the-business-shop-logoThe Business Shop website domain (“tbsbusiness.com”) was registered in November 2015, with the MLM opportunity launching shortly thereafter.

Identified as CEO of the company on The Business Shop website is Pedro Fort.

Fort (right) pedro-fort-owner-fort-ad-paysfirst popped up on BehindMLM’s radar as the owner of Fort Ad Pays, a Ponzi scheme that touts up to 300% ROIs on $1 to $300 investments.

The Business Shop appears to be the latest incarnation of MLM Shop, another of Fort’s schemes. In our BehindMLM review of Fort Ad Pays, we observed The Business Shop logo used to advertise MLM Shop back in July 2015.

This was before The Business Shop launched, with it likely coming about following a decline of new investment into MLM Shop.

Read on for a full review of The Business Shop MLM business opportunity.

The Business Shop Product Line

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

Bundled with The Business Shop affiliate membership is a replicated e-commerce storefront, populated with third-party affiliate offers.

Once signed up, The Business Shop affiliates are able to invest and participate in the offered income opportunity.

Bundled with each The Business Shop investment are a series of advertising credits, which can be used to display advertising on The Business Shop website.

The Business Shop Compensation Plan

The Business Shop offers a number of investment levels for affiliates to invest in, as well as recruitment commissions to encourage perpetual new investment.

Investment ROIs

At the time of publication The Business Shop offer investors twelve investment levels to participate in:

  • $300 USD – invest $300 and receive a 25% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • Bronze – invest $1000 and receive a 25% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • Silver – invest $2000 and receive a 25% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • Gold – invest $4000 and receive a 25% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • Platinum – invest $10,000 and receive a 25% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • Palladium – invest $25,000 and receive a 25% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • Titanium – invest $50,000 and receive a 25% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • 1×4 One Year – Invest $2000 and receive an $8000 ROI after 365 days
  • Xmas Pack 1000 – invest $1000 and receive a 28% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • Xmas Pack 2000 – invest $2000 and receive a 28% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • Xmas Pack 5000 – invest $5000 and receive a 28% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)
  • Xmas Pack 10,000 – invest $10,000 and receive a 28% ROI every 30 days (capped at twelve ROI payouts)

Recruitment Commissions

The Business Shop affiliates pay $49 a month in fees to qualify to participate in the above offered investment plans.

This $49 fee is commissionable, with a $9 commission paid out per The Business Shop affiliate recruited.

Residual recruitment commissions are paid out via a 2×14 matrix.

A 2×14 matrix places an affiliate at the top of a matrix, with two positions directly under them:

binary-MLM-compensation-plan

These initial two positions form the first level of the matrix, with the second level generated by splitting each of them into another two positions each (4 positions).

The third level of the matrix is generated by splitting each of the four level 2 positions into another two positions, with each subsequent level of the matrix generated in the same manner.

In total, a 2×14 matrix holds 32,766 positions.

Commissions are paid as positions in the matrix are filled via direct and indirect recruitment as follows:

  • $1 per recruited affiliates on levels 1 to 3
  • $3 per recruited affiliate on level 4
  • $1 per recruited affiliates on levels 5 to 7
  • $3 per recruited affiliate on level 8
  • $1 per recruited affiliate on level 9
  • $2 per recruited affiliate on level 10
  • $1 per recruited affiliate on level 11
  • $2 per recruited affiliate on level 12
  • $1 per recruited affiliate on level 13
  • $5 per recruited affiliate on level 14

Joining The Business Shop

Affiliate membership with The Business Shop is $49 a month.

Free membership exists but bars an affiliate from earning MLM commissions and must be “upgraded” to paid membership after two months.

Conclusion

PAYMENTS MUST BE MADE TO COMPANY FORT GROUP S.A. THE ONLY COMPANY AUTHORIZED TO RECEIVE PAYMENTS FOR THE BUSINESS SHOP MEMBERSHIP.

WE DO NOT OFFER REFUNDS.

When investment in a Ponzi scheme slows down we start to see reload schemes pop up.

That’s pretty much what The Business Shop is, with the opportunity likely heavily pitched to Fort Ad Pays and MLM Shop investors as an alternative scam.

As with Fort Ad Pays and MLM Shop, Pedro Fort is once again using newly invested funds to pay off existing affiliates. This makes The Business Shop a Ponzi scheme, with an additional pyramid layer by way of recruitment commissions.

Advertised ROIs will collapse once recruitment of new investors dies down (or Fort Ad Pays and MLM Shop liabilities drain invested funds), which occurs with increased frequency as each successive reload scam is launched.

The math behind Ponzi schemes sees the vast majority of investors lose out, with The Business Shop being no different.

Regarding the e-commerce portal and bundled advertising credits, they are neither here nor there with the investment opportunity what is truly being marketed.

One particularly amusing claim on The Business Shop website is that their replicated e-commerce platform “is worth $2000 USD”.

There’s not much to a replicated platform, with each affiliate simply given a login account to an existing framework. Certainly it’s not worth $2000.

But even if it was, any legitimacy the e-commerce platform might have is negated by the Ponzi investment plans the $49 a month fee provides access to.

As it stands MLM Shop is about a year and a half old, with Fort Ad Pays not too far behind. Typically online Ponzi schemes begin to collapse around the two-year mark, so we’re probably going to see more reload scams from Pedro Fort as the year progresses.

Currently the Fort Ad Pays Alexa ranking is hovering between 8500 to 9000, suggesting there’s going to be a large number of net losers once the final collapse hits.