Mama Captain launched in October, 2015 and operate in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.

The company does have an “about us” page on their website, however no information about who owns or runs Mama Captain is provided.

The Mama Captain website domain (“mamacaptain.com”) was privately registered on October 14th, 2014.

According to Alexa, traffic to the Mama Captain domain is predominantly from Malaysia (55%) and China (42%).

This pretty much guarantees that whoever is running Mama Captain is based out of Malaysia, China or both.

 

Update 3rd May 2017 – An incorporation document for “Mama Captain Gold Enterprise” from the Companies Commission of Malaysia reveals Chong Cia Yong is the sole proprietor of the business.

Yong is cited as a Malaysian citizen with a residential address in Penang, Malaysia. /end update

 

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.

Mama Captain Products

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

Mama Captain affiliates invest in Barrel Coin. Barrel Coin are points Mama Captain assign a value to.

  • every $813,000 invested in Barrel Coins raises the value of Barrel Coin by 0.001
  • every $2,000,000 of Barrel Coin transaction raises the value of Barrel Coin by 0.003

Mama Captain do not disclose the current Barrel Coin value on their website.

Barrel Coins can be spent at participating merchants and on the Mama Harbour e-commerce platform.

The Mama Captain Compensation Plan

Mama Captain affiliates invest $100 to $10,000 in Mama Share Points:

  • Student – invest $100 and receive 100 Mama Share Points
  • Uni-Student – invest $200 and receive 200 Mama Share Points
  • Worker – invest $500 and receive 500 Mama Share Points
  • Self-Employed – invest $2000 and receive 2000 Mama Share Points
  • Boss – invest $5000 and receive 5000 Mama Share Points
  • Entrepreneur – invest $10,000 and receive 10,000 Mama Share Points

Mama Share Points are converted into Barrel Coins, which Mama Captain assign a value to.

Mama Captain affiliates cash out Barrel Coins through an internal exchange.

Note that a Mama Captain affiliate cannot withdraw up to 200% of the initial amount they invested.

Eg. If you sign up with a Self-Employed package for $2000, you must have a maintain a minimum $4000 balance in Mama Captain if you wish to withdraw commissions (includes selling Barrel Coins).

Mama Captain affiliate withdrawals are paid in percentages as follows:

  • 50% commission withdrawal
  • 20% in Barrel Reward Points (must be spent on merchant products)
  • 20% of withdrawal must be reinvested
  • 10% admin fee

A Mama Captain affiliate can increase their withdrawal amount by up to 50%, subject to the following affiliate rank qualification criteria:

  • 1 Star (recruit at least two affiliates and have a total downline of at least fifty affiliates) – 10% withdrawal bonus
  • 2 Star (two personally recruited affiliates qualify at 1 Star) – 20% withdrawal bonus
  • 3 Star (two personally recruited affiliates qualify at 2 Star) – 30% withdrawal bonus
  • 4 Star (two personally recruited affiliates qualify at 3 Star) – 40% withdrawal bonus
  • 5 Star (two personally recruited affiliates qualify at 4 Star) – 50% withdrawal bonus

Recruitment Commissions

Mama Captain affiliates are paid to recruit new affiliates who invest.

How much of a commission is paid out is determined by which investment package a Mama Captain affiliate signed up with:

  • Student and Uni-Student – 12%
  • Worker – 14%
  • Self-Employed – 16%
  • Boss – 18%
  • Entrepreneur – 20%

 Residual Commissions

Mama Captain pay residual commissions via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note that there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

Each Mama Captain affiliate investment package has a corresponding point value:

  • Student – 40 points
  • Uni-Student – 80 points
  • Worker – 225 points
  • Self-Employed – 1000 points
  • Boss – 2750 points
  • Entrepreneur – 6000 points

At the end of each day Mama Captain tally up new investment volume on both sides of the binary team.

An affiliate is paid 10% of matched points on both sides of the binary team, with daily earnings capped at the following amounts:

  • Student – $100
  • Uni-Student – $200
  • Worker – $500
  • Self-Employed – $2000
  • Boss – $4000
  • Entrepreneur – $8000

Leftover volume on the stronger binary team side is carried over to the following day.

Matching Bonus

Mama Captain pay a Matching Bonus 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):

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.

Mama Captain cap payable unilevel levels at ten. The Matching Bonus paid as a percentage match of residual binary commissions earned by affiliates across these ten levels.

How many unilevel levels the Matching Bonus is paid out on is determined by how much a Mama Captain affiliate has invested:

  • Student and Uni-Student – 6% on levels 1 and 2
  • Worker – 6% on levels 1 to 4
  • Self-Employed – 6% on levels 1 to 6
  • Boss – 6% on levels 1 to 8
  • Entrepreneur – 6% on levels 1 to 10

Haha Points

Haha Points are awarded using a 1:1 ratio when a new Mama Captain affiliate signs up and invests:

  • Student – invest $100 and receive 100 Haha Points
  • Uni-Student – invest $200 and receive 200 Haha Points
  • Worker – invest $500 and receive 500 Haha Points
  • Self-Employed – invest $2000 and receive 2000 Haha Points
  • Boss – invest $5000 and receive 5000 Haha Points
  • Entrepreneur – invest $10,000 and receive 10,000 Haha Points

Existing Mama Captain affiliates earn Haha Points when they recruit new affiliates who invest.

Haha Points tied to affiliate recruitment are awarded at a rate of 40% of binary team points generated via new investment.

Haha Points can be put towards purchases through Mama Captains Mama Harbour platform.

Joining Mama Captain

Mama Captain affiliate membership is tied to investment in one of six offered packages:

  • Student – $100
  • Uni-Student – $200
  • Worker – $500
  • Self-Employed – $2000
  • Boss – $5000
  • Entrepreneur – $10,000

The primary difference between the packages is income potential via the Mama Captain compensation plan.

Conclusion

The ridiculous name and use of cartoon characters to market the company makes Mama Captain seem like an MLM opportunity aimed at children.

Unfortunately behind the cutesy graphics is an MLM Ponzi points scheme as sinister as any other.

Barrel Coin is touted as a cryptocurrency but in reality are nothing more than Ponzi points.

Barrel Coin is not publicly tradeable and the value is kept secret among Mama Captain affiliates.

A tell-tale sign of Ponzi fraud is the value of Barrel Coin only goes up, as determined by Mama Captain based on the rate of investment into the company.

New Mama Captain affiliates sign up and invest in Barrel Coins. Affiliates join after them and their investment drives up the price of Barrel Coin.

When the original affiliates decide to cash out at the new Barrel Coin rate, Mama Captain pays them with subsequently invested funds.

Herein lies the Ponzi scheme, with recruitment commissions adding an additional pyramid layer to the scheme.

The e-commerce side of the business is largely ignored, as evidenced by the Alexa traffic rankings for the Mama Harbour website (520,000 vs. 136,000). Clearly it’s the Mama Coin investment opportunity that is being primarily being marketed and invested into.

That said, the merchant offers on Mama Harbour do appear to be legitimate. However goods on sale are primarily listed in Chinese and of the low-quality flea market variety.

Whether or not the items on offer are being hocked by Mama Captain affiliates or genuine third-party merchants is unclear.

Through a mobile app, Barrel Coin can also be used to pay for goods and services at participating merchants, a list of which is available at the Barrel2u website.

The Barrel2u website claims it lists over 12,000 merchants, however again whether or not these are just affiliate businesses is unclear. Most of the merchants appear to be small privately owned business in Malaysia.

There’s also Mama11 Mart, which appears to be a vending machine convenience store concept. At the time of publication there don’t appear to be any actual Mama11 Mart stores.

I suspect most of the e-commerce activity in Mama Captain are affiliates disposing of “free” Haha Points. The actual use of Barrel Coin versus Haha Coin transactions would be interesting to know but is of course not provided.

The locking up of 200% of invested funds before withdrawals can be made is also pretty suss. This is not how a legitimate e-commerce platform would operate.

Unfortunately while Mama Captain’s e-commerce platform and merchant network do appear to be the most robust offering I’ve seen an MLM cryptocurrency company to date, it’s all let down by the Ponzi points business model.

Paying existing affiliates with newly invested funds is Ponzi fraud, and paying recruitment commissions in MLM is pyramid fraud. Regardless of what they’re attached to.

The lack of details provided about Mama Captain’s company ownership and management should also be of concern.

Investing up to $10,000 with person’s unknown is not the smartest of business decisions, even if you trust the person trying to recruit you.

The Ponzi points business model collapses when enough affiliates start withdrawing such that new investment and reserves are drained.

Unfortunately this is a slow process, as there’s a time component to building up point balances. While this is going on company owners and top affiliates drain the pool, with the majority of affiliates only realizing there’s no money left when it’s well and truly too late.

At that point Mama Captain will collapse, leaving the majority of affiliates with a loss.