One of the most enduring pyramid schemes over the last decade or so has been that of TVI Express. Originating in India, TVI Express has slowly spread like a virus from continent to continent, sucking in new members to fund commissions paid out to existing members.

Using a reverse matrix compensation model, the commissions structure relies on a constant influx of new members being fed into a series of matrices so that a single member at the top can cycle out. Once this happens, the member at the top receives a commission and the process starts again.

One of the more prominent markets of late TVI Express have been targeting is that of Africa, with authorities in Namibia, Lesotho and South Africa leading the charge against the scheme.

Whilst the current status of investigations and action against TVI is unclear in Lesotho and Namibia, the South African Reserve Bank been making steady progress in their investigation, with some interesting developments recently coming to light. [Continue reading…]

As for the asinine comment on Dr. Laggos… Yes he is a paid consultant. However, with a little due diligence, it is easy to see his reputation as an expert in his field is second to none.

–Troy Dooly, MLM Helpdesk

Keith Laggos credits himself as a ‘marketing and management consultant‘ and claims to have worked with ‘dozens of direct sales companies as well as to  other sales and distribution companies outside of the (MLM) industry‘.

Laggos joined Zeek Rewards as a paid consultant around June 2011 and shortly after the company switched from guaranteeing a 125% ROI on every bid purchased, to paying out a variable ROI over 90 days.

Laggos largely credits himself for instigating such changes, claiming on a recent promotional call for MLM company Lyoness that he’s ‘been able to help them (Zeek Rewards) change the comp plan to keep within the pyramid scheme and Ponzi scheme laws‘.

With Zeek Rewards still refusing to divulge whether or not the daily ROI they pay out to affiliates contains mostly affiliate money (this is “proprietary information”), Laggos’ claims of being within pyramid scheme and Ponzi laws are naturally still questionable.

That said, Laggos appears to believe that as far as being a Ponzi or Pyramid scheme, that Zeek Rewards are in the clear and has since shifted his focus to the penny auction side of the business.

This shift in focus ultimately resulted in the abrupt and completely unexpected parting of ways between Laggos and Zeek Rewards last week.

So just what happened between Keith Laggos and Zeek? [Continue reading…]

Solavei (which is supposed to mean “sun in your veins” strangely enough), is a telecommunications MLM company, operating out of Bellevue in the US state of Washington.

Solavei was founded by Ryan Wuerch in late 2011, with Wuerch also serving as the company’s CEO.

Wuerch (photo right) was the Senior Vice President of ShapeRite (a nutritional supplement company) between 1995 to 1998. In 1998 Wuerch joined education software company ‘Learning 2000’, serving as President until 2001.

2001 saw Wuerch launch his own wireless company, Motricity. Weurch served as the CEO and Chairman of Motricity, with the company going public at $10 a share in 2010.

Just over a year later Weurch was terminated by Motricity in August 2011 after the Motricity share price plunged from $30.74 down to $2.28.  In the wake of the aftermath, eight law firms announced plans to and/or initiated shareholder lawsuits against the company.

Today Motricity shares are trading at 54 cents a share.

Taking some time off to rethink his next career move, Weurch decided to build on what he’d learnt at Motricity and after raising 4 million dollars in startup financing, announced plans to launch Solavei. To the best of my knowledge, this is Weurch’s first MLM venture.

Read on for a full review of the Solavei MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Phase 4 Global launched in early July 2012 and is based out of the state of Alabama in the US.

The company lists its CEO and founder as a ‘Doc Lett’, however the company’s website domain (‘phase4global.com’) lists a ‘Ken Lett’ (also known as ‘Kenneth Lett’).

According to this highschool football article they appear to be one and the same person, with “Doc” being an old football nickname:

Ken “Doc” Lett quarterbacked Jacksonville State University out of football mediocrity when he led the 1970 team to a 10-0-0 record and a victory over Florida A&M before 35,000 fans in the Orange Blossom Classic in Miami, Florida.

He graduated from Glencoe High School in Glencoe, Alabama.

Ken Lett (also known as ‘Kenneth Lett’, ‘Ken E Lett’ and ‘Kenneth Eugene Lett’) has some experience running a MLM company, having launched ‘Freeway to Success’ back in 2009.

Freeway to Success has no retailable products, with members instead only able to sell company memberships. These memberships have a monthly fee, with Freeway to Success members earning a monthly commission on when paid. The more people they sign up to pay monthly membership, the larger their commissions earnt.

Two years after the launch of Freeway to Success, Lett has decided to launch a new MLM opportunity, ‘Phase 4 Global’. Read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Bam Paid website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The domain ‘bampaid.com’ was registered on the 9th May, 2012 however the domain registration information is set to private.

As always, if a MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

A few months ago I took a look at a business that allowed members to join, invest money and offered a fixed ROI that increased the longer they left their money in the system.

With no products being sold to customers and all revenues generated coming from member investments, this was a clear-cut case of Ponzi.

That business was Reality Profit, and whereas most Ponzi schemes seem to have a shelf life of roughly two years or so before they naturally collapse, Reality Profit seems to have run into troubles just two months out. At least if the launch of 11 Daily Doubler is anything to go by.

They’re baaaaaaaaaaack… [Continue reading…]

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

The domain ‘adgoggle.com’ was registered on the 17th October 2011, however the domain registration information is set to private.

As always, if a MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

If you were running a business and were looking at advertising options, how much would you consider paying someone to publish unsolicited and untargeted ads on ‘free to publish’ classified ads on the internet?

10 cents an ad? 5 cents… even less?

If TelexFree are to be taken seriously, they believe that advertisers are willing to pay you $2.85 per ad you publish.

Read on for a full review of the TelexFree MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Joy Life International claim they are “backed by the third-largest direct selling company in China, Joymain Science & Technology“.

Joymain was founded back in 1993 although I’m not entirely sure who founded it. Currently Joymain is headed up by Chairman Wang You-Shan. Wang joined Joymain as Chairman in 2000 and credits himself as being a “Senior Engineer” with the Chinese Communist Party as well as a series of executive positions in various Chinese companies ranging from pharmaceuticals to textiles, health care and an “anti-unfair” competition regulatory body.

Joymain’s second in command is Vice-Chairman Zhou Xi-Jian who interestingly enough credits himself with positions in several MLM companies, including being a

• the CEO of Hong Kong based MLM company Winalite
• a “Millionaire Member” of NuSkin
• a “Sales Manager” at Amway
• a “President of Operations” in something called the “6-4-2 System” (appears to be a Chinese language based MLM mentoring program

Joymain’s CEO, Frankie Kiow (photo right), similarly holds a position in another MLM company being the President of NuSkin China. Additionally Chow is also

• a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (a political advisory body in China)
• Chief Consultant for the “China Direct-Selling Research Center” at Nanjing University
• Vice-President of the Cosmetics Chamber of Commerce and China Industrial and Commercial Associations
• Vice-President of the Foreign-Invested Enterprise Association in Shanghai, China

According to JoyLife USA’s website, Kiow appears to be heading up Joy Life’s USA operations.

I’m not sure what is required to run a MLM company in China but the management team of Joy Life do appear to be well-connected both politically and in special interest groups promoting and representing MLM, direct sales and network marketing in China.

Looking to expand under the banner of Joy Life USA, Joymain International (who currently claim to have 600,000 distributors) has recently made efforts to expand their international market share beyond Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philipines.

Read on for a full review of the Joy Life USA MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Free Hits Forever website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The domain ‘freehitsforever.com’ was registered on the 5th July 2012 and lists something called ‘SFI’ as the registrant, operating out of the US state of Texas.

The admin contact lists a ‘John Kirk’ and provides an email address pointing to another domain, ‘adslingers.com’.

Ad Slingers appears to be a paid to surf website rotator where members are paid a commission for each new member they sign up who pays for a “referral upgrade”.

The Ad Slingers was registered in August 2007 and also lists SFI as the registrant with John Kirk appearing again as the administrative contact.

As best as I can tell, SFI was a now-defunct payment processor set up by Kirk circa 2005 or so (more commonly known as “SFI Pay”).

A possible precursor to SFI Pay was another payment processor owned by Kirk called ‘Veripay Digital (‘veripaydigital.com’). Veripay Digital is now long defunct.

Finally also in 2005 Kirk appears to have had tried his hand at e-wallet fund exchanges with a company called E-TradeXchange (also long defunct). An interesting Q&A dating back to 2005 reveals some information on Kirk:

Q: Hello. What’s the name of the person who’s going to answer the questions?
A: John Kirk

Q: What’s your position in the program?
A: One of the owners

Q: Could you tell us a little bit about your (and all other members of thestaff) background?
A: We also own the SFIpay online payment processor. John Kirk has been a full time Multi-level Marketer since 1983.

Q: Why do you feel the need to have a referral incentive program?
A: Provides incentive to members to introduce new members

Q: If you’re involved in several business/financial activities, how is your portfolio structured?
A: This is no one elses business

Q: How large is your current capital?
A: It’s large enough

Q: What do you think about the longevity of your program?
A. It will be around for years

As I understand it, E-TradeXChange offered investors ROIs on their invested money. These returns were supposedly derived from fees charged on e-currency exchanges between members.

So far, so good! I’ve gotten about 9% return in the past day & 1/2.

If today is anything like yesterday, I’ll almost reach the 12% return mark by day’s end. Also, we don’t get our principal amounts back, which in turn funds the investment ETX investment pool to pay everyone their shares of the profits.

They have been paying me around 6% daily to my account since last week. Hopefully they will be around for a long time.

Now in my third day, I noticed my daily yield went up a full 1% from 5.9% to 6.9% yesterday. This one will have its peaks and valleys like any other business. It just needs more exposure to the public to get back into the double digits.

It would appear that after his payment processor and investment scheme ventures didn’t work out, Kirk ventured into pay to surf schemes. Free Hits Forever appears to be the latest incarnation, following Ad Slingers.

Read on for a full review of the Free Hits Forever MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]