ingreso-cybernetico-logoIngreso Cybernetico launched in late 2013 and claim to be based out of the city of Medellin in Colombia.

Heading up Ingreso Cybernetico is CEO Dwayne Golden.

dwayne-golden-owner-blue-bird-bidsGolden (right) first popped up on my radar as a silent owner/partner of Blue Bird Bids. Prior to Blue Bird Bids Golden was running a penny auction named “Green Apple Fridays”.

Green Apple Fridays was used as a backend for Blue Bird Bids, which was a penny auction opportunity hoping to capitalize on the “success” of Zeek Rewards.

Zeek Rewards, the mother of all MLM penny auctions, was an $850 million Ponzi scheme shut down by the SEC in 2012.

Dwayne Golden’s name never appeared on the Blue Bird Bids website but his partner, Mardy Eger (credited as the founder of Blue Bird Bids), publicized his “long-standing association” with Golden on his personal blog.

Blue Bird Bids launched in late 2012 and by early January had become embroiled in an auction bot auto-bidding controversy.

In an email to Mardy Eger, Eric Swaim, who was Blue Bird Bids’ Vice-President at the time, wrote:

We have people that sit and watch the auction basically all day and are accusing us of having auto-bots bidding against the field.

I hope that is not the case. We have enough that we are dealing with at this point.

I have been watching the site most of the day and have noticed that we have had the same usernames bidding all day. When I tried to look them up in our system they do not show.

It was later revealed that the penny auction script Blue Bird Bids were using contained an in-built “auto bidder system”.

In response to Eric Swaim’s initial email to Egar (quoted above), Blue Bird Bids pulled down their auctions in the closing days of 2012. The auctions did return in late January, however the opportunity never recovered from the downtime.

Sometime shortly thereafter, Blue Bird Bids collapsed.

Neither Dwayne Golden or Mardy Eger ever publicly addressed the auto-bid scandal. Likewise the exact circumstances surrounding Blue Bird Bids’s collapse remains a mystery.

After Blue Bird Bids Golden appears to have returned to Green Apple Fridays. However if one visits the Green Apple Fridays website today, a notice promising updates on Ingreso Cybernetico is displayed:

ingreso-cybernetico-updates-message-green-apple-fridays-domain

It would appear Golden pulled the plug on Green Apple Fridays sometime after Blue Bird Bids collapsed, and then went on to launch Ingreso Cybernetico.

Read on for a full review of the Ingreso Cybernetico MLM business opportunity.

The Ingreso Cybernetico Product Line

Listed as products on the Ingreso Cybernetico website are

  • cloud storage
  • hosting plans
  • autoresponders
  • “Ingreso Apps”
  • digital product tools
  • “IC Language Institute” and
  • “IC Lead Pages”

While these services do appear to be offered at a retail level, this seems external to the Ingreso Cybernetico opportunity itself.

Affiliates are charged a $300 optional fee to be able to sell Ingreso Cybernetico products to retail customers. Affiliates who do not pay this fee appear to be unable to retail the services listed.

If one clicks on most of the services available they are sent to a different domain, with each of the services listed sold separately as a standalone service, independent from the Ingreso Cybernetico opportunity.

The “digital product tools” service is hosted on the Ingreso Cybernetico website itself, but is little more than an e-book library.

Of note are that some of the links, such as “hosting plans” do not work. At the time of publication, clicking “get started today” on the “ICHostWorld” website does nothing.

The Ingreso Cybernetico Compensation Plan

The Ingreso Cybernetico compensation plan revolves around affiliates purchasing matrix positions in five offered matrix levels.

Note that the Ingreso Cybernetico compensation plan is not provided to the general public on the company’s website. As such, the following analysis has been put together from a video presentation hosted on Dwayne Golden’s YouTube account.

Matrix Commissions

Residual commissions in Ingreso Cybernetico are paid out using a series of 2×2 matrices.

A 2×2 matrix places an affiliate at the top of a matrix, with two positions directly under them:

gas-and-cash-compensation-plan-matrix

Under those positions are another two positions, with the matrix holding a total of six fillable positions.

Positions are filled in the matrix via the recruitment of affiliates, or affiliates cycling out of existing matrices.

A “cycle” is what occurs when an affiliate fills all six positions in their 2×2 matrix. Once this occurs, a cycle commission is paid.

Ingreso Cybernetico treat each level of membership as an individual matrix level, meaning there are six 2×2 matrix levels within the compensation plan.

How much of a cycle position is paid out depends on how much money an Ingreso Cybernetico affiliate spends on a matrix position:

  • Entrepreneur ($50) – $125
  • Business Specialist ($100) – $300
  • Business Director ($500) – $1500
  • Vice-President ($1500) – $4500
  • Executive Vice-President ($3500) – $10,500

Once an affiliate has cycled out of a matrix and been paid, they are then re-inserted into a new 2×2 matrix. At this point the process repeats itself, with the new matrix requiring six positions to be filled again.

Matrix Referral Commissions

Matrix referral commissions are paid out when recruited affiliates cycle out a matrix.

The referral commission is paid out down three levels of recruitment, and pays the same regardless of which level matrix is being cycled out of:

  • level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – $5
  • level 2 – $3
  • level 3 – $2

Residual Membership Fee Commissions

Ingreso Cybernetico pay out residual monthly commissions using 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):

unilevel-commission-structure

If any level 1 affiliates go on to recruit new any new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team. If any level 2 affiliates go on to recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Ingreso Cybernetico cap payable unilevel levels at eleven.

Commissions are paid out based on the recruitment of affiliates and their recruitment efforts.

How much of a commission is paid out depends on what level on the unilevel team a newly recruited affiliate is placed:

  • level 1 (personal recruits) – $5 per affiliate
  • level 2 – $2 per affiliate
  • levels 3 to 5 – $1 per affiliate
  • level 6 – $2 per affiliate
  • level 7 – $3 per affiliate
  • levels 8 to 11 – $1 per affiliate

Note that in order to be paid on levels 6 to 11, an affiliate must pay a $300 “Presidential Club” fee.

This fee is commissionable down five levels of recruitment, however the specifics of this commission are not explained in the Ingreso Cybernetico affiliate presentation.

Car / Lifestyle Bonus

A Car or Lifestyle Bonus is mentioned in the Ingreso Cybernetico affiliate presentation.

An affiliate must be a Presidential Club affiliate ($300) to participate. The presentation mentions additional qualification criteria, however no further specifics are provided.

Joining Ingreso Cybernetico

Affiliate membership to Ingreso Cybernetico is tied into the purchase of matrix positions. This means an affiliate will be required to pay between $50 to $3500 to get started.

  • Entrepreneur – $50
  • Business Specialist – $100
  • Business Director – $500
  • Vice-President – $1500
  • Executive Vice-President – $3500

An affiliate is able to buy positions at multiple levels, with the total cost of participating in all five matrix levels offered (referred to as “going all-in” in company presentations), coming in at $5650.

If an affiliate wishes to max out the compensation plan (unilevel levels 6 to 11 and the car/lifestyle bonus), they must pay an additional $300 fee.

Another $300 must be paid if an affiliate wishes to retail Ingreso Cybernetico’s offered services.

Finally, note that all affiliates must a $25 a month recurring participation fee. This fee qualifies an affiliate to receive commissions through the Ingreso Cybernetico compensation plan.

Conclusion

Right off the bat, there’s something fishy going on with Ingreso Cybernetico’s charging affiliates $300 just to retail their products.

It’s the first time I’ve ever seen an MLM company charge affiliates a separate fee to be able to retail their products. The reason for that being that retail should be the core of an MLM business, not an additional extra that comes with a cost.

In any event, the retail component of Ingreso Cybernetico can be detached from the MLM side of the business. Affiliates pay $300 and then are paid out on single level affiliate sales. I believe the $25 a month fee is still charged, but otherwise these commissions operate entirely independently from the rest of the Ingreso Cybernetico business.

And that brings us to the MLM component, which is old-school matrix recruitment with an added unilevel incentive.

Ingreso Cybernetico’s compensation plan can be broken down into 5 separate matrix levels, each with its own buy-in.

Affiliates buy in at the position(s) they wish to participate in, and then set about recruiting new affiliates who also buy in.

Once enough new affiliates have bought positions at the respective level an affiliate has bought in at, they are paid a commission.

Nothing is sold to retail customers in the process, with all funds paid in and out via matrix commissions being sourced from affiliates.

Once recruitment slows down (which directly affects the purchase of new matrix positions), the matrices will stall. If enough company-wide matrices stall, Ingreso Cybernetico will collapse.

pyramid-scheme-compensation-plan-ingreso-cybernetico

In this sense, the company fits the definition of a recruitment-driven pyramid scheme.

Services offered to retail customers are bundled with matrix positions, but are inconsequential to the recruitment-driven nature of the scheme. Affiliates are paid to recruit. Period.

The unilevel component of the compensation adds a “pay to play” layer to the scheme, with affiliates paying $300 to qualify to earn commissions on additional unilevel levels.

With or without the fee paid however, yet more evidence of Ingreso Cybernetico operating as a pyramid scheme is present. Based directly on their own recruitment efforts and that of their downline, affiliates are paid a monthly recurring commission that is obviously tied to the payment of a $25 fee that all affiliates must pay.

This fee, in addition to funding the unilevel commissions, qualifies an Ingreso Cybernetico affiliate to earn residual commissions and the Car / Lifestyle Bonus.

The referral commissions paid out on the $300 Presidential Club fee serve as nothing more than an incentive for affiliates to pressure their downlines into forking over the money.

Purportedly domiciled in Colombia (documents on the Ingreso Cybernetico website purportedly show registration there), why Dwayne Golden has registered the company offshore is a no-brainer.

That we should expect anything less from the guy who previously launched a short-lived Zeek Rewards Ponzi clone however, is unfortunately also a no-brainer.