Bogus Bidders: Bots and Shills

Some dishonest auction sites use bid bots, which are computer programs that automatically bid on behalf of the website. And some fraudulent sites achieve the same effect using human shills.

You may be seconds away from winning an auction when another user places a bid. That keeps the clock ticking, and forces you into a bidding war to stay in first place.

Though the bidder appears to be another user, it may be a shill, or a bot programmed by the website to extend the auction and keep people bidding (and spending money) as they chase the “win.”

-FTC on penny auction autobidding bots (onguardonline.gov)

Earlier this month (possibly the last few days of December 2012), Blue Bird Bids pulled down their penny auctions citing the need for “maintenance”, “rigorous testing” and “behind the scenes structural changes” be carried out.

Once the auctions were down, Blue Bird Bids stated that the required maintenance would occur over ‘the next 72 hours or so‘ and that they would have ‘all functions back and running no later than Tuesday Jan 8th or Wednesday Jan 9th‘.

Well over 72 hours after this announcement was made the Blue Bird Bids penny auctions are still down, however that’s not to say things haven’t been happening behind the scenes… [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Inspired Living Application website indicating who owns or runs the business, however going by the provided street address appears to be operating out of the US state of Oregon.

The company’s website domain (livingapp.com) was registered on the 13th of October 2012 and lists a “John Rodgers” as the owner.

Rodgers (photo right) was a “founding representative” of Zurvita (2008) under the branding of “FoundersTeam”. The FoundersTeam website is now defunct and redirects to that of Inspired Living Application.

On one of Rodger’s Zurvita marketing pages, Rodger’s states that ‘much of (his) background is in the ministry serving as a Bible teacher in Oregon‘.

No idea what happened with Zurvita (or when he left), but it appears John Rodgers has decided to launch his own MLM opportunity with Inspired Living Application. Read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

With the introduction of customer bid bots placing automated bids for customers in penny auctions, one of the ongoing concerns those who participate in the auctions has been that of legitimacy.

From a penny auction customer viewpoint there’s pretty much no way to verify that they are indeed bidding against actual customers, especially when automated bidding bots are outbidding them in under a second.

Am I bidding against actual customers or “the system”?

As we all know, the more bids used in a penny auction the higher the revenue for the company running them. In an MLM penny auction, this usually also means higher commission payouts for the field.

One of the shortfalls of the MLM penny auction model is that the companies rely on their affiliates to advertising for them and attract auction customers. The affiliates of course only do this if they’re getting paid.

In a legit MLM penny auction the affiliates only get paid when the auctions do well, so it’s a bit of a catch-22.

One potential way for an MLM company to ensure their affiliates earn enough commissions is to have what penny auctions customers the company does have, bidding against bots run by the company itself.

At the cost of undermining the legitimacy and integrity of their penny auctions, an MLM penny auction can thus ensure their affiliates are earning enough to continue promoting the opportunity.

Usually it’s penny auction customers who raise concerns, as ultimately they are the ones who lose money bidding against company run bots they cannot win against (or have to spend so much in bids to win against that it’s not worth their time).

In a recent email sent out to Blue Bird Bids corporate however, Vice-President Eric Swaim expressed some penny auction bot concerns of his own. [Continue reading…]

Asantae operate in the health and wellness MLM niche and seems to have been launched around 2001. Details on this seem to be a bit sketchy as the Asantae website does not explicitly clarify the company’s history.

From what I’ve read though (unverified) Asantae was launched around 2001 and either prior to or during their launch had the company name “Inflammation Solutions LLC” attached to it (this company is listed as the owner of Asantae’s website domain today). I wasn’t able to find any further information on Inflammation Systems though.

Whether Asantae relaunched or what I’m not sure but the asantae.com domain was only registered in January 2007. I’ve seen other affiliates claiming that Asantae launched around mid 2008 so this could be the case.

Why the company history clarified on the Asantae website in their “About Us” page, I have no idea.

In anycase, Asantae is based in the US state of Arizona and is headed up by CEO and co-founder, Daniel Lundell (photo right).

According to Lundell’s Asantae corporate bio, he has experience in “IT sales and management, medical practice management and network marketing”.

Despite the network marketing claim however, I was unable to find any online involvement or reference of Lundell being tied to another MLM company (not saying that it didn’t happen, just that there’s seemingly no online record of it).

Finally, it’s also worth noting that Asantae are a publicly traded company in Canada  under “Asantae Holdings International” (JVA). At the time of publication Asantae’s stock price is sitting at 8.5 cents, down from 12 cents this time last year (26.5 cents was the year high).

That said, a third quarter performance report for 2012 was put out in November which offered a more positive outlook:

Asantae Holdings International Inc. announced sales results for the third quarter of 2012.

The company saw an increase in revenues from third quarter of 2011 to third quarter of 2012 to $1,123,067, an improvement of 253% over one year. As a percentage of revenue, the decrease was more dramatic 148% to 46%.

Affiliate commissions dropped as a percentage of revenue as well, from 50% to 43%, while the actual dollars increased from $222,674 to $490,464 due to the increase in top-line sales.

Why this isn’t reflected in their stock price I don’t know (I’m no stock expert).

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

Cool Trader Pro was launched early January 2012 and is based in the US state of Florida.

For some reason the provided Cool Trader Pro corporate address in Florida appears to be rented virtual office space. In the company’s FAQ videos, reference is made to a “company headquarters” being located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Heading up the company are co-founders Edward Barsano (founder), Cary Flanders (CEO), Sunil Wadhwa (President) and Nick Rausch (COO).

Edward Barsano is the creator of the software suite Cool Trader, which the Cool Trader Pro opportunity revolves around.

Cary Flanders appears to have a stock market and loan industry background:

Prior to CoolTraderPro , Mr.Cary Flanders is the Co-Managing Partner of Robotic Trading Systems LLC., where he is responsible for day to day operations and the development of Automated Capital Systems Hedge Fund.

Prior to Robotic Trading Systems, Inc. he was a partner in Help Arizona Realty where he oversaw the day to day operations of the buy, rehab and resell of short sale negotiated homes for Real Estate Investors.

Prior to Help Arizona Realty he was a branch owner of Great Southwest Mortgage (“GSM”), a residential loan origination office.  In his tenure with GSM his branch closed and funded over $500,000,000 in residential loans over a 7 year period.

Nick Rausch also has a background in finance and robotic trading,

Nick Rausch is co-founder and managing member of Automated Capital Systems a private hedge fund located in Palm Beach, Florida General Partner and the Investment Advisor.

He has also served as a co-managing partner of Robotic Trading Systems, LLC (“RTS”) since April 2011.

Leaving Sunil Wadhwa to bring the MLM component to Cool Trader Pro, with a purported 25 year history in the MLM industry. In researching Wadwha’s MLM history, I’ve seen his name tied to Prepaid Legal, Amega Global, Bidify and the Trump Network.

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

Typically when a Ponzi or pyramid scheme launches in the MLM industry, management or those behind the scheme attempt to justify the scheme via misdirection and flawed logic.

To achieve this all manner of tactics are deployed. Some profess the legitimacy of their schemes behind ad packs they bundle with the admission price into their schemes, some do indeed sell products but only do so to members participating in the scheme, whilst others insist that by removing guarantees of ROI payouts that they are legit.

There are far too many tactics used to list here but despite the arsenal of trickery Ponzi and pyramid scheme admins have at their disposal, they all have one fatal weakness.

Follow the money, and time and time again these schemes are revealed for what they really are. [Continue reading…]

Ambit Energy was founded in late 2006, operates in the energy MLM niche and is based in the US state of Texas.

Heading up Ambit Energy are co-founders Jere Thompson (Chief Executive Officer) and Chris Chambless (Chief Marketing Officer)

History wise both founders appear to have come from the telecommunications industry.

Jere Thompson (photo right) founded CapRock Fiber Networks in 1992 and built

fiber and broadband networks across Texas.

As CEO, he guided CapRock into new markets, took the company public and managed its growth from infancy to 1,300 employees and $300 million in annual revenues.

On his Google Plus profile page, Chris Chambless states he was

a key part of the management team at Excel Communications, a Dallas-based telecommunications firm that became the fourth largest long distance firm in North America before it was acquired by Teleglobe, Inc. in 1996

Excel Communications appears to be the MLM foundation of Ambit Energy, with the company reselling long distance services using an MLM compensation plan.

Chambless (photo right) also claims to have

more than 20 years of practical, hands-on experience managing the sales, marketing and product management organizations for companies of all sizes from start-up to multi-billion public companies.

In 2011 it’s worth noting that an Ambit Energy affiliate sued the company in New York, ‘alleging breach of contract, and that Ambit’s multi-level marketing network is a “pyramid scheme”.‘

The consultant sought over one billion dollars in damages and to

permanently enjoin and restrain Ambit from its business, soliciting, or enrolling customers and consultants in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Texas.

Following multiple revisions to the original complaint (including the withdrawal of ‘specific causes of action relating to multi-level marketing, and allegations of fraud and other violations as a result of such business structure‘), in August 2012 a judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the plaintiff ‘failed to plead sufficient facts establishing the formation of a contract between BH Seven and Ambit‘.

At the time of publication, Ambit Energy claim to have “150,000 Independent Consultants” under them.

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

About two months ago, news broke in India that the long-running TVI Express pyramid scheme had resurfaced amongst Nagpur state-run railway employees.

Known as the “Central Railway Department”, with senior management ringleading the recruitment drive it was estimated that “hundreds” had been duped into believing they would receive ‘double returns in eight days‘.

Following a Times of India investigation blowing the pyramid scheme wide open, much huffing and puffing ensued, with the end result seeing central figure in the scam, Movement Inspector Komal Gajbhye, pay out one of the members he scammed and the Divisional Railway Manager then transferring Gajbhye and another top recruiter to a post that put considerable distance between themselves and their victims.

To date, as far as I’m aware, not one government agency has launched an investigation into the Central Railway recruitment scheme, nor has the department itself fired anyone.

An inquiry was raised by the department, to be handled by an assistant personnel officer (APO) but that appears to have been “buried”.

In a followup piece to his original article (published October 27th, 2012), journalist Vijay Pinjarkar gives his account of the events leading up to and shortly after the publication of his article: [Continue reading…]

In researching MLM companies for review I visit hundreds of company websites and whilst most of them are neat and easy to navigate every now and then I run across a company website that initially does my head in.

OurGV is one of those companies.

The OurGV website is a tangled mess of information that is poorly presented and seems to be split over far too many categories to be of any practical use to anyone.

Information presented is disjointed, clicked links continiously open up new windows and there’s random Youtube videos thrown in which do on occasion clarify things, but also at times seem disconnected from the text presented on the same page (or make the need for an explanation redundant).

On more than one instance of browsing for information on the OurGV website I  suddenly found myself bumped over to the website A2Success.net, which appears to be a WordPress blog, with no explanation given.

From what I have been able to piece together though OurGV seems to have existed “for ten years”, however I’m not sure if that’s under the “Our GV” brand or another name.

The company’s website domain (“ourgv.com”) was registered on the 3rd of February 2002, which seems to support OurGV’s founding claims.

The company provides a suite address in the US state of Texas, however this appears to be just virtual office space (a PO Box in Texas is also provided).

Management wise OurGV is headed up by Chad Schapiro (photo right). On his personal website, Schapiro claims to have

learned the value of hard work and integrity at a young age.

Graduating from a Big Ten University with several business degrees, Chad Schapiro immediately began to put his talents to work running businesses.

Fine tuning his expertise in human relations, and generating profits, Chad Schapiro helped to create the fastest growing privately held company in the United States of America within 5 short years.

Seeing a huge opportunity in technology he began working with companies to develop successful online home-based business models.

Frustrated with an apparent lack of integrity, and ethics, he finally decided to develop his own internet company.

No longer having to worry about someone else letting him and his people down, having complete control resulted in perhaps the most innovative and ambitious internet concept the world has ever seen.

Schapiro then goes on to compare himself to both Bill Gates and Michael Dell, claiming to have an ‘unparalleled track record of success for well over a decade‘.

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

There is no information on the WahVision (Work At Home Vision) website indicating who owns or runs the company.

The WahVision website domain (“wahvision.com”) was registered on the 24th of September 2012, however the domain registration is set to private.

As always, if an 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…]