Driven Trading appeared on BehindMLM’s radar in October 2021, as the securities fraud component of Jimmy Ezzell’s Young Entrepreneur Project.

That partnership broke down in April 2022, with YEP and Driven Trading going their separate ways. YEP went on to collapse shortly after.

Owner and CEO Cory Kromray spun Driven Trading off as a non-MLM “automation license” trading app opportunity.

As of January 2023, SimilarWeb tracked negligible traffic to Driven Trading’s website.

Not surprisingly, Kromway has now flogged what’s left of Driven Trading to the IX Global Ponzi scheme. [Continue reading…]

A consented to preliminary order has pegged Gilbert Armenta’s OneCoin forfeiture at over $50 million dollars. [Continue reading…]

Following months of financial uncertainty, Isagenix has been sold to a group of undisclosed investors. [Continue reading…]

Financial Education Services’ Motion to Dismiss FTC proceedings against it has been denied.

The FTC filed suit against FES last June, alleging FES was a $467 million pyramid scheme.

As part of those proceedings, FES filed a Motion to Dismiss on July 25th. [Continue reading…]

Think Energy fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Think Energy’s website domain (“thinkenergy.plus”), was privately registered on November 18th, 2022.

Further research reveals Think Energy marketing material citing Michael Fallquist as founder and CEO of the company.

Why this information isn’t provided on Think+’s website is unclear.

BehindMLM first came across Fallquist (right) as founder of Viridian and Crius Energy.

Viridian was a utilities services MLM. Crius Energy was cited as a “strategic partner”. Whereas Fallquist ran Crius as CEO, Viridian Energy was headed up by CEO Paul Booth.

In 2015 Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory authority announced it was reviewing Viridian’s contracts, contract renewal, customer notification and enrollment procedures.

That same a year a consumer class-action was also filed against Viridian and Crius Energy in Maryland.

Viridian and Crius were accused of charging customers “four or five times the underlying market rate”.

Towards the end of 2017, Viridian announced it was abandoning its MLM operations by March 2018.

In March 2018 Viridian settled “deceptive marketing & sales tactics” allegations, brought forward by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, for $5 million.

In June 2018, Viridian settled the previously referenced consumer class-action for $18.5 million.

Following job cuts, Crius Energy was sold off to Vistra in early 2019.

In December 2020, Fallquist returned to the uiltilites MLM niche as CEO of Griddy Pro.

Griddy Pro targeted Texas consumers and promised savings through a variable rate. The catch was consumers had to keep track of the rate.

In February 2021 Griddy Pro began to fall apart, amidst claims of “unbelievable electricity bills“.

Later that same month the Electric Reliability Council of Texas ‘revoked Griddy’s rights to enter the state’s electricity market’.

Around the same time a proposed billion dollar class-action lawsuit was also filed against Griddy Pro.

Griddy Pro and parent company Griddy went on to declare bankruptcy a month later in March 2021.

Fallquist appears to have launched Think+ on or around December 2022.

Read on for a full review of Think+’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

NovaTech FX has received a securities fraud warning from Quebec’s Autorite des Marches Financiers.

NovaTech LTD was added to the AMF’s investor warnings list on February 3rd, 2023. [Continue reading…]

We Got Friends fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

A corporate address in Carson City, Nevada for We Got Friends LLC is provided.

This address belongs to Eazy Bit Start LLC. Eazy Biz Start sells LLC formation services to “protect yourself from liability”.

We Got Friends marketing videos are hosted by David Dubbs and Val Smyth. The pair appear to be running the company.

Smyth first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar in 2015 as co-admin of Total Takeover.

Total Takeover was a relatively short-lived recruitment scheme. A few months after launch Total Takeover collapsed.

Later in the year Smyth returned with The Elite Networker, another recruitment-driven opportunity.

In 2016 Smyth launched Mentoring Millionaires, a combination pyramid gifting scheme.

Smyth’s last BehindMLM appearance was Legends VIP Network in August 2019.

Legends VIP Network was a pyramid scheme built around pirated stream content. From what I’ve been able to piece together, Legends VIP Network collapsed sometime in 2022.

David Dubbs (right) made a name for himself in Bellamora.

Bellamora shut down in 2011, prompting Dubbs to continue on as a marketer focused on lead generation.

This primarily takes place via The Conversion Pros, of which Dubbs is the Chief Marketing Officer.

The Conversion Pros provided leads for MLM scams, culminating in owner Ron Pope being part of the CashFX Group Ponzi launch team in 2019.

Pope’s role within CashFX Group has never been publicly clarified. He’s widely seen as a co-founder of the company, extending as far as a silent owner/executive.

The Ponzi side of CashFX Group collapsed in November 2021. The pyramid side of the scam continued into early 2022 but by mid year had also collapsed.

Through The Conversion Pros, Dubbs ran marketing training for CashFX Group Ponzi recruiters.

I thought this ended in January 2022. Turns out Dubbs was still coaching CashFX Group Ponzi scammers into mid 2022, the videos have just been deleted.

Whether Dubbs himself participated in CashFX Group as an investor is unclear. Given his close proximity to Ron Pope, it’s highly likely.

As opposed to pretending We Got Friends is based out Nevada, Val Smyth and David Dubbs operate from Canada and Nashville, Tennessee respectively.

Read on for a full review of We Got Friends’ MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Doradus fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Doradus’ website domain (“doradus.io”), was privately registered on November 4th, 2022.

Doradus’ website cites an “official launch” date of December 5th, 2022.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Doradus provides shell incorporation certificates for the UK and Hong Kong on its website.

Due to the ease with which scammers are able to incorporate shell companies with bogus details, for the purpose of MLM due-diligence these certificates are meaningless.

Doradus also provides a 30 million euro insurance document, purportedly from Aviva.

Again for the purpose of MLM due-diligence, whether legitimate or not, such documents are meaningless.

On December 27th, 2022, the Central Bank of Russia issued a Doradus pyramid scheme fraud warning.

This, coupled with SimilarWeb tracking Russia as the top source of traffic to Doradus’ website, strongly suggests Russians are running Doradus.

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…]

Crypto Family first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar last September. At the time Crypto Family were promoting the Ultron/Mavie Global Ponzi scheme.

A reader asked about Crypto Family, prompting me to look into a link they provided. That lead me to Dorde Petrovic, a member of Crypto Family.

Petrovic’s Crypto Family fraud journey began in July 2022. Petrovic runs the “Passive Income” FaceBook group (11 members), which he promotes Crypto Family’s various scams through.

Crypto Family is run by founder Nebojsa Katic (right).

Katic has roots in Croatia and began his MLM career with Organo Gold and the Lyoness Ponzi scheme.

Circa 2019 Katic was promoting Essens. His Crypto Family bio states Katic reinvented himself as a crypto bro in 2014.

As of November 2022, Crypto Family claims to have “around 56,000 members”.

From what I can tell, Katic was a nobody in crypto until Crypto Family and Ultron/Mavie Global (early to mid 2022).

Katic’s crypto fraud journey seems to have inevitably led him to Dubai:

In its marketing material, Crypto Family claims to be “based in Central Europe”. This contradicts Crypto Family’s website, which provides a corporate address for “H A M Auditing & Business Consultancy” in Dubai.

In June 2022 Crypto Family launched its own crypto mining Ponzi scheme.

What is Crypto Family?

Crypto Family is Mining hub that pays investors 10% daily for each mining package you buy. Each mining hub package cost $21 ….and you can buy any quantity you want up to maximum of 133 packages is allowed per person.

After buying a package, the hub will work for you from the 8th day after purchase to generate daily 10% rewards for the next 3 months.

The above is from a Crypto Family marketing video, uploaded to YouTube on August 10th, 2022.

In November 2022, Crypto Family relaunched as “Crypto Family 2.0”.

The reboot was built around NFTs and Family Token. And this is the opportunity we are reviewing today.

For reference, Crypto Family’s first Ponzi scheme ran from the domain “cryptofamily.world”. The reboot operates from “cryptofamily.love”.

Crypto Family and Katic being based out of Dubai is not a coincidence. Dubai is the MLM crime capital of the world.

BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:

1. If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
2. If an MLM company is based out of or represents it has ties to Dubai, it’s a scam.

If you want to know how this specifically applies to Crypto Family, read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

Fidex Corp fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Fidex Corp’s website domain (“fidexcorp.com”), was first registered in 2016. The private domain registration was last updated on May 5th, 2022.

This is likely on or around when Fidex Corp’s owners took possession of the domain.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Fidex Corp provides two US addresses on its website; one in Texas and one in Delaware.

These appear to be random office blocks that have nothing to do with Fidex Corp.

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…]