Forrise Review: “Consolidated financial flows” Ponzi
Forrise provides highly sketchy information on its website.
Forrise’s website domain (“forrise.com”) was registered in July 2019. The company began promoting itself on social media last December.
Despite only existing for around half a year, Forrise claims
the company dates back to 2009 when its Director General Adam Schultz started his career studying finances in Great Britain.
Adam Schultz features in Forrise marketing videos:
The actor playing Shultz has a distinctly eastern European accent, making him a prime Boris CEO candidate.
Forrise also provides an Panama incorporation certificate for Forrise INC. on their website. For due-diligence purposes however the certificate is meaningless.
At the time of publication Alexa cites the US as the primary source of traffic to Forrise’s website (76%).
As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.
Forrise’s Products
Forrise has no retailbale products or services, with affiliates only able to market Forrise affiliate membership itself.
Forrise’s Compensation Plan
Forrise affiliates USD, bitcoin and/or ethereum on the promise of advertised returns.
USD
- Amateur – invest $50 to $699 and receive a 115% over 15 days
- Ambient – invest $700 to $4999 and receive a 142% over 30 days
- Advance – invest $5000 to $10,000 and receive 185% over 50 days
- ForTrade – invest $200 or more and receive 150% to 240% over 50 days
- Imperial – $200 to $9999 and receive 250% over 100 days
- Lounge – invest $10,000 to $49,999 and receive 360% over 120 days
- Superior – invest $50,000 to $1,000,000 and receive 520% over 130 days
- Luxury – invest $50 to $1,000,000 and receive 520% over 100 days
- Excellent – invest $1000 to $2,000,000 and receive 698% over 130 days
- Solid – invest $5000 to $5,000,000 and receive 1000% over 180 days
BTC
- Amateur – invest 0.004 to 0.06 BTC and receive a 115% over 15 days
- Ambient – invest 0.061 to 0.5 BTC and receive a 142% over 30 days
- Advance – invest 0.51 to 1 BTC and receive 185% over 50 days
- ForTrade – invest 0.02 BTC or more or more and receive 150% to 240% over 50 days
- Imperial – 0.02 to 0.9999 BTC and receive 250% over 100 days
- Lounge – invest 1 to 5 BTC and receive 360% over 120 days
- Superior – invest 5.1 to 100 BTC and receive 520% over 130 days
- Luxury – invest 0.004 to 85 BTC and receive 520% over 100 days
- Excellent – invest 0.085 to 170 BTC and receive 698% over 130 days
- Solid – invest 0.4 to 450 BTC and receive 1000% over 180 days
ETH
- Amateur – invest 0.25 to 3.49 ETH and receive a 115% over 15 days
- Ambient – invest 3.5 to 24.99 ETH and receive a 142% over 30 days
- Advance – invest 25 to 50 ETH and receive 185% over 50 days
- ForTrade – invest 1 ETH or more and receive 150% to 240% over 50 days
- Imperial – 1 to 49.99 ETH and receive 250% over 100 days
- Lounge – invest 50 to 249.99 ETH and receive 360% over 120 days
- Superior – invest 250 to 5000 ETH and receive 520% over 130 days
- Luxury – invest 0.25 to 5000 ETH and receive 520% over 100 days
- Excellent – invest 5 to 10,000 ETH and receive 698% over 130 days
- Solid – invest 25 to 25,000 ETH and receive 1000% over 180 days
Forrise Affiliate Ranks
There are fifteen affiliate ranks within Forrise’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Rank 1 – sign up and invest
- Rank 2 – invest at $300 and convince others to invest $5000
- Rank 3 – invest at least $750 and convince others to invest $20,000
- Rank 4 – invest at least $1500 and convince others to invest $50,000
- Rank 5 – invest at least $3000 and convince others to invest $100,000
- Rank 6 – invest at least $5000 and convince others to invest $200,000
- Rank 7 – invest at least $8000 and convince others to invest $500,000
- Rank 8 – invest at least $12,000 and convince others to invest $700,000
- Rank 9 – invest at least $15,000 and convince others to invest $1,000,000
- Rank 10 – invest at least $20,000 and convince others to invest $1,500,000
- Rank 11 – invest at least $35,000 and convince others to invest $4,000,000
- Rank 12 – invest at least $50,000 and convince others to invest $7,500,000
- Rank 13 – invest at least $70,000 and convince others to invest $15,000,000
- Rank 14 – invest at least $100,000 and convince others to invest $30,000,000
- Rank 15 – invest at least $150,000 and convince others to invest $50,000,000
Although only USD qualification is provided in Forrise’s compensation plan, it is assumed investment made in cryptocurrency also counts.
Referral Commissions
Forrise pays referral commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
Forrise caps payable unilevel team levels at twenty-five.
Referral commissions are paid out as a percentage of funds invested across these twenty-five levels as follows:
- Rank 1 affiliates earn 6% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates), 2% on level 2 and 1% on levels 3 and 4
- Rank 2 affiliates earn 6% on level 1, 2% on levels 2 and 3 and 1% on levels 4 and 5
- Rank 3 affiliates earn 6% on level 1, 3% on level 2, 2% on level 3, 1% on levels 4 and 5 and 0.5% on level 6
- Rank 4 affiliates earn 7% on level 1, 3% on level 2, 2% on levels 3 and 4, 1% on level 5 and 0.5% on levels 6 and 7
- Rank 5 affiliates earn 7% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 2% on levels 3 and 4, 1% on level 5 and 0.5% on levels 6 to 8
- Rank 6 affiliates earn 7% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 2% on levels 3 and 4, 1% on level 5 and 0.5% on levels 6 to 9
- Rank 7 affiliates earn 8% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 3% on level 3, 2% on level 4, 1% on levels 5 to 7 and 0.5% on levels 8 to 10
- Rank 8 affiliates earn 8% on level 1, 5% on level 2, 3% on level 3, 2% on level 4, 1% on levels 5 to 8 and 0.5% on levels 9 to 11
- Rank 9 affiliates earn 8% on level 1, 5% on level 2, 3% on level 3, 2% on level 4, 1% on levels 5 to 8 and 0.5% on levels 9 to 12
- Rank 10 affiliates earn 9% on level 1, 5% on level 2, 4% on level 3, 2% on level 4, 1% on levels 5 to 10 and 0.5% on levels 11 to 14
- Rank 11 affiliates earn 9% on level 1, 5% on level 2, 4% on level 3, 2% on level 4, 1% on levels 5 to 11 and 0.5% on levels 12 to 16
- Rank 12 affiliates earn 9% on level 1, 5% on level 2, 4% on level 3, 3% on level 4, 2% on level 5, 1% on levels 6 to 14 and 0.5% on levels 15 to 18
- Rank 13 affiliates earn 10% on level 1, 6% on level 2, 5% on level 3, 3% on level 4, 2% on level 5, 1% on levels 6 to 15 and 0.5% on levels 16 to 20
- Rank 14 affiliates earn 10% on level 1, 6% on level 2, 5% on level 3, 4% on level 4, 3% on level 5, 2% on level 6, 1% on levels 7 to 16 and 0.5% on levels 17 to 22
- Rank 15 affiliates earn 10% on level 1, 7% on level 2, 6% on level 3, 5% on level 4, 4% on level 5, 3% on level 6, 2% on level 7, 1% on levels 8 to 17 and 0.5% on levels 18 to 25
Rank Achievement Bonus
Forrise rewards affiliates with one-time bonuses for qualifying at Rank 2 and higher.
- qualify at Rank 2 and receive $50
- qualify at Rank 3 and receive $200
- qualify at Rank 4 and receive $500
- qualify at Rank 5 and receive $1000
- qualify at Rank 6 and receive $1500
- qualify at Rank 7 and receive $2000
- qualify at Rank 8 and receive $3000
- qualify at Rank 9 and receive $5000
- qualify at Rank 10 and receive $7500
- qualify at Rank 11 and receive $20,000
- qualify at Rank 12 and receive $40,000
- qualify at Rank 13 and receive $75,000
- qualify at Rank 14 and receive $150,000
- qualify at Rank 15 and receive $300,000
Joining Forrise
Forrise affiliate membership is tied to a minimum $50, 0.004 BTC or 0.25 ETH investment.
Conclusion
Forrise claims to generate external revenue through… well, here’s their official explanation;
Forrise Limited accepts funds from its customers and creates consolidated financial flows of investment funds, carefully analyzing all aspects that may affect the conclusion of a particular exchange transaction.
I believe the words they’re looking for are “exchange arbitrage”.
In any event no proof of external revenue is provided. Nor is there any evidence Forrise is using external revenue to pay affiliate returns.
Furthermore Forrise’s business model fails the Ponzi logic test.
If Forrise’s actual owners were capable of generating 5% a day as advertised, what do they need your money for?
The only verifiable source of revenue entering Forrise is new investment.
Using new investment to pay existing investors makes Forrise a Ponzi scheme.
As with all MLM Ponzi schemes, once affiliate recruitment dries up so too will new investment.
This will starve Forrise of ROI revenue, eventually prompting a collapse.
The math behind Ponzi schemes guarantees that when they collapse, the majority of participants lose money.
Update 11th August 2020 – Forrise collapsed earlier today.
Instead of admitting it was a Ponzi scheme that ran out of money, Forrise’s admins are blaming a DDOS attack.
That video presented by CEO Adam Schultz certainly inspires confidence in me. It’s well-known that all successful businessmen are driven around in cars with a sign with their company name crudely stuck over the number plate.
He also sounds just like someone who studied at the “Higher School of Finance in the UK”. They always say things like, referring to their own traders: “Each of these guys is not just a piece of rock but a genius” (2:43).
Just for fun, let’s establish one fact here: these guys don’t just look Russian and sound Russian, they’re definitely Russian.
In the website’s “News” section, they’ve posted the same item, “Development Continues”, twice, in English and in Russian.
The English version is actually the Russian one run through Google Translate, except for three words: they’ve changed “strive for” to “strive for so much” at the end of the second sentence, and changed the word “amateur” to “layman” in the third one.
I have to assume this tell-tale double posting happened accidentally, it’s the only item that gets this treatment.
That they’re writing their material in Russian and using Google Translate may also explain weirdnesses like that “piece of rock” statement, perhaps that’s a perfecly sensible expression in Russian which Google Translate doesn’t recognize as such.
The road he’s driving down just screams Moscow to me, or at least a large city whose newer parts were built along the same Soviet-era lines.
So my guess would be they’re Moscow-based, most of these Russian scams seem to be from there anyway.
It’s also probably one of the few places in Russia where there are enough of the right kind of foreigners to get the requisite number of non-white extras.
I could only identify one quite specific element which corroborates that hunch.
The car’s dashboard is clearly shown. On a very expensive rental like this Maybach, which they probably only had for a few hours, I think we can assume the readings shown there to be accurate.
That bit of the video was made on December 8, 2019, just after noon. (Incidentally, that in itself is yet another sign of fakery: that was a Sunday. Yet there their offices are, in full swing, busily trading away on closed exchanges.)
The date fits with the first appearance of parts of the same video on Youtube on December 16.
It was 1° C outside, and we can see it was completely overcast. That is indeed the weather report for Moscow on that day.
Just to see whether that wasn’t the weather all over a whole area which would fit with the rest of the clues, I checked the weather for a few other places in (western) Russia.
I also checked Minsk and Kiev, to include two former Soviet republics with lots of Russian-speakers, which could still be a possibility.
The weather was different in all of them, a bit warmer and with some sun peeking through the clouds further west and south, colder further east.
So it’s either Moscow, or a Russian city close enough to Moscow to have the same weather, and which also has parts that look a lot like Moscow.
And oh yes: on that day it was between 27° and 30°, and partially sunny, in their supposed business location, Panama.
I wasn’t sure what he said; it was difficult to understand him through that thick British accent (LOL). But it didn’t sound like “piece of rock” to me.
Closed captioning to the rescue. He says “piece of work.” In American slang, “piece of work” is a derogatory term used to indicate a low opinion of another person. As in: “That guy can’t find his ass with both hands. What a piece of work.”
In the context of the video, “piece of work” doesn’t work in English. It should be more along the lines of “Each of these guys is not just an ordinary trader, but highly specialized.” Not that it matters; none of those people were actually working.
I liked the little dodge of “not interrupting” the short-term traders. Instead, we’ll open the door on the long-position guys, who have a good excuse to be doing little but staring at their screens.
Otherwise, PassingBy, your analysis is excellent, as usual. I love how you’re able to dig out details we ordinary mortals miss. (Like trading on a Sunday. Priceless!)
But even a newbie like yours truly could see the obvious fakery in that video. A rented Maybach with what looks like an inkjet-printed (perhaps laminated? classy) sign taped on the back with “FORRISE” in block letters.
It’s pretty obvious that sign is just covering the license plate (which identifies the rental company); I’m pretty sure that’s illegal everywhere in the world.
At 1:11, you get the little table with the obligatory company flag on it, with the equally obligatory coffee mug in the background. Nothing says “legit” like a flag and a coffee mug on a cheap table, right?
(Are there places in the world where companies have little flags scattered around their offices? I have never seen that in my multi-decade career as a high-tech consultant. I see company mugs all the time, but never a single flag that I remember. Admittedly, I rarely venture outside the US.)
It is Moscow indeed. They’ve been trying to hide the location of where they actually filmed, but the reception desk at the moment when “Adam” was entering the building is a dead giveaway.
The place is called “Gallery 76”, its location is 76 Profsoyuznaya str., Moscow.
The space which the guys rented to represent as their office appears to be called “Coworking NIK” located in the same business center.
Schultz is a strange German name for a Rusky.
It’s uncommon, but Russians with that name do exist.
See, for instance: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Shultz
It could also show a Volga German background: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_Germans
Unlike with so many of these Boris CEOs, speaking English with thick Russian or other accents but having Anglosaxon names, in this case the made-up name isn’t in itself transparently fake.
That is the most Russian face I have ever seen! Lol
@Kir:
Thank you very much, one can often only go so far without local knowledge. That’s why it’s so good these little unmaskings can become collaborative projects.
I actually almost mentioned that reception desk, since it was obvious the writing on that was a great clue, and could probably provide an exact location. I stared at freezeframes for a while, but found it impossible to make out.
Even if I’d been able to identify the Cyrillic letters, that still wouldn’t have been of any use, since only part of the word is visible, which you can’t complete without knowing the language.
@Amos_N_Andy:
Yes, that probably was meant to be “piece of work”. It makes just as little sense. I still think it could be the result of a bad Google translation from something that did make sense in Russian.
What linguists call a “calque”, a too-direct copying of something from another language. Computer translation tends to throw up a lot of those.
I’ve never been in an office outside Europe, and my experience is exactly the same. Company mugs are common. I’ve been told this is not for branding, but for theft prevention: plain mugs tend to disappear, with overnight cleaning crews often being the prime suspects.
But these silly little table flags (which don’t even show the company logo properly since they hang down in folds), I cannot remember ever seeing in any office.
Nor, for that matter, do I ever see company logos and names plastered on the inside walls of offices, the way they so often are in these videos.
Why would anyone do that? A corporate identity is something you display to the outside world, not to your own employees.
I’d so often wondered about this watching these videos, that when a few weeks ago I made my most recent visit to the offices of a proper company in the financial sector, I decided to be on the lookout, to see if my notions about this weren’t just due to a lack of observation on my part.
Perhaps these things were there, and I just hadn’t noticed them all my life, seeing the inside of lots and lots of offices, exactly because they were so common – until I started watching scammer videos in great detail.
I had an appointment at the bank, for my twice-yearly chat with someone who goes by the grand title of my “personal banker”. (You’d think with a job description like that, I’d get to pick him, but no, the bank assigns someone to me.)
I’m happy to say my notions were completely confirmed. This is a building from 1925, built on purpose as the fancy new headquarters of an old bank (now just a fancy branch office of a bigger one), and recently renovated at great expense.
Everything about the inside and outside of this building and the way it’s been renovated is meant to shout “WE ARE A VERY RELIABLE BANK WITH A LONG HISTORY YET BANG UP-TO-DATE, YOU CAN TRUST US WITH YOUR MONEY” at you, exactly the kind of image these scammers are trying to project.
Yet one thing is completely missing: once you’re past the lobby with the reception, which people can walk in off the street, there’s no more sign of their name or logo anywhere, except obviously on printed material on desks. (And I got an extended look, because we had to take a detour through different parts of the building, since parts are still closed for renovation). Not even the coffee cups had a logo on them.
And why would there be? The people who work there know who they work for, and visitors know who they’re visiting. You could shoot one of these fake office type videos there, and nobody viewing it could pin it down to one bank, or even to any specific kind of business activity.
That’s what’s so flat-out wrong with these videos. To be realistic, they should have outside shots of the building and of the entrance, with their name prominently displayed. And then inside shots, with their name nowhere to be seen, just a generic office scene.
But by necessity, they can only do it the other way round.
Thanks, PassingBy, I was pretty sure no one but the scammers did the silly flags. Ditto for logos inside the building: what’s the point?
The logos go outside, so people know where to park. And in the lobby, so visitors know they opened the correct door.
Aaaaaaand it’s gone.
Forrise.com was a big fraud company many poor pakistani,s investers lose thear million of dollars.its extremly painful for us.