guy, he knows MLM, see what he thinks.” Well, now I see what he thinks, and I realize what it’s worth.
He just eats up whatever Burkes puts out with a spoon. Clearly America doesn’t impose trade restrictions on NATO members and EU countries. Burkes’s excuse doesn’t hold a water molecule.
Troy posted an update after Paul Burk’s recent update acknowledging the sanctions.
I posted a couple replies, including this:
It looks like many affiliate who felt they have been wronged or otherwise treated unfairly by Zeek Rewards have been linking to the various BehindMLM articles.
I see “zeekrewards” and “zeek rewards” on the first page of Google.
The temperature is going to increase soon as more Zeek affiliates discover BehindMLM. I’ve been a long time reader and it seems every 6 months or so there is one company that generates a burst of activity, especially ones where there are few other online destinations to discuss the issues openly.
Hopefully we can uncover the truth. Transparency is all affiliates are asking for.
I want the truth,
JC
I am really confused. Are these members losing their investment and earned income? Is Zeek going to pay them their rightful money or beat them out of it?
I cannot believe there could be any problem with European Union or Nato countries. People who are actually involved, from the 6 countries, Please let us know what is happening.
Zeek has already accepted people in these 6 countries as affiliates for a year or so, so they should probably continue to accept them. Banning groups of people without reason looks like ‘discrimination’, more related to personal motives than to real business motives.
Other than that, businesses can of course avoid to enter specific markets due to several reasons, but these reasons should be business related rather than imaginary.
Zeek has already stated a specific reason for banning active affiliates in 6 countries and deactivating their accounts. The correct step should be to check that he has interpreted the laws correctly, by asking the correct authority – OFAC, Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Asking the right questions – designed for internet users rather than lawyers and politicians – should make it possible to clear up this mess.
General clauses are usually illegal/invalid in agreements, or in other words “not defendable in court”. This relates to areas where specific conditions can be expected as the “normal standard” in business. A court will usually ignore unreasonable clauses, and use their own definitions for “normal standard”.
@Papa
ZR will refund invested money (membership fees + bid investments). That’s it.
Members will not be compensated on projected ROIs, point balances and for spamming ads every day. The only real value is the real money a member puts into ZR. The rest is just a game.
I know several affiliates that would be outraged if this happened to them, as they invested only a little bit up front ($10 to $100), but then built have built large 5 and 6 figure point balances over the last 6-12 months through compound interest and recruiting others.
There also are many affiliates who purchased Zeekler VIP bids to take advantage of the 20% commission plus matching VIP points. Let’s say you spent $5000 to buy VIP bids. You do this mostly for the 5000 matching VIP points (it was 2x during the Jan 2012 BOGO promotion).
If you have not converted your VIP points to cash, and now your country is sanctioned, then all you are left with are the vastly overpriced bids which you probably spent trying to win $25 and $100 gift cards as you did not care about the value of the bids … in other words, the VIP bids your purchased was just a vehicle for getting more VIP points.
Thanks Oz and Jimmy. I understand
As if any of these European affiliates will hire a lawyer in the US to sue ZeekRewards… (*wink wink* *nudge nudge*)
Troy Dooly is a shill for zeek.
He bashed Oz in his Apr 7th post…
” I wonder if some of these
bloggers have a hidden agenda or may be
working for a Zeek competitor.”
“Oz, over at Behind MLM has been the hardest
on Zeek Rewards over the last few months,
putting up articles which at first glance would
lead the readers to wonder if Zeek Rewards is
the one perpetrating the fraud.”
But then replies…
“Oz, I am not stating you are anyone’s payroll
at all.”
Then brings up this site in his two latest YouTube rants.
This is the only site I have found that isnt a shill for the zeek ponzi, and for that I thank you.
Only one question that I have for Troy Dooly…..
If you stop taking money from Zeek will you still be able to afford those cheesy t-shirts you wear on YouTube?
I would quite go *that* far bashing Troy Dooley. He does do some good work, but he’s a MLMer deep in his heart and he’s soft on MLMs that appears to cooperate with him.
MLMHelpDesk is a MLM news site, nothing more. Don’t expect it to be anything more either. Troy is basically a MLM Supporter.
There are six types of MLMers
MLM Grunts — the average participant, often sheep to be fleeced
MLM Stars — the leaders who decided to make MLM their career, but move from one opportunity to another, sometimes act as “coaches” offering “training”.
MLM Lawyers — obvious, supports MLM, of course, but only in terms of compliance, not business or analysis
MLM Supporters — Troy Dooley, Rod Cook, and such, reports on MLM news and picks up on obvious scams
MLM Opponents — Robert Fitzpatrick and such, claims ALL MLMs are scams (and they do have a point)
MLM Critics — Oz here, that tries to stay neutral and analyze the opportunity based on both legal and monetary aspects.
There are VERY few true MLM critics. Why? They get insults from BOTH sides. MLM supporters come and argue when a company was judged to be scammy or unprofitable, such as “you must be employed by our competitor”, or “everything is a pyramid” and other logical fallacies. The MLM Opponents claim that critics don’t go far enough in denouncing ALL MLMs.
Agreed – some REALLY weird things happening around ZeekRewards.
Some of the speculations offered here seem to make sense too.
Yet, I do think some patience is required and panicing never really helps anyway.
And I do cherish a hope that people at Zeek are not heartless SCAM bastards for simple reasons:
1. They are really making immense efforts for Zeek to succeed, and after all, in a world with over 7 billion people, it still only is a little baby
2. The good name – once gone bad, no way back for Paul Burks and his respected crew. They care about this business and about their names. Come on guys – Zeek IS a genius model after all and although it has some non-lucid parts, no business is 100% lucid and penetrable for public eyes.
As for cashing out, take the biggest and most honest bank – once all the clients decide to withdraw the money at once, no bank will withstand that! It will simply crash and burn! We are not kids – we know most money is virtual in this world! So it is not the issue here.
When all the clients leave and blemish the company, the company is done – be it Zeek, Microsoft or whatever. I will be waiting a while before I decide to hate the company I’ve come to love and believe in.
P.S> I wonder what Paul Burks has to say in addition to the non-substantial reasons that have been offered so far. I guess he should understand that “not enough data” is the worst case as it fuels people’s imaginations.
Keeping vigilant!
“Not defendable in court” is a principle, and can be used in other strategies. It makes people very little eager to put up a fight when they realize they have a weak case.
“Hobby lawyers” will usually include lots of general clauses in their attempts to protect their own interests, while a professional lawyer will make an agreement more defendable in court – avoiding the use of general clauses and avoiding terms that are already regulated by other laws. The professional lawyer thinks one step further, and will prefer conditions he can defend in court.
Usually, it’s not necessary to sue someone if they know they have a weak defence. They (or their lawyers) will be looking for other solutions than courts to solve the disagreement.
Paul Burks has found out in the last months that most of his “strong defense” is rather weak, and will be useless in case of trouble. He’s not very eager to engage in a fight, or even face the risk of one.
This is absolutely my perception as well. The less judicial scrutiny into Zeek, the better for Paul Burks, and I expect him to be quite lenient if it helps him leave things outside of court and authority attention.
The principle was used in “CarbonCopyPRO Compliance Team vs. BehindMLM”, where they ended up sending an e-mail to their own members about “Don’t read blogs and forums. Don’t even read NEWS.” 🙂
A case about false and misleading information would eventually have ended up with opposite results than they wanted. “Not defendable in court” was used as a “psychological principle” rather than juridical.
i have posted this morning ome links here, but probably it was better than you didn`t make them visible, yeah:) ….anyway…have we any chance to win here? can we at least ask not just for a refund but also to be paid for our work? ….do exist any law with which we can win? ….
And that, would be judged as a cult tactic: the I in Steven Hassan’s BITE model: information control.
http://freedomofmind.com/Info/BITE/bitemodel.php#information
@Joe
This is a “call for patience” and is often echoed by both MLM’s and ponzi’s. In some cases, this is acceptable when a company is going through rapid growth (e.g. large amount of customers resulting in server upgrades, or product inventory issues).
In Zeek’s case, however, one can analyze the actions the company has already taken. For example, banning of 6 countries and closing accounts without appeal or notification, and without compensation for value of points earned (some affiliates had been active for a full year), followed by a very nebulous citation of non-existent sanctions in a blog post by the CEO doesn’t fall into the same category as “wait and see, they are growing very fast and haven’t figured out all the details yet”.
In this case, they took a specific action based on specific analysis, and shared that analysis with the public, and none of it makes any sense.
I’ve responded to this “run on the bank” scenario posed by many before. Here’s the difference:
– If all of us go to a bank and widthdraw our money, the bank goes out of business, but we ALL get our money back. This is because our money invested is backed by real assets (and insurance).
– If all of us go and cash out of Zeek Rewards, Zeek lowers the profit share, and ALL affiliates take a significant hair cut on the value of virtual points. Zeek, meanwhile, keeps their half of the “profits” while affiliates are screwed.
@natasha
Posts with links go into Oz’s moderation queue. If it was a relevant post, Oz will approve it.
American Banks are backed by the Federal Government through FDIC. They can borrow from each other or the Federal Reserve Banks around the country.
VIP points are backed by nothing other than Burks’ word that Zeek Rewards / Rex Group will keep running.
Commentary — when you have a Ponzi scheme where the late joiner’s money is shuffled to the early joiners, no matter how you try to prop it up with another source of income, it WILL fail.
Take a look at Albania and the “lottery uprising”, which is actually a bunch of Ponzi schemes. Some places are offering as much as “double your money in two months” in late stages, and it’s estimated that the amount of money in the various Ponzi schemes have reached 70% of the country’s GDP (that’s a figure by World Bank, really).
They were promising this sort of profit because they are smuggling stuff into then embargoed Yugoslavia and earning HUGE profits.
In other words, they are Ponzi schemes propped up by a different revenue source (in this case, smuggling).
And the similarity to ZeekRewards is uncanny. In ZeekRewards, you are supposedly getting ~1.5% per DAY (which amounts to 244% in 2 months assuming 100% reinvestment), and almost all explanations by participants claims Zeekler is feeding it TONS of profits.
ZeekRewards late participants are encouraged to keep putting money IN (keep up your VIP points) and not take anything out, while those with sufficiently large balances of VIP points can take money out. Essentially, it is shuffling money from late joiners to early joiners, albeit with a large influx of external revenue.
A Ponzi, no matter how much disguised with external revenue, is still a Ponzi.
Wow, some of you are truly over-reacting and getting into that mob state of mind. Listen, I have been with ZR for a long-time and have found them to be incredibly honest and have made all attempts to do the right thing.
If you read the news release from Paul Burks yesterday, you would understand why some people unfortunatly had to be removed from the program.
Zeekler and ZR will continue to grow and if you in the U.S, don’t worry about it, keep posting your ads and spreading the news. This this is going to keep growing and the officers of this company will continue to improve the program.
Don’t get caught up in the internet crap. Most of these people don’t know what they are talking about. So, my advice, keep doing what you are directed to do and roll with the punches.
To those who were removed from the program, I feel for you and that is a bad deal but they have to abide by the rules and do what is right for the company. So, with that, keep on zeekin’ on!
When Albanian government realized they are besieged by Ponzi schemes and tried to warn their citizens, they were lambasted for “trying to destroy one of the brightest parts of Albanian economy”.
When the whole thing went down the drain, nobody remembered that they were warned. It didn’t help that some of the politicians participated as well.
So before you claim everybody is out to “get” ZeekRewards, perhaps you should consider the other side’s POV.
@Jimmy
thanks, Jimmy, i have understood this:) ….in fact it is better that Oz look at all the links…maybe we could post something wrong here which will not be so good, of course:) ….
they were links about where we can find real help for this problem….legal help….anyway, if Oz will see that it is good that they are posted, he will surely post them here, i know this:) …so i will wait, of course:)
….thanks again 🙂
(this comment was posted on zeekrewardsnews.com but has not been approved)
for the record im not a zeekler or zeekrewards member i was going to sign up through a friend who is now blocked and for more then 10 days he had no information.
I still believe zeek is a good program for everyone and that PAUL after this information is going to make it STRONGER and also tell to the World that there was a mistake on information.
@Craig
No you wouldn’t.
Plenty of US companies do business in those countries and nowhere on that linked site does it mention US companies can’t do business in the six countries. Burks’ statement and reasoning is full of shit.
Now they’re blaming downtime on DDOS attacks… riiiiiiiiiiiiight. Can’t wait for the ‘IRS are unfairly targeting us’ excuses…
I replied to Troy’s reply on my questions about the 6 countries sanctioned and how this has any connection to the OFAC list (which Jimmy posted here first before it was referenced on ZeekRewardsNews or MLMHelpDesk… wonder if they are getting their “excuses” from Oz’s commentators?).
Troy is obviously a knowledgeable MLM insider, but he sets up straw man arguments. He also has not responded to the fact that Slovenia is a member of the EU and NATO since 2004, and has been part of the Eurozone since 2007, and that all the major online businesses such as Google, Amazon, eBay, PayPal and many others conduct business to/from Slovenia.
So if the issue truly was “sanctions” as identified by the OFAC, all these other companies would be affected. And yes, these other companies have many lawyers so you would think one of these multi-billion dollar internet businesses would have banned these same 6 countries by now if there was any hint of an OFAC violation.
Jimmy wrote the above 10 days ago.
Jimmy is either spot-on with his analysis, or Zeek Rewards is reading BehindMLM to get ideas on what to say next (recall Jimmy posted about the OFAC first).
Everyone agrees that a company needs to abide by the rules.
But can you please enlighten us on what these rules are? It surely can’t be the OFAC sanctions, which is why Paul Burks quoted, which is what Troy Dooly is parroting… but the OFAC sanctions have NOTHING to do with the 6 countries banned by Zeek.
No one Zeek supporter or corporate to date can explain how Slovenia is on the list. Slovenia has been highlighted as a special case because of their status as EU, Eurozone, and NATO member.
ZeekRewardsNews approves fewer than 1-in-100 comments. Yes, less than 1% of all submitted comments are approved.
I’m sure they will just say they are understaffed (which begs the question I thought they were bringing in massive profits, only 50% of which are shared with affiliates, so couldn’t they afford people to handle the internet properties considering that is the fundamental means of communication and recruiting?)
It surely does not help with the transparency and credibility issue if over 99% of all comments are blocked.
ZR are clearly lying about the reasons for banning the 6 countries, but what are the real reasons?
Perhaps they looked at the amount of bids being bought (by affiliates and customers) in these countries and realised that all they represented were a drain on ZR finances.
eg i know of one ZR affiliate who was recommending that you sign up free and then, after 60 days, pay the minimum $10 (which he’d refund you) and just put in the first $10 subscription. After that you could pay subs by using the cash available for the RPP.
If there were hundreds or thousands doing this, then ZR wouldn’t even be making the $10/month subscription and would be now just about to start paying out some large amounts they couldn’t afford. Best to nip it in the bud right now.
Just a theory.
There are thousands of affiliates in Asian countries already doing this. I think the number of affiliates in those countries, especially China and Philippines, is much greater than the 6 banned countries.
I know of two affiliates personally with high hundreds (maybe thousands by now) of affiliates under them that are all free and all from Asian countries or having a few relatives in US and signing up their entire family here in US and in Asia.
They are thinking long-term that in a few months they can cash out a few dollars per day, which may not be worth the effort for us in the US/UK/AU, but would be significant income in many Asian countries.
I can’t speak for our esteemed Mr. Jimmy but I think the answer is simpler than that.
Zeek Rewards behavior as a company is very inconsistent for a long term, legitimate enterprise, they are making the sort of mistakes most buisness never make once let alone after “14 years of rock solid buisness experience.” But their behavior is completely consistent with the “Admin” of any of the many flash in the pan online money making “programs” that live quickly and die suddenly on the pages of web forums like TalkGold or Money Maker Group.
Zeek’s actions aren’t particularly surprising if you view the company as a ponzi scheme first and the “cover story” second.
@Colsta
if it would be for this reason, than they would choose people who have not invested out of the others and blocked only those accounts….
yes, i was also here for free, but one my referral, for example, have invested 1000$ here and also my sponsor the same thing….but they have blocked like we all other people ….so i am sure that we shouldn`t search the answer on this way
anyway, i was thinking that he maybe just want slowly to block all the small countries or something like this….so he have choose to block these our 6 countries just for case, to then, the next month maybe block other 6 contries and then other and other….who knows….
in fact more i am thinking, more i find out that he has blocked us just like this….to have less countries in his company….other explanation seems to not exist …
yeah, I can’t work it out.
BTW I’ve just written to the Office of Foreign Assetts Control seeking their response to this matter. i don’t know if i’ll get an answer, but if i do I’ll post it on this site first.
Please do. It’s time to turn on the heat on Mr Burks.
@Colsta
where are you from? what have you written to the Office of Foreign Assetts Control? all the story or just some facts? …
How exactly is this free scam working. I thought free subscribers do not get any money until they pay. How does having hundreds of free subscribers below me benefit me?
I was caught in a ponzie scam in the 80’s. Remember the only real money available is what the members put in. When people begin to withdraw funds it is time to end.
A few leaks created a situation (as the 6 countries) to allow the MLM to say” due to investigations I am no longer able to correspond”. He kept all the money and we never heard from him again.
He spent a short time in white colar prison and had millions when he got out. Decesion time
As I already mentioned, weird things happening around Zeek currently! Although I am a bit worried and endangered myself, I am not the one to make fast decisions and regret my words shortly afterwards.
For those of us that are not familiar with insider issues of the banned countries, it certainly looks very weird that they have been banned. Yet, I’ve managed to find some “insider secrets” from Belarus.
I have information regrading Belarus that states that iWowWe has also excluded it from the country list and compensated the loss to the former affiliates in a similar way like ZR. (No official document to prove the point though…)
There are also rumors that all foreign internet business will be removed from that country and the one responsible is the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Politics and business never go unblemished together…
Check out this article regarding a similar sanction that caused ZR to seize co-operating with Belarus on a totally different subject in Russian, with Google translation to English:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=iw&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnaviny.by%2Frubrics%2Fpolitic%2F2012%2F04%2F01%2Fic_news_112_390376%2F&act=url
@ Natasha…
I wrote:
@lui
zeekrewards gives at each new free affliate 100 point to can start earning with them….after 60 days, they deduct the initial 100 points from your enarning points and if you pay 10$ for the subscription and 10$ for 10 bids,
you are in the game….from this day you each day earn really bids (money!)….and naturaly, if you want to earn someday some good money, you must all your earnings let in the sistem and purchase with it new and new bids….
and on each new bid which is purchased, the sponsor receive some % ….naturaly in first months it is all so slowly, that it is sometimes so noious, that you feel the need to let go all…..
but when you think at the future and that one day you will have a real monthly pay with this company, than you find the will to work again and again and again….and the time pass and after about 1 year and half you can be sure to can finally withdraw each month about 500-600$ monthy, which was your dream all this time…..
unfortunately, people from these 6 countries, like it seems, we will never have the opportunity to see these earnings….or maybe yes, who knows….
@joe
also if maybe belarus is an exception….what about all other 5 contries? can you find out something also for them? …
@colsta
good done, wow:) …i really hope that they will reply you and at least suggest where you can write, if this is not the right adress, yeah….anyway, a guy have sent me 4 links for for possible places where i could write, but i am not sure what to write and how
@oz
what do you think about the 4 links i have mentioned? are they the right place to write about our problem? or do you suggest maybe something else? all the possible suggestions which you have, are welcome, so i will waiting for them:) ….thanks:)
Thank you Natasha.
A poster wrote that they knew of families that signed up hundreds of asian as free members and then pay $10.00 / month. How much are they making ?
$1-5 per day depending on their reinvestment strategy. It’s not a ton of money for most of us, but for many in Asian countries it is more than 12 hours of manual labor, if you can find the work.
I just got this reply from OFAC Compliance. I guess this confirms that ZR are lying liars who lie, heh? Anyone doubt the veracity of this, just email ofac_feedback@do.treas.gov and find out for yourself.
Very interesting.
I’ve fired off my own specific enquiry. I’ll wait for a reply before publishing.
@Oz
Perhaps you can also reply on Troy’s blog as he specifically called you out and some other commentators saying there is no evidence and all comments are just speculative hearsay.
One commentator stated he had screen shots from live chat with Zeek customer support and emails, though not sure if that’s “acceptable” to Troy as evidence since the Zeek customer service replies were so vague with regards to “sanctions”.
@Colsta
wow, that`s great!:) …thanks to have posted this:) …anyway, i`m really sorry that they have mentioned just Slovenia, so the other people will still speculat about the other countries….however, better this than nothing, of course:) ….what you will do now? what can we all do now?
@oz
good think:) …i am sure that you will find something great out:) …
Hi guys how much will i get if i start cashing out for a period of 90 days to empty my 6000 VIP points ? I am bad at calculation , will i get the full 6000 in $ ?
What about cashing out for a month or 60 days? I am a little concerned about the recent problem. It seems like there is something wrong behind the scene. Can someone help me out buy doing a little calculation on this?
Someone who is active on TalkGold, MMG or other forums where this topic is discussed can probably post some information?
It will prevent others from asking the same question, and will clarify some parts of this case.
I’ll guess Oz has asked more detailed questions, but some quick information will also have value for the affiliates involved.
I have posted a comment on MLMHelpDesk (currently awaiting moderation, so it might not be visible yet):
mlmhelpdesk.com/breaking-zeek-rewards-update-zeek-rewards-ceo-paul-burks-clarifies-blockage-of-countries-deactivation-of-affiliates-accounts/#comment-58534
(Link deactivated to prevent moderation queue)
They have appeared to you to be honest, but their explanations are, for lack of better word, bull****.
If you have read some of the research done in the comments already, you will find that the countries he claimed to be embargoed by OFAC are NOT under any sort of embargo or sanctions. People have scoured OFAC website and cannot find sanctions that Burks have named.
So stop apologizing for Burks and start LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE, unless you plan to regurgitate bull****.
As K. Chang stated above, the Belarus sanctions are specific to individuals (part of the regime) and companies. Even the recent EU expansion of sanctions against Belarus is targeted only at specific individuals and companies, not all internet business or MLM business or investment business.
But more importantly, the question everyone has been asking is why Slovenia? Slovenia is the most obvious case of complete BS from Paul Burks because (as stated several times here by me and others, on Troy’s blog, and MMG):
– There are no US sanction against Slovenia that anyone can find, and some confirmation from OFAC above with more pending from Oz’s own inquiry.
– Slovenia is part of the EU and NATO (since 2004) and joined the Eurozone since 2007
– The biggest US based internet companies all conduct business to/from Slovenia, and over the internet: including Google, Amazon, eBay, PayPal, Apple
– You can sign up as an “affiliate” to the top affiliate marketing companies based in the US, including Commission Junction, Linkshare, ShareASale, and use a Slovenia address
The biggest litmus test for me has always been PayPal. PayPal is very aggressive in disallowing entire industries (for example no MLM’s, PayPal kicked out all Zeek Rewards transactions) especially any high risk industries (gambling, lotteries, HYIP and other investments).
PayPal bans specific countries, and despite being the most aggressive of all the internet business in banning countries, they only list the following due to US sanctions:
Burma (Myanmar)
Cuba
Iran
North Korea
Sudan
Syria
So what does “sanctions” have to do with anything in Paul Burk’s post.
And when will Troy Dooly stop his cheerleading support and issue an apology for calling out Oz and the comments from my fellow independent analysts???
Note that the link the OFAC appeared here before Paul Burks posted it, not that anyone else couldn’t have found it on their own, but it does show the the analysis being performed here was spot on.
We narrowed in on the “sanctions” and found the same source as Paul Burks. Of course, Paul Burks’ interpretation doesn’t make any sense.
Paul’s story will need to change (again). He simply can not keep people convinced that US laws forced him to stop doing buisness with a country which is part of the European union.
My guess, the problem will no longer be with the country themselves but rather wide spread fraud by organized groups within those countries. In fact the recent “DDOS attack” they’ve been dealing with might have been an act of revenge.
The obvious follow up question is how does banning countries by IP addresses hinder organized gangs of cyber criminals? The fact is, it doesn’t.
The real problem here is that Zeek’s program is very susceptible to groups of people creating multiple user accounts and joining them with other “phantom downlines” to create huge networks passing all the bonuses and commissions up the pyramid and showering all the bonus VIP bids down.
There would be a few angles to figure but say you pay some kid at a cyber cafe a dollar an hour just to register free email accounts, a few bucks an hour to someone to set up the Zeek accounts And post ads. You could quite possibly be earning a total of say $10, $15 bucks an hour “playing the game” and in a lot of internet enabled countries, that ain’t bad money.
Zeek’s immediate problem is that there are more than six nations in the world who meet those conditions.
@M_Norway
i am active or at least i was active in MMG forum all the last days until 2 das ago, when the elite people have decided to ignore me…
i have posted this news in the forum and i can just hope that someone will read it….in fact they have told me that they are still receiving their cheks from this great company and that i am just disturbing their business with my posting here….so now they are talking about zeekrewards like nothing would never happened at no one of us….like we wouldn`t never be part of them (like the big chief!) ….
there are 6-7 members who are with us in this war, but they are talking with me in private…anyway, i know that there were a lot of people to read my posts, so i can hope that at least someone will come good this information
@Jimmy
probably the big chief have thought that slovenia is slovakia…it wouldn`t be the first to have done this mistake…. 🙂
….anyway, also slovakia is in european union…so he probably have read about the ex balkan…or something like this….
In other words, they feel that your negative posts harms their own business?
The same people did also mean that the problem didn’t relate to them, it was someone else’ problem?
I partly agree with them in point 1. Your topic is off-topic in relation to their topic. They are discussing “compounds” or something similar, while you are discussing a specific problem.
I’m a member there, but I have only posted 2 or 3 posts in one specific case in 2010, and I don’t remember my username there. I will have to search for it in old threads first, and maybe create a new thread.
you are right about the fact that maybe my negative posts harms their own business….anyway i am sure that people must know about what is happening….it is not right that they make money one new referrals without telling them the truth!…
however, we have just discussing about this and then they have decided that they can`t help me and that this is not their problem and so long and so long….
i have tryed to explain them that if we would all together to ask for answers and if we would all together trying to find out the solution, that we would already won…but i was just annoying them with these my posts:( …
if you want to look in the forum, you will find me under nickname opport…we have started to talk about this problem on the page 283 of this post…
anyway, i am really asking me….how they can talk about this business now without thinking about this problem? like it would never existed?:( ….if i would be in their place, i would surely want to know!…not just for them, but also for me….
in fact i can`t work for any company which i don`t trust at 100%….but it seems that they now trust zeek also more than before, uh…
@natasha
I have created a new thread in the MMG-forum
http://www.moneymakergroup.com/Zeekrewards-Zeekrewards-t405166.html
The other thread had 336 pages, and there’s little use in posting anything there about this specific problem.
I won’t be active in the thread I created, unless there are some specific information to be posted. People should probably COPY/MOVE some of the information to a more local forum in their own language (to be able to discuss in their native language).
@Craig
No you won’t get $6000 because each day your point balance declines. Because the ROI is a variable from day to day and we don’t know how many points you’ll lose a day, it’s impossible to work out what you will earn on this end.
If you wanted to do it yourself you could see what the average ROI % has been the past month and then calculate it each day manually (ROI % times the point balance). Just make sure you subtract your expiring points each day before doing the calculation.
@M_Norway
wow, thanks 🙂 …you have had a really good idea to create this new thread…i just hope that the admin will not cancel it ….and that the people will not be scared to post their thoughts also here…anyway, i will try to keep it alive as much as possible, i promise 🙂 …
oh, i have almost forgot…we can`t write in our own language in this forum….it is permit just in the thread “international chat”….anyway we are habituate to write in english here and i have so much practiced this language in this last 2 weeks, that it will surely not be any problem at no one of us to write in english….
and maybe it is also better that i don`t have the possibility to write in my language….if i would have it, i would probably already write a book about all this story 😉 ….
just my another thought – i must say that i am really glad to have find this Oz`s forum….in fact here i finally feel good and not just this!….finally i am talking with people who are living with eyes, ears and brains opened….and so i here feel not just one of others, but expecially calm and serene 🙂
….thanks to be like you are, M_Norway and also all others 🙂 …
In roughly 90 days when he is fully cashed out from zeek, hahaaa.
You don’t need to “keep it alive”. It’s a solution where people can discuss this specific problem and related stuff, or add updates for what has happened in this case, or other info about the situation – if they WANT TO do it. They don’t NEED TO do it.
I created the thread as a solution for the other ZeekRewards users on MMG too. They don’t like posts about problems with ZR, since they feel it will harm their own business. Now they can direct people to one specific thread.
He will probably allow it. The first post was kept in a neutral style, with balanced information. I’m not involved in ZR, so it’s easier for me to break the rules and make people accept it.
Most of the experienced users there will accept the solution. They didn’t create any solution on their own, other than posting comments about “You’re harming my business”.
@M_Norway
unfortunately the threat doesn`t exist anymore:( …i don`t know when they have cancelled it….in fact about 2 hours ago it was still alive….but now it is not anymore:( … i am really sorry for this 🙁 …
anyway, this is just a proof that they are really scared of all us and to know the thruth….which they already know in the deep of their hearts, but which they don`t want to accept….
what can we do now? i really don`t want that this story die without any answer and/or without any changes….
Mmg admin themselves were responsible for starting the original zeekrewards thread. It all ties in together if you think about it.
yes, i know, Colsta…they are all like a big family and this would be really great if they would also us 500 ex members look in this way….
anyway, i just hope that we will win also without their help…we have any chance for win? what do you mean? …
Natasha the new threadis a duplicate , MMG never allow such thread to exist. They have been doing this for a long time. I’ve seen similar thread being taken down so it is normal for them to do so. There is nothing wrong with that.
As for the thread starter he is not a MMG admin , he is just a moderator. MMG admin will remain neutral on this matter so they shouldn’t be dragged into this matter.
@Craig
The new thread was a solution to a problem, not a duplicate of the other thread. It specified a single area = the 6 countries that has been banned.
It was their own posting rules about “Program – URL” that made it look like a duplicate.
The problem was twofold:
1. People in the original thread didn’t like posts about countries being banned – “You’re harming my business”.
2. People from those 6 countries needed a place to post information and discuss the situation.
The thread survived for more than 12 hours, so it has probably been close to “acceptable” as a solution (or atleast I created some doubt about it). Most other threads would probably have been deleted within a couple of hours.
There’s nothing wrong in having rules and follow them, but rules should be flexible enough to allow new solutions. Other forums prefer to call the rules for “Guidelines”, in order to make them more flexible. MMG seems to prefer fixed “rules”.
Hi: natasha. You write english very well. I live in NYC and we have high school graduates who can’t write as well as you. Good luck in exposing Zeek as a thief.
Where do you live. ? what is your native language?
@M_Norway
The new thread was probably a solution , but like i said it is not the right place to post it. It is a duplicate if you post it in that section , simple as that. You can choose to post it in Community Discussions or International Chat which i think is a better place to do so.
If they start to be flexible with the rules , trust me , more ‘solution’ for other programs would pop up every now and then in that section. I don’t think admins would want that to happen.
@Craig
We have established that they prefer posting in the original thread, instead of accepting new “solutions”. That was one of the points in creating a new thread.
Since natasha received critics for posting in the original thread, I choosed a different method – to see if they preferred other solutions.
“International chat” would be meaningless for me to post in, since I belong to Scandinavian countries – not to Ex-Yu. I did evaluate that solution too before I posted anything.
“Survived for 12 hours” means I did something right, enough to avoid being deleted immediately. I didn’t receive any warnings either, in the “personal warnings level”. They just deleted the thread quietly.
@M_Norway
The admin deleted it in the end which is why they don’t see it as an appropriate thread in the right section.
Hmm i think if admin can add another country/few more countries in the International Chat section it will be a great platform for these people to discuss the problem.
@lui
🙂 thanks, you are really kind …anyway, also if i not know so much bad english, i can`t say, that i know it good 🙂 …more times i am conscious that i didn`t write right something, but i just can`t find the right words to put together, so i send the message like it is, hopeing that the people will understand me… 🙂
…and i have problems with of, from, to, at …and also with a past time…so probably sometimes people laugh when they read my posts….but at least, like it seems, you all understand me and in this moment this is the only important thing ….
also if i hope that in time i will learn to write also better, of course 🙂 …i have started to use english just one year and half ago…right with reading and writing about internet businesses…and at the start i was almost crying when i have found out that i have forgot almost the most of my knowledge which i had after i have finished my school…..hm….about 26 years ago 😉
anyway, i am from Slovenia and my language is slovene and the tone of this language is similar at german, really hard…at the contrary of italian, for example, which is a sweet language…. slovene has nothing to do with these 2 languages and it is really hard to learn, so usually we people are habituate to learn strange languages to can comunicate with others….
and if you think that we are just 2 millions of people in our country, it is also logical that we must and want to know other languages, if we want to comunicate with others, of course…so i know perfectly italian and croatian, i studyed also french and english, and now finally i have the opportunity to use at least english and i really hope that i will use also french again one day in the future…
in fact i have still it in my ears and i understand it when i read it, but, like english, i am not capable to understnad it in video for example….like we always say here in my country – you can know really good all the grammar of any language, but if you don`t have the possibility to use this language also in the practice (talking with people in this language!), you will never know it for real….and it is true….
in fact also if i know now really good to write english in comparison with how i wrote it one year and half ago….with understanding video i am like i would never hear this language ….so i hope that one day i will have the possiblity also to talk with someone, not just to write …well, we will see 🙂 ….
however, i think that with this my knowing to write relatively good in english, it helps me also a lot my really good to write in my language….in fact not so much the last years, but more years ago i have written more times letters at the newspapers (they were published, of course) and also at ministrys for problems which were here and when i had some free time, i was always with a pen in my hand and i wrote, wrote, wrote….about anything 🙂 …
i really like to write and also for this reason i sometimes feel frustrate when i can`t find the right words when i am writing in english….yes, in time to time i still use google translator to help me with this…but more times it knows also less than me, so i prefer to use it just when i really don`t know how to help me alone…. 🙂 …
do you too know also some other language? do you learn at school also other languages or just english? ….
@M_Norway
it seems that they are doing all the possible to block all us to talk about this problem….so i am asking me – where we can post to not be blocked? it exist any similar popular place?
@Craig
your idea to chat in international section about this our problem in theory is not so bad…anyway almost no one use this section, also because useing it we can practicaly talk only with people from our country and not also with others…and we are 6 countries to have this problem…
i really must find another solution….so where we can write to be sure that our posts will be seen from the most possible people and also not deleted? usually people in america when they have some so big problem, where are they writing about it?
Troy Dooly very lightly addressed the issue that he was “speculating” about Zeek’s country ban, and called out “others” for speculating, but didn’t come clean with an apology or even acknowledge that the people he was calling out (Oz, and a few of you commentators here), were right all along on the list of countries identified and Zeek’s explanation that it was due to “sanctions”.
Troy then brings in an old FTC warning on illegal penny auctions as if it somehow relates to the Zeek Rewards business model, which as we know here, is driven almost entirely off the investment and ROI.
The penny auction is the just low revenue retail device used to deceive affiliates into thinking there is a significant source of massive profits other than the investments themselves.
I commented on this post and also proposed these questions to Troy. I don’t expect to see Troy reply to the substance of the question, but instead to deflect most answers in favor of the MLM company like he always does. But I would be happy if Troy surprised me and asked the “tough questions”.
My questions for Troy (since he has an upcoming Zeek corporate office visit):
Zeek Rewards News published on this a couple of weeks ago at least. They cited sources and publicly available US Government publications and links to those publications which list those countries which US companies may not do business with.
There are many mlm companies that don’t give a rip about compliance with regulations at all. So far Zeek is not one of them.
They’ve always been clear that you are not making an “investment” buying vip points is no different than buying any other consumable product. Therefore, there is no ROI’s and the like. We all know this.
VIP points are not “virtual money” as some have said. Maybe some of you were mislead by non compliant friends and family? Seems that way to me….
@BW
Where have you been? That all turned out to be complete bullshit.
What Zeek say is irrelevant, the business model is what’s important.
When was the last time a product purchase resulted in a 90 day ROI for you?
Virtual money no, virtual currency? Definitely.
You join ZR, convert your real money into the VIP bid/point virtual currency (which is the investment) and then enjoy a 90 day ROI.
i have been banned from zeekrewards on 27th march , i was a member since july 2011,,, and without any prior notice my account was deactivated ,,on 27th march and all my affiliates from Egypt .
for more than 2 weeks of complete silence from the company , paul posted an article on zeekrewards news ,,he claimed that these 6 countries were banned due to sanctions from regulatories and he added a link ,, i visited the link ,, Egypt is not there in the countrylist of sanctioned countries nor the othe 5 countries,,,
and he mentioned an e-mail to ask for a refund for the original paymenets no profit included from these damn vip points ,,,i wrote to the e-mail many times i got no dollar till now ,,, they don’t answer the e-mail ,,no profit ,,no refund of your payments .
i have to beg everyday for my money ,,with no answer ,,,,,customer support are the worst ,when they know i m from the banned countries , they close the chat …
since then till now i m begging hoping to get some of my hard-earned money back,,,,,thanks to behindmlm to give me this opportunity to express my problem
I am from Slovenia…I am doing other US based online money making oportunities at the moment, and do not have any problems at all to participate. Only Zeek! It must be something wrong there!
I would like to add, that have a friend who is from Macedonia, and when he was registering for the first time with Zeek, he was not allowed to do it. Than he asked in their chat support room why and after talikng with them, they allowed him to participate and make his account. And now he is doing Zeek. How that can be possible?
He is from Macedonia. Anyway, I would not do Zeek, even if they allowed me, after all those information here. Thank you guys! They are a lot of much better online money making opportunities at the moment than Zeek. Zeek smells like ponzi, indeed!
Customer Support probably isn’t aware of the supposedly “sanctions” against those 6 countries and just thought your friend from Macedonia had a problem with the site, and so created an account on his behalf.
The risk is Zeek later decides to shut down the account and only refunds the initial investment (if at all).
Alot of people are saying that there CC have been hacked with STP. They are saying that it starts almost immediatley upon signing up.
My bank phoned me today and told me they stopped my CC as there was a fraudulent company trying to take money out of my account but wouldn’t tell me who it was and just said they are investigating it. I have heard that alot of banks have cancelled peoples CC so there must be something going on.
Yep these poor suckers just don’t have a clue. They are talking about posting ads n problems with bid manager etc etc. I should post this link onto their skype page. I joined as well in early june but after finding this link & kscheng hub page I stopped and am trying to take my money back out now.
@Fritz — Some is due to all those non-US credit card processors trying to take money out of US credit cards. From the bank’s POV, you are in the US, and you don’t EVER deal with foreign country’s merchants. Thus, ANY transaction from non-US CC processors gotta be fraudulent, never mind which merchant it was.
Zeek’s telling all affiliates “just let it through”, but banks aren’t buying it. Some will call the client to confirm, others will just block it.
Heck, I’ve had my CC blocked before just for refueling at a gas station next to a casino!