The ICANetwork Review: Three-tier membership pyramid recruitment
Although not directly referenced, various testimonials and promotional material on The ICANetwork website identify Michael Glaspie as Founder and CEO of the company.
Glaspie first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar as founder and CEO of Icanget2 last year.
Glaspie (right) has been marketed on the internet for a number of years. Numerous marketing material around the internet (likely published by Glaspie himself) claims his online marketing career dates back as far as 1998.
Prior to Icanget2 Glaspie was “helping others figure it out” through Team Vinh. The company credited Glaspie as “a friend and equity partner”.
A Team Vinh newsletter cites Glaspie as being on Team Vinh’s Board of Directors, as head of their “marketing consortium”.
In late 2015 the SEC shut down Team Vinh, revealing it to be a $3 million dollar Ponzi scheme. How much money Glaspie made in Team Vinh is unclear.
Alexa traffic estimates show a sharp decline in traffic throughout 2017 to the Icanget2 website.
Glaspie appears to have launched ICANetwork and Icanget2 around the same time.
In August this year Glaspie announced he was merging the InvitationToJoin affiliate database with that of The ICANetwork.
InvitationToJoin is a matrix-based recruitment scheme also launched by Glaspie in early 2017.
By merging InvitationToJoin with ICAN, Glaspie claimed he’d created a “new The ICANetwork”.
Read on for a full review of The ICANetwork MLM opportunity.
The ICANetwork Products
The ICANetwork has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market ICANetwork affiliate membership itself.
ICANetwork affiliate membership provides access to a smart phone app creator, SEO services, mobile friendly website converter software, Facebook fan page management and finance and business loans of up to $150,000.
I was somewhat curious about the loans (not your usual MLM offering), so I clicked on “more information” to discover they’re provided by a third-party bank.
Upon submitting your FREE application, a bank official will contact you for the pertinent data they require.
Anyone can apply for any purpose at a $25,000 minimum up to $150,000 maximum.’
These unsecured loans are available to individuals for any legal purpose in U.S.A. and Canada. (With the U.K. coming next and soon!)
Any amount that you borrow can be paid back the first year with no interest whatsoever.
After that, it is as low as 6% to 9% dependent upon the applicant’s credit worthiness.
Sounds like a regular bank loan, with Glaspie no doubt getting an undisclosed kickback per successful application.
The ICANetwork Compensation Plan
ICANetwork recruit affiliates and are paid when they spend money on upsell services.
Specific costs of these services are not disclosed on The ICANetwork website.
Commissions are paid out as a percentage of fees paid for services down three levels of recruitment (unilevel):
- Free affiliates earn 10% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- SIR affiliates earn 30% on level 1 , 5% on level 2 and 3% on level 3
- Founder affiliates earn 40% on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on level 3
- Director affiliates earn 50% on level 1, 15% on level 2 and 10% on level 3
Recruitment Commissions
In addition to service fee commissions, The ICANetwork affiliates are also directly paid to recruit.
SIR and higher The ICANetwork affiliates pay a monthly fee, which is used to pay recruitment commissions to other fee-paying affiliates.
- SIR affiliates earn a 30% monthly recruitment commission
- Founder affiliates earn a 40% monthly recruitment commission
- Director affiliates earn a 50% monthly recruitment commission
Joining The ICANetwork
The ICANetwork affiliate membership costs range from free to $39.95 a month.
- Free Distributor – no charge
- SIR – $19.95
- Founder – $29.95
- Director – $39.95
Free The ICANetwork affiliates cannot earn MLM commissions.
Conclusion
With nothing sellable to retail customers, The ICANetwork is a continuation of Michael Glaspie’s recruitment-driven opportunities.
Seemingly aware of operating pyramid schemes, Glaspie attempts to legitimize The ICANetwork with the following disclaimer;
As you build your team, you are not being paid for the mere act of sponsoring or recruiting.
You are being compensated because each paid position receives a mobile app!
Therefore in every respect, you are being compensated for the act of selling a product.
Attaching a product or service to a pyramid scheme however doesn’t make it any less of a pyramid scheme.
The ICANetwork affiliates participating in the MLM opportunity sign up, pay a fee and are paid when they recruit others who do the same.
Whatever value might be present in the upsells is completely negated by the fact that 100% of company revenue is derived from affiliates.
That means any commissions paid out by The ICANetwork are tied to recruitment.
On top of that “pay to play” is a critical part of The ICANetwork compensation plan, with affiliates encouraged to pay more each month simply to earn more.
Our Free Distributor designation pays nothing of course, but also has limited earning benefits.
After that, our paid designations start at just $19.95/mo for SIR, and then scale up to $29.95/mo for Founder and just $39.95/mo for the coveted Director designation.
Of course, the benefits and commission payouts for each of the designations increase with each of the higher and more desirable positions.
Founders and SIR’s make slightly less sponsoring bonuses and product sales respectively.
Remember, maximum commissions are paid to the Director.
In MLM commission rates should be determined by personal and residual sales efforts to retail customers. Not how much an affiliate pays in fees each month.
Indeed there’s no discernible non-financial difference between The ICANetwork’s paid affiliate options.
The Director $39.95 a month level only offers a picture added to the custom website offered to all paid affiliates. That’s it.
The only reason someone would pay more for The ICANetwork affiliate membership is the increased commission rates.
As to the services bundled themselves, Michael Glaspie has been involved in internet marketing for years. What’s on offer appears to be services previously developed and repurposed for The ICANetwork.
Regardless, without retail sales the value of the bundled services is ultimately irrelevant.
The ICANetwork is operating as a pyramid scheme, which means when recruitment dies down the company will collapse.
I just received this email (Very long – sorry) from Roger Pepin. This “loan” program has got to be a scam! Look at the payouts! Plus, add in Mike Glaspie and Ken Russo (I am making an assumption it is Ken Russo, but I feel very comfortable with that assumption).
Here is the email….again sorry for it’s length and sorry for posting it here OZ….. I wasn’t sure where to post this, but I think it needs eyeballs on it!
I know why these oldschool boomer marketing emails are so long (to weed out anyone with half a brain), but that doesn’t make them any less of a slog.
Perhaps the funniest line was:
Don’t ask questions. It’s MikeG!
That’s how you do due-diligence my friends.
Oh good grief. Trying to tie this Ponzi into Jeff Brown is hilarious.
I am a subscriber to Brownstone Research and I know exactly what Jeff Brown is talking about, and it not this Ponzi program. But I loved how they “alluded” it was.
For the gullible they will eat it up thinking it is, but to those who have any common sense they won’t.
As the old saying goes, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” Anyone putting money into this is definitely a fool.
Ken Russo, Roger and Linda Pepin, and Michael Glaspie wouldn’t know a real program if it sat in their lap and slapped them up the side of their head with a 2×4.
This loan program is just a re-hash of the Profitable Sunrise Ponzi with a few new wrinkles.
I applaud you.
@Jon Martin, thanks for proving the old adage “a fool and his money are soon parted.”
You are about to learn a very expensive lesson when you lose your money in this Ponzi from the most transparent business person.
Always sad to see gullible elders taken along for a ride.
MikeG can’t pay people out because there’s nothing left to pay out with.
Mikeg deal. Video by Spencer: youtu.be/UjKY_JMR7nY
Mike Glaspie aka Mike G belongs in prison. He has spent his entire life living off lying and stealing from elderly victims.
The truth is out there do not fall for his slick talking conference calls backed by his circle of known scammer friends. DO your research on this criminal!
Go to these sites that expose this thief:
MikeGScam.com
MikeGDeal.net
reddit.com/r/MikeG
Join our group on Telegram ‘Mike G Uncensored’
(Ozedit: link removed)
Some of Mikes criminal circle of scammers include:
Neil Suresh Chandran
Garry John Davidson
Linda Knott
Samuel Anderson Sr.
Ivan Heckscher
His new Ponzi Scheme is called WOW: Win on Wealth
His new fake software is called ICANAUTOTRADE
Everything about Mike G is a scam and everyone he works with is a known scammer.
I hope Mike G goes to prison and spend the rest of his life there for what he did to thousands of people.
Hopefully you will ask God to forgive you before you leave this earth. I kinda hope you rot in hell but only God can judge and make that decision.
Thank YOU, very much.
A,friend put Me in-i paid $1000.00 usd she said it will be, paying out,soon. that was 2 year s ago.
Thank YOU. Now I know my $$$$ are, gone.prison time for these, Fools.
Someone very close to me is involved with Roger Pepin. My Google skills aren’t that great, but I’ve found this.
Can anyone here help me find things to show this person so they know to pull out now before more damage is done? I’m the bad guy for even trying to see what this guy is about and I can see he’s either being fooled because he’s older, too, or he’s continually taking people for a ride.
This is the third one he’s taking the person I know through.
Show them MikeG pleading guilty to fraud? If that doesn’t work time to move on.