Bob Schafer’s unnamed mail fraud pyramid scheme
Earlier this month a reader reached out with details of a business opportunity run by Bob Schafer.
Update 6th April 2022 – A reader in the comments has let me know Schafer also goes by “Bob Shaffer”.
Bob and Jan Shaffer (his wife) run their scam out of their modest home in upstate New York.
/end update
A pitch of the scheme, which doesn’t have a name, was uploaded to YouTube on March 2019.
In my own research I discovered marketed for Schafer’s scheme dating back to 2018.
In an effort to avoid regulators and fly under the radar, Schafer’s scheme goes by many names.
Here are some of the names I found used over the years:
- Leveraged Breakthrough System
- 15K Money
- 10K Wealth Code
- 7K Money
- Prosper With Bob
- 3D Wealth Machine
- High-Profit Cashflow
- Warrior to Wealth
- The Big Income System
- Proven Passive Business
- New Year Abundance
- Fast Start Side Hustle
There are no doubt others.
The reason for so many names is Schafer himself rotates them out periodically. Recruits also come up with names to market the scheme under.
Key people in Schafer’s scheme are:
- Bob Schafer, aka Coach Bob
- Oscar Christian Kinney, aka Coach Christian
- Marc Wilson, aka “The Army Dude”
Participants in Bob Schafer’s pyramid scheme buy in at one of four levels:
- Gold – $3000 + $247 admin fee
- Platinum – $7000 + $447 admin fee
- Diamond – $14,000 + $647 admin fee
- Ultra Royal – $21,000 + $847 admin fee
Bundled with each buy-in is access to a digital product library.
Commissions paid out on each buy-in tier are as follows:
- recruit a Gold tier affiliate and get paid $1500
- recruit a Platinum tier affiliate and get paid $3500
- recruit a Diamond tier affiliate and get paid $7000
- recruit an Ultra Royal tier affiliate and get paid $10,500
The catch is you can only earn up to the tier you yourself bought in at.
E.g. You buy in at Platinum and recruit an Ultra Royal affiliate.
Your maximum Platinum tier commission is $3500, which you get paid. The remaining $7000 is paid upline.
The system searches for either a Diamond or Ultra Royal tier affiliate to pay the remaining $7000 to.
If a Diamond is found first, they are paid $3500 ($7000 minus the $3500 paid to you), leaving $3500 to be paid to first upline Ultra Royal.
If an Ultra Royal is found, they are paid the full outstanding $7000.
Nothing is ever passed up when an Ultra Royal tier affiliate is paid.
This pass-up component of Bob Schafer’s unnamed pyramid scheme is what makes it an MLM opportunity.
I have seen promotions where new recruits are “upgraded” one tier above what they buy in at.
I’ve also seen Ultra Royal tier new recruits offered a 25% higher commission than the 50% standard rate.
I.e. instead of earning $3500 on a Platinum tier recruit you’d earn $5250.
Based on marketing videos, participants in Schafer’s scheme mail buy-in funds to each other.
The bottom line is Bob Schafer’s business opportunity is a pyramid scheme.
Nothing is sold or marketed to retail customers. You’re paying a buy-in fee, which qualifies you to earn on direct and indirect recruitment.
As with all MLM pyramid schemes, once recruitment dries up so too will commissions – both direct and pass-ups.
Once enough people stop promoting, that’ll be the end of it.
Math guarantees the majority of participants in pyramid schemes lose money.
The ones that make the money are Bob Schafer and those who got in early.
They collect admin fees, a minimum 25% cut of all buy-ins, plus pass-ups to their positions at the top of the pyramid.
This happens at the expense of everyone else who buys in.
Update 12th January 2024 – The FTC has sued Bob Shafer, aka Robert William Shafer, and accomplices Samuel James Smith and Charles Joseph Garis Jr. for fraud.
The FTC alleges millions in damages to consumers, across multiple violations of the FTC Act and Telemarketing Sales Rule.
If you’re reading this because you’ve been pitched Bob Schafer’s pyramid scheme under a different name, leave details in the comments below.
If I can verify I’ll add it to the review.
Oh, no! Not another one of these “Money by Mail” systems!!!!!
When are people going to learn that these things are SO illegal, and you can go to jail for promoting them?
If anybody comes across this program, turn around & run the other way!
There was one that got really big, really fast, and it got flagged by the FTC. It ran out of Wisconsin, if I’m not mistaken.
The owners eventually got shut down, but I remember some of the promoters were making $20-30K+ per day in their hay-day.
Yeah there was a resurgence of “in the mail” gifting schemes a few years back. Seems like these guys didn’t get the memo.
Wow,an actual physical endless-chainletter pyramid scam in 2022.
Dodo’s coming back from extinction too if this is any indication.
I think my favorite name was “3D Wealth Machine.”
Cuz, ya know, triangles are only 2D. True pyramids are 3D.
Oz,
I listened to the recording and it’s the same voice that did the gifting pitch with Tidom/8 Figure Dream Lifestyle before they were shut down.
Another guy that’s under the radar is Eric ‘Goodlife’ Johnson. He’s all over YT. Not sure he’s on FB, but maybe that’s to keep a low profile.
These guys are straight-up sociopaths, who couldn’t give two f***s if they set up others to fail – Which is exactly what they do.
Oz,
Another smokescreen for Bob Schafer’s program was created by Adam Holland who calls it Fast Start Side Hustle.
Holland’s approach is to make Bob’s scam look more polished and credible. He regularly hosts zoom webinars and pushes a financing option for those with a 640 credit score so they can come in at the higher levels.
He knows these poor people have almost no chance to make anything and is happy to connect them with loans they’ll never be able to repay.
The testimonials are produced and made to look like people are making money but it’s a big ruse.
You’ll find a picture/s of Adam Holland all over the Fast Start Side Hustle website and he appears quite proud to be scamming people.
Snitch brought up Tidom/8 Figure Dream Lifestyle above, which is relevant since half of the video testimonials on these affiliate pages were actually made for 8 Figure Lifestyle before it was shut down.
These lowlifes are literally recycling old testimonials for and old scam that no longer exists!
@Bruce
I didn’t mention Adam Holland but Fast Start Side Hustle was included in the original article.
Yes. Adam Holland’s Fast Start Side Hustle is gaining steam. An incredible, merciless, scammer. In time, the Ftc will take him out.
These scammers are practically daring the FTC to shut them down because they can’t really be so stupid to think they’re not being watched after all that’s happened with lawsuits and shutdowns like with Digital Altitude, Mobe, 8 Figure Lifestyle, Digital Income System, etc.
I should point out that the correct spelling of Bob’s last name is Shaffer as in Bob Shaffer. Bob and Jan Shaffer (his wife) run their scam out of their modest home in upstate New York. And Adam Holland has emerged as Bob’s #1 disciple for giving the scam a visual makeover under the guise of Fast Start Side Hustle.
He is now the main poster child for the money proof bait even using his own wife now in his enticing fraudulent traps for gullible suckers.
New photos have emerged that I can send you Oz since there doesn’t seem to be a place on this board to post them.
Thanks for the name correction. I’ll make a note of it in the article.
Contact form button is on the top right of every page.
Adam Holland is pitching the same thing and his company name is Fast Start Funding.
He claims he offers something called Share A Sale. It basically spreads the wealth around to all investors to ensure they don’t lose money.
It sounds like a solid approach but there’s nothing in writing for the initial setup. They just send an email to you with wiring instructions or mail-in instructions.
Is anyone else familiar with Adam and his FSSH company?
At the root of every pyramid scheme is unsustainable recruitment.
It doesn’t matter if you “share the money around”. Math guarantees the majority of participants will lose money.
Review updated to note FTC lawsuit filed against Shafer and his accomplices.