The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has issued an investment fraud warning, pertaining to “digital gold vaults”. [Continue reading…]

Convicted BitConnect Ponzi scammer Glenn Arcaro wants to change his name.

The request was noted in a petition to modify Arcaro’s release conditions. [Continue reading…]

Lime Mall fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Lime Mall’s website domain (“usdtlime.vip”), was registered with bogus details on September 2nd, 2024.

Of note is Lime Mall’s website domain being registered through the Chinese registrar Alibaba (Singapore).

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…]

Sky Marvel fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Sky Marvel’s website domain (“skymarvel.io”), was privately registered on December 25th, 2023.

Marketing videos on Sky Marvel’s official YouTube channel are feature robo-dubbed stock footage. This is typical of non-native English speaking scammers.

As discovered by Danny de Hek on YouTube, Sky Marvel marketing presentations appear to be primarily targeting Indians. This lends itself to Indians likely being behind Sky Marvel.

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…]

NT USDT fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

NT USDT’s website domain (“m.ntusdt.com”), was registered with bogus details on September 5th, 2024.

Of note is NT USDT’s website domain being registered through the Chinese registrar Alibaba (Singapore).

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…]

Beyond Beauty Club operates in the personal care MLM niche.

The company doesn’t provide a corporate address on its website. Beyond Beauty Club’s website terms and conditions cites “Beyond Beauty Club LLC”, which is purportedly registered in Switzerland.

I might be missing something but Beyond Beauty Club’s social accounts are a bit of a mess. On Instagram we have Beyond Beauty Club in English, Spanish, Polish and German.

On FaceBook we have Beyond Beauty Club UK, Beyond Beauty Club Spain, Beyond Beauty Club Poland and Beyond Beauty Club Portugal.

SimilarWeb meanwhile tracks 64% of Beyond Beauty Club’s website traffic as originating from Switzerland (August 2024). The other 36% is from Spain.

Heading up Beyond Beauty Club we have co-founders Dan Holzmann (President), Shari Jafari (CEO) and Simon Ourian.

Dan Holzmann made a name for himself as the CEO of Juice Plus+ Europe between 2012 and 2018.

Holzmann had previously worked in Juice Plus+ mail-order warehouse circa 1993, before signing on as a distributor as the company expanded.

In leaving Juice Plus+, Holzmann stated;

he wants to spend the next 25 years of his life in a different way.

He says he wants to be the boss of his own schedule, and look beyond things like daily operations of the company. He says he wants to invest his time and energy in seeking and taking up new opportunities.

Beyond Beauty Club’s website domain was registered in October 2022, with the company launching shortly after.

In addition to being CEO of Beyond Beauty Club, Shari Jafari is also CEO of Simon Ourian M.D.

Simon Ourian M.D. is a company owned by Simon Ourian that markets its own cosmetic products.

In an October 2023 interview with The Industry Beauty, Jafari stated;

I’ve spent 20 years of my career in the prestige cosmetics industry, working for one of the largest beauty brands in the world, Clinique, across three different continents.

I’ve worked across North America, the Middle East and now in Europe.

Simon Ourian refers to himself as a “cosmetic dermatologist” and “A-list aesthetic specialist”. Ourian owns and runs the Epione Clinic in Beverly Hills, California.

Based on the marketing on Epione Clinic’s website, clearly Ourian has some happy A-list clients. There is also pause for concern, as researched by Adam J. Rubinstein, a certified plastic surgeon, in a March 2019 YouTube video.

In an accompanying website article, Rubenstein states;

Dr. Ourian became famous after getting some endorsements from Kim Kardashian on social media, which blew up his name.

As a result, he started getting more celebrity clients coming in and out of his clinic and eventually became known throughout the internet as the “Celebrity Cosmetic Dermatologist.

The thing is, he is actually not trained in residency in dermatology. If you look into his background, which is all public record, you’ll see he is, in fact, licensed in the state of California.

However, the Medical Board of California reports that he had training in internal medicine and some in anesthesia. The problem is anesthesiology and internal medicine are not related to dermatology or plastic surgery.

You’ll notice on his website he states that during his residency in UCLA, he became interested in things like dermatology and aesthetics but it doesn’t actually say that he trained in dermatology or aesthetics because he didn’t.

Patients who don’t take the initiative to research their providers before receiving treatment, might think that because he calls himself a “cosmetic dermatologist” that he’s trained in dermatology but, the fact is, he’s not.

One of the more shocking bits of information is that his license was revoked in 2009. There were charges brought against him in 2005 by the state of California for 29 acts of wrongdoing.

The various charges were amended in 2007 and included, gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, inadequate record-keeping, and incompetence.

Dishonest and/or corrupt acts included knowingly making a false document, false or misleading advertising and, maybe one of the more egregious things in my opinion, were aiding and or abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine.

This included taking, what apparently was a nurse, and allowing that nurse to practice medicine as if he was a doctor. It is alleged that Dr. Ourian actually allowed this nurse to perform a facelift in his clinic.

Ourian served five years of probation without incident and retained his medical license.

Rubenstein also cites “quit a number” of malpractice lawsuits filed against Ourian. I’m inclined to let this slide given medical litigation is pretty common in the US (I’ve linked to both the YouTube video and article if you want full details yourself).

Prior to co-founding Beyond Beauty Club, Ourian sold at least one Simon Ourian M.D. product through ByDzyne.

The partnership commenced in 2021 but appears to have come to an end (I couldn’t find any Simon Ourian M.D. products on ByDzyne’s website).

Read on for a full review of Beyond Beauty Club’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

IGN MV fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

IGN MV’s website domain (“ign-mv.com”), was registered with bogus details on September 7th, 2024.

Of note is IGN MV’s website domain being registered through the Chinese registrar Alibaba (Singapore).

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…]

Sybbex fails to provide verifiable ownership or executive information on its website.

Sybbex’s website domain (“sybbex.com”), was privately registered on September 27th, 2023.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Sybbex provides a registration certificate for “Sybbex Limited”.

Sybbex Limited was purportedly registered in Ireland on January 9th, 2024.

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.

Supposedly, Sybbex is headed up by “William Hollan”;

Hollan is pretty obviously played by an actor dressed up in glasses and a wig. This is an emerging trend with Russian Boris CEO Ponzi schemes.

Prior to March 2024, Sybbex marketing videos were narration over stock footage. The actor playing William Hollan made his debut in April 2024.

The actor playing Hollan has a typical eastern-European accent. And here’s the obligatory rented office space marketing video (someone forgot to trim the back of Hollan’s wig, resulting in an amusing mullet).

The rented office space used in Sybbex’s marketing video is TheOffice, located in south Moscow:

Putting all of this together, Sybbex is a typical Russian Boris CEO scheme pretending to be based out of Ireland.

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…]

James O. Ward Jr., an Alabama resident, has been sued by the SEC over fraud allegations relating to his Apex Financial investment scheme.

As per the SEC’s September 10th, 2024 filed Complaint, Ward, through Apex Financial, defrauded “at least 70 investors” out of “at least $852,000”. [Continue reading…]

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

BartMax’s website domain (“bartmax.vip”), was privately registered on August 1st, 2024.

In researching BartMax I came across MetaMax promoters who had transitioned over:

Coupled with the name similarities, it’s highly likely the same scammers behind MetaMax have launched BartMax.

MetaMax was a task-based Ponzi scheme run through a mobile app. The scam collapsed in July 2024, prompting two immediate reboot Ponzis; Meta Quest-Plus and another reboot going by MetaMax.

After the initial reboots flopped, it appears BartMax was set up a few weeks later.

MetaMax’s July 2024 collapse was preceded by a securities fraud warning from the Philippine SEC on June 25th.

BartMax has already attracted the attention of financial regulators. The Central Bank of Russia issued a BartMax pyramid fraud warning on September 9th, 2024.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, BartMax offers up a Hong Kong shell company certificate for “BartMax Streaming Entertainment Advertising PTE LTD”.

BartMax Streaming Entertainment Advertising PTE LTD is a renaming of “Unlucky Company PTE LTD” on August 3rd.

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.

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…]