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…]

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…]