The Z System Review: Paul Darby still pushing pyramids
The Z System, also going by the Z 712 Money System, is the latest MLM opportunity from serial scammer Paul Darby.
To his credit, Darby fronts The Z System in a marketing video front and center on the company’s website.
BehindMLM first covered Darby in 2013, as owner of the YouGetPaidFast gifting scheme. Back then Darby was launching various scams under Unimax Services branding.
After YouGetPaidFast collapsed, Darby continued promoting third-party scams to his victims.
Darby dropped off after Internet Lifestyle Network, at least as far as popping up on BehindMLM’s radar. Darby’s YouTube channel reveals he’s been flogging a “new” marketing system under various names over the past few years.
The Z System’s Terms and Conditions document suggests Darby is based out of Texas in the US.
Read on for a full review of the Z System’s MLM opportunity.
The Z System’s Products
The Z System has no retailable products or services.
The company offers a free “The Z App” email marketing app. As pitched by Darby;
You can put the cool stuff that you find to market with online, any two products or services, change them out whatever you want.
All you do is cut and paste affiliate links into the system and it will start professionally emailing the most beautiful emails for you.
You don’t write ’em, you don’t think about ’em, you don’t set ’em up. You cut and paste in what you want to sell and hit “done”.
Darby claims The Z App is worth $1900.
The Z System’s Compensation Plan
The Z System affiliates sign up for $99 a month. Commissions are paid when they recruit others who do the same.
The Z System affiliates earn recruitment commissions down two levels of recruitment (unilevel):
- 50% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- 25% on level 2
Commissions are paid as long as recruited affiliates continue to pay monthly membership fees.
Joining The Z System
The Z System affiliate membership is $97 a month.
The Z System Conclusion
The Z System is the latest name Darby is flogging his email generation app through.
If you look at Darby’s YouTube channel, you’ll find him promoting Joel Therein’s Now Lifestyle under various names. Earlier this year it was the Magic List Machine.
Before The Z System, announced in early July, there was “The New Tech Millionaires”. Before that it was “The Genius App”. Before that it was “Mr. X Web Traffic” and so on and so forth.
Apart from questionable income claims…
…that very likely violate the FTC Act, there’s nothing wrong with The Z App on its own. It’s an email marketing tool. You’ll of course need an email list to plug in… which Darby might be harvesting on the backend for his own list. Who knows.
What I can tell you is, Darby sounded pretty desperate in a June 2022 marketing video;
Look, if the owner of a very successful marketing firm tells you that they’ve partnered up with a $300 million dollar company and the owner of another very successful marketing firm, and we have something that can help you become a very successful marketing firm, and you don’t get it because you’re scared or whatever, then you’re just freaking lost as a goose.
You’re a freaking cow. And you’re just waiting for somebody to lead you into the chute, and either remove your testicles or pooh! in the head and turn you into hamburgers.
The problem with The Z System is its attached MLM opportunity. It’s a pyramid scheme.
While The Z System has an email marketing app, it’s given away for free and has nothing to do with the MLM opportunity.
100% of commission paid out through The Z System are tied to recruitment. This is what makes it a pyramid scheme.
Invariably marketing tools attached to pyramid schemes wind up being primarily used to market the pyramid scheme itself. And that’s what we have with The Z System.
Regardless of how long it takes, pyramid schemes inevitably collapse when recruitment dries up. This is why you have Darby launching new schemes with different names every few months.
Take The Genius App, which Darby launched in late 2020. It’s dead.
SimilarWeb reports traffic to The New Tech Millionaires’ website, launched to promote List Leverage in 2019 and recycled as a “100% commissions” gifting scheme in November 2021, is steadily in decline.
There’s a pattern here. Expect The Z System to be abandoned or relaunched with a new name by the end of the year.
I tried, Oz, I really did. I tried to find a video I could sit through long enough to find out if it’s $97 per month or $99, but I just…couldn’t. So little information and so much slime dripping off the videos—I felt dirty.
Anyway, both numbers are in the review, I don’t really care which is right, I just wanted to say I’ve gained a new respect for what you go through to put these reviews together.
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
It was a struggle here too.
I first thought it was the southern accent but after thinking about it, it’s not. I don’t have a problem with southern accents.
It’s Darby’s speech patterns. He just has a horribly unlikable way of speaking. Combine that with the attitude and it’s hard not to tune out within a few seconds.
I just tried to access the video on Bing and it said the video had been removed. Was going to bravely sit through it since you two wimps bailed (ROFLOL). Got a link that works?
Aw, don’t tell me Darby’s spat the dummy and started deleting evidence. Where’s the fun in that?
edit: The “it’s all about money” YT video is still up – youtube.com/watch?v=G7EIX7dG-mI
@Lynn:
I know the number of a good psychiatrist if you need some deprogramming after listening to that video.
OK, watched the whole video. The only one needing the good psychiatrist is Paul Darby. What a joke he is. Not once did he mention anything about the z 712 money system.
He did talk a lot about cows and chickens though. I almost choked when he claimed he was a “professional” advisor and leader in making money.
Actually he was a laugh a minute. I loved his claim he was not a used car salesman and then proceeded to talk like a used car salesman, not the professional/expert he claims to be.
I loved his talk about flying like the Eagles, when he is so full of it he couldn’t fly if he had too. Think I will start calling him walking eagle.
This Darby guy just dripping with his “professional” speak.
Of course this screams lead generation more than anything else.
Because when you are making all the money you need validation by hitching your business to yet another one.
The only problem with this is you don’t go around begging people for likes on a video that says nothing about the workings of your own product.
Surely the fees just line his already empty bank account.
Anyone that has any dealings with him in the past already knows he can make false promises of easy money when it has never appeared in his other schemes.
If you have not rushed to join first to dupe others into the scheme you will be one of the losers he is always talking about.
Maybe that’s why he gave it the name 712.
Because when it dies as people are just not going to pay $97 p/month for what is even less than what Joel Therein was pushing (PureLeverage at least had pre-made capture pages), he can just reboot it as Z 713 and so on and who’s going to notice?
If it does offer pre-made captures and pre-made emails then it basically is PureLeverage under a different name.
If I remember Pureleverage it was basically an Autoresponder with Pre-Made Capture pages and emails for also $97 per month however in order to request commissions you also had to pay $20 on top of that which made no sense.
The sad part is those systems are easy to replicate at a fraction of the cost asked for one membership so it’s obviously about the commissions rather than the product.
I could not understand why it was impossible to find a review in on this system until I located the comments from your email. Thanks, you saved me some money.
My next stop is over to Youtube to sign up for Behind MLM.
Whitney Clarke
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Paul Darby claimed it was a $97 one time fee but has consistently charged an additional $67 for the last 2 months how can I cancel this and get my money back aside from through my bank.
As him nicely? Sounds like you already know you need to contact your bank.
Wow. This is a very disappointing read. I think “hook, line and sinker” would be an appropriate sticker for me.
I paid the $67.00 in joining last month. Guess I better cancel this next $67 payment before the 30 days accrue. ( I have two days left.)
Well I thank you for the information (sadly).
Feel free to offer any advice.
I dislike scammers, period!
Roy
Lovin San Diego