Following dozens of complaints from consumers, the Norwegian Gambling Authority sent Be a warning letter last October.

The letter advised that the Gambling Authority suspected Be was an illegal pyramid scheme. [Continue reading…]

VidiLook fails to provide ownership and executive information on its website.

VidiLook’s website domain (“vidilook.io”), was privately registered on October 4th, 2022.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, VidiLook claims it’s

a blockchain media company strategically invested by Sequoia Capital and KC Company.

Founded in Silicon Valley, USA, the company is a technology-based company focusing on “blockchain + advertising new media”.

No idea what KC Company is but Sequoia Capital is an actual US venture capital firm. Not surprisingly, it has nothing to do  with VidiLook.

The only mention of Sequoia Capital investing VidiLook is in VidiLook’s own website and marketing materials.

As for VidiLook being based out of Silicion Valley in the US, VidiLook offers a mobile app on its website.

The Android app download link ties VidiLook to Dubai:

“aliyuncs.com” is a web domain owned by Alibaba. This strongly suggests whoever is running VidiLook has ties to Asia, and are possibly operating out of Dubai.

Further supporting this is a job posting on Naukri Gulf posted 4 days ago:

This job ad could have been posted by anyone but does suggest VidiLook is in Dubai. The ad was posted by Jovia D’souza, purportedly a VidiLook HR executive.

Whether D’souza is an actual person or not is unclear (I couldn’t verify the name).

Similar VidiLook classified have been posted to other sites:

Finally we have VidiLook’s marketing videos. There are currently two of them, featuring dubbed over stock footage.

This is typically the style of non-native English speaking company owners.

In researching VidiLook I came across multiple references to Sam Lee and his StableDAO Ponzi.

Presenters are careful not to claim Lee and StableDAO are behind VidiLook, instead presenting it as some sort of deal between Lee and KC Company.

Here are a few examples;

On a StableDAO February 17th webinar, COO Garrett Blakeslee stated;

[6:25] We are an investment platform. We are creating multiple investments for people to hop into. We’re giving some really good daily returns

[6:54] VidiLook is going to be the next opportunity that we’re launching. So anybody on this call right now is very, very early to the opportunity. We haven’t even announced partnership with VidiLook.

I’ve been working over the past month or so, to basically build the opportunity and get it basically situated so we can make huge announcements and start marketing in the StableDAO community.

[7:31] VidiLook hasn’t started marketing at all. They have started marketing to the Chinese community because they have a large network in China.

[7:55] For those of you that are not familiar with VidiLook … the platform was funded by a multi-billion dollar media company called Kitokawa (editor’s note: could be KiroKawa, this is the “KC Company” reference).

They’ve been around since 1945, so nearly 8 decades. They have a huge position in the media and advertising global markets.

We also have a partnership with a company called Detsu (?). And Detsu is a multi-billion dollar media and advertising company. They have their own ad network with over one hundred partners, including Sony, FaceBook, Amazon and Tiktok.

We basically have been allowed to tap into their ad network.

Sam Lee also appears on StableDAO VidiLook marketing webinars (I didn’t bother quoting Lee as he typically waffles on without actually saying anything).

These StableDAO/VidiLook webinars doing the rounds are hosted by “Gobi”, who claims to be a StableDAO “leader” from the UK.

As a StableDAO leader, Gobi claims he “speaks to Sam twenty times a day”.

Personally I’m not buying the charade. VidiLook is obviously part of StableDAO. That means it’s being run by Sam Lee and friends.

Whether those friends are scammers in China, who knows.

Lee’s previous HyperTech Ponzi schemes targeted China with HyperCash before spreading elsewhere in the world. It’s possible the same thing is happening again with VidiLook.

Lee’s HyperTech partner in crime, Ryan Xu, hasn’t been seen for over a year. Xu, last known to also be hiding out in Dubai, has strong ties to China.

Tying into VidiLook being operated from Dubai, Sam Lee fled to Dubai in 2021 as his HyperFund Ponzi scheme was taking off.

HyperFund collapsed in late 2021, prompting the launch of Hyperverse. Hyperverse began collapsing almost immediately after launch.

Lee went underground after HypeFund collapsed. He resurfaced publicly in late 2022 to promote his StableDAO Ponzi.

That Lee fled to and is based out of Dubai is no 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 specifically how this applies to Trust Your Universe, read on for a full review.

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

Last year StableDAO emerged as a continuation of Ponzi scamming from Sam Lee.

Lee, who also goes by Xue Lee and Samuel Lee, was co-founder of the notorious HyperTech Ponzi schemes.

These include HyperCash, HyperCapital, HyperFund and Hyperverse.

Lee, believed to be an Australian national, fled to Dubai in 2021. HyperFund collapsing in late 2021 saw Lee go further underground.

Hyperverse lasted a few months, with Lee not really visible during its run. Throughout two Hyperverse successors, HyperOne and HyperCash, Lee remained MIA.

In mid 2022 photos of Lee meeting with top HyperTech promoters in Dubai emerged. This eventually led to StableDAO’s launch in October 2022.

As part of StableDAO, a Ponzi scheme in and of itself, we now have StableOpinion.

Read on for a full review StableDAO’s StableOpinion MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Back in the day I associated .IO domains with silly but fun web games.

These days .IO domains are synonymous with crypto fraud.

Two groups aren’t happy about that, and in 2021 they filed a lawsuit against the .IO domain operator. [Continue reading…]

NewAge has come out of bankruptcy with new ownership and a new company name; PartnerCo.

PartnerCo’s new “identity” announcement was made on February 13th…

…although plans for the rebranding appear to date back to January: [Continue reading…]

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…]