Freedom5 Review: $5 in, $20 out Ponzi scheme

There is no information on the Freedom5 website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The company claims only that it is run by a

team of honest, professional and transparent Canadians with years of online marketing and business experience.

The Freedom5 website domain (“freedom5.net”) was registered on the 16th of March 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

A marketing video on the Freedom5 website is hosted on a YouTube channel bearing the name “J Vandenbrink”.

Further research reveals Freedom5 affiliates identifying Jason Vandenbrink and Wally Lumley as owners of the company:

“Years of online marketing experience” for Jason Vandenbrink is apparently how he describes being an affiliate in the MMM Global Ponzi scheme.

MMM Global was a Ponzi scheme launched by convicted felon Sergey Mavrodi. The scheme collapsed last month with most investors losing money.

In January 2016 Vandenbrink claimed MMM Global wasn’t a Ponzi scheme because ‘you are not asked to invest. You are asked to give.‘

Other Ponzi schemes Vandenbrink has signed up as an affiliate with include Zukul Ad Network, My Paying Ads ($1 to $50 adcredit Ponzi scheme), Ultimate Revenue Share ($4 adcredit Ponzi scheme), Traffic Monsoon (collapsed single-level Ponzi) and My Advertising Pays.

Wally Lumley’s MLM history is a more low-key, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s followed Vandenbrink into one or more of the above schemes.

Read on for a full review of the Freedom5 MLM opportunity.

The Freedom5 Product Line

Freedom5 has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market Freedom5 affiliate membership itself.

Once signed up, Freedom5 affiliates are able to purchase “adpacks” and participate in the attached income opportunity.

Bundled with each adpack purchase are a series of advertising credits, which can be used to display advertising on the Freedom5 website.

The Freedom5 Compensation Plan

The Freedom5 compensation plan sees affiliates invest $5 on the promise of a $25 ROI.

In order to receive this ROI, Freedom5 affiliates must click five company-supplied ads each day.

Referral commissions are available on investments made by recruited affiliates, paid out down five levels of recruitment (unilevel):

• level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – 5%
• level 2 – 2%
• levels 3 to 5 – 1%

Joining Freedom5

Affiliate membership with Freedom5 is $5 a month.

Affiliates must also invest at least $5 if they which to participate in the MLM opportunity.

Conclusion

All adpacks cost $5 and max out at $25. That’s a 500% earning on each adpack.

Reflective of the MLM underbelly schemes Jason Vandenbrink has (likely) lost money in, Freedom5 is a cookie-cutter adcredit Ponzi scheme.

Affiliates invest $5 on the promise of an advertised $20 ROI, paid out of subsequently invested funds.

Freedom5 claim they have ‘outside sources of income from numerous multimillion dollar companies‘, however no specifics are provided.

Regardless, any streams of income outside of affiliate investment do not negate the fact that newly invested funds are being shuffled around to pay off existing investors.

Aware that using newly invested funds to pay off existing investors is financial fraud, Freedom5 offer up your standard Ponzi pseudo-compliance in their FAQ:

Is Freedom5 a Ponzi or Pyramid Scheme?

Absolutely not. Freedom5 is a Revenue Share site that allows members to share in the revenue the site makes.

Yes it does… and that “revenue” sourced from newly invested funds makes Freedom5 a Ponzi scheme.

In line with MMM Global, whose collapse likely taught Vandenbrink recovering funds from a bitcoin Ponzi scheme doesn’t happen, Freedom5 “strongly encourage” affiliates to invest with bitcoin;

How do I pay for adpacks in Freedom5?

Freedom5 strongly encourages members to use bitcoin.

The reason they do this is so when newly invested funds run out and Vandenbrink has recovered the funds he’s lost in all the other scams he’s signed up with, you’ve got no recourse.

You can’t file a dispute with bitcoin, government regulators can do little (with the exception of the Canadian government going after Vandenbrink and Lumley) and papertrails are kept to a minimum.

What’s particularly interesting is, despite all the claims about being “sustainable” on the Freedom5 website, eg.

Freedom5 is proud to offer a truly innovative and revolutionary long-term sustainability plan that will ensure its success for years and years to come.

This means Freedom5 will be successful regardless of if it has only 10 members or 10 million members.

It appears the scheme has already collapsed once before. A promotional video for Freedom5 was uploaded to Vandenbrink’s YouTube channel a year ago:

From the video it appears to be the same $5 investment scam, with “investments” mentioned in the video itself. At 125 views on the video, it appears Freedom5 launched a year ago and then collapsed.

So much for “long-term sustainability”. With the same business model the same collapse is going to occur again.

The bottom-line is Freedom5 is the same as every other adcredit scheme out there.

Once new investment dries up there’s no money to pay ROIs with.

Freedom5 then collapses, with the majority of investors losing money so that Vandenbrink, Lumley and a few of their buddies can make bank.

Don’t just take my word for it though, here’s how Freedom5 themselves describe adcredit Ponzi schemes:

Why do revenue-share sites all seem to fail?

The average rev share sites last 3 to 6 months. Although there are some that last longer, inevitably these will eventually fail as well.

Pending withdrawals. Slow earnings. Dishonest owners.

Look around, it’s happening all the time.

Freedom5 have graciously provided a roadmap for what you can expect if you sign up. What happens next is up to you…