If you visit the Social Paycheck website there’s not a lot you can do. A basic description of the compensation plan is displayed (along with a tacky robot voice video), some (mostly broken) information links are at the bottom of the page and big login/register buttons appear in the top right corner of the site.

There is no information on the site itself indicating who owns or runs the business or what exactly the opportunity is about.

The FAQ page solely focuses on how members can make money, as does the infographic on the Social Paycheck homepage.

The company’s domain (“socialpaycheck.com”) was registered on the 17th of September 2012 and lists “Randy Major” as the owner, along with an address in the US state of Utah.

Major’s past MLM ventures appear to be restricted to the launch of an MLM social network called “Treehouse Social”.

Treehouse Social appears to have been launched around late 2011. Advertised by Major (photo right) as “the social network that pays you to be social“, Treehouse Social appears to have been hacked sometime after launch, which resulted in the site being pulled offline permanently.

I’m not sure when this classified ad was posted (possibly March 2012), but in it Major explains why Treehouse Social was pulled offline and outlines plans to build what I believe is now Social Paycheck:

Hello, My name is Randy Major. My partner and I have a website called treehousesocial.com … I few days ago it was hacked into and a good amount of damage was done to the database via SQL Injection a few months before someone was able to switch users via session hijacking and that was fixed.

The site was pulling in $300-$500 per month. My partner and I have come up with six improvements to increase traffic, referrals, time on site and the revenue that the site makes. I am looking to bring in 3 new partners in this venture. We want to improve the site, add a new name and graphics and re launch under that new name.

If you are interested please email me back and we can Skype and see if we can fit (fix?) this together. The site treehousesocial.com was up and running and is not anymore depending on the partners we should be pulling income in within 2 months.

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

Following the SEC shutdown of the $600M Zeek Rewards MLM penny auction Ponzi scheme, we’ve seen a flurry of new MLM penny auctions launched – with most toting similarly dubious compensation plans to that which Zeek Rewards used.

For whatever reason, most of these penny auctions have announced or are in the process of going through extended prelaunch phases.

One possible reason is that, once the penny auction switch is flipped, MLM companies relying on them find themselves exposed to the tricky balancing game of relying on revenue from an unestablished penny auction and having to pay out their affiliates.

One way for a MLM company to tilt the odds of success in their favour is to go into prelaunch and charge affiliates money to join the company.

This way when the company launches they’ve got a “kitty” so to speak which they can then rely on to pay out affiliates, regardless of whether their penny auctions actually make money in those first few months.

One such MLM penny auction company that adopted this approach was the short-lived Funky Shark.

Funky Shark went into prelaunch in September 2012, asking “founder members” to cough up $1000, with the company guaranteeing a $500 commission for each founder member signed up.

As obvious a pyramid scheme as they come, not surprisingly after consulting with their legal counsel Funky Shark then announced that they’d abandoned their penny auction plans and would be issuing refunds to all investors.

At the time, it was revealed by Funky Shark that they did this over concerns about the feasibility of running an MLM penny auction that relied on retail profits to stay afloat.

What they didn’t tell anyone was that they were also facing court action filed by the Securities Commissioner of Montana. [Continue reading…]

WebDocsNetwork launched in late 2010 however there is no information on the WebDocsNetwork website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The company’s website domain (“webdocsnetwork.com”) was registered on the 2nd of September 2010 and lists a “T. C. Chyung” as the owner. An apartment address in the US state of Illinois is also provided.

On the Twitter account @WebDocsNetwork, Chyung credits himself as being the founder and CEO of the company:

Why this information is not present on the WebDocsNetwork website is not known.

History wise, other than being credited simply as “a businessman”, I was unable to find any information on any past MLM ventures Chyung might have been involved in.

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

There is no information on the FindItSocial website indicating who owns or runs the company.

The FindItSocial website domain (“finditsocial.com”) however was registered on the 10th of October 2010 and lists a “Gosse Westra” as the owner.

Previous MLM ventures of Westra (photo right) include the website “mlmhosting4u.com” in 2011. I couldn’t find any specifics on the MLMHosting4U opportunity, but here’s how Westra marketed it:

It would make money for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when you sleep.

No overhead, no boss, no employees, no inventory… just you. You have full control!

No risk, no capital investment, and no internet and computer experience required.

Work at your own flexible time schedule, from your home or anywhere in the world.

Service would be delivered to worldwide customers automatically while you collect the profit.

You work once, and a stream of income will begin to flow in, month after month, year after year…

Have you always had a dream of such a true, legitimate business opportunity, to take full advantage of this internet revolution? Look no further! MLMhosting4u.com Affiliate Program provides such an opportunity.

Despite the promise of “a stream of income year after year”, MLMHosting4U is now defunct. I’m not sure what happened but according to Westra’s Twitter profile (account last used in late 2011), the company appeared to be some sort of membership based website:

Now a year later, Westra is back with FindItSocial. Read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

Bid With Integrity first popped up on my radar back in September 2012, when I added it to the BehindMLM MLM penny auction prelaunch list.

At the time details about the Bid With Integrity’s business model were scarce, other than some tidbits about company management and planned affiliate joining options.

Since then Bid With Integrity are yet to officially launch, but the company has made public further details surrounding its compensation plan and greater business model structure.

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

Greenfoot Global was founded in 2009 and is based out of the US state of Wisconsin.

The company specialises in the “green environment” MLM niche and was founded by CEO William Hyman (also known as Bill Hyman).

Hyman’s official company bio credits him with “32 years in the industry and millions of dollars in revenues, however the company does not cite any specific examples.

In the immediate years prior to Greenfoot Global, it appears Hyman (photo right) was marketing himself as an MLM trainer to the field, speaking at various events and having put out several coaching books.

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

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

The company’s website domain (“offerhubb.com”) was registered on the 25th of September 2012, however the registration information is set to private.

Although currently not used for anything, it’s worth noting that the domain “offerhub.net” was registered on the 3rd of November 2012 and currently lists “Offerhubb.net, Inc.” as the domain owner.

Prior to an update on the 14th of December however, the Offerhubb.net WHOIS registration listed a “Lindsey Pinapfel” as the owner (image right).

OfferHubb also provide the following mailing address on their website:

1712 PIONEER AVE
STE 1315
CHEYENNE, WY
82001 -4406

However this building is the offices of ‘a firm called Corporations Today, an incorporation service run by Gerald Pitts’.

Additionally an OfferHubb affiliate application form (cited for this review), lists a bank wire account (the only payment method currently accepted by OfferHubb) through “City National Bank” and provides a different PO Box address in Fullerton, California.

Despite there being no official information on the company website indicating ownership or management, an “Introduction to OfferHubb” marketing video recently surfaced on YouTube naming a “David Flynn” as company President:

At this stage I’m not sure who David Flynn is or what his MLM history might be. Why this information is not disclosed openly and publicly on the OfferHubb website is also not known.

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

Despite frequent requests to review Empower Network over the past year, I’ve consistently knocked back further analysis of the company initially believing it not to be MLM.

I briefly looked over it initially and all I saw was a blog platform members sold for $25. When people contacted me about it this is what I told them and that was that.

Over time and with keeping general tabs on the MLM industry, the odd article about people earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in Empower Network has caught my eye from time to time.

This did on occasion did make me wonder how the numbers added up but then I always figured that if people were achieving these commission amounts on nothing more than selling access to a $25 replicated blogging system, then more power to them. It still wasn’t MLM.

Recently however things changed I ran into a discussion about Empower Network where the terms “inner circle” and “going all in” were mentioned.

With these terms frequently used in the more shadier MLM opportunities out there (particularly “going all in”), I figured Empower Network warranted another (and more indepth) look.

Here’s what I found. [Continue reading…]

It Works launched in 2001 and had been a long-standing staple of the MLM industry.

Headed up by Mark Pentecost (President and CEO), so the story goes Pentecost (photo bottom right) is a teacher by trade who became one of the top distributors in a telecommunications MLM in the 1990s.

It Works doesn’t state which company this was and I was unable to find any specific information referencing a company name.

In anycase,

 After a few years, Mark became a top-ten earner in the company, bought the family’s freedom, and began to dream of the next big challenge: helping other families do the same.

They weren’t sure how they would do it yet, but the seed had been planted for It Works! Global.

Twelve years later the company is still going strong and today we go over the It Works MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

AdDeed was launched late 2012 however there is no information on the company website indicating who owns or runs the AdDeed opportunity.

The company website domain (“addeed.com”) was registered on the 21st June 2012 and lists a Damian Jaundoo as the domain owner with a Florida based mailing address.

Jaundoo has previously been involved in Strong Future International SFI, dating back as far as early 2011:

SFI is a MLM opportunity that pays members to recruit new members, as well as allowing members to “resell” their downlines to other SFI members, via its “Triple Clicks” penny auction.

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