Traffic Lagoon Review: $10 straight-line advertising Ponzi

There is no information on the Traffic Lagoon website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Traffic Lagoon website domain (“trafficlagoon.com”) was registered on the 30th of March 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Further research reveals a public Traffic Lagoon Facebook group, in which a Ravi Kirran (right) markets the opportunity in the possessive:

Traffic Lagoon is one of the best way to advertise your business.

We are professional group in the field of marketing and advertising and we have come up with most amazing way of advertising your business and turn your website in to a money making machine by attracting quality traffic from all over the world.

On his own Facebook profile page, Kirran lists his location as Delhi in India, which is presumably where the Traffic Lagoon is being run out of.

I was unable to put together an MLM history on Kirran, suggesting that Traffic Lagoon might be his first venture.

Read on for a full review of the Traffic Lagoon MLM business opportunity.

The Traffic Lagoon Product Line

Traffic Lagoon has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market affiliate membership with the company itself.

Once signed up, Traffic Lagoon affiliates can purchase $10 matrix positions, which are bundled with a series of advertising credits.

These advertising credits can be used to display advertising on the Traffic Lagoon website itself.

The Traffic Lagoon Compensation Plan

The Traffic Lagoon compensation plan sees affiliates purchase $10 queue positions, which are tracked through a matrix.

For every two new positions purchased, the next position in queue is paid $15 and re-entered into the bottom of the queue.

Referral commissions are paid at a rate of $1 per position purchased by personally recruited affiliates (I believe this includes mandatory repurchases).

Joining Traffic Lagoon

Affiliate membership with Traffic Lagoon is free, however affiliates must purchase at least one $10 matrix position in order to participate in the MLM income opportunity.

As such the defacto minimum cost of Traffic Lagoon affiliate membership is $10 (the cost of one matrix position).

Conclusion

Recycling the familiar advertising-credits based Ponzi formula, Traffic Lagoon neither markets or sells anything to retail customers. Instead the scheme exists solely to shuffle newly invested funds to existing investors.

This exchange is tracked through a company-wide matrix, which sees $15 paid out for every $20 invested in by affiliates.

With $1 paid out in referral commissions per new position created, this creates an ongoing deficit of funds which will only increase over time.

In any event, as with all Ponzi schemes once new affiliate investment dries up investors will first notice longer and longer wait times before they cycle out, with the system ultimately stalling altogether.

At that point anyone who hasn’t cycled at least twice either breaks even or loses out.

The advertising credits exist solely as pseudo-compliance, having nothing to do with the Traffic Lagoon income opportunity itself.

This is best demonstrated by way of any unused advertising credits being refundable, which in Traffic Lagoon they are not:

Referral commissions and profit sharing are instantly and automatically done. This process cannot be reversed. Therefore, no refund will be provided.

Because Traffic Lagoon use newly invested funds to pay off existing investors, naturally they can’t offer refunds – with this revealing the true nature of the scheme.

Furthermore the legal status of the scheme is also misrepresented in the Traffic Lagoon FAQ:

Is TrafficLagoon.com legal?

YES it is legal. In order for any program to be legal, it is required to supply a service and/or product to you, the member!

This is patently false, with the use of newly invested funds being used to pay off existing investors being just as illegal in India as it is anywhere else.

Given there’s not much wriggle room here regarding the flow of money ($10 in, $16 out per position), it’s likely that Trafic Lagoon has been heavily stacked out the gate.

This will likely see Ravi Kirran and his early adopters withdraw the lion’s share of deposited funds, with everyone else losing out.