Mia Review: Malaysian spot gold trading scheme
Mia fails to provide a corporate address on their website. The same website identifies Antonio Ferez as founder of the company.
Ferez is represented by a heavily photoshopped image (touch-up) and, according to Mia;
is a well-known macroeconomics analyst and a foreign exchange trading expert in Southeast Asia.
In 2007, he earned his first bucket of gold from the stock market at the age of 25 and managed to multiply his personal wealth by 57 times based on his business acumen and professional handling of capital.
The problem is outside of Mia marketing material (circa 2017-2018), Ferez has no professional digital footprint.
This is not what you’d expect of someone claiming to be “well-known” in macroeconomics and foreign exchange professional circles.
Nonetheless Ferez does appear to be a real person (here’s what he was up to in 2012-2014), however there’s a big question mark on his claimed professional background.
Similarly Jensen Choong, cited as Mia’s CEO, also has no digital footprint outside of Mia.
At the time of publication Alexa cites Malaysia (41%) and Singapore (37%) as primary sources of traffic to the Mia website.
Mia’s link to Malaysia appears to be Dato Paduka Zamri Nazir (right) who, you guessed, doesn’t have a verifiable history out side of Mia’s marketing material either.
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest Mia is being operated out of Malaysia and is likely run by Malaysians. Antonio Ferez and Jason Choong are in all likelihood just puppets.
Whether Mia has any operations in Singapore beyond recruitment of investors is unclear.
Read on for a full review of the Mia MLM business opportunity.
Mia Products
Mia has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market Mia affiliate membership itself.
The Mia Compensation Plan
Mia affiliates invest funds on the promise of passive returns, supposedly derived through spot gold trading.
Specific ROI averages cited by Mia, based on past performance, range from 12% to 16% a month.
Another marketing slide suggests that total ROI payouts are capped at 24.5% per investment. After which new investment must be made.
Mia Affiliate Ranks
There are four affiliate ranks within Mia’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- regular affiliate – sign up and invest in at least one Mia Pax
- Manager – personally invest at least $3000, recruit at least four investing affiliates and convince others to invest a total of $150,000 or more (split $105,000 and $45,000 or more via a binary team)
- Agency Manager – personally invest at least $5000, recruit at least five investing affiliates and have three Manager ranked affiliates in your downline (one in three separate unilevel team legs)
- Regional Manager – personally invest at least $10,000, recruit at least six investing affiliates and have three Agency Manger ranked affiliates in your downline (one in three separate unilevel team legs)
Note how much a Pax investment costs is not disclosed. Mia’s marketing material however suggests is it $10,000 or less.
Recruitment Commissions
Mia pays affiliates to recruit new affiliates 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.
Recruitment commissions generated within the unilevel team are paid out of funds invested by directly and indirectly recruited affiliates.
Mia caps payable unilevel team levels, based on how much an affiliate has invested:
- invest in 1 Pax and receive 5% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) and 4% on level 2
- invest in 2 Pax and receive 5% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 3% on level 3 and 1% on level 4
- invest in 3 Pax and receive 5% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 3% on level 3 and 1% on levels 4 to 6
- Manager ranked affiliates receive 5% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 3% on level 3, 1% on levels 4 to 6 and 0.5% on levels 7 and 8
Infinity Profit
Manager and higher ranked affiliates receive an additional 1.5% or higher bonus on downline investment.
- Managers receive a 1.5% Infinity Profit rate
- Agency Managers receive a 3% Infinity Profit rate
- Regional Managers receive a 4.5% Infinity Profit rate
Manager Leadership Bonus
The Manager Leadership Bonus is an additional percentage paid on ROI payments made to recruited affiliates.
Manager and higher ranked Mia affiliates receive a 0.5% Manager Leadership Bonus rate.
Regional Managers receive 1% on level 1 and 0.5% on levels 2 and 3.
Joining Mia
Mia affiliate membership is tied to investment in a Pax.
Mia don’t disclose the minimum investment amount on their website or in their marketing material.
Conclusion
It’s been a while since we’ve come across a Malaysian trading scam.
Mia ticks all the boxes:
- shell company in AU/NZ used to launder money through
- involvement of at least on Datuk
- the pretense that Mia investors can’t lose money and
- puppet management who are clearly in over their heads
Mia as an international financial platform. A sustainable financial channel was built for you to create an endless stream of passive income.
The above is quoted from Mia’s official marketing material and highlights the central problem of trading-based MLM companies.
If scammers like Datuk Paduka Zamri Nazir were able to legitimately generate a consistent stream of “endless passive income” – then what do they need your money for?
As long as you invest YOU’LL PROFIT THROUGH MIA!
With respect to Mia’s purported trading, your first red flag is Mia’s “world class trader”, James Harrison;
Sure thing guys.
Apparently Mia contracts Mr. Harrison through FintechFX, a generically named company registered in Australia.
Naturally FintechFX wasn’t incorporated till October 2017, some six months after Mia surfaced.
Oh and another red flag, FintechFX was incorporated as “My Group Fintech Co Pty Ltd”.
The two addresses initially provided for FintechFX are residential and leased office space in Melbourne, Australia. They’ve since switched them out for another residential address in Sydney (nothing suss).
No confirmation that FintechFX has actual business operations at any of these addresses.
Malaysian scams are notorious for incorporating in AU/NZ because ASIC and NZCO tend not to do anything until the scams have collapsed.
The scams are careful not to recruit investors in AU/NZ, and so there’s actually not a lot the regulators can do except delist the shell companies once they’re aware of them.
This is why, despite having ASIC/NZCO equivalents in Malaysia, it’s rare to see a Malaysian scam incorporated in Malaysia itself.
Malaysian scams that are similar to MIA we’ve covered in the past include FX United (whose three Datuk owners were arrested back in Feb) and VenusFX (owners arrested March 2017).
There have been plenty more we haven’t covered, mostly because they target non-English speaking investors.
If you go through the comments of our FX United and VenusFX reviews, you’ll find the same arguments you’re likely to come up against when pointing out Mia’s fraudulent business model.
“Oh but you have complete control over your money at all times!”
“The owners are reputable businessmen, I know this for a fact because I saw them in a YouTube video!”
“These guys have a verifiable trading history, just look at these MSPaint graphs someone cobbled together!”
In the end these trading schemes all collapse just the same, resulting in the majority of investors losing money.
As for Mia, it seems it’s well on the way to collapse. Last month the company sent out the following memo to its affiliates;
It seems as whereas previously a minimum $100 investment was required to qualify for ROI payments, that has now been raised to $1000.
When that fails and people start to bail… shouldn’t be long before Mia’s withdrawals stop working altogether.
Leave my footprint here.
It’s a shame to keep seeing all this kind of company appearing.
I was curios as well when my parents sent me PDF files of this company, Their business model and etc. what a shame that this company end up making the people a bunch of suckers. =_=
I personally still “investing” in this company , withdraw weekly. But stil i did keep my skeptical with me.
Mia?
It’s just pure scams! Using investors money to pay uplines! Just a matter of time that this will collapse! They request more investments now to stay active!
All the negative people..Got money to make means must regard as scam.
All the scammers..Got money to steal means must make excuses for fraud.
If you are a trader you will know it is harder to maintain the same returns if the fund is getting larger. So why the emphasis to keep recruiting?
For gold trading, every winning trade, there must be a losing trade to match. So who are the suckers out there who is continue to be loosing money from a bottomless pit to provide the so called passive income to the investors?
just keep watching us growing bigger in 2019.
we just held a big ceremony night in Macau, MIA has proved to give the benefit for all our members.
Well yeah, as long as gullible Malaysians and Singaporeans sign up you’ll have money to steal.
Mia’s website Alexa ranking has flatlined, so don’t expect too much from 2019.
this March , wang lee hom’s concert will be supported by MIA also. keep going bigger and bigger.
alexa ranking ? on what website do you mean, Oz ?
Right. Because sponsoring a musical concert is how a spot gold trading scheme grows.
Mia’s website.
what website of MIA are you refering? we only need the login page.
supporting a musical concert , there’s nothing wrong with it.
Mia491 is the official site.
Well yeah, not like you have to convince retail customers there’s an actual product being marketed and sold. Total Ponzi.
this is a copy-trade , MIA doesn’t sell products. we give prove.
we can grow bigger even without new members.
Prove it. Audited third-party accounting please.
Nope. No new investment = no payments out.
Feel free to provide evidence of audited external ROI revenue being used to pay Mia affiliates. Anything less will be marked as spam.
well, I think that is company’s privacy. all we need to know, cash flows in every week.. let the company do their work.
we get to see the live copy-trading when we login to our MIA account.
Charles Ponzi would have been happy to see you invest in his stamp trade business.
Thank you for confirming Mia is a Ponzi scheme.
There are legally required disclosures for MLM investment opportunities. Copy-trading in your backoffice is completely meaningless.
Hey krisda u said that u can see the live copy trading upon login mia acc how? I am investor too but i cant see it.
sorry, not the live trading, I mean the notifications win or lose from the trading.
can’t even stand your ground and explain properly. So meaningless, you know you can just ignore all this if you believe it so much right?
It’s a waste of time for you to be here anyways. The fact that you keep coming back means you’re not even confident with what you are doing.
The man in the street will always be conned of their money due to their naivety and greed =}
Hi, May i know where to i can contact MIA in singapore.
You can contact me direct.
Surely Mia provides contact details on their website?
Following to read comments. Thx!
hi ppl. I m Krulz from Malaysia.
i already joined MIA for the past 8 months. I never recruited any single person under me. I monitored their trade result every working days mon to fry via MT4 app. Someday loss and profit, overall weekly result i never saw a loss record.
I reinvest every profit i gain weekly. After 6 months i already double my initial investment. I also received year end bonus. Now i withdrawn my profit weekly as my passive (pension) income.
nothing 100% secure, even banks collapsed.
so can anyone explain how or what kind of scammers can pay me weekly without fail. I really like to know.
The kind that can convince gullible dumbasses to not withdraw anything for 8 months, start to withdraw and immediately run around the internet pretending they are in profit.
If Mia had a magic money bot they’d be the richest people on the planet by now.
This has already been discussed. It’s whatever bullshit Mia wants to show you in your backoffice.
It’s not actual trading and it’s not a substitute for legally required regulatory disclosures (audited accounting reports etc.).
As an early investor you might be able to steal enough to recoup your initial investment. But the poor saps you’re stealing from won’t.
oz, thanks for the thought
1st of all, i already withdrawn my profit after 6 months
2nd i never recruit any single person under me.
not my intention to show off i made profit. Just to explain the situation for the question, how they can pay me with that kind of situation?
usual scammer force us to recruit so that they can get money to pay us (upline) profit. So who am i stealing from?
Please share your wise knowledge, Thanks.
You mean you’ve only started to recover your initial investment after 6 months. Bullshit money in your backoffice is not profit.
Whether you personally recruit the people you’re stealing from is neither here nor there.
you looks so tense in eplaining to me. poor you. Did somebody stealing from you?
chill and read carefully. i mentioned that i double my initial investment by reinvesting my profit weekly for the past 6 months. i withdrawn my profit weekly afterward. understood?
i can withdraw all the investment that already double at any time in the backoffice. For me it is a profit.
the people i stole from as you mentioned niether here nor there… i dont understand the fuck what are explaind about.
since you cannot answer me wisely, let put a stop here. thanks for trying.
btw, yes it is high risk to commit in forex investment, especially with not fully regulated trader.
This is the last time I’m going to say this: Monopoly money in your backoffice is not actual money.
Yet if everyone did this Mia would collapse. Being able to withdraw at any time is an illusion.
Of course you don’t. You only care about your hip pocket. Typical scammer mentality.
Own your thievery. Copping out with “risk” cliches is weaksauce.
lol, are you joking dude? if everyone withdrawn their money, even national bank collape.
and i thought i discussed witha wise guy,..hmmm.
If everybody withdraws legitimately earned interest, a bank will be fine.
If everybody tried to withdraw their bullshit money Mia backoffice “profit”, the scam would collapse.
A succinct difference that is lost on you.
Anyway best of luck with the scamming. As you stated, we’re done here.
No, it would go into administration, and all depositors would get their money back in full. In developed economies like the UK and EU this would take days, weeks at most. This is because the money is there, even if it’s not 100% liquid.
When MIA collapses those who haven’t successfully got out early enough will lose everything, because the money will be gone.
If your desire to scam people arises from ignorance of third-grade economics like the difference between a bank and a Ponzi scheme, the difference between money being illiquid and non-existent, then you still have a chance to turn your life around. Alternatively you may just be pretending you’re ignorant to cover your desire to scam people.
can’t expect everyone to understand simple economics and the rules that govern to protect investors.
They are just oblivious because of the number MIA is showing them. Let them be.
Let them be? Mia scammers are coming here to argue Ponzi schemes are legal.
Same old set of excuses for a scam:
– It’s a new thing that doesn’t follow traditional business logic. (Read: basically we are saying that our system does not follow elementary school math.)
– Banks do the same.
– It’s legal here where I live.
– We baked a product to the side so it’s legal now.
– If it works for us, why can’t you just let us be?
Don’t get me wrong Oz, you’re doing a great job providing a platform to educated people on Ponzi, MLM and Money Game businesses. However, it is still up to them to decide.
Like I’ve said, I have family members that will get defensive if you go against them. Best thing you can do is just tell them to be careful. If better, slowly educate them how proper investments are.
FYI people, investing into MIA has no proper legal documents to protect you against any calamities in case they suddenly run off like JJPTR, so please don’t be fooled to throw in so much of your personal wealth.
Not to mentioned, is not even properly recognized by the Securities Commission of Malaysia. It says a lot already if both BNM and SC didn’t give them a proper green light. Good luck.
Yo, if you you personally want to invest in Mia I couldn’t give a toss.
What I will challenge each and every time though are justifications for scams. Typically left by someone frustrated a mark they tried to scam realized and didn’t sign up.
How about not throwing in any of it in the first place?
Or better yet…
How about not throwing any of your personal wealth into unregistered securities at all?
Throwing money into what is a pyramid recruitment scam by definition (see Federal Trade Commission ruling in case Vemma, 2016) is stupid no matter how much money you throw into it.
Lol guys I’m not trying to do anything to cause trouble here. Just a fresh grad here sharing his experience in challenging people who goes into this kind of stuff.
I’m too shit poor to invest into anything, except my own brain.
How about this Oz:
(Ozedit: links to random trading accounts removed)
How about what?
You posted a link to some random Fx Blue account as if it means something. It doesn’t.
im seeing too much of negative post on the web, here is my neutral opinions:
– every good or bad company have good and bad review, but we need to able to proof based on data and fact that if that company is really “bad” or “good” based on data or statistic.
– If someone say it is scam, i encourage them to share the evidence and report them to authority so the work will be stop immediately.
– If someone say it is good, then just continue with the process and share the evidence as well, so people can get benefit for them as well.
My observation so far MIA has consistent performance and so far not able to see the evidences of MIA cheating money or not pay to investor after search from the internet. I try to encourage people who post negative information to share the evidences but there is no news after that.
This is simple fact.
Not just talk with no fact.
The problem is this doesn’t work with people too lazy to read, such as yourself.
The “evidence” Mia is a scam is provided in the review you’re commenting on. Furthermore the onus is on Mia to provide evidence it is doing what it says it is (hint: paying you money isn’t evidence).
Not that it ultimately matters, because all you’re interested in doing is providing excuses for scammers.
FWIW, FxBlue also offers a simulator, no real trading needed.
fxblue.com/appstore/39/mt4-trading-simulator
MIA is trending in indonesia because there is new JHE $150.000 so MIA can pay for $1000 investment.
when no new investment greater than JHE. may be MIA will not last longer.
simply math 100%/12% = 8 Month.
so minimal this investment can pay for at least 8 month more. wait and see for 1 year more.
be careful. safety first, don’t greedy.
thank you
Hi all, i like @wiseguy opinion.
Just sharing , i have two friend joinned MIA since august 2018 and feb 2019.
They said, soo far still work. Means they can withdrawl successfull.
But anyway, this discussion is good for sharing information.
Hi all, I support @Oz and @Yoseph opinion.
I actually join MIA last year Sept with investment RM 200k, and over the months, I am able to withdraw 10-12% monthly (after deduct the 30%).
I have decided to withdraw all my investment RM 200k at once in February so that I enjoy my profit of about RM 100k.
I have made withdrawal because I have same opinion as Yoseph that it is about to burst very soon.
I think it would not survive till August/Sept this year because they started the extra bonus campaign since Sept last year.
I am working in investment bank and have not seen such a good return, so don’t dream that it is real.
As to answer @wiseman, if their scheme is real, why don’t they publish in their website? The whole website did not talk a single thing about the scheme.
Secondly, why Australian and New Zealand citizen cannot invest in the package.
Thirdly, do you know that MT4 platform has loop hole that the operator can operate the platform and route to their own matching information? (MT4 is now selling more expensive than MT5 in reuse system market)
I am safe now but to those already invested, I think is time to withdraw all your investment.
For those that felt badly to lose such opportunity to make money, then don’t reinvest with your profit.
MIA still survive because of reinvestment of profit.
that’s not surviving, that’s limping the scam along to steal more money like you have already. once that stops, everyone’s money goes mia (ha. get it?)
MIA officially busted today.
Same story like igofx and jjptr.
2017 -2019 RIP Mia
Proven that Oz has the right idea about MIA.
But…but…but look at all the experts above swearing black and blue how legit Mia was.
I mean, Mia was even run by a Dato. They don’t scam people, right?
Hi, Oz what do you think of this? I mean like why Mia decided stop on their operation at this time.
I guess there are still tons of people joining out there. Or do they had their target (in term of money) set on every scamming platform?
Same reason any scam folds, combination of running out of money and admins doing a runner with what’s left.
From what I’ve read Mia affiliates suffered widespread losses in their “lulz admin can’t touch my money” accounts.
A trading loss for one person is a trading win for someone else. Guess who “won” all their money…
Hmm, interesting..
So what should we do then? Crying? Can we fight?
Who are you going to fight?
So..How to fix this ? Just let it liquidate ?
Wait n see 72h.
There’s nothing you can do. It was exactly the same scenario as IGOFX.
Look for more information next time before entering something that is too good to be true.
Greed is the root of all evil.
Can you please reveal investment scheme behind this forex broker essencefx.
Something is fishy since there is no backround on this broker too.
Wasn’t essencefx the bullshit trading account Mia used to dupe people into thinking they couldn’t steal their money?
It’s all part of the same scam.
Mia no more money back, China stop all transaction of fund to 3 rd party
China didn’tstop paying you, Mia did.
Investing in Mia was illegal in China before it collapsed.
If those people listen to me withdraw it by 8th of May, you guys are safe. Please view message #50, time to withdraw.
Luckily I have withdrawn and left with usd1k.
How is the 72 hours notification update by CEO Jensen choong?
Where is he hiding now? Can someone just report to the police to arrest this ACTOR in Malaysia
He deactivated his own FB account!
If nothing is wrong with him, why does he have to deactivate his FB? If its the unauthorised trade by JAMES HARRISON?
So this is all just PONZI. Shuffling money for more than 1 year, and Jensen and his MAFIA wait for the RIGHT TIME to strike and run!
Hi… Krulz… Pls help… How to explain to my friends who invested mia….. U said ok ma.
Krulz said never introduce to others mah, but you want the introduction commission, u causing friends to lose money lor!
well for those that loss money, try to join one earlier and leave early, dont be greedy, greed is evil of all root cause.
Hi Oz,
Please do review on MIDASAMA forex trading platform. It is very HOT currently. I wonder will it be same as MIA? Please do some research on it. Thank you.
I can’t see an MLM comp plan on Midasama’s site?
Does anyone know what’s MIA website? whats their comp plan?
And also MIDA. Im curious
Comp plan is detailed above.
Mia operated from “mia491.com” before it collapsed.
MIA claimed innocent, CEO Jensen cry over recorded msg that MIA was cheated by trader “James Harrison” or broker FintechFX… all part of drama class??
China press has published a news about it. Google English translation is enough to give a “I TOLD YOU SO” to everyone’s face who were ignorant. Peace~
chinapress.com.my/?p=1631629
Comments also hinted that the phony Jenson Choong was gambling like a baller in Genting casino.
ProTip: James Harrison doesn’t exist.
I am surprised to see til now there are so many members showing their STRONG believe and support towards the CEO. Keep asking others to support and believe the ability of the CEO to solve the “issue”. PUZZLED!
They have no choice. What else can they do but keep pretending and hope the scammers stay around long enough to at least get something back ?
Loosing money and yet have to beg and rely on the “CEO”. Where’s the logic?????
I am worry that this may only the beginning. There are clips passing around suggesting that the solution would be gather more funds to “win” back the money (within a year!).
Where is KRULZ now? Still believing?
@Jeremy haha that guy suffering the ultimate burn. Then again, hope he learns and understands better rather than be fooled again.
Hello to all who were very active in posting here before, it’s been half a year since MIA has busted, may I know does any one have any update of MIA recently? Any news would be appreciated.
Update: Mia still a Ponzi scheme and your money is still gone.
Sorry for your loss.
This is a scam company. The company current really is MIA.
Top management all uncontactable. They make a game plan took the money be aware.